To round off the Flight of the Underdogs, we produced this video with Nike Sportswear showcasing a recap of the opening night, foosball tournament and reception of the installation, entitled "LITTLE VICTORIES". Despite our All Whites ultimately not qualifying for the Top 16 due to points in Group F, they still remained technically undefeated at group play, and it's these tiny victories that kept us all smiling, screaming and hoping in the wee hours of the morning. I hope we were able to capture this spirit and the vibe of not only the atmosphere of the opening night, but that of the country in general over the past two weeks in this short video.
As part of the “FLIGHT OF THE UNDERDOGS” installation in store, Nike Sportswear Pacific commissioned us the honour of designing a graphic to represent our national football team, the All Whites, in a similar fashion to their True Colours collections with James Jarvis, Nunca, Delta, So Me, Mr. Cartoon, and Kronk.
After a bit of thought, we wanted to design a graphic to symbolize not just the All Whites, but also our national spirit. I’m lucky enough to travel a fair bit, but I’m no stranger to “country-ism”, where someone gives you that cock-eyed-bemused look when you tell them where you’re from. I’m not blind to it - I know most people overseas think it’s weird that any form of contemporary culture exists in New Zealand. The thing is, as kiwis, we’re used to that. We’re used to people writing us off but we quietly work away in the background, and when the moment is right we capture the spotlight, leaving people scratching their heads.
This spirit is also evident in our national sporting teams. The underdog philosophy is what we thrive on, and despite our odds as a small Pacific nation we’re always trying to punch above our weight against countries much larger than ours, with far more resources. Granted, we are known for our achievements in rugby, cricket, sailing, rowing, cycling, triathlons, and even a little mountain climbing but to be truthfully honest, our football team… let’s just say they haven’t been our biggest claim to fame.
Yet, they defied all the odds and qualified for the 2010 FIFA World Cup finals in South Africa for the first time in 28 years, despite all predictions from commentators and sports analysts, catching even their sponsors off guard. This team of part-time players consisting of school teachers, engineers, and average working joe blows are now facing the biggest fight of their lives, facing off FA Cup & UEFA superstars and professional players, but still have the heart to give it their all no matter what the odds.
The most endearing part as a nation is that when the odds are stacked against us, the entire country comes together as one to support “our” lads.
When the boys take to the pitch, they know that they have the weight of the entire nation behind them, 4 million strong.
We took inspiration from vintage military (Air Force) icons and football club shields to reference the fighting spirit of the underdogs and the nation - battling until the very end.
The finished graphic - “FLIGHT OF THE UNDERDOGS.”
Nike Sportswear produced a special run of #180 box sets, which included laser engraved numbered dog tags of the design as a special, limited All Whites supporter’s item.
We unveiled the design along with this gallery installation in tribute to the All Whites on the night of their first game in South Africa against Slovakia, and distributed the dog tags to the 100+ guests we had at the night, the dedicated fans and supporters of the All Whites.
Much thanks to Chris Lewis and Ivy for working alongside me on the design, and a round of thanks to Dezzie & Nezzie @ Nike Sportswear Pacific, Chris Jones @ Switch, and everybody that gave us this unique opportunity and honour of designing something for our nation.
Most of all, thank you Winston Reid, for keeping the hopes of a nation alive. In true underdog fashion.
Last night we hosted the opening reception of our “FLIGHT OF THE UNDERDOGS” pop-up concept space and installation in our gallery space in conjunction with Nike Sportswear Pacific.
Over 100+ VIP guests and friends along with members from solejam attended the event to join us in celebrating the All Whites’ debut on the turf in their first World Cup match, an amazing achievement for our national football team who qualified for the greatest tournament in the world for the first time in 28 years.
To usher in their accomplishment we built a special installation presenting not only Nike Sportswear’s True Colours collections, but also a tribute to our boys, who were getting ready to etch their names into our sporting history books. As part of the installation we designed our own graphic, titled “FLIGHT OF THE UNDERDOGS” with Nike Sportswear to represent our boys in white and our national sporting spirit, which I’ll elaborate a bit more on tomorrow. Attendees were also asked to write their messages of support for the All Whites before they took to the turf for the fight of their lives.
We kicked the night off with a big foosball tournament. 16 two-man teams, first to 10 goals, in a heads-up elimination format on specially built competition standard foosball tables and with international foosball rules. Serious business. Competitors were asked to create their own team ‘colours’ and names, which resulted in some rather amusing outfits on the night. It reminded me of “Balls of Fury”… just without Christopher Walken and bad hairdos.
Team “General Release“. Winners of “Best Use of Work Uniforms“.
Team “Tier Zero“. The antithesis of Team General Release.
Team “Where are you Foozy?“. Winners of “Creepiest use of Photoshop“.
Team Nike. Winners of “I can’t believe you lost at your own event?”
Team “Foos Deez“. Winners of “Best use of legs and sweatbands.”
Team “Skull Fooz Club“. Winners of “Are you going to rob a bank after this event?”
The Master of Ceremony and head referee of the foosball challenge, Riccardo from The Rock FM.
With rather large prizes and million dollar endorsement deals on the line, things got pretty intense as the tournament narrowed itself down to the final four. You could cut the tension in the air with a blunt knife. At least I hope that was tension in the air…
Team “Diggidy Dogg“, the grand champions of the night, who went home with a trophy, two Nike iD packs… and untold amounts of street cred (valued at $1,000,000 theorectical dollars)… because to some, that’s more important.
After the foosball tournament, it was straight to the live feed from South Africa, where a tense crowd watched our lads, touted by some as the worst team in the championship, face down the much favoured Slovakia on a huge projector screen.
Moments before the pandemonium at the 93rd minute. An unbelievable ending to the night and in true form to our national sporting spirit.
If you are in Auckland or passing through, please do come in to check out the installations and pop-up space or perhaps write a message of support for the All Whites, which will only be open for a few weeks alongside the duration of the FIFA World Cup in South Africa.
Introducing the latest addition to the gadget drawer, thanks to Ivy - a ~1950 Revere 33 Stereo Camera. A popular format in the 50’s, a stereo camera normally consists of two lenses with separate frames that takes two 1:1 frames of the same image onto a roll of 35mm film, with the lenses slightly offset to mimic natural human (intra-ocular) vision. The idea is that with the frames slightly offset, your left eye sees one frame, and the right sees the other, creating a 3D image as the two images combine. Much like those viewfinders you used to mess around with when you were a kid.
In other words, this is a camera that takes 3D photographs. Perhaps a reminder that 3D imaging existed well before Avatar hit the silver screen.
For one reason or another this format died a slow death over the ensuing decades, relegating cameras such as the Revere 33 to the drawer of obscurity in photographic history.
It’s pretty interesting seeing how this camera operates. It’s a very basic unit - no light metering or fancy LED displays. You manually set the aperture (F4.0 - 22) on one lens (which replicates it on the other), the shutter speed (1/10 to 1/200) on the other, there is a small rangefinder, and a main viewfinder for you to frame the shot.
I was rather nervous loading my first roll of film into the camera; after all, it had been over a decade since I shot anything on film. Then again, I couldn’t wait to see what this thing could turn out.
Although for optimal viewing you need to use the film and a special viewer, you can see the 3D image by placing the two prints together.
The best way I can describe it is to look at the images in the same way you look at those Magic Eye/3D posters that were all the rage about 15 years ago. You look at the image without focusing on anything, let your eyes relax, blur the images a little and sooner or later a 3D image pops in the center of the two images. It takes a while, and a quick office survey showed only one out of five who attempted to look at it could see it right away.
I took to the streets around the office to shoot a roll to practise exposure settings.
Here’s some of my favourites from the first roll of film.
I’m interested to see how many people can actually see the 3D image? Give it a go and let me know.
LITTLE VICTORIES.
