A paper-letter animation about the history of fonts and typography.
291 Paper Letters.
2,454 Photographs.
140 hours of work.
Created by Ben Barrett-Forrest
www.forrestmedia.org
Denver designer Mackey Saturday worked with the team at Instagram to evolve and refine their mark. Here's what he had to say:
"It was always essential that the design maintained everything that we've all grown to know and love about Instagram —-+ while creating a logotype that was more refined, durable and that positioned the brand for expansion. Looking to the past to inspire the future, the script connects with the nostalgia that Instagram was built from, maintains the important character of the original typeface, and places the brand in a unique and prominent position both in the current and future landscape."
They've debuted this new mark quite handsomely in a video announcing the ability to tag friends in the updated Instagram App. It makes us feel all warm and squishy and relevant and wishing we had good friends that lived in San Francisco with us.
Willie Witte recently created this intriguing short in which he uses traditional methods and effects to explore the world of transitions. None of these effects are digitally generated. Witte did all the work in front of the camera and through the use of traditional means like the photocopier. The result is pretty cool and is another example showing that there is still a place for more traditional, experimental methods in film.
We wish we'd been in Sydney in February and March to see this exhibit. "Back in Five Minutes" showcased a celebration design and typography at the Salon91 Gallery. The exhibition featured a stunning array of designers, typographers and illustrators, including Ben Johnston, Clinton Campbell, Clement de Bruin, Justin Southey, & Dani Loureiro. The work they created and displayed is truly inspirational.
As computing moves from our desktops to our phones, we look into the future to see how technology will become increasingly ingrained in our movements and our active lives. From the Nike Fuelband to Google Glass, consumers are already seeing hints of the future of wearable devices. They have the possibility to make us more knowledgeable about ourselves and our surroundings, and connect us with each other in an uninterrupted, more intimate way. From DIY wearables to high-tech sensors and smart fabrics, the years ahead will show how integrated technology can impact our lives for the better.
Featuring:
Sandy Pentland, MIT
Sabine Seymour, Parsons
Steven Dean, G51Studio
Becky Stern, Adafruit
In 1965, Sol LeWitt wrote fellow sculptor Eva Hesse a four-page letter of encouragement, urging her to stop doubting herself and to simply continue making her work. Despite the fact that some would consider their friendship unlikely, the two sculptors were close friends and wrote to each other frequently about their ideas, work and personal lives from 1960 until Hesse's death ten years later. Often quoted, LeWitt's letter has become a source of inspiration and a vote of confidence for many artists the world over.
Producer Aaron Rose (Beautiful Losers, Become a Microscope) worked with punk rock band Rancid to remake LeWitt's words into a bold and boisterous song. With wild and wavy LeWitt-inspired animation, this video energetically embodies the message of its writer.
If you’ve been online at all in the last week or so, you’ve likely seen this funny and suggestive play on words "Ship My Pants" circulating. Who can resist a double entendre that alludes to the gold standard of embarrassing situations? Surely not the Internet. The fact that a clever one-line concept racked upwards of 13 million views on YouTube in one week is hardly surprising. The fact that it’s a commercial for Kmart, however, is. One hardly expects such boundary-pushing work from the conservative retail sector.
But that, says Bill Kiss, chief digital marketing officer for Sears and Kmart, was the point. The company was looking to promote its integrated retailing approach, one where customers can seamlessly decide whether to have items shipped for free to their homes or to any store they choose. It’s a fairly dry topic--if very important for the retailer--and Kmart wanted to bring this to life in a memorable way. “As of today, we’ve got almost 70 million items online and we’ve got a very aggressive goal to go way beyond 100 million items. We wanted to make this really clear and compelling to our customers, so we felt that notion of ‘if you can’t find it, we’ll ship it to you free,’ was a sticky, breakthrough idea,” says Kiss.
With a catchphrase like "Ship My Pants," it’s easy to see why the spot, from agency Draftfcb Chicago, quickly went viral. What’s more interesting is the strategy behind the launch. Kiss says that rather than start with a print or TV idea to communicate the idea of integrated retailing, they decided to “build some content and put it out there, and let America react.” With a dedicated in-house, data-driven, social media team, they closely monitored reaction to the spot. “We’re very nimble and when we push something out there we watch very carefully how America reacts to it. We were tallying sentiment, which was overwhelmingly positive. That’s where we knew, without relying on some sort of software package, hey, we’re onto something. We did that deliberately. We wanted to make sure that this wasn’t off-putting to our customers.”
In fact, the spot’s been so successful that Kmart has decided to run it on TV starting this week. “It’s a formula," says Kiss. "You put things online, you get reaction, you get real-time feedback and data, and then you can make the decision on how big and bright you want to go with it.” According to the statistics from YouTube, the formula worked extremely well. Ted Souder, head of industry, Retail, Google, says that the spot succeeded in taking a rather dull topic--online shopping--and turned it into something people wanted to share. “Reaching 12 million views in a week puts this video on the same scale as this year’s Super Bowl ads on YouTube. And if you look at the search data, the video drove a spike in searches not just for the ad, but for the Kmart brand as well,” says Souder. “We’re in an age where a single video can put you on the map, and with this one video, Kmart was able to reach millions of people with a really clear message about their brand.”
by Moosylvania
