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The Ordos Museum lands in the Gobi desert
Sunday, 11th March 2012 at 5:31am
It was designed by MAD Archtiects and is surrounded be the dunes of the Gobi desert with stairways and belvederes that grow out of the earth.
Located in the new city center of Ordos, the space itself is deeply rooted in the local culture. To view on ArchDaily click here or watch this atmospheric video.
The Gopher Hole celebrates its first year in Primary style
Sunday, 11th March 2012 at 4:57am
To celebrate this and thank some of their participants, exhibitors and visitors they invited illustrator Shin-Hye Lee to commemorate 2011 with a new work.
The illustration is the first of The Gopher Hole's annual commissions to an emerging designer. Shin-Hye has made 'Year One 2011' in the style of a primary school tea-towel, using different drawing techniques - sometimes using her left hand - to illustrate some of the figures who have contributed to The Gopher Hole during the year.
A fun way to celebrate a successful first year. See more here.
Cartier ad takes you out of this world
Friday, 9th March 2012 at 8:55am
The cinematography is beautiful with added CGI of giant elephants, golden dragons, pioneering airplanes and a frozen Moscow.
Just fantastic and a must see.
Simple illustrations that speak volumes
Wednesday, 7th March 2012 at 6:03am
These illustrations are called, 'Play at Work', Hearse and Ice Fishing.
Nick cites his influences as "Hockney, Picasso, Milton Glaser, Tibor and Maira Kalman, Christoph Niemann, Chip Kidd, Chris Ware and many more; I love movies, anything by Wong Kar-Wai, Pedro Almodovar, Wes Anderson; music, sports, books and pretty much everything else I come across that’s interesting."
See more of his work here.
A scary prediction for the paperless office!
Wednesday, 7th March 2012 at 5:46am
In an ad called 'Office' they show what the digital world would be like without paper.
Let's hope it doesn't come to this for the sake of all our sanity!
Find out more about the campaign here.
Charlie Sheen premieres in two new ads
Tuesday, 6th March 2012 at 11:07am
The first for Fiat sees him racing around his house in a new Fiat, making a point about being under house arrest, and the second sees him acting out the film Platoon with someone he meets in a Turkish baths for DirectTV.
Not sure whether the association of Charlie Sheen with mainstream brands is a good one and definitely question Fiat's choice of brand ambassador! What do you think?
Casting a new light on wallpaper
Sunday, 4th March 2012 at 4:39am
The paper has LED lights embedded within a circuit board design.
The designer comments, "The LED wallpaper offers very thrilling possibilities to illuminate rooms: Dimmed, enigmatic light hardly revealing where the shine is coming from or an urban vibrating atmosphere – to mention only a few options."
"It’s magic! A big advantage also is that the LED wallpaper can be hung in more or fewer strips and lengths according to the architecture and furnishing of a room. Interior designers have the choice."
See more on Trendir.
Invisible ink makes a come back
Sunday, 4th March 2012 at 4:07am
When indoors the paper appears to be blank but as soon as it is exposed to sunlight the details start to appear. This is a great way to reinforce the message from the association but must be a bit frustrating if its raining outside!
Remote control cafe demonstrates bad design
Sunday, 4th March 2012 at 3:41am
They decided to get the conversation going about the impact of good and bad design by creating a remote controlled café. This cafe included a range of badly design items, to demonstrate what good design means to us all, whilst anyone could remotely control the environment through a web interface.
When local residents popped in for a coffee they would find their chairs raising and lowering, whilst tables adjusted and items like sugar and napkin dispensers just did not work.
The interactive space was a great success and gained a lot of publicity, including a feature spot on the national news with the newsreaders getting into the action.
Moleskine launches architects series
Saturday, 3rd March 2012 at 7:47am
Now, to celebrate the notepad's association with architects and their sketchpads, Moleskine has launched a new range of raw grey cardboard books with excerpts from the original notebooks of four inspirational architects, Zaha Hadid, Giancarlo De Carlo, Peter Wilson of BOLLES+WILSON and Alberto Kalach.
Providing unprecedented access to their archives and personal files these small Moleskine books show reproductions of their works alongside blank pages for the owner’s own use. Passages of handwritten text from the architects explaining their inspiration for the original sketches are also shown within the notebooks as well as replicas of line drawings on table napkins and scraps of paper and early plans for now completed buildings.
These are really interesting insights into the thought processes of some of the world's leading architects and a must have for architecture fans.
They are a bit difficult to find on the Moleskine website but if this link does not take you straight to them search for Architecture. You can also see more on Design Boom.
Sensory marketing that grows on you
Wednesday, 29th February 2012 at 9:14am
CURB uses attention-grabbing media such as chalk advertising or bespoke interactive productions where the individual acts as an instrument for creating the experience or message - pedal to charge your phone or dance to make the music louder! CURB also uses natural media which they tailor to their clients’ briefs – to promote the movie Contagion they worked with a world renowned microbiologist to create an enormous Petri dish inoculated with mould, penicillin and Pantone-matched live bacteria. Over the span of a few days these grew into the movie title ‘Contagion’ (and yes, it went viral).
During the Multisensory Media demonstration TTT’s meeting room was filled with the scent of freshly-cut grass from the pitch of a well-known Italian Serie A football club. Unfortunately for CURB there were no football fans in the meeting to appreciate this particular experience; nevertheless we were amazed at how particular they can be with creating scents and sounds. We found out that specific scents can be used to change an emotion as well as perception of time and environments.
CURB has also developed a technique to package the scents in a way that is sustainable and fun. We enjoyed the experience of small customizable pouches that released a lovely scent with just one squeeze – some of the scents included the smell of chocolate truffles or red roses (a note to all men – do not use as a substitute for a gift).
CURB uses entirely natural or sustainable materials that are recycled after they’ve been used. If that is not possible, the materials are upcycled; for example a huge poster of Michael Jackson’s album next to Heathrow airport was made out of plastic that was later upcycled to mobile phone cases and various other goods.
To find out more about their fun and innovative approach to Out-Of-Home media, PR and experiential marketing, visit www.curbmedia.com
Turn your iPhone into a car, boat or ice cream van
Monday, 27th February 2012 at 7:00am
With the Makego app you can turn your iPhone into a racing car, ice cream van, or river boat, simply download the Makego app and select your vehicle. Then add Lego for cars or maybe a pencil case for a boat.
The app allows you to interact with the drivers via some very cute animations and sound. If you are looking for a second childhood or are just bored then get downloading.
Just the right amount of wrong!
Monday, 27th February 2012 at 6:40am
These charismatic ads feature some classic tracks with the most recent being a very unusual cover of Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody.
These are both worth a watch and are great fun.
'Sorry for Party Rocking' tops video viral chart
Sunday, 26th February 2012 at 8:09am
This week's top viral is a video called 'Sorry for Party Rocking' with 377,000 shares in the last seven days.
Research says that 80% of US brands respond to online customer feedback
Sunday, 26th February 2012 at 7:49am
Nearly 90 per cent of US brands say that they monitor online conversations and feedback while 80 per cent also respond to feedback. More than three quarters of those polled also distribute customer feedback internally and nearly two thirds thought that listening and engaging on social media has raised brand awareness.
The article also highlights that more than two fifths cited availability of budget as the greatest internal challenge to listening and engagement, while more than a third said the same about their difficulty in managing programmes across multiple platforms.
'Almost a fifth cited privacy issues as the greatest challenge, while 30 per cent said the same about availability of talent. The top five departments that create strategies to listen to consumers are, in order, the social media team, marketing or public relations, web-interactive marketing, product marketing and marketing operations.
Half of businesses say that listening to their customers on social media is not a core function of their business. Just six per cent of companies said that listening and digital engagement initiatives are integral to their organisation,' the article says.
It seems that brands in the US are taking social media engagement seriously. It would be interesting to carry out similar research in the UK.
Article by Emily Nicholls for Corp Comms Magazine.
'Anyone and No One' exhibition - Will Ryman
Sunday, 26th February 2012 at 7:30am
They are both massive installations created from everyday objects. 'Bird' is constructed from nails of various lengths and towers 12 feet tall whilst 'Everyman' uses a diverse variety of household items, such as paint brushes, bottle caps and work boots, to create a 90-foot figure within the gallery space.
Due to the sheer size and impact of both sculptures, Ryman's installation has been separated in two parts - 'Everyman' has taken up residence in the 293 Tenth Avenue location while the 27th Street space hosts the Bird, inspired by Edgar Allan Poe's poem, 'The Raven'.
Beautiful structures that really catch the eye.
See more sculptures and how they were constructed on Design Boom.
Microsoft takes on Google in 'Moonlighting' spoof
Friday, 24th February 2012 at 8:31am
For those that don't remember Moonlighting it featured Bruce Willis and Cybill Shepherd in a romantic comedy tussle running a detective agency. The theme song was originally sung by Al Jarreau and if anyone can tell us who is now featured singing it we will add it to the blog.
Microsoft's version is called Googlighting and it is a must see. Can't wait for the Google response.
There have been some problems with this video viewing - not sure what is causing it - maybe a Google Gremlin!
Social media explained
Sunday, 19th February 2012 at 3:50am
Found this in one of the blogs we follow and it made us smile. By Douglas Wray.
Tagged Explained, Funny, made me smile, Media, Social
Unusual and beautiful landscapes by Graafland
Sunday, 19th February 2012 at 3:27am
It is not about being where only very few people have been before, but about discovering an authenticity in a space, which often means that beauty and wonder simply combine into fantastic images.
Scarlett comments, "I am filled with nostalgia for places where people are very close to nature. Places where people have barely interfered with nature. The wonder of nostalgia for places you have never been to. The wonder of creating situations that have never existed before and will probably never exist again. Situations that are possible but very unlikely to occur again. Magic realism."
See more of her work here
An Audi ad with real bite!
Sunday, 19th February 2012 at 2:56am
