The Staufenberger Repository

BMW paper cars

We like this.

BMW Thailand have a site where you can download cutout paper models of various cars.

Above is my attempt at the iconic Isetta from the mid 1950s. It's a bit scrappy and a bit pixely but that's the point really, isn't it? The brand might be about super-efficient, super-engineered precision but that doesn't mean everything the brand does has to be super-efficient and super-engineered. This provides something tangible, something that you might like to stick on your desk or shelf, something other than an overproduced glossy brochure or gewgaw.

Of course, as a healthy brand that illicits strong reactions (both positive and negative), there is inevitably some fan mods knocking around, such as this one here, and this somewhat ironic take on it.

Wacky update

Yes, it really is their name. It's The Wacky Barber.

But, questionable though it is, the name isn't everything. There are plenty of other things that have a greater bearing on your success.

And the Wacky crew have a few things going for them. They're clearly perky and energetic. They opened with two weeks of free haircuts. They give a free beer or coffee while you wait (not unusual in swankier "salons" but a nice bonus in a barber). And they do their own outdoor advertising (flyers bluetacked around Smithfield).

And this isn't their first branch so they must be doing something right.

Here's to breaking rules.

Riding the fashion wave

We've commented before on the fashion component that has crept into the bicycle market. We've also tirelessly documented the worldwide spread of one expression of that fashion dimension: the fixie hipster.

In our original post back in June last year, we wondered how the manufacturers who were beginning to produce off-the-shelf fixies - such as Specialized, Bianchi, Lemond and Ridgeback - would manage this new dimension to their market. After all, it takes a lot of effort and a bit of luck to remain fashionable year in, year out.

Recently, Specialized have valiantly - though misguidedly - copied the sneaker manufacturers by releasing limited "city" editions of their Langster rig. Hence you get the London, Seattle, New York and others (though these others do not, strangely, include fixie-loving San Francisco).

There is some logic to this move. Fashion is a cycle of new news and demand is usually fueled by some form of limited availability. So new variations, of an existing product, available in limited numbers or for a limited time ticks a number of boxes. It's certainly worked for adidas and Nike for a while.

But therein lies a problem. The sneaker and other streetwear sectors are awash with limited editions: sites like hypebeast provide an almost daily stream of limited edition collaborations between so-and-so artist and such-and-such brand. It's getting a bit, well, tired.

There's also a more bike-specific reason why these Langsters don't work: they misunderstand the culture they're trying to engage. The city angle is clearly a nod to the urban centres where fixie culture has grown. Yet those urban roots are in self-built bikes not off-the-peg numbers. Just take a look at fixed gear gallery: they might not all be pretty, but the majority are home built and therefore unique.

For this reason, the Langster city editions haven't got the sector's opinion formers excited. True, there's been a bit of discussion on fixie forums. But local (London, UK) reaction started at mixed and got worse. Which makes the whole thing a bit of an own goal as the reason for these initiatives is street cred rather than (direct) sales volume.

So what should they have done? Well, if we were launching a bike range (and heaven knows we've considered it at length), here are a couple of things we would do.

Firstly, acknowledge the DIY roots of the trend by incorporating a degree of customisation. Mini do something like this with their paint options.

They should also tap into the retro aspect of fixie culture. The DIY approach means that many home-made rigs use old parts. For this reason, steel track frames from the 70s and 80s tend to be valued more than the newer aluminium.

So why not reissue a past classic, in the same vein as adidas Originals, say? Specialized have been around long enough to have some interesting things in their back catalogue. In fact, here's Ernesto's early 80s Allez (full details here):

That's better, isn't it?

Staufenberger heart Polaroid

We've been getting back into Polaroid photography recently.

It had something to do with Russell's beautiful pinhole Polaroids.
It had something to do with Richard's lovely SX70.
It had something to do with Martin and Theo's excellent experiment, Postcard Polaroid.
And it had a lot to do with the fact that Polaroid combines the immediacy of digital photography with the tangible nature of film. And Polaroid's "lofi-ness" is really appealing, too.

Then we discovered unsaleable.com, which will sell you all manner of groovy Polaroid-related ephemera, from a reconditioned camera to branded film.

Which all adds up to yet more work-avoidance. Although, to look on the bright side, it means that procrastination at least has a tangible, positive-ish output.

Forgotten Strategies

Patrick finally unpacked the boxes of magazines under his desk, amongst which there are some real gems, more on that in a future post. One in particular caught my eye...

1987 is drawing to a close and the style magazine i-D name their December/January issue the Happy Issue, calling for everyone to Get Up, Get Happy.

It will be another 10 months before mainstream British youth are screaming "acieeed", market traders are making a fortune selling smiley t-shirts and the The Sun newspaper runs a story, under the headline 'Evil of Ecstasy', about the new horror drug threatening British youth.

But let's go back to i-D. Amongst the music and fashion features is a double page spread. On the right hand page is a moody black and white picture of handsome young man in a Homburg hat, slight stubble and dark roll neck shirt. The corner of a letter pokes from the bottom right of the page. The copy reads:

Hat by Fred Bare £34
Roll-neck Shirt by French Connection £31
Braces by Terra-Nova £14.50
Kilt Pin by Wright & Teague £25
Letter by Royal Mail 18p
By Air, By Land, By Hand
Royal Mail

Now we can only assume that someone at the Royal Mail decided it was about time those kids started sending more letters and the best way to do that was to make letters 'cool'. Cue youth press campaign. Now it's safe to assume that by summer 1988 (or the Second Summer of Love) sending letters came off second best to driving around the M25 looking for a rave. But maybe we've missed the point, perhaps we've completely misunderstood the objective. What if the campaign was actually a success? We want to know. If anyone knows the agency that produced the work, let us know. We'd love to know more.

What is a brand?

A while back, we gave The Repository a makeover: less thinking and theory, more doing and action. Since then we've tried to post more about the practicalities of making stuff happen. Not sure if we've delivered on that intention, but anyway...

However, that said, I've just found another Stephen King paper entitled, you guessed it, What is a Brand? I scanned it for a journalist a while back and promptly forgot about it. So as a break from the new theory-free Repository 2.0 - and in the interests of sharing the wisdom - here it is. (The same caveat to our previous King/Bullmore post applies: if anyone has a problem with this being here, please drop us a line).

As you might expect, there are loads of ideas that seem prescient. I won't bother highlighting anything as it's a pretty brief read and it would be interesting to get people's views. (There's a link at the bottom of this post where you can leave comments.)

Apology 1: my original photocopy clipped a number of the margins so you'll have to guess a few words on some of the pages. I like to think of it as an interactive element.

Apology 2: it's a bit big (2.something meg). I could probably get it smaller. But I'm lazy.

Normal service will resume shortly.

My favourite carwash

In Manchester, just as in the rest of the country, there seems to be a hand car wash on every corner. But when I visit my in-laws I drive about two miles past four car washes to one particular car wash. Not because they clean well (although they do) but because they make me smile...(yes, I finally got round to reading A Smile in the Mind)

Right down to the smelly thing they hang on the rear view mirror...

Small things

Like a few others, we've been bleating on about the importance of the small stuff as well as the big things.

A while back I mentioned Topshop shoeboxes. Here they are:

Now, having worked for a large clothing retailer in the past, I know that even these seemingly small things can take on alpine proportions when it comes to making them happen. The point is that in the grand scheme of things these are little, relatively unimportant, details.

But aren't they great? You get a handy little handle, a slidey little compartment and - for those who like that sort of thing - an illustration by Daisy de Villeneuve.

As the kids might say, sweet.

Resources for amateur architects

At the weekend, I was clearing out a pile stuff I'd been hoarding for years and came across this sheet of Letraset transfers for architects.

Can't remember why I bought them. Perhaps I was going to design a shopping centre.

But did real architects actually use these things? I bought them in 1999, I think. But they're clearly from a time before computers and CAD. It says it was copyrighted in 1982 on the top. But it seems like the characters have stepped out of the sixties. Or fifties, even. Look at the bowler-hatted dude: Can't stop, I'm brimming with post-war optimism. Just like Alec Guinness on the poster for The Man in the White Suit.

As a spotty kid who was vaguely interested in art and design, I used to get sheets of rub-on type to make birthday cards (yes, they looked horrible). And I remember thinking of these architecture bits of the Letraset range as the epitome of cool, urban, design sophistication (Yeah, all right, I know. But I did grow up in the sticks).

Perhaps it never was the design leader that I remember. Perhaps I was too young to appreciate good design. All I know is that today, the Letraset website makes the company look like, like...well, like Hobbycraft. Or was it always like that?
 

The Fixie Biz

No doubt prompted by coverage here at The Repository, none other than The Wall Street Journal recently ran its own story on the fixed-gear bike phenomenon.

In addition to the usual blather, it includes an interesting aside about the profit margins for fixies. Apparently, the fixed models that the major manufacturers are beginning to produce are roughly 5% more profitable than your regular road/mountain going bike. And the margins on these are already pretty healthy at around 25% to 30%.

Which just goes to show how important this new fashion dimension is to any market, bike or otherwise. The fashion dimension makes the market less price sensitive.

(Original WSJ article is behind its paywall, but can be found pastebombed on the Cycling Plus forum here.)