I don’t know too much about the actual author / creator of this interface for SNCF train stations in France, but I do know that it looks amazingly responsive and innovative for Adobe AIR. Over the past 9 months, I have been busy working with a team of Flex developers to build a music based application in Adobe AIR. The experience has been quite stressful but it’s also been one of the best projects that I have had the chance to work on in my career thus far.
Adobe AIR is, in my opinion, still in it’s early stages and in a way, still very “beta”. I’ve been lucky enough to follow the building of this platform over the years, through conferences such as Flash Forward, Adobe Max and other related events. My first impression of AIR was very good and I felt that this advancement in interactive media would really change the way that people use the internet. I’m still very positive about AIR to this day and although Adobe has hit some walls in it’s past (Flash Lite anyone?), Adobe AIR is here to stay.
Back on topic, I believe Thibault Imbert is the creator of the SNCF Revolution project in France, although I can’t be sure as I unfortunately have no experience reading French. Either way, the interface is beautiful and extremely responsive, which in my experience takes very solid coding capabilities.
If you know who built this interface design or worked on the back-end of this project, feel free to reach out to me. I try to credit those responsible for creative works as best as possible.
Following up a previous interest, or to better word it, obsession, a new viral campaign directed under Rob Chiu has emerged for Else Mobile. Now, as I stated, I have quite the obsession for the Else Mobile user interface. But what you didn’t know, is that I’m also a huge fan of Robert Chiu. I consider him to be one of the best motion artists & directors of all time.
Below is the 2nd Else viral video:
I’ll keep this post short since I’ve already talked about Else. If your a fan of brilliantly placed typography and quick gitter effects in motion graphic work, seriously watch this spot. Also check out Robert Chiu’s portfolio, Vimeo page & Flickr stream. He’s a brilliant director of not only motion, but photography as well. There’s nothing better to kick off my Wednesday morning than a little Chiu & Else.
I’ve noticed a lot of mixing between traditional Swiss design and Infographic focused projects coming out of the wood work. At first, I was skeptical on this new style, but I’m opening up to the idea more and more as we enter 2010. One of the projects that gives me reassurance for this particular style is called Oracle, a senior thesis by Courtny Cotten whom is a user interface designer.
The project is simply beautiful. Clean organization of typography, a solid understanding of color and a great eye for layout. Courtny uses simple, swiss styled infographic oriented imagery throughout the project to convey a sort of navigation. There are breaks in between that allow for a friendly read through. One of the breaks quote Victor Hugo as saying “To put everything in balance is good, to put everything in harmony is better”. Courtny even breaks up the information at times with cleanly placed iconography that gives a more relaxed feel while reading through the page.
This project deserves a post on my blog, not only for your viewing, but for my own collection of projects that keep me inspired. Great job Courtny, keep the work coming.
As a designer, I tend to spend a very large amount of time searching for inspiration. What I have found to be true in the industry is that we all follow specific groups or favor a specific company. Not many people are left untied from this effect.
I can remember my days in college, where company recognition had significant impact on an industry as a whole. I’m also inclined to think that this branches out across all industries, but in design especially. Most of my inspiration has thrived from the same companies, over the last decade. I still get that warm glow when I see a spot by one of my favorites. Psyop, Shilo, The Mill, The Ebeling Group and Trollback all provided me with countless hours of inspiration.
The same can be said for Stockholm’s North Kingdom design firm. Some of the truly best graphic design comes from within North Kingdoms offices, and it effects the design industry year, after year. What really impresses me is North Kingdoms ability to merge interactive media with extremely clean Swiss themed design. From interactive projects to motion graphics and canvas art, this studio never seizes to amaze me. Much of the direction is owed to the Art Director of North Kingdom, Robert Lindström. Roberts work as an Art Director has been instrumental to North Kingdom (and Design Chapels) success for over 10 years (1998 – 2009) and I’m willing to bet that his trend will continue for years to come.
I am still waiting for the official release of North Kingdoms new website, but in the meantime, check Design Chapel out for some related inspiration.
As we’re making the turn into 2010, interactive projects have become more and more prominent in all industries. It started with a heavy introduction into Web, followed by a more recently booming field of experimental installations and it now seems that “tablets” are next in line. With huge speculation from just about everyone, Apple may very well be preparing a tablet form computer which has been hinted at by large print focused companies such as New York Times and Conde Nast.
My personal guess regarding such a tablet is that Apple, along with an array of competitors, will attempt to revitalize and revolutionize what’s left of the print industry. There have been conceptual ideas around such technologies, and some companies have even attempted to enter this market.
Bonnier R&D has garnered the attention of many designers, conceptual thinkers and developers over the past 24 hours with the release of the Mag+ video. According to the description, the main focus of this video is to attempt to “capture the essence of magazine reading” in a digital tablet form.
Although the realism of the video lacks slightly, the real interesting part is the actual thoughts and ideas being conveyed. Just listening to the thought process is increasingly interesting, while the video does a great job of visually representing the general idea.
I’m personally inclined to believe such a product would be of great success, if done correctly. The Mag+ video shows the potential and even if only in the slightest, it shows that people are truthfully putting time into the conception of such a product. What intrigues me even more, is what’s truly possible with a product and focus such as this.
One thing is for sure, if there is a tablet technology like this in the works, I’ll be one of the first to purchase it.
The Eko concept by Damjan Stankovic is a brilliant re-design of what we know as a traffic light. It’s been years since I’ve seen updates to the current line of safety lighting, and I’m willing to bet that it’s about time for an upgrade. The new traffic lights encompass a timer which looks to be LED based. The overall installation pitch is that these lights can easily be added to existing traffic light mounts in order to save time and money.
Although at heart, I really do love this project, I find that some of the information posted for the “pitch” side of this concept is a bit far fetched. Part of the description entails that drivers would potentially shut the car’s engine down in order to cut emissions as well as save fuel, while the other end of the pitch claims to reduce stress. The stress reduction seems totally relevant and plausible. The lowering of emissions through driver actions seems very unlikely as most people would never abide.
Either way, great work on this concept and big props on putting effort into updating the current generation of traffic light technology.
If there is one name that comes to mind when your watching animated virtual displays in a movie, it’s Mark Coleran. Mark’s work is reflected in the most broad range of main stream movies that I’ve ever seen. The most amazing part to me is that none of the jobs seem to really look as if they were created by the same person, even though they definitely show the complexity and conceptual time dedicated to such a talent. According to his about section, he has worked across numerous mediums in design and currently works for Gridiron Software. He is currently working on the interface for the Flow project and continues to impress not only me, but an entire industry of designers.
You can follow Mark on Twitter, check his website, or just see his work in the next movie you watch.
As many of you know, I work prominently in the mobile field as a designer. Although not all of my time is spent working on mobile handsets alone, I do spend a good amount of time each year focusing on related projects. That’s likely why I get so excited when projects such as “The First Else: aka The Monolith” art directed by Ori Succari appear in the design realm.
The interaction design for this project was handled by a group named Elements. You can check out the impressive line of work at UX Elements website and get further details on The First Else project here.
The concept of a mobile user interface, capable of being controlled by your nature position of your thumb is simply genius. Make sure you checkout the video and screen shots courtesy of Engadget and High in the Sky. I can’t wait to see more of this product when it releases fully in London for its debut.
UPDATE: Thanks to an inside source for the updated information. It is greatly appreciated.
My sister sent me this amazing video a few weeks ago. It’s not just another music video. It was created for an Icelandic artist named Ólafur Arnalds, and it’s definitely one of the first of it’s kind. Directed by Esteban Diácono, this video is composed using Adobe After Effects, accompanied by Trapcode’s Particular V2 and SoundKeys with the help of expressions, turbulence and spherical field tweakings.
Let’s not give all of the credit to Trapcode though. Esteban’s directing and perception of color and movement is so completely fluid that it gives the music an orchestrated feel. Today, Esteban has earned a place in my collection of great artists.
I’m a sucker for clean design. I’m also a huge supporter of environmental design and efforts in reducing everything from emissions to waste. We need more Harc Lee’s when it comes to the design element of environment / ecological efforts. I’m envious Harc. Truly envious.
From what I understand, the can is designed to remove the painting process as well as construct a unibody design, such as Jonathan Ive’s design of the new Apple MacBook’s and iMac. This is pretty much as clean as a soda can could possibly become, without losing the desire of what’s currently Coca Cola.
Arguably, some people are questioning whether the can could be composed, using less energy to begin with and whether it would hold up to the pressure of a standard soda can’s internals.
Either way, it doesn’t take away from the brilliant work of Harc Lee, and if you have a free minute, check out his Behance profile.
