Leo Burnett - Cultural Fuel

Now for something completely different. The beauty of this just jumped out at me. Had to share.

TOKYO SLO-MODE from alex lee on Vimeo.

Seen on Gerald’s FB stream.

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You can say whatever you want about the demise of Flash, but it sure a large part of the last 10 years in webdesign. How fitting that Propaganda 3 would make such extensive use of it for their 10 year anniversary site which features a bells-and-whistle timeline. Not sure if this site is older, but just found it on Pixelgangster.de

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Person Pinball- 2011 Animation Block Party ‘Outro’ from aaron hughes on Vimeo.

Passing pedestrians become pinball play. Closing bumper at the 2011 Animation Block Party Film Festival in New York City.

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Just found this on Jeff’s FB Wall: A nice Typo Treat before the holidays.

Conan O’Brien Kinetic Typography from Jacob Gilbreath on Vimeo.

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good read.

http://spyrestudios.com/simplify-and-improve-your-designs-with-the-bonsai-tree-method/

via

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In case you’ve been living under a rock, Facebook rolled out some changes to user’s profiles earlier this month, including a snazzy new band of photos across the top of most people’s profile pages.

This naturally inspired some people to find novel ways to express themselves using the ‘canvas’ at the top of their newsfeed, including (famously) Alexandre Oudin. After a few more days, there were sites popping up everywhere to do this to your profile in a few easy steps (Photo Magic, Oudinizer, Profile Maker, etc.).

Impressively, Schweppes acted quickly to get a developer to create a Schweppes Profile App on Facebook, as explained with the following video:

I like that they managed to turn around the app so fast, and keep the entire experience relatively simple.  My questions are:

1. This seems to be an activity that most people might enjoy, and I wonder if Facebook considered making the functionality native.  To be honest, the process is still a little complicated, due to the tagging requirements, and Facebook could get around these elegantly.

2. I think the resulting photo could have carried at least a nominal amount of branding - maybe even flirt with a facet of the product?  What about making you in your photo engage with the product in some way?

Although here’s a good example of what you should probably not do:

3. When these mercurial changes occur on Facebook, I wonder if there is really any benefit to the ‘first out’ application.  The app seemed to have some loading troubles a few times when I was using it.  Stability should be pretty high on the list of requirements, one would think.

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Scanning the headlines of any marketing industry publication and you’re guaranteed to see at least 5 articles with the title following this format:

5 tips to get more site traffic!

10 mess-ups that make people unsubscribe!

6 things top Brands do to get better creative!

OK - You get the pattern…  And it’s worse on Twitter.  10 tips for this.  20 must-see those.  Waaaay too many simplifications of search engine optimization, design, social media, organizational design and - worst of all - leadership (”4 habits that make for bad leaders” - ugh).

It seems like a lot of coverage for marketing wants to prove that key marketing disciplines are super easy, and can be boiled down into easy to digest soundbites and lists you could just tack on the wall and call yourself an expert (and full disclosure - we’ve even done posts with lists in them on Cultural Fuel before, but we did include a caveat).

What is dangerous about the Cult Of The Short & Snappy List is the idea that you can take something complex, like say ‘What Moms Do Online’, and reduce it to a bulleted list, ready to be included on a Powerpoint slide, when the reality is much richer, and therefore the opportunity for real engagement is much richer as well.  People in our industry are often pushed to simplify to the point of abstraction, creating short-cuts by the use of simple language and a big graphic in the middle of the slide.  But I tend to side more with Edward Tufte - who famously said “to clarify, add detail” (although he was talking about the design of the iPhone at the time).  Our clients and creative professionals are just that - professionals.  And if data is required to get at the insight - then you should show the data.  If a short-cut will lose the richness of the interaction - then avoid the short-cut.  Don’t be afraid to have your audience think.  And don’t avoid the work of thinking deeply yourself.

Daniel Sharkov wrote a good piece on his blog about why he prefers and recommends an infrequent posting schedule and in my opinion it comes down to deep thinking.  Rather than finding 10 examples of a trend, a marketer should examine why there is a trend.  I like the fact that when Gini Dietrich put together a set of articles about Social Media Trends that she spent at least some time talking about why she believes they are important and what drives them.   But no one would ever assert or imagine that trend reporting is comprehensive.  Its very nature is synthesis of observation - not inclusive of all aspects of culture by design.

What’s critical to our industry is continuing our focus on the underlying reasons for why people behave as they do - and it’s rarely a simple endeavor.  To have a list of what those behaviors can be grouped into is still just a list, but digging underneath the surface is required to get at real insight.

Ultimately, lists are not insight because they focus solely on simplicity.  Insights are true whether they are complex or not.

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wundervoll and fresh as allways; here comes 2.0

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How can you increase the immersion of data? The bachelor thesis „Experiencing Abstract Information“ by Jochen Winker and Stefan Kuzaj introduces theoretical principles and shows them with some interactive examples.

Experiencing Abstract Information from Stefan Kuzaj on Vimeo.

Seen on Maurice Racz FB stream

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In this interview Neville Brody complains that in the last 25 years, design has lost it’s connection to art and that because of this, designers today aren’t good at human connections anymore.

But it’s not all bleak.

He also goes on to talk about the “always on” era and the need for more real content, performance and engaging narrative, instead of just doing what’s technologically possible. For him the human state is the only thing worth talking about, and as a designer, he sees observation and engagement as the best tools designers have to create drama and performance.

via Kristian Kerkhoff

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