Art of the Title Sequence is a fantastic site dedicated entirely to title sequences. In addition to having a great title archive, there is also quite a bit of content on the concepts and processes behind some of the most successful movie titles ever.

Art of the Title

Labels: Art of the Title Sequence, interactive design, movie, resource

Los Angeles-based Nylon has some really interesting motion and animation work. I'm particularly giddy about the "Typographic Landscape" piece created for IDN Magazine.

Nylon

Labels: animation, interactive design, Nylon

Video projection project by The Darkroom. Thanks to Shawn for the link.

Labels: interactive design, The Darkroom, video

I like Flash as an application, but I typically don't care for most web sites that are created in it. With the combination of resized browser windows, and slow navigations or overall loading times, there is usually something frustrating about visiting a flash site.

However, none of that applies to Denmark-based Hello Monday. The "designery" specializes in identity, illustration, flash and campaign development, and the firm also has one of the nicest studio sites out there. Check it out.

Hello Monday

Labels: graphic design, Hello Monday, illustration, interactive design, site design

This is a handy resource for all those interested in web design. Italian web designer and developer Vladimir Carrer has created a simple but useful printable browser template for sketching web design layouts. The sketchbook templates can be printed as blank browser pages, or with printed 10px and 100px grids.

Web designer sketchbook

Labels: interactive design, resource, site design, Vladimir Carrer

Super Nature combines a nice portfolio, site design and company description / philosophy. I like when a studio can sufficiently express intent without relying on mass quantities of cliché and buzzwords — although “tailor-made solutions” is pushing it.

“SUPER NATURE is a Shanghai based multi-discipline design company. It specializes in interactive design, visual communication & media technology. It takes on challenges through experimentations in new media and physical computing. Super Nature provides tailor-made solutions from conceptualization to design, using new technologies integrated in production.

Seeking innovative solutions is Super Nature’s ultimate goal. It constantly commits to research & development. The partnership with its research associate - Hyperthesis Visual Lab in New Zealand was established to build a strong collaboration in finding new ideas with innovative and cohesive digital solutions.

In Super Nature, the definition of good design is ‘creating moments of engagement’”.

Super Nature

Labels: graphic design, interactive design, site design, Super Nature

I realize the movie is a few years old, but I recently came across the 2005 film Hostage, and really liked the opening title sequence. French director and After Effects artist, Laurent Brett, created the title.

The piece integrates a strong use of color and typography — it’s certainly worth viewing if you’re unfamiliar with it.

Hostage movie title

Labels: graphic design, Hostage, interactive design, Laurent Brett, movie

Agency Fusion has created an infomercial style video for the fictitious Make My Logo Bigger Cream.

While the idea of designers poking fun at clients for wanting a huge logo is not new, the video still tends to be more clever than not — albeit overly repetitive and borderline annoying with the multiple product variations at the middle and end of the piece.

Make my Logo Bigger video

Labels: Agency Fusion, graphic design, humor, interactive design, resource, video

I really like the style of the new Quicksilver commercial from the “Microsoft People Ready” campaign, created by JWT. I admit that I’m not a huge fan of Microsoft or their products, but I wanted to view the commercial again, so I logged on to Microsoft.com to find the ad. Ironically enough, I could not get the video to work, even after downloading their proprietary media player and using the Internet Explorer browser — so with such flawless technology, I’m sure this campaign will work like aces.

Microsoft, Quicksilver commercial

Labels: ad campaign, commercial, interactive design, JWT, Microsoft, Quicksilver

I recently came across these two informational graphs, and thought they made an interesting contrast in visual depiction / stylistic approach.

The first map shows the growth of American Walmart locations from 1964 through 2007 — the growth of business is impressive in its expanse, but rather creepy in its virus-like visual depiction.

The second map depicts current global carbon emissions by country — the graphics are quite bright, vibrant and fun, which seems to be in direct contrast to the environmental effects that the graph represents.

Growth of Walmart Across America

Climate Change: The Carbon Atlas

Labels: interactive design, Walmart

Hello there, do you mind if I sit down?

I’ve never seen you here before, are you new to the area?

Do you enjoy gazing at my mustache?

Mother won’t be home for hours, and Gammy is playing bingo at the senior center. How would you feel about a nice room temperature Pabst Blue Ribbon massage?

Flash Face

Labels: interactive design, Ultimate Flash Face

If you haven’t visited Imaginary Forces in awhile, their site has been updated with some excellent new work, including the recently released Christina Aguilera commercial for Target.

Most of their work is fantastic, but I really liked the short film they put together for Paul Rand’s posthumous induction into The One Club’s Hall of Fame. It’s an interesting combination of a Rand interview with original animation.

Paul Rand

Labels: Christina Aguilera, Imaginary Forces, interactive design, Paul Rand, site design, Target

Visualart requested 100 vector logo submissions, and for each, created a three second logo animation for free. There are some pretty interesting results, and the video quality is top notch.

I will warn you, the work is definitely worth checking out, but there are 50 videos per page that all trying to load at the same time. Unless you have a super-fast connection, you might need a bit of patience.

Pimp My Logo

Labels: graphic design, interactive design, Visualart

I was organizing a few of my bookmarks today, and came across some resource links that I have found helpful, and thought were worth sharing.

#1) Wikipedia web colors: provides a simple, easy to understand breakdown of a variety of web colors and their corresponding code names. I especially like the X11 color chart because of the color swatch organization, and hex and decimal code equivalents.

Wikipedia web colors

#2) CSSType: a great CSS test site for quickly viewing web safe typography. I am pretty much CSS incompetent, so this site is aces for me. CSSType allows you to type in some sample text, adjust the font, size, letter and word spacing, and it will generate the finished CSS code for you.

CSSType

#3) EmailMeForm: the site isn’t the prettiest to look at, but the product is first-rate. This is the only html web form that I was able to find that did not force you to pay a $20 monthly service fee, or required you to plaster the provider’s logo all over your site. Great resource for anyone with a web site or blog, as the service allows you to provide email and newsletter sign-ups for your site visitors. They offer five free forms per individual — good stuff.

EmailMeForm.com

#4) Google Analytics: really cool service provided by Google that allows you to track visits to your site or blog. It records detailed visitor information, and lets you know which posts are the most popular. For instance, I know that when I do a post about pin-up illustrations, it will gather more interest than say, a post about random web resources. It also informed me that this blog is most popular in Ohio, California and Kentucky, and outside of the United States, it tends to be France, United Kingdom and Canada. In addition to being a fun resource, it helps keep me motivated.

Google Analytics

#5) How Much Is Your Blog Worth: the totally depressing business applet, which informed me that my blog has a street value of just under $565. Bollocks, I say.

How Much Is Your Blog Worth

Feel free to share any other worthwhile sites in the comments section, as I’m always on the lookout for more.

Labels: interactive design, resource, site design

There are some filthy animations being produced by the folks at Superfad — and by filthy, I mean tight...and by tight, I mean good.

Several of their ads utilize some of the most complex, richly layered compositions being produced for the commercial market. Be sure to view the Playstation 3, Universe of Entertainment and Target, Art Connects reels.

superfad

Labels: ad campaign, commercial, interactive design, Superfad

The Japanese motion-graphics company, WOW, created this graceful animation that offers an elegantly organic flow. The animation’s theme consists of integrating the numbers 0 – 10, with flowers and plant life. I didn’t quite understand the connection between the two, so after a bit of research, here’s what I found about the animation:

“A motion graphics installation featuring plants and typography. We’ve interpreted the space between each number in a countdown and present it to you in a physical space. Experience a virtual landscape featuring 11 digitally rendered ikebana pieces which draw you in as you speed through time. Clinging to the camera you race through three dimensions viewing each piece one by one.”

Note: ikebana is the Japanese art of flower arranging.

WOW, Tenspace

Labels: interactive design, Tenspace

Public defacement without the guilt and hassle of actual public defacement — probably still pisses the cops off something awful though. Pretty. Damn. Clever.

Laser Graffiti

Labels: Environmental Graffiti, graphic design, interactive design

I really enjoy these commercials for Wrigley’s Extra chewing gum, directed by TWiN in Sydney. The lead in each commercial is being followed around by funny little animated characters representing the foods they’ve eaten. The 1st commercial is gold; I can’t get enough of the donut guy, especially his ultimate fate.

Don’t worry, I won’t ruin the suspense for you, but I will say, the more I watched it, the more I giggled.

TWiN, Wrigley’s Extra

Labels: ad campaign, commercial, interactive design, TWiN

Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, has been on my “movies to see” list, since its release in late 2005. This post is not intended to review the movie, although I will say, Robert Downey Jr. has one fantastic scene, in which he avoids arrest by pretending to be an actor. Also of note, the Val Kilmer in Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, could eat the Val Kilmer from Tombstone and The Doors, and still have room for dessert...just an observation.

Anyway, the film title sequence was fantastic, and arguably the best part of the movie. That’s not to imply that the film was a disappointment, only that the intro was impressive and completely unexpected. Danny Yount, a director for Kyle Cooper’s Prologue Films, created the title sequence. Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, has the graphic sensibility of a Saul Bass title, but is undoubtedly contemporary. For me, it’s the most memorable title since Catch Me If You Can (2002).

Kiss Kiss Bang Bang

Labels: interactive design, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, movie, video

The Russian design studio _FIRMA is sporting a memorably snazzy web site. When you initially visit _FIRMA, the intro sequence will leave you scratching your head, with a sort of “what the HELL!?!, did my computer just get hacked?” kind of feeling, but continue to click, and you will find a refined site that offers extremely high-quality photography for a design studio.

Two aspects of the site that really stuck out, were the rotating facial segments used as part of the main navigation, and also, the year’s worth of work in a 33 second video clip (found in the About Us section). I found it amusing that they described themselves as “young, rich and almost happy”. Oh, to be young (kind-of, but not really), rich (maybe in ten years) and almost happy (check).

_FIRMA

Labels: _FIRMA, graphic design, interactive design, site design

Organic is not a word typically associated with web-design, but I really can't come up with a better way to describe Jonathan Yuen's site. There is a beauty in its minimal color scheme, the animations are seamless and it uses the restrictions of the browser window about as well as any site I've come across. This site is most definitely worth a look, if only for the outstanding navigational system.

Jonathan Yuen

Labels: graphic design, interactive design, Jonathan Yuen, site design