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Everything’s more romantic in Slo-Mo: Nuit Blanche
In light of things ramping up for St. Valentine’s Day, I found this beautiful short on Gamma Squad by the geniuses at Spy Films. It’s mostly CG but don’t let that stop you from getting lost in the moment like these two.
Nuit Blanche from Spy Films on Vimeo.
Here’s a shot-by-shot breakdown of how they did it.
Making Of Nuit Blanche from Spy Films on Vimeo.
Interaction Designers AHOY + AWOL Kids Make Good ‘Choices’
It’s a big weekend for Savannah with events happening all over town. The two on my radar are IxDA’s Interaction 10 Conference and the play ‘Choices: A Romeo and Juliet Story’ performed by the talented kids of AWOL. Tonight, the Paragon crew will be trying to squeeze as much fun into one evening as possible.
Interaction 10
You might not be aware of this, but a few hundred of the smartest interaction designers in the world have converged on the creative coast this week for a packed schedule of presentations, challenges, workshops and fun activities thanks to IxDA’s third annual conference.
IxDA (Interaction Design Association) is an international “un-organization” (membership is free) focused on the practice of interaction design.
I love the manifesto:
We believe that the human condition is increasingly challenged by poor experiences. IxDA intends to improve the human condition by advancing the discipline of Interaction Design. To do this, we foster a community of people that choose to come together to support this intention. IxDA relies on individual initiative, contribution, sharing and self-organization as the primary means for us to achieve our goals.
Motion Graphics to entertain and inform: Did you Know 4.0
What’s the easiest way to get our attention? Chocolate! Ok so what’s the second easiest way to get our attention? Do a motion graphics piece that doesn’t just tickle the eye but teaches us something as well. Taking into consideration recent innovations in communication and publishing, these kinds of info-tainment pieces will become more needed. And, for a change, I’m not the only one that thinks so.
We recently read a post from Jay Kinghorn, a photographer, who thinks that multimedia’s the way of the future for his profession. And advertisers might be taking advantage of the full media experience available through Apple’s iTunes for books, seeing this as a new media channel (see: revenue stream).
Anyway, here’s a bit of moving knowledge for you.
Na Na Na Na Neutra Face: Ode to a Typeface
You gotta love it when people take the time to put together a video homage to their favorite font.
Well, YOU don’t gotta love it… but we do.
Local Design: Leoci’s Trattoria
Downtown natives have probably already noticed the newest addition to our restaurant selections, Leoci’s just around the corner from us on Abercorn Street. We’re always glad to see existing buildings being rennovated and reused, especially when they serve up sumptuous Italian food. But what really excited me (after I got over the smell of basil in the air) was their logo. Anyone know who’s responsible?
Lee Hunt Lecture: The Paradox of Media Brands
This past Wednesday SCAD presented a lecture by expert brand strategist Lee Hunt. The event was well attended, and even though his talk focused on media brands, his insights were relevant for anyone dealing with the creation or maintenance of brands for any consumer product.
First the Basics
He did a great job of covering the basics of what a brand is and what it needs to do. Anyone unfamiliar with the idea of a brand being more than just a logo would’ve gotten a lot out of this part. In short, a brand is:
- the perception that exists in people’s mind
- a set of expectations – promises the product makes to the consumer
- a shortcut – an easy way to understand why the product you’ve chosen is superior to its competitors
But most importantly your brand isn’t what you say it is,
it’s what they say it is.
With that in mind, any successful brand needs to do 3 things:
- Define the asset – this is the easy part, basically just communicate what it is you’re selling.
- Differentiate – now it gets a bit trickier, you need to set yourself apart from the competition.
- Establish relevance to the consumer – even more difficult, this means finding a way of convincing your target audience why you belong in their already media and product saturated lives.
Now the Meat
New Show Packaged: Cantore Stories
If you were watching the Weather Channel this past Sunday then you caught one of their latest programs, Cantore Stories. Putting aside our unhealthy fascination with Jim Cantore, we were pleased as punch to have been tapped by The Weather Channel to help brand and package another one of their HD shows.
After designing the logo for the show, we basically provided them with a kit of motion graphic parts from which they could assemble transitions, promos and other sequences to their hearts’ content. The particular challenge with this show was that each episode focuses on a different location and so would need its own customized end title treatment to correspond to that weather type. Now it wouldn’t have been efficient to have us produce every single one of the show’s necessary parts, so we ended up creating templates based on 4 major color schemes which would give their team of animators the ability to create future Show elements for any weather condition.
New Site Launched: Goose Feathers Cafe
New look but the same owners and, of course, the same great food and service! That’s the idea behind the refresh of Express Cafe’s, now Goose Feathers, brand and web presence. Since Michael and Beth were planning on renaming the cafe, they thought it was a perfect time to redo it’s look as well. The challenge was in updating the brand of a Savannah institution without throwing away the equity they’ve built up already.
Free Font Friday: LOT
I have been trying to keep from putting up overly stylized fonts, just because they can be more difficult to use [correctly]. But I couldn’t help myself when I saw this one. Lot comes to us from FontFabric and really brings a bold style and some amazing lettering (the “Q” is my favorite). Check it out. And if you want to see more, you can find it on the Behance Network as well.
LOT free font is applicable for any type of graphic design – web, print, motion graphics etc and perfect for t-shirts and other items like logos, pictograms.
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