Articles from: Uncategorized

I’ve been noticing a lot of animations over the top of real footage and photography at the moment. A gorgeous visual trend (and one I’m really hoping won’t be done to death).

These two really stand out for me. Not to Scale’s piece below is just pixellated goodness, and completely transforms the bleak swimming pool:

Not To Scale - Ubik ~ Voxel from ventilate.ca on Vimeo.

And Olga Mink’s more reflective ‘art-piece’ is mesmerisingly beautiful, slow and gripping. Reminds me of the feeling you get watching a Tarkovsky film - painful, but in a good way.

Fragments from Atlantida (2009) from Olga Mink on Vimeo.

MIX09, Microsoft’s ideas forum for website designers and developers, really caught my interest because it featured Bill Buxton. Microsoft hired Bill in 2005 as Principal Researcher to focus on
the emerging world of ubiquitous computing. This year is proof that Microsoft are taking design seriously. Bill kicked off the whole shindig with his presentation entitled The Return on Experience. This is territory normally reserved for product and technology announcements.

He enthusiastically talked about design and the design process. As part of the converted, it was impossible to stop nodding as he explained that the user experience is not the object or the user interface but that true experience is the result of the interaction with the thing. Experience is holistic. For those of us who do design interfaces, a good bit of advice is to make sure our “state transition diagrams” actually describe the transitions. The baseline is to create something that is functional - it works logically and technically. However, the experience is characterised by how you get from state A to state B. Experience is about designing for flow.

Day 2 of MIX reinforced the design theme with Deborah Adler’s keynote presentation of the Target ClearRx system, a reinvention of the prescription bottle and label. This was launched back in 2005 but is still a great case study of how design can make a real difference. In this instance, it saves lives. Her parting bit of advice beautifully encapsulates the user-centred design ethos: “a successful design experience begins by, one, having a love affair with your customer and really digging into your customer’s needs, and two, bringing your design skills to bear in solving those needs both humanly and humanely”.

There were numerous technology announcements and I won’t list them here. Here’s a good recap. There was one feature that I liked. It had Bill Buxton written all over it. It’s called SketchFlow and is part of Expression Blend 3. SketchFlow allows interactions to be prototyped with sketches or something more evolved. Remember, experience is about the transitions and the flow. I haven’t tried Expression Blend since it was in beta. This makes me want to give it another go.

Bill B is the best thing to happen to Microsoft since, well, Bill G. He points out that the challenge is how to deliver the experience and get the return no matter what the platform is. True brand experience transcends platforms and channels. Does all this point to a new Microsoft - one that is less about engineering and more design-led?

Judging Dubai Lynx has been an experience. Some great judges to spend time with and one or two really interesting pieces of work even if the standard overall is low. But one thing really did take my breath away. Anyone know what to make of this? It’s a quit smoking campaign targeting smokers at Ramadan and looks like it was made by disturbed people at an art therapy class. We have old Coke bottles, we have sand and fag butts and we have un-smoked cigarettes fashioned to look like fireworks. We also have the agency’s name on the front. Bizarre.

So here’s another site exemplifying why the internet is such a wonderfully democratizing medium that challenges authority, and exposing the difference between Brand Promise and Brand Reality.

That being said there are a few old stalwarts refusing to embrace this ongoing powerful new force of social change desperate to cling on to Information Control and retain the power of Information Flow.

If you’re providing a shitty service and a community exposes it as just that, see it as a warning.  Change the way you behave. Move on.  It’s the new world stupid.

As the Easter cliff-edge approaches (£Q1′09) an old trend returns. The Trends Research Institute reintroduces the theme: ‘The recession will fuel escapist revelry. It’s either that, or stay home and become really depressed’. 

You could say Economic Escapism is less of a trend, more of a reflex. According to the idyllically named Melody Brooke (a Texan therapist and compassionate relationship expert) ‘The escapist response is biologically programmed…’ it helps keep us in balance when things get bad.

Philip Graves of The Consumer Behaviour blog says in recessions ‘people cut back and reduce their spending significantly, but spending on escapist pursuits holds or even increases. People spend more on things like going to the movies, buying popular upbeat music, low-cost indulgences…’

So expect cinema attendance to go up - the livescience.com blog sites the box office success of comedies in hard times (you don’t have to go all the way back to Chaplin to prove that one).

We can expect lots more gaming - billsavings.com points to the fact that xBox 360 scored record sales on the Black Friday weekend.

All very interesting, but here’s the real trend: Today you can be the party monster of your dreams for free - if you have the right invites, vouchers and passwords… as well as a wirelessly enabled laptop.

With a Spotify invite and Hype Machine to guide you through the new music bloggersphere you’re already dancing. Google Video + Vimeo + You Tube leaves BBC4 & HBO the only reasons to have a TV license or cable subscription. iPhone users reading this will most likely be aware of the wi-finder app, and know that it can be set to actively scan for open nodes 24/7. Been into a ‘trendy’ restaurant chain recently? Wagamma, The Real Greek, Gourmet Burger world all have 2-4-1-or similar voucher schemes, and it’s eVouchers a-go-go with the internet the (viral) channel of choice - search for evoucher on google and you’ll see what i mean.

To end… who am I to resist a global trend? Goodnight Friday the 13th. The W.O.R.L.D. is full of M.A.G.I.C.  so let this be marked as the first insanely happy antidote to the credit crunch… think of it as the sound of Friday night reaching out for Monday morning. See you there.

The Sound of Arrows - M.A.G.I.C. (Mini-video) from The Sound of Arrows on Vimeo.

An intersting viral campaign is building around this summer’s release of the Watchmen movie. PPC, the agency responsible, round-up the activity to date on their blog: www.theppc.com/blog

Watchmen was written by comic book maverick Alan Moore and is widely held as his master work. Many see Watchmen as the first true graphic novel - a deliberately ’grown-up’ reinterpretation of the comic book format. Watchmen is complex with political, social and historical themes. Don’t expect a happy ending. 

The genesis of the film is a Hollywood legend in it’s own right. There’s been nearly 20 years of pre-production argy-bargy; multiple directors and stars have been associated to the film and Moore has withdrawn his approval at different times. At last Watchmen is due for release, March 6 2009 and is directed by Zack Snyder. Expectations are high.

As a bonus I’m including a transcript fragment form a recent interview with Alan Moore. The subject is creativity. The link between comics and some of what we we do at LBi (storyboards, narrative etc.) is obvious…

Alan Moore interviewed by LJ Pindling of Street Law Productions. Final part. Interviewed on 27 June 2008 in Spring Boroughs, Northampton, England.

LJP: What would you say to other young people trying to become successful in their trade?

AM: OK, the first thing you’ve got to really focus upon is why you want to do this. If you want to be famous or you want to be rich, it ain’t going to work. For one thing, being famous - there are some good things to it but there’s not very many. It’s mainly a pain in the arse and it sends your head a bit weird… Even people who’ve got a tiny little bit of fame, it drives them completely mental, it can destroy your life… 

… The only thing that you can do if you want to be a success is focus upon the thing that you do purely for it’s own sake. 

If you love writing comics, drawing comics, making comics, making music or whatever, and you’re not doing it to get famous and you’re not doing it to make money you’re just doing it because you love it and you want to get better, and you want to get better, and you want to get better, then you’ll probably do alright. 

Don’t focus on the fame and the wealth stuff, that’s what everyone wants, you can become famous and moderately wealthy just by going on Big Brother. You know, what does that prove, what does it mean? Especially these days, fame means nothings and increasingly money doesn’t mean that much either. 

LJP: Generally it means you’ll shave off all your hair and be addicted to some sort of drug.

AM: Absolutely. You know the only thing is: focus purely upon what it is that you like to do. If you like to draw, to write… if you’ve got a tiny bit of talent, even if it’s not that much… that’s how we all start out… 

… I couldn’t write when I started out, you know I couldn’t draw but I liked writing. I liked writing compositions and essays at school, and I liked reading, and I liked thinking ‘you know how good am I as a writer, compared to these guys that I like reading?’ And you think ‘actually, I’m rubbish’, and so you try and make yourself a little bit better. And if you are honest with yourself, not over critical (there’s no point at looking at everything you do and saying that’s rubbish and tearing it up) but if you can at least be honest and say ‘yep, this has got some bits in it that are good, I could have done better with these bits, this is not as good as So-and-So, who I admire… Next time this is going to be better’. And you just try and make every thing you do a little bit smarter, a little bit more sophisticated than the thing you did before. 

Eventually people will notice. Eventually you will start to move beyond what every body else is doing. And without ever having a master-plan… you will find [success] without having to compromise anything, without having to sell-out your vision… 

And it’s important that you don’t do that, because that’s the only thing you’ve really got that separates you from anybody else. There’s probably loads of people who can sing, or do music, or write or draw the way that you can. The only thing that makes you unique is that you’re you. You had your experience, you had you’re life, you’ve got your knowledge. So put all of that into what you do. Make it individual, make it unique, and you know make it your selling point… you’ve had this experience. Put it to use and I don’t think you’ll go far wrong.

There’s a lot more to it than than of course. There’s a lot of boredom, there’s a lot of grind, and a lot of anxiety where you think  ‘am i as good as i think i am, am i ever going to really make it?’ But don’t worry about that. You know if you’re doing what you love, even if you’re not making any money out of it you are still better off than 99% of the people in this world who are not doing what they love. They’re doing something that gets them by. Maybe they’re entertaining dreams that one day they could be this or they could be that but all too often those dreams just kind of die in the cradle. 

You know it’s sort of ’stay true to yourself’… there isn’t a ceiling. [Think:] ‘There’s nothing I couldn’t be if I try hard enough…’ and I think that’s something a bit more useful than just security or a colour telly or stuff like that…

(Shout out: The idea for this post came from the continuing JPT/JMT Watching the Watchmen obsession).

Peter Joseph’s Zeitgeist the Movie has got plenty of us talking in the LBi creative studio. Is it an Anti Capitalist conspiracy theory, or a glimpse of what comes after the collapse of the monetary system in the Crunch… a geothermally powered Resourced Based Economy courtesy of the Venus Project?

A wiser film maker may have steered clear of some of the ham-fisted emotive narrative techniques (the final ‘Times Square Revelation’ scene is worst of all). It’s true Zeitgeist isn’t perfect - there are some holes, it doesn’t have all the answers. But it does do a good job of raising serious questions and prompting debate. For this alone I recommend it highly… clear an evening and go work it out for yourself. 

Part 1: Zeitgeist the Movie (2007)

Part 2: Zeitgeist Addendum (2008)

(Qudos to JMT for getting there first and sharing).

Green Man. Culled from Greyscale Obscurity.

Oh yes we have skills, and we are not shy. This is Murray’s birthday card, drawn by JPT. Think of it as an antidote to Adobedom, pencil therapy, something to do with the importance of making stuff. Bring on Spring with birds, beards, ukuleles, neon feathers and leafy garlands.

The 26th of January is Chinese New Year and 2009 is the year of the Ox. Somehow I doubt I’m the only one to have spotted TFL’s lovely China in London posters. 

South Ken: China in London (V&A blogs' Flickrstream)

The design echoes traditional Chinese red ink block prints and is unlike anything else on the underground right now. The China in London poster reminds me how traditional forms can be reinterpreted in a modern medium, resulting in something timeless and beautiful… no doubt it will enter the canon of classic underground posters.

The internet is of course awash with predictions for the year of the Ox. Supposedly ‘we will feel the yoke of responsibility coming down on us this year. Way-out fashions, abstract art forms and newfangled notions will be given an impassive stare by the phlegmatic Ox’.

Sounds kind of boring. Thankfully there were no signs of the phlegmatic Ox at 146 Brick Lane today, where the last days of the Year of the Rat were spent reveling in wall to wall way-out newfangled abstraction.

The globally influential Toronto Sun reports…’The Ox is the quintessential hardworking, conventional cleaner-upper who will put everything back in order and turn chaos back into reason’. That sounds more encouraging… But what about creativity in the year of the Ox?

The Ox is said to have a vivid imagination and ’unlimited creativity and perspicacity’. Wow. Unlimited creativity and mental power? That’s more like it. Perhaps then we can expect hard working creatives to take over this year.

萬念俱灰 一炮而红

So you’re a “Key Online Influencer“, and you’re off to visit one of you biggest clients to talk about social media.  Upon landing in the client’s home town you fire off a Twitter post stating how much the client’s home town sucks.  Client is subscriber to your Twitter stream.  Client calls you out.  You’re an idiot.

Well now, here’s an unexpected 2008 retrospective. Curious Expeditions, a website devoted to unearthing and documenting the wondrous, the macabre and the obscure from around the world.

Isn’t the whole point of digital marketing, that it takes the side of the consumer and gives people something valuable? Aren’t we stepping forward into a brave new world of empowered consumers and brands who know how to bring joy into people’s lives. A shame them that something like this is out there. Negative, culturally idiotic, arrogant. Burger King have been smart with the web before, but not this time I fear.

You can’t whack The Who, as Del Boy once said. And I think the old shyster of Peckham had a point.

I confess to nicking this post from Ian Tait’s excellent crackunit. But I had to put it up here. We’re always interested in what makes content popular on You Tube. Is this the recipe? Simple idea, well executed and lots of repetition? Kiddy Crack as Mr Tait says. I also can’t help wondering if the MASSIVE global phenomenon of Harry Potter has anything to do with it. I guess in the end, there’s no formula for a phenomenon. Although apparently is one for a fart. Hmmm. The web can be so childish.

I’m moved to include a lovely old Dilbert cartoon given to me by Dan Holder a senior art director here.

It raises a good point about “best practice.” If we’re honest with ourselves best practice is the last refuge of the unimaginative. It says we’ve stopped thinking about a problem and have settled upon a “lore”. Best practice is a sacred cow which we do well to sacrifice. More than ever, brands need brave ideas which cut through in what is undoubtedly a time of crisis. It’s time to dream to innovate, create and have fun. If you find a best practice document here’s a handy way of dealing with it.

Thanks to Russell Davies for posting on Tikitag’s RFID solution and reminding me that - following a great presentation by Rafi Haladjian from Violet at PICNIC last week - I’d meant to look a little more into the Internet of Things. (If only for an upcoming client presentation on new opportunities for connected retail experiences…)

Continue reading »

Back in Spring we were lucky enough to get to hang out with the guys at LBi Syrup in NYC. A great time was had by all, (naturally), but the highlight was being there just after the team had launched Hope.Act.Change.com

We looked briefly at the project back in LBiQ 2, but the recap (if you’re unaware of it) goes a little like this: inspired by Obama, will.i.am of the Black Eyed Peas put out the “yeswecansong“, (part of what Jeff Howe referred to the other night as the first ‘crowdsourcing’ of a presidential candidate).

Continue reading »

So, to London’s trendy Hoxton for the party to celebrate the relaunch of Revolution Magazine, complete with free booze courtesy of the guys at Eyeconomy.

Continue reading »