Published by admin on September 21, 2009
in OOTD.
Still with the nepotistic theme, but spreading my connections as far afield as San Francisco and my good friend, Philip Wood, owner and curator of objects-as-artform store, Citizen-Citizen. Philip gets this whole language-of-objects completely and has made quite a name for himself with this stuff in the US.
This splendid item is called Brush #1 by FredriksonStallard and is an irreverent take on Christian morality that “may ward off evil and dirt in the same stroke”. It sells through Citizen-Citizen’s on-line store.
Published by admin on September 20, 2009
in OOTD.
Another one of my good friends (I might well start with nepotism and work upwards) sent me details of this nice little item…
David runs auto-journals–a digital alternative car magazine written by owners–and went to the Frankfurt Motor Show where he got this cool leather-bound memory stick from Ferrari as part of the press kit given out to all journos for the launch of the new 458 Italia. 5,000 were given away in a few minutes, apparently.
What Ferrari (and every other car manufacturer) know is the value of cool objects to make journalists say nice things about their cars. We don’t think journalists should have a monopoly on this kind of communication and believe that Matterbox subscribers will be just as enthusiastic about brands if they were given nice items too.
If you have anything you think would make it as OOTD, please send me a picture / description to: tim[at]artomatic[dot]co[dot]uk
Please tell us what you think
Published by admin on September 18, 2009
in OOTD.
As you know, Matter is all about real things. More specifically, it’s about how we value real things more in a digital world. Most of these things are printed, since the upshot of all this technology is that we’re moving from a printed media world to a digital media world. So, I thought it might be a good idea to illustrate this with what I think are interesting (printed) physical objects.
First up is my friend Jim’s business card for his printing business Wonder. Printed on a dayglo polycarbonate with a silver foil-effect ink, it’s super lustrous and makes you want to just keep turning it over to see how the light changes it.
If you have anything you think would make it as OOTD, please send me a picture / description to: tim[at]artomatic[dot]co[dot]uk
And, please tell us what you think
Tim
Hello.
Obviously, it’s been a bit quiet around here and maybe you’re wondering whether we’ll ever do another box. Well, we will and we are.
We’re putting one together now for delivery in a few month’s time. It’s taken a while, we know, but we’ve been beavering away at getting in front of brands and advertisers to show them why giving people something is better than telling them something.
We’re making progress and will have the next box out as soon as we can gather enough brands together to make some nice things to go in it.
We’ll post more news when we have it.
Tim
The best picture I could find of a Tumbleweed: DBR62
So, the first edition of Matter has (finally) left us and is to be delivered today. After many ups and downs getting this together in the past few months, I don’t mind saying that I feel very excited to see what everyone thinks. In fact, it’s a bit like giving a Christmas or birthday present to someone, when you really look forward to seeing the reaction you get from them. Whether you absolutely love your Matter or think some things need improvement, we can’t wait to hear what you think…………and then get started on organising Matter II next week!
I hope you’ll all take some time to go to the matterbox.co.uk website, where everyone can see what was in the box and check out the associated websites and offers. Everyone is encouraged to leave us comments on the items/Matter using the ‘comments’ box beneath the product descriptions and the comments function on this blog. Those of you who did get this box can do the same, but you also get access to some (optional) questions on the website about the items you received. If you answer them it will help us when we start planning Matter II – which we aim to be delivered in the first quarter of New Year.
Apologises we have no forum for you to talk to each other on just yet – it’s a work in progress. I hope you use this blog to exchange a few ideas and opinions in the meantime. We welcome all of your comments and rest assured that we read every one.
Finally, to any unlucky people out there who joined Matter before 6pm on September 5th 2008 but for some reason do not receive their Matter today – PLEASE LET US KNOW! We’ll be sure to check where your Matterbox is and sort out any problems with delivery for you.
Enjoy your Matter.
We’re curious to know what’s happened to the Matter boxes in the few days since they were delivered. We’d love to hear from you about what you’ve done with your box and where it is now.You can join the Matterbox group on flickr where you can post a picture and a description of where it is now and what’s happened to the contents.Or you can tell us here…
I’ve been somewhat pre-occupied with getting the content together for the very first Matter box, and realised I haven’t put anything on here about the trial and how the project is progressing.
The talking-to-people phase is coming to an end and soon the real fun of making real stuff will begin. Just as well since my prototype is looking pretty tired and dog-eared (see above). The whole project is getting that slight tingle of anticipation about it now, and though I’ve got a hiideous amount of work to do in putting the consumer trial together, it’s starting to gather momentum. I’ve got most of the items and brands in place now (I’ll post a full list once all are completely in place) and the best thing is that the mix of brands, ideas and things is every bit as good as I hoped.
The Matter trial is available to anyone who wants to get one, all you have to sign up to get one. It’ll be delivered Saturday February 2nd. 2008.
Welcome to Matter, an experiment in communicating with stuff.
The idea behind Matter is to create a new kind of communications channel around the idea of giving people stuff. It’s an exceedingly simple idea; one that hopefully, everyone will understand, and hopefully many will appreciate.
In a world that seems to be increasingly dominated by digital communications, and where the net effect of those media is to render our experiences as being somewhat remote, the idea is to balance that by providing a way for advertisers and companies to start talking to people by giving them things.
We hope that the sensation of getting a box of good stuff will be familiar and recognisable to anyone, and the prompt to take the time to sit down and sift through the pieces (hence why it’s always delivered on a Saturday morning).
The ambition is that Matter develops into a legitimate communications medium, with its own distinctive values, where agencies would have a clear idea of what would go in a Matter box and recipients would have a good idea of what to expect.
It might seem far-fetched, but maybe Matter might ultimately be seen as an obvious way to give people a real brand-experience by giving them something they can immediately hold and touch. Sure, this will take time, but if digital media continue to dominate even more aspects of our lives, there’s going to be a growing demand for the need to get to grips with things. Matter is a long-term project, that might seem distinctly old-fashioned, but it’s driven by changes in virtual media and what will be a residing human need to experience things in a physical way.
The idea for this blog is to gather together and discuss the various strands of culture and media that inform what Matter is and might be in the future.
It’s all about stuff and why we like to get it into our hands.
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