Tropicana’s Artifical Sun in Trafalger Square.

Posted on February 2, 2012 by

Earlier this week, to promote it’s latest television campaign Tropicana erected a giant sun over Trafalgar square in London. The installation is part of  the “Brighter Mornings” campaign, and launched at the same time their new Awake to Alive TV commercial started running in the UK.

Designed and built in collaboration with art collective Greyworld this object took six months to create, is 30,000 times bigger than a football, has a surface area of 200m2 and weighs over 2,500kgs. Its internal light source produces 4-million lumens of light, the equivalent of 60,000 light bulbs, making the artwork visible from space.

All three videos are below including the time lapse of putting it up and the making of video.

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How a Five Year Old Sees Your Brand.

Posted on February 2, 2012 by

They say a picture is worth a thousand words, and in the case of a logo or brandmark that is a golden rule. Your logo needs to communicate what the company, brand or product is visually with little or no help from words. This isn’t always the case, but a good logo can tell you what the company, or brand is about in a quick glance.

The video below is simply wonderful. It is the impression logos leave on a five year old as they are shown to her. One very interesting thing, is her response at age five to some very well known logo types. As you watch the video, listen for her reaction as certain global brands are shown.

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Between Page and Screen. A Book of Augmented Reality Poems.

Posted on February 2, 2012 by

Over the last couple of years I have seen a ton of augmented reality stuff. Most of it is geared toward a camera enabled smartphone, and most of it is designed to extend a product offering or promote something.A lot of it is pretty mediocre in design, and implementation.

It is refreshing to see an augmented reality application that is being used to help create a literary experience. One that is well designed, well constructed, and well thought out.

Between Page and Screen was written by Amaranth Borsuk and developed by Brad Bouse. The book is a series of poems that are displayed on the page as geometric patterns that reveal the text when shown to w computer with a web camera, or a camera enabled smartphone.

Originally produced as a limited-edition hand-bound and letterpress-printed artist’s book, Between Page and Screen has been shown internationally at a number of exhibitions from San Francisco to Berlin, and is now available as a hardbound book on the Between Page and Screen website from Siglio Press.

“The pages of this artist’s book contain no text—only abstract geometric patterns and a web address leading to this site, where the book may be read using any browser and a webcam. The poems that appear, a series of letters written by two lovers struggling to map the boundaries of their relationship, do not exist on either page or screen, but in the augmented space between them opened up by the reader.”

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The Dark Side of Dickens’ London.

Posted on February 1, 2012 by

To coincide with the opening of the Dickens and London exhibition, the Museum of London has launched a new iPhone and iPad app that takes users on a journey through the darker side of Charles Dickens’ London. The exhibit and application coincide with the 200 year anniversary of Charles Dickens’ birthday.

This is a stunning example of an interactive graphic novel for iOS. Illustrated by David Foldvari, and based on Dickens’ Sketches by Boz, the application is designed to hold five issues, each distributed over the life of the exhibit. Each chapter is centered on a new location in Dickens’ London and include xcerpts from the sketches narrated in dark gravely tones by Mark Strong.

The application includes 1862 maps of London which overlay the current map provided by Google to give the user a reference on how the city and story locations have changed since the mid 1800′s.

The application has an amazing feel to it, and makes me want to book a trip to London to experience the exhibit at the Museum of London. What a great example of integrating digital content with a physical space to extend the overall experience.

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