Holyday Thrill Ride - The Cruxification Experience

It has been now about a month and a half since a client challenged me over the craziest idea I could generate over Holiday Packages, I did a bit of research and found holiday thrill rides a pitifully tasteless ride for your money. If you get offended easily please don't read any further, this is not meant to be offensive in any way, however I am sure it will be for some, if you are in that league, I hope you work by level of concern, starting by the highest concern factor, and in this way I would expect you would be running a petition to end sales of Marilyn Manson's work before you draw your critique here.

So after being challenged in a rather rude fashion when it comes to creativity, I have an answer, this one is for you Sir, the craziest adrenalin rush you can possibly have in a stupid holiday thrill ride, never mind being put in a safe cart in a roller coaster, how about a real challenge:

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Feel the ultimate pain, the greatest pain you can possibly feel, take the steps self punishment and feel the ultimate adrenalin rush... The Cruxification Experience, undertook in a real cross, with real nails with all the safety ensured by our medical team that would monitor your vital signs and ensure a safe removal...


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Now seriously, I believe that it the craziest and potentially most controverse Holyday Thrill Ride and adrenalin rush possible. I challenge anyone to invent a stupidiest idea than this one for a holyday experience, never mind fire walking or bungee jumping, really you cant beat this in any way, and if you think you are a tough guy because you did a bungee jump or skydiving...

As for the challenger, my friend never challenge my creativity again, you really cant beat it. Really.


PS: Before you consider criticising the imoral nature of this post, please bear in mind that this post is not half as offensive as the Inquisition and all the sex scandals of the instituition recently portraid by the media, in reality self-rightiousness is a personal concept that bears no effect on ones actual morals.

Agent Provocateur Lingerie, the Soho Sub-Lime

Well that is me finished with literature and some points I did like to put across with its influences in my work an that of some people I have had the privilege of meeting and keeping in contact with throughout my life and career. This to point out my next sketches in Graphic Design and Subliminal Technologies.

Sow we will discuss brands for a little while here, there will be limits tough, because I dont do this for free, and so I am not being paid by Joseph Corre or Serena Rees...

Straight to the point, 2005 and the Dita Collection was out, I was working in a design competition and ended up by changing my mind in the last minute to a different brief, however, my first choice was Agent Provocateur Lingerie, and although my other brief impressed a few people, I always feel awkward about it, since my first choice was Agent Provocateur, my favorite brand from 2003-2005, there were others tough, but this one was special for a very great reason.

The first work where I run Sublimis software over their campaign material, at the time, according to me and my software, they got very right, only to disappoint me later, when they got it quite wrong, not incredibly wrong, but wrong enough for what they aspire as a brand.

I have been recently sorting my materials and portfolio over 100TB available in this webserver, it has been a great opportunity to look back at my path, everything I achieved and the things I didn't get that right.

For several reasons 2005 was one of my rewarding years, and the then emerging software I was working on shed a lot of light in what I was trying to reach.

So the results for Agent Provocateur reached a whooping 75%, in my softwares scale that is huge, Apple was at 65% with its short commercials featuring U2 and The Vines. But since Apples adverts were simply a threshold filter video with one Master Color, I really expected more. My surprise was Agent Provocateur reaching 75% with very complex images, that was a feat from a subliminal point of view, the imagery was so powerful for something so complex, that I believe that the guys that did it dont even know what they achieved (this is usual by the way, some great stuff is made by distracted designers).

But the fact that this brand was the first one to test my software is not the only reason, I really love this name from a branding point of view, but that will pop up again in this Blog...

Yukio Mishima subliminal or sublime ?

I am quite sure it must have been 1996 or so when I can recall discussing the work of Yukio Mishima with my friend S. at this time we were studying the foundation of a musical style we had been discussing since '93, influences and what it impacted in that time and age at several levels.

Shortly after that we actually purchased at the same time the first work of Yukio Mishima we could get our hands on, it was a small piece themed after the famous robber Genet. We met some time after a bank holiday when we had decided to go to Bairro Alto, but none of us was present for that outing. I still remember the serious jokes and intense laughs based on that precise book, it was a good laugh, but the worse was to come...

Shortly after that I read "Sun and Steel" and a few critiques by Kawabata, it was enough to make up my mind about the potential of Mishima's work for my studies and personal initiatives.

I believe that our interpretations on Mishima's work divided our courses of study and literary direction, I can recall at least 3 friends whose opinions about Mishima's work would divide this way.

Mishima's beliefs on most mocking most intellectuals that favour the mind to the physical can be offensive to many, and also can passionately divide people with similar opinions and points of view, the lines of Mishima's work are very well crafted in messing with inner beliefs and systems. Consider for instances that two individuals share in common core beliefs, Mishima's work will act on the differences in lateral thoughts, that are commonly underestimated by both individuals, it happens that many core beliefs are supported by lateral beliefs in their foundation (often lateral beliefs will more logic orientated than core beliefs, which tend to be influenced by feelings and that type of hype...)

The procedure of Mishima's work is as any top salesman will know very accurate, strong and its cold logic will make any intellectual feel uneasy and inferior by the stamina and focus of his work. Most intelectuals make use of a status standard to despise the strenght factor, often not believing it themselves but feeling that making others believe that the pen is mightier than the sword is the way to at least reinforcing their personal beliefs or actually starting to believe themselves... you get the picture.

Mishima killed any future argument about the power of his beliefs when he killed himself, I dont believe any criticism about his work after his death was ever taken seriously. He walked the walk, and that genuine attitude scares the shit out of any intellectual (guess why...)

Looking back I cannot decide if the influence of Mishima's works did good or harm to me or any of my friends that read it at the time, the thing that will marks us forever is the intensity of the work. Mishima's did the strongest advertisement campaign in the history of modern literature, his work wins over critics even because he was capable of doing what no literary critic or columnist can do: Take his words to the ultimate consequences.

What everyone seems to forget is that long before the German philosopher did state that the mind is more influenced by the body rather than the other way around, and the ones that do remember that dont seem to fully understand the deeper implications. I guess everyone is in the end afraid of knowing themselves.

It set us all apart, made us go forth alone, and I guess that alone we found our own paths.