Zune Originals Trigger Seattle Gallery Show

  Special Report by Fay Stoker


SEATTLE, WA - Starting Tuesday, Microsoft will begin offering engraved designs on the back of its Zune players featuring contemporary artists in an attempt to differentiate the Zune media player from the iPod which allows for limited text engraving. Microsoft said the engraving service is free for a limited time, and is only available through its new Zune Originals Store.  Source - CNN

Independent photographer and Seattle gallery owner Stiv Nilsson wants to capitalize on the Microsoft Zune Originals launch by displaying bigger than life photography of the Zune art engravings. "I was so amped when I heard about original art being engraved on the Zune," said Nilsson "I'm a huge fan of Catalina Estrada's work and I have much love for Colletivo Design from Brazil. I own two framed pieces by Colletivo"

"Microsoft's Zune Originals include work from 18 artists, including illustrators Catalina Estrada of Spain, Skwak of France and Nobumasa Takahashi of Japan. The intricate designs take up most of the metallic back surface of the players." Source - CNN

Nilsson explained that even though the engraved designs are line drawings lacking the vivid colors of the originals, he believes that true Zune fanatics won't know the difference as long as they're not exposed to the originals side-by-side. In fact, he's counting on it."They've already settled for a Zune player over an iPod, so how much do you think they really care about anything that's cool and original? As long as it has the Zune name on it they'll act happy." Nilsson said.

That mind set is exactly why Nilsson has opted to display framed photography of the Zune players engraved with the art rather than featuring the original art itself, which Nilsson admits would draw a much larger crowd in Seattle's savvy arts community. "These guys work in Redmond man, there are hundreds of Zune zombies that will show up to my opening, drink the free booze, eat all the appetizers and pretend that they love the Zune art. That's what they will all be programmed to do."

Nilsson indicated that 3,500 hundred tickets have been pre-purchased through a source he was not at liberty to discuss. Admission to the limited edition Zune art exhibition will be $7 at the door and run for five nights at the 619 Western Building, 3rd floor, in downtown Seattle starting Tuesday at 7:00 PM with framed pieces ranging from $1,200 to $2,600 dollars. "This show is paid for if the Zuners show up or not, so I'm all good," said Nilsson, admitting that he's a hardcore Apple fan when he pulled his iPhone from out of nowhere.

CNN Post (here)  Zune Art Designs (here)  Frigtard Zune (here)  Ballmer (here)

 
Photos courtesy of Astral Mole Photography - Art by Colletivo Design

Comments

[Joe]

Zune looks nice and its new functions are great but iPod still is the best. Nothing compares to the iPod interface, usability and design, although Zune really seems like a good product. Have you seen this iPod Touch ad made by an user? http://www.weshow.com/us/p/21278/home_made_ipod_touch_ad
It shows in less than 30 seconds why Zune is good but an iPod is an iPod. Period.

[not really]

Except the fact that the zune is not going after touch screens or the iphone yet. the zune ( 1st gen ) is actually selling the best out of all mp3 players on amazon. I have an ipod and the new 80 gig zune and to be honest the ipods scroll wheel often makes it take longer to get to a song I want to play. There is no excuse that they don't have an FM tuner and the fact that the zune comes with :
FM tuner ( with song + artist support )
Wireless sync
Xbox360 compatability
windows media center pc automatically downloading tv shows to it
3.2 inch screen vs the ipod classic's 2.5
In-ear headphones for free ( they actually are quite good quality )
Sending songs to eachother etc.
FOR THE SAME PRICE, it's really a no brainer. With the first gen at 80-90 dollars the zune is getting big. Welcome to the social, whether you like it or not.
PS: The touch is a joke, 16 gigs for $400? You can buy a laptop for less than that. The touchscreen simply hasn't hit it's price point (less than 250).

[Matt]

I own a first gen zune and it's awesom. The iPod sucks, Micrsoft always!

[Dan]

Matt spells like a first generation noob! He's not that awesome and neither is Microsoft. Long live the iPud.

[Zach]

Lol, and you say he's bad at spelling... iPud? What's that?