A friend pointed me to the experimental work of the notorious Gmunk. If you can remember back in the day, probably a generation ago now (yeah I am that old and so is Gmunk) he was a red hot Flash designer as much as he was a motion and 3D animator. You can still see a little bit of that old skillset represented on his experimental site.
I stumbled across the ‘Field Notes’ of Ian Coyle today and was thoroughly impressed by his work. Ian used to live here in Denver and was a partner at the now defunct web agency FL2. Since then he has relocated to Oregon and he has continued to do some great work since he’s been out there which you can see through his field notes.
Everyone is talking about the ‘digital landscape’ these days and how and where advertising fits in. There are very few if any in the industry that could claim to be experts in the constantly shifting matrix that is digital culture but Razorfish might be able to stake a claim. If you are looking to learn about what is going on in the shadowy realm a good place to start is their Outlook Report.
Go take the Sexperience 1000 and find out what exactly the British are up to when they are getting down under the covers. There are some curious factoids revealed and it’s all done in a fun way.
If you are looking for a decent preexisting WordPress theme through which to host your portfolio it can be a pain in the ass tracking one down. Boulder-based BKW&Co put together this seriously excellent set of themes specifically for that purpose and considering the headache saved they are available at a very reasonable price. The set of themes is titled W-Portfolio and we will be utilizing one of them for our updated portfolio (although we will be slightly modifying it) when we relaunch our Changethethought.tv domain that isn’t yet active.
“A mashup is a song created by blending two or more other songs. The more complex a mashup gets, the harder it is to distinguish the parts that are being used to create what you’re hearing. This visualisation of the song “Definitive Daft Punk” by Cameron Adams dissects a mashup in realtime to show you how each of the 23 parts contributes to the greater whole.”
Super fun little project to watch. It would be great to see some more songs loaded in there maybe a little somethin’ somethin’ by Girl Talk. Just a suggestion.
French web, design and animation studio Hellohikimori has updated with another in your face website featuring jarring music and kick ass project work. They are loud, proud and unafraid to go all out when it comes to color. Their stance is attracting some big clients lately and it’s great to see them doing so well.
Jean Christophe Naour is a French Interaction Designer based in Seoul, South-Korea. He has some striking work at his website including both beautifully accomplished examples of experimental interactive work as well as what appears to be 3D and graphic work. He is a multifaceted talent.
Longstanding pillar of motion design and 3D goodness, Brand New School has officially announced the release of their new website. It’s crispy and fresh as to be expected. The site employs Linked by Air and is only the fourth installation of Economy, Linked by Air’s modular content management system. A few key features were added that allow all BNS creatives to add their own personal “Bits” or images from recent projects. Another added feature allows for the background to be changed at any time.
Paul Kamuf assembled this interesting experimental video about the life of a text for John Pugh who is also in the band Free Blood. It uses the screen in an unconventional way to further the message and incorporates video and motion to tell the story about what happens when you reach out and tell someone what your thinking with your cell.
My old friends at Agency Net have burned even more midnight oil than usual to launch a new and spectacular version of their website that now also features a view of their Manhattan office. I was there a year back or so working on the last version of Own Your C and just had the time of my life. They were responsible for co-concepting, designing and developing both versions of Own Your C. It’s a tough thing to materialize something from a concept thrown at you by and ad agency but they managed to do it brilliantly every time we called them. I can’t say enough good things about them and their staff. I made some real friends there and the owner and founder, Rich is one of the more inspiring and motivated people I have met in my life. They pour their hearts into every project they take on and take their work extremely serious scrutinizing every last detail. I wish desperately that I will have the opportunity to work with them again in the future. They are wonderful people from top to bottom (NYC all the way down to Fort Lauderdale). Hey Agencynet, give me a ring. I miss you.
Rob Ford has relaunched an entirely new version of the Favourite Website Awards. The newest version focuses on the latest nominee and reduces some of the visual clutter from the last iteration of the site. The site itself is good enough to make FWA only it can’t because that would be some kind of crazy paradox in the internet space time continuum that could result in a butterfly effect.
I apologize for lagging on my usual 5-8 posts a day. I have been overwhelmingly busy since starting my own studio. A small shockwave hit the internet yesterday when the new and improved Thinking for a Living launched. I knew a redesign was in the works several months back and it does not disappoint. The best part of the site is that they reconsidered the blog format and it’s functionality. The site reads more like a magazine now than a blog. It looks great and filling it with content no doubt takes some work (as I have learned). My biggest question, just on a personal note would be if there are plans for monetizing the site or bringing in sponsored content or partners. Maintaining blogs such as Thinking for a Living takes an enormous amount of work and I am often curious, especially considering my own current redesign and relaunch, what the future holds for creative blogging minus any kind of financial support. Call me curious.
The new Thinking for a Living site was designed by Frank Chimero and BBDK. I was really excited to hear it was coded by Denver code guru Ian Coyle. The site sits on a grid and features keyboard navigation. They have also done a fine job with how they have managed to make the images weave throughout the content. They have several authors/writers on the site and it shows in writing. It will be a fun blog to visit over this next year to see how it unfolds and see what kind of content is posted.
Amsterdam-based digital agency Momkai has worked for some big-named clients. It is easy to see why just by the slick presentation of their work alone. They have some excellent examples of digital design in their portfolio and browsing it is a joy in and of itself.
Web design powerhouse North Kingdom has relaunched with a new site and some new project work. Their conceptual thinking seems to be transitioning nicely over to broadcast advertising and brand campaign development. It’s a testament to the kind of strategical thinking that goes into web design and development.
Alright, you asked for it so I did another search looking for well-designed WordPress themes and ran across ‘Basic Maths‘. The theme was designed by was designed and developed by Khoi Vinh of Subtraction.com and Allan Cole of fthrwght.com. This one isn’t free though. It’s available for what I think is a reasonable price of $45.00 (US).
I have been on a quest lately looking for new ideas for my WordPress theme. I am starting on redesigning the site next week and then relaunching sometime early in the year. I will soon be running on Mediatemple as well so I am excited about that. In my quest to find decent WordPress blogs I ran across a theme called Neutica that uses everyone’s favorite font Die Neue Haas Grotesk (Helvetica) to yield some really fetching results. The theme was created by Allan Cole and is available for free. You could do a lot worse for an off the shelf theme if you are thinking of starting your own blog.
The Only the Brave online exhibition curated by Hellohikimori is finally complete. It’s a veritable trendy design who’s who list with contributions from Jeremyville, eBoy, Suprb, MWM, and Si Scott, LaundryMat, Combustion, Peter Jaworowski, HKI, Michael Paul Young, Tom Muller, Serial Cut, Renascent, Nico Stumpo, Eric Carl and several more.
