Philips RobotSkin TV commercial

I don't really like razor commercials but this one seems to be breaking some of the boundaries set by its predecessors. Rather than having the female draped over a well built male this advert shows a much more intimate relationship with the feminine aspect actually being a robot (suggesting machinery and masculinity).

With imagery very similar to Bjork and Chris Cunningham's work this advert takes a refreshing break from conventional razor commercials.

HBO Voyeur

www.hbovoyeur.com

US cable network Home Box Office have recently launched an ambitous interactive video-based website. The concept was a multimedia experience that gives you a peek into what happens behind the countless windows we pass everyday.

The set up of the website is a single camera angle facing the front of an apartment block. Your cursor allows you to click on one of the eight rooms which will take away the walls of the apartment to reveal a cross-section of the building and the action taking place inside. The idea is that the story lines are simply action (no dialogue) but leave the audience wanting to know more. It is also possible to show all the video story lines at once as shown in the video below:

The site itself is a really good example of how video footage is becoming the next stage in website design and also shows how an audience can interact with a video website. It is also an interesting way of gaining a wider audience and providing a whole new slant on 'watching' something but at the same time is a little too perverse for my liking. The story lines do, however, make an interesting point about the fact that when people think no one is looking they are capable of things that are socially unexceptable, dark and impulsive. Please let me know what you think of this site.

Half Nelson (Film)

This was a fantastic independent film that I recommend any film-lover to watch. What really interested me about this film was the way it was shot; in an improvisational, documentary manner. Andrij Parekh shot the film almost entirely handheld (Parekh argues that the look is honest, naturalistic and straightforward). Many scenes were shot with the lens wide open and no filtration. The film seemed alot more focused on the performance of the actors and the handheld feel helped provide a much more basic and stipped down version of a movie in sharp contrast to mainstream film.

There were alot of simple light techniques used on-set to create a humble setting. In some scenes Parekh used just one light, a 1.2KW HMI directed through a window covered in tracing paper (1000H). The actual motel room curtains were used to cut and shape the light, making the whole room glow.

"It's important to me that the actors can inhabit a space without being blinded by lights on the set," he says. "It's something I learned from working with John Thomas and Harris Savides, ASC, as an apprentice. Light the room, not the faces. It was a great piece of advice."

I really loved some of the focus work on this film as well, there were some extreme close-up shots that made it almost difficult to follow thw action of the scene but made you really focus on the emotions being portrayed and the dialogue used.

Further information on the filming of Half Nelson available at www.kodak.com

The Future of Television

Is the Slingbox the future of TV? This box allows you to watch your home television on your computer or phone via a broadband internet connection meaning that which the right combination of software and hardware you could theoretically watch TV anywhere.


With regards to the future of television I feel that this device is just the first in many more developments to make television accessible. There have been suggestions that TV will eventually combine with the computer so that households wil have one homogenous unit. If this is the case the face of the internet will completely change and television will become alot more like the 'on demand' services around at the moment and even websites could become a full video experience.

Sky Movies Advert

I found this advert on the Creative Review Blog. It is an advert for Sky about the joy of not having adverts during their films. The advert was filmed in the city of São Paulo, which is currently banned billboard advertising after a “Clean City” directive from the city’s mayor, Gilberto Kassab, which banned all outdoor advertising, including shopfronts.

The resulting advert is a nicley filmed piece depicting the absense of advertising in the city. It isn't actually that wierd to comprehend the absense of billboard advertising because we live in an age now where we are bombarded with so much advertising that we almost ignore they are there anyway / show very little interest in the fact they are there.

Eco-Ego Website

http://www.marukin-ad.co.jp/ecoego/

Welcome to the world of eco-ego. This web-based game was produced for the purpose of having you learn "environmental protection that we can do immediately" while enjoying it. The natural environments change depending on our action. In the world where main character "Cocolon" lives, please experience that things. A point of the game is to keep the balance of "ecology" and "ego". You control the actions of the character via the orange panel at the top-right of the screen.

During your experience of the site Cocolon will need to eat, brush his teeth, go to the market etc. Every time you have a choice between an easy solution and the most ecological solution. For example, the screen-shot below shows how the audience is presented witht the task of separating the rubbish into the appropriate bins...

Also, the below screen-shot demonstrates how the environment surrounding Cocolon's home is affected by his actions. When the air-conditioning is on puffs of smoke appearfrom the factory chimney and all the birds and flowers die...


I think this is a really nice site that may be good for children to try and demonstrate that simple things like separating rubbish or cycling rather than getting in a car does make a difference. However, this site presents a problem for me. Although the intentions are honest its demonstration of environmental impact is exaggerated and doesn't take into account a sceptical older audience. On the other hand, this site shows how digital design can reach an audience in a new way rather than presenting them with the same old information (which alienates the audience).

Vision Streetwear Website

www.visionstreetwear.com

This is a good example of a full video website and how a apparel website can stay true to its essence. As the first page loads a pink spraypaint mark appears and drips down the page, straight away even this suggests the type of audience they are aiming for (young adults, rebellion, graffitti culture etc).

In addition to the loading percentage the website also provides you with a statement 'While you wait: 2 hectares of the worlds forests have disappeared,' however, the amount changes as the page loads and increases more and more. This is a simple idea but I really liked the delivery, it is the last place you would expect a message like that but it really works and will help to create awareness in a youngeraudience. Also, the delivery plays on the fact that you have to wait (converting the main weakness of the website into a feature), because the website is predominantly video it takes slightly longer to load - the 'while you wait' factoids are received by a captive audeince and use the amount of time a page takes to load to quantify another message.

Once the main website has loaded the entire background becomes a space for low-res videos to be streamed showing what the brand is about (skateboarding, music and the trends surrounding youth culture). The logo and navigation devices are static and in the foreground, made visible by spraypaint (also static). The entire website has a 'fanzine' influence and is an adaptation on the trend itself (derived from punk rock).

Another fantastic element of this website is the way the product is represented and really ties in the reason for having a video website. Instead of having a photo of the shoe they are selling or an expensive photoshoot with models posing Vision have instead used low-res videos close-ups of people's feet as they walk, run, and skateboard. This emphasises the brand and the fact they are more about the sport and lifestyle than other brands. They sell apparel for real people to be used in the real world. Personally I feel this is a really innovative way of showing a product and helps to strengthen the brand as well. Below are some examples of the the low-res videos of people wearing the product (the video still in the background).

Peter Gabriel - Secret World Tour (1994)

Peter Gabriel (ex-genesis member, WOMAD and Realworld founder) has always been well known for his innovative work. The Secret World Tour in 1994 showed how a live tour could be about the theatrical as well as the music to compliment the themes and emotions a song may be trying to get across. Gabriel worked with Robert LePage to create a visionary style of theatre to accompany personal songs focused on relationships.

LePage and Gabriel looked at polarities as well as relationships. For example, synthetic and natural, love and hate, male and female etc. The stages developed for the show emulated the male and female polarities to create the structure below (bird's eye view):
The female stage uses a circle and the male a more geometric rectangle. The props also emulated the polarities; Gabriel emerges from the male stage in a red telephone box (which is arguably a masculine structure constructed from geometric shapes) and later in the show a tree emerges from the female stage (representing nature, mother earth, and in sharp contrast to the man-made phone box). This is a really well thought through tour concept which really showed the possibilities of a live show and set movements for more recent shows like OVO: The Millenium Dome show which was written by Gabriel. The videos above and below are just a glimpse of the tour but I strongly recommend watching the 'Secret World Live' DVD and also his more recent 2003 'Growing Up Tour' DVD.

Battle for the Bronchs!

www.battleforthebronchs.com.au

This is a perfect example of how the digital side of design can be used in a new and interesting way, an interactive website utilizing video footage and flash gaming to create awareness about Asthma. Above is the teaser trailer for the website.

The main concept behind this website is a campaign by GlaxoSmithKline and Asthmascore to create awareness about the issues surrounding Asthma. Tequila (Australia) developed a video comic strip with characters such as Alvie Olie, Deep Bref and Hack Wheezer set in the fictional city 'The Bronchs'. The narrative involves the 'hero' Alvie Olie and his 'mentor'Deep Bref battling against the evil Hack Wheezer and his Trigger gang (The Trigger gang all have names of things that can set-off a person's Asthma). The purpose of this site is to reach young people who may be unaware of the symptoms of Asthma without boring them with facts and figures.

I really like the use of the comic strip format because it is naturally set out into scenes and has a narrative story throughout. This lends itself well to film; each box can have a different camera angle and show the perspective of the surrounding area in different ways. The actors have been filmed infront of a green screen and then still illustrations have been super-imposed as the background. The film sequences begin as stills (above) like a page from a comic strip but then each box will increase to full size (in turn) and play the section of film allocated to that box (as shown below). The end result is a flow of film in a narrative order as well as some secondary animation - sound effects and scaling as a visual aid. Although the narrative is weak and the characters not very interesting it still gets a definate message across and is alot more successful in delivering the message than a leaflet would be.


Also, the film/ comic strip is split into four main chapters, each one covering the idea of breathing and the need for air. Even the controls can be powered by the sound of your own breathing down a microphone. This enhances the level of interactivity with the story and allows the audience to engage with the concept on another level.

'Lucas With The Lid Off' - Lucas. Dir. Michel Gondry

This is possibly my favourite music video I have come across. It is, to me, one of Michel Gondry's best pieces of work. It involves a large studio set divided into several scenes. The main character, Lucas, performs whilst weaving through these scenes creating a continuous flow throughout the video. The best thing about this video is that it is one take, the movement from scene-to-scene and the placement of the camera, props and action has been timed to perfection by Gondry. The use of the camera to fool the audeince is used as well (for example, a 90 degree angle is used in the bed scene to fool the audience into thinking Lucas is lying horizontally, when the camera flips it is revealed that his legs were actually off the end of the bed - to make this more convincing even elements of the set were placed on their side).

Anyone interested in film or the production of music videos who hasn't seen this piece needs to watch it and appreciate the amount of thought that has gone into it.

James Joyce - icount Illustration

I was looking at the icount 'Stop Climate Change' book published by Penguin and I came across illustrations by James Joyce. I really like the use of line to create interesting visuals (from simple lines creating geometric shapes to elegant swirls creating trees and smoke). His drawings have the feel of children's illustration but are dealing with complex situations like climate change.

I feel that it is extremely appropriate to use a medium like illustration to get across a message as important as climate change. People might argue that this type of illustration is making-light of a serious situation but I feel that in order to inform an audience of ways to prevent drastic climate change without boring them then visual devices like illustration act as a way to do this.
For example, the illustration below carries a simple message about the environmental cost of vehicles. This illustation, to me, says more than a long-winded document about fuel-emissions.
I feel that design will have an important role in persuading people to change their current living habits and inspiring people to do something about a global issue. I don't mean to say that every designer needs to jump on the eco-bandwagon but good design and illustration (like the pieces above) can reach audiences who may be numb to facts and figures.

Design for the Visually Impaired

"There are two million people with sight problems in the UK. Good design can make websites, information, products, services and buildings accessible to them."

RNIB Website (accessed 13th July 2007)

I have recently been doing some design-based work with my local council and have come across some real-life issues surrounding design and accessibility of information. Any document designed for the council needs to adhere to certain constraints in order to provent neglecting certain memebers of the public. For example, members of the public with visual impairements may have difficulty reading certain typefaces etc.

I found a list of a few design considerations that need to be thought about when designing for the the general public. These aren't strict rules but instead suggestions made by RNIB to maximize readability in design for print.

This is a real issue in design as nearly all of design is primarily about visual stimulus and it seems unusual to consider even thinking about design without this but making your work more accessible can be as simple as using a minimum pt size of 12.

Some of the guidelines I find difficult because they almost stifle creativity. The Marc Quinn Exhibition Catalogue by North Design uses a unique layout on some of its spreads where the breaks in text are spaces instead of paragraph returns. Although this is visually interesting the mere fact that it has broken the convention of the left-alignment and paragraphing means that members of the public with sight problems become alienated - as finding the start of a new line or paragraph will become difficult due to the fact there is no set format to follow.