Johnny Two Tone Club

Archived entries for Events

International Doughnut Day

Oh my lord, has it been this long?

It’s not you, it’s us, really… we’ve been busy – crazy busy in fact with our day jobs, making festivals & fairs, studio renovations & relocation’s, migrations from West coast to East coast and then back to West coast and generally a bunch of other things we’ve been doing that we can’t tell you about yet or wouldn’t really make any difference for why we’ve dropped out of your lives. We’re really sorry – reaaaaaaally sorry, and that’s why we want to make it up to you with our new project – the third installment in our annual Public Holiday Project series.

Just when you thought you’d seen all the public holidays that 2012 had left, we threw one last one in there for you – International Doughnut Day. That’s right, an international day to celebrate that halo of happiness in all of our lives that transcends nations, gender boundaries, age & economic boundaries and any political difference you care to muster.

The doughnut is to the sweets world what the sandwich is to the savory world and deserves to be better celebrated like it’s more respectable brother. Dress it up or dress it down, the doughnut is a building block of enjoyment.

Whilst there are already a number of semi-established anniversaries of the doughnut like National Doughnut Day (U.S.), National Cream-Filled Doughnut Day (U.S.), International Jelly-Filled Doughnut Day and Buy A Doughnut Day, never before has there been a public holiday conveniently celebrated in December to summarize these various species into a single genus until now.

It turns out that the doughnut is as tasty as it is mysterious. Created by Dutch Settlers, an American boy on a lime-trading ship, a gift from a higher power? One thing’s for sure – the doughnut has thrown a life ring around the hearts of many nations with various recipes originating in Africa, Asia, Europe, Australia, New Zealand, South America and a myriad of other exotic cultures.

So do yourself a favor and go grab a sixer right now and celebrate this December 30th in a few minutes of neon devouring silence. Not time for your coffee break yet? Hell, you shouldn’t even be working on a public holiday. Take that break right now, tell your boss Johnny said so.

Angela Mitchell of Studio Bomba

Brendan Hibbert of Brendan Hibbert Design

Leah Dent of Studio Bomba

Marcus Taylor of Studio Papa

Michelle Leslie of Michelle Leslie

International Walkman Day

In the second installment of our Public Holiday Project series, we here at ToneCorp decided to create a series of posters paying tribute to one of humankind’s most amazing inventions to date; the Walkman. 32 years ago today the first Walkman was released to the world and things would never been the same. Though the functionality inherent in the TPS-L2 had been around for some time in professional models for journalists, never had they been collected in a unit affordable for the common music fan. Debuting at ¥33,000 (US$200), to coincide with Sony’s 33rd anniversary the unit was a slow seller at first but quickly gained popularity with an innovative advertising campaign from Sony.

Supposedly Sony Chairman Akio Morita asked his team to create a portable device so that he may listen to his favorite opera’s on his frequent trans-pacific flights. 30 years of court battles and a whole bunch of cash would reveal that Sony may have borrowed the idea pretty heavily from Andreas Pavel’s Steroebelt, first developed in 1972, seven years before the Walkman would debut.

At the end of the day the Walkman was an amazing invention that for the first time in history would allow anyone to completley replace their audio input. No longer did you have to listen to the birds chirping outdoors, your mum telling you to make your bed or oncoming traffic honking as you jaywalk a red light. For the first time you could be in a private space whilst in a public space, a phenomena that would later be termed the “Walkman effect”, something that continues frequently today with iPod listening. Perhaps most importantly, this was the first time you could create your own soundtrack to what you were doing. No longer would you have to watch the Rocky montage with envy, now you could live it.

Today is a day to remember. Today is International Walkman Day.