Terada Mokei is an Architect who runs Terada Designs. Though his journey as a creative he stumbled upon a niche product, designing whimsical Architectural Model Accessories. Not content with just making models of the building he designs, he wanted to put in as much love into the people who inhabit his model buildings. A discovery that transformed his scaled buildings into animated stories.
Pippin Barr is a Video Game Artist. He creates unique, whimsical avant garde games from traditional 8-bit graphics. The Artist is Present re-creates the experience of the performance art work of Marina Abramović at MoMA.
Legendary Japanese Sushi Chief Jiro Ono is considered the world’s greatest Sushi chiefs. Japan has declared him a national treasure and his humble 10 seat restaurant located in a Tokyo subway station has been awarded 3 Michelin stars. At 85 he is the subject of a documentary film by David Gelb. A story of working life, family and the quest for culinary artistic perfection.
Pealing yourself of the couch and heading out for a run is not always the easiest thing to do after a hard days work, but the threat of a Zombie invasion is sure to help you on the way to those elusive abs. This innovative game is a total winner, getting you fit and keeping you interested. Read the rest of this entry »
Reversing stereotypes through personal brand story telling is how four Kenyan men, Gabriel, Benard, Brian and Derrik turned a simple idea into a viral campaign for charity. After watching Alex Presents Commando they wanted to tell their own story about African stereotypes in Hollywood movies. The video gives us a sneak peak into the lives of the Kenyan men, humanising their world and showing a different Africa, one that is filled with hope, laughter and kindness. It has been produced for Mama Hope who have released a series of personal stories from African nations to raise money for education and much needed community development.
Photographers Lucie & Simon have produced these beautiful images of how some of the worlds busiest places would look without people and cars. It creates a surreal world that is both calming and unsettling, but most interestingly this photography series shifts the focus. The landscapes depict places that thousands of eyes has graced over and stopped ‘seeing’. As designers we remind ourselves to really ‘see’ our environment, the mundane of the morning bus trip is filled with designers inspiration gold. These photos are a great reminder of the haphazard beauty of out surroundings. Read the rest of this entry »
The Kiwi Sceptics is part tourism campaign, part airline campaign and part dig at stubborn Aussies. The premise is to take Australians with unfavorable opinions of New Zealand and trick them into traveling across the ditch to change their minds. It is a lovely case of well executed brand story telling, twisting cliches and misconceptions, all told through the eyes of characters that are easily related to and reflecting stereotypes that are at times scarily honest (for an Aussie). The campaign is by Air New Zealand, but you would be forgiven for mistaking it for a New Zealand tourism piece, which is an interesting platform, leveraging creative brand positioning, Air New Zealand is promoting and supporting their own national identity, their own people and their own culture, which is a lot more than some national carriers some can boast.
In Australia, retailers continue to struggle. A two speed economy and continuing frugality amongst consumers looks like being around for some time into the future. Data released by the Reserve Bank at the beginning of this week indicates that credit and debit card transactions shows the average credit card limit grew only 0.7 % over the past year, the slowest growth on record over the past 17 years. The Age on March 13 also reported Commsec’s Economist Craig James as stating ‘…the new age of consumer conservatism shows no signs of ending. Consumers are likely to maintain their preference for value shopping, keeping the pressure on margins.’
As with all designers I have a soft spot for info-graphics, something that pares down a topic to the salient points and presents them with great visuals to better explain what could be a comlicated topic. So naturally I love this beauty by Linda Dong. She explains the issues with Fracking, a very poignant topic in Australia at the moment, in such a simple and economic style, it’s beautiful. Read the rest of this entry »
2012 will continue to be a tough environment for retailers. Consumers have no reason to throw off their new found sense of caution and propensity to put saving ahead of spending. If anything 2012 may produce even more reasons for them to retreat with some recent news of the financial services sector spruiking the need to lay off workers, and a sense that flat retail sales is placing huge pressure on retailers to reduce costs.
