When the cities of Amsterdam, Zurich, Antwerp, Valencia, and Vienna decided to pool their travel promotion efforts they reached out to former advertising creatives Jonathan Rosen and Ryan O’Hara Theisen to develop a compelling video story about the Cool Capitals. Rosen and O’Hara Theisen, who met in film school before recently opening their branded content shop Lucky, created a mockumentary expose about a polyandrous jetsetter who uses men in the European cities to fulfill her appetite for fashion, culture, and nightlife. The resulting video and site is a fun excuse to play tourist if you’re stuck stateside.
Fashion week at the tents in Bryant Park is getting to be quite the event. Twice a year a who’s who of designers and celebrities come out to see the latest threads and be seen amidst the madness. Who needs it? Not designer Jean-Charles de Castelbajac. He’s managed to put on his own innovative runway show far away from the steps of the New York Public Library and without those leggy personality-filled models ruining the presentation by tripping on the catwalk. With the help of France’s Four-H visual and music production crew and the wonderfully collaborative folks at Lego, Castelbajac is showing off his Spring/Summer 3001 collection in highly animated fashion.
We gushed about the Aston Martin One-77 last week, and now the second episode of the series exploring the development of this incredible automobile is available for your viewing — here exclusively. Take a peak and see a little bit more from behind the scenes with the CEO of Aston Martin, the designer, modelers and more. “You need to think about every single part, if you x-ray the car, it will look fantastic, and is beautifully engineered…” Stay tuned for more exclusive content, interviews and more.
If you’re a gamer you’re probably looking forward to the next installment of Motorstorm, Pacific Rift. If you’re a stuntman for their Dutch ad campaign “Air Raid,” all you’re looking to do is land safely on the ground. To create the ads, skydivers jumped from airplanes and dirt bikes and cars were digitally created in the post-production stage by the firm EightVX. Because, skydiving out of a plane is insane, but skydiving out of a plane inside a car is just stupid.
A few months ago a film crew, photographer, assistants of all types and literally dozens of people with color meters, cameras and lights descended on my NYC office and later at my home to shoot a spot and interview for the Yahoo! Start Wearing Purple campaign. A unique experience to say the least, and one of the most exhausting days of my life. Lights, camera, action. Not my world, but interesting to be a part of for a day.
The interview and photos turned out pretty well I think– but it’s always weird seeing yourself on screen and wondering what was going through your head, and how they chopped and edited you together in that way. For people that don’t know me very well, it might offer some better insight into where I work and what I do all day.
The campaign is what they refer to as a “call-to-action’ by Yahoo! for people to live life as an individual, and with an exclamation point. The campaign emphasizes (despite any economic situation) their roots through the color and spirit of purple — it means individuality, imagination and innovation.
The program features four main components. Technology (a set of pretty amazing bikes that take photos every 45 seconds around the world and stream them direct to Flickr), personalities (the pioneers of purple), some products, and the improvisation work done by Charlie Todd of Improv everywhere. There’s a ton of content over there so I encourage you to check it out– but be nice.
Though is nothing funny about going hungry. The World Food Programme hosted a competition calling for creatives to shoot videos related to the topic. The one that receives the most views by October 16th — World Food Day — will get to document one of the WFP’s relief operations in Asia, Africa, or Latin America. The five finalist videos, all a minute or less long, range from light to intense in tone, and all deliver important messages on the topic. And, if you think solving the world’s hunger problem is too costly consider this: according to Jimena Gamio’s video, it would cost $3 billion. This morning Congress signed a bailout bill for $700 billion.
Half-BMX vert stunts. Half competitive team sport. All Nissan ad. The Japanese car company’s foreign export sport SUV Qashqai (the name refers a group of nomads living Iran) has spawned the Qashqai Car Games‘ Spanner League campaign. What? You haven’t heard of the premiere group of foreign daredevil race enthusiasts that flip, spin, and launch their vehicles with Matrix-like precision. Check out their latest attempt which, as always, ends in Wylie Coyote fashion.
To briefly recap our progress with the Veuve Clicquot recipe this week, we added one part design on Tuesday, one part ambiance on Wednesday, and one part expertise on Thursday. Today, there’s one last ingredient to add, and we’re going to be pouring a little bit more of this one into the mix than usual. The reason the recipe calls for two parts family is that the Veuve Clicquot family is the glue that holds the rest of the dish together.
The strength of the VC family not only serves to keep the internal workings of the brand humming along, but it’s also a strong, effective, and natural customer draw — I think it’s the authenticity people perceive when they feel a strong sense of family associated with a brand. It was certainly what made me feel relaxed, welcomed, and inspired during my days in France — a refreshing, tradition-bound experience amongst the hoards of Johnny-come-lately brands out there these days.
And as a special bonus today, I’ve put together this photo/video montage of my Veuve Clicquot experience. In all honesty, it was inspired by my new, adopted family. I hope you all enjoy watching. (I recommend viewing the montage in high quality on youtube )
And what “family” post would be complete with out a few family photos? You’ll find several after the jump…
WARNING: If you’re even a little bit squeamish you might not want to watch the Something Bad is Going To Happen Here trailer. The disturbing visuals, part of a viral campaign for Andrew Davison’s debut novel “The Gargoyle”, provide a do-it-yourself manual for inflicting trauma comparable to the ones suffered by the book’s main character. The plot focuses on a severe burn victim who, after a life (and physique) altering accident, is visited by a woman who claims to have know him over several lives. If you’re not a fan of melting flesh or new authors, you might want to wait until the next post.
Break out your 3D glasses. Now put them away. Hulger has found a way to give its visitors that sought after extra dimension using only a piece of black cardboard and a really dumb looking way of sitting at your computer. It does work though. The retro-phone purveyor has a couple of three dimensionalized flicks up on their site. So, scurry to your craft nook and grab the necessary tools for a mildly surprising treat.
Karmaloop TV continually points its cameras in the direction some of the most influential design minds in the world. This week is no different as they sit down with Tokidoki’s founder and creative director Simone Legno. In the exclusive one on one interview, Legno offers a glimpse at the brand’s history and explains the influences behind his creations. Viewers will also get a sneak peek at some of the upcoming characters and products slated to make an appearance rather soon. Check out the interview and see what all of the fuss is about.
Yesterday there was a lot of Shepard Fairey news to cover. Today we have an update from his better half. Shepard’s wife Amanda, the curator and co-founder of Subliminal Projects gallery in the Echo Park section of Los Angeles, takes a second to explain in an exclusive interview with Karmaloop TV why this fresh art space focuses on promoting artistic diversity and discussion.
Everyone knows by now that oil and water don’t mix, but have you ever stopped to wonder what happens when you combine H20 with a heavy Helvetica font? Word is it makes quite a splash. SCR, a subsidiary of Japan’s Tha Ltd. has put together a scintillating new screensaver entitled “Dropclock” that combines the two contrasting elements in super-slow motion and proves once and for all that merging this unlikely duo can indeed make for some captivating imagery.
“I am not a number! I am a free man!” Or, at least that’s what The Prisonerwanted you to believe. We Are Numbers is a worldwide community experiment / tracking system / T-shirt pitch that wants you to be an individual — in a completely hive-mentality sort of way. The mysterious Number One (aka Dutch designer Twan Verdonck) was tired of the disposable nature of couture fashion — what with its “one minute you’re in, the next you’re out” Heidi Klumisms — so, he decided to make just one style; a handmade T-shirt with your own unique number. Dozens of new members have already posted their YouTube videos, and the first 1000 customers will appear in a book. We just hope the guy who gets 69 isn’t a complete a-hole.
Anyone in the industries of marketing, graphic design, advertising, film-making, journalism, publishing, and way more knows that the indispensability of Getty Images ranks right up there with Apple and oxygen. It’s a one-stop place to shop for a mind-bogglingly huge array of images, footage, and music and is relied upon by creative types worldwide.
Now, Getty Images has tapped even further into the mindset of right-brained creative types with Moodstream, a kick-ass new brainstorming search tool. It’s amazingly intuitive user interface starts with a presets wheel where you start the foundation of your search by choosing feelings that stabilize, simplify, intensify, refresh, excite, or inspire. Then you fine-tune from there– make the mood happier or sadder, turn the images nostalgic or contemporary, go for a vibe that’s warmer or cooler, and much more. As you adjust the settings, the site plays different tracks from its music library to match what you’ve chosen, and each time you refresh your settings you’re taken down a completely new road of imagery, sound, and video footage.
As you gather materials that ‘work,’ you can collect them together into individual Moodboards that you can save online– ideal for working on multiple projects at once or, if something’s not working, forgetting about it for a while before coming back to attack it again. Though with a creativity boosting tool like this at your fingertips, inspiration probably won’t be much of a problem.
Though is nothing funny about going hungry. The 
Anyone in the industries of marketing, graphic design, advertising, film-making, journalism, publishing, and way more knows that the indispensability of 
