Astana the capital city of Kazakhstan unveiled a landmark designed to help brand the city on the world stage – the worlds largest tensile structure (or tent to us laymen) named Khan Shatyr. This free standing structure is nearly 500 feet tall and is designed to remain 60-85 degrees inside despite outside temps that vary from -30 to 95 during the year by utilizing 3 layers transparent of ETFE fabric and a top level venting system. The structure contains 1 million sq feet of space with gardens, restaurants, a shopping mall and movie complex. A nod to Foster and Partners for the design. . . as fans of burning man we love big tents!
With the economy the way that it has been, more of the workforce has returned to the idea of the home office. . .and here are a few stunning examples of stylish yet functional spaces that can tuck in neatly into a backyard.
WorkPod by Ecospace is a gorgeous, contemporary backyard office would definitely appeal to design addicts. Other than its great looks, the space is built-in the office technology you need to get your work done.
There’s something about the round shape of the Archipod (which we’ve written about before) that makes me want to wrap my arms around it when I see it. It looks small, but it’s actually bigger inside than you think and it fits in with the backyard landscape very nicely.
dmvA’s Blob VB3 is an egg-shaped unit that can be used for an office or even a living space. It definitely reminds me of a giant marshmallow jelly bean.
The OfficePOD creates an environment that supports productivity and provides the user with an efficient use of space. It’s made using as many recycled and recyclable materials as possible and there’s a low level energy consumption along with a high level of insulation.
This small recording studio designed by Piet Hein Eek for entertainer Hans Liberg is a modern spin on a log cabin. The exterior is consists of many logs that cover a plastic and steel frame.
Thanks to the folks over at Design Milk for bringing these to our attention.
I was recently sent a link to this campaign by Kodak to highlight their printers, especially drawing attention to the fact that the cost of ink for their printers is much lower than competitors (most notably HP is singled out). . . collectively the competition is referred to as BigInk.
The site is designed to be quasi political in nature where “real people” can voice off about their frustrations over paying for high priced ink from HP. The lines get blurred however with this approach to social media campaigns. Kodak has a disclaimer at the bottom of all pages:
This site provides links to content created by third parties and hosted on third party web sites. The opinions expressed by the authors of the content are just that, the opinions of the authors, and not Kodak or its employees or agents. Kodak does not endorse the opinions contained in the content or the actions depicted therein, and does not control in any respect any information or content contained therein. Kodak does not represent that any information you may find in the third party content is accurate.
However I have to say I am IMMEDIATELY skeptical of the “third party” nature of this content and feel that this approach really is a veiled attempt to let Kodak slam HP in ways that their marketing and legal team would otherwise NEVER authorize. Companies and their agencies helping them with social media strategy need to be careful here, we believe in building communities to provide value to groups of consumers. . .promoting our clients in the process. . .but when you are building forums to populate with content that you control that at its heart is deceptive and destructive you open up pandoras box and in my opinion break down more trust over the long run than you do build brand equity.
One of my favorite photographers is Jill Greenberg. Period. Her style combines cutting edge photography and lighting combined with subtle post production techniques that have established a unique viewpoint and an instantly recognizable aesthetic. She has photographed a virtual who’s who of the design, celebrity and fashion world, and her photography has graced the covers of Fast Company this past year as the business magazine attempts to stay relevant in the digital age. She is perhaps best known for her stunning series of photos featuring children and monkeys. One day we hope to afford her talent. You can view more of her work at her site here . And see her in action featured in this cool hunting video:
As the summer heats up (its 102 today. . .bleh), it seems like Global warming , droughts, the price of gas and sustainability start getting more attention. The reality is that while some progress is being made with these issues there is a lot of work still to be done by our generation and future ones. We at Olive have been fortunate to have worked on the front lines of sustainability for the past decade, and this is the theme for this month.
We have worked with all kinds of companies dealing with these issues from a wide variety of angles: homebuilders, architects and designers, building material companies, restaurants, energy companies, LEED consultants and even retailers. We give a tip of the hat to anyone who has struggled with how to make their company and lives more sustainable. We have watched the public learn new terminology and being from Portland we are proud to be in one of the leading cities of this movement.
So this month, we ask you to consider ways to make your work and home environments more sustainable as we look at this issue through many different viewpoints. And don’t forget to sound off in the comments this month to highlight other companies making a difference and tell us about the things you do in your lives to be more sustainable. Click and Contribute!
Technology has been an incredible game changer in nearly every industry, and it has revolutionized the design world as well making the tools of the trade accessible and affordable like never before. Twenty years ago graphic design was a painstaking process of manual comps or extremely costly color printing outputs. Now for $100 you can get a photo quality color printer, putting that tool into the hands of creatives everywhere. Social media allows for real time collaboration and sharing of work. . .a few minutes online and you can get what would have been a careers worth of inspiration before.
Perhaps however the biggest revolution is happening in the minds of the consumers themselves. Because good design is more accessible than ever, the benchmarks that consumers are exposed to are pervasive. Walk through any target and you can see design offerings from the world’s biggest designers applied to everyday items such as kitchen utensils, vacuums, home furnishings, etc.
Indeed good design is no longer a tactical consideration around projects, it is a mandatory prerequisite. If you are a company and are not thinking about the design of your products, offices, collateral, branding, etc. etc. etc. then how can you expect your customers to have faith in your products or services when you cut corners on the designs. It is this premise that led us to transform Olive and launch Branch. No longer is business on one side of the table and creative on the other. . .indeed the more tightly a company can integrate these worlds. . .have each learn from one another. . .the more likely they are designing a formula for success.
SO we have featured this style of presentation before when talking about Social Media as a whole, and since we have been talking more about Twitter (at the request of our readers. . .keep the input coming please. . .make this site yours!). I thought this is a great example of user generated content combined with a very straightforward answer to the question. . .what is twitter and why does it matter?
So we are always on the lookout for good examples of incorporating modern and social media into a larger campaign. This example came to me while watching a family movie with the kids. A commercial for Juicy Juice came on but the entire call to action was to go to the youtube channel created for the brand.
It is a great example of a brand that is largely unknown outside of the core market of people with kids. But they are doing things to make them relevant to that market.
Here is the YouTube channel for the brand, where you can clearly see the larger idea tied into this application.
This spring marks the official release of the Honda Fury. This is a custom chopper style production bike from Honda. The Campaign they built around the launch of this motorcycle was intense starting January 16th and through mid march, but is still in play in the social media channels and picking up steam now that national television ads are starting to go into heavier rotation.
One thing I really like about using them as a case study is that aside from understanding how a lot of these digital pieces fit with together with the offline and event based elements, this product is a good observation of a larger company understanding trends and culture of the digital generation, and reaching out to them in the channels this generation spends most of its time and in the ways they are most comfortable interacting with brands. Custom bike culture isn’t new but it gained a larger following over the past few years thanks to shows on television like Monster Garage and American Chopper.
The custom motorcycles built by manufactures such as West Coast Choppers, Falcon Motorcyclesand dozens of others can run up to $80,000+ but create envy when they pass by. Honda has managed to make a factory bike that captures this spirit . . .even if it waters it down for a more mainstream version of this trend. One of the press comments summed it up nicely by saying “it shows that someone really sat down and thought about the design and made the kind of bike that you know a factory could make but few factories ever dare to try to make”.
I would say the same thing about the campaign itself. Very well integrated here are a sampling of some of the pieces:
A series of Brand Activation events, launches, press releases, vip parties, and auto shows that you can read about and see video from over at Taste.
At length highly produced commercial footage:
A creative campaign featuring children unleashing the FURY
The campaign was very well integrated across all the media channels. Honda could have taken it a little further in the social media channels, but overall very nice campaign approach. I think this will be looked back on as one of the success stories of 2009 certainly in its category if not beyond.
So we have been asked A LOT lately. . .”what is the deal with Twitter? Do I really need to know every minute detail of someone’s day? How does that help my business?”.
Here is a delicious and innovative case study for you to sink your teeth into. Kogi BBQ is a hip fleet of Korean BBQ trucks in Los Angeles that serve up innovative and tasty but simply fair. Their trucks draw legions of fans and they have become a cult sensation thanks entirely to Twitter. Here’s how it works. . .the trucks are on the move, and typically 30-60 minutes before an appearance a Tweet is sent out to the now 24,000 followers announcing where the truck will be stopping. The result. . .by the time the truck arrives a long line of people has already formed. Serve for an hour or two and repeat the process. This works just as well for the lunch crowd at UCLA as it does for the late night snack crowd outside popular LA nightclubs at 2am.
Add in a recent dash of national press attention as a business that is thriving because of Twitter, and a Pinch of charm and you have a recipe for success and a nice little nod from us here at Branch. What’s next? They are taking the concept National with proposed roaming locations in NYC, Chicago, Vegas. . .and more. Because the concept involved a restaurant with no location. . .Twitter made an ideal platform for motivating masses of loyal brand fans. . .flashmob style.
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