Målet med årets New Media Days var at ”guide deltageren i udviklingen indenfor nye medier”. Overordnet må jeg sige, at konferencen kun i nogen grad levede op til denne målsætning. Mange af de indlæg jeg overværede, gennem den to dage lange konference, skuede lidt for meget bagud og havde mere fokus på status quo end den fremtidige udvikling (hvorfor er vi hvor vi er i dag? og hvordan kom vi her til?). Men i sig selv er New Media Days konceptet stærkt – det fungerer rigtigt godt som et fælles rum for inspiration og networking. Lyspunkterne er mange - særligt når man pludselig finder sig selv i en teoretisk diskussion om danske virksomheders åben/lukkethed i forhold til brugerinvolvering og markedsføring samt profitering af web 2.0. Jeg har fremhævet tre oplæg, der på den ene eller anden måde skilte sig ud fra mængden på årets konference.

‘We feel fine’
Det første oplæg jeg vil nævne er Jonathan Harris  der har udviklet konceptet: We feel fine  – en løbende on-line visualisering af klodens humør. Princippet bag We Feel Fine er, at et stykke software hele tiden scanner blogposts over hele kloden for sætninger, der inkluderer følgende ordlyd: ’I feel ’ og ’I am feeling ’. Programmet henter hele sætningen og får således også værdiladningen i sætningen fx sad, fine, happy etc.. Disse værdiladede ord samles i en database og visualiseres på forskellig måde. Ideen er sjov og konceptet omkring visualiseringen helt fantastisk – tænk at rå-data kan gøres så indbydende – men tjek det selv ud.

Et andet indslag jeg vil fremhæve var et nyt tiltag på konferencen inspireret af den japanske oplægsform: Pecha Kucha , hvor oplægsholderne fik 20 slides af hvert 20 s varighed og dermed samlet 6 min og 40 s. til at komme rundt om deres pointer. En formidlingstilgang der kan tiltale i en verden, hvor enkelt, kort og præcis formidling ofte er en mangelvare. Emnet for oplægget var unge og mediebrug, hvor seks oplægsholdere, i spændet fra den unge teenager selv, over ungdomsforskeren til reklamemanden, gav deres bud på hvordan medierne bruges i dag og i fremtiden samt hvorfor.

Branded Engagement
Morten Remmer fra bureauet Relate konkretiserede og eksemplificerede begrebet ’branded engagement’ i en on-line virkelighed. I sig selv er bevæggrunden for at arbejde med begrebet, at man som virksomhed vil knytte sine brugere/kunder tættere til sig ved at skabe et fx on-line oplevelsesrum, hvor de selv bidrager til udvikling og indhold. Dette ud fra en betragtning om en form for ’spill-over’ brandingeffekt og i sidste ende noget der kan ses på bundlinjen (enten via salg eller reklameindtægter). Eksempelvis kan nævnes on-line brandede experiences eller communities som Nike Plus  og Endomondo.com . Som eksemplerne viser, er der nogle typer af ‘branded engagement’ der ligger lige til højrebenet – det er ofte emner af kulturel karakter eller mere nicheorienterede emner med en iboende tradition for, at folk diskuterer og involverer sig  - fx sport og hobbys, design, musik, kunst, film mm. Det gør udfordringen desto større i forhold til andre produktområder som FMCG og services indenfor fx bank og forsikring. Udfordringer er der nok af, fx den måde virksomheder i dag er organiseret i forhold til traditionel en-vejs kommunikation på nettet samt i tanken om, at afgive kontrol og lade brugerne/kunderne komme helt ind til kernen af ens brand. En yderligere pointe er, at den måde ‘branded engagement’ ofte bruges på i dag, er baseret på, at brugerne kommer til dig i stedet for, at skabe oplevelsesrummet der hvor brugerne er (fx via embedded communities).

New Media Days løber af stablen i disse dage, og 800 internet-entusiaster og mediefolk er samlet i Tappehallerne for at søge inspiration og netværke. Arrangementet er som vanligt professionelt afviklet (bortset fra en del mikronfonproblemer) og med et interessant program. Ud over en veloplagt Mads Brügger som vært var dagens absolutte højdepunkt at opleve Jonathan Harris levere en visuel tour de force præsentation, da han introducerede til sine digitale værker.

Jonathan Harris er digital kunstner og undersøger fænomener som overvågning, selviscenesættelse og storytelling. Jonthan er bl.a. ophavsmand til projektet We Feel Fine, som er en internet-applikation, der hvert femte minut crawler verdens blogs for nye posts, der rummer formuleringerne ‘I feel’ og ‘I am feeling’. Resultatet er en applikation, der giver indblik i de følelser, som præger bloggere lige nu i hele verden. Med 20.000 følelser per dag, har We Feel Fine oparbejdet et massivt datamateriale, som man kan bryde ned på bl.a. lande, byer, køn og alder. Bl.a. kan man konstatere, at de mest udbredte følelser blandt Københavnere er ‘Better’ og ’Bad’.

Applikationen har et brugerinterface som er meget poetisk og lækkert designet, og det er et meget fint eksempel på, hvordan veludført design ikke bare understøtter og formidler en idé, men bliver et med ideen. Lad os få mere af det.

Mikkel 

 ”What a wonderful thing!” – People from around the world, gathered in Berlin to listen on people from around the world, talking on the subject: Typography…

This years edition of Typoberlin was a 3-day extravaganza  of thrilling talks, lectures and discussions of the freely interpretated subsubject Image. Pioneers, nerds and generally highly respected designs and innovators gave each of there contributions – Ranging from biographical presentations of what the individual had created through a lifetime, to problemsolving on specific typographical issues over presentations of interesting individual projects.  Below you can get an overview of some of the highlights:

 Monotype collection poster, created på ‘Ed’ Benguiat – who stressed to point: that it’s all right to steal inspiration as long as the person you are stealing from is dead… :)

Stefan Sagmeister (sagmeister.com) talked about different client productions…

… and his personal project www.thingsihavelearnedinmylife.com – working creatively with his diary and him self as his main source of inspiration.

Christian Schwarts (christianschwartz.com)  talked about his work on the typeface Giorgio for the New York Times Magazine, and his collaboration with Speakerman (no picture, since the photopolicy of this blog is not to distrbute pictures of work, from people whose wicked plan is to laminate the earth …)

Kim Haemin (kimhaemin.info) – A young Korean programmer and artist, showed some of her work that explored experiences that connected our different ways of sensing, through touch, seeing and listening… Cool shit!

“That’s all folks!”

Here are some other interesting links:

fuenfwerken.com

odedezer.com

www.fabrica.it

Fantasy worlds are known in many forms (and have existed long before secondlife.com). In many a basement around the globe, countless hours are spent fitting tracks and mounting trees to create miniature paradises in the shape of model railroads. Safe from everyday frustration and failure, the little fake worlds offer their creators a unique, soothing control.

Escaped from the basement - with 900 sq meters, 700 trains, 4000 cars and 150.000 inhabitants Miniatur Wunderland in Hamburg can easily call itself the world’s largest model railroad. 800.000 visitors a year enjoy train rides, football matches, fire fighting, weddings, crime scenes and even sneak views through steamy windows in the adult area - making it one of Hamburg’s top tourist attractions.

And as the many visitors stick their giant heads into the busy streets of mini-hamburg or mini-Scandinavia they might discover a Mercedes Smart on the move, or featured on a billboard or being the star of a car show. With the help of BBDO Mercedes has chosen to launch a miniature campaign in Miniatur Wunderland, which some may call clever guerrilla marketing - and appropriate for a car that prides itself of being different and small(!). To the inhabitants of Miniatur Wunderland it is completely conventional and a part of every day fantasy life.

Cleo

When designers are working with text, they are often working with types and not as much with the form of the text. Many modern writers, on the other hand, are working intensively with the text form, though they are not concerned with types – and neither with visual aesthetics. So, perhaps there is a room for mutual inspiration?

One example is the author Per Højholt. This weekend I fell over the collected poems of Højholt. Actually, it was published a year ago, but this weekend was the first time I noticed it.

One of Højholts famous poems looks like this:

Each line in the poem says: ”solen se dens vældige horn mælken fryser i sin karton” (the sun see its immense horn the milk is freezing in its box), but the letters are placed on top of each other in a staggered arrangement. Hereby the text is a form which depth changes depending on how you view it. Hereby Højholt violates a central writing rule, i.e. that letters must follow each other successively, and by deforming the language this way the poem is actually emphasizing that rule.

The poems of Højholt made me think of another author, Simon Grotrian. He has written the peculiar and concretistic poem “Svaner set gennem tårer” (Swans seen through tears):

Well, admitted! Neither Højholt nor Grotrians solutions are very pretty, and as writers they are probably more interested in literature than in visual aesthetics.

But perhaps one or two of their ideas can be applicated for some design solutions?

Below is a small example, where I think it is done carefully and with success.

The stage play Kærlighedshistorier (Love stories) on the theatre Aveny-T is presented on this site. On the screen shot above the (red coloured) title Kærlighedshistorier forms a rectangular box. The box ends out in/behind the red shirt of the female artist on the bottom of the site.

The theatre name and logo to the left is placed in a 90-degree angle, and the lower arms of the female artist are rotated the same way, while the upper arms are positioned perpendicular to this general line.

And furthermore the text AVENY-T forms an arrow as a part of the company logo to the left.

This way the text angle and form is in harmony with the overall layout - without the text just being placed in squared boxes.

As seen below, this is a general design-line on the theatres website.

And on the front page it gets even better. Here the text in the coloured hearts is rotated and stresses the somewhat “nervous” layout.

Additionally the logo is moved to the upper right corner, and forms a line with the head and shoulders of the female artist. And lastly it symbols an arrow through the green heart – as placed by Cupid.

/Maate

Timelog is a tool for registering your working hours used by 1508 among others. It’s far from fun or entertaining but it is a very important administration tool.

This prototype sketch illustrates a game that could bring fun into timelogging. Each employee has a racing horse that will jump forward when she timelogs. Each friday there’s a small price for the most diligent collegue.

/Jonas

Go to Diesel.com and check their new site. They are doing some sort of viral thing which is quite funny.

Anybody interested in flash design experimentation should look at this, crazy stuff from the labs of Mathieu Badimon

Adidas Y-3 old but still good
Darren Firth
Banksy be sure to check out the shop its free of charge
Audrey Kawasaki amazing illustrations
Anteprima Japanese fashion brand with explosive site
Charles S. Andersen
Found Associates Nice work. Site by Engage
Christiane Beaulieu Yuo should definitely check this one out. Quite funny and good work, makes you wonder whats real and not.
And last but not least atypography site, the great Lineto

The blog “Design Oberserver” was founded by heavy-weight designers, writers and thinkers from Pentagram: Michael Bierut, Jessica Helfand and Rick Poynor among others. It is one of the best places to look for intelligent discourse on graphical design and visual culture.

Another very good resource is “SpeakUp”, which is very much like Design Obeserver but with a slightly more humorous/light hearted angle to the articles. Here every designer can discuss what’s on their minds. If you want to have a small idea of how designers think you must check these blogs out and contribute, because without critical thought we will only amass mediocre solutions.

And talking about critical thought check these links out:

M-o-n-a-m-o-u-r Now defunct, but always good for creative inspiration
Serial-Cut
Asterik Studio
Tolleson
Zip Design
FWIS

One of the guys behind Non-Formats’ illustrations the Si Scott is an english illustrator with a nice typographic technique go check him out, but be aware the navigation could use some adjusting.

The Precursor site is up here because of the navigation, it’s (con)text based meaning you can write directly on the site and request a specific project very much like the old days when you were using DOS and amiga, can be confusing sometimes so be sure to read how to navigate the site.

“Area 17 refers to the optical cortex of the brain where vision and creativity are processed. It also refers to our Interactive Agency where vision and creativity are realized”
Arnaud Mercier’s company in NYC. A site with great work.

For the people who havn’t yet seen Adobe’ newsletter Edge go check it out it’s excellent. This month they go behind Big Spaceship’s Nike project and other projects.

Last but not least Goodby, Silverstein & Partners + Ken Garland

(S)

If you are a typomaniac then you know Erik Spiekermanns, he just recently updated his blog from German to English. Go check it out, especially under the download section where you can download and view the movies he has made over the years about typographic.

Just to give you an idea of his work here are some of the typefaces he has designed: ff Meta, itc Officina, ff Info, ff Unit, LoType, Berliner Grotesk.

- S