Nike Skate Advertisements

Unique cars. Rad skateboarders. Awesome photoshoot. Way to go Nike.

Seattle Show 2009

The 11th Annual Seattle Show turned out to be quite the event. This small, design awards show was first organized in 1997 with the mission to highlight a lot of local talent and client work towards national recognition. Every year, more than 750 entries are judged and given awards based on design medium, individual skills, community involvement and the infamous ‘best of show’. While we at LeftRight can’t say we’ve received any of these awards (busy, busy), we are proud to say we’re part of a talented pool of designers, agencies and students all crossing paths in a collaborative manner to help combat the perils of ugliness.

Our friends at Creature have created ‘Reverse Memorials’ celebrating local youths’ achievement for local non-profit, The Service Board (sound familiar?). Instead of these memorials mourning a death, these reverse memorials celebrated the new and better lives these kids now have. Great job on getting a Gold, Creature.

University of Washington senior Francis Luu was tasked to rebrand the Port of Seattle, and was given a silver award for student work. A long time friend and colleague of LeftRight, we want to say we’re proud of you, Franko. You’ll always have a spot waiting for you at LR.

Click here to see who won.

Kid Robot BFF Vinyl Toys

Kid Robot recently released their limited edition BFF vinyl toys. You may think Paris Hilton and Nicole Richie when you think BFF, but the anomaly here is that these are vinyl toys – and anything goes.

Featured in this new line are familiar objects and their sharp counterparts. Nice.

Design and photography inspiration: IdeaFixa

At one time or another, designers and photographers alike encounter ‘creative block’ – similar to a copywriters ‘writers’ block’ we’ve all experienced the night before a midterm is due. There are more than enough things to do to get the creative juices flowing. Some of us like to doodle, cook a meal, visit an art gallery, go for a walk on the beach on a hot and sunny day to stare at beautiful… landscapes. However, when stuck behind a computer, there are endless resources to visit in order to get that creative spark.

I recently stumbled upon IdeaFixa – an online-only magazine that features desigers, artists and photographers from across the globe. It’s a Brazilian-based online magazine, so most of the web content appears in portuguese. You can either translate the page to read their daily blog posts, or install a plugin that automatically translates web content in another language.

Clicking on Veja todas as Edições, or ‘view all editions’ or ‘archive’ will take you to all the past issues. Choose your issue. Get inspired. Enjoy.

Target Practice

You can never be too prepared.

Sparsh Multitouch Display

Sparsh is an interactive multi-touch table made by using FTIR techniques, or Fourier Transform Spectroscopy – or infrared light. Pretty geeky sounding, huh? Multi-touch is an interactive experience where the interface is controled by simple hand gestures, similar to what you’ve seen on the iPhone. It’s tricky designing for these experiences because they are fairly new, and require a lot of user input as to what works. A simple swipe to move a photo out of the way, a double-tap to pop up a dialog… the possibilities are endless.

After watching that video, you may think this is a direct ripoff of Microsoft Surface. Well, not only does Microsoft have billions to advertise thier ‘innovative’ technology, but this Sparsh Multitouch Display was built by a group of engineering students from India using open-source technology.

The great thing about open-source technology is that it is technology for the people, by the people. There are many software systems that allow computer users to download, copy, distribute and improve their software regardless of their language or disability. There are a ton of up and coming open-source technologies including those used in the Sparsh prototype, Ubuntu, jquery, Azureus and Wordpress – the very software I am writing this blog on.

A combination of open-source technology and products like multitouch could very well end up in every classroom, concierge, airport and even home office in the very near future. You can even build one yourself!

Saks 5th Ave x Russian Constructivism x Sheppard Fairey

Doesn’t seem like these things have anything in common, but you’re in for a design and advertising mash-up.

Most of you may know of Sheppard Fairey through the infamous Obey – Worldwide Propaganda mission, or his Obama Poster that has caught the world by storm. Now, Saks 5th Avenue has commissioned Mr. Fairey to conjure up their latest advertising campaign in an effort to get people to, well, buy stuff.

Though intended to be tongue-in-cheek, this advertising campaign plays a lot off of bold graphics inspired by Russian Constructivism. The Saks slogan, “Want It!” is printed in lettering similar to the graphic designs of Rodchenko, the Russian graphic designer who was one of the founders of Constructivism. Even the black and white imagery, geometric shapes and flashes of red lend to some of the Soviet Union’s advertising in the 1920’s.

Many think this advertising effort has a lot to do with the economic sting. Sheppard Fairey thinks otherwise:

“Some people might think it could be making fun of what’s going on right now,” Mr. Fairey said. “But I think most people are sophisticated enough to realize it’s a way of grabbing attention. It’s commerce. I don’t think there is really any political statement embedded in this.”

imagery and minor snippets courtesy of The New York Times.

skiiers are rad

Everyone to the Auditorium

No, it’s not elementary school assembly time. ‘Auditorium’ is an audio/visual overload where you (the user) has to redirect streaming audio and visual particles to their respective color-coded equalizers. Sounds easy, right? Ha.

I first stumbled upon the Auditorium Blog, and playing with the blog header was too much fun in and of itself. Wanting to know more, I dug deeper. Cypher Prime is Philadelphia-based multi-media agency who specializes in, well, kicking-ass just like LeftRight. Though we can’t make super funky and addicting games with insane Action Script 3 algorithms, we can appreciate the effort and time that went into making such an awesome audio/visual experience. Here’s to sharing the love… and wasting 2+ hours of your day.

www.playauditorium.com

2008 Red Bull BC One

In 2004, 16 of the best b-boys in the world gathered in Beil, Switzerland for an individual knockout tournament to decide who was the top breakdancer of them all. 4 years later, the battle rages on, this year in Paris, France. Don’t miss the LIVE streaming webcase on redbullbcone.com at 11am, Pacific Standard Time.