saab aero

Here we have Saab beefing it up with their Aero X concept car. The photography for this ad and for the microsite itself is incredibly gloss giving it that glassed icy look. And they make that parallel in the video as the screen freezes over. Also in comparison is a jet fighter and as the roof slides open the idea of bubbles rising. Ok so a little pretentious for a pretty unremarkable car. Some angles do look quite good (the back has a kind of edgyness to it) but really you can tell this is Saab trying to be Audi or BMW. Oh and it is already starting to look dated. When was this car released? I figured about 2005 and now those blue lights at the front do nothing for me. Still this is a slick ad and it does what it is supposed to do for its target audience of no doubt male aspirational 25 to 40 year olds. Nothing remarkable with the microsite either which is a shame as there was a lot they could have done. This is a far better microsite for Saab. Much more interactive and a great way to use flash video.

javier ferrer vidal

I am totally blown away by this site for photographer Javier Ferrer Vidal who is in himself a fantastic photographer who concentrates on portrait work. This flash site is slick to the enth degree. The opening view of the kid in glasses has been broken up in Photoshop and put on layers within flash to create this really slick parallax effect. Little details like the plane flying through the sky really add to the drama of this shot. This kind of parallax thing is VERY in vogue at the moment and I can think of quite a few examples of this being implemented really well (check out this months winner over at the IAB for a good example). I am actually deeply involved in a project now for a client who wants this effect to showcase their product.

As you delve deeper into this site you get to the photography which is all laid out in a 3D space in a haphazard manner. Rolling over one image turns it to greyscale and blurred (god bless flash 8) and clicking on an image gives you an enlarged version. The navigation throughout is simple. One click to zoom in and another to zoom out. This style of navigation is quite intuitive these days and it is pretty much a given that by clicking on the background it will take you back out. I think this kind of work will lead nicely into any multi-touch work that may come in the future as we figure out what kind of gestures will work for this new interface (check out my other blog posts on multi-touch).

And then to finish off there is the contact section with an underlying bit of video as a background of some people on a merry-go-round. As you move your mouse right they playhead goes forward and as you move left it goes back. Yes this is really simple to implement but the effect is perfect especially given the subject of the video. Oh and underpinning all this work is a sound track of considerable talent. It is perfectly fitting and really quite catchy. All round a great site, perfectly exectued in my mind.

big yellow

Ah the simple things in life. A great stop-motion animation here from the folks over at Big Yellow. A simple and effective ad. Highlighting all the junk we accumulate in life as waves of an ocean crashing about a house. Really nicely animated to the sounds of the ocean. I had an idea to do something similar in my back garden as we have a pool of gravel for a garden and I could envisage waves of gravel moving about. Hmmm I sense a project coming on.

night tennis

Thanks to Scott for this one. Night tennis. Two pro tennis players. A pitch black court. UV clothing. Music by Paul Oakenfold. 3 minutes. Awesome. This was a great way to meld sport with music and align a phone brand to both. It looks really cool and must've been great for the audience to watch. Kind of like clubbing but in a more passive way. Anyway I thought this was a great idea. The website itself is also worth a look as it's a slick flash site. I guess it must've been quite hard for the players to actually hit the ball what with all the lights and sounds but the way it all came together surely was a sight. Check out the article over at Adverblog.

self titled

If, like me, you are constantly on the look out for new and interesting ways to navigate through a site you will love this one from John Iacoviello. Given a simple circle as the main navigation tool you click and drag to move the bar around the circle. Each segment of the nav is a section of his site and the colour coding helps you to move to different sections. This is something unique I think and really quite intuitive. Oh and also there are a bunch of flash actions available for you to download so check out the yellow section if you are a fellow Flashter.

don't try this at home

Check out these sculptures made from books. Scottish born Georgia Russell uses a scalpel to create these gorgeous creations. Taking the mundane in shape and turning it into a work of art. Stunning.

shotcode

Welcome to the world of the shotcode. This is the revolution of the barcode as we find a new way to grab information from our static world. So the concept is this: a shotcode can be placed on any printed ad or screen and the user can take a picture of this code with their camera phone and through a piece of software can identify the hidden URL and take the user to exclusive online content. So each shotcode represents a unique URL and could in fact be the location of your homepage, which was the case for this girl who had her shotcode tattooed on her neck. Extreme? Well yes considering the URL didn't work properly. Oops. But this technology could end up being quite useful commercially although I doubt people will be quick to download the correct software for their phone (better if it comes pre-installed). The existing technology used in these kind of content delivering print ads relies on bluetooth technology but this does involve extra, and often expensive, tech. Shotcode does not. And this will be appealing to the business world. We'll see what the uptake of this is like.

flowers feed the soul

Flowers feed the soul is a great site that definitely needs rediscovering. I was doing a little research yesterday on The FWA site (Flash Web Awards) for a project we are working on. And I stumbled across this FFTS site which I had seen before but really would just like to share it. I absolutely love the meld of stop-motion animation with flash to create this gorgeous little environment. It is really ornate and layered and rich with detail. The guy is a flower designer who wants to create flower arrangements for you based around your mood. This is a cool concept and I hope he did well with this site. I think it works. It is quirky and different and quite brave.

got milk?

This has got to be the most gorgeous looking desk out there and having a nice sleek Mac sitting on top all the better. It seems to be perfectly designed to fit a pro mac upon its shiny surface and almost follows the form of the Apple Studio display and iMac design to the T. iWant people iWant.... Check out the site here.

the future's bright....the future's Intel

With the swap over to the Intel chip over at Apple just a fading memory now, it seems clear that Intel's future is very bright indeed. They are commited to providing more power for their chips any way possible. And now they are looking to power a whole gammut of mobile devices shown here in a demo of possible future apps. I must say this ad has me drooling (thanks to whoever sent this round the agency today). The only problem is that I am impatient. I want this technology now. I do, however, understand that there is a big gap between dreaming of a technological future as perceived in science fiction and actually living, breathing and using the tech in day to day life. As I sit outside working on my laptop I think nothing of the incredible technology that is in place to power my surf on the net. Yet here it is. The future is, in fact, now. But the dream of a perfect future where technology is so advanced that it blends seamlessly into one's life is really appealing. Oh and I do love the minimalist look that so many of these films sport (has there ever been a cluttered vision of the future sporting hi-tech gadgets? I suppose Children of Men came close). Any thoughts?