DANGER
DO NOT TOUCH
Not only will this kill you, it will hurt the whole time you are dying.

Pssst- don’t tell my boss, but… Occasionally, even I run across a message, so clear and so profound, that design of the presentation would do little to make it any clearer.

[via: Natuba.com]

This is the music video for Again and Again by The Bird and The Bee. The entire video takes place on the desktop of a Mac running OS X Leopard. It was created by Dennis Liu. That link seems to be his portfolio site, but this video is not listed amongst his work. (It should be showcased, as far as I’m concerned. And Apple should send him a fat check.)

Wait for the KILLER call to action at the end, it’s perfect.

FlOw, published by That Game Company, is as pretty to look at as it is addicting to play. And I don’t mean button-mashing frenzy-type addiction. FlOw is a beautiful, relaxing, experience with eye-candy that’s deceptively simple and a has a soundtrack to match. And it’s hard to put down once you’re fully immersed in its serenely-styled world of dog-eat-dog survivalism.

This is a game that will reward a casual player with mild curiosity and 10 minutes to burn; as well the hardcore type who will play all the way through, time after time, and relish small details. This is exactly what all games should be, but so many aren’t. It’s no surprise flOw pulls it off: it was designed from the ground up to appeal, universally, to the human mind.

Flow theory from wikipedia:

With Flow the psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi names the feeling of complete and energized focus in an activity, with a high level of enjoyment and fulfillment. As Csikszentmihalyi sees it, the components of a Flow producing activity are:

* We are up to the activity.
* We are able to concentrate on the activity.
* The activity has clear goals.
* The activity has direct feedback.
* We feel that we control the activity.
* Our worries and concerns disappear.
* Our subjective experience of time is altered.

Not all of these components need to be present together for Flow to be experienced.

Or to put it simply: (Graphic from Deepfun.com)

The game’s creator, Jenova Chen, wrote his MFA thesis on flow and flOw. It came out in 2006 with little fanfare and has been slowly, but surely (4,000,000 downloads), gaining an audience. It was named one of the Best Indie Games 2007 by WIRED, was on PC World’s 101 Fantastic Freebies, and has been ported and made available for download on PSP via the Sony Playstation Store.

So, if you want a game that’s a little out of the ordinary with fantastic game play, and one that looks and sounds as good as it plays, go over and check out flOw. All you need is a mouse and hours/minutes of free time; you’re ready to flOw. (Warning: link may negatively affect productivity.)

The phrase, “web 2.0″ has surely jumped the shark by now, but the big concept behind it (user-generated content) still has incredible power. Marketing companies love to talk about harnessing the power of web 2.0, and I think I’ve finally found one that really does just that.

Visit Modernista!’s web site and you’ll see something unlike (and just like) everything else online. They’ve built their website using a small layover menu in the upper left hand corner that takes you through their website which is literally built across web sites such as Flickr, Del.ico.us and Youtube. Brilliant! This is a web 2.0 site, for real.

[Image Source]

Theworldsmostpowerfulnakedbike.com

This viral marketing website fires on all cylinders. There’s a plain black background, focusing us on the movie playing in the middle. Various pieces of a high-tech sport bike are visible. An anonymous rider backs out of a race trailer, idles to the line, and does a smoky burnout to get the shoes sticky. Then… SQUEERRRWAAAAAH-and we’re off! Screaming into the distance with a hair-raising engine wail; the camera following along for the ride. After ripping through a few gears comes the money-shot: the rider pops a high-speed wheelie giving us the first glimpse of exactly what motorcycle we’ve been looking at… It’s a BMW K 1200R.

Although it’s done here to great effect, showing some expert push your product to the limit is nothing new in transportation sales. What’s taking this site to the next level is a near-perfect, contagion execution.

Let’s pick it apart…

1. BMW really takes advantage of the fact that this url gives no hint as to the product’s branding. They don’t show you the familiar blue-and-white crest until well over 30 seconds into the video. By the time you see that it’s a BMW bike, you’re already invested emotionally in the proceedings and at least some part of that investment is transferred onto their brand, whether you like it or not. They are cutting their baggage loose by taking this chance, and it pays off big.
2. The focus is 100% on the action at hand, there’s no progress slider, there’s no volume button. Just a field of black, their bike footage and you. Normally, sound on a website with no volume/mute button is one of the cardinal sins of web design. They get away with here, though, because it’s not exactly auto-play. You have to click to start the movie. And they give you a warning of the impending audio with a little engine rev before you click. It’s short and sweet enough to not warrant much attention from the guy in the cubicle across the way, but it lets you know tail-pipe music will be forthcoming, should you want to turn down the volume on your computer.
3. The parting shot is nicely done, as well. They provide you a link to contact local dealers as well as a link to the 1200R product page. Two nicely targeted calls to action are presented without having to reproduce their entire site at this alternate url. They also offer a “replay movie” link along with an available download of the film for the ones who liked it enough that they want to experience it again, and share it with friends. (A.K.A They pay service to, and provide a path of least resistance for, those who are most likely to truly make it a viral site.)

Whoever is doing BMW’s new-media marketing earned every penny on this one. Laser-like focus on the product at hand, maximum capitalization on the distance-from-brand viral campaigns offer, and a classy, understated call to action makes this viral site a winner.

I’m loving me some CommandShift3, lately. It’s like Hot or Not (Warning: link may be mildly NSFW), but it’s for web sites instead of vapid, digi-cam-wielding web personalities. Basically, you get screen shots showing two current web sites. You click on the one that you like the most. By doing so, you’ve just declared a winner between the two. Sites are rated over time and assigned a rank in the grand scheme of things.

Anyone can submit a site, and you can provide a credit url to the designer (or to yourself). It’s a fun way to find some inspiration or put your design chops to the test. The best of and worst ever galleries are not to be missed. Oh, and us Mac users will never again forget what three buttons to press when we want to snap a screen shot. (command-shift-3 is the Mac keyboard shortcut for taking a screenie.)

Last year, Hollywood executives were whining about how the fact that they make bad movies Halo 3 (a massively successful video game) was putting a big dent in their movie sales. In October 2007, box office receipts were down 27%. Company mouthpieces had to come up with a reason why, so they fired up their BS machine that allows them to blame everything from online piracy to Scientology for poor movie sales and came up with this: (Excerpt from CVG)

Film executives are blaming Halo 3 for lower than expected October Box Office numbers, which on the weekend of the 5th were down a whopping 27 percent from the same time last year.

Many film executives, reports Advertising Age, are convinced that punters stayed indoors to play Master Chief’s latest, which let’s not forget broke all box office records by making $170 million on its first day. It’s now gone on to sell well over $300 million.

Ben Stiller’s new offering, The Heartbreak Kid (which cost $60 million to make) was expected to clear $20 million in its opening weekend, instead it made only $14 million. Execs blame the Chief.

It sounds like a good excuse, but RUH-ROH! A little movie called Iron Man debuted this weekend and brought in ~$104 million, which sets it at the second-highest ever opening weekend gross for a non-sequel movie. That’s a pretty good take; in fact, it’s an opening weekend that most studio execs would give their eye teeth for.

Now consider the fact that Grand Theft Auto IV was released last week. The Grand Theft Auto gaming-franchise is one of the few that is actually bigger than Halo’s. This latest installment cost $100 million to make, and GTA IV is expected to out-sell Halo 3 by more than two-fold in it’s first week of release.

In conclusion: big, bad GTA IV just came out and should have kept Iron Man’s bread-and-butter audience indoors, blood-shot eyes illuminated by a flickering screen filled with the most comprehensive, open-ended virtual world ever created. So, why didn’t Iron Man flop and make $1 over the weekend? Um, maybe because it’s a good movie, and if you make good movies you don’t have to come up with silly, back-pedaling excuses for your share holders.

Update: Sales numbers are in for GTA IV. It smashed all existing game sales records, moving 6 million units to generate $600 million+ in sales. Grand Theft Auto Makes a Killing - CNET

Rejoice, fellow Mac-heads. Google has a search just for you! No more quantifying your software, screen saver, or hardware searches with the perfunctory “for Mac” at the end.

[Photo Credit]

I recently received an email to vote on the new, improved athletics logo for UMKC, my alma mater. (That’s University of Missouri - Kansas City for anyone wondering.) I was confused at first. How often do logos need to be updated? The year after I graduated they came out with a new logo. I’d say somewhere around 2005. This brings us to somewhere around 3 years ago. And it’s already time for another logo?

It seems that the athletic department has decided that “to create a more comprehensive athletics program, they need to have a more consistent identity, which is something that hasn’t been visible in the past.”

I guess the logo they designed a few years ago wasn’t consistent enough. I’m pretty sure the invisibility of the past was lack of marketing, not the identity. I thought the logo they used from 1987 to 2004 was pretty consistent.

It wasn’t used very well and kind of reminded me of the KangaROOS shoe brand logo, but I thought it was consistent. Re-branding is a common method used to spike interest, so I guess I can handle it. A logo design should be timeless and if anything be able to last more than 3 years. Changing your logo constantly isn’t going to help “consistency”.

After saying all that, I’m still excited to see the options I’ve been given to choose between. I click the link that takes me to the voting page. Uhhhh… really? The two logos shown aren’t what I was hoping for to say the least. Quick critique time!

Option One (on left): I like that they show the whole kangaroo. Even though it says roos, it’s nice to know what it is with a quick glance and with just a head or upper body it’s hard to tell exactly what it is. I understand that the Roo is supposed to have an illustrated feel, but it seems incomplete. The bigger issue is the typography. “Roos” is hard to read. The “R” looks very close to an “A” and the “s” looks like a “5″. The text shouldn’t be angled. When this gets printed on a T-Shirt, it will look like a bad print job. I can hear it now. “Is this supposed to be angled?”

Option Two (on right): I really want to like this one. Overall I wish it were more symmetrical to give it a stronger and more stable look. Especially being a sports logo. The boxing gloves are a nice concept, but I’m not sure if it reads very well. The typography here is better starting with a more traditional and less trendy font choice than option one, but still needs some work. It looks like they tried to have the same arch baseline for “UMKC” and “ROOS”, but were just off from matching it and “ROOS” being italicized doesn’t help it fit either.

Maybe we should look to our new arrivals in the Summit League, the South Dakota State Jackrabbits. They recently redesigned their logo as well. I think I’ll write in a vote for it.

Design doesn’t get much more modern, and the works don’t get much more classic than this gorgeous new edition of Dante Alighieri’s Divine Comedy. Nicole Peterson, a recent graphic design graduate from Massachusetts College of Art and Design in Boston, designed these book covers for Dante’s Divine Comedy.

“I wanted to create a set of covers that didn’t use images from the [Hieronymus] Bosch Hell painting, or any images of Dante and Virgil that are normally found on covers for the Divine Comedy, I was inspired by Dante’s use of mathematics and architecture in describing Hell, Heaven and Purgatory [and] employed simple geometric shapes and color to represent these places, while still keeping the design simple and allowing the reader to use their imagination when reading these vivid poems.”

Bravo, Nicole, they are truly inspired. Here’s a link to Nicole’s Flickr Page, and make sure you click through on those thumbnails at the top to get a look at the higher-res versions, they’ve got some serious impact.

[via Design Related]

I have some bad news. Deep breath, designers. Here it is:

The Nike logo isn’t the greatest mark ever created.

There, I said it. I feel better, but chances are you disagree with me or are slightly uncomfortable with my blasphemy. Now don’t get me wrong, it’s a quality mark, but in my humble opinion it is certainly not the end-all, be-all in corporate identity.

Why is it so popular then? Three reasons; (1) Nike sells quality products and good looking products to boot, (2) their advertising rocks, and (3) Nike’s brand equity has been well managed. If Nike sold toilet brushes on late-night TV via shoddy homemade style commercials with a guy in a bad suit shouting tired slogans, I doubt as many people would be drooling over the swoosh.

So now you might be saying, “Ok, point taken, but why do you think it’s lame, logo-critic?!?!” Well, I don’t think it’s lame. I just don’t think it’s that great, and here’s my reasoning:

1. Shouldn’t a mark communicate something about the entity it represents? I think so. (Nike’s doesn’t)
2. Without the mountains of advertising would you know what the swoosh represents? (You wouldn’t)
3. It’s a glorified check mark. (Old news)

Note: I’m typing this as I wear my Nike shoes and prepare to run this evening with my Nike watch. I simply feel as if the logo has been elevated to stardom through quality brand management versus the merit of the mark itself.

The record companies are clueless and scared, the RIAA is abusively litigious and crass. However the musicians are listening to their fans like teenagers who just heard Dark Side of the Moon for the second time, and we’re all exploring a plethora of new options.

The traditional marketing system for music has eaten itself over the last decade. Some would even say it’s been back for seconds. All with a public looking on, trying to care about the the people behind the music we love. I say trying, because we universally fail to give a crap when nasty corporations alongside acts like Metallica and Prince, start rattling their sabers.

You see, when millionaires argue with billionaires it’s hard to care. And I don’t mean like sudoku is hard, I mean like bench pressing 600 lbs is hard. Almost no one can do it, or even wants to try. Add the fact that the struggling musicians aren’t getting hurt in the crossfire, and you end up with a public that’s kind of enjoying the implosion. It’s like watching a bully finally get his ass kicked across the playground.

This has lead to/been caused by (It’s a chicken and egg thing) a bottom-up explosion in cheap distribution and marketing ingenuity; and a fan base that’s constantly being handed new ways to discover, and consume, music. Even some of the established acts are blazing trails away from the grasp of cuff-linked suits and into the arms of screaming fans. Fans that (surprise, surprise) are actually willing to part with their hard-earned dollars for good music, when they know that it’s not funding another round of music-mogul golden parachutes and ridiculous riders for the musical aristocracy.

Here’s what some of the established or semi-established artists are are doing differently… Read the rest of this entry »

Juicer looks nice, but is not for the clumsy. Wouldn’t want to accidentally juice your head after a slip and fall.

[via The Kitchn]

Megaflicks doesn’t care about kerning. But, every junior-high-bound bus that passes the place is full of giggling passengers who do care about kerning, they just don’t know it.

If you like free stuff that helps you create, head over to Pixlpusher ASAP. He’s whipping up quality textures and vectors fast and furious.