Blogbook

PokemonGO goes ultra viral: by getting augmented reality right. Via FastCoDesign:

It would be easy to dismiss all of these shares as just the latest meme-able thing to hit the Internet (sure, spotting Charizard standing in line at the 7/11 is an Instagrammable moment by any estimation), or to explain the overloaded servers and the quickly growing list of real-world Go meet-ups as a short-lived phenomenon. But over the past decade, I’ve seen countless concepts like Go—ranging from iPad apps, to magazine covers, to Playstation games—all promising to combine the real and virtual worlds into some irresistible hybrid of pixels and our pudgy fingers. And I can’t name a single one that caught on. But take a look at the Internet’s reaction to Go, and you’ll see why this game is different. I think Pokémon Go is going to prove out to be the first, widely adopted implementation of augmented reality.

Why will Go succeed where so many others failed? Let’s look beyond the fact that the Pokémon franchise is one of the biggest in the world of video games, contributing to a large portion of Nintendo’s financial success over the last 20 years. The technology company behind Go, Niantic Labs, actually used to belong to Google, where it developed a game that tracked the coordinates of people across the world, allowing them to play simply by moving their location. In other words, Go actually represents years and years of development by a group of talented people who know what they’re doing.

We’re Team Mystic here in the Starship. Come and help us hold Burnley Train Station!

VR gaming has come to the amusement park. Via The Verge:

Over the last four years, virtual reality has emerged as one of tech’s most exciting new sectors: Facebook, Google, Samsung, and Sony are all in the process of producing and marketing virtual reality hardware. Most of those devices are are being sold directly to consumers; the experiences they offer—games, short films, and the like—are meant to be played at home, sitting in a chair or else tethered to a nearby PC and power supply.

But there’s an entirely separate category of virtual reality that won’t be possible at home. You’ll be able to walk freely, without tripping over wires. You’ll actually feel the heat of a fire on your face, and the weightlessness in your stomach during a fall off a skyscraper. These are the virtual reality experiences currently being built into arcades, attractions, and theme parks.

In February of this year, China’s Shanda Group announced it would invest $350 million in virtual reality and build a VR theme park built in collaboration with The Void. IMAX, the widescreen theater chain, is working with the Swedish game studio Starbreeze to bring “premium location-based virtual reality … to multiplexes, malls and other commercial destinations.” And established amusement parks are layering virtual reality onto their existing rides—Six Flags is currently upgrading nine roller coasters into VR experiences this summer.

In one way, there’s something contradictory about driving all the way to a theme park to get into a virtual world. In another, “virtual reality” seems like an arbitrary term to throw around, when theme parks already offer simulator rides and 4D theaters—does adding a headset fundamentally change the experience? But if these attractions catch on, they could give people a new way to live out the fantasies that Disney, Warner Brothers, and other companies have used to build multi-billion dollar empires. And to companies like The Void, VR isn’t just a new technology. It’s the key to building another world.

In this adorable Honda ad, Laura Cee, professor by day and cosplayer by night, talks about how her 2015 Civic covers all her cosplay needs. The #AskAnyHondaDriver covers a series of brand videos along the same quirky lines. Created by San Francisco-based Baker Street Advertising, there are about 11 ads to date up on the Northern California Honda Dealers’ YouTube page. And before you ask, yes, it’s that Baker Street: the agency seems to be a fan of Sherlock Holmes.

In a follow up video, Laura explains cosplay:

NorCal Honda is still looking for people to star in their testimonial commercials here.

Credits

Agency: Baker Street Advertising
Chief Creative Officer: Brian Bacino
President: Jack Boland
Chief Strategy Officer: Don Donovan
Copywriter: Robert Leon
Art Director: Sarah Inglis
Producer: Brody McHugh
Creative Manager: Lesly Pyle
Group Account Director: Dan Nilsen
Account Supervisor: Christine Rodriguez
Account Executive: Lisa Coonts

Credits, Production:

Director: Brian Bacino, Baker Street Advertising
Producer: Jed Mortenson, Waypoint Films
DP: Kevin Emmons
ECD: Nathan Robinson, Ntropic
Editor: Alan Chimenti, Ntropic
Assistant Editor: Gillen Burch, Ntropic
Lead Flame Artist: Steve Zourntos, Ntropic
Lead Flame Artist: Ntropic, Matt Tremaglio
Flame Assistant: Yvonne Pon, Ntropic
Senior Producer/Head of Production: Emily Avoujageli, Ntropic
Audio Mixer: Andy Greenberg, One Union

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ii_I1tgj5KY

The Star Trek tie-ins have started, with an ad for… mortgages? Really? In these ads, Vulcans try to buy a house on Earth. We’re not exactly sure why they would want to, given Earth kinda has a different climate than their home planet… but I guess people with no home planets can’t be choosers. Via AdAge:

The “Star Trek”-themed campaign was created by Pitch, Los Angeles, and is the result of a partnership between Quicken Loans and Paramount Pictures. The ads promote the upcoming “Star Trek Beyond” movie that opens in theaters July 22.

“Rocket Mortgage has this technology that is really ahead of its time,” said Art Steiber, VP-marketing and sponsorships at Quicken Loans. “When the opportunity came up to talk to the people at Paramount for the ‘Star Trek’ movie, it felt like it was a perfect fit. ‘Star Trek’ is an iconic brand, and we thought it could bring some attention to our product as well.”

In a 60-second spot, a Vulcan character named Sevek demonstrates how easy it is to use Rocket Mortgage to apply for a mortgage by answering a few simple questions on his smartphone (“Where do you want to live?” Earth. “Job title”? Life Coach).

At the end of the spot, Sevek says, “If I chose to express an emotion, I would say that Rocket Mortgage has made me the happiest humanoid in the galaxy.”

Directed by Kevin Butler, House Beer’s first ad is hilariously self-aware. About House Beer:

Man cannot live on hop-blasted IPAs alone. At least that’s what Brendan Sindell, president of Venice-based House Beer, believes. Along with three of his surfing buddies, the L.A. native began making a new kind of craft beer in 2013, one that didn’t taste like craft beer at all. “We drank Coors Light at the beach because it was refreshing and easy to drink,” says Sindell, “but we felt like the big breweries weren’t directing their message to our generation.” So Sindell and his friends decided to create a simple, well-made American lager with mass appeal. They designed a retro-looking tall can with a streamlined logo and partnered with contract breweries to produce an ideal entry-level beer with a bottom-shelf price point. The first trial runs were rocky, but soon they paired with Sleeping Giant, a Denver-based contract brewer run by two dudes who had defected from Coors. The result was a high-quality, lower-alcohol session beer that showcased the “clean, crisp, and smooth” descriptors spouted ad nauseam in beer ads. In little more than a year House Beer has cascaded onto the SoCal market, finding its way into 300-plus bars, nightclubs, and stores, where it has become the preferred beer for millennials who identify with the craft movement but still want something they can play pong with (or shotgun).

Credits

Client: House Beer
Title: “This Is House Beer”
Director: Kevin Butler
Director of Photography: Erik Ian/Keegan Gibbs
Executive Producer: Scott Kaplan
Producer: Jed Herold

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MQUQx4eGAq0

IMAX’s brand ad is a 60 second ode to film, created in partnership with agency Mistress, capturing all the genres that have made IMAX popular over the years. Via Adweek:

“We realized that IMAX is called IMAX no matter where you are in the world,” Lixaida Lorenzo, ACD at Mistress, told Adweek. “We thought, why don’t we turn IMAX into that synonym for the love of movies. That’s why you’ll see in everything we’re doing we have copy that reads something like ‘I Love Movies, IMAX movies.'”

With some of the brand’s media placements being on IMAX screens (naturally), the work needed to feel big, beautiful and cinematic. Each scene, shot in South Africa, uses the brand’s new IMAX ALEXA 65 camera, an amazing feat on its own considering that this campaign is the first ad to ever be shot entirely with an IMAX camera. The team even had to plan its shooting schedule around when the cameras were available, as they are typically being used on the set of some of Hollywood’s biggest movies.

“Every scene was treated like a film, we even forgot in the process that we were just shooting a commercial,” Lorenzo added.

CMO Eileen Campbell told Adweek one of the main goals of the campaign was to produce creative that would resonate around the world. “As a team, we’re proud that we feel like we’ve created something that is globally consistent, but locally relevant,” Campbell said.

Behind the scenes video:

This adorable animated short, Invisible, is really a chameleon love story about a chameleon trying to ask his crush to dance, but keeps accidentally blending into the background. Beautifully animated, with great attention to detail! The short film was amazingly made by students – recent graduates Michael Trikosko and Andrew Wilson of the Ringling College of Art and Design in Florida.

Credits

Invisible – A Film by Michael Trikosko & Andrew Wilson
Original Score – Kestutis Daugirdas
Sound Design – Nick Ainsworth
Produced at Ringling College of Art and Design

About Ringling College

Other than having a surprisingly cute name, Ringling College is a private, not-for-profit, four-year accredited college located in Sarasota, Florida that was founded by Ludd M. Spivey as an art school in 1931 as a remote branch of Southern College. Its original name was a mouthful: the School of Fine and Applied Art of the John and Mable Ringling Art Museum – but it was shortened to its current name in 2007. Its mission phrase is “Shattering the Myth of the Starving Artist”, and notable alumni include John Marshall – cartoonist of the Blondie comic strip, Brandon Oldenburg – Academy Award-winning short film director and illustrator and Patrick Osborne – Academy Award-winning short film director and animator. You can check them out here.

Ford has designed a driveable, huge escape room in NYC to replace its usual test drive, in the hopes of attracting millennials. Via PCMag:

This weekend, Ford is combining forces with the popular Escape the Room game to show off the latest features of the new Ford Escape 2017, and we had a chance to check it out.

If you’re not familiar with Escape the Room, it’s basically just what it sounds like. You and a few others are trapped in a real-life room, where you have to use clues and teamwork to solve puzzles, find a key (or code), and, well, escape before a timer runs out. It’s supposed to build camaraderie and problem-solving skills. At least, that’s the typical scenario. In this case, it’s to help show off a new car in a pretty fun way.

We headed over to the Moynihan Station in New York City to take on multiple sets of puzzles, some of which required the use of the new Ford Escape SUV’s technology. A standard Escape the Room experience features just a single, more complicated room, but Ford’s version includes five discreet chambers with different types of puzzles. We won’t spoil the challenges for any event-goers, but they were generally pretty tough, and being on the clock was stressful!

The Hive is a modern art sculpture, controlled by bees, created by Wolfgang Buttress for the Royal Botanical Gardens of London. Via CNN:

“I think these days we are bombarded by so many digital images and sometimes we forget how powerful and important sounds, touch and smell are. So to me that was really important, that these elements were at the heart of the installation,” the artist explained.

“The Hive” aims to highlight the importance of pollinators like the honeybee in feeding humanity, and the challenges facing the species due to climate change, pesticides, and lack of biodiversity — a message which made it a perfect fit for its new home in London.

“The purpose of ‘The Hive’,” says Director of Royal Botanical Gardens, Kew Richard Deverell, “is to tell the story of the role of bees in pollinating crop plants and therefore feeding the planet. I thought that was perfect for Kew because we want to bring alive why plants matter, and clearly one of the most important things that plants do, is to feed humanity.”

Speaking about “The Hive’s” new home, Buttress said: “It just seemed such a perfect fit with the whole history of Kew. To me it really feels like it’s kind of come home, it feels like it’s always been here.”

Photographer Simon Davidson spent 14 years photographing Australian hot rods, their unique culture, and the people around them. Via CNN:

Davidson, a car-loving Australian who spent many years in the U.S., originally honed his photographic skills on years of fashion and music shoots in Los Angeles. When he returned home, he says he was looking for something that would help him build his own artistic style outside of his corporate work.

“One thing I did learn from all the top photographers that I was working with and who I admired out in the field was that they had these strong bodies of work and personal work that told a little story about themselves,” says Davidson.

Although a sharp contrast to the carefully manicured world of fashion, a trip to watch off-street drag racing one night with a friend proved the spark he needed and left him intrigued by the beauty of the cars and the “really blind passion’ of the people who build and race them.

“I looked around at the cars and loved them but it was the people that got me,” he says. “I’d never seen so many weird and wonderful people.”

That chance drag-race lead to a long career photographing cars, both in Australia and the U.S., for commercial and editorial commissions, but Davidson says it’s his personal work capturing Australia’s car culture that has allowed him to grow and define his body of work as a photographer.