Yay Inspiration!

Lately, I haven't come across much inspiration. I've been experiencing an inspiration deficit I guess you could say. That all changed yesterday evening. The Denver Egotist is a regular virtual stop for me and for good reason. They consitently post amazing work.

Well the Egotist didn't disappoint. They had a link to this video for Google Chrome. BBH produced this piece and I think it's amazing. I had a total "wwhhaattt???" moment after about 5 seconds of watching. You'll see what I mean. A great spot, really innovative approach, and crazy entertaining to watch. Bravo BBH.



To continue my inspiration-drought liberation, I offer this little slice of heaven from Wieden and Honda. Not sure how to describe this but it's fantastic. The complexity of editing a piece like this makes my brain hurt. Pay particular attention to the way the sound track matches the cuts perfectly. So good. It's like a visual caramel apple dipped in more, even better caramel. Feast your eyes upon this.

Good Movies in PDF Form

I love to hunt but I hate the NRA. My weapons of choice are a keyboard and Google. I hunt blogs, and baby, blog hunt'n's good. Today I came across blog gold.

ScriptShadow is worth checking out. The author reviews pre-production movie scripts. Scripts that haven't even been purchased yet. What's most interesting to me about the blog is that the author treats scripts as their own medium.

I've read scripts before, but mostly with the intention of watching the movie later and comparing the two. Reading a script just for the enjoyment of a story has never occurred to me. I'm really interested in exploring this blog and discovering some cool stories and good story tellers.

And as a bonus, if one of the scripts I read gets produced I can impress people by telling them I know all about it. Knowing about a movie before everyone else is like hipster kryptonite. In your face you ironic sweater-wearing fixee-fiends

Say it with Pride: "It's a Hyundai!"

Hyundai is a good example of a brand changing perceptions. For years Hyundai was the low-budget alternative to import cars. People didn't really expect all that much from them. They were cheap, ugly, and got good gas milage. And that's all people really cared about.

Now Hyundai is coming out as a real contender in the import market. They have an attractive line-up of cars and have really pushed the boundaries of how a major car manufacturer interacts with its customers. Hyundai Assurance changed the game.

I came across this cool video on Hyundai's microsite for the Genesis.

It's not just the video though. You can actually navigate around the parts and take a close up look at them. Hyundai offers call-out boxes for certain parts like the drivetrain, interior, headlights, and such things.

It's a really powerful image to see a car disected like that. I'm surprised this hasn't hit national television screens yet. Hyundai's doing a good job with this whole re-branding thing.

MasterBerry

BlackBerry is trying to shake things up. I give them kudos for seeing the writing on the metaphorical Facebook wall for smartphones. It appears BlackBerry is trying to break out of the enterprise shell and show the general public that BlackBerry phones are fun for the whole family.

Enter their new TV campaign. I really liked the first one I saw—when I thought it was a MasterCard commercial. It wasn't until BlackBerry's word mark appeared in the last few frames that I realized it wasn't a MasterCard spot.

I thought those shades of yellow and orange were pretty well locked down on the ol' corporate logo front. BlackBerry thought differently I guess. Check out the two spots below. The first is the new BlackBerry effort and the second an older MasterCard spot.





I went from responding positively to the BlackBerry spot to being kind of ticked-off. I felt tricked. And now that I know it's a BlackBerry spot ripping off MasterCard's logo it makes me even more pissed.

All you need is love? I disagree. You could start with an original concept and a branding effort that doesn't latch on to an existing brand like a lamprey.

Make it Simple. Say it Simple.

As a preface to this post: I am not a designer. I appreciate what I deem as good design and I enjoy objects, but I am not a designer by profession or practice. That being said, Philippe Starck is a designer. A fantastic, interesting, groundbreaking designer. I found this short video interview on Engadget. My favorite line from the interview: when presented with a pair of "modern" headphones "It's not design. It's marketing."

Design gets a lot of lip service. The general public is becoming aware of design now more than ever. Just go to your local Urban Outfitters and strike up a conversation about post-modernist loft furniture and watch the mob of Barnes & Noble-educated designers form. But design is more than looking pretty. Design is (in my opinion) more about function than art.

Writing and design are analogous. Writing is a battle between essential material and needless verbiage. The best writers are those that make every word important. There are no superfluous phrases or indulgent vocabularies. Just information well told.

Design/writing is the process of removing unnecessary parts. Design should work simply. And writing should communicate simply. Simple.

A Great Idea From AT&T—and it's Free!

The AT&T and Verizon Wireless feud is big news. I have opted to stay out of it for the most part. I'm a little too close to the thing to be objective. But I came across an article in PC World this morning and thought I'd share it with you (and that's you singular because you're the only one reading this).

AT&T has released an app for the iPhone that encourages users to report areas of poor network performance (users can geomark the exact location). AT&T has essentially made their iPhone subscribers an extension of their network field force. Now that's great thinking on the part of AT&T.

The iPhone's success has been plagued by criticism of AT&T's network. Acknowledging the faults of the network is all fine and good, but giving your customers the power to report and (theoretically) improve poor network connections is awesome.
Hats off to you AT&T. Well played.

I Want to be a Nerf Herder When I Grow Up

This clip isn't creatively inspirational. Maybe I could label it aspirational? Nerf has had a long history of making kids want to be in their commercials (pick me, pick me). I mean who wouldn't want to run around in a dimly lit warehouse with a bunch of your friends shooting foam darts at you? Sign me up twice thank you.



Nerf won't be holding casting calls for 27 year olds anytime soon so I'll have to settle for this video instead.

Family Guy Is Still Funny

Family Guy is hilarious. Yes it crosses the line (often), can be too much, and can be a bit formulaic, but it's still funny as hell. My favorite Family Guy experience has been Blue Harvest, the Star Wars spoof. My love for Star Wars is deep but seeing Family Guy interpret the sacred George Lucas cannon is fantastic entertainment.

Now Family Guy is releasing the Empire Strikes Back edition of Blue Harvest. Watch the trailer and enjoy. Personal favorite scene in the trailer, the Imperial Walker holding his knee after falling. It was hilarious when Peter did it, it's even more hilarious when a four story tall robot of destruction does it.