Feral Ads, Nudie Jackets & a Vape That Runs a Webserver

Consider this your warning: autumn clocks in this week. The last hot days are slipping away like a forgotten LaCroix at the bottom of your tote bag. Everyone’s bracing for the Q3 zoomies, us included. But before you dive back into the inbox grind, let’s take the scenic route with a few Summer(-ish) School diversions.

As always, send us your questions. We might even answer them.

Don’t want to get this? Hit reply with a “not for me” and we’ll expel you from Summer School, no hard feelings.

Did I miss fashion week? What are people wearing now?

Naomi: We only have very strong opinions currently on jackets and backpacks.

Jackets, because we’ve just received our first delivery of the custom-embroidered Nudie suit–style work jackets to hold our ever-growing collection of “mission patches” we make for each Coalesce launch. The idea happened how most do: we were coveting the ones we saw on our workspace neighbors at Spate. The Nudie suit inspo is a nod to our Nashville office, and yes—we might have a few extras up for grabs. (But you’ll have to offer up a solid trade.)

Backpacks, because I have a weird obsession with the perfect pack for the job. Recently Tucker was responsible for my impulsive decision to buy a new one for a hiking trip to Nova Scotia, where I determined that, yes, 16L is the perfect daypack size for a 5’3” human. (Hey, Gregory, we’re recommending your Nano 16 in “Moab Tan” here, might as well send us some discount codes.)

TLDR: ideally, you’re looking for ripstop/tough fabric, a trolley sleeve (strap for your rolling suitcase handle), an exterior bottle pocket, an exterior zip pocket, a double-zipper primary enclosure (to open from either side), and a light interior (to better see your purse candy).

Why are digital ads getting so WEIRD? Can I blame this on AI?

Tucker: I can’t think of a question I am more enthusiastic to answer. I am a late-30s gentleman, which means I am the golden goose of advertising. I have a credit card and eyeballs and advertisers want both. (I also happen to have kids, who also have eyeballs and my credit card—the goldest goose of all.)

My kids play little games on their Fire Tablets and every game has an ad break promoting some different game that is somehow crazier than the one they’re already playing. It’s a Matryoshka Doll of insanity. Here is a narration by Ryan Broderick of Panic World describing an auto-playing video ad for an iPhone game:

“It’s a baby in a tree, and now a Dinosaur has knocked the baby and the tree into the water and there is like a chieftain kind of man and now you have to choose between the beast and the baby. And there was a shark in the water the whole time! And the baby is eating the shark and has become a beautiful woman and now he’s taking the woman back to his castle which is now filling up as a fortress and that is the game.”

No, unfortunately this is not AI’s fault. And it’s kind of important we don’t just chalk this up to a loose LLM. As AI invades the nooks and crannies of our lives it will become too easy to blame the clankers (callback to Dispatch #3) and miss a more insidious human element here.

This style of ad pre-dates the AI era altogether, and while they look like random mash-ups, most of them play off deeper subcultures with a heavy dose of fetishes (if I say “furries,” that dog ad looks way different to you, doesn’t it?).

As banner ads have become less profitable (you are more likely to survive a plane crash than click a banner ad), marketers have been trying to trick your brain to juice out a few extra seconds of attention.

These ads are both overwhelmingly frenetic and vaguely familiar—a combination that’s very effective at keeping your attention—a kind of online rubbernecking. AI of course will supercharge the designs, but the blame still falls squarely on an internet monetized more by attention than quality.

If you have a solution to avoiding or enduring these ads, we’re all ears. One current strategy we recommend is the Reverse Subway Alert: “If you see something, don’t say something”—the less you pay attention, the better.

How do I find new music?

Tucker: My wife Carli and I have a very small center to our Venn diagram of acceptable car music. We finally decided on a (so-called) Spotify Calypso station but it turned out to be 90% Mika (no shade to Mika, but it’s not Calypso). Here’s why: Spotify killed human-curated sub-genres and now relies on machine tags, which makes discovering actual niches much harder. What if your perfect genre is still out there and you’ve never heard it? Every Noise can help you discover things like Anadolu Rock or Taiwan Experimental or Cascadia Psych. But if you’re a Spotify addict, might as well follow Staton’s Crap County playlist (it’s an office fave).

What lifts your spirits in these wacky, weird times?

Naomi: Honestly? Watching Steve Buscemi read erotica at the Red Pavilion (the show is Eros Unbound) was oddly life-affirming. It reminded me of something I told my students in a course called Professional Creativity I’m teaching this fall at the University of Florida: creativity is sometimes as simple as combining two things. So, Buscemi + James Joyce (especially his infamous love letters about farting)? Magic.

So lately, cheering on strange ideas—and the people bold enough to make them—has been the best distraction. Whether that’s young people who still want to make art and make change, or neighborhood icons risking being cancelled on the internet.

Field Notes and Nice Stuff

• Nine Inch Nails “Peel It Back” posters – every poster from their current tour has layers you tear off to reveal a new design. No two alike. Not unlike the fountain entryway to the archeology museum in Valencia (Naomi was there last week) that reveals ruins beneath the city—art in layers, literally. Audiences don’t just want to look, they want to uncover. Interaction is stickier than spectacle.

• Hollow Knight: Silksong crashed every game site imaginable (including Steam and Nintendo) – this is your reminder that there are sub-cultures you have never heard of that are bigger than you can imagine. Proof that real, handcrafted culture still melts the internet. If you’ve played, please tell us where all the Easter Eggs are.

• Fan-created ambient soundtracks – people are making meditative background tracks inspired by Alien: Earth’s beautiful “Mother”-style control room. Awesome if you want to feel like you’re super productive but simultaneously releasing complete control to the corporations that decide our fates.

• The Met rooftop is closing until 2030 – seven years?! We’re mourning. By 2030, who knows if we’ll still climb stairs. At least put a bouncy castle up there in the meantime. Last day to see the view is 10/19. But if you’re going to the Met, make sure you swing by the Superfine exhibit (“Black style over three hundred years through the concept of dandyism”). Very worth it.

• An award?! Our brand work for The Creative Factor was recognized by Graphis – what’s a good newsletter without a shameless plug? We’re proud of the design system we made for this one, and it keeps getting passed around. More on Graphis here.

• You can run a webserver on the hardware in a disposable vape. Get ready for someone to say the following cursed sentence: “I have been mining crypto on my vape.” (VapeServer)

That’s it for round four of Summer School.

Reply with your burning questions, bad ideas, or seasonal meltdowns—if we get any, we’ll keep this train going.

See you in sweater weather, Naomi & Tucker

PS. 👉 In case you wanted the AI slides from the last Summer School but realized our link didn’t work, click here.