Main

07/ 3/2008

Nike PhotoiD

photoid.pngThis is a fantastic example of some outside the box thinking on connecting the offline, mobile, and online experience with customized products. By now I am sure you are all familiar with the NIKEiD program. The next evolution is using MMS on your cell phone to help you pick and match your outfit. The technology behind this isn't too complicated, but the experience design is interesting: see something that catches your eye, snap a picture, Nike sends you the matching shoes overlaid on your picture, and of course linking over to ordering online too! This technology and experience could apply to all kinds of clothing and retail products with strong color choices and a relatively minimal infrastructure.
Masterminded by AKQA, London, NIKE PHOTOiD is a brand new mobile application which allows users to customize their own set of sneakers according to their physical surroundings. You simply take a picture of something on your camera phone (it could be anything from a piece of graffiti to an ice cream sundae) and then send this pic off to a shortcode via MMS. The NIKEiD website then picks out the two strongest colours from your image and uses them to colour your custom sneakers. Within a minute, you are sent a link with your design superimposed over the original source of pantone inspiration.

You can then save this image as wallpaper for your mobile, send it to a mate or, by entering the unique DESIGNiD at NIKEiD.com, link directly to your design to complete and actually purchase the sneakers. As one particularly over-excited sneaker-freak in our office inquired with a faint hint of dribble at the corner of his mouth: 'So I could take a picture of a grassy meadow and then it would text me a link to buy my very own Nike Grassy Meadows?' Yeap chap - that's about the long and short of it...
Via Contagious.

Dean McRobie

06/19/2008

Art of the Title Sequence

napoleon.jpg This site is a compendium of fantastic opening and closing sequences to movies and tv shows.  I just stumbled on it, but I'm glad I did.  An astounding source of inspiration for motion graphics.

http://www.artofthetitle.com/

Slick.

Phil Garwood

06/17/2008

5 Million Downloads of Firefox 3.0?

For those of you who might be interested, Firefox 3.0 is being released today.  Downloads are expected to be available after 1pm. 

According to the article that I read in the Detroit Free Press they are expecting this browser to be much faster than IE.  Will it continue to eat into Microsoft's dominant market share? 

I know I will be trying it.

http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/

Eric Westen

06/13/2008

A Fear the Beard Digital Short: Contract Karma--Random Acts of Kindness, with Baron Davis


In what seems like another lifetime altogether, a couple of friends and I decided to make our late-night e-mail musings about the Bay Area and basketball a subject of public record. Thus, a little over a year ago, www.fearthebeard.org was born. I won't get too deep into the wine-addled logic that produced this URL, but the avatar of choice for the venture was (and is) a stylized rendering of Golden State Warriors point guard Baron Davis's head. And beard.
 
The blog quickly took on a life of its own. While it often functions as the "junk drawer" of my (and our) collective consciousness (thanks Misha), it has also developed a surprisingly ardent following and opened some interesting doors. I was interviewed for a French basketball magazine, Reverse. I was invited to play in a blogger all-star game at the Oracle Arena. And, at our urging people grew beards for the playoff push and sent in pictures from around the country. Finally, our DIY PaperBeard™ (for the less hirsute) was featured on Yahoo Sports and even more improbably in the pages of Fortune.
 
But all of that pales in comparison to the events of some two weeks ago. After a few phone calls, we managed to secure an interview with the man some call Boom Dizzle. The rub? We only had one-day's notice. To shoot. Video. Oh, and it turned out he was "open" to hearing ideas for doing something on the street. Out with the people. All viral like. Tomorrow.
 
Oh, and he's in the middle of trying to renegotiate a contract that's scheduled to pay him $17 million next year. So don't do anything stupid, Turman.
 
Anyway, the video is what we came up with over dinner and pitched to Baron immediately before strapping on the hastily rented microphones. He also did a long sit-down piece that we'll be releasing in installments over the next couple of weeks. But, best of all, it turns out that we chose our avatar far better than we realized. He was great to work with and is involved in some interesting technology-friendly projects outside of basketball. Moreover, apparently he also sees the value in empathy-based online marketing. He and his team recognize that our humble little blog has a laser target on his "influencer" fans. Props to BD for recognizing this and being open to a pretty big ask from a pretty small source.
 
Daniel Turman

PS. Thanks to Ali Grayeli for letting me skate for a couple of hours.

06/ 6/2008

The Eco Zoo

ecozoo.jpg 3D in Flash is all the rage with the kids these days. Some sites do it better than others and this one definitely falls into the better category.

Probably the best use/implementation of 3D in Flash I've seen coupled with a great design and aesthetic that recognizes the limitation of current 3D engines.

Make sure to click on an animal to check out their pop-up books.

http://ecodazoo.com/

Erich Boyer

06/ 5/2008

Eating Our Own Dogfood

dodgej.jpg 

Great post from Organic's Marta Strickland on her first-ever car purchase, which, to her great surprise as an advertising professional and a critical thinker (not an easy combination), turned out to be one of her client's vehicles.

http://recentlyconsumed.com

Misha Cornes

06/ 4/2008

Aptera: 50-mile Trips for $1-$2

aptera.jpg
Cool vehicle.  It's technically classified as a motorcycle, has a gas powered electric generator and batteries. Plug it in for 2-4 hours and drive 50 miles.

Drive further and the generator turns on to recharge the batteries. At 350 miles of driving the generator will keep the batteries charged enough for unlimited driving at about 130 mpg. 75 mile trips are about 400 mpg.

At $27,000 - $30,000, Aptera is expected to be safe as any auto.  Plug in for 50 mile trips for $1-$2. Cool!

Check it out::

http://www.aptera.com/

Basia Rochon

06/ 2/2008

Tweeting From Mars

ice.jpg

I'm sitting on very flat surface here. Tiny rocks around my foot pads. The horizon is flat and looks perfect for digging!!! My robotic arm camera got some great shots around my feet. Is that ice right there?

I have recently been following a new friend on Twitter, the Mars Phoenix Lander. While I like to imagine a perky Twittering robot on the surface of Mars, something reminiscent of a Douglas Adams book, the actual voice behind the Mars Phoenix Lander is former CNN NASA correspondent Veronica McGregor. The Lander launched its twitter feed over Memorial Day weekend and has acquired over 15,000 Followers already, something the NASA team was not expecting.

"We got about 1000 new people in about an hour," McGregor said. "The funny part is that I had it set up to email me every time someone signed up. I went out to get lunch and my e-mail box had a thousand new e-mails when I came back. It sounded like a Vegas slot machine. My computer was just going ding ding ding." Wired.com

I am not surprised in the least by the large following. Twitter allows NASA fans to become updated more instantaneously than any other news service on the Lander's findings. Fans also get the chance to ask questions about the mission and engage with, if you let your imagination wander, an excited and informative robot on the surface of Mars.

Marta Strickland

05/29/2008

Martin + Osa

martin.jpg Check out http://www.martinandosa.com and click on shop by outfit. Very nice simple use of video to show-off the products. It's a really well-designed retail site: Great product display, easy to navigate, simple well-organized merchandizing.
 
Something I have never seen before with a retail site is send to mobile. Quite clever. You can send a product idea to a loved one to buy it for you or you can show the SMS to a store associate when you are at the mall.
 
Adam Turinas

Eat Drink or Die

From the team that brought you Funny or Die, and more recently Shred or Die, comes a new entry into the food, wine, and cooking world: Eat Drink or Die. The site is focused on delivering great video content presented by a variety food and wine experts, as well as some new personalities.

Some videos are more humor-focused, like the "You Think You Know Cheese" episode with Nick Swardson above. But a good majority of them are informative, inspiring, and are easily consumable in their short length. I found myself exploring the site for an unexpected amount of time, watching rants from Gary Vaynerchuk (how does he find time), finding recipes for exotic mojitos, and hear Tom Colicchio talk about cooking with his mom.

Marta Strickland