One of my favorite commercials was the “Ugoff” series for BurgerKing in 2004. Recently some really great VW commercials came out which reminded me of them, and whala…it’s the same freakin firm! If you have not seen either series, your missing out! If your a designer, you’ll have a great appreciation for the “Ugoff” series. Anyhow, they rock!Crispin Porter+Bogusky
Ugoff commercials one, two, web (look into “ugoffliments”)
VW commercials one, two, three
“In Paris, bistros are synonymous with cheap and cheerful food. In Hamburg, FRoSTA Bistro serves cheap and cheerful frozen food…. FRoSTA, a mid-sized, forward thinking company with an active blog, manufactures premium frozen foods that are completely free of artificial additives.The bistro, which opened in November 2005, is a well-design restaurant with chefs working in an open kitchen. For all to see, they prepare frozen foods from FRoSTA’s range. Packaging is on display, reinforcing the message that the meals prepared in the bistro are identical to what consumers can buy in a supermarket. “
Pretty freakin cool. Hopefully it taste just as good as it sounds!
Did you ever wonder how a computer thinks? Well, if so, Martin Wattenberg has created an awesome application that visualizes a computers thinking process. If your into “information visualization”, have a go at his other incredible projects.
If your a fan of Jimmy Kimmel’s TV skit “Unnecessary Censorship“, you’ll get a kick out of these shirts. You know how TV stations blur out logos, profane images, or words… well, Ironic Sans brings that “blur” to reality with your very own censored-ish shirts. It’s funny how people fill in bleeped or blurred images with their own imagination and come up with profane thoughts. Adam Connely is another artists that does pixelated art, though, his images are a bit more obvious from a distance.
Are ya looking for some cool interactive ambient light projects? If so, link yourself over to UnitedVisualArtists. They have a some great project using light and interactive sensors. Some are a bit trippy, but a few are breathtaking. Make sure to watch their project video clips. I’ll list a few of my favorites:Victoria and Albert Museum
Interactive Installation
Massive Attack
Fashion Show
Here’s a slick jacket by IDIOM. Then again, I’m a sucker for products with an “apple affect”. In the design world, the “apple affect” is where the outside is one color, but the insides a burst of another. There are tons of great products with this design element. I’ll list a few:
There are two incredible developments in the interactive tables arena, the muti-touch table by Jef Han and the touch table by >Applied Minds. So, whats next?… A freakin dynamic 3D version of one!!! Yes, like the one in the X-men movie. Xenotran has developed a Dynamic Sand Table (DST) that can produce accurate topographic models in under 3 minutes. It’s basically a table with a bunch of needles that retract or extrude upwards to represent the projected terrain. Watching this table work is awesome!Touch Table (has video clips)
Multi-Touch Table
Xenotran Table w/videos
Touch-Table /3D table demoat EG (a must watch!)
Here’s a fun product. Your pull the string, and the shaker starts shaking!! Just pull, turn upside-down, and the bits flicker out. You can always shake it yourself, but why shake when it can shake itself.PerpetualKid
A nice slideshow on materials and manufacturing methods used in products by industrial designer Arik Levy.
Geocities was bought for 3.6 billion dollars in 1999 by Yahoo. Facebook, one of the newer trendy social networks, is apparently trying to sell themselves for 2 billion now. The founders of Facebook are Harvard undergrad dropouts. The number of American millionaires is at a record high of about 9 million Millionaires. Are all of these social networks worth this much? Myspace, Orkut, Friendster, Hi5, LinkedIn, etc?
Sure makes me wonder when I’m going to make my million. Check out those links, figure out a better network, and go make a billion.
John Huber has a fascinating method in creating a pretty slick ring from a half-dollar coin using a hammer. The tools are simple, the process is easy, and the end product is plain cool!
via Make
John Huber (picture process)
The 2005 Solar Decathlon competition has an amazing assortment of incredible designs based on sustainable energy-efficient living. The competition introduces a variety of innovative methods to use solar energy and high-tech materials. If you dig deep into some of the submissions, you’ll be blown away by the student concepts. I recently saw a special on TV about this competition and became hooked. They recently announced the roundup of schools invited to compete in 2007.
