This morning during my daily read (Oneupweb employees’ time for research and inspiration), this amazingly simple, yet hilarious video flew into my lap. I couldn’t help but giggle out loud—so hard, in fact, that I had tears in my eyes.
Here in Traverse City, MI, it’s been cold and blustery, so I thought, “I must pass this along to my co-workers and friends, so they can have a bit of sunshine and fresh air today.” And after sharing it with some Oneupwebbers, I decided to display it on Creative Meat for others to enjoy! So here it is, Mr. Wind in all of his glory. This is most definitely my favorite commercial of all time:
I stumbled across a great viral campaign (a series of videos) today that’s had me laughing ever since the first line of the first video. It’s for Subaru’s new vehicle called the Mediocrity. The videos are executed perfectly and they’re super funny. And the microsite is designed very well—who doesn’t love a little beige-on-beige action? If I had more than 2 thumbs, they would all be up in the air for this campaign. Heck, I am definitely more likely to buy a Subaru now, or at least keep them on the radar for my next car. I am really tired of driving around and people noticing me. Check it out for yourself!
I’m a huge fan of technology demos. When creative expression fuses with technology in a such a way as to excite, intrigue and capture the imagination of the viewer, the results can be spectacular. I think it is in this way that people can have a fuller understanding of the place technological invention has in our lives. Consider it the theater of the tech world.
Below are several of the best executed technology demos I’ve seen:
SUPERBIEN utilizes light projection technology on three-dimensional surfaces to create fantastic visuals with depth.
Sachiko Kodama’s “Morpho Towers – Two Standing Spirals” is a fusion of technology and music that results in a new kind of “kinetic sculpture”. The medium being manipulated in the video is called a “ferrofluid“, and strong magnets are being used to twist and move it into those shapes.
Most people are familiar with the existence of remote controlled aircrafts, especially with unmanned drones being a topic in the news from time to time. Most people don’t realize the level of sophistication we’ve reached when it comes to being able to control these things. Here’s a video where piloting an RC plane is almost a ballet.
Perhaps this works on more of a “sideshow” level than proper theater—Boston Dynamic’s “Big Dog” tech videos never fail to elicit a pretty visceral reaction from people who watch it. Whether this amazes you with its coordination or serves to make you uncomfortable due to the uncanny valley effect of it being “almost natural”, it WILL grab your attention.
You also have “concept demos”, which are not demonstrations of actual technologies but rather a vision of what could be. Essentially a combination of light projection, optical pickup, and with gameplay features of games like Rock Band and Guitar Hero, it’s not at all unlikely that something like this would be possible in the foreseeable future.
Great stuff.
Here’s a bonus video from the same guys who did the “Future Rock Band” video.
I was shocked a year or two ago, when I first heard that there was an agency out there strictly using YouTube as their web presence. How could they successfully pull that off? After seeing it in action, I was extremely impressed and can’t imagine another agency being able to pull it off. See it here:
Recently, another agency has jumped ship from the regular ol’ website to a social media platform. This time it’s Grey Stockholm and they’ve landed on Facebook. Check it out here.
It’s interesting and I am not sure how I feel about it. What do you think? What are the negatives and the positives that go along with solely relying on a social network to manage your web presence?
The band Ratatat has done something amazing and unexpected. They have composed a music video for their song Drugs, made of stock video from Getty Images. As a designer, it’s always hard to find the right stock footage for your project, without coming off cheesy or lame or out of place. Ratatat does a great job at exposing those challenges and embracing them to their fullest.
