technically speaking

Sites using social media as a cheap method to both promote and host their videos/photos/etc has been done before, Skittles and Boone Oakley are two mentioned here previously.  Celebrities taking jabs at their image is also not new….but using James Lipton and his beard for PSA’s on mobile harassment is pure genius.  The Give It A Ponder campaign, sponsored by LG, is a mix of TV, print and web promotions all revolving around James’ beard and thinking before texting.

The videos (featuring James Lipton) are campy, creepy, funny and to the point.  The imagery and quirkiness leaves a lasting impression and the copy is so Lipton’esque that everything seems normal yet far from it at the same time.

Carlos is Angry

Stephan and Zoe

Tracy and her beard

The print campaign is also humorous though not as powerful and may be confusing as to what it’s actually for.  Still they’re eye catching and well related to the TV/Videos and Web experience.

The Virgin

Peanut Butter Muffin

Junk Drawers

Source:
AdFreak
Bee

We all dream, but what do they mean?  What makes a dream a nightmare? How do we use dreams in the waking world?  What about dreams of what we want?

Honda visits the idea of dreams and their meanings to our day-to-day through the words and stories of Clive Barker, Deepak Chopra, and various talents within Honda.  It’s something to inspire thought which lies at the backbone of the entire Dream the Impossible series.

Links:
Dreams vs, Nightmares
Honda’s Dream the Impossible

I’ve never heard of the band Ólafur Arnalds, but this video is astounding.  The explosions of color.  The beautiful flowing liquid/smoke effects.  The visual dance to the melody of the song.  Together they make magic.

Back in the day The Crystal Method, Chemical Brothers, Underworld, The Prodigy and others were the captins of cool.  Essential parts of MTV’s Alternative Nation’s life blood.  Known for both their innovative visuals as well as their hypnotic beats.  With their mixing of sources, styles and sounds everything felt new, electronic and energetic.  Times and tastes changed, as did their sound.  Well looks like 2009 may be come back time.

Earlier this year The Prodigy returned with some new tracks and a new album, Invaders Must Die.  The first single, Omen is an updated version of the classic Prodigy attitude and sound.  The title track continues that trend, if nothing else it may even have kicked it up a notch.  Thanks to the Internets you can rock some samples from ThePodigy.com

The Crystal Method have returned to dropped some new beats as well. Their first single Drown in the Now is a bit more or a departure from the TCM of yesteryear. Visually the video ups the cool quotient, though I need to take in a few more listens before casting an opinion on the new sound. Got to say it’s growing on me. In both cases they sound nothing like any of the other new tracks I’ve been listening to which is refreshing all its own.

Links:
ThePodigy.com
The Prodigy – Omen
The Prodigy – Invaders Must Die
The Crystal Method
The Crystal Method – Drown In the Now

Not sure how many people have seen this months The New Yorker magazine’s cover (shown on right).  What looks like a water color painting is really an illustration created on his iPhone.  The app is called Brushes along with a companion app that will provide an animation/video of the process.  The New Yorker’s blog offers more details and a video of the illustration being made using the companion app.

I never had a reason to go to Gatorade’s website before but the link was sent to me from a designer friend of mine (Neuarmy).  Once going there it was obvious as to why he shared it.  Sporting the new aesthetic of the Gatorade “G” the site takes it to another level of sophistication rather then pure simplification.  It’s an all Flash site boasting lots of black, simplified layouts, vibrant images and large video headers.  Navigation is through the use of large black and white silhouettes for both the products and the athletes.  Which acts as a great accent to a highlighted item and it’s inline videos.  While you may learn more then you ever needed to about Gatorade check out the site for a great sample of extending a brand’s aesthetic across media.

Another gem sent my way from Neuarmy is by Boone Oakley and their use of YouTube for their website.  Ok, so it sounds a bit like Skittles attempt to use Web 2.0 tools to stitch together a web experience…well this isn’t that.  It’s literally their website embedded in humorous and (a touch) twisted little videos.  Very innovative use of such a common medium and a great way for them to show off their conceptual/strategic muscle.  They also feature some great work from that last few years, I’m sure you’ll recognize a few.  Well worth checking out.

Links:
The New Yorker’s blog
Brushes iPhone App for painting
Gatorade
Boone Oakley
Skittles
Neuarmy

…would they realize how ridiculous the requests are?  Would it make a difference?

Great video switching the context of client requests in to the real world situations.

Via @StellarGirl

Once again Apple has produced an ad that almost becomes part of the page.  I have to give credit to Apple’s ad team for continually producing ads that people want to watch just to enjoy the ad.  Their campaigns are generally catchy, original, play well with others and clearly carries the Apple brand experience.  Apple has done a site take-over before previous with the New York Times and was a huge hit.  This time they put their sites on Pitchfork.com, for the launch of Pitchfork’s redesigned site, integrating their iPod Touch video with Pitchfork’s site navigation.  Below is a video of it for all that missed it (stutters were from my system not the ad itself).

[ Javascript required to view QuickTime movie, please turn it on and refresh this page ]

PS: the QuickTime Embed plug-in was used to display this inline.

Links:
Pitchfork (online music mag)
New York Times
Apple

The credit crisis is all over the news. Blame being tossed from one side of the isle to the other. The newspapers and newscasts speak of it regularly but it’s more noise then substance if you don’t understand what they are talking about. So this leaves the simple questions like:

• How does this happen?
• What does all this mean?
• Outside of the hype, how does this compare to other recessions?

Well a number of designers have taken on the task of making all that information digestible, might I say, even interesting. Here are some of the better examples I’ve seen.


The Crisis of Credit Visualized from Jonathan Jarvis

As part of his thesis, Jonathan Jarvis has created this beautifully executed and explains the complexities of what caused the credit crisis in simple clear terms. For more visit: CrisisofCredit.com

Four Bad Bear Markets

A simple chart covering the Crash of 1929 through today’s housing crisis. For more info on the data behind this chart visit dshort.com

Interactive Charts by 26Variable

Using Google’s Motion Charts it allows you to see the market in action in a clear colorful way.

Dare I say it, the sequel was better then the original. Once again there was a solid turn out and enthusiasm abound.  This week’s speakers were engaging with talk about MiND TV’s future of “public” television using 5 minute videos.  While the Indy Hall Labs crew talked about how developers and designers can work together for a more successful project.  The kids at Indy Hall Labs also showed off their latest offering, Multiplex, a visual browser for your archive of DVD’s ripped with their Ripper app.

The Refresh Philly Google group has also been active with interest in working together to aid some local townships with their web presence.  Visit Refresh online and give’em  some of your time and your opinions.

Links:
Refresh Philly
Refresh Philly on Google
MiND TV
Indy Hall Labs
Multiplex

Whether it’s a competition or a relationship it’s the last thing you want happening.  It’s the thing many of us fear the most.  Still, sooner or later it’s going to happen to all of us.  In this video Honda takes on failure a suggests it’s the key to success.  They follow how a few of Honda’s failures in both racing and engineering, how it hasn’t stopped them but propelled them to improve.  This is just one video in Honda’s Dream the Impossible series.

Links:
Failure: the key to success
Honda’s Dream the Impossible