Sony’s Rocket Project campaign trailer is featured on YouTube’s homepage today. With just 33 days left, the Rocket Project team shares their goals and inspirations in this video. To keep up with the team’s progress, check back on the Rocket Project web site we designed for daily updates.
We’re winners of the Communication Arts Interactive Annual for the Herman Miller web site! We designed the site as a living system with a modular grid. The site is visually-driven to create an intuitive experience for users to browse, search, find products, and plan or design a space. Communication Arts Interactive winners were selected based on designers who pushed further to produce fantastic work. We’re honored to be included.
This year Herman Miller was chosen as an All-star of Fast Company’s annual issue, “The World’s Most Innovative Companies.” All-stars are chosen based on those who continued innovating amazing design despite the grim economy. Congratulations guys!
We partnered with Sony to develop the online hub, The Rocket Project, in collaboration with 180 LA for this exciting, community-driven campaign that asks the question, “Can a VAIO launch a rocket into space?”
It turns out a Sony VAIO notebook has more processing power than the first rocket to land on the moon. Eight ambitious high school students led by Tom Atchison, founder of the Mavericks Civilian Space Foundation, will use their new VAIO CW and F series laptops to design and build a 25 feet tall, 500-pound rocket that will attempt to reach the stratosphere.
Follow the story with day-to-day coverage, photos, and videos on the rocket’s progress. 41 days until blastoff!
Since its release two weeks ago, we’ve been playing with Google Buzz. We’ve realized that the top five Buzz features could also be the top five Buzzkill features. Here’s why:
Gmail Integration
Yes: Buzz automatically sets itself up in Gmail requiring no additional paperwork from users, thus saving everyone some much appreciated time.
No: The automatic setup would be readily welcome by users interested in Buzz, but an irritation to those who aren’t, especially since the disable button is buried in your Gmail settings.
Easy Conversation
Yes: Buzz updates can be sent to your email where you can reply directly.
No: One of the most annoying features of Facebook is when your inbox gets bombarded with post updates. Prepare for more bombardment.
Buzz Mobile App
Yes: The Buzz app lets you geotag your posts. You can share in real time AND share your current location.
No: It is because users share too much information on the Internet that web sites such as Please Rob Me have taken effect. Do we really need to be sending out more personal information into the web?
Auto-follow
Yes: Initially, Google picks who you follow. No more looking up names and adding.
No: Unless you make your profile private, now the world can see your most frequent email correspondents. For most professionals, they’d like to keep that information private, thus igniting the privacy invasion scare.
Internet Integration
Yes: One of Buzz’s main marketing tools is promoting its capability of integrating all social media outlets into one. Now we can share Flickr photos (in large view, too), YouTube videos, Twitter, and articles from Google Reader through one outlet.
No: Is Buzz making social media and information management easier, or just creating another outlet that we have to check? All its sharing capabilities can be done through Facebook, and for most people, the number of Facebook friends is larger than Gmail contacts.
The Otis College of Art and Design web site we designed is featured on siteInspire’s showcase in education, where sites were selected from around the world. See it here.
Herman Miller
Business-to-Business Websites – Merit
Hammer Museum
Consumer Websites – Merit
You Be The Driver
Games – Merit
Thank you, HOW Design. We’ve been flipping through the hefty 2010 Design Annual, which features three of our client projects. Our winners include Herman Miller, designers of world-renowned furniture including the famous Aeron chair, the Hammer Museum, promoters of art diversity in Los Angeles, and You Be The Driver, which puts your F1 racing skills to the test.
How do Dreamworks nerds and Nokia researchers analyze love? At last night’s amorous-themed MindShare, Jason Porath from Dreamworks Animation presented how he asked a girl out via PowerPoint backed by statistical data. Jan Chipchase took us around the world exploring how different countries sell and advertise libido products. We ended the night merging with our Internet personalities through the Cloud Mirror, an augmented reality art piece that digs out your Internet dirt when you step in front of its screen.
Another successful night of enlightened debauchery.
We like this design quotes screensaver from neography. On long days when your brain becomes as idle as your computer, these quotes kick things up a little in the noggin.
WIRED’s new tablet application could trigger a revolution in the way readers interact with magazines.
The application allows readers to physically interact with print content, enhancing reader experience in ways that weren’t possible before. Articles come alive with the touch of a finger, launching videos, 3D animations, and even allowing 360-degree views of photos and products. Readers have quick access to all articles using the dual access navigation and can share articles through social media within seconds. As designers, we’re anticipating what the future of print can become as magazines incorporate digital technology. 2D photos with captions could soon be a thing of the past.
