Video Promotion

Style’s Retro Promo from Gretel.

If you haven’t seen it yet, the video below is one of the promo spots for Style from the folks at Gretel. This actually dropped about 10 to 11 months back, but I keep hitting it for inspiration. Great timing, use of audio, editing, and animation make this piece. It has a slightly retro 1980’s feel to it, but not so much that it feels overdone. The quote below the video showcases the thinking behind the clip.

Client: Style Network
Design and Animation: Gretel

“Style has been on the air for over ten years and though they’ve enjoyed some success building an aspirational, upbeat network that viewers trust, the brand wasn’t reflecting their full potential. They were looking to make a big splash, and to craft an image that truly lived up to the promise in their name. We really wanted to capitalize on this opportunity to give Style a look, energy, and point of view that would help them stake their claim in the category.

We took our initial inspiration from something in the original brief: seeing the world through a ‘style-filter’ and we channeled it into the idea of illustrating how a style-obsessed mind works. How do über-style-fans see the world? They’re constantly searching, marking, clipping, pinning, liking, blogging, comparing, shopping. They’re looking at your shoes, watch and wondering where you got that shirt. We tried to visualize that process and illustrate that mindset.

The logo itself is an example of this idea in action, it can easily be dressed up or down without losing its core identity. It can feel sophisticated and subtle or brash and bold. It’s just one part of our toolkit that strikes the necessary balance between a loose, expressive design and the structured, defined brand package any network requires.”

The Life of Cycle, Gestalten and Velo – 2nd Gear.

One of the reasons I like Gestalten, besides the fact that they make really cool books, is the fact that they produce short films to promote them. Really well made little films that sometimes extend the content of the book, and sometimes promote it. In the case of “The Life of Cycle” they are promoting their new book “Velo – 2nd Gear”.

The video not only promotes the contents of the book, it introduces you to individuals that are featured in it, places mentioned int he book, and shows of the wonderful page layouts that make up the book itself.

Velo – 2nd Gear illuminates and celebrates contemporary bike culture from classic to high tech. From the fixed gear scene to fashionable city cruisers. In addition this book showcases today’s most outstanding and unusual bicycles and their riders.

The book introduces coveted manufacturers, specialized boutiques, and historical tours. Velo – 2nd Gear also explains how each bike scene cultivates its own distinct codes through everything from the choice of bike frames, clothing, and by visiting specific events or establishments. The book shows why, for more and more people, bikes have replaced their cars as the mode of transporatation that best express their identity.

Grand Rapids to Newsweek, We Ain’t Dead Yet.

When a major news publication like Newsweek writes an article calling your city “A Dying City”, what do you do? Well in the case of Grand Rapids Michigan, you fight back with a video, that is linked to both Facebook, and Twitter.

On May 22nd, the citizens of Grand Rapids joined forces with Rob Bliss Events and SEF Video to produce the worlds largest lip dub video performing a rendition of Don McLean’s “American Pie”. The video involved 5000 people, and temporarily shut down a major section of downtown Grand Rapids, which was filled with everything from guitar toting troubadours, to marching bands, weddings, and pillow fights.

The video was created to showcase the fact that the citizens of Grand Rapids, feel their city is filled with life, passion, energy, and is anything but “Dying” I have no idea, how successful this is going to be for Grand Rapids, but you have to give the city kudos for pulling out all the stops on this.