Human Joystick

How cool is this Volvo cinema advert/experience which happened last week.... 'Audiences were shown an ad for the Volvo XC70 before the movie Ratatouille, and were asked to put their hands in the air and wave them left or right — as a group. A single camera at the front of the theater translated the audience's collective leanings, and the onscreen animated car drove in that direction. '

Faces in many places

I took a photo of this, while on holiday. I think it's a really important part of being a graphic designer to look at things in a different way - this hydrant look like a face and body. It would be cool to make a little family of hydrants with different characters. This one is definitely male, about 15, with attitude!

I'd read about these a few weeks ago in a magazine but I saw them for real today and they're quite impressive - not for their capability of providing light (!) but to act as a talking point - It's such a simple but effective idea! It makes me wonder what else could be used in a similar kind of way - taking away parts of the design that are essentially unnecessary.

artificial trees

Today on the news was a story about ways to combat global warming...one of the ideas mentioned was these 'artificial trees', which basically suck up all the carbon dioxide like a super-powerful tree. This idea intruiged me because it feels as though it's out of the cartoon series Futurama! If someone had shown me this image 5 years ago I wouldn't even have imagined it ever happening in my lifetime, but it seems scientists genuinally do believe in environmental architecture like this... It can only be a good thing if it helps the cause - I do, however, think they have the potential to destroy today's world (visually) for the sake of saving tomorrow's (environmentally) but maybe that's a sacrifice we have to make.

classic, retro, old-fashioned

I'm guessing most people are aware of the coke rebrand - now first of all, wow! love it!...I love the simplicity, the break down of all the elements, leaving only the iconic symbols of the Coca Cola brand...now, I would call this 'classic' (maybe vintage, is there a difference?): It shows Coke as a quality product with heritage and a loyal following regardless of water droplets, swirls and squiggles.

Secondly there's 'retro'. Surely retro isn't as good as classic but retro is still cool! I think a brand like poppets has worked out how to use retro. It doesn't have the same heriage as Coke but it does have 80s nostalgia linked to it and at the moment 80s kitsch is cool!

...and then there's old fashioned. Fray Bentos is old fashioned (although it's not doing badly - apparently worth £33 million a year!) ...it's not like they've tried to rebrand so I don't want to bad mouth them...but old fashioned is not cool: how does old fashioned become classic, vintage or retro?....Can it?

Is retro just a rebranded version of old fashioned?

Chromeo

Earlier today I downloaded Chromeo's latest album and decided to have a look at their website for tour dates. I'd never been on their website before and on first impressions I thought it looked cool - a kind of mishmash of images, which are all a bit cut and paste but come together to form a perfectly feasible composition - much like their music, which is a sort of electronic mishmash, with a funk undertone that comes together to sound...well...good! - but after exploring the website, the usability aspect of it just let it down. Everything you click opens in a new pop up window, which is slow (probably due to my internet, but surely a web designer should take this into account to a certain extent) and quite aggravating and it just didn't flow! It's a shame because I was expecting it to be a really good website. The album's definately better! (Chromeo - Fancy Footwork) Listen to that instead of visiting the website!

Ben & Jerry's Heritage

I saw this advert recently at the cinema and thought it was quite enjoyable! I love the fast pace of it, and i was actually quite surprised when i found it on YouTube that it was only 30 seconds long - it felt a lot longer when i saw it for the first time! The production of this advert seems relatively simple, which gives me more confidence in the digital side of design - it demonstrates how a good concept can shine through over fancy digital techniques, showing that you can be effective whatever your digital know-how.