ProductPosted by Jon Dodd Sun, November 22, 2009 16:08:28 Again the product category seems to be getting the brunt of the misc posts (should really add some more categories), and this bit of architecture by Datar is well and truly in this bell curve. The house is completely white and void of all things necessary to constitute what is 'house'. Although it lacks functionality you have to admire its simplicity and cleanliness. This morning I made my house a bit more minimalist... hoovered.
FilmPosted by Jon Dodd Sat, November 21, 2009 17:53:36 After the 24 Hour ad challenge we have massive respect for anything that is made in a day, including this film shot in one day in Flensburger Germany. The trailer is for the 9th annual short film festival in said Flensburger and is shot on the glorious machine that is a canon D5. Collaboration between Pepe Lange and Joachim Freitag.
FilmPosted by Jon Dodd Wed, November 11, 2009 13:00:50 NY based Krink hit again with the trademark dripping icons with this brilliant short for Mini Cooper S. The effect it has on the car is really striking and the whole short is directed well too. If it wasn't probably massively illegal and utterly dangerous to have a car tricked out in this fashion I think my blue bullet would undergo the same treatment.
UsPosted by Jon Dodd Mon, November 09, 2009 19:55:41 Hello comrades! We are back from what was the longest, most tiring and surreal 24 hours wandering around London with a video camera we have yet encountered. We were selected from over 200 teams to take part in this years 24 hour ad competition set by Jonnie Oddball, HYPtv and M&C Saatchi. The challenge was to create an advert for the Institute of Contemporary Art on the theme of 'Now'.
We were paired up with a creative pair who go by the names of David Bailey and Miki Hyogo, and we couldn't of asked for a better pair of creatives. They seemed to be the only ones in the group who kept their heads sane and didn't fall into accidental slumber at one point or another.here. Below is our advert which was screened at the cinema in the ICA to a audience that included about 100 tired film makers, Peter Saville, Creative Director of the BBC Alan Yentob, M&C Saatchi Head Graham Fink and a loud woman.
Overall everyone in our team was happy with the advert and that we managed to finish on deadline (a feat that all the teams managed to do, much respect for everyone who entered). Before you scroll down we would just like to say our thanks to firstly our creative pair, Dave you kept spirits high and turned out to be a glittering actor as well as a wicked creative, Miki you made us all smile and we will be forever grateful of letting us trash you flat for the sake of art, but I'm sure the trashed flat turned out to be Wabi Sabi. And of course, as always many thanks to the legend that is Uncle Keith.
ProductPosted by Jon Dodd Wed, November 04, 2009 19:28:27 Put in the 'product' category as I was not really sure it would fit. This short little article on 99%, the self proclaimed "think tank" of the creative network Behance, has an interesting insight into designer-client liaisons. In fact the whole 99% site is full of useful tips and comments, something for everyone as they say. Read the article here.
TypographyPosted by Jon Dodd Mon, November 02, 2009 20:32:29 Apologies for the lack of postage on the blog of late, this is due to the fact that preparations are underway for our contribution to this years 24 hour ad experiment for HYPtv in association with M&C Saatchi (updates to follow this weekend). But, I digress, the type foundry HypeForType has recently updated the world with some lovely characters. Below is my favorite, that I am on the verge of buying, Sympathique.
WebPosted by Jon Dodd Sun, October 25, 2009 19:23:34 This may have been around for a while but I have only just stumbled across it and in keeping with my light Sunday posts I thought I would share. Learn Something Everyday is the brainchild of Manchester based studio Young. Below is todays installment. Young are also worth a gander too with some strong branding work.
Even if you are not a fan of Mr Z's music you have to love the effort that has been put in to create the album artwork for the king of hip hops latest album 'Blueprint'
ProductPosted by Jon Dodd Thu, October 22, 2009 19:52:08 As my laptop bag is on the cusp on what is known to laptop bag users as 'strap snappage', making every journey a emotional roller coaster of will it won't it snap. So you can imagine my love of these shiny new laptop bags by Freitag. Anything that solves my computer carrying dilemma whilst incorporating a cheeky hint of Helvetica is ok in my books. Found on the ever reliable It's Nice That.
FilmPosted by Jon Dodd Sun, October 18, 2009 13:08:00 As its a Sunday something a bit light hearted I think. Reading an old issue of Dazed & Confused yesterday I noticed an article that I had missed on previous visits to the strange glossy. The Yes Men are Andy Bichlbaum and Mike Bonanno, two men with a taste for donning sharp suits, blagging their way into corporate events and posing as top executives from international companies. Once in, they parody the companies they 'represent' with outrageous claims at speeches to wake up the corporate world to their greed.
One of their biggest stunts to date was with Bichlbaum, posing as a DOW Chemical Spokesperson, appears on the BBC news stating that Dow will finally take responsibility for the Bhopal disaster (a disaster that Union Carbide, now owned by DOW, was responsible for) and pay out over $12 billion dollars in compensation to the victims and families of the catastrophe, something that DOW themselves have failed to do to date. The result was people worldwide celebrating for a faceless corporation doing the right thing for once and DOW's stock loosing several billion dollars. Nobel and Genius (Nobius?). Their latest film screened last week in the US and has just come out at selected theaters in the UK. Check out their site for trailers and screening dates.
UsPosted by Jon Dodd Sat, October 17, 2009 19:27:44 Part of our on going projects with Educational Technologies we were asked to make a promotional advert for the 2010 Sydney conference. As we had no time (or massive amounts of money) to fly out to Sydney to film anything and we had 3 days to produce it we came up with this nice little proposal to excite the sightseers.
AdvertisingPosted by Jon Dodd Sat, October 17, 2009 15:09:12 Twitter follows normally mean someone is clicking follow every which way but loose on anyone to make them buy something from them or read their rants on the latest blockbusters. However when we saw that Umeric were following us we decided to check out their (rather brilliantly constructed) site and were greeted with some really nice work. Below are the idents they were commissioned by MTV for, rather interesting takes on the classic MTV logo. Having gained gold and silver at Promax earlier this month for the MTV idents, Umeric seem to have an undeniable style that is getting some serious media attention. They also have a fine collection of Maneki Neko cats if your into Japanese porcelain figurines.
ProductPosted by Jon Dodd Thu, October 15, 2009 21:38:41 09 seems to be the year of clock design, every designer coming up with a new and interesting take on the timepiece. Up until now the best one I had seen was a 10 foot high hydraulic one when we were in Berlin, but that has now been knocked off the top spot with this simple design by Kibardin Design. The fixtures are all that it is, with an inbuilt self contained power supply and light sensor to light it up during the twilight hours. I want one (or four).
InteractivePosted by Ali Freeman Thu, October 15, 2009 16:36:47 I formerly invite you to come to London's Trafalgar Square on December 11th.
There is going to be a polar bear made out of ice that you can touch...massively exciting stuff.
Its part of WWF's art to raise the awareness of global warming.
'This December 11th animal sculptor, Mark Coreth, will carve a life-sized ice sculpture of a hunting polar bear in Trafalgar Square, just outside the National Gallery. Over ten days it will melt, leaving a bronze skeleton, a pool of water and a powerful environmental message. Anyone who comes to Trafalgar Square will be able to reach out and touch the Ice Bear. Everyone who does will become sculptors as they shape it - symbolic of how we all have the power to affect our delicate environment.'
InteractivePosted by Ali Freeman Thu, October 15, 2009 11:02:25 Wow, just came across this immensity of a pop-up book. We've all seen them, bought them and even seen some amazing modern adaptions, such as the ABC3D book by Marion Bataille. (I have a copy, and its pretty immense).
But check this out, not only does it pop-up in a beautiful way, it even lights up too!!!
Jie Qi, you amaze me. (does that rhyme?)
here is a link to her vimeo page, with even more videos of this masterpiece, also have a look at her 'paper flowers blooming' video - yes she has made flowers out of paper and they looks like they are growing. http://vimeo.com/6154590
FilmPosted by Jon Dodd Wed, October 14, 2009 19:47:21 The epic song remixed by Justice which is good enough to warrant a blog post on its own, but the video is also quality. Filmed in super duper widescreen it has a new use for the otherwise boring credits. Directed by Keith Schofield.
TypographyPosted by Ali Freeman Wed, October 14, 2009 17:04:12 wowwwsssaaaaaaaaa very interesting video for the toyota IQ. Watch in wonderness how they created a font using the car.
PrintPosted by Ali Freeman Wed, October 14, 2009 16:18:40 I came across this the other day. Great idea, the process of your actions reveal the hidden message. I really want one even though it will probably take half an hour to scrub the dirt off.
UsPosted by Jon Dodd Tue, October 13, 2009 22:10:37 We got a nice treat in the post yesterday from Educational Technologies Hong Kong of some promotional work we did for their 2010 Sydney Convention. They were also nice enough to inform us that the postcards (below) and posters we currently making their way to their offices in India, Taiwan and Australia to name a few. As we have just finished hooking up the lighting in our photo/film studio we thought we would try out a few snaps. Updates for all the work we created for ETL to be updated to the site soon.
AnimationPosted by Jon Dodd Tue, October 13, 2009 21:55:15 Directed by Alasdair Brotherston and Jock Mooney (both look like typo's but have double checked), Bottom of the River is the latest offering from Trunk Animation. The music video for the Tom Fun Orchestra has interesting uses of silhouettes, done in such an organic fashion that you forget they are just black shapes quite quickly, leaving your mind free to conjure imagery. Trunk are worth a look too as they seem to be an organization with quite a few strings to their bow.
It seems ridiculous to think that we need to coax the nation into performing casual exercise during one's daily routine but these little tinkers at VW Sweden seem to be encouraging it.
EditorialPosted by Ali Freeman Tue, October 13, 2009 10:51:58 I came across this http://themoment.blogs.nytimes.com/tag/well-openers/ last week. Its all about the best T's that have featured on the front of the New York Times Magazine. Some really great ideas that have been created over the years.
AdvertisingPosted by Ali Freeman Mon, October 12, 2009 11:58:33 Just came across this nice bit of advertising for Orange Rockcorps on YouTube. Publicis, have gone down the direct route of linking music with charitable work.
Creating 3 adverts based on 3 different music styles, 'Hiphop', 'Electro' and 'Gothic', we see the dancers going about their everyday dance business but whilst geniously improving the area they are dancing within, whether is be cleaning the floor whilst busting out some hiphop moves or even removing trash with the classic goth long leather jacket whilst walking along the beach.
AnimationPosted by Ali Freeman Mon, October 12, 2009 10:39:11 Long time no blog!!
Thomas Frenzel is a German based interdisciplinary designer with a great amount of motion graphics work. The video that brought him to my attention is "Danger Global Warming", as un-exciting as this may sound, believe me this video is surely worth a look! From the off his hand crafted and computer generated elements will make your mind boggle. A very stylish way to show the effects of global warming.
Every time I watch this I cant help wondering how long this must have taken to create.
More info about this video and other Thomas Frenzel videos on his vimeo page:
InteractivePosted by Jon Dodd Sun, October 11, 2009 23:23:53 I may not be the most informed when it comes to politics, but I know a great bit of negative campagining when I see it. Created by Lean Mean Fighting Machine the interactive site lets you rearrange words uttered at speeches by the leaders of the three main political parties (CR wisely observed that it was probably funded by the lib dems as the only utterance that you can make sense with them is "choose the liberal democrats"). Its genius for the simple fact that they are not saying anything bad about any party, they leave that joyful honour to you. Found via Gavin Lucas at Creative Review. Try it at http://www.speechbreaker.co.uk. Below is my rather poor attempt.
Visual movie created for the brand "SOCLES". Features in the STASH ISSUE 39 stashmedia.tv/archive/stash39.htm and was screened at the onedotzero festival 2008 onedotzero.com in the "terrain 08" category :
Evocative artist interpretations of all types of terrain and environments, real and imagined, from surreal urban worlds and second life to the mutation of natural landscapes.
Featuring futuristic dystopian visions, and architectural explorations that highlight our ever changing world and the encroachment of the city as mankind’s habitat of choice.one for urban flaneurs and city planners to metropolitan dreamers.
No need for words with such visuals doing all the talking!
Artificial Paradise, Inc is an experimental film anticipating a future where a major corporation has developed an unique software, based on organic virtual reality, which holds all the lost memories of humankind. A user connects to this database of the forgotten…what is he searching for?
I will end this bog post with a BIG WOW and another blog post for Broughton BOYAAA!
Updated daily, the fwd_ctrl.blog is a online commentary from the design unit fwd_ctrl. For more information on fwd_ctrl please visit http://www.fwdctrl.com. To feature your work on the blog or to show us anything nice you have seen please email blog@fwdctrl.com.
Hello comrades! We are back from what was the longest, most tiring and surreal 24 hours wandering around London with a video camera we have yet encountered. We were selected from over 200 teams to take part in this years 
I came across this 
