It’s Face Time
January 27, 2012 | 1 Comment | View »
Today is Tom Saitta’s birthday. That being the case, we wanted to take a moment and a sliver of bandwidth to recognize and honor the day our Vice President of Account Management became a living, breathing creature – and to toast the man that creature became. You’re a fellow of distinction, dedication, heart, and soul. Beyond that, we can all call you a true friend – if not brother. When you’re in the mix, we can all count on talking deeply about subjects we could have never predicted, and having at least one boisterous laugh that runs soul deep and lasts all day. That’s saying a lot.
Cheers, Mr. Saitta. To your sense of humor, style, loyalty, people, and business. It’s a rare mix, maybe even as rare as an A-Team Corvette.
Glasses raised,
-BZ
Instagr/am/bient: Stop, Collaborate and Listen
January 20, 2012 | No Comments | View »
One of many lessons to be learned from hip-hop (or Kenny Rogers) is that it’s hard to beat a solid collaboration. For us that goes exponential when you make it cross-media, with bonus points if there’s an iPhone involved. So you can imagine what happened when we got ahold of Instagr/am/bient: 25 Sonic Postcards – the recent photo/musical collaboration pulled off by ambient/electronica entity Disquiet. In a nutshell, 25 musicians took and swapped Instagram pics, then each composed an ambient track using the given image as its inspiration. Great idea.
In their words:
“Photos shared with the popular software Instagram are usually square in format, not unlike the cover to a record album. The format leads inevitably to a question: if a given image were the cover to a record album, what would the album’s music sound like?
Instagr/am/bient is a response to that question.”
It looks good. It sounds good. It is good. Read, see, and listen all about it here: http://disquiet.com/2011/12/28/instagrambient-25-sonic-postcards/
It’d be interesting to flip it around again and hand the tracks off to a different set of photographers (or other visual artists) for them to create images based on the audio. And on an on for that matter.
But that’s a digression for later. For now, download Instagr/am/bient in its entirety and spend some quality time with it this weekend.
Let’s get out of here. Word to your mother.
-BZ
Tags: ambient > instagram > iphone > music
True and Smart Transparency at the CES
January 13, 2012 | No Comments | View »
While every organization under the sun has been grappling with either being or appearing transparent, Samsung’s been making it happen in the truest sense. Behold, the best thing we’ve seen out of this year’s Consumer Electronics Show (admittedly from afar), Samsung’s Smart Window:
Weird how it makes that town so small, though. Beta?
Bugs aside, our excitement stems less from the ability to tweet while checking the bird feeder, and much more from the ideas of the interactive surface evolving to become part of our natural habitats, our living and working spaces. That’s notably different than how we’ve ushered touch interactivity to our worlds so far, which has been to bring the interactive ‘smart’ surfaces into our comparatively ‘dumb’ spaces, primarily by way of our phones (pocket computers). Just the first home & workish thoughts this surface inspires out of the gate: windows, tables, and desks made with this stuff get us where it counts. Never mind what it could do for cars, art installations, public spaces, storefronts, in-store fixture, and even back to the mobile device. This ought to be good.
Thanks again for giving us a look. Have a great weekend.
Transparent enough,
-BZ
PS: Proof that the universe balances itself out, right here. Clearly, this is the universal counterbalance to the Samsung booth. You can laugh – but thank your lucky stars, too.
Enjoyable Edification
January 6, 2012 | No Comments | View »
Resolutions, diets, and ‘new you’ to-dos are all well and good, but instead of more of that, how about we kick off 2012 with 100 of the greatest gig posters of the last 5 years, as curated by the author of The Wall: Modern Day Music Posters, Tom Booth? It’ll be just as good for you – and way more enjoyable than guilt-forged restraint. Plus, doesn’t a fever of inspiration burn calories?
Lest you think it’s all just wanton eye candy from the land of graphic abandon, Tom puts forth an important lesson about gig posters that we can keep in mind for all of our graphic communications:
“But a great looking poster isn’t necessarily a successful one. Music posters need to put their message across and put it across well. Whether it’s advertising a gig, a tour or a new album, you need to get the information across to the viewer quickly and clearly.”
So consider yourself happily on the road to a better you. After all, “you are what you eat” is just as true for the mind as it is for the body. Enjoy a few more of our picks and grabs below the sign-off, and then hurry over to see the rest here.
A very hearty thanks and happy new year to you all. Looking forward to what lies ahead,
-BZ
Arcade Fire | Sprawl II: Electric Boogaloo
December 16, 2011 | No Comments | View »
We’ve stopped the press on our previously slated post on account of Arcade Fire releasing a brand-new interactive video for their song Sprawl II (Mountains Beyond Mountains), following up on their dedication to creating new ways to experience their music that began with the surprisingly home-hitting The Wilderness Downtown interaction (which warrants a click if not yet experienced).
This time, they’re using motion detection through your webcam. You move, the video responds. You dance, they dance. Pretty great idea. It’s stuff like this that makes it clear that there can be more to just about anything if you think hard and know what’s up (and know some good codeheads, in this case). There’s always room for that something else that makes the difference between standard and outstanding. Way to get the remote, isolated crowd you speak of engaged and involved, Arcade Fire. Bowie should be proud.
So get to clicking and moving erratically in front of your computer right this minute: http://www.sprawl2.com/ and let that be the beginning of a fantastic weekend.
To the serious moonlight,
-BZ
Vowels, Mind Control, and You
December 9, 2011 | No Comments | View »
Any post that opens with “Here’s something you should know about yourself. Vowels control your brain.” is worth your time. It’s actually a long-standing policy here at BZ, but this is the first time it has come into effect. It’s about time.
In an era where vowels, the ‘nuclei of syllables’ get cut with apparent enjoyment – either as a matter of cachet, convenience, character limit, or because most of the good words you’d ever want to use in naming something have already been bought, it’s refreshing to invest a few minutes to recognize the deep-seated effects vowels have on how we perceive words and the things they represent. The idea posed in the linked article suggests that vowels actually impact our minds’ perception of size and weight. Wow, that’s heavy.
It’s great stuff to know as a matter of understanding the human experience (recommended), but also of particular interest to those in advertising and marketing. It’s best to leave the meat of the matter on the original post, but here’s one more little snippet to try for yourself:
- Which brand of laptop seems bigger; Detal or Dutal?
- Which brand of vacuum cleaner seems heavier, Keffi or Kuffi?
- Which brand of ketchup seems thicker, Nellen or Nullen?
- Which brand of beer seems darker, Esab or Usab?
Talk it out, think about it, and click for the long and short of it: http://www.npr.org/blogs/krulwich/2011/12/07/143265882/vowels-control-your-brain – this is great back-pocket info.
Thanks again for your time and attention. We hope y’all have a great and seemingly long weekend, in all the good ways.
-BZ
One for the U2 People
December 2, 2011 | No Comments | View »
Tempus fugit. U2′s Achtung Baby is now only a year away from buying its own drinks, and part of the party U2′s team is throwing is an image contest/collaboration, inviting artists to submit photographs and artwork ‘which reflects today’s global environment’ in the same spirit that Achtung Baby and its original artwork did way back in nineteen and ninety-one:
“Achtung Baby embodies a multitude of ideas and styles which are represented through the album cover artwork mosaic. The squared collage of photos symbolise the spirit of the album, the ’90s and the changes in Europe after the fall of the Berlin wall.”
Apparently it’s not too late to drag the past out into the light. If you’re down with it, get to snapping, painting, drawing, pixelating, or whatever else suits your taste to capture the zeitgeist and send it on in to U2. Visit this page for the official words, details, prizes and participation fields: http://www.talenthouse.com/u2-collaborate-on-an-achtung-baby-inspired-collage
Who knows – maybe your essence-capturing artwork will inspire them to follow suit musically. That’d be an interesting twist right there.
One love,
-BZ
Tags: Achtung Baby > Contest > U2
Drawing an Excellent Conclusion
November 18, 2011 | No Comments | View »
The coolest thing we saw all week just so happens to be a great way to start the weekend, and makes us think that Vimeo et al should work a slo-mo button in somewhere: Keep Drawing is a fantastic short from Korean Studio Shelter about drawing – using many, many differently styled drawings to illustrate the depth, variety, and experience of drawing. Watch it a whole bunch of times, have a great weekend, and draw at least one thing. Doesn’t matter what it is, what it’s on, or how good you think it is. Drawing does cool stuff in (and to) the brain. Rarely a bad thing. Watch:
Sketchy, in a good way,
- BZ
More of This
November 11, 2011 | No Comments | View »
Found a whole lot of awesome in one place today over at the Lost Type Co-op , not the least of which is this post about a mural project in the Highlands neighborhood of Louisville, KY. Awesome typefaces, awesome site, awesome organizational model, presumably awesome founders, and the awesome post about an awesome mural using their awesome fonts. What’s not to love? Go check them out, get good fonts, and throw ‘em some bones.
We need more of every bit of this, from the type to the take to the mural. We can’t speak for every place, but a few well-designed & well-painted murals like what’s happening in KY would definitely punch our stomping grounds up a good measure. Who’s with us? Let’s get to making things more awesome. Cool? Awesome.
Out scoping walls,
- BZ
PS: That’s four different typefaces put to work up there on that wall. Just pointing that out to those that stick too hard to the ol’ “maximum of three” rule. More than three can be done – if you know what you’re doing.
Biggie Smalls and Design
November 4, 2011 | No Comments | View »
You don’t have to dig too far in our last.fm history to see that we like a little well-placed, well-done hip-hop while we work. The way good hip-hop has its way with words and ideas can be nice and conducive to a good turn of phrase, design, or entire concept in what we do. Besides, a solid hook and groove never hurt anyone. The parallels between hip-hop and design are numerous, once you think about it. But we had never seen a strong article tying the two creative efforts together, until designmind put forth an article on Biggie Smalls’ creative process, highlighting his knack for and insistence on composition, flow, theme, persistence, practice, and perfection: things every designer should consider essential and nutritious parts of a day’s (or life’s) work.
Not only does the article heighten our appreciation of Biggie and his work, it inspires us to TCB with the same tenacity and flavor. It’s a great article, well worth the read. Click it and check it:
http://designmind.frogdesign.com/blog/what-visual-designers-can-learn-from-biggie-smalls.html
…and if you don’t know, now you know,
-BZ
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