Objectified

This movie by Gary Hustwit, who also directed Helvetica, was a phenomenal, phenomenal piece of film.

At its essence Objectified is a film about the painstaking design decisions that go into everyday products that we use. And in many instances the design decisions that go totally unnoticed are the most thoughtful and beautiful aspects to these objects.

One subject covered in this movie, that really hits home to the brander in me, was the concept that every item that we look at evokes some sort of feeling out of us. We immediately determine how much it should cost, what it will feel like, what it is used for. Interestingly enough traditionally the form of many objects was directly correlated to that objects function. If an alien were to land on earth and see a chair, or a spoon, it might easily be able to deduce what that object is used for. But with the creation of the microchip, much of the form of objects has been left to the designers.



Sometimes it is the lack of many design elements that make things the most beautiful. The ability to strip objects of their design is at the same time one of the simplest and most complicated design decision to make. The film used this beautiful machine I am typing on as a prime example of this, Apple. Apple’s products have a sense of intuitive, and minimal design that are overlookable, and so desirable at the same time. When I close my laptop, a small light flashes on and off subtly like a heartbeat, to indicate that the machine is on. When I open it back up, that light is unnecessary, and fades out.

Apple’s sense of design gathers around one focus for its user. The iPhone for example, the focus is the screen, thus everything happens there. The keyboard is there, all the content is there, and the screen’s space on the product is maximized to drive the point home. Before this post, and movie come off as an Apple lovefest, let’s move on.

What I also gained from this movie was designs ability to be a way to solve a problem, and the sense of integrity and responsibility that comes with every design. IDEO, an agency in California, was filmed trying to design a product, by solving a problem. One of the executives, a week after the release of one of the agencies designs for a toothbrush, found one of their products washed ashore on a beautiful beach while on vacation. Now the designers responsibility was greater, sure it looked great, but did a toothbrush need to be a toothbrush to reach the end goal the consumer needed? Certainly we are all used to picking up a toothbrush, at least twice a day (I hope, or don’t come to my desk…ever), but who is to say that is the best solution for cleaning our teeth? If we change toothbrushes twice a year, and live to be 75, that’s 150 toothbrushes we throw out in our lifetime. If we run out of toothpaste every 2 months that’s 450 bottles of toothpaste we waste. And as a designer, there is an ability to change that.

I suggest everyone see this film, it will be coming to the Walker Museum in April. My main takeaway from this movie is that as a designer I am a genius, and if I do my job right, no one should ever realize that.

The Future of Visual Storytelling is Interactive. Or Is It?

This panel was lead by five different creatives:

Victoria Ha, Stitch Media Inc; James Milward, Secret Location; Mark Pytlik, Stink Digital;
Phil Stuart, Preloaded; Rick Webb, Barbarian Group

The opening slide was based on the concept of storytelling of today, being a bit more complicated than that of the past. Where there was once one linear, path from beginning to ending, problem to resolution, content today seems to involve storylines that evolve as the user experiences it. What also is unique about today’s storylines is users abilities to affect the stories arc, and even in some cases effect the resolution.

Rick Webb, from The Barbarian Group, showcased recent work done by his agency for Dove, Waking Up Hannah. An interesting concept, this story follows the story of Hannah, but shot from the perspective of 46 different members of the party. The user has the ability to switch vantage points of the storyline whenever they see fit. Imagine the possibilities then of how many different stories can be taken out of one story.



Rick made a comment that the more time a user gets to experience with the brand, the stronger affiliation they will have for it. An example like this reminds me greatly of a movie like Cloverfield,. Cloverfield, which was shot from the perspective of one camera in New York City during the attack, could essentially release millions of versions of that movie from the perspective of different New Yorkers. What if the version that I saw in theaters was the most boring vantage point of those events (which I doubt)? What if they did release several different versions of that movie in theaters, who would be inclined to see it more than once?

Victoria Ha, showcased several examples of Alternate Reality Games (ARGs). One of which was Enitech, for The Sarah Connor Chonicles.

This was also followed up by a philosophical question of “inviting consumers to play, vs. gaming.” Certainly ARGs are not the solution for everyday brands, but considering the creation of shows like Heroes will the brands followers have a sense of engagement, and involvement, I am more than certain the homage of “expect the consumer to do nothing,” loses much of its relevance.

My main takeaway from this panel was the tools we have today give us the ability to engage consumers in a much more unique and involved way than we have before. For as long as I remember my mom has figured out who committed the crime on Law & Order before the show was over.. Now what would happen if Law & Order rewarded her for getting it right? Or what if the show was affected by her locking the wrong criminal up, and the crimes continued?

You can run, but you can't hide

PaperTweet3d: Augmented Reality T-shirts from squidder on Vimeo.

Augmented reality t-shirts. Dude, the future just keeps getting more futury. Just think of the possibilities that this opens up, such as logo recognition or product recognition. I will definitely be playing with the FLARtoolkit tonight!

Full article on squidder.com here.

Kick Ass or Suck - Escaping Internet Mediocrity

Wow, this sucked. “The internet is important, but getting clients to understand that is hard.”

Um, awesome, but? Didn’t need to travel to Austin to complain about clients. Could have done that from the comfort of my own agency, eating stale bagels from a morning meeting and listening to the gentle purr of RC racers in the lobby below.

EA Dead Case Study: Ooozing Tentacles of Media Success

In “Transmedia storytelling,” a brand story is told on different media to reach different potential audiences. So instead of marketing campaigns that target one audience at the expense of all others, each media approach tells a new story targeted to its own audience.

Shit, that sounds so not interesting. Ok. ZOMBIES!! BUT IN SPACE!! OMG THEY ARE EVERYWHERE!! THERE’S ONE ON MY LEG WHY GOD WHY?!!

Yeah, EA made a Space Zombie game. This was a huge deal, because the game industry isn’t that different from the movie industry: they’re kinda pussies. They’d rather put their money on a remake or sequel than risk it on something original. So this was a brave move for EA, which is usually content with squeezing out another Madden game every 12 minutes and calling it a day.

How did they sleep at night, what with the unique and untested concept of reanimated alien corpses? That Transmedia stuff. Before EA released the game, they released a series of comic books telling the games’ back story. Then came another layer of narration, via anime. Then came the actual console game. Then a microsite allowed players to continue the story. Finally, the comic books were animated and put on youtube.

Cool, but not revolutionary. Lots of brands whack away at the message and create/maintain buzz through different media. We get minigames on LOST and McDonald’s comic book versions of Knocked Up. Seriously, even Dominos released a video game based on the Noid (why yes I am old, thanks.) So here’s the radical part: none of it was crap. The comic books were actually good, stand alone, well-crafted stories by a kick-ass artist. The anime was interesting and cool and started getting passed around youtube. The micro-site made people who hadn’t cared about OMG SPACE ZOMBIES want to buy the game. As did the comic book geeks, who wouldn’t normally have been into it.

“The content is the new marketing tool—all of the assets are stand alone…quality of each was key.”
-some guy on the panel. The 2nd one. I think he had a beard.

There were no afterthoughts here—no tiny players supporting the big fat star of a main media approach. EA realized that because the game was a gamble in itself, it had to be more than a marketing one-off. They understood that there was more to a strategy than checking off boxes (here’s our app, here’s our print, here’s our widget). The knew it meant figuring out how different pieces of media will reach different (and maybe new) audiences in the most compelling way.

Some other interesting stuff from the panel:

• The microsite (Noknownsurvivors.com) was a 3-d flash environment that helped foster a relationship with the game. The site encouraged continuing play and created a shared experience people could expand on blogs and message boards. It got 5 million hits, and was “One of the key factors in [people] buying the game.”

• Though the site was popular, the books and animated series brought more long-term value, because they were bite-sized and easy to disseminate over lots of media. “The limitation of a webpage is that it’s a destination. That’s ok, but it should always be coupled with easily-shared content that can take advantage of social media.”

• EA worked with bloggers to build excitement (Marketing guy: “That buzz over 6 months, you can’t buy that kind of buzz. Well, you can buy that. I did buy that.”) but the most hits to the site actually came from a tiny blurb on Wikipedia.

Anyway, I am shit at video games and really scared of zombies, but this was interesting and inspiring. The panel themselves seemed grateful and a little surprised that EA had been willing to take a chance do it right, just like we feel when clients buy brave and thoughtful work. Of course, now they want to make a sequel.

“Give people a reason to want to interact with your brand, instead of telling them they should.”
-another guy, possibly the one on the left

Have Kilts Replaced the Murse?

One of the strangest trends I saw at SXSW this year was the amount of men wearing kilts! I am not sure if this is a SXSW thing, a new trend among the geeky, or perhaps Austin is going the way of Edinburgh. Whaddaya say guys? Wanna go kilt shopping? (I do hear they are comfortable.)

I am not the only one who noticed. Click here to read an interview with someone sportin' a kilt:

Many Twitter entries were also made about this phenomenon - there was even a zombie spotted in a kilt!

"Four Boxes" - Local Artists at the Fest

Many people know SXSW as a music festival, but it is also a conference for the Interactive population and a film festival. Attendees are usually brought here by one of those things, or possible two, but here is a great example of bringing all 3 together.

Four Boxes came to SXSW as part of the movie festival, but it’s an internet thriller with an awesome sound track – making it a trifecta for the festival. It has been described as “Sex Lies and Video Tape” meets “Rear Window”, and stars Justin Kirk of “Weeds” fame.

The film also has Minneapolis/St. Paul ties as it was directed by Wyatt McDill and produced by Megan Huberstars. It was edited by the Bret Astor of Fischer Edit/Target fame and BWN’s Ken Brahmstedt did the music.

Although I enjoyed the movie, the component missing is a great interactive piece to tie it all together. Similar to “Eagle Eye” or other movie thrillers out there, the best way to get the word out is by a good viral interactive piece. Maybe if they are successful at SXSW they will consider that.

Watch the trailer


http://fourboxesthemovie.com/