72 dpi In the Shade: The Pop Art Creative Team Blog
Raul is an Interactive Art Director from Brasil who has some pretty exciting personal work in his portfolio. I particularly love the pieces where collages photographs using really interesting vector masks.
Go visit his site and file it under inspiration.
A couple of Fridays ago I attended Forward07, an American Marketing Association conference on innovation and sustainability. I’ve attended a few conferences in the past year and none were as inspiring as this one. Huge thanks to all the folks who helped pull this one together.
Ray Anderson, CEO of Interface, was the first speaker of the day. He told his story in a very simple and authentic way without the aid of any of the usual presentation tools. His pure honesty and passion held the room in a way I have seen very few speakers pull off. More than a decade ago, Ray was 61 years old and had no concern for anything but his bottom line. He was challenged by Interface to have a stance on the environment and a month later he approached them with ‘Mission Zero.’ By 2020 his company would not only have zero footprint on the earth, but every day of production would be giving back to the earth. He believed that his company could make this a reality while dramatically increasing their margins (‘doing well by doing good’).
Ray spoke about how giving his staff permission to fail created an environment spawned innovation. One story that particularly impressed me was how an engineer’s idea to tear down their production line and reinstall it would cut energy usage dramatically. Because they installed all of the equipment prior to running the pipe, the plant had narrow diameter pipe winding throughout the entire line. The friction created by the narrow pipe and the excessive length caused by the winding resulted in the need for high power pumps to push fluid through the system. By tearing down the entire line, running large diameter pipe first and then installing the equipment, Interface was able to use pumps that ran on 1/14 of the power than its predecessors did. The money saved by not using 86% of the energy dramatically increased the companies margins and significantly reduced their footprint (‘doing well by doing good’).
Interface could have looked at the capital cost, the potential for failure and denied the engineer’s proposal. Thi’s is just one of many stories Ray told that illustrated how being less afraid of failure inspired the innovation that has made Interface an icon of sustainability.
Interface’s designers and engineeres looked to nature to see what it does well and what they could take from it. Among other things, their designers noted how nature isn’t perfect. That while humans have a natural drive towards perfection, they dream of a natural place when they imagine the ideal. They designed a rug tile production system that produces no tile the same. This resulted in their quality assurance people not being able to find any imperfect tiles, easier installation and zero waste.
Ray said that the ‘best way to have good ideas is to stop having bad ideas.’ It sounds simple but you can tell he really means it. By expecting exactly that from his company, they are on a strong path towards their mission for zero footprint. He is an inspiration and I believe his vision will fundamentally change the way business is done. As he finished his story, the crowed roared into a standing ovation. One woman stood and shouted that he should be President. I don’t think Ray wants to do that, but I hope he inspires the next one.
The rest of the day was filled with a panel of sustainable businesses and some motivational fun with Kevin Carroll. Kevin spoke about the importance of play and surrounding ourselves with tools that get us excited. He challenged the crowd to ditch their mission statements in favor of ‘inspirational dreams.’ I couldn’t agree more with that idea… It is my experience that you can people and companies who expose their spirit and passions are magnets. People just want to be a part their lives, projects or work.
I could go on and on about this conference and all of the amazing stories I heard. The important thing is leaving feeling energized and inspired.
Pop Art has launched two sites that we’re really excited about, Visit Cascadia and Drive Cascadia to promote the launch of a groundbreaking new truck, the Freightliner Cascadia™.
Visit Cascadia is a tourism site for a fictional town called Cascadia. Imagine the perfect trucktopia that inspired by the features and benefits of their official truck, the Freightliner Cascadia™. In Cascadia, you can drive on North America’s smoothest pavement, go swimming in the world’s largest cupholder, or even cheer on the state champion truck-kart team. Visit the explore page to help you plan your visit with the interactive map. Head to Silver Dollar Drive-In Theater where you only pay 5 bucks per cab and trucks under 35,000 GVW get in free. While you are visiting, fill your belly at the Weigh Station and back your truck up to the Cab-Inn for a good night’s sleep. There’s a ton of fun to be had exploring the site, so head on over and send some postcards to your friends.
The team for Visit Cascadia was Ben Fogarty, Thom Schoenborn, Stephen Braitsch, Ryan Parr, Christina Gonzalez, Kelly White, Justin Garrity, Ben Waldron, Christi Stahl, Marci Marshall, Dave Selden and Chris Tacy. Meris Brown from Fancypants Design did some amazing illustration work on the city in the header of the homepage and the map in the explore page.
Go to Visit Cascadia›
The launch of a new truck presented itself as an opportunity to really try something new on the Freightliner Trucks site. The team brought the content alive and gave the truck a visual presence and personality that lives up to the truck’s promise. The site walks you through an extensive tour that highlights the benefits of the truck that illustrates Freightliner Trucks’ drive to develop a truck that answers the needs and wants of their customers (fuel economy, uptime, performance, comfort, and safety).
The team for Drive Cascadia was Dave Selden, Thom Schoenborn, Stephen Braitsch, Ryan Parr, Christina Gonzalez, Kelly White, Justin Garrity, Ben Waldron, Christi Stahl, Marci Marshall, Ben Fogarty and Chris Tacy. The 3D Truck is a project by The New Group.
Go to Drive Cascadia›
I stumbled upon Christophe Remmy’s work this afternoon while looking around for illustrators. I love his balance of organic and graphic styling. The depth in texture and field is amazing… Parts feel strong and graphic while others feel like they are melting away into fog. Very strong work!
Check it out.
I recently found Packet Garden. It’s a piece of experimental artwork that takes a different approach at visualizing how you use the internet by create a virtual world. Uploads become the hills and downloads are the valleys. Each type of protocol yields a different kind of plane (visit a website and an http tree is planted). All elements of the world are mapped by their internet protocol address.
During the last internet explosion, the branding world welcomed a new group of consultancies that developed audio strategies that integrated into corporate branding and advertising campaigns. As the internet grew out of its awkward phase and entered adulthood - audio branding has established itself as a invaluable piece of brand strategy and interactive campaigns.
Perhaps the first items that are conjured up are the NBC chimes or the four note Intel audio logo. Think again… Ringtones, ringback tones, audio environments, audio logos. Studies show that the audio associated with a brand can have equal impact as the visual elements. By extending beyond the visual companies can deepen brand recognition, perception and experience. In contrast, poorly designed audio experiences can also have a strong negative impact on brand attributes. Audio bridges logic and emotion while creating strong emotional associations with its audience. Paired with a strong visual identity, it can be an incredibly powerful and expansive marketing tool.
A few years back, Muzak went through a hefty rebranding. They were faced with the fact that people were using their name when referring to bad elevator music. The reality is that they design highly strategic audio environments for companies. If you walk into an Aeropostale, Aveda, or Home Depot - they have developed an audio experience that enhances their brand attributes.
Even cooler yet, my friend Noel Franus has established an audio branding consultancy called Intentional Audio here in Portland and will be doing a little dog and pony show at the AIGA Gain Conference and at Pop Art. This is a subject that is entirely new to me and I am siked to learn more about how I can incorporate this concept into interactive campaigns.