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- kishabari on The Impossible Project – The Revival of Polaroid
Check out Bob Crowley's blog! He's trying to re-create Type55 fil …
- kishabari on The Impossible Project – The Revival of Polaroid
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Picture Playground is run by Rodrick Bond. Get in touch at:
mail (at) rodrickbond (dot) comWords
Ironically, this extremely valuable asset can’t be covered against loss by an insurance policy. It’s up to you– and only you– to take precautions that you don’t lose your creativity.
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iAd – Apple takes on advertising
In Steve Jobs’ recent keynote presentation on the upcoming iPhone OS 4, one segment in particular caught my eye- iAd. Reason being, with iAd, Apple is making it clear that they are going to war with Google and one way to do this is to stake a claim on mobile advertising. Seems the way they are planning to do this is through a platform built into free or low-cost apps for mobile devices (app developers can decide whether or not to include ads) that will serve a full-screen ad roughly every three minutes.
These ads are essentially mini-apps within apps, and feature things like embedded video, games, downloadable content like wallpapers etc. which according to Jobs deliver “interaction and emotion”. Emotion is a pretty interesting word to use, and Jobs made the assertion that this element has been missing from web advertising. The Ads that Steve demonstrated were all very visually rich, and it’s quite exciting to think of the emphasis swinging back to this concept of creating emotion within ads. Good imagery anyone?
John Gruber puts it rather succinctly -
Some advertising, no matter the medium — TV, newspaper, magazine — is junk. But some is art. Commercial art, of course, but art nonetheless. Online advertising — mobile or not — has been largely devoid of this caliber of advertising. iAds is Apple’s attempt to enable high-caliber ads for mobile.
This is dangerous ground, and I personally am pretty concerned that it could be a major turn-off as a user experience, but there is potential here for Apple to own another considerable revenue stream so obviously it holds huge attraction for them and they want to get the balance right.
Transcript from the Keynote is at Engadget.
Temper Trap – Sweet Disposition
I can has Phantom camera?
Video directed by Daniel Eskils, via It’s Nice That.
The amazing Mr Toledano
Happy easter greetings from London everyone, and apologies for the belated post – life has managed to conspire against me in the blogging department of late.
I wanted to introduce to you the work of Phil Toledano, a London born photographer that started shooting after a successful ten year stint as an art director. Phil’s work is incredibly diverse and covers everything from documentary style imagery through to editorial stories and slick top-end advertising, all for a very enviable list of galleries and clients. It’s clear that if there is one thread that brings together Phil’s work, it’s a very strong emphasis on graphically simple imagery, and a fascination with the American human condition.
There are two great interviews with Phil, where he goes into detail about his sources of inspiration and his conceptual and practical production processes.
Conscientious Extended – A conversation with Phil Toledano
The F Stop Mag – Phillip Toledano
Phil says of his series, United States of Entertainment:
I’ve always felt that the very soul of a country is reflected in the way in which it entertains itself.
So how does America amuse itself? And what does it say about the very nature of the American soul?
Spectacle. Destruction. Guns. Religion. And of course, scale, giant scale. All of it refracted through the prism of commerce.
This is an ongoing project started in 2005.
To see more of Phil’s work, head here.
Advertising, 104 years on
Saw this at Futility Closet:
Advertising will in the future world become gradually more and more intelligent in tone. It will seek to influence demand by argument instead of clamour, a tendency already more apparent every year. Cheap attention-calling tricks and clap-trap will be wholly replaced, as they are already being greatly replaced, by serious exposition; and advertisements, instead of being mere repetitions of stale catch-words, will be made interesting and informative, so that they will be welcomed instead of being shunned; and it will be just as suicidal for a manufacturer to publish silly or fallacious claims to notoriety as for a shopkeeper of the present day to seek custom by telling lies to his customers.
– T. Baron Russell, A Hundred Years Hence, 1906
If I directed an ad agency, this would on the walls as a big ol’ poster.
Well Mr. Russell, sadly I think we have a ways to go yet. ‘Cheap attention-calling tricks and clap-trap‘, ‘mere repetitions of stale catch-words‘ and ’silly or fallacious claims to notoriety’ are alive and well in advertising today.
Am I wrong? Have we improved over the course of the last century? Yeah, actually, maybe a little bit.
Can you enhance that?
When are Adobe going to realise there is a market for Photoshop CSI?
Stunning still life Inspiration
http://www.studiotoogood.com/
I stumbled across this design collective a while back and found the bookmark this morning browsing for inspiration for my new book. Ricky, they’re London-based… have you been to see them? Anyway, have a look. It’s worth it.
Stop motion splendour
I’m noticing a bit of a resurgence in the often under-appreciated art of stop motion animation recently, just wanted to share a few excellent clips that have been doing the rounds of the internets. Forgive me if you’ve already seen them.
Coldplay – Strawberry Swing
Read an interview (by a mate of mine) with the generally brilliant creators, London directors Shynola over at Motionographer.
Her Morning Elegance – Oren Lavie
This video features 2,096 photos by Israeli photographer Eyal Landesman, and in a nod to it’s excellence has been put up for a Grammy- Best Short Form Music Video. Not bad!
Going West – Andersen M Studio
And my favourite, the short film called ‘Going West’ animated by andersen m studio, created for the New Zealand book council.
Now if only the mere thought of the work involved in all of these didn’t give me a headache…