Design Thread: October 2007

Wednesday, October 3, 2007

Robotmania

This site will be of special interest to anyone fascinated by the dreamy age of space travel and technology, and of course to collectors and fans of 50s and 60s tin toys. The amount of creativity and artistic talent that went into crafting this collection of space-themed toys and robots is truly amazing—certainly these unique pieces define a bygone era not to be repeated again. And the Flash site by Alberto Cerriteno is a perfect blend of modern, yet rustic design... and even includes a retro game of Space Invaders.

Designed by: Alberto Cerriteno

notsosimpleton

Myron Campbell is an artist and designer whose mixed media work is immersed in ideas surrounding consciousness and the subconscious, dream states and fairy tales. He uses painting, drawing, digital art, sound, collage and 2D animation to explore and create his bizarre visions. So now, enter his dreams and explore his thoughts in this fragile, patchwork site of his subconscious mind.

C'koi Ce Hold Up

Publicis Net has just released this funky animated website for SFR (part of Vodafone Group). Even if the site is in French, you should enjoy browsing through it, checking out the cool designer characters and flash animations. The site was created by Publicis Net in collaboration with Paris based creative studio Hellohikimori. And it looks like they had a lot of fun making it!

Playb3yond

It's not often when the future of a major music and entertainment company like Sony rests on the release of a single product. So when you debut two new technologies in one gaming system and sell it for a $400 loss in hopes of making billions down the road... Yup! Sounds like the perfect reason to blow even more money on an extravagant, animated web advertisement - complete with Captain Kirk voice overs! Sadly, at the end of 15 minutes, the site is ultimately an expensive, 3-D marketing brochure with lots of glitz and no interactive substance (somehow, Shatner specialties). However, it also makes us salivate for the very latest in high-definition gaming and graphics. Sony is drawing deep into its brand loyalty cachet and they are betting it all on this console's success. It shows in this high-end video production, but where's the web2.0 love?

DUBOIS meets FUGGER

DUBOIS meets FUGGER is a Belgian agency with an extremely creative website, featuring a funny little man, 31 different transitional animations and 5 little secrets hidden throughout the website. Probably one of the finer online works we've found, and certainly the best of 2007, so far. "Dubois" creates print, advertising and publicity for a number of established Belgian agencies. Enjoy this playful site, with illustrations by Eugene and Louise. Flash design by Studio Plum.

Designed by: Studio Plum

Rexona | Action City

Posted under animation & game design, promotional design.

Although we've all seen 3D immersive sites before, some of the newest breed take it to an uncommonly high level of detail. Take for example the Rexona (also know as Degree deodorant in the U.S.) "Action City" site, which takes its cue from a very popular stunt man TV commercial produced in 2006. It has 3D graphics rivaling next-generation video games, but due to the medium, contains only 1% of the actual full-environmental funtionality—which truthfully, given the medium, is quite an accomplishment. That being said, don't miss the mini-game and the many little hidden clickables. Overall, an A+ for gratuitous graphics.

Nestea Ice

Featuring funny animated clip-art, flourishes and purely mystical landscapes, the immersive Nestea Ice site comes off as a funky cross falling somewhere between Monthy Python and an animated version of the North Pole on Zoloft. Currently hosted live only on Juxt's site, this fantasy world of Nestea Ice hopefully lives on—it's a perfect case-study of a dream design for any illustration and interactive Flash animation team.

Designed by: Juxt Interactive

Doritos | Snack Strong

With a bit of nacho-on-tongue-in-cheek showmanship, Doritos beings us into their immersive virtual 3D hollywood production set, which doubles as a slighty apocalyptic-hued fantasy secret lab. Again, the detail in these animations is certainly beyond the scope of reasonable spending, but the results are really impressive. There is more than enough eye-candy to go around—down to the randomness programmed into little ant-like people on the ground... and it's only 2/5 complete as three more sections are due to be released in the near future. As a big childhood fan of original Doritos, I'm personally not sure why they need 15 new flavors, but evidently these guys have more time on their hands than you can shake a spice rack at.

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Oral Fix | The Chocolate Factory

A highly creative fantasy mixture between a unique mint companies' real factory and a sophisticated virtual playground. Oral Fixation's immersive 3D world offers more explorable pieces than most sites of the genre. We liked how you can re-skin the atmosphere and time of day, which is normally based on the actual conditions at the real company; located in an old chocolate factory in New Jersey. But besides the high-end graphics and addition of skins, Oral Fix is a company interested in true involvement, which consists of (for one example) giving 10% of profits to the Free Tibet Movement*. Perhaps the only 'draw-back' is there is too much to explore—at this point, we haven't found half the stuff they claim is hidden in the site. Which only means we'll have to come back and get our fix at another time of day.

the truth

the truth is a subversive anti-smoking campaign that raises anti-smoking awareness through staged marketing activities – which are then broadcast globally and spread infectiously. What you may not know about this campaign is that it is indirectly funded by big tobacco firms themselves, who settled huge tobacco suits in the late 90's and were forced to pay the 46 suing U.S. States – who set up the The American Legacy Foundation in 1999, which in turn funds 'truth'. Therefore the campaigns you see are the product of the industry's fangs biting its own tail—the same campaigns that use creative marketing installations to spread calamitous truths about the harms of smoking. It's a very interesting paradox... and very well-funded... which means it's very well designed. So spread it!

Get the Glass!

As, one of the first (and only) web games we've played more than once, this "advertainment" for the Got Milk? campaign is far-and-away the best produced and realized game sites we've seen since... well, since ever! From the artistry of the characters, to the 3D realization of the island, to the graphic elements, typography... this virtual recreation of a simple board-game comes together like a cold glass of milk and chocolate chip cookies. And of course, this award winning site (Cannes Lion 2006) site was produced by a Swedish firm... who else? Much to love about this design. Now, "can I please get the glass?".

Designed by: North Kingdom

Simpsonize Me

Can't really say too much about how beautiful this site is... Upload a photo. Adjust some options. And Simpsonize yourself! Great tie-in with Burger King's brand message of "have it your way". Developed by German agency Cortona. Brilliant!

Designed by: Cortona

Monday, October 1, 2007

David Carson Design

"David Carson continues to be one of the world's most distinctive typographic voices--
much imitated, but never matched," - Ellen Lupton. Well, we'd have to say that about sums it up in a nutshell. The typographic wizard himself has a site where you can explore a lifetime of showcase studies and keep tabs on the man. Most recently at this re-write, we are eagerly following the release of his latest graphic design book, titled Trek.

Clients: Microsoft, Giorgio Armani, GIBBES Museum of Art

Paul Snowden

Paul Snowden is our kind of designer... A true designer for the new millenium. So, forget what you know and enter a world where design is based around simple shapes, complex ideas and good solutions. Be sure to check out the various projects - there are bold type solutions and a theme of strong graphic attitude that runs through his work. And that's what's cool to us.

hi-res!

The sites of hi-res! are truly multisensory explorations, immersing you somewhere between experimental web art and a fantastic dream. The rich worlds they create encourage both personal interaction and unique interpretation. This firm's site and portfolio are constantly in a state of innovation. This brings us big grins and makes our hearts go boom-boom-boom.

Clients: Requiem For A Dream, Donnie Darko

Futurefarmers

Futurefarmers is cultivating your consciousness with a bevy of animated critters, wry humor, and a brand that has propelled founder Amy Franceschini to designer stardom. It has also captured such clients as Adobe, The New York Times, Swatch, and a creative cache of hip San Francisco galleries. The web site sports an impressive corporate portfolio and an array of visual stimuli, "for-fun" projects, and web dramas. The latter range from "Deface the President" to a Kosovo Elf shoot 'em up game. The firm's fascinating book,

Harvest, is available for purchase, too. These folks never sleep... and we want some o' what they use!

Clients: Adobe, New York Times, Swatch

Agency.com

Agency is a techno-Cinderella sort of story; it began in a humble back room in New York in 1995, and now has a solid and still growing blue-chip client base. Their web site touts the firm's broad-based conceptual approach, which means you'll get all the buzzwords, from "user-centric approaches" to "templating, workflow and deployment." But besides the talk, Agency really outdoes itself each year, having gone public and back to private again, surviving the bursting bubble, and yet they still gain recognition after 10 years in the interactive biz... Undeniably, Agency.com has the goods and the act to prove it.

Clients: Reuters, British Airways, T-Mobile

Imagination Group

Ladies and Gentleman, Digitalthread is pleased to present, The Big Boys. With offices peppered over Europe, Asia and North America, strategic location is merely a hint at the skills this communication catch-all holds. Indulge us for a moment, you're a corporation looking for some design firepower and we're a wise-guy reviewer. You want brand experience events and environments? Check. New media presentations for financial roadshows? Check. Perhaps, film, websites, live performance or even interior design? Check, check, check, check. You get the point? The projects are as impressive as the client list - but we have the sneaky suspicion they don't do missing dog flyers. (Snobs.)

DED Associates

DED Associates is an international design agency. Its output is diverse, crossing print, film, websites and other visual media and featuring commissions from clients in business, publishing and the arts, as well as self-initiated projects. Founded by Jon and Nik Daughtry in 1991, DED pursues its own, ultra-contemporary path in design. Quirky graphics and typo-manipulation are product du jour – well done and expressively crisp – like the best lemonade you’ve ever had, served in a dirty glass.

Clients: EMI, Nissan, MTV

Fork Unstable Media

These guys are just plain cool – they have the product and they aren’t afraid to make a song & dance of it – literally. Websites, video, audio (their favorite media/pastime), a dash of print and a liberal sprinkling of branding over all. It’s also worth mentioning that the products are styled to suit the individual clients. Stick a Fork in it – it’s done.

Clients: Nivea, Adidias, Vodafone

firstborn

Firstborn does really lovely, effective work that isn't limited to websites—they reach all the way to the relatively antique advertising method known as printing brochures. You know, the kind of thing that uses paper? Check out their website for more info on who they are, what they do, why you'd want to work with them, etc. You'll join an impressive, eclectic bunch: Bacardi, Calvin Klein, Madonna, Columbia University. Sounds like a great party.

Clients: Calvin Klein, Ralph Lauren, Bacardi

the barbarian group

Okay, you have to admit that Burger King's Subservient Chicken website is a riot. You know the one—the psuedo live video feed of a guy in a chicken suit who will do anything you want? It's hilarious and brilliant (and got over one billion hits), which is why we are excited to learn that barbarian group was the firm behind it. Their entire modus operandi, while exceedingly professional, is to create unique and surprising online advertising. Visit their website. You'll find links to a host of large projects, and not just games... but Flash specialty marketing, hotsites, and online advertising... but also a whole slew of cool online games. Marketing made fun.

Clients: Volkswagen, HP, Saturn

Createthe

Createthe (imagine a space between the syllables) has an open-ended name, suggesting that they can create...well, whatever you want. Their web and graphic design work has been used extensively by the fashion industry, which is a notoriously tough customer. Createthe also creates proprietary software so the client can run and update the final product themselves. Sometimes we visit these sites and wonder "why didn't WE think of that?" Oh, right. We're not smart enough. Fortunately, Createthe is.

Clients: Bottega Veneta, Stella McCartney, Marc Jacobs

Wednesday, October 3, 2007

Sites Related to Robotmania

Sites Related to Not So Simpleton

Sites Related to C'koi Ce Hold Up

Sites Related to Playb3yond

Sites Related to DUBOIS meets FUGGER

Posted under animation & game design, promotional design.

Sites Related to Rexona | Action City

Sites Related to Nestea Ice

Sites Related to Oral Fixation Mints

Sites Related to the truth

Sites Related to Get the Glass!

Sites Related to Simpsonize Me

Monday, October 1, 2007

Sites Related to David Carson Design

Sites Related to Paul Snowden

Sites Related to hi-res!

Sites Related to Futurefarmers

Sites Related to Agency.com

Sites Related to Imagination

Sites Related to DED Associates

Sites Related to Fork Unstable Media

Sites Related to Firstborn

Sites Related to the barbarian group

Sites Related to Createthe

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