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...

One year hiatus

It's been nearly a year since I've shown this blog a bit of TLC. I've been busy moving country every few months for the past year and unfortunately blogging has taken a back seat in all of that. But now I'm semi settled in Dublin, after a crazy few months travelling around Austria, Croatia and the Czech Republic. I can't promise blogging will become as religiously a part of my routine as it was back in the day, but I'm feeling inspired. What better way to come back to this than with a bit of inspiration? So, my "welcome back" post is going to be music based. I've been out of the loop for the past 7 months, keeping up on current trends back home through chance meetings with English people who are sober enough to tell me what's happening in the mother land... which means I've had to do all the leg work since I've been back. Current obsessions are as follows,

Sampha

Anyone who knows me knows that Sampha isn't a new found love, but a rekindled romance. I've been lucky enough to catch him live twice, and he does not disappoint. His voice and stage presence are exactly what you'd hope for from such a soulful voice. I was so excited to arrive home just in time for the release of his new EP 'Dual' so I could get my hands on it straight away. Having had it on repeat for the past day or so I've come to the conclusion that Indecision is my favourite song - after some internal debate. The hopefulness in the lyrics and the melody just shine through so much and I can't help but feel uplifted by the end of the song.

Bondax

Not a new song by any means, but Bondax were a staple listen for my time in Prague. Sunny days on old town square were marked by somebody breaking out in song "you're gold, is not" with a chorus of "enoooooooough". With Bondax remixing the Blackstreet classic which everyone and their mum has their hands on 'No Diggity' my love for the grew even more and I decided to check out their back catalogue, and I'm happy I did!

Chet Faker

Another artist to make their mark on 'No Diggity' in a completely different style, Chet Faker was first introduced to me a few months ago. I never really took notice of him until recently, dare I say it I thought he was boring :( silly me. His lyrics are seriously something else. So poetic and refreshing, you really feel the cogs of his mind working when you listen to his songs. They seem so simple and obvious you sit and think "why didn't I think of that!?" but you didn't, and that's why you're not as cool as Chet Faker. I predict huge things for this guy.

Sam Smith

The current golden boy of the UK, Sam Smith's voice and package just does it for me. Since hearing him on Disclosure's Latch last year I was blown away and couldn't wait to hear more, then I heard Lay Me Down and my first reaction was "THANK GOD". Production on his singles so far has been perfect, I'm seriously overjoyed Simon Cowell or someone equally as trashy hasn't got their hands on this voice. Like, seriously "All your worries can be put to, can be put to sleep" MELTING, Sam Smith you are making me MELT.

FKA twigs

This final video is an artist I only just found today so I've been on a bit of a binge between this song and maybe 2 others, I'm scared to delve too deep incase I don't like her other songs, as so far I'm in love. Quirky, trippy beats and haunting lyrics, this girl reminds me of Bjork in her oddness, and I love Bjork.

And last but not least, I've just come across this festival and oh wow, do I want to go. YES, YES I DO. PARIS COME AT ME!

Mr. Div gif's

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.

Bouncing Ideas

Artefact #4 second draft

After showing my fourth artefact to a group of volunteers I found that the interface was quite confusing and they didn't feel that what they wanted from the application was properly reflected, so I simplified the menu's and removed some of the original options to give a better user experience.

Home landing page when app is launched

Main Navigation Page

Ticket purchase and information page

Calendar page, dates with events are circled. Tapping on an event will lead to the ticket purchase/info page for that event.

Offers page. Each link will bring the user to a new page with relevant offers.

 Current track page. To break up the pages more I decided to combine this as a landing/menu page to find the previous tracks and also to request songs.

Socialise page/menu. Although a check-in service wasn't an overly desired option within the application, a rewards service was, this would work through the check-in so it has been included in the social menu.

Artefact #4

As I have been researching QR codes as a means of interacting for club nights I began to think about how they could be used in the environment such as allowing for image uploads or downloads. This lead me on to think of how an application could be used to promote a club and increase interactivity. I carried out a short survey to find out what would attract users to download and use an application for a venue. From the results which can be found here I designed a hypothetical application which would be used on smart phones. Generally people were most attracted to the idea of being able to purchase tickets, get discounts and offers and rewards for attending frequently. The least desirable option was a blog with downloadable content, which only one person wanted from the application.

 

  

 

Sky Arts #2

Carrying on from the previous Arts Ident I decided that I'd like to look more at After Effects and how I can manipulate imagery to create something new. From my research project I had been looking more at QR codes and I wanted to try and incorporate these into moving image in my research project and so extended this to my client work too. Through my research I didn't come across any moving imagery in advertising where the entire peice is composed of a barcode and manipulated. I did however come across artist Scott Blake who creates portraits from barcodes, which can be scanned and link to interactive art peices.

Artefact #3

QR Hacking (Artefact #3 Continued)

During my research into error correction I found a website which allows for QR's to be hacked. When looking into how this worked I found that up to 30% of a code can be edited and a phone will still be able to recognize and comprehend the data within. Obviously as more of the code is changed the more tempramental it will be but I found that in all the cases of scanning different codes myself and my volunteers came across no problems and had a 100% success rate. Below are the codes they were asked to try.