Author: raafi

  • Work: NY Ink

    Here’s a short doc piece I just did for Format magazine. What you’ll see is a brief look inside the world of the tattoo artist. Three NYC buzzers talk about process, inspiration, and adventures with the needle. We visit inside a popular Harlem parlor, The Black Ink Gallery, and an underground space in Queens.

    What you won’t see is the Pit Bull Terrier owned by one of the artists who bit my leg and took away a large strip of denim. It was, probably, one of the best shots I’ve ever framed. Unfortunately, I didn’t press record in time. Here is the dog, appropriately named Perro, about a second and a half before what I affectionately refer to as the incident.

    my own personal zapruder film.
    my own personal zapruder film
  • A Certain Regard

    from another Gondry directed spot.

    Yesterday the Times ran an interesting piece about French advertising, noting the cultural (if not legal) norms there prevent such things as the hard sell.

    To us money implies corruption, and moreover, because we consider ourselves the inventors of freedom, never mind if that’s not true, we still consider advertising as a kind of manipulation,” Mr. Séguéla said. “This explains why television commercials started so late here — essentially because leftist opposition saw ads as corrupting the soul.”

    As a result, the ads there tend to be more oblique, elliptical. All of this begs the question of whether the effectiveness of television advertising can be controlled for cultural norms. But for the aesthetes among us, the question is simple: what do they look like? Though the Times failed to link to relevant spots in a current museum exhibit there, the sleuths at the Alley Insider did. Here’s one:

    MKIz-PPoaJo

    Many moons ago, preparing for a year in Europe, I can remember being warned (or was it teased?) that the commercials there would be much more artistic. I was, in the next few days floored by a Levis ad that, over the years, I would remember mainly in fragments. I have attempted to describe its dreamlike qualities many times, but failed to touch in conversation what the commercial had evoked in my impressionable teen psyche. Mainly, that the coolest place to store a condom was highly concomitant with a pair of Levis (now my only brand of jeans). The commercial, I would learn years later, was directed by frenchman Michel Gondry. Allez les Bleus!

    Uj6G1C6c0uw

    The still above is from another Gondry-directed spot featured here.

  • Swagga Juice

    One of the things we’ve been talking about recently at Desedo is the fluidity of identity. How different situations bring out different facets of one’s personality or brand and how this fluidity gives a picture in the round of a complex object. Witness Kanye West performing with Jay-Z in three acts:

    Hip-hop

    Hip-hop for adults

    International superstars
    full-on swag

    What we also see in these photographs is the progression both men have made as they’ve grown from being popular in hip-hop four years ago to pop icons today.

    Incidentally, Webster’s lists the etymology of the word swag as potentially derived from the Norwegian svagga to sway, rock; akin to Middle Low German swacken to rock. In other words, last night’s Grammy performance was a return to form.

    More reasons why the world needs more tuxedo owners and their swagger (like us).

  • SOE – and the hustle

    soe ad3

    File this under the “they shoot things, don’t they?” category. This collaboration followed from the series of 20 music docs about New York City bands we did for Sony a couple years back. Lead singer DJ McNanny’s former band Neutral Mute and I collaborated on what became a kind of pet project — shooting footage from time to time vaguely in service of a music video. Though that band eventually went on hiatus, DJ’s new band AAAPE has started playing out. And his label keeps pumping out the dope remixes.

    In between, we ended up with a branded song, or an ad for a music video, or a two-minute thingy (technical term) that looks cool and allowed me to get my Terry Richardson on.

    soe ad 4

    Looking at the finished pics, there’s a temptation to holler, “our friends are cooler than yours!” But the simple truth is, that’s just how we roll. At least that’s what I tell the guys over at Citibank who keep calling. Rakesh what up, baby!

    Enjoy our State of Elation. And look out for the fragrance.



    That’s worldwide hottie Allison Caviness bringing a new level of cool to sunglasses. And, of course, she’s already shot with Terry Richardson.

  • Desedo Does DC

    How, you may ask, did team Desedo score passes to the national media pool? Well, there are trade secrets, alas, even in our open-source hearts. Look for some motion pictures of the inauguration from us soon.

    But we’ve also covered the event in the industry press. Here’s an article I’ve written in AdAge on diversity, youtube, and the industry.

    The advertising world has had its own race issue, on the table now for more than 40 years, but has yet to find a voice that can apply salve to that gaping wound whilst moving an otherwise ailing industry toward reconciliation.

    Read the full piece in Ad Age here. Or in the business section of Huffington Post, another space where we’ll soon be penning more thoughts.

  • A Minor Triumph in Signs

    paper-nytimes-cover.jpg

    This year, in the interest of improving my quality of life, I decided to subscribe to the weekend edition of the New York Times. The delivery is split over two days and contains all of the items that are available on the newstand edition of the sunday paper. On saturday the Magazine (my favorite publication in the world) arrives along with ad circulars and a few sections I hardly ever read: real estate, book review, travel. And on sunday the rest of the paper arrives: the front page news, Sunday Business, Sunday Styles, and most importantly, Week In Review. The tentpoles of the sunday reading experience are thus split over two days giving a full weekend of quality reading material. In print. Oh joy.

    But there are complications.

    Because of the way I party sleep in on weekends, I am rarely up before ten in the morning either day, and many (read: most) weekends not until noon. This unfortunate fact has led some asshat in my building to assume that I don’t want my newspaper on the days when I don’t get to it before he does. (Pardon my sexism; I don’t know the asshat, but assume it’s a he). And thus on many occasions I stumble out of bed and downstairs to discover that my newspaper is not waiting for me, but that a cowardly and anti-social act lies in its stead.
    (more…)

  • The Zeitgeist, Paradox, and That Weezy

    Google released it’s Zeitgeist report this week: its most searched terms. Sarah Palin and Obama both made the top ten in the overall global and US lists and were among the top three people searched in the US. Number four in that category? Lil Wayne.

    Both the most popular people and most popular searches were heavy on the pop and politics. More esoteric searches such as the “what is” category produced three of the all-time favorites: what is love (1), life (2), art (10), as well as a few head-scratchers: scientology (6), 3g (9), java (3).

    Separately, in the top 10 most viewed online videos of the year, eight of the ten were label-produced music videos. The other two: Palin’s interview with Katie Couric, and Obama’s speech on race — a near 40 minute tour de force that has clocked in more than 40 million views. (Palin’s own 8 min. tour de force was the third most viewed video with 56m).

    Parsing the web-centric upheaval in our industries has become the anxiety-ridden hobby du jour as the mainstream media and alternatives struggle to come up with working business models while the titans wobble. Yet one cannot deny that we are seeing more content than ever; more outlets, more providers. All of this places a greater burden on the individual to craft patterns for consuming media. The hope is that what one eventually consumes will be better suited to one’s tastes, but I smell a paradox of choice. Of course, I want my MTV (online, thanks) too.

    So, what’s your strategy?

    Me, I’ll waffle between smarty design talk and brooklyn girls:



    the fader stays part of the new music strategy. (song: Charles Hamilton).
    Further reading on our preferences from NYT mag.