Blogbook
Samsung celebrates South Sudan’s first Olympics entry with “The Chant”, by Leo Burnett Chicago. Via adweek:
Every athlete competing in the Olympic games has an incredibly inspiring story to tell, but some stories simply defy the odds.
Take 19-year-old Margret Rumat Rumar Hassan, a 400-meter runner from South Sudan. Hassan is on her way to competing at this year’s Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, which is already an impressive feat for such a young athlete. It will also be the first time that her country will be represented in the games after gaining its independence from Sudan in 2011. With such an inspiring story, Samsung couldn’t deny that Hassan would be the perfect fit for a new campaign just in time for the Olympics.
“The Chant,” created by Leo Burnett Chicago, aims to capture the brand’s defying the odds attitude, while promoting the Samsung Gear IconX cord-free earbuds.
“We wanted to find an athlete that represented progress and defied the barriers and overcame something, to be an embodiment of what the brand is and the mentality of the brand. You can’t move forward without overcoming obstacles,” Gordy Sang, svp, creative director for Leo Burnett Chicago, told Adweek.
Good luck to Margret in the upcoming Olympics!
Chip Kidd discusses the (hilarious) art of book design through a hugely entertaining Ted Talk. Via the website:
Chip Kidd’s book jacket designs spawned a revolution in the art of American book packaging.
ou know a Chip Kidd book when you see it — precisely because it’s unexpected, non-formulaic, and perfectly right for the text within. As a graphic designer for Alfred A. Knopf since 1986, Kidd has designed shelves full of books, including classics you can picture in a snap: Jurassic Park, Naked by David Sedaris, All the Pretty Horses … His monograph, Chip Kidd: Book One, contains work spanning two decades. As editor and art director for Pantheon Graphic novels, Kidd has commissioned work from cartoonists including Chris Ware, Art Spiegelman, Dan Clowes and Art Spiegelman. He’s a novelist as well, author of The Cheese Monkeys and The Learners.
Chip received the Cooper-Hewitt’s National Design Award for Communication in 2007, the International Center of Photography’s Infinity Award for Design in 1997 and the AIGA Medal in 2014.
Chip Kidd doesn’t judge books by their cover, he creates covers that embody the book — and he does it with a wicked sense of humor. In one of the funniest talks from TED2012, he shows the art and deep thought of his cover designs. This talk is from The Design Studio session at TED2012, guest-curated by Chee Pearlman and David Rockwell.
Here is 30 years of Pixar in one huge supercut, running across their acclaimed films like Toy Story, Finding Nemo and Up. We’ve also just seen Finding Dory, and it’s great! Here’s also some Pixar trivia for your day, via Business Insider:
- The main building on campus is called the Steve Jobs Building.
- There’s an annual event called “Pixarpalooza.”
- Animators can go wild decorating their workspaces.
- They have an ergonomist come in on a weekly basis.
- Disney wanted the original “Toy Story” to be a musical.
- It didn’t (quite) start as a movie maker.
- The name “Pixar” sprang out of a conversation between the co-founders.
- When it started in 1986, its biggest product was the Pixar Imaging Computer.
- Before it was its own thing, it was part of Lucasfilm.
- It became its own company thanks to Steve Jobs.
- “Toy Story 2” was originally supposed to be direct-to-video.
- Movies take forever to make.
- The company is guided by a “Brain Trust.”
- It has a school called Pixar University: Free classes include sculpting, painting, ballet, and live-action filmmaking.
- Jobs wanted to sell it to Microsoft: The animation studio was bleeding money, so he thought to unload it. But then Pixar got Disney to distribute “Toy Story,” which became an instant cash cow.
- When one of its films blows up at the box office, bonuses are handed out by hand.
Rock legend Iggy Pop reads Dylan Thomas’ “Do Not Go Gentle” for Cannes, as part of a promo for the Grey Music Seminar in the Palais, where Grey London chairman and chief creative officer Nils Leonard will interview Iggy. From Leonard:
“2016 will be the year we lost heroes. But I worry that people are starting to wait for the next cultural figurehead to mourn, and it’s bullshit. Like the world’s worst meme,” Leonard says. “Incredible living artists and icons continue to challenge and define our culture, and Iggy is their viking king. Iggy has shrugged off what age is supposed to mean, convention, and expectation. He’s grown old disgracefully and successfully. He is a real-life beautiful and vicious inspiration.”
He adds: “Heroes walk among us still. We have a lot to learn from the man Josh Homme called ‘the last of the one and onlys.’ Social, commercial pressures and the visibility of what we make in the creative industries has made us safe. Iggy, and the challenge and danger he brings, reminds us of the true power of creativity to move things on. That when things start to get boring, the only way out is to innovate, to create and to never stop diving in.”
With Impressify, a microsite created for the New York Botanical Garden, you can now create Impressionist versions of your photographs just by uploading them. Via Adweek:
Funded by Bloomberg Philanthropies, the digital feature is the work of Brooklyn-based agency Madwell. “The brief was to create something that’ll make people engage with the exhibit and share content—and it couldn’t be hard to use,” said creative director Chris Sojka. “So we thought, ‘What if we could digitize impressionism in a social context, with your content?’ It was the perfect thing to do.”
It is, certainly, a fun thing to do. Three dials allow visitors to control the focus and the thickness of the virtual brush strokes, so you can give your photos the misty feel of Monet, a blunt and heavy Van Gogh treatment, or anything in between. The feature also allows users to download the finished product as a jpeg or GIF and share it on social media. (The hashtag #GardensOnCanvas furnishes a subtle plug for the NYBG.)
The landscape paintings currently on display at the garden (which has, naturally, also grown the corresponding flowers) are all by American impressionists—notably John Singer Sargent and Childe Hassam—but the gauzy, dappled style is unmistakably French feeling.
Speaking of Impressionism, if you’re in Melbourne, there’s a Degas exhibition this month as part of NGV’s Winter Masterpieces. Check it out!
Turkish-based artist Garip Ay uses an ancient painting technique to recreate Van Gogh’s vibrant masterpieces on water. Via CNN:
The Turkish artist uses an ancient technique known as Ebru, which involves creating vibrant images using paint on water. He recently recreated an Ebru version of a 20th century masterpiece, “The Starry Night” by Vincent van Gogh.
A video — which shows Ay meticulously creating the painting, before swirling the colors together to move onto his next work of art — has gone viral. It has been viewed over 20 million times on his Facebook page.
“I want to do more to pay homage to the great artists who have inspired me and whose vision I feel I understand, just as I have done with my recent tribute to Van Gogh.”
In order to make one of these masterpieces, he first makes a canvas using water, adding a substance known as carrageenan to thicken the liquid. “This viscous liquid can then support the paints which I apply to the surface of the water,” he explains. Each layer of paint is applied by either delicately shaking droplets from a brush, or using a thin metal rod.
Ebru, also known as decorative paper art, is one of the oldest forms of Turkish art.
Adweek has a list of 5 Instagram accounts that take breakfast to the next level:
Breakfast is the most important meal of the day, or so the old adage goes. So start your day off right with the help of some of the most visually appealing Instagram accounts on the platform. From colorful bagels to latte art, healthy brunches to mesmerizing pancakes, Instagram has no shortage of delectable-looking morning foods.
And while gazing at these hunger-inducing images, you’ll also get a lesson in marketing. These culinary creators are behind some of the biggest crazes in food. Some have built careers by developing new products that have gone viral, while others have found effective ways to promote their brands and services.
You can check out the link for the Adweek recs. Here at Starship, we do love a great breakfast. Here are some of our recs:
We have no idea how the hell he does it (bending space and time?) but Symmetry Breakfast’s creator makes daily, gorgeous breakfast for himself and his boyfriend.
The Plate Project is Melbourne-based, and never fails to make us hungry…
Here’s another great Melbourne instagram for the breakkie-obsessed. 🙂
Chef Jacques LaMerde is hilarious. Poking fun at chef bros and pretty plate culture by plating up junk food, ‘Jacques’ is really Toronto-based chef Christine Flynn.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=scWpXEYZEGk
In the latest ad for Nike Football, Cristiano Ronaldo accidentally swaps bodies with a kid. The results are surprisingly hilarious. Created by Wieden+Kennedy for Nike in time for Euro 2016, it’s Nike Football’s longest branded ad yet. It was also the most extensive ad shoot that Ronaldo has done, requiring 5 days of filming, and the football star did his own stunts in the initial collision scene. In addition to Cristiano Ronaldo, 16 professional players make cameos: Raheem Sterling, Joe Hart, Harry Kane, Chris Smalling, John Stones, Ross Barkley, Megan Rapinoe, Ricardo Quaresma, Andre Gomes, Jose Fonte, Cedric Soares, Vieirinha, Raphael Varane, Anthony Martial, Sergi Roberto and Javier Mascherano.
The shoot was the first opportunity the players had to wear the final, badged versions of their new national team kits.
Credits
Agency: Wieden + Kennedy Portland
Client: Nike
Director: Ringan Ledwidge
Production Company: Rattling Stick
Client Contact: Jesse Gordon Long
Client Contact: Steven Strand
Creative Director: Chris Groom
Creative Director: Stuart Brown
Copywriter: Dylan Lee
Art Director: Pedro Izique
Senior Producer: Ross Plummer
Senior Producer: Scott Kaplan
Executive Producer: Matt Hunnicutt
Agency Post Producer: Jen Milano
Strategic Planning: Henry Lambert
Strategic Planning: Zack Kaplan
Media/Comms Planning: Alex Dobson
Account Team: Shinya Kamata
Account Team: Luiza Prata Carvalho
Account Team: Alyssa Ramsey
Account Team: Karelle Dixon
Business Affairs: Amber Lavender
Studio Design: Matt Blum
Studio Design: Randall Garcia
Studio Design: Jessica Raddatz
The Share the Meal app intends to make it easy for people to help combat global hunger. Launched by the United Nations’ World Food Programme, and the first of its kind, the app lets people donate to the hungry with a single tap. Via ABC News:
The director of innovation and change management at the WFP, Robert Opp, said the war in Syria had led to a quadrupling in the demand for WFP programs to feed refugees fleeing conflict.
“We are trying to find ways to innovate, do things differently, so that we are able to actually speed up the progress we are making and get toward ending hunger by 2030,” he said. “So something like Share the Meal is an innovative way of reaching out to smartphone users who outnumber hungry children in the world by 20 to 1.”
The Share the Meal app gives people the option to donate 50 cents with a just a tap to WFP programs.
The Mr Opp said the app was developed in response to a $2 to $3 billion shortfall in WFP’s funding needs. “So to give you an idea, our estimated needs this year are around $7 to $8 billion and we’ve been receiving around $5 billion or so,” he said. “We have struggled in the Syria regional refugee operation in the past several months with receiving enough contributions to maintain a full ration and in some cases we’ve had to drop to part rations, in other cases we’ve had to start excluding certain people from receiving assistance.”
In our favourite use of Facebook 360 video yet, here’s a Hamilton song! “Wait For It” was performed as part of a promo for this year’s Tony awards. 360 videos are created with a camera system that simultaneously records all 360 degrees of a scene. Viewers can pan and rotate a 360 video’s perspective to watch it from different angles. Unfortunately, it won’t work on Safari or Internet Explorer, so break out Chrome to watch the above video.
These videos have a “360 video” label in the lower left-hand corner and are viewable on computer, iOS devices and Android devices.
What is Hamilton anyway?
If you haven’t heard about it, you’ve probably been living under a rock… Hamilton is the hottest Broadway musical right now, with sell-out performances. Created by Lin-Manuel Miranda, it’s a modern hip-hop musical about America’s Founding Fathers. You can find its soundtrack on Spotify, which is probably the closest that most of us will actually get to seeing it, sadly. It picked up 11 awards at this year’s Tony, and was nominated for 16. For Lin-Manuel, the viral success of the show has opened a lot of doors, from rapping with Obama at the White House to writing music for Disney’s upcoming animated film Moana.