TURDSOME TYPE

3 May 2023 · 55 min

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In short

Podcast Notes: Front and Center - Episode: TURDSOME TYPE

Episode Summary In this episode, hosts Alex Center and Kevin Batory discuss a variety of topics including the Met Gala, a new typeface from Jony Ive, nostalgic snacks, and the branding efforts of MSCHF. The conversation is lively, with insights into design trends, pop culture, and personal anecdotes.

Key Topics Discussed

  1. Instagram Reflection
  2. Alex contemplates reducing his Instagram time, questioning its impact on his life.
  3. Kevin humorously suggests he found a new purpose through this reflection.
  1. Remote Podcasting
  2. The hosts comment on their remote recording setup and the challenges of distance.
  1. Basketball Discussion
  2. New York Knicks:
  3. Discussion on the Knicks' performance and playoff potential.
  4. Alex expresses mixed feelings about the team's capabilities.
  5. Kevin highlights the excitement surrounding the team despite potential pitfalls.
  1. Met Gala Recap
  2. The hosts discuss memorable fashion from the Met Gala.
  3. Highlights Include:
  4. Doja Cat's feline-themed outfit praised for elegance amidst absurdity.
  5. Jared Leto's costume receives mixed reviews; some enjoy its absurdity.
  6. The discussion touches on celebrity fashion choices and their cultural implications.
  7. Alex and Kevin express nostalgia and humor about the event's absurdities, including a cockroach spotted at the gala.
  1. Jony Ive's Typeface
  2. Discussion of Jony Ive's long-awaited typeface, "Love From Serif."
  3. Alex and Kevin critique the pretentiousness surrounding the typeface's announcement.
  4. Key Points:
  5. The typeface aims for perfection, yet the hosts find it underwhelming.
  6. They express frustration with the over-sentimentality in design discussions.
  1. Nostalgic Snacks Rebranding
  2. Overview of General Mills' refresh of Gushers, Fruit By The Foot, and Fruit Roll-Ups.
  3. Discussion on the challenges of modernizing beloved childhood brands while maintaining nostalgia.
  4. Key Points:
  5. The hosts debate the aesthetics of the new packaging versus old designs.
  6. Kevin shares fond memories associated with these snacks, while Alex reflects on his limited experience with them.
  1. MSCHF's Hot Chat 3000
  2. Introduction to MSCHF's new app that ranks users' attractiveness based on AI evaluations.
  3. The discussion includes the potential for social interaction through the app and its humorous premise.
  1. Liquid Death x Travis Barker Collaboration
  2. Announcement of a quirky partnership featuring an enema kit, playing on humor and nostalgia.
  3. Kevin and Alex discuss the absurdity of the product while appreciating its marketing strategy.

Key Takeaways

  • Cultural Commentary: The episode provides insights into current pop culture and design trends while maintaining a humorous tone.
  • Nostalgia vs. Modernization: There is a tension between the nostalgia of old designs and the need for modern aesthetics in branding.
  • Design Critique: The hosts offer a critique of design discourse, especially regarding the pretentiousness that can accompany discussions about perfection in typography and branding.
  • Social Dynamics: The conversation reflects on how social media and apps like the Hot Chat 3000 impact personal interactions and perceptions of attractiveness.

Conclusion The episode blends humor with insightful commentary on design, branding, and pop culture, making it an engaging listen for fans of graphic design and contemporary culture discussions.

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Transcript

Automatic transcript. May contain errors.

0:00I think I need to take a step back from Instagram. At a certain point, it's just too much stuff. I know. It's too much screen time. I know this is something I probably should have figured out years ago, but I don't think it's adding as much as it used to, maybe, to my life. Maybe it never did. No, I think it did at some point. I think it really was something that mattered to me, and I felt like I was looking for something, I guess. You found it? I found it in Jesus. Wow. You found Jesus through reels? He spoke to me. He said, Alex, get back to work.

0:41Three, two, one. Kevin, what's up, buddy? Yeah, what up? Long distance podcasting. I know. We'll be, I think we got four in a row here. Yeah. Are you back in New York sometime in May? Yeah. I'm thinking I'm probably going to be, well, actually, I don't know yet. I might stay another week. I don't know my schedule. TBD have these pods and where they're going to be. For now, we're socially distanced. Yeah. That's correct. This is your mom's house? Yeah, this is the dining room in my mom's house. This is the same scene where she famously interrupted the pod. I said, Mom, I'm podcasting. One of the greatest moments in our show's history.

1:31I know. I just had to send her upstairs. Yeah. She's on the phone. I said, Hey, either you got to go up or I got to go up and it's a lot easier for you. So, well, how is home? It's good. It's relaxing. Yeah. The city. Welcome you back with open arms. Absolutely. Yeah. Beautiful thing. Yeah. Nice here. Spring, really green. A lot of trees, a lot of grass. Hell yeah. It's good stuff. Sick. Kevin, the Knicks are back. I saw that. I'm, I'm kind of bummed I'm not in New York for Knicks mania. I will say by the time this podcast comes out, it's potential that the Knicks are dead. I just want to say that as well.

2:09The Knicks are both back and also dead. I'm not that slow at editing this. Honestly though, I'm not sure we're moving in the right direction. You know when your team isn't that good, but they're playing well and you don't want to be the guy that's like, this team isn't really that good, but you know deep down that they're not that good? that's kind of how this basketball team feels like. I know that they can't win a championship, but they're fun to watch. Hey, but that's okay. They got a favorable matchup to move on to the Eastern conference finals. So no, no, you only can play your competition, but like you guys had one bad game.

2:47You guys had, you guys had a horrible game against Cleveland. I think it'd be fine. You can't like Miami. No, you had, I mean, you did have a horrible game against Miami, but in the first series, you had one horrible game against Cleveland and you bounced. That's fair. I think if we win tonight, then officially the championship run is back on. I think if we lose today, I'm going to call it right now, must-win game. Yeah, I mean, you can't lose two in a row. You can't. It's over. It's bad. But Jamie Beller's hurt. And yeah, no, I think the Knicks are not a good basketball team. But I'm not giving up hope.

3:24And we're here. We didn't come this far to come this far. And I do want to believe that we can, yeah, we can make this a series. And to advance to the Eastern Conference Finals would be massive. Also, I think there's no way that this next team is going to beat the Heat in like five. This is a series that's going to go six or seven. So we're going to have to win some games on the road now, and we'll see how it goes. But Kevin, we shouldn't be talking about basketball. Kevin, because last night was fashion's biggest night. Oh, yeah. Kevin, as a fashion podcast, a pop culture fashion enthusiast podcast, we got to talk about the Met Gala.

4:13We have to, yeah. Yeah. How was it? What do you think? I didn't watch any of it. I just looked at the first publication that had a lot of fits on it. Okay. That happened to be the New York Post. i had some deja vu this morning because i feel like i did this exact same thing last year um but i think it was cool i mean yeah people were a little upset about carl lagerfeld and his problematic past but i don't really i didn't look into it so yeah he was born in 1933 so uh if he didn't have any problematic takes i think that would be more shocking i think yeah and he worked in fashion his whole life yeah i mean i guess what i know about carl Lagerfeld is he had a cat and he liked doing black and white big year for cats Kevin oh yeah huge huge huge obviously first our rebrand for cat kin and now Jared Leto Doja Cat and uh many others at the the Met Gala were all cat themed who do you think had the better cat fit Doja Cat or Jared Leto I think Doja Cat and I'll tell you why because I think it's a hard thing to both dress as a cat and also look high-end fashion.

5:24And somehow she pulled that off, which is remarkable. The fact that she looked stunning and elegant and sort of fancy, because it is a very fancy occasion. So to be both kind of crazy out there, because I think that's also what the Met Gala has also become, this sort of place where people can dress insane and that's what people kind of want. They don't want to see you look beautiful and elegant. They want to see some people push the envelope. And I think she did that while also looking really gorgeous, which I think was really cool. While Jared Leto, his was just kind of like a cat costume. A pretty cool looking one, I'll be honest.

6:07Yeah, it kind of was like an Easter Bunny type costume. I'm a notorious Jared Leto hater. I think he's weird. He has a cult. But I liked the absurdity of his outfit. and he should have kept that the head on the whole time i know it's about having facetime at the met gala but you know maybe pop it off for one picture and then just you know continue on with your night and keep you got to keep that mascot head on yeah i gotta go full full mascot yeah i hear you but also i think then maybe people like is that really him is he really uh you know is it what does he look like underneath there and i think it was it was cool to see uh yeah that he He had sort of, it looked hot too.

6:45You know what I mean? That's another thing. It's like this, as Justin G. I told us when he talked about being a mascot on our pod a couple weeks ago. I think being a mascot is, you know, it's not as fun as it looks. Oh, no, it's definitely not as fun as it looks. No. That suit looked awful, but. Yeah. Yeah. It's the Mac Alley, dude. You got to show out. Yeah. It's fashion's biggest night, man. Yeah. We're here to break down all the looks and all the fashion. Yeah. We're two fashionable guys. Yeah. Break down the looks. It's funny because it's a party, right? It's a gala, and they raise money for the Metropolitan Museum.

7:21There's no TV broadcast of it. It's just a dinner with a lot of famous people. I saw some people on Twitter complaining about how hard it was to watch it. Well, they now do something on television where they basically just do a red carpet, and they just talk to people. And so now it's just a red carpet for dinner, basically. Great. And great. And it does work well on Instagram platform, obviously, where people are just there looking for photos. And I do think that's where it really shines. But it is interesting that it's just a fundraiser. But it's turned into this red carpet that really, I don't know, it's become a showcase for celebrities.

8:02To be invited is a big deal. there was some slack channel messaging going on at the center studio and uh i people calling you know bringing their favorite outfits of the the show uh or the gala and uh i didn't know who any of those people were i'm gonna be honest a real old head moment for me yeah it's okay i don't know i only know a couple um yeah do you have any favorites that you saw i i liked uh obviously big little Nas X guy. I think he, I think he fucked it up with his, whatever that was. Uh, it was sick. Yeah. He just kind of, I mean, he's going for the controversial. I'm here to break necks and, uh, and, and make some people mad moves, which I do appreciate.

8:46And he, he did deliver in that way. Yeah. I feel like that's kind of what you got to do with, uh, when, if you're going to the Met Gala. So, you know, shout out to him. He had a sick fit and then janelle mona uh she was my favorite i didn't see janelle mona's look yeah that was sick that dress she was wearing pretty sick um pretty cool yeah i like the asap i thought the you know sort of uh the asap look was cool with the jeans and the sort of like carl skirt thing asap rocky is he you know he's married to rihanna so he can kind of do whatever the fuck he wants now yeah like you see him jump over the gate i did see that that that was that was pretty cool man he's such a rebel can i say one thing about asap rocky i saw him live once in in concert and i want to say he's one of the worst live performers i've ever seen in my life he absolutely terrible uh post pandemic i saw him in like 2015 and i had a good time i just maybe maybe it's like lip syncing or i don't know what he was doing he was performing at a festival so it was like yeah you know 50 60 000 people there and it just looked like he just was like the the way he's performing is as if no told him that he had a microphone so he didn't have to scream to reach the back of the fast like the whole like he didn't need to raise his voice there's giant speakers there and that's how uh concerts work so if he whispered or he sang or he rapped at a low voice that everyone would still be able to hear it he was screaming like every verse every rap everything was just he was trying to project very loudly and i was like wow this is truly awful like i can't listen to this anymore and i was like maybe he just like had an off night or whatever and then i saw on instagram a concert that he did just the other day it was this week and pharrell was there and he was performing he was still screaming i was like what the fuck this guy is awful i think his focus has shifted maybe a bit from music since his heyday since uh long asap i don't know what his focus is on but just being celebrity and being a partner to rihanna and multidisciplinary designer yeah he doesn't need to really perform but i think of him as a rapper and i think he has good music like i think his albums i have uh affinity for some of his early albums i just thought it was funny it's rarely you see someone that like can't perform live or is really bad these days and i was i was very shocked by how yeah or the the show was um yeah kevin uh there was some brick fits as well of course yeah patrick holmes he bricked that fit he you know patrick holmes is not a cool guy let's just start there not my quarterback no dude your quarterback but it looks he would have showed up i mean i don't think he would i don't think he really done anything crazy like i mean he would look good but like i don't know yeah i mean do you see shy from the uh okc thunder he had a secret on i forgot to include him in in the doc but around up yeah he he was really he's very fashionable he's probably top nba he's probably top fashionable athlete yeah in my opinion he goes so some some athletes there so duane wade man just i'm sick of duane get out of here duane wade i mean he's maybe i'm just because of the miami heat thing right now he's at the garden cheering on the heat just kind of just get fucking out of here um yeah a bunch of athletes there i always think it's weird like how do they determine which athletes get to go to these things because like don't you just buy your own ticket no i don't think that's how it works i think you have to be invited it's like an invite only thing so you would think that most athletes would want to go i would assume that maybe most everyone wants to go so which athletes get the sort of golden ticket to the Met Gala.

12:33It makes me curious. I know that, what's her face from Vogue, Anna Wintour, she's a big tennis fan. Yeah. So you do see a lot of tennis stars, more tennis athletes at the Met Gala than any other because of her personal affinity for tennis. That's an inside scoop. Wow. Yeah, no, I think athletes, they tend to look out of place there, I think, for the most part. Russell Westbrook, I thought, looked fine. He didn't look particularly great, but yeah, I don't see a lot of good male dressers. Go look at Shai. Diddy looks dumb. I don't know. I'm trying to think. I kind of liked what Diddy was wearing.

13:14Yeah. I don't know about Diddy. I thought the red carpet, from a design perspective, looked terrible. Oh, yeah. People were saying it looked like Aquafresh. Yeah. I couldn't put my finger on what it was, but it looked really bad. Shit looked like toothpaste. Not many people knew this, but... Kind of dirty. Karl Lagerfeld loved toothpaste. Yeah, yeah. Why white and red with the blue stripes? That shit looked terrible. And then, oh, my favorite moment of the whole night, Kevin. The cockroach. Did you see that? I did see the cockroach. That's New York, baby. To me, that's fucking New York City. NYC's back, baby.

13:49Yeah, hell yeah. You can't keep the cockroaches out of the Met Gala. Come on. I love that. That was my personal favorite moment. Yeah, that was pretty cool. Do you think it was an inside job? Good question. No, I think New York is actually legitimately dirty. Pizza rat, fashion cockroach. What do you think? I can see it. Fashion cockroach is great. Anna Wintour putting it in her pocket, save it for later, releasing it down the red carpet. It doesn't add up. How is there a cockroach at the Met? I've never seen a cockroach there. I've been there a couple times, too. Never seen it. I've been there in the last month, too.

14:24I'm sure they clean it. I'm sure they've got the best exterminators. There's no way a cockroach. Fashion's biggest night. You're saying inside job. Yeah, you think that cockroach paid for a ticket? Yeah, of course. They let it stay? Yeah, yeah, yeah. To pay for the new wing. Yeah. I think it says a lot about Carl Lagerfeld's legacy that they let the cockroach walk down the runway. I think that was the most fashion social justice tribute they could have done. Because he's probably, if you believe in reincarnation and you believe all that stuff that the internet was saying, I came back as a cockroach.

15:00I like this theory, Kevin. Karl Lagerfeld was there. Yeah. Spirit of cockroach. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And I like there's a cameraman trying to take a photo of it. And then at some point, I was just like, maybe I should step on this thing. I was like, maybe you should. Did he step on it? I think at some point, he tried to. And then I think he gave up on the idea. Oh, come on, man. You can't be killing a bug on national TV. On a white, red carpet. Yeah. That was the thing. So, uh, that was my personal favorite moment. And, uh, yeah, no, we'll, uh, can't wait to really relive it all again next year. I'm gonna let you finish.

15:35Put that cockroach had the hardest fit. It really, it really was special to me. Yeah. They should have had a, yeah. Where was pizza rat next year? Maybe. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. They should up the ante next year. Get a rat in there. Yeah. Yeah. No, I mean, this is New York city. Yeah. With like a big soft pretzel or something. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. That'd be sick. Kevin, we have a lot of important stories to talk about this week. Yeah, I know. We got to move. So we got to move on. The MetGal talk, all the looks, all the fashion, fashion's biggest night. Johnny Ives typeface that he's been working on for four years.

16:07Wow. And it's still not done. Wow. The story comes from Fast Company. Johnny Ives, obviously, is the longtime chief design officer, I believe was his title, at Apple. He's famous for making some of the world's best products. from a product design perspective the iphone the ipod you ever heard of them uh johnny iv is a certified legend in design and he left apple uh after multiple decades there in 2019 to start his own design studio called love from uh we started center uh not too different in time so you know two legends one of the same johnny uh leaving giant companies to start our own studios you know we have a lot in common and uh he started the studio love from and they've been pretty secretive i think you haven't seen a ton from them uh over the years they do have a website um and apparently 40 plus designers so they are considerably bigger than us um and they've been working with clients like airbnb ferrari montclair while most importantly working on a typeface and uh this week that typeface is front and center and it is called love from serif and it is a modernization and upgrade of the famous typeface baskerville and yeah i think johnny uh is most famous for the apple identity you know in terms of like his uh his general aesthetic being clean and simple and rounded and um he often says aluminium which is kind of like what he is uh most memed for probably what he's most famous for i think he's most famous for aluminium yeah and uh yeah i i think people for his own studio i think you would expect a bit of that apple aesthetic you would think that it would sort of translate and so i do like the idea that he created this serif typeface that is sort of a bit of a uh yeah it's a it's kind of goes the other way so created hard to say if that's uh the correct yes yes refined um iterated yeah so basically this the story here is incredibly long i think one thing kevin and i both we were like while reading the story it's like it is a novel about this typeface it's just like a throwback to a different time design where people just took themselves incredibly seriously yes it's there's like a fast company article and i swear to god it's probably 15 paragraphs 20 paragraphs like of just straight up bullshit you know johnny ives is so far up his ass he's inside out yeah no i think it is a love letter to perfection i think you know that this article talks about sort of him bringing in mathematical experts and people that sort of are are are sort of diagnosing and sort of trying to create a typeface that is uh with an obsessive uh amount of detail and dedication to perfection and i think that is sort of the spirit of their studio which is yeah, it's all about craft.

19:30It's not just about sort of creating something that's good or average, but taking its time to pursue perfection, empirical shapes, empirical proportions. And that is sort of what they are after. Continuous curves. I mean, it's crazy. It's crazy that they're saying that because, I mean, this typeface is looking pretty average to me. Yeah. So I think here's what I'll say. This whole thing feels like the absolute most sort of navel gazing, self-congratulatory sort of bullshit. Sorry, my microphone just fell. You know, it really does feel like they are, yeah, they're just celebrating themselves and this typeface and this sort of project that they are just spending this amount of time to create something that is just so, in their minds, perfect.

20:32And I think it's just about genuinely, like you said, sort of this design point of view and this design sensibility that feels like it came from a different decade. A time when tablecloth and this idea of craft – and listen, I love craft. I think creating things that are beautiful is important, but I don't think that I resonate with this point of view and this positioning of design. design. And in some ways that is interesting, but this idea of love and fury and sort of this obsessive approach to design where they use scientists and physicists and talk about perfection and empirical proportions, it does make me a bit nauseous.

21:30There's some really crazy quotes here, but it's about the love of doing something and doing it well. That's the reason why they're doing is it feels like the antithesis to the design sensibilities that we believe in which is actually interesting to me because it's like to me it actually gives center like a bit of a foil in in many ways because i do think this idea of design has been something that has been practiced and celebrated a lot in my youth but i feel like it has gone away a little bit This sort of pinkies up, black turtlenecks, an architect's approach to craftsmanship and design versus making things that people actually love versus things that just are for the sake of perfection.

22:18And I don't think people love things because they're perfect. Yeah, this is the most Northern California bullshit I've ever seen in my life. This is like, this reminds me of that South Park episode where they're all driving Priuses and smelling their own farts.

22:36Exactly. And I think, to be honest, that maybe has been missing in design for a little bit, right? There hasn't been. I don't think so. Yeah, there hasn't been the smell your own farts sort of aesthetic or, you know, sort of point of view as much in the last 10 years or so. And I guess Johnny's bringing it back. And so one of my favorite things to come out of this story is David Rudnick, who's a designer that had a pretty good quote and a pretty great take on this on Twitter. It said, you know, to be clear, commissioning a beautiful, engineered, lovely revival of Baskerville is a charming, sweet thing that the very wealthy might do.

23:19Like having a vintage Rolls breathtakingly restored, but then saying you made the Rolls Royce and that you designed your first car is turdsome. Turdsome is perfectly used there. In terms of perfection right there is turdsome, the use of turdsome. Yeah. Because it's true. It's not that it's not interesting. And it's not that it's not charming. Or it's not that it's not beautiful. and it's not that it's not interesting to look at and to read about, but I think it's the way in which they're celebrating it that makes it feel as turdsome as it does. Yeah. I mean, it's like they've been in the lab for four years and haven't picked their head up and looked around and it's like they haven't touched any grass in forever and they've just been super hyper-focused and they've just really lost the plot of probably their lives.

24:13I don't know yeah it gives me a bit of a tom sax studio energy you know uh there was a lot of a story and discourse around tom sax's art studio where they all uh wear matching jumpsuits and uh apparently they eat together and drop their forks at the same time and go running in the morning together and uh lots of other really very culty things um and including some very problematic ones this has a bit of that feel as well where it's like you know at love from we are uh you know sort of uh dedicated to the craft of perfection and empirical forms and i'm sure that i'd be very curious to see this studio that these people are working out of and uh the rounded corners and the uh the the the angles i don't know if kevin they uh they they um yeah i'd be curious i feel like very similar to us, right?

25:06With the way our forms and our forks are displayed here at the studio, right? Yes. Very similar. Also, I just want to say this. Four years, Johnny Ive, I'm not calling you out. Let's see some of this work. Let's see some of the work. Let's see some of the stuff that the clients that you've worked for have that you've done. I get yeah, making your own typeface and making your own sort of work is important and beautiful. And yeah, I do think there's some pretty there's some merit here to what you're doing. I just don't like the way you're talking about it. But let's see some of the design. Let's see some of the stuff that the 40 people are working on.

25:50I know it's cool to be so secretive, but like, come on, let's see what you did for Ferrari. Let's see what you're doing for Airbnb. It's too cool and it doesn't matter. You don't need to see it. Yeah, no, I know. It's so sick, but like It's just behind the doors. You know, because I think that idea of perfection works when you're making Apple products and you're making some things that technology in many ways, like when you're making structural designed things, product design. Yeah. And industrial design sensibilities is obviously what Johnny Ive is known for. but you know now you're coming to graphic design and not to say that the studio isn't doing um uh sort of uh industrial design because i think they're doing a little bit of both but i'd be curious i want to i want to see some of this graphic design i want to see some of this branding i want to see some of this airbnb stuff right kev yeah i don't really care i don't i don't give a shit what he's doing i don't need to see it i want to see it um kevin moving on uh fruit by the foot, Gushers, Fruit Roll-Ups.

26:55Those are iconic brands of my childhood. Did you grow up eating those things? Love me some candy. Love me some sugary treats. I used to eat the plastic on the Fruit Roll-Up because I just would get frustrated. Yeah, I used to get frustrated. I couldn't unroll it. So I would munch the plastic. Yeah. No, that's like me with shrimp sometimes. Just when you can't get that outer layer, you can't get the shrimp out. Yeah, you totally can eat that though. I know. I'm sure the same thing applies for robes. Yeah, surely it didn't mess me up in any way. So, Kevin, fun fact about me, I did not eat any of these as a child.

27:34Wow. Yeah. I grew up the son of a dentist, and these three products specifically were banned in my household. Yeah, I mean, it makes a lot of sense. I mean, this is a dentist's worst nightmare. They literally are terrible products for your teeth. They get stuck in your teeth. They literally cause cavities. And yeah, for those reasons, they were holy grail items for me when I went to my friend's house or I was anywhere outside of my home that I could have some of the – I could taste that sweet, sweet sugar of gushers sort of exploding into my mouth. That was something that was a forbidden fruit, if you will.

28:10Yeah, I mean, hell.

28:16Why? Do you have something to say? yeah i mean i was i was gonna say something like uh i like i like uh i don't know i was gonna say something about exploding in my mouth i had a feeling you might say something about uh the juices exploding my mouth i'm waiting for it kevin come on i don't have anything on deck okay cool uh so yeah uh this year you've seen soda brand soda brands soda brand all them uh rebranding updating modernize uh and the story comes from the dialing of course and uh it is now time for general mills who is the maker of both uh or of gushers for brotherfoot and for roll-ups all to revamp its fruit snacks portfolio uh to do so they reached out to the brand design agency pearl fisher led by our friend hamish uh they have brought a new aesthetic to these childhood snacks all three of them have received a refresh package design all three of them have new modern logos and pretty big changes to the brands while still maintaining some of the things that they are iconic for.

29:24I would say that they have changed significantly while maintaining some of these sort of iconic assets that they are known for. Yeah, it's pretty impressive that they were able to rock that 3D gradient style type for as long as they did because that's been around for a while. Yeah, it's really interesting, actually, to look at the old versus the new side by side and to see how... It's interesting because in a supermarket, these products need to read as new, but they also need to read as consistent with the old. Because I would imagine there's definitely a lot of people, parents and the like, that are used to these products looking a certain way.

30:06So I would imagine that there was a desire for some consistency and some things that couldn't change. I would imagine gushers needed to like, even to the actual gusher in the bottom, right, squirting out the rainbow to the top left, like all of that has kind of stayed from a layout and design perspective, fairly consistent. What has changed is sort of the craftsmanship of that sort of logo. And then also some of the sort of, uh, the gushing. Yeah. I mean, that shit, that shit is gushing. You can't say what you will, but that shit's gushing. Yeah. Gushers are my favorite of the three products. I'll say that.

30:45Gushers are a national treasure. And I think the logo and, or my, the design of Gushers here is my personal favorite of the three as well. I think the new Gushers logo is, is, is, is very gloopy and fun. It, it, you know, this is obviously a design trend that we've covered and talked about quite a bit. But I think in this case, it works and makes sense for the product. And I feel like it does bring a bit of a new exciting energy to this package design. I don't love the black. I feel like that feels a little out of place here for me. But I think outside of that, I think this is sort of a pretty big win for this package design update.

31:30Fruit by the foot. at first I didn't realize that the logo was sort of mimicking the actual product. So for me, that's just me being dumb, but I didn't totally get it right away on first glance. But I do think this one, Alex, what if I told you all three of them took inspiration from the food forms that they're illustrating? Yeah, no, you are correct. All three of these products all grab influence from the regular product. um i think the fruit by the foot logo is is cool um i think it's interesting how they kept again like i said the exact same fruit roll-up that was on the front of the pack actually like the inner packaging a little bit better without it i think that feels a little bit more iconic it's a little bit cleaner um and then i think the fruit roll-up one is maybe my least favorite of the three it feels like it just kind of there's something about the tattoo tongue illustrations and how they kind of went around the product that I just think they were a little bit bolder and they felt a little bit more kind of like a sleeve of tattoos versus sort of just like, you know, sort of random kind of place tattoos.

32:36But maybe that's kind of more... That's the new trend. That's the new trend, right? Yeah, people love getting... The Met Gala last night, you see a lot of celebrities like Dua Lipa or Phoebe Bridgers or whatever. They just kind of have these small little random tattoos all over the body. So maybe these are all on trend. I think this is a nice job by Pearl Fisher. I think one of the things that I can't help but be sad for is the deranged logos that they got rid of. Because I think there's just something about them that is just so bizarre and psychotic that I kind of love them. They'll live forever in our minds, Alex.

33:11Yeah, that's the good part about design. And yeah, if you look at them really closely, you realize that they're bad. They're weird. And Johnny Ive would not approve. They're certainly very much not perfect typography in any way. But there's something about them that just evokes a different time in design when I think package designers were people that were very well versed in layers and shapes and gradients and drop shadows. and just that kind of fun, fucked up design of the 90s and early 2000s and even some in the 80s. In some ways, that is what I'm losing when you kind of simplify things. It's hate for you though.

34:06But I know this isn't for me, but we've talked a lot about food and beverage trends here in the studios. We work on a lot of food and beverage brands, but there is a bit of a resurgence to the psychotic and zany and crazy world of food packaging from the 90s you see brands like magic spoon and liquid death sort of leaning into that but those are for those are for adults like those like this is a strictly like these snacks are for babies alex magic spoon that's for adults you know okay so then you're i just think they go a bit counter trend but maybe you're right maybe it's the wrong demographic or the wrong audience.

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34:44So you think that kids are into things that are a bit more clean. They're into sort of a minimalist design. That's what you're trying to tell me. I have no idea. I mean, I think the kids are really rocking with Johnny Ive. Oh, they love Sarah's. That's what they love. Baskerville. Yeah. No, I mean, I don't know what the kid's like. I haven't researched it. I haven't done any strategy work with you know for uh you know a baby brand but i'd imagine that pearl fisher did their due diligence and uh trend reporting and studying and all that stuff that you know it goes into a presentation that this probably hits the mark for children um and i think we just gotta you know yeah i love these logo i love these old logos as much as the next person but you know things change people change you know dust to dust you gotta let it go and uh yeah the kids yeah i'm also incredibly jealous of uh hamish and pearl fisher to be able to sort of modernize and update these brands because these are as i mentioned sort of the these are like some of the the most iconic childhood brands and for me because i wasn't able to eat them a ton even though i did eat them like it's just it's what a dream project to be able to sort of uh rebrand these things and honestly probably a tough spot to be in because there's so much legacy and love for like these former designs and to even change them slightly i'm sure there's they're getting some like backlash or you know whatever whatever the you know people on the internet like to talk shit so yeah you had to move sort of gracefully here i think that's one of the things it's like you have to be you got to be precious with some of these things like you said people have a connection to them and this was interesting it's like they have an emotional connection to these brands because they grew up with them but also like the design of them is is is not necessarily crafted in a way that makes them like like you could they did the right thing which was they kept some of the sort of they kept the some of the zany and weird and some of the cool parts of the brand that they just couldn't lose and they updated and cleaned up and modernized some of the things that they could and that's that's uh that's what that's what uh that's what they set out to do and And I think they did it in a way that makes a lot of sense.

36:58And I think they did it in a way that kept the nostalgia, but sort of just gave it a bit of a new polish. And I think time will tell a little bit too with these things. I think sometimes you just need to give them a little bit of time because you have such a relationship and such a muscle memory for these things where you're like, I'm so used to it looking like this, that when you see it in the new version, you're like, ooh, I don't know. oh, it doesn't feel the same. But I think that's just, people don't like change. Yeah. And last thing on this for me is, I think you were talking earlier, ranking them a little bit, going Gushers one, Fruit by the Foot two, Fruit Roll-Ups three.

37:40I think not only does that live in how I would legitimately rank those products based on what order I would eat them in and prefer to eat them in. I think it also, I think the old packaging falls in that same order for me as well. Yeah, no, no, I agree. Gushers are the GOAT. Like, we can all agree there. Gushers is like a once-in-a-lifetime product. And it's, yeah, it's cool. I like the new logo for Gushers. Like, I think it, I'm excited to see how they roll these things out. Like, they should bring back some of those fucking crazy commercials. Like, we've watched some of those old commercials in the studio, and it's just, they're so fucking crazy when people's heads pop off.

38:17And like, I don't know. There's just some, there's a childlike wonder to these brands that, um yeah they couldn't walk away from even though they were updating them and like you said that's a tough tightrope to walk but i think they did it well um it does look like they're getting rid of the silver foil on the inner of the fruit ropes which i do think is something that is a bit iconic for me um yeah i don't know if i would have done that but hey look you know what um congrats to those guys and uh for for doing this uh the modern update to these iconic products um it's nice it's a nice job yeah let's move on to the future mischief mischief is back mischief can't be stopped the big red boots uh finally uh that backward shoes over oh the backward shoes i did not like the backward shoes yeah we didn't talk about the we didn't talk about the the what they would you call them backward shoes or would you there were shoes that you could wear both ways that was kind of the general concept and they didn't work either way but you could wear them front and back and uh for some reason donald glover wore them to like a basketball game i think it was a laker game yeah more like donald shewer oh wow damn kevin you're on your fucking a game today donald donald soccer oh wow uh even better uh you got another one now yeah so uh those were not my favorite and i agree kind of ricked but they they hit it so hard with the bigger boots they honestly probably could just take the rest of the year off like those those were everywhere and they uh you know they they they can't still i still see them and people are still like posting about them so um but mr if as you know moves on uh continues to drop new things and uh because that's what they do and so this week they put out a hot chat 3000 so concept is really simple you upload a photo it judges you on a one to ten scale of how hot you are by using ai technology and then immediately puts you into a chat with someone else that has a similar ranking of hotness.

40:24Kevin, I got a 5.3. I'm a 6.1. I mean, should we be talking right now? I feel like I'm a little bit out of your league. I guess I'm a 5 and you're a 6. We're on the wrong. If we were on Hot Chat right now, we would not be speaking. No, it's true. Kevin, you're out of my league. But again, we'll see where you stand in 10 years i guess you know we'll see we'll come back to this this will definitely stand the test of time and definitely will still be around in 10 years for sure um i think this idea is fun and very mischievous it feels a bit like hot or not right wasn't that like mark zuckerberg's first product design before facebook right was that damn they just ripped off mark zuckerberg they really did just rip off zuckerberg um i think it's a funny idea i think it's silly i don't know why it has to look like it was you know web 1.0 that's one of the things i was like it just has this aesthetic of the early internet era it has like mischief online i guess that's like a mischief does a lot of logo flips they love a logo flip over there they love nostalgia too and they do love nostalgia and so this idea they made a very conscious creative decision to uh use a early you know sort of internet aesthetic for this thing and i just don't know if that was necessary i guess maybe it makes it feel less problematic maybe you know like this idea of ranking hotness like if it was actually designed well maybe yeah you know alex you can't rank hotness anymore but uh back with web 1.0 you're allowed to honestly i'm not that's not the craziest like take i think like you know how they always say like south park gets away with you know saying such crazy things is because they're kids you know they're children that are saying it i think there's a little bit truth to that here where it's like this idea it's fun and it's playful and it's like um it's not too serious it's just a joke because it has this like very internet 1.0 aesthetic but if it was you know sort of looked any more fresh and modern and sort of like you know looked any more futuristic i guess that might be it because like yeah it could be weird it could be like i think ai is uh you know obviously the cutting edge of technology right now and it's very new it's very fast it's maybe a little scary um and maybe this is a nostalgic aesthetic to maybe ease some of that feeling of just like you know dystopian type nightmare stuff and i don't know it kind of makes sense now that we say it and yeah i'm coming around to the idea yeah we may have cracked something on big here on the show we may have reverse engineered this concept no it's true because like web 3 the aesthetic of it, which is very much using the most progressive and modern technology, has an aesthetic that is very much feels very early 1.0 internet aesthetic.

43:15So what we're both saying here is that that is not only a creative decision, but it is also a decision that maybe eases the discomfort of the people that use it. yeah it feels a little dumb so you're more willing to like plug your photo into it and i don't know yeah no you're right it's not maybe it's not that deep either maybe they just like that aesthetic for internet shit they do like that aesthetic but i do think like it was when i got put into a chat with someone i was like why does this look like it was like why do i look like i'm on an old nokia phone like why did they decide to do that did anyone else plug in their uh co-workers and see where they ranked and ranked everyone in their office i don't know i mean i i didn't do that i didn't get no we didn't do that i surely didn't do everybody no but i i don't know where i rank so you know yeah i just know i'm above alex yeah you gotta know where your co-workers uh rank you know in terms of their hotness but um yeah there were some uh some higher ranking people in the studio but you know i think this is a fun game and i think uh i saw online that they had like something like half a million people on it at some point so wow yeah they're they're they're doing the damn thing i just kind of wanted that like dating element of it i just thought i would just love if someone found like oh you got a wife or something no not for me i'm saying i want someone else to find love like i wanted to hear a story about someone uh that found love on the hot or not like hot chat 3000 mischief app like i think that was an opportunity here for them to yeah, like a dating app.

44:50There's many weddings that are like, if it wasn't for Bumble, I wouldn't be here today. I mean, there was a chance here for that. But they released this like a week ago. I don't know that much about Love, Alex, but a week's tough, you know? That's a tough turnaround for finding love. So maybe in a couple weeks, a couple months, a couple years comes out. Okay. We'll have to keep our eyes on this story. See where it goes. Yeah. No, we'll see. I just think that it was both a hot rating app, but it also could have been a genius dating app. And I think that was part of their idea, right? Like that was the point.

45:27It's not just getting ranked. It's also being put into a chat room with someone else that is equally as hot, which I think is a silly and fun idea. I just kind of think that maybe it could have worked. Who knows? Maybe it did work. Maybe there's a couple that met and they decided to meet up and they fell in love. Maybe. I don't know that. You're just a hopeless romantic. I'm just a hopeless romantic, Kevin. Last story of the day comes from our friends over at Liquid Death. And they have a new partnership with Blink-182 drummer Travis Barker. It is the Enema of the State Collectible Enema Kit. It comes with a custom-branded Enema Bulb and a 19.2-ounce can of Liquid Death autographed by Travis Barker himself.

46:10Only a few hundred in existence. Pretty cool packaging. And very Liquid Death. very very funny video very funny video this is kind of what you expect from them uh blink 182 is very much back in the news and all over my tiktok feed because i can't stop watching uh them perform i miss you at coachella are you going to their msg performance i don't know i don't have tickets but i uh i think you should i think i should i mean look at two is a big part of my childhood and you know in that sort of a early 2000s pop punk era uh they uh yeah these songs mean something to me and uh tom was out of the band for a while and uh he's back and justice for tom dude he's he was right the whole time you know with all these uh ufo aliens documents being declassified from the u.s government tom should be vindicated you know big time yeah he was right he spent all of his blink way money blink way too money looking for aliens and he was right aliens do exist yeah and maybe that's the next collab with liquid death i will say there's also a lot of tiktok content that shows like blink 182 without tom uh and then blink 182 with tom because they did do shows and they did replace tom and it is not it's not the same band like you just that band has three people in it and they're all equally important for that band and so to hear tom sing uh blink way two songs after you know a decade of of him not being in the band it is just like let's talk about nostalgia kevin yeah this show tonight this show today has been only has been a nostalgic uh show from washers to blink 182 to baskerville it you know nostalgia be hidden and blink 22 is back and i think this is like this is very uh travis barker or blink 22 and liquid death they're just like it's a it's a perfect brand match yeah dude needs to be drinking some water he looks extremely dehydrated and honestly depleted of his life force and depleted of a soul i don't know i just the look behind his eyes is just yeah it feels like there's nothing there dude like he's are they other kardashians sucking it out of him i don't know he's a bit of a soft spoken person i think is what you're trying to get to he in these interviews he does seem quite no what i'm trying to get to is what i said i feel like he may he may not have a soul anymore i'm not trying to say he's soft spoken or mellow i'm trying to say i i look i'm looking in his eyes and i don't know if there's anything behind there well he's had a tough go he was remember he was in that plane crash where he lost like his his like his friend who died right and then uh he had another friend who died like i feel like he's had a tough he's had a tough go but also i agree with you he does look like someone who needs to eat like a steak because i feel like he's living off of some like very vegan daring chickens yeah yeah he's in only plant-based uh chicken he i don't think he drinks alcohol or does drugs so i think yeah maybe i think what the man needs i think what the man needs is he needs to take some uh low dose edibles uh you know just uh you know two milligrams four milligrams you know nothing too crazy and then you need to go to uh peter luger's when he and you need to get a big ass steak and uh that i think it will will will will bring travis back to life i think is what he needs yeah he he looks depleted um yeah and the video is hilarious and he i think he played into his like i don't i don't really i'm not too familiar with the like his character in blink 22 or like if he's putting on a persona or anything but no he's quiet he's always been the quiet like Like, you know, Tom and Mark are like the funny, charismatic front people of that band.

50:13They act like they're teenagers and they make childish jokes on stage. Travis Barker doesn't say a damn thing. He just fucking drums his face off and he's one of the best drummers on planet Earth. I mean, he is. He doesn't really have to say anything. He probably is the best drummer on Earth, yeah. He's up there. For that type of music, he is, I don't know if there's a better drummer. He's incredible. He's absolutely a monster and he makes it look very easy and he, he crushes, but he doesn't say a lot. It's kind of his thing. And I think, I think because of the Kardashian thing, people want to give him a hard time, but I just think this is who he is.

50:50He's just like kind of a quiet, soft-spoken dude. And he's now like very much into like wellness and, you know, spiritual shit. And he just, he looks like he needs some red meat. That's my, that's my take on it. I don't think it's a Kardashian soul sucking thing. I think he just, he, he had some friends die. I think he like, he also had like a very, a near death experience. That shit will fuck you up, man. Yeah. I mean, now I'm sounding like a jerk. Yeah. Maybe he just needs some milk. He could use some milk. Yeah. I think again, a milk, a steak, a beer. You know, I think again, like those things, those things are, it's, it's, you can't just live off of nuts and a matcha.

51:32Yeah. Yeah. but um did you see his son performed at coachella and he no i didn't very good yeah landon barker how old is his son i mean like 15 or something he's pretty he's pretty young but he looks like an adult he also he's a big tiktok star landon barker nice yeah he's got a bit of that sort of like youthful like you know sort of he looks like he in the cure or something he looks like he's uh He looks like his life has been really hard, but he grew up in mansions in Calabasas. But he has a bit of that angsty teen aesthetic. Chip off the old block. Exactly. So he also dabbles in performing music, and there's some pretty tough clips for Landon.

52:26If that's his teenage adversity, I think he'll be okay. Exactly. But also, you know what? Children of rock stars, that doesn't necessarily mean you're a rock star yourself. Just like Michael Jordan's kid couldn't play basketball, Marcus. And Jimmy Butler's pretty good. People are saying potentially – they're saying there's some potential that Jimmy Butler is Michael Jordan's son. Who said that? A lot of people online are saying that. I have a take I'm going to end the show with. Yeah. I think Bronny James is going to be a bust. You heard it first. I'm not, I'm not, I'm not, I'm not believing it.

53:06I think if Bronny James was, was, was, was Bronny Stevenson, I would, I don't think, I don't think. Well, he wouldn't have the same genes, you know, but I'm just saying, like, I think it's, it's, it's less, it's not about his genes. It's about his game. I just, I just don't think his, his, his, his look. I mean, it's a lot of a big, big shoes to fill, big shoes. to fill big shoes but the scattering report is uh shoots good from three and plays defense well so we'll see we'll see again this is a hot take i'm just throwing it out there i've been time will tell uh we'll see i could be very wrong did you watch the session i did yeah okay i just want to make sure you got my big shoes to fill reference oh yeah big shoes big shoes do you see jeremy strong on the red carpet for the med gal i did he looked he looked good i thought he bad uh i didn't think i didn't i didn't think the homer chain uh worked dramaturgically yeah i thought i thought i thought it looked a little strange yeah i mean i'm walking back my take now he looked like a fucking star wars head i like jeremy strong i like that he's like a very bizarre strange like actor that only like gets into character and he's method and he's he uses big words and he's super weird like i i there's something about that that i like but the fashion and that that wasn't in yeah and i like homer i think the homer like chains and necklace like to me that shit is like very cool it just wasn't styled right we gotta go then the pot's over i gotta end this because people are coming in okay all right and so can we use an can you see if you can use another zoom thing just to make sure i get i don't want to not get this in the show

55:18Hello there.

From the publisher

Alex and Kevin come to you together but apart for their first remote podcast in a while. The two dudes recap the Met Gala fits, Jony Ive drops a typeface he’s been working on for 4 years, Gushers, Fruit By The Foot, and Fruit Roll-Ups get a glow up, MSCHF Hot Chat, Liquid Death x Travis Barker Enema of the State, and more!


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