Episode 60: Everyman and Ariane

“A stick, a stone, the end of the road…” is how the song Águas de Março (The Waters of March) begins. For the 2014 Alliance Graphique Internationale conference in Brazil, Michael took Antonio Carlos Jobim’s list-like lyrics, did a Google Image Search, and put the first result on a poster:

What the song is about is the beauty of everyday life — you know, that just these boring things that surround us is what life and existence is all about — and it was an attempt to hijack the boring character of Google Image Search to generate a similarly quotidian attitude about the world.

The Atlantic‘s James Fallows rounded up some favorite versions of Águas de Março a couple of years ago, including one in Slovenian, a paean to Trader Joe’s, and this long instrumental:

Also mentioned:

Autostraddle, 75 Lesbian Ken Dolls Ranked by Lesbianism
Elle, All the Ken Dolls You Will Meet in Your Lifetime
Michael and Jessica discuss the Barbie revamp on Episode 27 of The Observatory
Weekend Edition, Diversifying Stock Photography
Tonl
Facebox
Ariane: The Overexposed Stock Image Model
McMansion Hell
99% Invisible, McMansion Hell: The Devil Is in the Details
Electronic Freedom Foundation, McMansion Hell Responds to Zillow’s Unfounded Legal Claims
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By Michael Bierut & Jessica Helfand

Jessica Helfand, a founding editor of Design Observer, is an award-winning graphic designer and writer and a former contributing editor and columnist for Print, Communications Arts and Eye magazines. A member of the Alliance Graphique Internationale and a recent laureate of the Art Director’s Hall of Fame, Helfand received her B.A. and her M.F.A. from Yale University where she has taught since 1994.