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17.07.2009 by Zoltan 
Future Routers
Future Routers is a great little colab design project between Goldsmiths and Talk Talk (appalling customer service, even if they have interesting corporate comms projects) that re-imagines the humble broadband router into something nicer/smarter – essentially designed around people rather than technology.
My favourite is the snappily titled ‘Energy Saver’ above, which has 4 hooks for house keys. When the last person to leave home takes their keys, it switches itself off. Presumably it switches on again when the keys are deposited back, but it doesn’t actually state that anywhere :(
via CR Blog
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26.06.2009 by Zoltan the-affair, the thinking man’s brand
the-affair is an indie label out of East London striving to rid the world of boring and dumb popcorn tees. They produce in limited runs of only 200 per design and each one is based on literature – hence their slogan “the thinking man’s brand”.
They’ve just dropped Batch.04 / Obscurity in time for the northern summer. The 3 new designs were begun from slightly more obscure sources than usual, but the results speak for themselves.
Strange Aeons is based on H.P Lovecraft’s very particular form of tenticled horror in The Call of Cthulu.
Whilst We comes courtesy of their insatiable fascination with dystopic fiction, this time via Zamyatin’s novel of the same name, widely agreed to be the inspiration for Orwell’s 1984.
And finally Corto’s Crash SS09 is a brand new aqua colourway of their best-selling (and now sold-out) Corto’s Crash.
Get on over there and grab yourself one before they’re all gone…
Full disclosure: I am one half of the-affair with my partner in crime Dave Black
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25.06.2009 by Zoltan White Void Folio
White Void’s (new?) folio is perhaps the most elegant use of Papervision I’ve ever seen. As an interface, it feels like the future simply because it is so damn intuitive. Oh, and the work’s not bad either :-p
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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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