Sprite's "Instinct," featuring hamster Donnie Del Criceto
Nordic Brand Engagement for Sprite, The Instinct, set in a movie site environment. Creepy and hilarious.
The Art of Selling Design
Shopping at YWFT, the premium on-line retailer for design books and other goodies, feels like eating at a small restaurant in southern Italy - you only get what's for dinner that night - and the chef will make sure that it's the best you've ever had.
Bright idea or dim bulb?
In the parade of accessories for the iPod, I think I may have found the most ridiculous one yet. Then again, it's so crazy it might be genius. We exhort, you deride.
Introducing the Griffin iBeam.
c|net and Patrick's kitchen
c|net has a new design. Looking beyond the visual over-stimulation, the 3-D button clichés and the hard to read text on dark background - there are some improvements and innovations, such as clever broadband integration and the expandable banner function.
With a photograph of himself placed prominently on the main page, their editor-in-chief Patrick Houston enthusiastically tells us that redesigning c|net was sort of like a recent kitchen remodeling with his wife.
GE's Whiteboard
Here's a simple, smoothly executed idea from General Electric. They call it "Imagination at Work" and give you a marker and a whiteboard. Draw with your friends, colleagues or with your kids while you're traveling on business... just draw...
M/M Paris: Avant Garde Gems
I have deep respect for designers that work under the commercial radar - there's something very pure and energetic about M/M's work. Dig around their site, there are some real gems hidden under those red links.
Blocked by the Blog
Here's a good article on how shrewd Bloggers are "upsetting" the status quo of news media and advertising.
"In a world where your brand identity is basically the sum total of your search results, a shelf space dominated by brand counter-claims and hostile consumer comments makes life very difficult for advertisers."
A must read for trend-watchers and marketers eager to stay a step ahead of the game.
Thanks to Mark at Fizz City for the...
COS Typography
FIT, the Icelandic association for graphic designers is 50 years old. Graphic designer Einar Gylfason took the challange of designing a poster for the event. He creative-open-sourced it by calling upon 30 designers to create the letters he needed and it all came together as a beautiful mess!
Note to Lipton: The Web is World Wide
...and certain forms of promotional entertainment that may be widely accepted in some cultures aren't going to play so well in others. After seeing this violent Asian Lipton ad and game, how many sensitive Americans are going to associate the Lipton brand with blood and guns?
It isn't for the faint-hearted, but if you want to see it, hit this link before Lipton and their Pepsi parents take it down. (Of course, the kids will love it, so by blogging this I could be playing into the hands of a mastermind subviral campaign. We'd love to get your comments below.)
(Tip: Adrants)
AdWeek: Web tops TV as favorite media choice
AdWeek reports that 46% of 18-54s cite the Web as their "most liked" media choice.TV got 35%.
Lots of great stats in here. Better read it.
(Tip: MarketingVox)
Dr. Angus
Burger King, the company that brought you the Subservient Chicken, has a new viral weapon out, in the form of Dr. Angus. Page him right and he might utter some words of wisdom from your busy friends at Armchair Media.
Thanks to Chris at LuckyFishStudios for the tip.
"Outside of Ordinary"
Dr. Martens just launched a Brand Engagement (download PDF on the concept) project. It's a series of B/W documentaries about young people pursuing their dreams. Good message, presented simply and effectively, kept me on their site for about 20 minutes, leaving with a positive impression of the Dr. Martens brand.
Design Intern
Armchair Media is seeking a design intern that knows their way around Photoshop, Freehand/Illustrator, Flash and InDesign. If interested, please fill out the form at our Careers section.
Glam, slam, thank you madame!
Dior redesigns. Glitter, glam and compulsive attention to details. Refreshing!
White Canvases
Atlanta based artist Rodney White paints old advertising signs, satirizing the message. Some beautiful typography on weathered surfaces.
White is currently showing some of his work at Octane - the best coffee shop in Atlanta.
Rodney White's website.
A More Perfect Union
Big organizations with multiple properties tend to find themselves in inconsistent, ineffective messes on the Web. However, here's an example of how an integrated, well-executed Web strategy across affiliates can pay for itself exponentially. This article shows how Easter Seals corralled their 90 affiliates under a mutual roof, then quadrupled national online donations and grew their e-mail database 70x. Financial services companies, media conglomerates, retailers and others should take note of the possibilities.
United Colors of Polaroid
Paul Giambarba added some color to Polaroid's packaging, sent sales through the roof and secured his place in graphic design history. His tell-all blog goes behind the scenes and gives us a glimpse of a period in American graphic design where everything was in blooming color - even your TV.
Hugo Boss. No Flashlight.
What? A Flash website that doesn't require a flashlight or a cult membership and obscure passwords to maneuver through? Hugo Boss just re-launched with a classic modern look and usability aimed to please.
Intuition turns Science
In 1995, the team that later founded Armchair Media comprised the nascent staff of CNN Interactive. We were faced with the challenge of creating an intuitive, expandable design system for a new Web site, a new concept really, CNN.com. While the Web is a medium of infinite change, we knew we had to get it right on our first attempt. Once the CNN news machine started pumping text, images, sounds and video through the pipes, there would be no way to turn back and start over again with major architectural changes. Our design had to grow organically over time with a minimal amount of mid-course corrections, and be able to support the weight of the addition of new content sections, new technologies, additional languages and more. The challenge was not small.
At the time, the web was a gray colored newborn with royal blue veins, pixilated typefaces and graphics constrained to the featherweight size of 8K. Our early audience? College students, CompuServe users and a few intrepid companies. There were no traditions to fall back on, no behavioral research—nothing but a cup of coffee and a whole lot of intuition. -- Nav bar? Horizontal? No, not expandable enough. Right side? No, can't be anchored. Left side! -- Logo? Top left! -- Feature special sections across the top horizontally. Done! -- Top story, left side! -- The more content on the main page the merrier. We already knew that users moved into subsections through contextual content. Damn the site map, let them use the scrollbar!
Launched to positive feedback, it took our users a little while to adopt to these new ways of getting the news, but get it they did. It took CNN.com less than a week to top a million "hits". When measurement changed from hits to page views, the mile markers whizzed by just as quickly. In January 1996, four months after it first launched, it took CNN.com a week to record two million page views. Today, the CNN sites score that much traffic in just 57 minutes.
Our system worked and not much has changed since then. CNN.com still runs on that same basic concept as do most other news and information websites. Our intuition became tradition, and now The Poynter Institute's Eyetrack study has turned it into a visual science. This is a must-read for anyone involved in user-focused design, and it's probably the most important usability study of the year: Link
(Thanks to our friends at Monumental Interactive for the Eyetrack link.)
The Philosophy of Time Travel
The director's cut of one of my all-time favorite movies, Donnie Darko, has been released on the big screen. This intriguing film sucks you into a time-traveling alternate universe that keeps you guessing from beginning to end.
The movie's Web site adds to the mysterious nature of the film. Rather than they typical "go see the movie" site, this one makes very little sense unless you've already seen the movie. It actually futhers the storyline in the movie to help you figure out exactly what it was about.
If you haven't seen the movie or the Web site, go see both! A great way to build a cult following:
Saturn Relay
Our Swedish friends at North Kingdom -- creators of the Vodafone Futures experience -- just launched Saturn Relay. Pay attention to to interface tutorial in the beginning, and you will be rewarded with an immersive, magical experience.
(Make sure you have your pop-up blocker off)
Sodas Can Be Scary Too
Mountain Dew has come up with a brand engaging Halloween promotion in support of its limited edition Pitch Black grape soda. Now through Halloween, Web users can explore a haunted house and play the "Terror in the Woods" game. This site is important to the new Pitch Black brand for several reasons: (1) It introduces the brand and defines it in a manner of seconds; (2) It ties the brand's characteristics to the Halloween holiday so you know it's life expectancy; (3) It leaves a very memorable impression. Next time you see it in the store, you'll know everything you need to know about it.
Wow! Loot!
Think Amazon's Gold Box, but only one product each day. Evolved from the old Dungeons & Dragons expression "Wow! Loot!", Woot is a new site that offers deep discounts on one product (and one product only) each day. It's a great way to build a new brand and a dedicated audience that checks into the site daily. It'll be interesting to see how the site changes over time - if they succumb to the massive Internet store mentality or stick with the one product a day approach.
There's a good article about it in Ad Age (requires registration).
Woot!:
Human-Human Interaction
We're fascinated with how technology can be used to affect a person on an emotional level. We've talked about in previous blogs how interactive technology is increasingly transforming public and retail spaces to seduce consumers. (Oh [Big] Brother & Shop Until You Drop... A line). -- Artist Jim Campbell has a deeper goal, he invites people to interact with their subconsious and help them question their sense of psychological and physical reality.
Swedish Jean-ios
jc, a small Swedish jeans&clothes company just launched a Brand Engagement website. What I find especially noteworthy is that with a seemingly small cost and big thinking they took their entertaining TV commercials, cut them up and patched them as an interactive gallery with added product details. The 'Tip a Friend' feature ensures the message spreads virally - setting them up for growth beyond the Nordic region.
(Warning: Not for the easily offended. It is Swedish - after all.)
Creative Open Source Marketing (COS)
Make your audience happy — put them to work.
I first realized the power of Creative Open Source back in the 90s when I was with CNN.com. My team started an entertainment message board asking users for their top ten "desert island discs." The response was incredible, netting hundreds of original, interesting posts (some complete with annotation and links). It was great user generated content that allowed users to become a part of the world's most popular news site and to learn about music from other users.
Today, individuals have greater access to media production tools and broadband, letting them create inspired imagery, video, and audio to build rich media experiences. This enables Creative Open Source collaborations to move past text and become a lot more interesting. At the same time, the business world has the opportunity to leverage the power of COS for well-directed marketing initiatives.
The concept is simple:
1) Challenge individuals to create something based on certain parameters
2) Gather the creations and share them back with the world
3) Watch audience and loyalty grow
The execution is trickier:
1) Come up with an engaging project
2) Set manageable, inspirational parameters
3) Take advantage of media skills, but don't isolate
4) Give people a payoff for their contributions
5) Present the output in a sensible, moderated manner
6) Facilitate viral traffic generation
7) Lead the audience down a path to achieve business goals
Google for "Creative Open Source" and nothing comes close to what I'm talking about here. The concept goes beyond the banner, beyond the browser, and beyond the screen. It engages and consumes participants in their everyday lives, actively and honestly turning them into foot-soldiers for the project. All the while, the project sponsor builds a huge non-participating audience that is consumed in the community, creativity, and sense of ownership that is the core of the project. Additionally, the project sponsor amasses an archive of valuable, low-cost, repurposable user generated content.
Armchair Media is committed to furthering the concepts of Creative Open Source, and at the same time helping the Internet as a whole realize its read/write potential. In the COS spirit, we'd love to get your creative input on this burgeoning concept. Use the comments link at the bottom of this post to send other examples and wax philosophical.
Some examples:
>Illustration: CNN.com's World Trade Center Proposals
>Video: Converse Gallery
>Grassroots: Yewknee Collaboration Experimentation
>Old School Handicraft: DWR Champagne Chairs
(Thanks to Mason Poe for strategic collaboration)
"The favorite drink for ladies when thirsty, weary and despondent"
Coca-Cola slogans from 1886-1993. 1905 saw 7 different taglines, including the one seen in the headline.
MSN Music - About What You'd Expect
The beta release of MSN's music store is out there now. As usual, they try so hard to be as intuitive and user friendly as the Apple equivalent that it was patterned after but don't quite pull it off. Purchasing a song requires you to create a Passport account. And on Safari, the experience is incredibly convoluted - with missing images, errors and a loop that won't let you escape. Sometimes the BUY button doesn't even work. Remeber that old first impression saying? All this could be because I'm being punished for being on a Mac though...
Anyway, I know it's beta, but come on guys. Step up.
"Kick Ass Kung-Fu"
15% of American children aged 6 to 19 are obese.
I see a cure for that: "Kick Ass Kung-Fu." The Finnish company Animaatiokone Industries calls it "an immersive game installation that transforms computer gaming into a visual, physical performance like modern dance or sports"
The possibilities are endless.