When trying to increase the most valuable analytics on your website such as time spent on site, low bounce rate, and pages viewed, there is one tested method of achieving such results. The use of forums is an excellent approach for getting the good stats on your website. Yes, having a high visit rate is nice, but what are those visits worth if the visitor is only staying for 15 seconds and leaving from the index page?
The Kia Soul Collective is coming to Washington, DC the weekend of September 18-20 for three days of Music, Art and Design, plus your chance to test drive the all-new Kia Soul to get a pair of tickets to a very special show with MGMT on Sunday night.
Fast Company has a nice slide show of some great examples of negative space being used to convey a powerful message. When used correctly, negative space can become just as, if not more, important than the "positive" space.
The big squeeze. Unpublished. 2007. This piece was for an article about squeezing oil out of Iraq. The oversized hand communicates the scale of force imposed on the country.
Death & Taxes 2010 is out! This poster, which seems to be an annual release now, is one of my favorite uses of data visualization. Jess Bachman, owner of Wall Stats, uses graphics, typography, and attractive colors to present complex data in an easy to understand format.
Sour's 'Hibi no Neiro' video is one of the most creative videos I've seen in a long time. No CG, Bottle-Poppin', or Gratuitous Video Girls... just web cams and a large amount of creativity. I get a headache thinking about the story boarding that went into this project.
This campaign for Minichamps, a miniature car company, has got a great concept, direction and execution. It really drives, pardon the pun, home the idea that this company creates the most authentic reproductions of the world's most sought after automobiles. The campaign was developed by Dentsu - Latin America.
In a perfect example of making the right decision at the wrong time, I quit my Associate Creative Director job last September before the economy got bad. I was working at a large, soulless agency and it was just killing me. After nine months of putting in between 60-80 hours a week on an account I didn't love, I decided I needed a change. Luckily, an old freelance client welcomed me back and for a few months, I was keeping busy with contract work.
Six months in, however, the contract job I'd been working had evaporated. And all my other freelance clients had either lost their jobs or seen their entire agencies fold. As a result, I found myself job hunting in the worst job market in 30 years, where as many as 300 candidates were going after a single position. Through trial and error, however, I've found some ways to break through.
Amnesty International's new billboard truly blends creativity with technology to highlight how domestic violence is hidden from public view. They have created the worlds first reactionary billboard which responds to people's eye movement via a camera with eye-tracking technology. The billboard's constant setting displays an image of a man beating his wife. However, once the camera detects some one is looking, it will change to an image of the same couple pretending to be happy. This is a very ingenious and powerful solution to show how hidden domestic abuse can be.
Here's a great video from Arktip of Shepard Fairey getting busy. If you think you're not familiar with Fairey's work, think again. He's the artist behind the now uber-famous Obama poster from the 2008 election, "HOPE."
If you're into cardboard, stencils, spay paint, and wildly creative art, the exhibit Street/Studio at Irvine Contemporary should satisfy your appetite.
Opening night was June 20th which was a great event with the typical DJ, drinks, and artists on hand. But unlike most openings, not only were the artist showing off their works, they were also creating art in the back alley.
An excerpt from a handout describes the show as such: "Conceived as a continuous installation of interior and exterior works, Street/Studio will include both the gallery interior space and the exterior walls and alleys behind Irvine Contemporary. This continuous installation will create a unified view of works created as works for the gallery art space as well as exterior pubic street murals that work within the location of the neighborhood and the urban environment of Washington, DC."
The exhibition runs from June 20th through August 1st and highlights some of the best street artists in the game. With names like Shepard Fairey, EVOL and Swoon just to name a few, you know it's a great show.
Below are a few shots we snapped from opening night. Sorry if some of the images are bit blurry but that's what happens when you have a setting sun, free beer, and a camera phone. If you're in the DC area, make sure to head down to the 14th Street corridor and check it out.
