Adidas - Unite All Originals

Adidas' new advert was created by SoMe, an artist I've been a huge fan of for years. His effortless animation style really struck my imagination before I knew what it really was. I remember coming home from school and seeing Kanye West's Good Life video on the music channels and just being inspired. I was mad into digital art at that age. Looking back on here I've realised I've previously wrote about SoMe, nice to know I'm consistent over the years, eh!? And also that I did teach myself to rotoscope after mentioning here that I wanted to learn, can I get a woohoo for self improvement?!
After researching the advert I discovered via digitalartsonline that there's an interactive element which can be found on Adidas' website here. The video can be controlled by human interaction, following a tutorial, you're invited to either say or type what you see, making the video react to your input. A brilliant idea from Adidas, the novelty value alone is a winner, but teamed with Run DMC, SoMe and A-Trak, anyone with an interest in sports or urban culture is going to be sucked in like fat kid in a water slide. Absolutely raging I don't have my Stan Smiths anymore - as in, I have no recollection of throwing them away, so they must be somewhere... but where!?
I'm a lover and a hater of how fashion recycles - it's always when I give up hope and get rid, that bygone era makes a come back. If Bench ever becomes fashionable again it will be a day of silence in my house. I had enough of the stuff to dress a small army and got rid of it in a de-chav wardrobe revamp a few years ago, so naturally it's bound to be the new 'it' streetwear brand any day now...

Nike World Cup Inspiration Posters

I just came across these great typography posters by Nedjelco-michel Karlovich. Some brilliant work on his website.

"These posters were created in collaboration with Hort in Berlin and Nike Global Football in EMEA.

Creative Direction: Andy Walker, Alvin Chan
Art Direction / Graphic Design: Nedjelco-michel Karlovich / Hort "

These designs really remind me of David Carson's style. The retro effects translate, well yet the designs still feel modern. The effect on the type in each poster which looks like a warped scan, I think, reinforces the modern twist, with the distortion harking back to the style Carson popularised in the 80's.

Illamasqua

While doing work (and looking for a treat for when I finish it) I just noticed this banner on Illamasqua's website which features a moving photograph effect.

And also a make up model with braces, a brave move from a beauty company. Illamasqua do have a reputation for being forward thinking and risky in their promotion and styling. A nice change to see someone average in the beauty and fashion industry, especially in a luxury brand.

Vice 'Monsters' Editorial

It's been a long time since I posted something just because I liked it. But I came across this Vice Editorial today and thought it was too good not to share. Shot by Saga Sig with illustrations by ZISKA, AC BANANAS, Margot Bowman, Stefan Schwartzman and Jessica Cole. The editorial combines street style and lifestyle perfectly.

GIF Player

An animated gif is a digital file format where multiple images are being looped after each other, creating a short and small sized movie clip. The file type was first introduced in 1987 as a first online movie, but soon lost its function with the increasing speed of internet and the possibility to upload longer and bigger movies. The document type however has gained back some of its popularity and is even entering the field of Art today. In 1832, Jozeph Plateau, a Belgian physicist invented the phenakistiscope. The first device which was able to show a moving image and which is considered to be the pre-runner of modern cinema. The only down part however was the fact that it could only show short movie clips in a loop. An animated gif is exactly that, and after some research on Plateau’s original design, Pieterjan Grandry succeeded to build a device capable of playing animated gifs, incorporating led lights, microchips and magnetic sensors. The Gif player is a wooden box, much like a turntable, with a dimmer to adjust the speed of the animation and a small looking hole in the front.

text via.

I found this really interesting that people were still revisiting the now more or less defunct GIF, which seems to only have a life span on blogging sites such as tumblr. It's inspirational to see such simple things being given a new creative twist. I could imagine this kind of technique used on a much larger scale for cheap and effective advertising, for example on billboards, parts of the image could move, or even the moving photographs which became popular on the internet in which really slight things move, like a skirt blowing in the wind. I could see myself looking twice if I thought I saw a static billboard move out of the corner of my eye.

Coldplay Wristband audience interaction

Recently Coldplay have been using wristbands which are controlled through radio signals as part of their show at arena gigs, shown below in use at Wembley during the X Factor final and in the video, an audience member at the Glasgow concert demonstrates how the audience experience is enhanced by the bands which create a sense of togetherness and interaction with the show.

An interesting and novel way of creating participation and a communal feel for audience members. This technology could be pushed further to react with all notes and beats automatically, or through tracking of position and different colours implanted within the lights could be used to display images when filmed from above.

Ideas for Simulated Client Brief

WORDS from Everynone on Vimeo.


Made by Everynone (in Collaboration with WNYC's Radiolab & NPR)

Directed by Daniel Mercadante & Will Hoffman

A short film by Everynone made up of clips of everyday situations. Thought provoking, it makes the audience think about what they are watching as each clips flows into the next, linking different meanings and descriptions for the same words, then flowing on to others. Below shows the film recreated using existing YouTube videos.


Re:WORDS from Everynone on Vimeo.



Watching these and the other films created by Everynone have really helped me in getting a direction I'd like to take with the project for the Nottingham Trent Alumni. I'm hoping to focus more on which part of the Alumni I'd like to advertise and hopefully start to think of some shots. Originally I was going to focus on the donating side, possibly with a thank you film or showing where the money went to, however in my tutorial Danny suggested that this may work well with the cancer research part of the donation scheme.