Class Critique and Lecture with Liad Baniel

Liad Baniel, of Liad Baniel Studio, visited my Digital Design class last week to help critique our early stage Marketing Videos for our products. He first gave a lecture on marketing and advertising in general. It was a great lecture and I naturally took copious notes. Some of my favorite points he hit on were:
- Marketing and advertising is about finding a point of CONNECTION with your viewer
- The holy grail of design is to get your viewer to experience something they will never forget
- Visual communication is the face of any company, product, idea, concept, etc
- Putting a poster out into the world is like a first date. Play by the rules - you know what people are attracted to, but you can't be boring

He also pulled up a few projects he thought were really successful at grabbing an audience's attention, in very different ways. The first two images are print advertising by Marc Atlan Design, Inc (a new favorite design studio of mine!). They are both for Commes des Garcon - one for nail polish and one for perfume. The ads are approached in two VASTLY different ways, which I love. Baniel hit on that something to always remember - an advertising campaign does not all have to look the same. For the nail polish, the bold use of color and scale are great. A sense of drama is created. For the perfume, a more intimate product, you feel like the bottles are hugging - a time when you're most likely to smell someone's perfume.

The second project here that Baniel discussed is Wolff Olins' branding for the New Museum in New York City. The branding is variable based on the content the museum needs to include and serves as an active graphic device. I love variable logos and I think this is really successful - it even picks up on the stacked architectural elements of the building itself.

iPad's Everywhere in JFK's Delta Terminal

I flew into JFK today on what can only be described as a miniature version of an actual plane. We had to deplane close to a half-mile away from the terminal and after the walk, we emerge through a sketchy, back staircase into the ancient Terminal 2 & 3 of JFK currently occupied by Delta.

HOWEVER

Upon entering the terminal I was pleasantly surprised to see a snazzy looking restaurant, Croque Madame, equipped with iPads at every table...yes, this borderline vintage terminal has gone technology friendly and this new restaurant (it just opened November 16th) lets users not only order their food from these iPads, but also check email, check their fantasy football scores and hop on facebook.


Unfortunately, I didn't take the time to snap an actual picture of people using the iPads...almost every singe table was occupied and most people were using the iPads. Along with the iPads, there is also an impressive array of outlet/charging options at each table.

According to Delta, this will be expanded to LaGuardia later this year. Within JFK, they have this iPad installation at both Croque Madame, a French-inspired dining concept developed by New York chef Andrew Carmellini & Bar Brace, an Italian dining concept from New York restaurateur Jason Denton.

Picture from Gothamist

Happy Turkey Day

A Thanksgiving Day video by my sisters and I :)
Music: Go Do by Jonsi

Happy Thanksgiving!

We No Speak Americano ft. Cleary & Harding

Really this is unlike anything I've ever seen - and its brilliant. Peter Harding and Suzanne Cleary have been making waves in the Irish Dancing world using new inspiration in their choreography from hip-hop theatre, contemporary dance and electro-pop. Sure looks a lot different than Riverdance (which they've also both done). Check out some of their other videos on their YouTube channel.

I just can't help but smile when I watch this :) Props to Daniela for sharing.

American Tourister - $20

Genius advertising...back in the days of Mad Men. Designed by Doyle Dane Bernbach, or DDB (famous for their VW Lemon ad), this is an ad for American Tourister Luggage that ran from 1970-1982 winning a Clio Award as well as being named being named one of Entertainment Weekly's all time best commercials in 1995 coming in at #3.

On a side note - if you visit the DDB site, watch their "Introducing Social Creativity" video on the homepage - they have done some pretty fantastic work. And if you visit the American Tourister site, note that they are still alluding to this Gorilla campaign on their homepage.

For more info on the commercial, go here.

Contemporary Architecture on "V"

Well its no news that the ABC remake of "V" used the architecture of Santiago Calatrava, primarily his Milwaukee Museum of Art, as inspiration for the interiors of the alien spaceship. With huge curving beams and lots of cool whites and greys, it had Calatrava all over it.

What I found interesting instead when watching the show last fall was what they did to create the part of the ship shown when sitting on the leader Ana's balcony of sorts. Overlooking the rest of the ship, if you look closely, you may recognize a few works of architecture not-so-much emulated, like the rest of ship, as just plain old plopped in there.

Having personally studied and visited these actual buildings, I thought it was hysterical to first notice Norman Foster's Swiss Re, or 30 St Marys Axe, lying pathetically on its side. Then I soon realized the a few other Santiago Calatrava buildings from the City of Arts and Sciences in Valencia were making cameos as well. Both L'Hemisfèric and El Museu de les Ciències Príncipe Felipe appear as completed buildings just hanging out in the background.

Certainly an interesting way to make the architecture of your spaceship look contemporary - just rip off actual contemporary architecture.

One Newspaper Fits All

Recently discovered by a Reddit member and now making its way around the internet, these are all screen shots from sitcoms using the EXACT SAME newspaper pages. Many people's first inclination is to call Photoshop, but that would be pretty dumb, considering its any easy to check to simply watch one of the shows to see if its real. And indeed, people have done that...and it is.

Apparently, its not that crazy, but in fact a simple Hollywood prop, used within the industry similar to the Wilhem Scream. It has appeared in shows like Modern Family, Desperate Housewives, and Scrubs among many many others.

The paper is just a file that can be purchase for about $15, instead of having to pay royalties to recognizable papers like the NY Times. The front can be customized for each show, but it appears that quite often, the single file is used to show the whole paper.

Seen on Brow Beat and here's the original article.

Follow Up - Sukkah City Union Square

About two months ago I posted about Sukkah City - an international competition to re-imagine the sukkah held in New York City's Union Square. I was excited to see the 15 designs that were chosen from the hundreds of entries and they certainly did not disappoint. While there were some pretty big discrepancies between some of the design proposals and the actual realizations, others were spot-on and all were fascinating to see in 3D form. Of the 15 chosen, 13 actually made it to Union Square for the event to be voted on by the public.

The event was held over two days and I got to attend on a BEAUTIFUL Monday afternoon. Union Square was absolutely PACKED! There were students, tourists, New Yorkers, designers and more all enjoying the sukkahs. The winner after voting was Fractured Bubble, which remained in Union Square for the week.

My personal favorites were Sukkah of Signs by Ron Rael & Virginia San Fratello using signs purchased from homeless people and Gathering by Dale Suttle, So Sugita, and Ginna Nguyen which had beautiful, sweeping lines and excellent craftsmanship.

To see the sukkahs, click on the image for a large view or check them out on my Flickr page.

Out My Window

Out My Window is part of the Highrise Project - "Highrise is a multi-year, multi-media, collaborative documentary project about the human experience in global vertical suburbs."

For this multi part project Out My Window is just one little bit, but boy is it a good bit. To show different lives, living conditions and experiences, the Out My Window website shows a montaged building with different windows showing peeks of apartment interiors. Clicking on one brings you, the viewer, right into the middle of their living room. Shot in a 360 degree view, you can pan around the space, see what this person's life is like, and experience their view out their window. Going further, you can learn about each person by clicking on different elements and hearing a narrative.

There is something so real and so genuine about the way these apartments are shown. If it were just some pictures, that would not have much affect on me at all, but because of the 360 view, you really feel like you are there. You're given the chance to step into an apartment in Prague and "meet" the people who live there - what a unique experience.

Major major props to Alison for sharing this with me :)

Fluid Vase

A brilliant combination in 3D modeling and visualization with 3D printing creates these one-of-a-kind splash vases. Created by Supabold, they have partnered with i.materialise to allow customers to digitally create their own simulated splash, choose the best moment and have it turned into a vase. The i.materialise website says about the project:

“Supabold’s Fluid Vase is a moment frozen in time. Water rushes in splashing, filling the void. The splashes are physics & poetry.

You can now select a water drop, position it and watch the water flow. Choose the most beautiful instant and forever capture it. 3D printing takes this moment and turns it into your unique vase.”

These vases are incredible. If they didnt cost $600, I'd be making myself one right now :)

See on FastCoDesign.

Save The Words!

Launched by the Oxford English Dictionary, Save the Words is a lighthearted project "to save forgotten words from obsolescence." Users can go to the website just to learn about all these forgotten words rarely used in everyday conversation. They've been "designed" differently and in vibrant colors, making the interaction fun, although there are a lot of typefaces on there that induce a bit of a gag reflex haha. You can just browse through the words to stock up for the day, or a particularly competitive night of Scrabble, or you can even ADOPT A WORD! How fun! You register and then pledge that if you adopt the word, you will try to use it in everyday conversation to bring it back from the dead.

Seen first on GOOD.

Roman Ondák is amazing

Roman Ondák is creating another living infographic at the temporary stedelijk. He's a Slovakian artist plotting visitors’ heights whose mean will become increasingly apparent over the four months of the exhibition. Ondák created "Measuring the Universe" at the Museum of Modern Art last year and gave visitors a similar experience. Attendants measure visitors by height, first name and date. What started as boring white walls quickly becomes a visualization of aggregated data.

Since I'm doing my thesis on data visualization, its always so fun to see how far outside of the box one can go to show a visualization. Instead of a printed or even interactive graphic, bound by paper edges or screen edges, Ondák has created a visualization you can be a part of. With your participation, it will not look the same, and without any participation, it could not exist at all. How fantastic.


Article and pictures see on DesignBoom

WalkSmart Update

OK Go - End Love

More amazing work from OK Go and more amazing stop motion. Love this video! At the end, when all the people from the park get involved, theres some really creative ideas there. I love the mass moving at high speed with the band barely moving - so great!

Thanks to Charles for sharing!

3Oh!3 Double Vision

No special effects, this 3Oh!3 Double Vision music video brilliantly mimics scrolling down a website. Theres "embedded videos" throughout the site that when clicked come to life and even banner ads. Such a creative idea! Love it!

Here's the Behind the Scenes making of the video. Would have loved to see this set!