OK Go just released their latest masterpiece, All is Not Lost, in partnership with Pilobolus and Google Chrome. You’ll probably have a spreading smile on your face just as I did while watching- it’s as simple as it is complex and challenges the web’s capabilities like Arcade Fire’s The Wilderness Downtown. Enjoy!
ASTROPHONICA in collaboration with UTILE recently presented a video for Customtone by Fracture & Neptune, featuring Martin Fieber. The video morphs graphic geometry into compelling shapes, using a minimal palette and black hole-simulating texture. Created to celebrate the launch of the album ‘Retrospect’ – a Decade of Fracture & Neptune’, Emilski and Nick Duggins of UTILE take the viewer on a psychedelic journey into the Astrophonica universe. The results are mesmerizing- watch below:
Find out more about the album click here.
These days, social strategy should be part of every one’s growth plan. From crowd-sourced content to rewarding five minutes of fame, every brand is hoping to engage using digital technology, beyond the sweeps of yesteryear.
Here are a few snapshots of Forever 21‘s Time Square store. The video loop on their LED screens is playful, engaging and larger than life. Models “walk” up to the screen, summon the crowd then take a Polaroid shot of the street, capturing everyone who’s a fan. Remarkably, hundreds of people are willing to wait through the five minute loop to see themselves on the big screen, over and over again.
Just across the street, the monolithic LED screen that belongs to American Eagle takes a similar approach, merging their customers, twitter and a branded photo booth. Developed by the brains at RGA, customers can have their picture taken with a short caption and it will scroll down the outside of the building. Not only do the photos make their debut in Times Square, they’re also easy to share using a computer or mobile device.
Keeping with the theme of models trapped inside their own advertisements, Lara Stone‘s most recent billboard for Calvin Klein located at Lafayette and Houston is as engaging as it gets for still imagery. Similar to Forever 21’s loop, her proportions are skewed, slightly edgy and entirely engaging.
A few years ago, while sitting in a creative meeting at Renegade, a digital marketing agency here in New York, a design colleague gave a presentation on Sao Paulo’s no advertising policy, blowing all of our minds. We all thought, “how could that be? No ads, not anywhere?! Amazing.”
Fast forward, as this idea recently seeded a digital collaboration between great minds here in NY. Morgan Spurlock, of Super Size Me, The Barbarian Group and the creative team at Aviary made it their mission to create a website with the intent purpose of removing all visual advertising from Times Square, entitled No Ad NY.
While the advertising is arguably the kitsch appeal of this commercial hub, the idea is fun and inviting- so much so, that I took a few of my own patterns and tossed them into the spread. Have a look, play around, and make some of your own designs- the final results will look like life-sized presents.
On this day of love, what could be more fun than pairing two non-related/related pictures side by side? Incorporating red, wine, green, black and cream, both Tori Higa and Daniel Canogar capture the essence of each sex in each of their layouts. Higa’s mixed media greeting card is a combination of feminine line paired with vintage fabric. In an alternate space, Canogar’s digital exhibit, Trace, uses light, color and technology to engage the viewer. Going beyond the tangible, it’s fun to see these styles bounce off one another. They’re more similar and more different with each glance.
We all know how fun and interactive optical illusions can be. From stark and colorless to busy and vibrant, a design well done catches your eye like a sneak attack. Recently featured in Creativity Magazine, Dentsu London’s collaboration with Professor Kitaoka, an industry great, and Wallpaper Magazine has yielded some fabulous results. Check out the project here.
