Blogbook
The Berlin office of Ogilvy & Mather fights back against the republishing of Mein Kampf by publishing their own book, Mein Kampf gegen Rechts. After the Bavarian government’s copyright expired, Hitler’s notoriously fascist book Mein Kampf was republished in Germany this year, and Ogilvy & Mather decided to respond with Mein Kampf gegen Rechts (My Struggle Against Racism), to fight right-wing extremism and intolerance. From Adweek:
“Due to the immigration of refugees, we are facing in Germany a growing right-wing extremism and an open everyday racism,” Tim Stuebane, executive creative director at Ogilvy Berlin and leader of the book project, tells Adweek. “In the last election, a new right-wing party shot from 0 to 24 percent. All this is very painful to see. We had to do something against it, but what? Then we learned that Hitler’s Mein Kampf would be republished. We thought—absolutely the wrong signal at this point of time.”
The project seeks to “reclaim the conception of the words Mein Kampf from the Nazis [and] create a spectacular trigger for PR and social media to talk about the current situation of society in Germany” and elsewhere, Stuebane says.
Those missions have been largely accomplished. Clearly, Ogilvy’s book touched a nerve in Germany. The first printing of 11,000 volumes nearly sold out, with 1 euro from every sale supporting Gesicht Zeigen, a nonprofit group that fights for social justice.
In a powerful ad, skincare brand SK-II stands up for China’s so-called ‘leftover women’ (unmarried after 25) with an ad that takes over the marriage market. The ‘marriage market’ are a reality of life in China, where parents go to post ads about their single children. In a society where getting married is seen as a core part of life, the ‘marriage market’ – possibly bizarre for foreigners – is bustling:
Each weekend, mothers, fathers and, in Liu’s case, concerned uncles, come to a sun-dappled corner of Shanghai’s People’s Park to find Mister or Miss Right for their children.
Some write posters by hand listing their offsprings’ vital statistics — height, age, income, education and their hukou or registered hometown — and pin them to umbrellas or shopping bags. Others come with a notebook to see what is available.
Liu is a veteran. He found his son a wife here and they’ve been married for more than a year.
“She’s 1.69 meters tall (5 feet 6 inches) and beautiful like a movie star,” he says. “He was happy to get the introduction.”
‘Sheng nu’ is a derogatory term for women over the age of 25 who aren’t yet married. The film shows how much pressure these women face from society and their parents, and the moment when they all decide to stand up to it.
“Wrapped” is a post-apocalyptic film about plants retaking urban spaces, and is a graduation short film from Filmakademie Baden-Wuerttemberg. Created at the Institute of Animation, Visual Effects and Digital Postproduction, the film has run in over 100 film festivals so far, and is an incredible effort for a graduation film. Directed by Roman Kälin, Falko Paeper and Florian Wittmann, who also co-directed a VFX short ‘Formic’, Roman and Falko have also worked in Glassworks, Psyop and Polynoid.
– LA Shorts Fest / Best Experimental / 2014 / USA
– Siggraph CAF / Best Student Project) / 2014 / Canada
– Animago Award / Best Young Production / 2014 / Germany
– ISFVF Peking Film Academy / Bronze Award / 2014 / China
– Festival of Beijing / Outstanding Technical Achievement / 2014 / China
– The Fort Lauderdale International Film Festival / First Place, College Competition / Animation / 2014 / USA
– Cinemaiubit International Student Film Festival Bucharest / Best Experimental Film / 2014 / Romania
– VES Awards / Outstanding Visual Effects in a Student Project / 2015 / USA
– Next Generation Short Tiger / 2015 / Germany
– ArtFutura / 3D ArtFutura Show Award / 2014 / Brazil
– XVIII Guanajuato International Film Festival / Mention Short Animation / 2015 / Mexico
The Old New World is a photo-based animation project by photographer and animator Alexey Zakharov of Moscow, Russia was made using 1900s photos of US cities New York, Boston, Detroit, Washington, D.C., and Baltimore. Zakharov got the images from Shorpy, a site with over 6,000 fine art prints available for framing. The main part of the video was apparently made “with camera projection based on photos,” according to Zakharov, offering a “travel back in time with a little steampunk time machine.” According to the Daily Mail:
‘I came up with the idea for a full retro-photoanimation project after visiting the Shorpy site,’ Zakharov told DailyMail.com.
‘This is astonishing place with tons of reconstructed hi-resolution photos. I spent many hours there.
‘First I made only one animation shot used a single photo. Then, a year later, I decided to make something more complete.’Zakharov says there are two main stages to creating animation from photos.
The first involves something known as ‘camera projection’, which allows him to separate the static and moving parts of each image.
‘A picture, cut into layers is projected on the geometry created by 3D software,’ he explains. ‘I use this geometry to set city backgrounds, buildings and other static elements
‘The second stage is creating full computer graphics of characters people, animals, vehicles etc.
Dutch filmmakers Lernert & Sander created a beautifully slick, creative film for Lensvelt’s ‘The Boring Collection’ of grey office furniture. The collection is, according to the filmmakers:
“a comment on the ‘ugly’ appearance of affordable contract furniture and the distracting designs being added to some workplaces,” says Lernert & Sander. The film, called 16:59, echoes the sentiment by reenacting the “most iconic gesture of boredom” – the act of throwing a paper ball into a bin until it’s home time.
The filmmakers also created images for a stills campaign, and will be repeated at the Salone de Mobile this year with an installation of 150,000 paper balls.
Credits:
Commissioned by Lensvelt and Space Encounters
Concept & direction: Lernert & Sander
Production company: ADULT (met link erachter adult-image.tv)
Executive producer: Maarten Le Roy
Producer: Brechje Depourcq
Production assistant: Dennis Vanderbroeck
Design assistant: Casper Braat
DOP: Piotr Kukla
Styling: Thomas Vermeer
Light: Gerard Stam
Grip: Mike Laureys
Art director: Egbert and Titus Steenwinkel
Editor: Simone Rau
Online & grading: Charles De Meyer
Music & soundscape: Diederik Idenburg (M-OST)
Extras: Tjade Bouma, Loek de Bakker, Milou van Duijnhoven, Rozanne de Bont, Veronique de Koning, Pietro Kruithof, Erdem Gesmiroglu, Lotte Driessen, Wouter Dullaert
Memories of Paintings is an experimental video by French motion graphics and creative director Thomas Blanchard, that blends a soothing technicolour mix of paints, oil, milk and liquid soap, all shot in high definition with a Canon 24-105L macro lens , set to music by Bronix. Blanchard’s often surreal, highly colourful works often explore this blend of hyperreality and patterns with unusual elements. Some other favourites:
The Colours of Feelings:
“The Colors of Feelings” is an experimental dreamlike video rocking us smoothly through circular moves. It is also an analogy of feelings such as anger, love, sadness and joy ; they mix and eventually ease.
The visual compositions have been created out of paint, oil, milk, honey and cinnamon.
Monarchy: The Beautiful Ones:
The Beautiful Ones is a poetic track race of a couple which defends their love by travelling in a dreamlike universe illustrating the strength of their passion through different other couples. Allying surrealist images and overprint but also manual creation, the graphic work juggles with several materials such as the painting, the condensation and the ink.
You can also follow Blanchard’s work (and other paintings)on Facebook and Instagram. He is based in Lyon, France.
Michelle Obama 360 is an exclusive VR interview with the First Lady by Verge, a first-ever of the kind with FLOTUS that took place in the White House. Shooting in 360 means being able to check out the production in progress as it was filming. It was part of Verge’s longform article about the Obamas and their mastery of their brand and use of social media, which is really worth reading if you have a bit of time. Key takeaways:
For decades, social initiatives have been a mainstay of the First Lady’s office: for Lady Bird Johnson, it was the environment; for former librarian Laura Bush, literacy. Over the last seven years, Mrs. Obama has focused on four major initiatives: Reach Higher, for teens pursuing higher learning; Let’s Move!, to fight childhood obesity; Let Girls Learn, for educating women and girls around the world; and Joining Forces, for aiding veterans and their families.
But Mrs. Obama’s tenure also coincided with the rise of social media: during the Obama presidency, Twitter went from upstart to global newswire; Facebook now counts over 1.5 billion users; and Instagram and Snapchat — platforms that didn’t exist a decade ago — dominate pop culture. With a click of an iPhone, Mrs. Obama can now reach audiences Mrs. Johnson and Mrs. Bush could only have dreamed of.
Making of video:
In Yuki Ota’s Fencing Visualisation, fencers were fitted with motion tracking balls and pressure-sensitive sensors to create amazing graphics reminiscent of major league sports. A Japanese foil fencer, Yuki Ota was the silver medallist at the 2008 Summer Olympics, team silver medallist at the 2012 Summer Olympics, and individual gold medallist at the 2015 World Fencing Championships. He is ranked in first place in the sport as of the 2015-2016 season. Dentsu Lab Tokyo, the a creative design and technology collaborative associated with media giant Dentsu, fitted Yuki and an opponent with motion tracking, and the effect is part dancing, part light show that explains the surface mechanics and skills of fencing.
Dentsu Inc’s project received a D&AD Wood Pencil for Branding/Brand Visualisation. Via D&AD:
Fencing is one of the oldest and most well-known sports in the world. However, very few know its rules. To remedy that, Dentsu designed a visual language and manifestation system that offers audiences an intuitive understanding. Using motion capture and AR technology, the trajectory of the tip of the blade is made visible to spectators. Various techniques executed by competitors are instantly converted into recognisable icons which are displayed on screen, letting the audience know exactly what’s going on.
This short film made for the “Hadrian” Exhibition in the Israel Museum, Jerusalem shows the Lost Wax technique in bronze casting using a combination of 2D animation and stop motion. From the film:
The preparation process included a research and a constant dialogue with the curator and the restoration department of the museum as well as a visit in a bronze casting workshop. The head used in the film was a plaster replica of the original Hadrian’s bronze statue found in Tel-Shalem, Israel, 117-138 CE.
Client: The Israel Museum, Jerusalem
Exhibition Curators: David Mevorah and Rachel Caine Kreinin
Directors: Renana Aldor, Kobi Vogman
Art and Design: Renana Aldor, Kobi Vogman
Stop Motion Animation: Renana Aldor, Kobi Vogman
2D Animation: Renana Aldor
Compositing: Kobi Vogman
Sound Design: Mikael Berkowitsch
Typography: Alex Belenkiy
What is the Lost Wax technique?
Bronze objects have been cast using this technique for over 5,000 years. Although some of the techniques and materials have changed since then as technology evolved, this arduous process is still a process of choice for sculptures because of the accuracy of the details that it creates and the durability of the artwork made. As before, many artists depend on independent foundries for casting.
Superhero Latte Art, brought to you by latte artist Michael Breach in partnership with Elite Daily:
Behind every great superhero is a great villain.
With the plethora of comic books, movies and series coming out recently, comic book superheroes are battling villains who are more dangerous than ever.
Just for the fun of it, we enlisted the expertise of latte artist Michael Breach to draw superheroes and their archenemies in coffee.
From Batman and the Joker to Superman and Lex Luthor, we made these enemies go head-to-head (literally) in one cup of joe, because as much as we love to see the hero win, we also love to hate the villain.
Michael was also behind previous awesome latte pieces, such as Disney Princesses with Cosmopolitan:
And with recreating internet memes. For more of his work, you can also follow him on Instagram or check out his website. Perhaps unsurprisingly, Michael is based in Brooklyn, NY, and has been showcased on shows such as FoodNetwork and Good Morning America. Via his website:
Michael began creating coffee art while working late nights as a barista at hip Manhattan hotel. When work was slow, he’d pass the extra time perfecting his latte art, using espresso and milk to express himself and create. Starting out with simple designs, he continually challenged himself with more and more complex images and invented all of his own techniques along the way.