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07.09.2008 by Zoltan 
A (digital) tendency to overwork ideas…
In digital, I often feel that there is a tendency to overwork ideas. Longer non-linear time frames, coupled with clients who were sound alseep during the single-minded proposition part of their marketing degrees, don’t help the situation. Many many times I’ve sat in meetings that were overcomplicating an idea for on other reason than habit.
But not all ideas need to be ground breaking. Some just need to be simple, timely and well executed. And this new press campaign for Sony Walkman is a perfect case in point. Its not a new idea by any stretch, but its executed with a sense of calm elegance that elevates it above the clutter.
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11.07.2008 by Zoltan Classical rollercoaster
Lovely piece of motion graphics for the Zurich Chamber Orchestra. Such a simple idea - to make the piece of music into a literal rollercoaster, to mimic the emotions embodied in the music. The only thing that lets it down is the cheesy red endline “Great Emotions” which seems slapped on at the last minute and is in no way integrated into the design of the piece.
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03.06.2008 by Zoltan Now Showing
‘Now Showing’ is an exhibition “exploring the Lost ‘Art’ of the Film Poster” currently at The Cosh Gallery in London. 40 creatives were asked to submit a design/illustration for an iconic film. The two below stand out to me, especially the bold elegance of the ‘Birds’ poster by Corey Holms / Marian Bantjes. See the full set at flickr.
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07.03.2008 by Zoltan Nikon USA relaunches
Nikon has just relaunched their US portal, designed by my good friend Tom Kershaw, ex de-construct. Apart from the de rigeur Papervision homepage, I like the fact that the EXIF data (all the stuff the camera records every time a shot is taken) has been used as a hook for design, and a pathway into the content. And its nice to know that there are some clients out there brave enough NOT to overload the homepage with 17 content boxes / promotions.
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14.02.2008 by Zoltan the-affair launches new t-shirts
It’s been a wild and intense 6 months since Mr. Black and myself launched our t-shirt brand the-affair. Apart from boring countless people at every opportunity with tales of our exploits across the blogosphere, we’ve actually been posting our tees off to exotic and unexpected destinations all over this little globe of ours.
Tempers have been frayed, our sanity was threatened, and calls from friends and concerned family members went unanswered and ignored. Many late nights, cups of tea and cigarettes later, we’ve arrived back from the printers with our second humble offering. Like that difficult-second-album, we deliberated, mused and mulled over the themes and artwork for an unnecessarily long time.
Continuing to turn to literature for inspiration, we took ideas from William Gibson’s techno-nerd-cyber-punk novel ‘Neuromancer’ as well as developing a rather clever interpretation of a quote by every MBA’s favourite intellectual, Niccolo Machiavelli.
Anyway check them all out here, the-affair. As always, all feedback is very much appreciated.
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17.12.2007 by Zoltan 1% of Christmas
99% of the time, Christmas cards are shit. So shit in fact that just the thought of them makes me cringe. Thankfully here’s two brilliant examples of that 1% of the time we all look forward to…
The first is a game by Framestore CFC and its as addictive as it is simple, and as is it well executed. I’m not a massive gamer, but this isn’t really a concept I’ve come across before, and just the fact that its a polar bear flying through the air makes the whole thing perfectly surreal.
The second example comes courtesy of AKQA and their little webcam-ified furry friends Cheese and Biscuits. Their (in)decision to run on the wheel controls the electricity supply to a lovely (and possibly very tiny) neon light message. Oh and they only work M-F, 9:30 - 5:30. Whoever said that AKQA worked everyone into the ground?!?!? ;-p
via Big Joel
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10.09.2007 by Zoltan everyone deserves a bit on the side*
About a year ago, a strange thing happened amidst the rubble of broken dreams and the boozers of East London. Two pilgrims to this savage land decided to pool their industry experience, raw talent and shamelessly egotistical aspirations. After much beardstroking and arguing, the-affair was born.
Slightly more intelligent than your average brand, our graphic tees are influenced by subjects that delve a little deeper than your standard pop-references. Too high-brow? Actually, we’ve just got a little more faith in our customers.
the-affair, because everyone deserves a bit on the side.
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As some of you know myself and Señor Black have just begun a tee-shirt brand called the-affair. So do me a favour and check out the site. If you like it, or even better if you don’t, i’d love some feedback. We’re really interested in any thoughts whatsoever.
*Warning, shamless piece of self-promotion
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03.09.2007 by Zoltan Original Mac Manual
Check this out - the original Macintosh manual from 1984. Get past the nerdy men and the idea of carrying around a desktop, and what’s really interesting is that this little book had to explain an entire paradigm shift. Concepts like ’scrolling’ and ’saving’ digitally simply didn’t exist, and had to be explained from scratch… The entire book can be found here.
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30.08.2007 by Zoltan Salary comparison
This is beautifully poetic salary comparison charts the gap between the wages of the CEO and his emmployee’s (in the USA?). A simple change in the scale of heads has never had such dual resonance. Enough to make your blood boil, even if the data visualisation itself is so cute!
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16.08.2007 by Zoltan news.com rips newsmap
Not sure how new this is, but news.com has something called ‘hot news’ (the top image) which is essentially a real-time data visualisation of the most popular stories. Definitely the next level above what most news services provide and we’re certainly going to see more of it - that is, ways of visualising the massive amounts of data we’re contantly and increasingly being bombarded with into more easily digestibel byte-sized chunks. I just hope that Marcos Weskamp of the much more elegant original (bottom image) got some financial action out of it!
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14.08.2007 by Zoltan O.D.G (Original Design Gansta)
Sometimes you just have to have a laugh at yourself and thank god you’re not yet bald or this would be waaaay to close to the bone ;)
via leigh hibell
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13.08.2007 by Zoltan Neu Army
Apart from being a design studio, Neu Army is an RSS of quality websites that i’ve always subscribed to. And although its been down for sometime now (boo hoo), here’s a lovely piece of old-skool typographic design that I think is worth sharing. That and as a positioning tool, “This ain’t no side hustle” is also interesting… Anyway, i’m looking forward to the 07 site!
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26.07.2007 by Zoltan Checkland Kindleysides
This site for Checkland Kindleysides is a nice translation into digital of the amazing work of Peter Callesen (above). Sure it lacks the beautiful 3Dimensionality of real paper, but the effect is still nice. They also use Mrs Eaves which is one of the nicest sets of ligatures around, if a little overused now :(
via Nicki
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23.07.2007 by Zoltan Wine that loves…
Wine that loves is like “Wine for Dummies” but for the ADD-generation. Why bother to learn about anything when some clever marketing can do it for you? Cynicism aside, its actually some lovely bold, and most importantly simple, graphic design on the bottles. Shame about the website…
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16.07.2007 by Zoltan Republic Of Ideas
The Republic Of Ideas is billed as “a place to swap ideas”. It launches in September, and word on the street is that its going to be an ‘new ideas marketplace’, i guess not unlike OpenAd, but potentially more digitally-led. At the moment there’s some nice motion/type goinng on, so let’s wait and see…
via advertisinglab
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