I ♥ New Work
This is rapidly becoming a daily favorite.
Augmented [Hyper] Reality | Domestic Robocop
‘The latter half of the 20th century saw the built environment merged with media space, and architecture taking on new roles related to branding, image and consumerism. Augmented reality may recontextualise the functions of consumerism and architecture, and change in the way in which we operate within it.’
A film produced by Keiichi Matsuda for his final year Masters in Architecture, part of a larger project about the social and architectural consequences of new media and augmented reality.
Mag+ | More Digital Print
This conceptual video is a corporate collaborative research project initiated by Bonnier R&D into the experience of reading magazines on handheld digital devices. It illustrates a possible vision for digital magazines in the near future. The concept aims to capture the essence of magazine reading, which people have been enjoying for decades.
More here.
ViaNitmesh.
Techno Jeep | Awesome
The sounds in this video are actual sounds from the Jeep. Everyone began rehearsing their parts 2 weeks before they shot the video. It took 7 hours of filming to get a solid take.
Brilliant.
Square Up | Mobile Card Payments
Genius technology that plugs into the bottom of your phone and enables you to accept credit card payments on the spot. No contracts, monthly fees, or hidden costs and there’s even a photo verification system so that you can visually confirm the person buying is the card holder. The tech will read payment cards from any device with an audio input jack, including a mobile phone.
Wow.
Fashionista | Social Shopping / AR
I featured this tech about 6 months ago (here) when it was in dev, now live Fashionista is a social shopping tool that combines the benefits of the fitting room with the convenience of online shopping and the social web. Fashionista enables shoppers to virtually model clothing via webcam, share and try on favourites via the Facebook.
Check it here.
Visiting PIXAR | #cssf
About half way through our visit to PIXAR I overheard someone say; ‘This is like driving a boat really fast’. What that person meant was that it was hard to stop smiling – which it was. Visiting PIXAR was incredible.
Pixar started in 1979 as the Graphics Group, a part of Lucasfilm before it was bought by Apple co-founder Steve Jobs in 1986 for $10 million. The Walt Disney Company bought Pixar of jobs in 2006 for an astonishing $7.4 billion. Since it’s conception earned twenty-two Academy Awards, four Golden Globes, and three Grammys. It is one of the most critically acclaimed film studios of all time, with 10 consecutive box office hits. They haven’t ever had a flop. Beginning with Toy Story in 1995 each film has achieved huge critical and commercial success. A Bug’s Life (1998), Toy Story 2 (1999), Monsters, Inc. (2001), Finding Nemo(2003) (the most commercially successful Pixar film yet, grossing over $800 million worldwide), The Incredibles (2004), Cars in (2006), Ratatouille (2007), WALL-E (2008), and most recently Up (2009). Pixar’s eleventh film, Toy Story 3, is scheduled for release on June 18, 2010. All six Pixar films released since the inauguration of the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature in 2001 have been nominated for the award, with four, Finding Nemo, The Incredibles, Ratatouille, and WALL-E, winning it.
These guys are good – and it shows. The energy, skill and passion on show was mind-blowing. We were introduced to around 10 people (1300 people work at PIXAR), including Directors, Art Directors and Designers all of whom were obviously a very tight team. They talked to us very candidly about their process and methods. It was clear that their ability to work together was a big part of their success. Everything about the place oozed talent, creativity and collaboration, even the building (designed by Jobs) was built around accidental collaboration. At it’s core there is an enormous social space (see above), intended to encourage spontaneous work conversations.
Throughout their process they always have a single leader (director) who makes the big decisions and it is their responsibility to bring the vision to life. Interestingly, even though collaboration is key, everyone follows this lead. It involves a lot of trust, but that (I think), is the other genesis of their success. Of course they don’t always agree with said vision, but they follow. That puts a lot on the shoulders of that director, but they all trust in that persons expertise. The management is small and keeps at a distance – again they trust the people they’ve hired to do their jobs. That clearly breeds confidence and obviously again, it works.
A lot of what else we talked about was surprisingly very familiar including budget limitations and ‘customer is key’. Basically they mostly face the same day-to-day issues we do – what’s different is they way they tackle those issues.
PIXAR see compromise and limitation as a way to breed creativity – and that is a lesson for us all.
Invaded Space
By Adam Richardson.
Bird Book
Shaun White’s Secret Halfpipe
‘Last year, Shaun White disappeared from the snowboard scene, holing up in the wilds of Colorado training for what would be the biggest winter of his life. This is the story of his year, the secret halfpipe and one of the most progressive sessions in history.’
Sick.
But dude, that hair? Seriously?
Neurosonics Audiomedical Laboratory
Neurosonics Audiomedical Laboratory footage.
Arkeg | Drink ‘n’ Game
A 5-gallon keg as well as a PC pre-loaded with 104 arcade games. With a 24-inch screen, 2.1 sound system, powered sub and two arcade sticks and a trackball. Awesome.
A mere $4,000 from here.
Matt Siren
Awesome.
reMap | visualcomplexity
reMap by bestario.org displays the many visualization projects featured on Mr Lima’s awesome visualcomplexity.com. The interactive flash nav connects the individual projects by common tags in the form of large and smaller thumbnails. As you select the project to read about, other related projects are re-organised to show you most relevant others.
A wonderful new way to browse the well smart projects on VC.
Overcross
Overcross is the YouWorkForThem font promo video.
Freakin’ awesome.
Created by Michael Paul Young.