There are animated GIF’s and then there are animated GIF’s. Since the birth of, and the rebirth of the animated GIF most fall into one of two categories; poor quality looping images that jump as they start over, or really well done masquerading under the name Cinemagraph. Then there are those like the ones below done by the very talented Justin Mezzell. There is a fresh unique approach to these. Simple in style and execution, with just enough detail. They really don’t look like the animated GIF files you are used to seeing. The clean crisp design combined with a fresh color pallet, and seamless loops are absolutely mesmerizing, which is not surprising when you look at his other work.
I’ll admit it, I’m a watch guy. I like the art, craft, design, and engineering that goes into a nice looking time piece. I’ll also say that I am not a watch snob. I’m the guy that appreciates the quality of a Patek Philippe Calatrava, but also appreciates the understated design of Braun watches designed by Dieter Rams. I think the second half of that statement is the heart of it for me. The watches I own, are all fairly simple in the way they look. Nothing to flashy, nothing that shows off to much. All of this leads me to California-based designer Matt Johnston (no relation to me) who also loves watches,, clean design, and author of the website Wrist.
Wrist began as a sideline project to help Johnston improve his illustration skills, and eventually morphed into it’s own world of animated watch graphics collaborating with other designers. Wrist is a website / project featuring animated watch illustrations modeled after some of Johnston’s favorite watches. For Johnston watches are the perfect medium for design since they combine typography, color and movement to create a functional work of art. Wrist posts a new animation bi-weekly and if you are a designer interested in collaborating with Matt, he is looking for talented help with his project.
When it comes to integrated marketing that leverages social media to it’s best you can’t do better than Old Spice.
The latest campaign to introduce the new line of wild scents is being handled by Mr. WolfDog, who is the new executive director of marketing. Along with a YouTube channel, he has a Twitter feed, a Tumblr page, a Facebook account, a hangout on Google+ (where internet users could apply to work as the WolfDog assistant #workforwolfdog) and an animated gif file.
Everyone of these spaces is branded with integrated elements that reach across the entire campaign and all of it’s touch points. In the first two days, the YouTube video alone has reached more than 250,000 people.
I’ve always believed that to get people to change their bad behavior, you need to prompt them with something clever rather than beating them over the head with an in your PSA.
Melbourne Metro in Australia has launched a new campaign to promote safety around metro rail lines. It involves an amazing little animation, with a very catchy little song. The video is a memorable 3 and a half minute long animated music video, that uses black humor and a repeated phrase to sell the final point of “Be careful while waiting for your train”.
This is all part of the The Dumb Ways To Die campaign which is being executed across a number of social mendia channels. While the campaign centers on the YouTube music video (which has been viewed over 16 million times globally in just one week), the campaign is fully integrated across all media channels.
The YouTube video links to the other Dumb Ways To Die campaign aspects: The Tangerine Kitty – “Dumb Ways To Die” song is available for download from iTunes or you can listen to it on Soundcloud here. Dumb Ways To Die has a Tumblr site which features related animated gifs available for download and features the headline “Don’t do any of these OK? Especially the train ones”. All of these are tied to or point back to The Dumb Ways to Die website which ties together the entire campaign
The integrated campaign centers around shareable content, and leverages platforms like Tumblr, Soundcloudand iTunes to help spread awareness about safety. These 3 platforms in turn support the YouTube campaign which banks on viral distribution to help spread the word.
This is a great campaign from Melbourne Metro with the potential to save lives across the world since the problem is universal world wide.
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