: global mosaic

I posted about this when it was announced a few weeks ago. Last Sunday was the day that images were supposed to be shot all around the world at exactly 11am EST. Amazed that they were able to get them all into this system in just about a weeks worth of time. Go see the feature on the NYTimes blog Lens. A blog that the Times describes as "Photography, Video, and Visual Journalism".

: nowness and LVMH

Who doesn't like to be in the know, and in the now? Along comes this great site, Nowness.com. It's a curated experience put together by the luxury brand of luxury brands, LVMH.

Its editors however are supposedly independent and cover the subjects of architecture, art, beauty, books, culture, design, fashion, film, gastronomy, music, photography, sports, and travel. Updated daily with the latest and greatest tidbits, its mission is to inspire and to introduce you to a world of ideas often beyond the reach of the mere mortal.

The focus is on creative culture even if on the high-brow side of things. However, it does have playful moments such as the "explorer" mode in the second screen-shot below, and a voting system that relies on you saying whether you "love" or "don't love" a feature.

Well, I just love it!  Visit the site here, or by clicking the images below.

: steps of creative communication

Nice post on the Creative Process by Chad Engle over at Fuel Your Creativivity. I especially like the iconographic illustrations describing each step. Those are here below, and represent The Blank Workspace, Ideation, Information Gathering/Project Debrief, Investigation & Research, Brainstorming/Problem Solving, Explaining the Visual, and Longevity.

Not exactly the way I would describe these steps, however, I am always amazed at how much all creative processes have in common. Check it out.

: general electric appliances

I believe one of the truly remarkable transformation stories in business is the change in perception a company like GE has made. They went from what was arguably one of the most evil companies - manufacturing nuclear weapons, and heavily polluting American treasures such as the Hudson River in New York state - to a company that uses the term "eco-magination" in its marketing campaigns. Good for them I guess. Hard for me to judge too seriously when I too benefit from many of the good things they bring to life.

In keeping with their eco-friendly outlook, they recently launched this simple to use interactive piece that illustrates just how much energy different common appliances use. Filters allow you to shuffle the results so you can see how they rate in terms of financial (dollars) cost, as well as how much fuel/gas it would take to run one of these things. I like it. Its simple, somewhat fun, and very educational. See it here.

: u.k. election results viz

I can't even pretend to know too  much about British politics and the recent election. I do however love this interactive visualization done by the Guardian to help communicate yesterday's results. I see more and more news outlets such as the Guardian, NYTimes and even NPR putting great effort into telling stories visually. This is an important key to keeping us informed, and educated. The amount of data coming at us today is astounding. Designers need to learn how to communicate this in easier to digest ways. See viz here or click image below.

: interactive ovi maps

Love this kind of stuff. Its some cool work done by Weiden Kennedy in London. I must have missed this by just a couple of days while in London last month and was staying only blocks from this spot. Strangely enough, I was there working on a project for Nokia as well.



Nokia Ovi Maps - Interactive Projection Mapping from seeper on Vimeo.

: water talks

I find this information quite striking given our current water woes here in eastern Massachusetts. Even so, I doubt anyone will die from our water supply. I am pretty sure ours is an issue of antiquated, outdated public infrastructure. A symptom of the malaise effecting all of the U.S., and not in anyway a comparison to the kinds of water people all over the world are forced to drink everyday.

"Unsafe drinking water kills 8 million people per year."

That is the main message from French based NGO Solidarités. It also kills more than cancer, more than AIDS, more than war.

To mark their 30th anniversary, new brand, and World Water Day, they commissioned this work to be displayed on the Place du Palais Royal Paris from the 17th to the 22nd of March of 2010. They used a very unique way to display their message by using only water and light. Type and simple imagery seemed to be computer controlled and timed to look like digital animation. The effect is quite beautiful, unique, and powerful. See what I mean below.

: information war

If you have worked with me for even a short amount of time, you know I hate confusing, hard to read - charts, visualizations, slides, presentations, etc., etc. Yes, I do believe that erring on the side of simple is preferable to confusion.

I am late to this as usual, and it has already been lampooned by John Stewart in his usual brilliant manner. You can see the skit in the video below.

This example however really does take it to a new level. Apparently, General McCrystal's comment/joke when he saw this, and I am paraphrasing, "When we understand that slide, we will have won the war." Great.

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
Afghanistan Stability Chart
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Tea Party

: green party and glue

Love these simple/beautiful posters done by the Green party for the upcoming elections in the U.K. Also, see the video below that uses the same visual language to describe the party's position on all the major issues. Very clever usage of simple iconography. For more, head on over to Mark Cridge's Muck and Brass for more info on how he and the team at Glue helped develop this work as well as the online and social campaigns. If only we had a somewhat viable Green Party ourselves.

: seed cathedral

Via a post on crackunit - UK pavillion at Shanghai Expo. - Mind-blowing-f'n-crazy-amazing. Click on images below to watch the video.



See more about the pavilion at the official site here.