Slog
News & ArtsTuesday, October 2, 2012
City / Visual Art Noooooooo. Space Needle Competition Wins Only At Being Boring.
Posted by Jen Graves on Tue, Oct 2, 2012 at 11:09 AM
In August, I got excited about a public competition for a design to be painted on top of the Space Needle (and about the history of the color orange that's on it now).
The competition has now come to the point where there are six roof options—or, actually, there are five, since one of the options is simply to keep it the color orange that's on it now.
These are the options. You can vote on them.
I tried to vote, but I could not muster the sufficient enthusiasm even to press my finger in a clicking motion.
Why are these so deadly dull? They could have been spat out by a marketing firm.
In addition to being thematically boring, there's this problem with the designs, described well by a reader who sent me this comment in email:
Especially disappointed that these designs all treat the Needle's roof like a flat doughnut and not like the trapezoidal, hourglassy shape it's seen as 99.9% of the time.
Oy. New competition: Can you propose any designs duller than these?
4
Cover it in green rinestones! If they won't regularly fly the pride flag, at least make the needle a symbol of the Emerald City.
5
these are awful. If you click on one though, you get the option to say "no thanks, let me see more."
9
I tried to vote to keep it Galaxy Gold - which is really the only option for people of decency - and it told me I had already voted.
I sense a conspiracy. The Good Taste Police have their well-manicured beige fingers all over this. They want a design that looks like something out of a Williams-Sonoma catalog.
I sense a conspiracy. The Good Taste Police have their well-manicured beige fingers all over this. They want a design that looks like something out of a Williams-Sonoma catalog.
10
we should all vote for the lesser of 6 evils; and keep it orange.
I assume the stranger would take the least racist route and advocate for the fake Duwamish graphics. [that shits neo-canadian aboriginal]
I assume the stranger would take the least racist route and advocate for the fake Duwamish graphics. [that shits neo-canadian aboriginal]
11
I got that same message when I first tried to vote for Galaxy Gold. Weird. I actually like that color. Covering that area with some design that is meant to look at straight-on, like most of these are, seems pointless to me.
12
@9: Same for me. First I had even heard of this contest, so I sure as hell had never voted before.
13
This is as exciting as Starbucks or Microsofts new logos.
As in .. not at all.
@10 for the win in this Parade of Loser Choices.
As in .. not at all.
@10 for the win in this Parade of Loser Choices.
16
Umbrella & maybe Trees come the closest to acknowledging that the surface isn't flat; so maybe I'll vote for one of those.
18
I find it really unnecessary that the Umbrella designers stuck the Seattle Center logo on their design.
19
I picked the jagged red and black shit on the assumption that it would most annoy people who vote for the umbrella.
20
@11, My vote for keeping it Orange went through fine.
And not just straight-on being a problem but I would think that a person would have to be pretty close to see the design. You're not going to make it out from a 737 that just took off from Seatac. Maybe from a float plane one can see it. Or a 400mm telephoto lens from the highest seattle hill/skyscraper.
I'm not surprised someone did a dull umbrella design. Quite doing umbrella designs. Umbrellas are boringly dull.
And not just straight-on being a problem but I would think that a person would have to be pretty close to see the design. You're not going to make it out from a 737 that just took off from Seatac. Maybe from a float plane one can see it. Or a 400mm telephoto lens from the highest seattle hill/skyscraper.
I'm not surprised someone did a dull umbrella design. Quite doing umbrella designs. Umbrellas are boringly dull.
22
I would vote for the Roots option if it was traditional formline and not some cartoonish modification. Galaxy Gold, it is.
23
I tried to envision how boring these could be before viewing them, and even then was stunned by their obviousness and lack of style. It takes a little of my life away every time I see safe garbage like this. It's the same feeling I get when I hear "Hotel California"
24
http://imageshack.us/a/img26/3254/spacen… Click this link. You are telling people that the TREES "treat the Needle's roof like a flat doughnut"? It wasn't designed that way.
26
Design by committee always turns out results like these. They're the definition of just fine. The only hopelessly lame one is the umbrella (cuz it rains so much in Seattle lol get it?), so I'll bet a dollar it's the winner.
27
Try this, "http://imageshack.us/a/img26/3254/spacen…" If not, I put up the link as my website in my profile. Thanks for looking.
29
Oh, just cover it in gaudy LED lights the way the French ruined the Eiffel Tower and be done with it.
30
I voted for the Umbrella, because it's in CAL Blue & Gold! Go Bears! Just in Time for Football season, an homage to all the Californians who moved to Seattle the last 30 years!
31
So their voting system is really poorly written. All you have to do is use some HTTP requests which post "vote: " with a header that specifies the 'X-Forwarded-For' field as an IP address which hasn't been used to vote in the past 24 hours.
For starters, they shouldn't be logging IP address w/ votes, nor using IP address to ID votes. That's poor form and invades voters' privacy. Secondly, it blocks multiple users behind the same IP address (e.g. everyone in your home newtork, everyone in your corporate network, etc.) from voting individually. Since corporations aren't people, you should email the friendly folks of the Seattle Center Marketing contingency (marketing@seattlecenter.com) and let them know how bogus their voting system is.
Finally, their server-side script is vulnerable to a SQL injection attack. I was able to attain the voting logs (IP address -> vote) with a simple HTTP GET request through my browser.
Let's see what other fun things I can do while at work today...
For starters, they shouldn't be logging IP address w/ votes, nor using IP address to ID votes. That's poor form and invades voters' privacy. Secondly, it blocks multiple users behind the same IP address (e.g. everyone in your home newtork, everyone in your corporate network, etc.) from voting individually. Since corporations aren't people, you should email the friendly folks of the Seattle Center Marketing contingency (marketing@seattlecenter.com) and let them know how bogus their voting system is.
Finally, their server-side script is vulnerable to a SQL injection attack. I was able to attain the voting logs (IP address -> vote) with a simple HTTP GET request through my browser.
Let's see what other fun things I can do while at work today...
33
Henry is a cool dude and I dig his work on the sides of houses and retaining walls, but that one note stuff does NOT belong on the space needle. Please, anything but those cartoon fishies.
34
this is what you get when you ask for free design. there was no incentive to submit ideas. artists can't live on "bragging rights."
35
It will only be up for 6 months! The building has been and will be there for much longer. CALM DOWN! Change is good sometimes. It will be gone before you know it. I REAALLLLLY actually like Retro Graphical. It's, dunno speaks to a progressive standard of living...just as the needle itself dose and was created for! Its the peoples and not yours Alone. Vote Retro WHICH ATLEAST NODS TO THE PAST.
36
I dunno... If I could get my work on top of the needle I'd be stoked, I make art for a living and I'd take a hit for the opportunity... Just so long as that Henry jackwagon doesn't win I'll be happy. He clearly didn't put an ounce of thought into it. Though, based on his other work I'm doubtful he's got an ounce to go around. Huffing kills!
37
Hey, it's not boring anymore -- it looks like Slog commenter "pipedream" @31, aka Aaron Miller, is implicated in a vote-rigging scheme that did exactly what he described -- pumped up "Trees" in a few hours to the winning position. Now the media's on the case: http://www.kirotv.com/news/news/space-ne…
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