Update #4 Saturday, July 17, 09:53 EST
TAKEAWAY: We have been practicing it on and off for years, but now pop culture engineering has academic status, and you can major in it. What fun! PLUS: Tyler Brulé prepares for his Monocle-on-Med one off newspaper to arrive at a beach near you July 29.
Your beach newspaper to appear July 29
Here is the beach scene that Tyler Brule envisions when his Monocle-on-Med newspaper appears June 29 (Image courtesy of www.monocle.com)
As readers of this blog know, Tyler Brulé will publish his first one-off summer newspaper Monocle-on-Med July 29, and he is already warming up his audience for the splashy debut of the paper he hopes anybody who is anybody—-or who thinks he/she is somebody—-will want to be seen reading under a colorful beach umbrella in what he describes as “the best beach resorts”.
“Packed with leisurely reads, great reportage and plans for the second half of the year, it will be your handsome companion from sun lounger to sun downers,” reads the entry that invites prospective readers to order their copy for 7 pounds. Go to the Monocle shop to order.
Tyler’s column in the Financial Times this weekend is certainly a prelude to the publication of Monocle-on-Med. Headlined Sunscreen yes, iPad screen NO, Tyler’s humorous rump through the beach describes the physical motions that some go through to use their iPads while the sun beats on the screens of Apple’s popular gadget.
And, although Tyler is careful NOT to make any direct references to his summer print project, he makes a formidable case for reading print while soaking sun at your favorite beach of the Mediterranean this summer:
”…….for many men and women using an iPad pool or beachside, the device can attract attention for all the wrong reasons. (For the record, I’ve yet to see anyone hot using an iPad in a sunny setting. Though I have seen many people get burned by leaving it face down in the sun and then resting it on a bare thigh.)”
Tyler talks to TheMarioBlog about his Monocle-on-Med:
https://garciamedia.com/blog/articles/exclusive_tyler_brule_discusses_the_monocle_newspaper
The fun of Pop Culture Academics
It is discovery time. It was only today that I found out about the Miami Ad School, which brands itself as the School of Pop Culture Engineering.
What a fun school to attend, and what a great major to have and to tell people when they ask what you are studying: Yes, I am majoring in pop culture engineering.
Aren’t we all praciticing that, even though we never majored in it? Visit the School’s website and you will see that you can pick from several cities worldwide in which to attend classes. Wonder if any of the buildings have names, as in the Andy Warhol Hall, The Madonna Auditorium or the Lady Gaga Music Lab.
It was Rodrigo Fino, of our Garcia Media Latinoamerica, who introduced me to a campaign for London’s Metro newspaper, carried out by students from the Miami Ad School. And now I would like to enroll! Wonder if they take students of a certain age.
Rodrigo is right when he writes that, “at a time when many printed products have given up on promoting and marketing themeselves” here comes a campaign, done by young and creative students, that Metro the free newspaper should contemplate as a possibility. It draws the map of the London subway, but includes outlines of famous personalities, such as singer Amy Winehouse, then adds the line: Gossip on the go.
Smart campaign for Metro
Here is the students’ campaign for the free distribution newspaper Metro, in London. Clever way of associating the subway system with the newspaper’s emphasis on personalities and gossip.
The real Metro campaign
By the way, Metro’s real campaign appears here, created by Dag & David, and, quite good as well.
Although this campaign does the job more than nicely, I still feel that the student from the Miami Ad School went beyond the expected to give us the surprise of the familiar London subway map, with the images of celebrities as part of it, twisting things and surprising us.
Die Welt promotes its iPad edition
Meanwhile, the German daily, Die Welt, carried a flyer over its front page Friday to promote a new campaign that offers free iPad edition subscription to those who subscribe for an extended period of time to their printed edition.
While this is a good marketing strategy to bring in readers to both print and iPad editions, I normally advise publishers to promote their iPad editions beyond the newspaper itself, to reach new audiences who may not be visiting the printed edition these days, but who might discover they do want to read a newspaper on the iPad or another tablet. These are the potential readers that we need to go after.
Argentinean newspaper designer Miguel De Lorenzi has died
De Lorenzi: newspaper designer, artist and illustrator died this past week at age 69
Some sad news from Argentina: a dear friend and respected colleague, Miguel De Lorenzi, whom we all called Cachoito, has died suddenly in Cordova. Cachoito was for many years design director of La Voz del Interior, and I was privileged to work with him during a redesign of that daily, one of the most respected regional newspapers of Argentina.
His talent, generosity and passion for our craft will be missed. His work remains to remind us of how well he connected with the content that his design communicated For Cachoito, everything a newspaper designer and illustrator did had to convey emotional impact on the page. His pages always did that, and more. He was writing his blog until the end, forever observing the human condition and highlighting with photos and illustrations even the most minute or insignificant, all of which became part of Cachoito’s world.
My condolences to his family, especially his much beloved daughter, Florencia.
My interview with Miguel De Lorenzi:
https://garciamedia.com/blog/articles/news_design_in_argentina_a_veteran_designer_updates_us
TheMarioBlog post #594