FilM/VIDEO: Interactive Film

I was just checking out some blogs and found this interactive film made by Chris Milk using 'We used to wait' by Arcade Fire off their new album 'Suburbs' and on the first page it asks you to key in either your postcode or to enter your address it then uses a combination of search engines and google to provide arial pictures of the address you entered, along with some imagery that Chris has used as a template. This is done by a series of web pages popping up around your screen in time with the music. It's very clever, very imaginative and still really unexpected when sure enough the image above you is my street and on the images below you can see my house. What a great way to use this type of technology. I would definitely recommend, and if its not for you then at least listen to the track because it's pretty damn good.

http://thewildernessdowntown.com

PLACES/ARCHITECTURE: Chinese Tower Beer Garden

On our recent trip to Munich we quickly realised that beer was a very important part of their lifestyle and culture. In every guide we looked at it listed several beer halls and beer gardens, this one, by far being the most impressive. The Chinese Tower, which is around 25m high rises up through the trees around a beer garden that has a capacity of 25000 people, which is ridiculously big! it is also surrounded by food halls and a nearby restaurant.

Its situated towards the south of The Englischer Gardens, which is a beautiful park sat cosey in the centre of Munich. We were lucky enough to have amazing weather the day that we went so we could explore the park and we saw something that I regards as being abit strange.. collections of Geese spending all day on the grass, eating the grass, and grazing on the grass!!! very strange!!

PLACES/ARCHITECTURE: Olympiapark Munich

As you'll probably guess I have just got back from a little trip to Munich (a very impromptu trip I might add) which turned out to be pretty amazing. Before heading over there I didn't know a great deal about the city but once there we did and saw loads. One of those things was visiting the Olympiapark which is home of the Olympic Stadium, Olympic Swimming Hall and Olympic Tower all built in 1972 for the Summer Olympic Games. When we first arrived we had a big walk round the Olympic area but couldn't see a great deal of the stadium as its almost on ground level then dips down so the track was nowhere in sight! It wasn't the best weather either so we headed up the Olympiaturm (below)

I'm not the best person with heights but the views from the top of the Olympic Tower were fantastic, not only could you see right into the bowl of the stadium but you could see landmarks from miles around like the Allianz Arena which is home of Beyern Munich Football Club (below) and the closely poised BMW museum and showroom.

BOOKS/READING: Colourmania

Colourmania came highly recommended by a friend as a must have book. So I was bought it for my birthday and its been a great source of inspiration and research ever since. The book is divided into sections of colour and includes an array of colourful talent from design, advertising, illustration, product design, and much more. I love the fact they have grouped projects by colour as it really shows you what can be achieved, and what works with what colour. Each project shown has a brief description of what the aim of the piece is and also tells you who the designer is, their origin and the client, which has proved to be really important as I have further looked into agencies and even the clients shown in this book.

I'm a nightmare when it comes to choosing colours, so this book is brilliant as it shows loads of different options of how you can utilize a colour to the best of it's ability! At the start of each section there is the option to fold back a strip of colour that then pops out of the top to indicate the colour of the chapter, which is cute and interactive and only adds to an already well crafted and designed book.

PLACES/ARCHITECTURE: Pinakothek Der Moderne

When I was in Munich I visited the Pinakothek der Modern, which the larghest museum of art and design in Europe, opening in 2002 the museum is split into 4 large sections: Art, Design, Architecture and Works on Paper and is housed in a huge, very spaced out modern building with a gorgeous roof (below)

We had a really good look around but the two areas that were by far the best were the Architecture and (believe it or not) the Design spaces. I was a little disappointed with the 'works on paper' but certain art isn't for everyone so nevermind. The design section was brilliant though, It showcased a huge range of items from Cars to computers to wooden crafted chairs to mini home appliances. French product designer, Philippe Starck was heavily featured throughout! To go through into the design area of the museum you had to walk down a large staircase where you were then met with a wall of hanging items (shown below) with a collection of very interestingly balanced rocking chairs to sit on. This I thought was a great idea to allow people to have a quick sit down and really absorb the wall in front of them and by far the most creative of all the areas in the museum.

Inside one section (the digital section) It showcased the first ever macintosh Computers, along with the first ever laptop. What was interesting was to see the computers in-between, and see how they were constantly developing - most of the time to make them smaller and more compact. It also had a long example of printers, fax machines and floppy disk drives... (I think we all remember the floppy disk) It was really great to meander around and be reacquainted with all these fantastic design object.

WEB/ONLINE: Smashingmagazine

For a website only four years old, Smashingmagazine has acquired a very commendable reputation as being informative, interesting and crammed full of quality sound advice. I use it mainly for the range of brilliant typefaces it has to offer, some free and the rest at an affordable price. This website really does handpick the best information and relays it back in an easy and user friendly way. It also has a minefield of tutorials for all sort of design programmes and although it describes itself as an aid to web development, I find it really helpful and useful from just a Graphic angle.

WEB/ONLINE: FormFiftyFive

Form Fifty Five is a great platform for designers to show and share some of the interesting and brilliant things going on in the world of creative design. Not only is the website visually sleek and appealing but the content and interactive elements are really helpful and useful for any designer. It features recommended books, offers reviews of new books, it has a long list of links to pages with the best tutorials for most of the software we use (across all practices from design to moving image) There are also chances to win posters/ pieces of design through competitions. Overall it is pretty interesting website and I have already found some great links to other pages from it!

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BOOKS/READING: Design • Taste

Design • Taste is a brilliant books that looks at the design aspects of food and how we enjoy not just the experience of food but the environment in which we eat it in, from the table we eat it on the cutlery we use. It showcases the best bars, cafes and restaurants around the world that create the most attractive atmospheres to enjoy food around. However, the reason why I have popped it on here is sadly not for the content but rather the packaging. Designed by Viction Workshop, which is creative multidimensional workshop founded in 2001.

The book is coated with this fold out poster which depicts the table setting that you might find at home, complete with everything you could ever need at your fingertips. I think its a really creative idea to give tha audience back something, allow them to interact with the book, take something away from it for them to use. It shows they are not just passionate about the environment we eat our food in but the environment a book can give us too.

DESIGN/ADVERTISING: HelloMe - Typography

Having just blogged about HelloMe the best thing I loved about his work was the cute, exciting typefaces that he has created so here are a few that are worth sharing...

HM MARY

HM EIGENBAU
HM MELT
HM CLUB

PRACTITIONERS/AGENCIES: HelloMe

I have only just recently come across HelloMe looking through some design books and I really liked some of the stuff I have seen. HelloMe consists of one man, Till Wiedeck who is a Berlin based designer who has a wide range of design skills, producing branding, illustrations, editorial work for some high profile and low profile clients. He only set up HelloMe 3 years ago and has already, an impressive porfolio, style and ethos

"Besides working with a variety of commercial and cultural clients, HelloMe is a playground for visual experiments, self initiated projects and collaborations with like-minded people"

Till Wiedeck

Not only is there examples of immense detail and precision but also a wonderful array of illustrative work (such as below) that gives him, as and agency, real width when appealing to clients. He also has a wonderful blog attached to his website that is really interesting to flick through.

have a look at www.helloyou.de

DESIGN/ADVERTISING: Useful Toilet Paper

Welcome to the world of fun loo paper!!! For one, I get slightly over addicted to doing the sudoku in the back of the metro every morning so the idea above is genius! I like the idea that boys can't sit in front of any sheet of paper for more than 5 minutes without making it into an airoplane so I'm all for the idea underneath and the as for the notepaper, I am all for leaving anonymous notes on toilet paper for fun!! So see you later andrex puppy, someone get a pot of pens and pencils!

PRACTITIONERS/AGENCIES: Non-Format

What I love about the work Non-Format produce is how modern and contemporary it feels. Working over a range of different areas from Illustration to Advertising to Art Direction and Design. The two piece design outfit create work that really links modern design principles with intelligence and glamour. They have produced work for a range of bands in the music industry such as Delphic, Vowels (Below) and The Chap.

There is a wonderful freshness about their work, which separates them the norm. Their work is innovative and electric and really stands out. They have worked for a range of clients from Nike to Coca-Cola to The Economist. I really like the way they combine design with illustration and have a knack of using shapes and colour. They have also produced a monograph called 'Non-Format Love Song' (shown below) of the work they produced in the first 7 years of being an agency.

FILM/VIDEO: Le Petit Prince (The Little Prince)

The Little Prince is a book I'm sure everyone was read as a child. We own multiples of copies of it in both French and English in our house. Its has been translated into 180 different languages, the highest amount for a book second to the Bible. The story and the way it has been written has been analysed by literates for years and now in the era of 3D technology The Little Prince is being reborn.

I came across this article in The Observer earlier on this month, which talks about The Little Prince's busy schedule for the next year including a 52 part series which follows him on his new adventures, a computer game and a new exhibition solely for the book.

More importantly with 3D now becoming the new phenomenon in filmmaking, It is no suprise that The Little prince has been chosen to be its next project. What was really interesting was the way they have adapted the character to make it more relevant to the 21st century and to include problems that are facing our world in the modern day.

Click here to read the full article

WEB/ONLINE: Don't Panic

As I was perusing some other blogs I noticed Lucy Timon had wrote about 'Bag thing' a new free collection of information about gigs, events etc all contained in a brown paper bag and it reminded me of Don't Panic, which follows the same format of being a collection of flyers for gigs, events, shows etc, which is distributed in music shops, clothes shops and cafes for free. What is great about Don't Panic is it is also a great opportunity to showcase illustration and design talent.

The design of the cover of the pack changes every issue and can be designed by anyone by submitting your ideas on the website. Not only can the cover be designed but also an A2 poster is available with each pack that has a different design on each side.

What is great about the website is the design competitions don't stop there, they have a full section dedicated to different competitions for you to get involved in and is also a great way to look at some other peoples reaction to different briefs. There is no specific creative area to stick too so the entries vary completely which is always refreshing. The website also has lots of competitions to win a whole heap of other stuff such as tickets to gigs and events, cd's, clothes etc.. click here to look at what you can win!

DESIGN/ADVERTISING: Fun Advertising

I came across this piece of advertising and thought it was a brilliant little idea that does the job in a fun and interactive way. Below is what is written on the above image.

Objective:

To promote the recently opened GBB Beauty Salon in one of the busiest office buildings in Bucharest, to the women that worked in the building, on a minimal budget.

They realised the office was a busy place so they needed something that would attract the attention of the ladies that worked there.

Execution:

They placed special posters in the buildings lobby, the women were invited to tear off one of the hairs and call the number written on it for a reservation.

DESIGN/ADVERTISING: Billboards to be proud of

Since blogging about the banishment of outdoor advertisements in Sao Paulo I decided to try and find some examples of billboards that have gone above and beyond what people expect from a large advert. Below are three examples of where the billboard has been turned into a carefully constructed piece of design, used to engage the audience, to make them stop and think and to remember not only the brand on the logo but their idea.

I especially like the Economist billboard, I think it's a quick, clever idea that is brilliantly executed.

WEB/ONLINE: www.toxel.com

I have only recently come across this website, which was recommended by a friend and since I have looked on it, only weird, wonderful and interesting things have popped out at me..

The website, www.toxel.com, has 3 sub sections,

DESIGN:

I came across a section of creative business cards and this one stuck out for the way it interacts with the audience to make it playful and memorable and a novelty instead of 'just another business card' Idea's like this really help me to engage in ways I can go above and beyond as a designer to not only create unique work but make a lasting impression.

INSPIRATION:

This section of the website is filled with amazingly creative houses, furniture, food, you name it and its probably there. It pays homage to some wonderful ideas that most people think is beyond imagination, reality or reason. Aptly named 'Inspiration' it really allows you, without guilt, to visit those crazy inventions or aspirations and start the process of making it happen. There's no 'can't do" attitude here..

TECH:

Finally this section as you can guess involves inventions, technology and more crazy ideas. The largest skateboard in the world, is probably one of the least techi things in this section but its bizarre yet genius creation gets my vote. Creating something technical doesn't always have to be serious and complicated. It can have just as much effect when fun and interactive. There is another clip on the website of a lad skateboarding on the giant skateboard.. brilliant!

I love the fun and slightly eccentric feel this website has and it makes browsing it engaging and enjoyable unlike some blogs/websites.