In today’s dog-eat-dog commercial arena, trusting clueless celebrities or characterless characters to pitch one’s products is a bad business decision at best; a quick ticket to Chapter 11 at worst. Inventing a unique corporate superhero, on the other hand, gives companies the means to punch up their sales while instilling a not-so-secret brand identity that will resonate with the youth demographic. What could possibly go wrong?

Kool-Aid Man

(images via: Wikipedia and The Archnemesis)

Kool-Aid Man may not fit the stereotypical superhero mold (not to mention the stereotypical superhero tights) but his MO sure fit the bill: kids call out, Kool-Aid Man responds! The big guy doesn’t take any shortcuts, either, crashing through brick walls and dense hedges that would stop mere mortal men in their tracks. Debuting in 1978, Kool-Aid Man (and Kool-Aid itself) is still around, probably ’cause moms everywhere will buy the sweet stuff in mass quantities to avoid massive home repair bills. OH YEAH!!

Atari Force

(images via: Fustians and Armagideon Time)

In the early days of the Great Video Game Revolution of the early 1980s, many social commentators predicted the nation’s youth would throw away their comic books in favor of the futuristic, electronic, paperless excitement offered by console video games. Naturally, the visionary execs at Warner Communications subsidiary saw comic books as the ideal medium with which to promote new games issued by its subsidiary, Atari Inc.

(image via: Pixfans)

The result was Atari Force, created by Gerry Conway and Roy Thomas for DC Comics (another Warner Communications subsidiary) and featured in two comic book series published by DC Comics beginning in 1982. Alas, the multiracial Atari Force team was helpless to stop the Great North American Video Game Crash of 1983 and by 1984, Atari was history.

“BAM! POW! SWOOSH!”

(image via: UPROXX)

Roberto Vergati Santos once wondered what would happen if corporate brands branded, as it were, the classic superheroes we’ve come to know and love. Would we still love them… or more importantly perhaps, still respect them? Check out “The Dark Nike” above and decide for yourself.

Jell-O Man

(images via: ComicAttack)

When danger looms, who ya gonna call: Man of Steel or Man of Gelatin? The answer is obvious, unless the danger happens to be the threat of an empty belly. Released at no charge in 1991, the self-proclaimed “Collector’s Edition” comic book The Adventures of Jell-O Man and Wobbly epitomized Kraft Foods’ slightly skewed marketing mojo. Stick to KD, guys, Jell-O’s doing fine.

(image via: ComicAttack)

As for Jell-O Man’s vaguely puppy-ish, J-shaped sidekick Wobbly, what can we say… maybe only Robin appreciated him for lowering the bar for superhero sidekicks everywhere. Bad dog, BAD! As for Jell-O Man, we can see his O-face… eww.

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Company Capers Ten Terrible Corporate Superheroes

Comics have come a long ways since the early days of Marvel and Detective Comics, but though tone, genres and superheroes in some cases have changed, one thing remains remarkably the same: the basic prototype format for laying out page.

Sure, it is distorted at times, broken open with artistic intention, but in this case it really comes to life in a new and different way, in the form of store displays both horizontally and vertically in this store called Tokyo’s Tokyo (you can guess where it is in Japan).

Plywood is layered up like pages while white recesses form slots and shelves for displaying merchandise – a fresh look far removed from the conventional white-boxed rows of graphic novels found at your corner comic shop.

And lest you think it will look less compelling with actual objects in place, you can see from the filled-in picture (below) just how well it works as items add dimension to the pages.

The result is dynamic, engaging, and turns a traditional shopping experience into a series of linear storylines, with colorful wares framed in white panes. It might not work for stocking a whole series worth of back issues, but it is a striking approach to showing off new books, novelties and accessories.

He begins: “I started this site as a way to reach out to people in the community. I thought that a virtual a cup of coffee would be a low pressure way to meet and discuss our shared ideas, passions, and vision for the profession. Then, at some point, I went a different way with it. Enjoy the angst,” proclaims Jody Brown, with a hint of madness and glee. Here we start with what you might call the ‘ten stages of minimalism’ – watch and learn!

Indeed one has to laugh sometimes, or risk crying otherwise, as any struggling architect knows from experience, trying all kinds of combinations simply to get to a simple solution. Coffee with an Architect takes all kinds of approaches, from serious narratives to slapstick postcards and self-deprecating visual definitions … all of this is (arguably) done with the aim of illuminating what should be (but often are not) readily-apparent facts surrounding built-environment professions.

Of Minimalism he has (not) much to say, as you saw – the series of illustrations work far better than words, just like good architectural diagrams. Of Modernism and Postmodernism there is an inevitable head nod to Robert Venturi’s ducks and decorated sheds. Then there are postcards from architects … and later come Valentine’s Day cards, too.

His humanist/humorist approach is, to be bold, what architecture needs – or, more specifically, what many architects need. A rich cup of coffee to wake the sense, spiced with a dollop of deep self-deprecating insight that creates an “ah-hah!” moment too often found only at the end of a grueling ten-week design studio process. Article titles like “Ugly goes all the way to the bone” and “New York I love you but you’re freaking me out” jar us into full attention with the blunt absence of pretense. He also features faux conversations he didn’t have, or no one had, with famous architects, and speculates on the things one should not say to particular past heroes of the field.

“His work focuses on urban infill projects, mixed-use, urban design, and urban renewal. Over the last 18 and half years, he has built on his passion for planning and urban design, and, has worked on enhancing, adding to, re-using, renovating, and sometimes creating from scratch the places where people meet, learn, play, and become inspired. His work is grounded in the belief that Architecture can save cities. When he’s not doing that, he can be found making fun of himself and his profession, and blogging about his ideals at – Coffee with an Architect. Or, you can find him sipping coffee with someone at a cafe near you, blathering on and on about Le Corbusier, while looking aloof and interesting at the same time somewhere over in the corner. In other words, he’s just an Architect, standing in front of an ideology, asking it to love him.” Coffee with an Architect is, in short, well worth a read.

A cluster of organic shapes that look almost biological in nature, these bold white volumes will soon be the home of a new Comic and Animation Museum in Hangzhou, China. Dutch design firm MVRDV won a competition to design the museum with this unusual approach, featuring a spiraling interior that highlights decades of cartoon history.

The rounded shapes of the structure, which reach down to the ground on tapered ‘legs’, are no accident: they were designed to resemble the speech bubbles that are so familiar to comic book fans. Each ‘bubble’ in the design will house a different function of the museum, including two exhibition spaces that will project animations onto the curved interior wall.

Visitors will meander through a high-ceilinged space on raised platforms and walkways, gazing up at massive replicas of comic book characters and other oversized displays and then spiraling up along the walls into a comic book library, open to the main chamber. Where ‘bubbles’ connect, internal openings are created, which not only provide a means to get from one area to another, but also a look into the adjoining space.

The museum will feature a cinema and a roof terrace restaurant. The complex will also include a series of parks on islands in White Horse Lake with a public plaza and an expo center which will house the annual China International Comic and Animation Festival. Construction on the Comic and Animation Museum will begin in 2012.

Amusement parks offer an adrenaline-soaked escape from reality, transporting us into fantasy worlds where pretty much anything is possible – and sometimes, the concept art for a proposed theme park can be nearly as exciting as the park itself. These 12 concepts include eagerly awaited new theme parks expected to open soon, projects that have been shelved and incredibly imaginative ideas that could never actually exist.

World of Warcraft & Starcraft-Themed Amusement Park

(images via: manaflask)

It’s not a joke: China really is building a World of Warcraft-themed amusement park (with a Starcraft section to boot). It’s called Joyland, and it’s under construction in the Wunjin district with an expected opening sometime this spring. For the time being, however, it’s still just a concept, with fantastical illustrations giving us an idea of what to expect.

Vertical Theme Park for New York City

(images via: evolo)

Imagine all of the rides in a typical theme park compacted into a single skyscraper – in the middle of Manhattan. Architect Ju-Hyun Kim packs a flume ride, sky promenade, a roller coaster, a ferris wheel, restaurants, a vertical carousel and a space theater into a tower that fits right in with the surrounding architecture. This novel concept not only shrinks the often-sprawling footprint of an amusement park into a much smaller space, but also keeps the fun inside city limits, cutting back on the need for travel.

Dubailand: Marvel Superheroes Theme Park

(images via: conceptartworld)

Before Disney bought comic book empire Marvel, a deal was struck that allowed a massive Marvel theme park be to constructed as part of the multi-billion-dollar Dubailand, an amusement park complex rumored to be 20 times larger than Disney World. The Marvel section of the park will include 17 rides and attractions and occupy over four and a half million square feet. Said to be opening in late 2011, the actual status of the project is unclear due to Dubailand’s financial difficulties. The developers of Dubailand had hoped to attract 15 million tourists a year by 2015.

Disney’s Forgotten Water World

(images via: jimhillmedia)

Once upon a time, Disney imagineers planned a $2 billion seaside park for Long Beach Harbor, California. Port Disney was to focus on the myths and mystery of the ocean, and the park’s crowning glory was Oceania, a massive interactive aquarium with a tidal exchange with the ocean to create real tidal pools in the outdoor exhibits. Guests would have snorkeled in five different reef environments or even enjoyed a few terrifying moments in a shark cage. Doomed due to concerns about the impact to the coastline, this project got new life when some aspects of it were used at Tokyo DisneySea.

Theme Planet by Michael Sormann

(image via: io9)

Theme Planet, a short film by 3D artist Michael Sormann, explores the concept of an entire planet being one big theme park. Aside from fantastic animation, the film includes glimpses of fun attractions and features like the ‘Barracuda’ steam-powered train.

Dubai Space & Science World

(images via: realtyna.com)

Before the economy crashed, Dubai development seemed like a freight train with busted brakes. Today, it’s unclear whether many of the spectacular concepts proposed for the city will ever actually be built, but what about those already under construction? It’s hard to say whether we’ll ever actually see the ‘Space & Science World’ attraction in Dubailand ever come to life.

Dubailand Ski Dome

(images via: skidubai.com)

One of Dubailand’s biggest attractions, ‘Sunny Mountain Ski Dome’ or ‘Snowdome’, is already rumored to have been shelved altogether due to stratospheric costs. A massive steel dome would have enclosed an artificial mountain range covered in snow for a complete ski resort with winter activities and arctic animals like polar bears and penguins – all in the middle of the desert.

Robot Land Theme Park in South Korea

(images via: engadget)

It’s not finished yet, but in 2013, Robot Land will reportedly open its gates to visitors keen on experiencing every form of robot entertainment currently known to man. There will be robotic rides, robotic fish in aquariums for visitors to manipulate, robotic performers and even robotic cashiers.

Radiant Copenhagen: New Uses for Subway Stations

(image via: radiant cophenhagen)

What’s to come in the distant future for the city of Copenhagen? One of over a hundred ideas submitted to the Radiant Copenhagen project envisions a sparkling underground amusement park in place of the current Vanløse subway station, to be built after the imagined abolishment of public transport between 2060 and 2100.

Two Amusement Park Concepts for Saudi Arabia

(images via: sidell gibson)

Sidell Gibson Architects created two concept designs for amusement parks in waterfront locations in Saudi Arabia, each containing a wide range of activities like ice skating, cinemas, rides, virtual games, indoor water sports and outdoor swimming pools. “We have drawn inspiration from the local habitat and in particular the flora and fauna of the Red Sea and Arabian Gulf coasts and the immediate adjacency of the water itself. The starting point is the way seeds are arranged in a sunflower or daisy. The pattern of intersecting parabolic spirals is the result of a natural growth process where new, smaller seeds emerge from a centre and displace larger and older ones… One benefit of this geometric pattern is that it lends itself to being developed flexibly, in many ways without loosing the sense of the inherent geometry.”

The Euthanasia Coaster

(images via: io9)

Perhaps, from the drawings, this roller coaster doesn’t strike you as all that impressive. It’s not flashy concept art; it’s really quite simple. But get on this roller coaster, and it’s the last thing you’ll ever do. Royal College of Art PhD student Julijonas Urbonas created Euthanasia Coaster for the exact purpose that the name suggests; the coaster is designed to starve the rider’s brain of oxygen. The idea is that if you choose to go, you can go in a way that is thrillingly, amazingly, mind-numblingly fun. “Thanks to the marriage of the advanced cross-disciplinary research in space medicine, mechanical engineering, material technologies and, of course, gravity, the fatal journey is made pleasing, elegant and meaningful.”