Do you LOVE Nutella?

Apparently, people do (these comments crack me up). Here’s a recipe to make your own, approximately.

What I like about AMC’s Mad Men is that its creator Matt Weiner is very conscious of the outside forces that are implicitly shaping his characters. The fictional advertising agency Sterling Cooper is set in the very real early sixties where revolutionary ideas are fomenting. In design, George Lois is challenging the traditional advertising aesthetic. In the third episode of Mad Men conventional ad executives are mystified by his ‘Think Small’ campaign.

____Ron Simon

In Which Don Draper = George Lois/George Lois = Don Draper?

MCN: Did you go back to some of the icons of the era? Are some of the characters composites of the big names from Madison Avenue’s past?

MW: It depends on what you think are icons. When you read the history of advertising, there’s David Ogilvy, there’s Bill Bernbach, George Lois and so forth. Ogilvy is the only person who worked in anything like a place like ours, and I did read his book. Who I really modeled it on — when I read these histories about agencies in the ‘50s — were these super White agencies. I guess McCann was like that, BBDO was like that. There were some characters at these places … There was a guy named Draper Daniels, who was considered one of the great copy guys ever, and that’s where I got that name [series protagonist and resident creative genius at Sterling Cooper], John Draper.

____Mike Reynolds

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“Book’s good. By the way, it has Julian Koenig’s fingerprints all over it.”

____Don Draper

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Of course, it is ironic that Draper, as Lois’ proxy, would act as protective mouthpiece to the works of Julian Koenig, considering Lois’ own dubious relationship with plagiarizing from Koenig. As it would turn out, George Lois was partners with Julian Koenig and Koenig has gone on record saying that George Lois unfairly took credit for work that should have been credited to Koenig including the “Think Small” campaign. He also describes George Lois appropriating some of Koenig’s personal experiences as his own. This myth of origin parallels Don Draper’s own self invention. While this sociopathic urge to only move forward, at all costs, leaves flotsam in its wake, it also points out that we need and desire heroes and that without these inherent tragedies, there is no possibility for myths or heroes.

For the definitive word on Mad Men and its extensive roots, see The Footnotes of Mad Men.

POS Design 001

Today, I am christening a new feature here called Piece Of Shit Design, POS Design for short.

Typical entries will fall under the broad category of things that may have seemed cool to a student or other dilettantes as well as dazzling but useless bestsellers which may have bilked the layman.

This “chair” is, for starters, an ergonomic oxymoron. There is a reason the “model” is not only fully clothed but wearing a black sport-jacket with white sneakers (kicks), which is, in itself a great look. Rather than this being staged poolside, as an apparent outdoor lounge ought to be, this is only suitable for the split second the designer can get in and quickly get out. This can only be accomplished in a studio, be it the photographer’s or the designer’s. Let’s just consider exactly how would one sit in this chair. Does he walk up that four foot long section past where his resting feet are and somehow awkwardly squat while flipping 180° around like some kind of balletic esplanade? Up that ramp, that see-saw like some bouncing pirate with a cutlass at his backside being forced to walk the plank? What is the point of all that extra length anyway? Ostensibly, it would be to create a bouncing, lounging hammock-like effect. In reality, it’s a diving board waiting to eject grandmothers and crush small children. A true sign of a poorly designed chair is mirroring such as this. The man has used twice as much material as necessary. Well, three times as much as necessary perhaps as that long ramp is completely unnecessary. Only an amateur would build an 8’ long chair because he thought the sketch on paper was kind of neat. Clearly, all or at least a portion of the bottom could have been left out altogether. I guess, in Korea, they haven’t heard about Amazonian deforestation or global warming yet. So, I don’t hold this clunky redundancy against him. On the other hand, the immortal Henry Fonda villain Frank, from Once Upon A Time In The West, may have had words for him, “How can you trust a man who wears both a belt and suspenders? The man can’t even trust his own pants.” I hope this guy does the right thing and sends this to New Orleans so it can be re-purposed as a fishing platform or the lumber can be reclaimed and turned into a house.

Now, for the more obvious issue: it is totally useless as programmed. The chair, at best, is cobbled together from dining chair geometries. It is just slightly more reclined than 90° effectively making it impossible to recline comfortably. Even worse, since it is on a slight incline, it pitches the occupant slightly forward. He has to grip the “arm rests” to keep from being catapulted forward. The back, seat and arm rests - okay, the entire chair - is constructed from hard-edged rectilinear extrusions or slats which (I’m sure you cans guess what I am about to say) are very uncomfortable to lean or sit on for more than a few minutes. To accentuate this discomfort, he has the value-added feature of equidistant voids between all the slats. This way, you are guaranteed a sharp corner digging into your ass, back, arms and any other part of your body that is unfortunate enough to come into contact with this monstrosity, this piece of shit.

…Tune in next time when I trash my mom’s Dyson vacuum cleaner…