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We came back from holidays recently to a bizarre email from a Crisp-spotter. The romantically named David Valentine wrote to us having seen our blog post on Lol’s collection of 1987 Crisp Packets. Turns out he found a ludicrously extensive one himself, in his parent’s attic, and he was looking for fellow collectors.

Mr Valentine’s collection begs belief. There are crisps in there we’ve never even seen before, or
dreamed possible.  Who was Farmer Brown? What were Griddles? In what
universe were Onion Rings ever 5pence? And once again, it’s a lovely
walk through graphic design history.

And if you can’t get enough retro MSG you can see Lol’s technicolour collection here on our website. Just scroll down to the bottom and click on The 1987 Crisps Packets.

Does anyone else get the ‘gym guilt’ when they haven’t been for over two weeks?

It’s hard dealing with your own guilty conscience, let alone having a computer generated email to make you feel bad. 

So let me (nat) introduce you to my fitness first emails… .

After a few
weeks of being too bust at work and not going (I know that’s not an excuse)  I received this email…

 

I’m ‘missed at the gym’. and they ‘HOPE to see me soon’ ???  Please. I still pay you so why do you care? And please don’t remind me how long it’s been.

‘Are you happy with the service’ (subtext: “Are you just a lazy ****?”)

So, a few more days go by and I get sent more and more emails telling me how much I’m ‘missed at the gym’. It’s an email, not a person. Such fake sincerity.

 

 ‘Please feel free to talk to a member of staff’ – Gosh it’s getting serious now. They actually want me to ‘talk to someone’  (subtext – … “let’s discuss your lack of motivation”). God I feel bad.

So, the nagging kept on going, until….. I finally went. And did the staff look delighted to see me? Of course not. But a certain email was. I received it only a few hours after going. They know my every move, it’s scary!

 

 

I suppose it’s good that the gym try and motivated you to make the most out of
your membership rather than trying to sign you up for a years contract
to then never go.

Fitness first have always been quite a personable brand. I remember a few years ago I went to a spinning class on Valentines Day and they gave everyone in the class a red rose. I then walked home with this ‘rose’ from a gym. There was something very bittersweet about it. People looking at me thinking, ahh, isn’t she lucky getting a rose from a lovely man, whereas in fact I got it from fitness first. Very romantic.

Perhaps fitness first takes their ‘building a relationship with the consumer’ thing a little too far?

These ‘people painted to look like portraits’ were done by Alexa
Meade. She is an installation artist based in Washington. See more here

I love the way she paints something traditionally two dimensional
onto a three dimensional surface. Rather than a painting trying to capture the likeness of a person, these are people painted to look like the likeness of a painting. It’s so wonderfully the wrong way
round.

Alexa: “I paint representational portraits directly on top of the people I am
representing. The models are transformed into embodiments of the
artist’s interpretation of their essence.”

I wonder what her models think about her interpretation of them? Some of them aren’t particularly flattering!