Royal Wedding Photoshop Magic

Honest logos

What if logos told the truth? You can't really argue with this idea by Viktor Hertz of a series of honest logos.

Evian Baby Inside

Evian has followed up its "roller babies" ad with a new spot that flips adults into dancing babies.

BETC Euro RSCG's "Baby Inside" ad uses a series of images of people wearing t-shirts that have an image of a baby's body on the front, from the neck down.

The images are shown in quick succession, resembling a flipbook, to animate images and make them appear as though the baby images are dancing.

The “Live Young” strapline, strengthens the message of the Rollerbabies film by symbolising the effect of Evian on the bodies of adults of all ages.



Source: Brand Republic

Facebook launches Facebook Studio for marketers

Facebook has launched a stand-alone community site where creatives can share ideas, comment on campaigns and learn what it takes to create a successful page for a brand.

Facebook Studio is a sortable gallery of marketing campaigns and it looks like it will be very useful to digital marketers and creatives.

You can search for the most liked campaigns, the most shared campaigns, by language, region and other criteria, and it’s been created because Facebook has been asked for examples and tools for social media campaigns.


You can also search by brands and by sector, and in the Learning Lab tab are detailed explanations of all the Facebook marketing tools available, so it’s easy to keep up to date (or even get up to speed if you’re a complete beginner).

And even if you’re one of those people who derides any borrowing of ideas, it can also be a good way of checking out if you’re idea truly IS a first for Facebook.

Anyone can look at it. You can also upload your own work for others to admire (agencies and clients are credited).

I know it’s an ill wind that blows no good, but are there winds that blow no bad? Facebook benefits because it gets more brands signing up for campaigns; consumers benefit by getting more entertaining campaigns (hopefully); and agencies benefit from sharing intelligence. Go and explore!

facebook-studio.com

Source: The Wall

T-Mobile's Royal Wedding Entrance Video Goes Viral

T-Mobile has released a Royal Wedding entrance dance video à la the couple that boogied to "Forever" back in 2009. Prince William, Kate Middleton, Queen Elizabeth, Camilla and Prince Charles lookalikes all bump and grind their way down the aisle and into the Internet's viral void.

The ad (by Saatchi & Saatchi, London) will be released solely online, unlike the previous 'Life's For Sharing' spots.

For the record, I was most impressed with Fake Harry's moves.

Freelance Designer vs. Design Agency

There used to be advantages in employing large agencies for big jobs. Economies of scale, strength in numbers, experience and access to resources were benefits of the big boys over a lone ranger. Nowadays, this isn’t true. All a freelancer needs is a Mac and a broadband connection. Large files can easily be moved around quickly, huge jobs – series of billboards, brochures, books, presentations, videos, websites – can sit on secure servers anywhere in the world.

If the scale of the job is too much for one freelancer they can simply call on someone else to help. Files can be downloaded from the freelancer’s FTP site and uploaded when finished. Every freelancer has a network of contacts each with their specialities.

Essentially there are benefits which ever way you decide to go, and neither one is the wrong choice. The first decider is often cost. Freelance designers tend to be significantly more affordable than design agencies because they don't have the same overheads and staff costs and primarily because you are usually paying a single person to work on your project.

So here's my list of advantages of each. It’s also worth noting there’s a certain amount of overlap. For instance, my first reason for choosing an agency is because they’re well-versed in dealing with large accounts. The same can be true of a freelancer.

Reasons to work with a freelance graphic designer
1. From start to finish, the client is talking to the top creative designer on the job, so the project specifications don’t need relayed before action is taken.
2. There are no separate account managers, senior creatives or junior designers, each with differing interpretations of the design brief.
3. The client is hiring the person responsible for 100% of the design portfolio
4. Client phone calls go directly to the designer working on the project — not a sales person or account manager.
5. With many freelancers working from home, they can often transfer considerable savings made through low overheads.
6. Design revisions can frequently be made almost immediately after the request.
7. Billing enquiries and delivery time frames can be clarified at the same time as specific design discussions.


Reasons to work with a graphic design agency
1. Well versed in dealing with large accounts.
2. The client isn’t reliant on the health of one person for the successful completion of the design project.
3. There is often a group of designers collaborating on ideas, offering a broad range of outcomes.
4. Agencies tend to be made up of a number of staff each with their own specialty meaning the overall skill level involved in your project could be higher.

Should the advantages I’ve listed differ from your own experience, please feel free to add in the comments section.

Google’s new trivia game demands that you search

Google’s new trivia game defies conventional rules by requiring players to perform search queries to find the answer to a daily question.

It’s called A Google a Day and beyond being a game that will attract web savvy pub quiz aficionados, it may serve multiple purposes for the search engine giant.

Probably the most obvious reason for creating a game like this is that it reveals new data on how users are searching for ultra specific pieces of information, and in ways that were previously only discovered by deduction of whatever data was available. Having users seek out predetermined results (using the search tool on agoogleaday.com, which doesn’t contain real-time results that might reveal the answer and ruin the game) allows Google to reverse engineer how they’re currently tracking and evaluating data.

Daily questions (example pictured above) will apparently be more difficult to solve as it gets closer to the end of the week, according to a post on Google’s official blog by User Experience Researcher Dan Russell. Answers will be revealed the following day as well as what search methods were employed to find that answer.

While A Google A Day is more puzzle-based than an actual mini game, it’s still the company’s first serious step into the space, and it looks likely to be a perfect breeding ground for social success as well as advertising revenue potential.

Source: Venturebeat.com

Karen Cinnamon wins Advertising & Design Freelancer of the Year Award 2011.

Karen won the accolade Xchangeteam Advertising & Design Freelancer of the Year 2011 at the UK’s only awards ceremony to recognise freelancers in the media, marketing and communications industries.

Advertising & Design was the highest entered category this year with 53 nominations in total, with 6 finalists.

Judge Matt Potter said, "Karen’s sheer joy in her work shines through, not just in her award entry but in the quality of the work she does, and in the feedback she gets from clients.

Her ability to cut through the hyperbole and find the heart of the issue is her true strength and in a competitive market for freelancers, she’s a great example of someone who pulls off difficult work for demanding clients... and makes it look easy."

Karen additionally was Highly Commended in the Digital Excellence category.

More details on the results here.

See Karen's work at www.cinnamoncreative.com

Groupon's brilliant 'Unsubscribe' page

This has, apparently, been around for quite some time. So you’ll have to excuse me if you’ve seen it before.

Groupon.com have built a great unsubscribe page for their email newsletter. They express sorrow to see you leave and offer a funny video to punish their IT guy responsible for sending out the email. Adding this bit of humour and the simplicity of the unsubscribe leaves you with a positive feeling about their company and service.

Click here to see their interactive Unsubscribe page.