I recently spent some time in Africa, specifically Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe. I was there volunteering in the rural communities. Upon my return home and reviewing my photos, I discovered a large amount of various signs and local design mixed in with my adventures. Thus proving that as a designer, no matter how far you get away from your Mac, like a moth to a flame or hipsters to PBR, you’re always going to be drawn to good design. Hope you enjoy the photos. Stay tuned for more to come…
Super impressed by this little app. There have been a few apps that do similar things, but none are as simple to compose with and allow you to create so quickly. In a matter of minutes you feel like you have produced something of value, with little to no knowledge of music. Figure is a warm and inviting approach to music creation.
AND IT’S $.99
via. ISO50
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GOOD Ideas has officially kicked off for us today. We got to meet with our city partners from Green Umbrella and the Greater Cincinnati Energy Alliance to get things started. Our task, as assigned by GOOD, is:
Homeowners in the Greater Cincinnati area are spending far more than they should on electricity and gas because their homes lack proper insulation, storm windows and efficient heating and cooling systems. Modest energy efficiency upgrades typically save homeowners 20-30% on their monthly utility bill, in addition to contributing to larger goals like reducing carbon emissions and spurring job creation and community development in neighborhoods. With the goals of saving money, reducing emissions and putting local residents to work, how do we get more Cincinnati households to perform energy efficiency upgrades on their home?
We are very excited to begin brainstorming solutions to this problem, and our kickoff meeting and getting the groundwork was a great start. We learned there are a lot of hurdles we will have to overcome; however, the results in getting the “greenies” all over Cincinnati to join in this effort could really start to form Cincinnati into one of the greener metro areas in the country. Exciting stuff!
Looking past visual inspiration for a minute, I often forget our senses expand past our eyes. Today your ears get a check up.
This video is an interesting take on sound design. Fun, interactive and edible? Sign me up, I would love to know the noises this contraption would make if you ate those little guys.
Now for this next video I need you to put on those head phones, take eight minutes and enjoy the sounds. Love the violent contrast from take off, to free fall, to splash.
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Background
Every year, Hyperquake tries to find a new and exciting way to show appreciation for our clients. In the past we have sent out more traditional gifts such as books and cards, but this year we wanted to send something different and more importantly, something that would demonstrate how Hyperquake and its brand have evolved within the last year. Aside from the gift itself, Quaker’s love to give back and chose to use our innovative idea as a way to thank clients, as well as show support for a local charity, at the same time. Our Daily Bread was selected as our charity due to our prior involvement with the organization and our appreciation for what they do for the local community.
Existing Brand Experience
When it came time for Hyperquake to brainstorm holiday ideas, we immediately decided that this year’s gift would be different. In the past year our brand has evolved and our abilities and talents have expanded. With the success of OFFF and our first mobile app, we chose to encompass these new talents and show our clients what we’re capable of.
Brand Evolution Solution
After multiple brainstorms regarding our holiday gift, we finally settled on the idea of a mobile app. With the help of research and scouring the internet for ideas we decided to create an interactive app that would allow our clients and friends to “Santatize” their photos. This allowed them to personalize their personal photos with festive accessories, as well as share their creations within the app and on Facebook.
The Santatize app was a way of demonstrating how our own Hyperquake brand has evolved from traditional printed holiday cards into a completely mobile and online experience.
In order to spread the word about Santatize, we paired the app and Facebook page with a Santa Beard mailer. This further demonstrated our creativity by adding to the overall experience of the app and again allowing users to submit photos of themselves wearing the beard in support of our charity.
Results
259 total downloads: 227 iPhone, 32 Android.
Over 200 photos submitted to the Facebook gallery.
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Louisville vs Kentucky. David vs Goliath. Pitino vs Calipari. Mentor vs Student. Red vs Blue. Big East vs the SEC. Anthony Davis’ Unibrow vs Peyton Siva’s Meticulous Goatee. Adidas vs Nike. #1 vs #2 (coaches’ salaries, that is). Juggernaut revenue streams (In 2011 alone, Louisville generated a staggering $40.9 million from basketball related events in the 2010-2011 season. Up nearly 40% from the previous year and $12 million more than Duke, who finished second at $28.9 million.)
Put all this together, and there is a ton of emotion, pride, tension, and money tied up in these two programs – their Brands. Both Louisville and Kentucky are 2 of only 3 teams (joining Syracuse) that averaged more than 20,000 fans per home game last season. There are millions of articles, posts, tweets, & messages being thrown out there right now from everyone at the big networks to So-and-So in the Commonwealth arguing with his brother, who happens to root for the other team. These are amazingly rabid fan bases. Dedicated, loyal, some clinically insane. (more…)
Posted in Design, Fun, Uncategorized | 2 Comments »
I’m finally joining the masses. Even though this is my first attempt at writing a blog post, I’m still going to take advantage and use this opportunity to call myself a writer, and I will choose not to concern nor associate myself with anyone who thinks otherwise. Now, as I am a designer here at Hyperquake, you can expect some of my future posts to be about designery things. I studied digital design and very much enjoy the web, so interactive design for all devices will be a repeat topic for me, however, I would like this to not only be informative but somewhat entertaining as well. Not only for you, the reader, but for me as well (remember, you get to read, I’m the one who has to write).
So without wasting anymore time, lets get to what I have on my mind today. I really like books. They are good for lots of things, but I mostly use them for inspiration and reading. Since we are rapidly approaching the end of the Maddness and the Wildcats are about to be crowned college basketball’s finest, I thought I would talk about some basketball books. We’ve got Freedarko’s The Macrophenomenal Pro Basketball Almanac and The Undisputed Guide to Pro Basketball: History.
They are both relatively outdated. The almanac came out in 2008 followed two years later by the guide, but their current relevance is not what I want to talk about right now. I want to call to attention the beautiful, stylistic illustrations and infographics that lie between the soft matte hardcovers.
Now, of course you can read about things like Kobe’s spirit animal, why Lamar Odom is so sad (complete with a chart that breaks down his facial expressions), and even the ancient style of play demonstrated by Dirk Nowitzki (I’ll give you a hint. It’s Dirk Style). I know that designers (especially myself) are always trying to look beyond the web for inspiration. These are great assets to add to your library. Even if you just want to look at the pictures, that’s totally fine too. So trust me, it doesn’t matter if you could not care less about sports or basketball in particular, there is still a lot of enjoyment to be had out of these two books.
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I have an entire board on Pinterest dedicated to infographics. They’re beautiful, carefully crafted pieces of information, to make it easier to digest. We should love them! It’s like reading a picture book for adults. However the increasing surge in infographics in recent years has caused us to be bombarded by information we otherwise wouldn’t really care about. But they looked cool, right? At first, we believed them. Sometimes startling pieces of information rapidly going viral up and down Twitter and Facebook feeds, it would spark public astonishment: “HOW COULD THIS BE? HOW DID WE NOT KNOW?!” And then we all lived in an ideal world where we would change whatever startling habits were going to give us cancer tomorrow, and then forget about it 5 minutes later.
Now, we seem so jaded by the astonishing information, that we tend to not even believe it anymore. Today, an infographic posted on FastCo. caught my attention, Red Meat is Killing Us. I’m always curious about things dealing with food, since it is my favorite thing in the world and all, so naturally I clicked on it. I read through these astronomical numbers (and despite being vegan and patting myself on the back for not adding to the statistic) and I didn’t wholeheartedly believe what it was telling me. It was just too crazy, right?
I read through the comments on the post. And there was a definite backlash on this graphic:
“The graphics are confusing, misleading and a little too retro.”
“I’m a vegetarian and even I found this completely offensive. Scare tactics.”
“This infographic is awful. Please don’t post anymore like this. It’s misleading. Fast Co, you should know better.”
And my personal favorite, “Seems like a pretty hysterical piece assembled very likely by a flaming vegan.”
The author responded to these comments with a link to a New York Times article where the information had come from.
I clicked the link, read through the article, and I felt at ease about the information. But, why? Why do we suddenly not trust these beautiful displays of information in exchange for just reading them first hand? The commenters on the original FastCo. post seem to feel that the information was somehow skewed based on the designers’ possible personal beliefs. Even when infographics have links, cited sources, and all of the other credentials that published news sources do, we still do not trust them as much. Is it because of the fact that it is designed that we feel that another person’s hands have been stirring up the information pot? Possibly. Or could it be that we just don’t want the information laid out so easily if it is things that we don’t necessarily want to digest? As designers, our first priority is to communicate information clearly and effectively. How can we elevate infographics to be back to their respectable, trustworthy glory days without alienating our viewers in the process?
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Forgive me if I sound a little rusty, but I’m working off no sleep. The red-eye back from San Fran was unkind. I was there doing things like this…
That being said — blog revamp. It’s happening. Right. Now.
After a couple of drinks, some spirited debate, and a few more drinks — we’ve decided the ol’ blog needed a little bit more focus.
The focus?
Well, here’s the thing, there is no real focus. It’s just an interesting, honest dialog between you, the reader, and the lovely folks that work here. So expect that from now on. Some posts will be funny, others will be serious, and some will be about the Hunger Games. Who knows what to expect — we sure don’t.
So, have fun and enjoy.
Yesterday, we received a box of goodies from our friend Brian at Steam Whistle Press here in Cincinnati – our new letterpress thank you’s. Of course we have a desire to create a kick-ass print piece whenever we’re not working with zeros and ones, or creating something confidential. But this was our chance to take pride in something bigger – appreciating our friends and clients beyond an email. When you receive something handwritten in the mail from a friend, you know that it took time. It shows someone much more than simple appreciation. So we’ll be sending some your way very soon. Thanks to all of you who help make Hyperquake what it is, and empower us to do what we do best. For those of you who believe in the power of Brand Evolution. We humbly thank you. (more pictures to come soon)
