Exceptional creative
JimCarrey.com – more Eternal Sunshine than Living Color
The rubber faced comedian Jim Carrey has just launched JimCarrey.com, a new personal web site documenting his career and based on his slapstick comedy stylings it’s an experience that is nothing like what I expected. The visual design is at times like something out of a Salvador Dali painting with elements of a Tim Burton movie sprinkled in. It is extremely visual with minimal navigation and a lot hidden content and interactions sprinkled throughout the extensive video and animation. One example of this is the Ace Ventura headed bird that is his Twitter link found on every page that spouts his latest Tweets one word at a time. I have to honestly say that this is the first celebrity site I have ever wanted to spend any time with and I applaud him for actually creating something that gives some credit to his fans for being able to enjoy something more challenging that the usual headshot laden celebrity dribble.
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FedEx delivers great visual only ad
Saw this FedEx ad today and loved it because I am a sucker for a visual and concept that is so strong it doesn’t even need a single word of copy. It plays up to the consumer to have a brain that can figure out the two icons and what they mean. Also as a designer who has to create global advertising all the time I also love that this ad can work anywhere in the world with no translation needed. Click on the ad to get the full sized version which obviously works better than the thumbnail.
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AXE uses fresh techniques to create Day & Night ads
No one has been able to continue to re-invent the concept of ’sex sells’ better than Axe deodorant that past few years. Their latest campaign called Day & Night is the first one I can remember that uses technology in a new and really smart way. The first execution is a print ad where you have to text ‘AXE’ to specific number but you have to do it after 9pm. In return for the text AXE sends you the missing part of the ad. Hold your phone over the ad and you have the whole picture.
The second execution is an outdoor poster where the bottom half of the image is obscured during the day by a polarized film. At night poster is back light so the bottom portion of the image can be seen through the polarized film.
Even more important than the smart use of technology is that fact that the ads create an impression that will make you not only remember them but either take action to see the rest of the print ad or seek out the outdoor ads. It also makes you take that action at night which I am sure is based on behavior of their core audience demographics. 9pm is a media grazing phase and will be able to focus on the experience not distracted by work and before young guys would be heading out to clubs and bars. I hope they keep up this new direction of moving beyond the bikini clad TV spot to do more work like this.
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Beyond Word – A death clock resume
I interview and talk with a lot of young designers who always smile as they hand me a business card they have spent 80 hours designing, printed with a 6 color process, a spot varnish and a die cut on hand made paper which they have then stapled to a an off center Xerox of their resume that they created in Word entirely typeset in 12 point Courier. Your resume is the first design impression you make on a new client or employer so why are we all content to “design” it in a word processor? Word, and really all Microsoft Office programs, are where design and typography go TO DIE!
I want to create a site called The Visual Resume project that would a platform for me to launch my personal crusade to change the thinking of designers that they have to represent themselves and their talents with something as vanilla and unimaginative as a Word document. We have to use our talents to create something more visual, more imaginative and more engaging to represent ourselves. I took a first pass at doing it to my own resume two years ago with moderate success and I have a new version in the works that will be finished soon.
My favorite example of a designer who has done something really unique with his resume is Dustin Curtis who created a death clock that tracks his progress through his life in real time to his predicted death on March 23, 2068. I love it because it is completely original, it is a living document and would if it was mine it would remind me everyday that I need to get off my ass and do something with my life.
I challenge you to stand out from the crowd and put your talents to use to create a resume that truly represents you and your talents. Post in the comments any examples you like or an example your have already created for yourself.
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Hasbro and Google make the world your Monopoly board
Hasbro soft launched a new site today called Monopoly City Streets that promotes their new board game of the same name. The site takes the game from the flat board game in to any street in the world – literally. Built on Google Maps the site gives the player $3 million in virtual cash to buy pretty much any street in the world and then build 3D buildings on their purchases. I bought Gates Avenue in Brooklyn and can get more money by logging into the site every day which earns me rent on the properties I built there. That money will then let me build bigger buildings and get more rent. The game then gets more complicated as you can get Chance cards that let you sabotage opponents by building prisons or sewage plants on their’ streets or knocking down their properties altogether. The ultimate goal for players is to reach the billionaire level and qualify for the Monopoly World Championships. The site soft launched today and is running really slowly hopefully only because they are trying to load balance their servers. The official launch will in October and it will run for four months.
I like the concept and the mash-up of the game and Google Maps to create something new. I just hope that the back-end issues get fixed by launch.
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Blitz Digital new site
I have been a fan of Blitz Digital for a while and still think the work they did on the Corpse Bride site is the best movie site ever done. They launched a new portfolio site yesterday that is a clean and well designed presentation of their work and worth checking out.
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Great outdoor campaign for Lost Children
I don’t see really great outdoor campaigns that often but this one got my attention. It is running right now in Melbourne for the Australian Childhood Foundation for their ongoing campaign Stop Child Abuse Now. They used a child size mannequins to represent children suffering neglect and then a billposter was pasted over the top of the figure so only the feet and legs could be seen. It is simple, it is attention getting and it’s a powerful visual that gets the message across in a way you will remember.
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Greenpeace Greentube
I have always been a huge fan of great ideas that are executed in a really smart way and the two videos above for Greenpeace may be the best ones I’ve seen so far this year. You have to watch the videos in full screen it really be able to see what is going on but using the actual YouTube interface as part of the ad like this is one of those things that has been in front of all of us but none of us thought of it. Really good stuff.
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A Heavy 404
I have written before about how I think a great 404 message is overlooked far, far too often and I found another great one this week when I was going through some old bookmarks and landed on an out of date page at Heavy.com.
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Obama’s Design Director of New Media talks about how design and interactive helped win the White House
Over the past year I wrote more than once about how much I liked what the Obama campaign did with digital design and media during their run to the White House. A few weeks ago I had the chance to meet and hear from the guy behind that work named Scott Thomas who spoke at the 99% conference. This video culls the highlights from his presentation at the conference and catches up with him afterward to find out more about his theories on simplicity and his plans for working in politics in the future.
I also have to give props to Scott Belsky who I am lucky enough to know, is the founder of Behance.com and one of the masterminds behind the 99% conference. I had sworn off conferences all together because of my previously documented conference coma but this one conference I will return next year. Also if you have a chance to hear Scott speak take advantage of it because he has a lot of great insights from talking with a lot of great creative minds and groups about how to make ideas happen.
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