This cracked me up – meet Gene, who’d tell you how much his life has suffered due to “First-Person Shooter Disease”:

Sony Bravia may be one of the early pioneers of ads in this style – but this latest ads from Schweppes is no less in artistic merit either. Using high-speed cameras at 10,000 frames per second, the ad lines up a series of moments just as water balloons burst, releasing the splashes of water inside in a cool, sensual and captivating manner (when seen in slow-motion and paired with apt music).

Hopefully more ads in the future move towards this!

I was quite amused and inspired simultaneously when I came upon this picture of a cone pizza – it’s the first time I’ve seen it, and got me thinking about the form of pizza – is this a more optimized form for the funtion (pizza-enjoyment)?

I see quite a few strong points going for this design. The cone form, just like the ice cream, gives it a much more portable interface for individual servings of pizzas to go, though it becomes rather unwieldy if you’re a big-eater who needs more than a few of them.

It also concentrates the toppings (do you still call them toppings if they’re more like, well, “innings”?) in a more concentrated manner – you can certainly imagine the oozing, flowy melted-mozarella as you bite in, and probably more fitting for the mouth as well. As a stall owner, this arrangement seems to let you get away with less ingredients to achieve the same impact too.

However, the satisfaction-curve for this form perhaps leaves something to be desired. Assuming that the ingredients are generally preferred over crusts (I see many who leave the pizza crusts behind in a pizza buffet, for instance), your experience gets worst as you chomp your way down, until you’re left with the tip of the cone – large mouthful(s) of relatively dry dough.

Interesting innovation dough though!

(Any even better/alternative forms of pizza?)

The brief for the students participating in D&AD awards was:

“Present an idea which promotes HP Workstations ability to bring to life anything the creative mind can conceive.”

And what a response by Matt Robinson and Tom Wrigglesworth – using the HP printers to print out a series of images, dancing patterns as one big stop motion – precisely and yet imaginatively answering the brief. If this doesn’t win for the execution, it must also win by the virality that this entry has generated (judging by how much free publicity it has garnered by making the rounds around the net).

This is  a brilliant billboard advertisement execution for Nikon’s new D700 camera in Seoul.

Along a busy subway station, there’s a backlit billboard featuring images of paparazzi (presumably holding the D700). As passers-by walk past, flashes are triggered, giving the illusion that the paparazzi in the billboard are jostling to snap a picture of the passers-by. The red carpet on the floor completes the scene, while also leading them to the store where the camera can be bought.

This ad is genius on a few levels:

1. Attracts specific attention of the passer-by – there’s simply no way you can not look at the source of flashes.
2. Appropriate – the context of the paparazzi photographers with Nikon cameras is a perfect pairing as well. Not only is the context for grabbing your attention with the flashes appropriate, the fact that paparazzi are probably one of the most discerning users of the camera (implicit endorsement) is also at work.
3. The red carpet also serving dual-function: setting up the scene to make the passer-by feel like a celebrity, while also simultaneously doing the very important role of attention-conversion (into possible purchase) by leading to the shop.

Genius!

[via The Cool Hunter]

At the first sight of this ruler concept by designers Shay.Shafranek the thought of  ”this must be one of those ‘mesh-up-digital-and-physical-objects-experiment-again” sprang into my mind, almost in a knee-jerk reaction. But upon further consideration, it does have quite a lot of merit (if a little indulgent) in this combination.

This is a work done in conjunction with a PCB-manufacturing company. The most interesting bit, in my opinion, is the idea that with this digital-sensing modules lined up along the sides, you don’t have to line-up a “zero” point. You can start to pick and draw from anywhere, and the reading is automatically calculated from where your pencil first contacts the paper.

More advanced use of the idea also includes: adding distances (you can keep drawing and the ruler adds up the sum of the lengths); having units in different dimensions automatically (e.g. mm, inches);

Intuitive, simple, elegant solution that still retains the familiar a nalog ruler – you can be as advanced as you want with this ruler.

Great concept!

At first it looks just like any normal in-flight safety briefing video, perhaps just a little cheerier and more upbeat than usual. If you look closer, however, you’d realize that all the crews doing the briefing are… naked!

Fear not of indecent bits though – while they’re naked, they’re body painted with their usual uniform to still look very much un-naked; and of course, all their camera takes are cleverly angled and timed to avoid any sensitive exposure.

And why go through all these? The airline behind it – Air New Zealand – is promoting their tagline of having “Nothing to hide” (no hidden charges for checked baggage, refreshments, etc.). I suppose this somewhat gimmicky video just about captures this spirit and eyeballs!

(PS: the guy loading the baggage in the video is actually the CEO Rob Fyfe – I don’t suppose many CEOs have this sense of fun and involvement with their company!)

Czech photographer Vlad Artazov does great photography here with something as lifeless as nails – with dramatic lighting effect, props, angles and a deft hand to bend the nails into anthromorphic shapes, he seem to be able to extract emotions and human-expression out of the cold iron:

Quite many more here!

If you’re the type that needs a whole lot of cajoling before waking up, this may just be for you!

Segway was meant to change the face of transportation forever. Unfortunately, that promise didn’t seem to pan out. One unexpected application, however, is found in this video – the mode of movement for an eerily creepy “marching” band. The smooth glide of Segway gives off a ghost-like aura, as if these were wandering spirits making music.

It’s a segment from the street performance “Glissendo” at a French art festival: “Lightning” by Philip Glass. Concept and technical design by Ulik (the mechanical clown).