Cool Marketing Thoughts » Design

Designing the Obama campaign logo

Luc Van Braekel — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 23:21:15 +0000

Sol Sender from Mode explains the design process of the Obama campaign logo.

Objectified, a documentary on product design

Luc Van Braekel — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 13:00:15 +0000

Gary Hustwit is working on a documentary about industrial design. “Objectified” will offer a look behind the scenes of everything from furniture to gadgets, with an emphasis on the creative process and the people behind it. The trailer looks very promising:

Previous movies of Hustwit include Helvetica which is all about typeface and fonts.

Beer bag

Yannick — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 22:19:48 +0000

Bagvertising isn’t new, I’ve seen it many times before, but the results are often very nice.

Just like this one for example:

Although I like this example, I seriously doubt that the optical illusion is as good in real life as it is in these pictures. If the optical illusion is any good you can be sure of two things:

a) this bag will turn some heads when an old lady walking down the street is carrying it.

b) a lot of people are going to want one of these bags.

Agency: Noble Graphics Creative Studio, Bulgaria

Absolut PinkEye

Miel Van Opstal — Mon, 03 Dec 2007 20:11:20 +0000

A while ago, I posted something about PinkEye, a supercool design agency. I went back to their site today to check out the new design and I stumbled upon these really classy things they did for Absolut. This is THE example of how a good team can add up to the image of a brand. Creative madness, coming up!

First stop: some beautiful monumental chrome chandeliers. The fiberglass guides the light from the ceiling to the tubetips.

Next stop: these life sized Absolut bottle shaped lightbulbs will brighten up your club/bar in a unique and very stylish way. A trendy and original way to integrate the brand in a loungy decor.

Lastly: with the theme of the Absolut bottle appearing and disappearing in a non-intrusive way, these rotating platters seem a random collection of sparkling glass sticks, until they hit your eye at exactly the right angle and you see the bottle shape form out of thin air.

If you haven’t done so already, check out the PinkEye website and give their catalog a go. These guys genuinely kick ass. If you have a brand that needs to be represented in a cool and unique way, no doubt this is the path to choose.

Link: PinkEye site
Thanks, Thomas

The Cupboard Stairs

Miel Van Opstal — Wed, 23 May 2007 19:50:02 +0000

My uberfriendly colleagues from Appelogen have spotted this very nifty and cute system to tidy up the house. Should you ever consider replacing ye olde stairs, do not hesitate to ask your local carpenter to help you figure this one out. Perfect for shoes, books, socks, flashlights and what not. You’re going to wish you had more stairs to climb once you’ve discovered the luxury of this beauty. It’s actually invented or produced by Unicraft Joinery, an Australian company without online presence.

Added to the Link Love page: AppelOgen

Camouflage Tent

Miel Van Opstal — Tue, 10 Apr 2007 22:46:04 +0000

Bert sent me this super cool image of a camouflage tent he got from a friend. I don’t know where it’s up for sale, but I think the idea is just super! The only thing I hope is that you don’t buy it with a deer print if you go out camping in the woods or in the mountains… because if they do have it, you better not run into some hunters :)

Design: Herve Matejewski
Thanks, Bert

Urban Guerrilla: Revenge Of The Pixel

Miel Van Opstal — Fri, 06 Apr 2007 13:30:26 +0000

Pixelator is an unauthorized on-going video art performance collaboration with the New York City Metropolitan Transit Authority, Clear Channel Communications, and its selected artists. Since 2003, the MTA has made available for exhibition purposes 80 LED screens located at subway entrances across New York City. Unfortunately, the high cost of exhibiting (an estimated $274,000 per month per screen) prevents most artists from having access to these facilities. While the MTA’s effort to create more opportunities for video art exhibition in public spaces is to be commended, selected works remain wholly fixated on commercial goods and media conglomerate events, a short-sighted curatorial choice that regrettably ignores the full potential of these promising exhibition spaces. In an attempt to broaden the scope of MTA’s video art series, Pixelator takes video pieces currently on display and diffuses them into a pleasant array of 45 blinking, color-changing squares. Since the project is an anonymous collaboration, the resulting video is almost entirely unplanned and unanticipated, with the original artists helping to create new works of art without any knowledge of their participation.
[Translation: Pixelator turns those ugly, blinding video billboard ads into art]

Video Link

BumpTop 3D Desktop

Miel Van Opstal — Tue, 06 Mar 2007 12:14:50 +0000

This has been around for about a year or so, but I never got to blog about it. Then today I accidentally stumbled upon a video from the project and I just wanted to add this to my archive, for keepers. I have a thing for virtual toys and projects. This particular one is from Anand Agarawala & Ravin Balakrishnan for the DGP (Dynamic Graphics Project) at the university of Toronto, Canada. The University of Toronto’s Dynamic Graphics Project (dgp) is an interdisciplinary research laboratory within the Department of Computer Science. The lab’s mission is advanced research and graduate instruction in human-computer interaction and computer graphics. DGP is home base to Computer Science faculty and students in these two areas.

Video: BumpTop 3D Desktop

I don’t think I can live with this sort of desktop, because I’m too attached to seeing a file name under an icon and to ‘folders’ where I can stash stuff in to. This BumpTop desktop, however, is quite a refreshing idea and I love where this is going. It would be great to have it as an optional feature in my current OS, but not really as a permanent environment to work in. That’s my two cents. Looks super smooth though.

Links:
BumpTop site | DGP site

J&B Urban Art

Miel Van Opstal — Fri, 08 Dec 2006 12:50:48 +0000

Urban Art Exhibition is sponsored by J&B. 10 selected artists are creating / have created specific artworks that will be exposed on giant billboards across the streets of Barcelona. I think this a great idea to promote local artists on the one hand, and dress up the city scenery on the other. It gives your brand a very unique touch and makes it stand out. And J&B’s Nightology concept is the perfect match for a campaign like this one. Very trendy, distinguished, modern and progressive. Artwork by: Aya Kato, Boris Hoppek, Bruno 9li, Catalina Estrada, Dalek, Eltono & Nuria, Fupete, Neasden Control Centre, Sixeart, Ovni & Kenor.

Previews of the Urban Art at Rojo Magazine

Thanks, Frank

PlayStation Season: Volume

Miel Van Opstal — Wed, 29 Nov 2006 16:16:04 +0000

The PlayStation Season is a partnership between PlayStation and 5 international public arts institutions renowned for an innovative approach to arts programming – BALTIC, the V&A, ENO, Sadler’s Wells and the BFI. One of the projects that’s on exhibition from November 24th to January 27th is the Volume project. In the V&A museum in London a display of an interactive installation has been set up in the John Madejski Garden. ‘Volume’ is a sculpture of light and sound, an array of light columns positioned in the center of the garden. The installation responds to human movement, creating a series of audio-visual experiences. ‘Volume’ is a collaboration between lighting designers United Visual Artists (UVA), Robert Del Naja (aka 3D) of Massive Attack, and his long-term co-writer Neil Davidge.

Volume
V&A Museum
PlayStation Season

Thanks, Frank | via ComputerLove

Zune Me!

Miel Van Opstal — Mon, 06 Nov 2006 08:15:55 +0000

Ah! It looks like the marketing manager has started whipping around and finally kicked off the Zune campaign for real. Sure, there’s been ads and banners around on the net, but now it’s been taken to the next level. At last, fellow waiters, the long wait is almost over. Zune is T minus 8 days and counting ! Go check out the Zune-Arts site, there’s some really cool clips you just got to see.

Over at the main Zune site, there’s 6 commercials posted at this time, all weird and funky, the Zune way. I’ve been looking at the auction for the customized Zunes too, but I think I’ll just wait for a regular one and customize it myself, even though the Stüssy Zune looks tempting and pretty neat.

I know there was a reason why my inner self told me not to go for ye olde iPod. And I think this is the reason. :) Looking at the specs, the shape, the design… boy-oh boy. Pleasure overload. I can’t wait to buy one of these.

Things that make me horny:

Display

Size: 3.0 inches
Orientation: Vertical and Horizontal
Resolution: 320 x 240 pixels

Wireless

Connectivity: 802.11 b/g
Range: Up to 30 feet

Battery

Music: up to 14 hours (wireless off)
up to 13 hours (wireless on)
Pictures: up to 4 hours
Video: up to 4 hours

Yes, and Zune you too!

Touch Me Tender Interface

Miel Van Opstal — Sat, 21 Oct 2006 16:09:14 +0000

A little while ago I received an e-mail from Stan Kravetz, the COO of KsanLab. Over at KsanLab, they’ve been developing a tactile interface that looks really slick. The ‘Touch Me Tender’ interface is a product which is designed in order to use “natural” human interaction to avoid intermediates such as menus, mouse and so on. It makes interaction more convenient and eliminates the need for any special IT education. So it opens a door for new customer experience for a broader range of users. Interesting perspective. Not ground-breaking (I’ve seen such concepts before), but I’ve never seen the ‘paint’ application as extended as it is pictured in the clip below.

Over at KsanLab, they see following applications of Touch Me Tender at the moment:

Development of interactive P.O.S. terminals those can be integrated with web projects, services and campaigns.
Entertainment at shopping malls, restaurants, airports, museums, etc.
An experiential marketing tool: a customer interacts with the product in a tactile way (selection and virtual test of make-up, clothes, furniture).

What I’m fond of is that instead of focusing on the ‘gaming market’, they’ve shifted the focus to the ‘marketing market’, and by doing so they’ve drilled a far bigger audience. [Plus it got them on this blog :)]

More info? check out www.KsanLab.com

Other slick interfaces on Marketing Thoughts:

BenQ/Siemens Black Box

Miel Van Opstal — Sun, 01 Oct 2006 21:36:45 +0000

Okay, it doesn’t have the same nifty flaps as the phone in the iTalk clip I posted earlier, but you’ve got to admit: this cell is a beauty made in designer heaven. I’d love to own one of these… too bad concept phones are rarely put into production. This phone has no keypads, no buttons, just a big smooth touch screen. Seeing the picture it looks like the has no fixed interface. It changes as you select the options. If it has video playback functions, this phone is a killer!

via Gizmodo

Shoot My Blog

Miel Van Opstal — Fri, 29 Sep 2006 00:21:04 +0000

It might seem as something euthanasic, but it has nothing to do with this blog. Shoot My Blog is an arty viral concept by Renaud Deha (Reno) and it’s purely non-profit. The idea is that people take an original photo of the shootmyblog blog with their digital camera or mobile phone. Then they send it to shootmyblog@hotmail.com. In the picture (somewhere, big or small) there has to be an imprint of the shootmyblog homepage. Participants are encouraged to be very creative and the reward is that the original picture gets published on the totally bizarre photoblog. The only thing I’m sad about is that the links to the photographer’s site is in fact plain text and not a link. Not only do I have to copy-paste the text in the address bar to check out that site, there’s also no linklove coming from the photoblog to the contributers. My opinion is: if you tap the consumer market, you also have to give something back. The words aren’t enough. A real link adds linkjuice to the contributors of the blog. A Flickr set makes it even more viral. It’s a good concept, but it still need some adjustments. I’ll send in a picture of my blog featuring his blog in a blogpost to contribute to the project. There’s already some cool art works on the index because the project first saw screenlight on July 29th.

Visit ShootMyBlog | Thanks, Reno.

A little friendly warning though, Reno… if you’re planning to go viral, you better not encourage people to click your AdSense ads, especially not on a blogspot.com domain. It’s against the ToS agreement you have to follow. People got banned for less. I’d remove the request from your sidebar if I were you.

Update [09-29-06, 11 AM]: Reno says the links are ON the pictures themselves, I must’ve tried some images of authors who didn’t have a website to link to. My bad!

Stripped

Miel Van Opstal — Thu, 28 Sep 2006 18:45:33 +0000

Here’s a clip of which I first thought that it was a commercial for Stella Artois. Obviously, once I saw the clip was over 2 minutes long, I had to rethink this idea. I thought it was a beer commercial, because the only brand in the clip is a can of Stella Artois, a Belgian beer. But now I kind of doubt it, because there’s no mention of the brand at the end of the clip either. Now I just think it’s a weird, funny clip. Very good editing job, nice filming… I like the style and I really like the song. Check this out:

Written & Directed by Mark Jackson
Camera & Lighting: Mark Jackson
Editing: Mark Jackson
SFX Make-up: Nathalie Page
2nd Camera Operator: Alan Colegrave
Production Assistant: Yvonne Jackson

Soundtrack: Who’s Inside My Baby
Written by Mark Jackson

Credits: Jackson Film Ltd, 2006

Thanks for sending this in, Arns

Graph Your Site

Miel Van Opstal — Sun, 24 Sep 2006 16:58:35 +0000

I’m probably nearly the last one in the world to see this, but since I’m adding the image to the Flickr group, I thought I might as well blog it too so it’s ‘out there’. Sala programmed an HTML Graph Applet that renders your site into a graphical structure. Sala is an artist who’s active on many platforms. His alter ego art-project, onethousandpaintings.com, has also travelled the globe very fast. From the 1000 paintings he had on sale, as many as 583 are already sold. Amazing.

See my graph being made | Create yours
On Flickr, 2023 photos have already been tagged with the websitesasgraphs keyword. Feel free to add yours.

Mushroom Life Simulator

Miel Van Opstal — Sun, 24 Sep 2006 14:48:12 +0000

This is a very cool piece of Code-Art to check out: there’s a 20 by 20 squared field set up. You have to make contours (figures) in the squares by clicking on them. Doing so, you ’seed’ mushrooms. Make sure you seed plenty so it looks like the first screenshot I took. Then press the ‘generation’ button to start. You’ll see the formula start to work and ‘calculate’ generations, showing the results instantly (as illustrated in the second image below)

Resulting process in action:

When it’s all finished, or if you can’t wait that long: earlier, you can start clicking randomly in the field (click fast in circular movements) to activate new generations of mushrooms.

Mushrooms follow these rules:
For each generation,
a mushroom with 1 or 0 neighbor dies (loneliness),
a mushroom with 4 or more neighbors dies (overcrowding),
a mushroom with 2 or 3 neighbors survives (stability),
an empty space with 3 neighbors sprouts a new mushroom (birth).

Check out:
Art Project: Mushroom Life by Kaiyijo
A Mushroom perspective on John Conway’s Game of Life

Also check out Kaiyijo’s site, by the way. It’s a Flash beauty!

Belgian Fries

Miel Van Opstal — Wed, 13 Sep 2006 23:10:58 +0000

I’ve always wondered why they call it French fries, while in fact Belgium is the only land that knows how to make decent fries. I’ll try to never call it French fries again. Just out of patriotism. Late November our culinary pride will be put on display again in the national ‘week of the fry’, and this time it’s all about the wrapping. The VLAM (Vlaams Centrum voor Agro- en Visserijmarketing, which is the Flemish Center for Agroculture and Fishery Marketing) organises a competition for graphical designers who can think of an entertaining and new look for the typical cone in which the fries are served. The designs of the 15 finalists will be giantized and 3D-ized in real life and exhibited in open air. (So I bet they’ll not scale it in paper or cardboard). The eventual winner will go home with € 500 ($ 635). Godfather of the campaign is Herr Seele, creator of the Flemish urban cartoon hero ‘Cowboy Henk’. Herr Seele kicked off the campaign with a design of his own to set the mood. The competition is open for pros, artists and students so if one of these three descriptions suit you: feel free to participate. All you have to do is be creative with the cone (in a graphical way – putting it on your head and sending a picture of that is funny, but will not help)

Copy: “Will you become king of the cone?”

Info on the theme site | Download technical drawing

Specs: height: 115 cm | diameter: 60 cm | upper contour: 160 cm

This competition is a joint venture of the VLAM and the Flemish ‘friturists’ (owners of the fry-shacks) and the potato-peeling companies.
(And no, I’m not making this up)

Client: VLAM
Agency: Germaine
Artdirector: Bart Klerckx @ Republica
Copywriters: Eric Debaene, Geerard Van de Walle
Photographer: Luk Monsaert
Thanks, Bart

Website DNA

Miel Van Opstal — Mon, 07 Aug 2006 19:46:48 +0000

Cool toy. Nice graphics. Don’t know if it has any other purpose besides being artistic and all that, but it visualizes quite good how ’semantic’ your website in fact is.

What it means:

The brightness of the lines is determined by the importance of the tags in terms of structure.

H1 is brighter than H2, which is brighter than H3.
TABLE is brighter than TR, which is brighter than TD tags.
Images and flash elements appear as 70% white.
New HTML tags like STRONG and EM is brighter than older ones like B and I
UL, OL and DL is brighter than their LI, DT, DD
DIV layout is brighter than table layout

Basically a semantically rich site will appear brighter than one with messy old-style code.

WEB 2 DNA via zog | 7seconden

Ford In Ice

Miel Van Opstal — Sat, 05 Aug 2006 17:37:10 +0000

It’s been a bit longer than a year since I first wrote about a promotional stunt for a car brand where they’ve cut an entire model of out ice. Well, about one later they’ve done it again. Different brand though, and still pretty impressive to see. To celebrate the success of the Ford Focus – the UK’s most popular car – Roelant de Waard, the chairman and managing director of Ford Britain, revealed a life-size six-and-a-half-ton ice-sculpture of the new Ford Focus Coupé-Cabriolet last month at a fair in the UK.

The creation took about 160 hours of work, but the team of sculptors had to work in a giant freezer where temperatures where as low as minus 10°C (-50°F), so the shifts could be 40 minutes at max. It took two weeks to create it in total. The sculpture is made of 120 separate pieces of crafted ice, was dismantled and then reconstructed on the Ford stand and weighs about 6.5 tons. Cool. (source)

Related on Marketing Thoughts:

Ice Ice Polo