: the creative gap continued, jon reil

Jon Reils visualization in response to this post. Very nice!

: creative gap continued

I love this. Amanda Talbot here on our Creative team responded to my original post on the Creative Gap with her own visual interpretation. This is certainly valid. The creative path from point A to point B is hardly ever as straight forward as I visually described it.

Anyone else want to give it a go? A couple of you already threatened to do a corresponding post on your own sites. Either way, lets see it!

: facebook data visualizations

From Peter Warden a former Apple engineer, some fascinating visualizations and findings on Facebook data. For all our interconnectedness, there is still some very distinct ways we interact regionally and culturally. I especially like the regional names such as Pacifica, Socalistan, and Stayathomia.

Unsurprising, but still interesting this quote from his post in reference to the north and northeast portions of the country, "In contrast to further south, God tends to be low down the top 10 fan pages if she shows up at all, with a lot more sports and beer-related pages instead."

He does say that these are qualitative, not quantitative results. Still very well worth taking a look. He is also offering up the stats to any researchers out there interested in playing around with them. Really interesting stuff! Go see it here.

: super ads

I don't watch the Super Bowl or football for that matter. That does mean that I miss the ads. It is the only part of the spectacle I am interested in seeing. Thanks to the internet though, we never have to miss any of them even if you did step out to the kitchen for more nachos.

This is an even better way to see them though: the Top 20 Super Bowl Ads Ever. And of course, #1 is Apple's 1984. I am not 100% sure how they came up with this list. It does look like it is based on user voting and rating. Enjoy!

: creative gap

Been hearing a lot about this lately and its even come up in conversation at work. The "creative gap" can be described as the distance between what you imagine your work could be, and what your actual result is. I guess labeling it "creative" is constricting. This could apply to any particular type of work.



We all know that feeling. It's especially present on projects you work on alone when you are inexperienced/younger. You have that image in your mind of what something could be. You work hard on trying to get it right, but in the end, it's not quite there. There is something just a little bit off, or something missing. Without experience, you may even have a hard time describing what that something is.

Foregoing any clever London Underground jokes about "minding the gap", it's important to actually work towards bridging that space. How? You just continue on. Work harder. Work more. Work on different types of projects. Work with different types of people. All that work will actually help you fill in that gap.

: movie magic lecture series

This sounds very much worth checking out. Probably a lot of learning opportunities around what it takes to actually make some of these amazing films for either the cinema, and/or advertising.

Visionary Visuals, Cahners Theater
With Doug Roble, creative director of software, Digital Domain. This presentation is part of the ongoing series Movie Magic.

Wednesday, February 10, 2010 | 7:00 pm

While you are at it, check out the Digital Domain website where the speaker Doug Roble is the creative director of software. Interesting titles as well. Never heard of a software creative director. I wonder what that really means. I am sure it will come up at the lecture. The screen below is from the movie i-Robot. Not a terribly good film, but the effects were pretty mind blowing.

: dunkin donuts

I have a long personal history with Dunkin Donuts. It goes back to the mid 70's for sure. Like most New Englanders it was a part of my childhood, and when I give directions, I always use at least one Dunkin Donuts location as a reference. However, my connection is a bit deeper. My immediate family and a very large portion of my extended family are actually franchisees all over New England, and even down to Florida.

So, I was excited to see this 60th anniversary cup this morning on my daily caffeine fuel-up stop. It brought back memories, especially the circular logo using the two words to form a doughnut shape. That's a far superior execution than the current logo that uses a large styrofoam cup. It may also be a personal bias given that I remember that logo as a kid. I have specific memory of it on a pale but bright pink baker's uniform shirt that my uncle used to come home wearing after work.

Oh well, even if you don't have a DD memory lane to stroll down, the brand history on a cup execution is pretty cool.

: visualizations

If you have worked with me, you know I am into this stuff. I am always looking for ways for us to use it in our projects or even new examples that serve as inspiration for our work. I still keep some hope alive for one particular concept we presented from over a year ago. We'll see what happens.

The company Bestiaro out of Barcelona does some amazing work in this field. They are dedicated to creating and expanding this new narrative form by harnessing the seemingly endless amount of data now found in humanity's ever growing digital databases. It's impossible for a person to look at a database and understand it, but when you form the data into visuals you start to create a language, to communicate, and maybe even a new form of narrative for delivering vital information or even just everyday news.

It takes a special kind of designer to do this. One that is comfortable with; information design, the fundamentals of graphic design, and interaction principals. Visit Bestiaro to see some of these amazing examples.



Also, head on over to VisualComplexity.com for lots amazing examples. This is more of a curated collection of visualizations from all over the world. Many of the examples are strikingly beautiful. They border on the edge of being described as generative art. Information can be beautiful.

This one below caught my attention. It shows the remotest places on the planet. It does this by calculating travel time, nearest city, access to roads or mass transportation, and even things like terrain steepness. See it here.

: ice house

Saw this via Towleroad. Some artists in Detroit have started this installation that encases an entire house in ice. It's a statement that draws attention to a very blighted area of the city. Interesting "guerrilla" marketing bent to this. Plus, the images look really really beautiful, even if what is underneath is not so pretty. Check out their blog here.

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: pepsi refresh project

Check out this new site from Pepsi. It's called the Pepsi Refresh Project and relies on social media to generate content, interest, and even projects for social change. These projects than get voted on by the community and can receive actual grants from Pepsi so that they can be execute. Great idea, and a really nice way to harness social for the brand in a way that leaves a new impression on what that brand can be, and can do. Pepsi has set aside 20 million in grants to fund this work. A lot of people talk about cause marketing, but this is a great example of that at work.

The design looks pretty fresh as well. It uses bright colors, contemporary interface elements, and big/bold calls to action. All of this is set against enough clean white space to still draw attention to important pieces and invite interaction. To take a look here.