Karriere is a newly opened and much hyped (rightfully so) bar in Copenhagen where everything from the name to the interior has been designed by a long list of artists, such as Olafur Eliasson, Ceal Floyer, Douglas Gordon, Jesper Just, Robert Stadler, Dan Graham etc.

Now, the price on selected drinks at Karriere Bar has been turned into a work of art by artist Kenneth A. Balfelt, who created a 'price policy' that experiments with the relation between price- and social structures.

The new prices are determined by your look and circumstances related to your person. It is the waiters and bartenders who decide if you qualify for the special prices

Some price examples: Yuppies pay extra for beer. Hippies and activists pay extra for organic soda. The homeless get a discount on cafe cortado. Gay couples who French kiss for 30 seconds get a discount on apfelschorle. Immigrants, asians who speak Danish as well as blacks in company of whites get various discounts. And so on.

Probably not politically correct, but it should generate some unexpected and interesting situations!

• karrierebar.com

As mentioned here before, knitting has been going through quite a renaissance in recent years. Partly because old things sooner or later come back into fashion, partly because new technologies has made it possible to create new kinds of knitting products and services.

Belonging to the latter category, is the Swiss website Net Granny where users can buy sock, personally knitted by a granny of own choice. The site contains a gallery of grannies, each of whom has a profile with an overview of the socks they make.

The service is provided by a small apparel company called Tarzan, based in Basel.

Related: SCHALALALA! + Generative Knitting

• Net Granny

The Danish music-poetry duo Bo hr Hansen & Nils Lassen has come up with a novel - and potentially very time consuming - way to promote their latest CD "Hvem er jeg?" (Who am I?).

Those buying the CD are offered a free private concert - via telephone.

In order to qualify for the concert, you need to send them an MMS (a photo via mobile phone) of yourself holding the CD, preferably with the receipt. Upon receiving the documentation, the duo will do their best to find a concert date and time that suits all of you.

Thanks Mogens for the link.

Related: Bubble Star At Home

• Private Telephone Concerts (Danish)

Design Reaktor Berlin is a multi-disciplinary research project of the Universität der Künste Berlin (UdK)/Berlin University of the Arts. Their aim is to encourage innovative cooperation between small and medium-sized companies and young designers.

In a two-week series of workshops held earlier this year, the experimental links between trades, materials, technologies and tools provided by 52 companies produced hundreds of ideas. After an assessment of their feasibility and market potential, 52 products were developed further in cooperation with the involved companies.

Design Reaktor's website contains a gallery of the results, some of which are ready for production while others are more speculative.

Two eye catching products are Garden Gun by Jakob Diezinger, Markus Dilger and Rayk Sydow (which doesn't need much explanation) and Music Drop by Noa Lerner, a tiny music player shaped as a drop. The drop contains one song which can be used only one time.

Interestingly, except from Music Drop, all 52 designs appear to be stand-alone products. No experiences or services were developed.

• www.design-reaktor.de/

Not so long ago when browsing through a glossy Danish magazine (forgot which) I stumbled across an ad for RENT A MINI, a car-rental company based here in Copenhagen.

As the name suggests, the provider rents Minis only (Mini Cooper that is) and the idea behind the concept is that renting a car should be easy, cool and relatively cheap at the same time. The cars can be booked online through a simple interface. Currently, the service is available in Copenhagen only, but the ambitious goal is to operate in all metropolises within the next five years.

RENT A MINI's website does not tell how closely affiliated they are to BMW, the manufacturer of Mini. They are probably not that close, but in any case, I am intrigued by the idea of a car-company that does not only produce cars but also design service-systems (car sharing/rental) as an alternative to individual ownership.

• www.rentamini.dk

For more than 10 years the Dutch design platform Young Designers & Industry (YD+I) has developed and facilitated explorative projects that bring together young talented designers and public and private industries to solve complex problems.

One of the latest results to emerge from one of YD+I's projects is the fashion brand Pal West.

The project provided youngsters between 14-17 in Amsterdam's New West area a unique opportunity to develop their own fashion brand with the help of a team of young professional designers. Together they developed everything from clothes, marketing, communication and business concepts for the Pal West brand. The first collection was presented in June at the Streetart Festival held in conjunction with Amsterdam International Fashion Week.

The purpose of the project is to help generate economic, social and cultural opportunities for the the youngsters as well as help contribute to a positive image of the Amsterdam New West area.

YD+I is directed by Peik Suyling who is also the chairman of Amsterdam Creativity Exchange. If you are a visionary company or organization interested in unconventional approaches to innovation, you should get in touch with him. Companies to have worked with YD+I include Heineken and British Telecom.

• Pal West Mode

It was the Italian team that won the Young Creatives Competition:Film 2007.

The competition - sponsored by Nokia Nseries - took place between Wednesday June 20th and 22nd in conjunction with the International Advertising Festival in Cannes.

Twenty young creative teams was given the same creative brief and 48 hours to create a 20-second TV commercial using the Nokia N93i.

The brief is not available from the website ('page not found') but from watching some of the films, it appears that it was politically correct and had something to do with creating an MTV-ad that promotes ecologically responsible living.

(From those I watched, my favorite is the Canadian submission)

• Competition website

In postindustrial societies, not many days go by before a new kind of service emerges (at this site alone you'll find quite a few such as this, this and this.). The trend is reflected in both the public and private sector, and so naturally also in the advertising industry.

Services, if well designed, can offer dynamic and alternative touchpoints between the user and the brand, thereby allowing new kinds of interactions and experiences that are not necessarily so tightly controlled as ad agencies and brands traditionally prefer them to be.

To my knowledge, Nike is one of the front runners, when it comes to creating brand experiences through services but lots of others are exploring the field and coming up with interesting concepts, some of which are very basic.

A recent example that I like because of its relative absurdness is Broad Shoulders, which is a service provided by the mobile carrier Optimus to festival goers at music festivals in Portugal.

Basically, Broad Shoulders is made up of ten strong men who offer (female?) members of the audience the possibility to climb on their shoulders in order to get a better view of the concert or to find a lost friend amongst the crowd. Perhaps a bit sexist and possibly also annoying for those standing behind them but nonetheless, a simple way of addressing mobility without dealing wih complex technology.

Broad Shoulders is created by the ad agency Torke.

Related: Service Design h2h + Nokia Silence Booth

• YouTube: Broad Shoulders

Here's a beautiful, and slightly chilling, piece of physical information visualization by advertising agency Draft FCB Lisbon.

The visualization is designed as a zebra crossing memorial and was made in conjunction with the campaign 'Safe Street Week' in Portugal. The stripes are made up of names, supposedly of pedestrians killed by cars.

Not to sound too snotty - I really like when intangible information is conceptualized and made visually present - but I am not sure if this will have any meaningful impact (other than the obvious artistic kind) or if it will in fact distract pedestrians and put their lives at risk.

• Video documentation on YouTube

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Edit:
Original link dead: here's another one on http://www.youtube.com

Jan Chipchase is Principal Researcher in the User Experience Group of Nokia Research Center. A part of his fascinating job is to observe and describe how different cultures use mobile technologies differently - often in ways unintended or unpredicted by the industry that he represents.

He has carried out ethnographic fieldwork around the world, such as in Uganda where access to electricity and mobile phones is limited and the user need thus quite basic.

As a consequence of these limitations, people have developed an alternative solutions and service economies, such as phone-sharing systems and battery-charging services (photo) where batteries can be recharged for a relatively small price.

Documentation of this and other of Jan Chipchase's interesting findings are available for download at Nokia Research Center.

• Street Charging Service Uganda (PDF file)