Category Archives: Wow!

Barcode Ads

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barcode-ads

Creativity finds itself in the smallest and most mundane details!

Wonderfully creative works by a small Japanese company called Design Barcode – whose name probably implies that they’re definitely very specialized in giving barcodes a facelift, as demonstrated by their works above. And it was no wonder that they grabbed the Cannes Titanium Lion Award (the only ad campaign to do so), which is given to firms  to recognize work that broke through traditional awards category boundaries and represented creative innovation.

I guess Design Barcode is having a rolling good time now, especially since they’ve trademarked this proprietary method of advertising (and have since licensed the rights worldwide). From the juries in the competition:

“Our industry has banged on about ideas being important and about intellectual property issues for some time,” said juror Craig Davis, worldwide creative director of JWT. “This idea is trademarked, it’s proprietary, it speaks to many of the issues we’ve been talking about.”

Scott Goodson, creative director at Strawberry Frog, said the winner represented “an agency owning something that brands around the world will pay for.”

[Design Barcode]

FLIP – the flipping ship

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flip-vessel

FLIP (or, Floating Instrument Platform) is an amazing ship – technically it isn’t a ship, but more like a buoy since it doesn’t have its own propulsion and has to be towed around – but I bet you though no other sea vessels in the world can do what it can – intentionally “capsizing” so that it can turn 90 degrees, and turn from “ship-mode” to a “platform mode” by flooding its tail:

During the flip, everyone stands on the outside decks. As FLIP flips, these decks slowly become bulkheads. (This is the name sailors use for walls.) The crew step onto decks that were, only moments before, bulkheads. Inside, decks have become bulkheads; bulkheads have become decks or overheads (ceilings).
Some of FLIP’s furnishings are built so they can rotate to a new position as FLIP flips. Other equipment must be unbolted and moved. Some things, like tables in the galley (kitchen) and sinks in the washroom, are built twice so one is always in the correct position.

The reason for the flip is the stability required to perform the scientific experiments that this vessel was designed for – measuring effects on the environment caused by long range sound propagation, research in geophysics, meteorology, physical oceanography, non-acoustic anti-submarine warfare, and in laser propagation experiments – having this design would enable FLIP to be towed to the desired location for the research while still having superior stability (which affects the precision and accuracy of readings) over conventional ships.

The video of the transformation:

I wonder how it turns back to the ship mode though – does it have to expel water from its ballast against the deep sea’s water pressure? Would that be too much? Then again, virtually all submarines do that with no problem…perhaps I’ve just answered my own question.

And their homepage: FLIP

Upcoming Star Wars Game Physics Engine

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This is pretty amazing – yet another step in the holy grail for realism in game and game designs – the materials and AI that reacts in real time to random actual instances around them and acts accordingly. Quite a mouthful, but you’d get what I mean when you watch the video.

The physics engine is called Euphoria – and would be used for the Star Wars movie (I suspect this video is part of the sneak-preview buzz campaign).

What’s Special About this Number?

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A mathematical fanatic, a certain Professor Friedman, either had too much time on his hand, or perhaps he was actually tenured to do this – anyway, he has created a list explaining what is special about the numbers from 1 – 9999, just so you’d know that 31 is a Mersenne Prime, and that 143 is the smallest quasi-Carmichael number in base 8, or that 9862 is the number of Knight’s Tours on a 6×6 chessboard.

If the properties of each number doesn’t fascinate you, well, maybe the sheer effort to find out what’s special about each of the 9999 numbers would, like how teachers would tell each kid that they’re special (what happens when everyone’s special?) Though there are definitely plain kids too – when even teachers fail to distinguish any special talent or ability in the child – as is the case for numbers like 8930 – 8939.

Volkswagen Ball

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volkswagen-ball

My brain went “PS!” the moment I saw this picture (for the less aware, PS means photoshopped – where the photo was manipulated using Adobe’s software). “Bah, a very well-done spherize-filter or something.” It looks like I’d be eating the humble pie – because this seems to be the real deal – someone actually made a Volkswagen like a ball! Full respect for the audacious idea, and more for the execution.

Now if only this could really drive (it has no wheels) instead of just rolling around perhaps…

[link]

VW Phaeton Shadowplay Commercial

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This is a beautiful commercial from Volkswagen Phaeton – Phaetons are Volkswagen’s top line model. I’m not quite sure what it’d mean to you, but I definitely think that the factory that made these Phaetons (as covered by my blog post on it last year) are certainly more beautiful than the cars themselves.

Phaetons are hand assembled in the factory, which is why this VW commercial focuses on the beauty that the hand can give – in this case, the familiar art of using the shadows formed with a hand to create animated shadows. You’d probably know the “eagle”, but this ad is chock full of various lively creatures that tells a story.

It is perhaps regrettable though that the digital age of animation has bred a cynic in me – before I could be truly impressed by the artistic feat, a definite voice in my brain would ring “That is probably just CG – DON’T be impressed!”. Which is a stupid thought – why should I reduce the amount of surprise, delight and amazement in my life – but I guess it’s a stupid thought that would stick with me.

Prince of Persia – Real Life Version

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You may remember a game called the Prince of Persia – it was a pioneer in the style of gaming – where the main character (a prince from Persia, of course!) has to use a series of incredibly acrobatic maneuvers to get around obstacles, dodge traps, and fight enemies to get to his princess.

Well, here’s a clip of Makoto Nagano, a contestant in a Japanese show aptly called Ninja Warrior, or Sasuke in Japanese. A fisherman, Nagano is only the second man to have cleared all 4 stages of this insane obstacle course. R-E-S-P-E-C-T!

An Ant and An Astounding Act

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ant-with-chip

In my line of work as a product designer, I often have to deal with gaps and distances that are smaller than 1mm – as much as it may seem diminutive, they really do make a difference in certain applications – like the clearance between the buttons and the main housings, the fit between parts, etc. When dealing in 3d files, tolerances often go to 3 or 4 decimal places of a millimeter for it to work properly.

But that, to a chip engineer, is probably like a blue whale to a mouse. As electronic product races to be smaller and more powerful, they’d have to device ways to lay circuits and build paths around a tiny piece of real estate. And though we do hear a lot about nanotechnology and how it may change the future of production and medicine, sometimes a sense of perspective and scale would be in order to really grasp the “tiny-ness” of it all.

The ant in the picture is holding a IC chip in its mandibles – the chip is just 1mm x 1mm. That would really put some perspective into the scheme of things!

 

Before the Music Dies

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Following hot on the heels of the Dove commercial showing the before-and-after of a model (through make-up, Photoshop touch ups, etc), some people have exposed some of the techniques used to create and market a pop star.

You don’t need musical talents to pen songs – someone can take care of that. Can’t sing, or tone deaf? Sound engineers will fix that. Just someone (probably armed with market research on what the market wants, and loads of cash) who’s willing to make you a star, and you are on your way. Packaged, artificial and hollow.