ZZ blog in English.

Imperative to care way beyond

Probably the most influenutal designer of last decade Jonathan Ive about his friend and collegaue Steve Jobs, about culture and attitude Steve embedded into Apple DNA.

Never Hide!

It seems that Ray-Ban has decided to celebrate the coming summer with a series of great, short and sunny Internet films.

Tomatina

Watergun

Dinghy

Sneakers

Three creative muscles. Michael Wolff in two video interviews.

Two video interview with co-founder once legendary and still very actual branding and design company Wolff Olins - Michael Wolff. Both of them are similar and talks about three important qualities of designer, three creative muscles.

First, short film supported by Intel (via @PSFK)

Second video is a little bit longer interview (or rahter monologue) that goes a bit deeper into topic and particularly adds many more examples and insights.

Actually it comes from a project that I has discovered just today and seems to have Latvian roots "Is it a good time?". A bit curious about it, looks great and hopefully will be continued.

 

Influencers. How creativity and trends become contagious

Great, simple, straight-forward 14 minutes documentary with more than few insights on "How" and "Why". 

Designing Identities

"Design is not a product. It's a craft and a process" 

Great presentation, worth of a book. One that most probably will make me to return to more than few times. Enjoy. And return to. 

Strong candidate for win in Cannes Lions 2011?

Literally in a last days of Cannes Lions 2010 very strong candidate for a bunch of awards in next year festivals is launched at New York Time Square. 

Why I love it?

• Real-time. Smart usage of real-time in combination with involvement of everybody who is standing/going/driving next to outdoor. 
• Context. The action is closely linked to the context of the situation - thousands of tourists wondering around; 
• Interactivity (although simulated). Adds a lot, particularly in such a scale. 
• Using new technology for communication projects (surveillance software used, the solution developed in cooperation with surveillance experts); 
• Integration. Combines video, outdoor, interactivity and some elements of augmented realty tools. Placed next to few "permanent" Forever 21 outdoors (and to what seems to be an entrance in store?)
• Easy to share. 
• It's fun. 

Lets wait for last week of 2011 - my guess is that there will be some kind of metal in Cannes

*** - N.B. In the comments around Vimeo.com and FastCompany there is a bit of controversy in the projects - it seems that Space 150 team has been influenced by the work of british designer Chris O'Shea "The Hand from Above". Still comparing both I thing Space 150 has brought the idea much further and added a lot of interactivity and fun to the project. 

You are made of music!

Great campaign and particularly great of interactive part of it for Billboard Magazine by one of most awarded ad agencies in the World - Almap BBDO. 

Why I like it and believe it is great campaign? Few quick points rather focusing on interactive par to the campaign: 

• Interactive and dynamic, not static. You can influence the result. You have to participate to make it work.
• Eye-catching. Visually attractive and merges technology and self-expression putting the result (not the technology!) in the center. 
• Unleashes your creativity. Brand provides you platform (digital canvas) to make your own piece of work, your own unique version of ad rather than saying you what to think. 
• Linked with major social platform (http://www.flickr.com/photos/billboardyourself/) to publish and share the result of work with others. And to see what other people has done.  
• Makes some buzz. At least in advertising community. 
• Relevant to the brand.

Besides of that "You are made of music" is such a great insight for music magazine. Because you really are!

Before the very last remark - enjoy the gallery: 

"What about GRP and TRP???" would some mass-media age people shout out. 

In theses times impact very often is much more important than immediate reach. If there is impact - through involvement, relevancy, creativity and potential to share - reach could follow, sooner or later. If you focus on reach sacrificing impact - at the very best case it will be short-term. 

Talent imitates, genius steals

"Culture is inherently recombinant and iterative: 

 it builds endlessly on and from what came before, creating novelty 

 in new combinations. How the most awesome stuff comes 

 from the broadest set of sources and inspiration."

The quote above (and following video) via an entry in one of the very best planning blogs (and significant source of my inspiration and further research for few years) called "Talent imitates, genius steals" by Faris Yacobs. Articulated and explained deeper by nobody else than Steve Jobs back in 1994 it finally gets much deeper meaning:

"It comes down to trying to expose yourself 

 to the best things that humans has done. 

 And then trying to bring those things in to what you do"

Graphical Identity 21C

Why should graphical identity in the Digital Age should be 2D? Why should it be static? Can in be open source? Can I adapt to the context of situation and usage? 

There is a great example (case) on how to approach the creation of graphical identity in the age of digital technologies and social platforms . And the result is much more than just a graphical identity or just identity. It's rather a dynamic, open and flexibe system. By Wieden & Kennedy London. 

Call Steve Jobs to fix the economy

One more insightful and witty article from NYTimes columnist and one of leading thinkers on globalization and environmental issues Thomas Friedman. Although it is about General Motors (and all US auto industry in US) being in crisis and asking for $25bn government intervention to ... "to enable the car companies to retool for innovation" (WOW!), in fact it also stresses few really important aspects of why the economy in general and many companies in particular are in the crisis now.

The article "How To Fix the Flat World" is long ad must read, there are just two quotes: 

"Lastly, somebody ought to call Steve Jobs, who doesn’t need to be bribed to do innovation, and ask him if he’d like to do national service and run a car company for a year. I’d bet it wouldn’t take him much longer than that to come up with the G.M. iCar."

"How could these companies be so bad for so long? Clearly the combination of a very un-innovative business culture, visionless management and overly generous labor contracts explains a lot of it. .... Therefore, instead of focusing on making money by innovating around fuel efficiency, productivity and design, G.M. threw way too much energy into lobbying and maneuvering to protect its gas guzzlers."

Reading the last quote I had dejaVu feeling for over 60 seconds - this is not the first time somebody calls Steve Jobs to fix the US economy. My RSS feeds helped to figure out in next 60 seconds and there it is.

Few weeks ago (a week before elections) the leading BusinessWeek Design and Innovation commentator, author of great blog and great advocate of design & innovation economy Bruce Nushbaum in article "Barack Obama's Cabinet Fix for Innovation" gave this (great) recommendation:

" .... Second, create a Cabinet seat for Innovation to push an innovation agenda for the economy. We need a powerful figure to align government policy on innovation. My two choices here are David Kelley, founder of IDEO and the D-School at Stanford and, of course, Steve Jobs. Since they are close friends, choosing one gets the nation two brilliant minds who know how innovation works—and how to get it done to maximize growth. 

Innovation is about more than technology and science (Apple’s R&D budget is among the lowest of the top “tech” companies). It’s a methodology that increasingly is based on collaborative networks and ecosystems that are global. Innovation is as much about sociology and anthropology as it is about technology. Kelley and Jobs understand that."

Can you imagine the world where the most influential country in the world would be run also either by Steve Jobs or IDEOs David Kelley? I would love to see this happening. But lets hope that at least one of these two sources are on Obamas transition team reading list because bringing innovation and designing skills (skills, that starts with understanding people and what they need or aim for) is are skills so much lacking in governments and many big organizations. 

Starbucks: Its Bigger Than Coffee

A day after US elections I run into the beautiful, simple and really insigtful Starbucks TVC on YouTube. Great idea, great endline ("insight") - "Its Bigger Than Coffee". So Starbucks.

Today from BusinessWeek publikācijas just get know that it is BBDO NewYork and there is a word that idea comes from David Lubars himself. So I cant resist sharing it. 

Amazing wall-painted animation

MUTO a wall-painted animation by BLU from blu on Vimeo.

Lego, social networks, Cluetrain Manifesto '99 and the age of conversations

Just watched an episode on how Lego builds, maintains and uses social networks to develop and improve its product design process and marketing. It is approximately 45 minutes long video from conference presentation.

For me it was a kind of Deja Vu - some eight to nine years ago we were so excited about "The Cluetrain Manifesto" - first in Fast Company publication (or was it Wired?), then from reading the book. I just took a Iook on my notes and printout of Manifesto page then (my pdf was created in March 24, 1999) - most of the 95 thesis now it looks even more up to date.

My favorite at that time was #52 "Paranoia kills conversations. A lack of conversations kills companies". It was covered also in Lego presentation.

Few second later it stroked me that one of hottest and most discussed books of this spring is "The Age of Conversation" written in collaboration by 100 worlds leading bloggers each writing a page (actually - essay). I have managed to read only few chapters but now there is one more perspective to read and think through.