LastHistory – Interactive Visualization of Last.fm Listening Histories and Personal Streams from Frederik Seiffert on Vimeo.
(via Lifehacker)
For people who love to think about experience, seeing a primarily auditory experience translated into a visual one is very cool. Enjoy!
From time to time we may post things on the blog which are internal testbeds and prototypes showing off some of the emerging technology we’re playing with here at IQ. The video below shows a testbed app for Facebook interactivity running on both a PC and running on a Nokia N97 using the Silverlight SDK for Symbian publicly released today.
This video is mostly for the devs out there chomping at the bit to get started on mobile development with Silverlight, so please don’t expect anything in the way of design and function – instead check to see the underlying technology that will help power a new generation of interactive apps on the Nokia platform in the years to come.
Adweek published an article today written by IQ CEO, Tony Quin. The article discusses the evolution of the ad business and provides a perspective on who will lead brands in the next generation of marketing. Will it be digitized traditional agencies or the new breed of digital agencies with big ambitions?
Tags: Adweek, IQ Interactive, Tony Quin
Adweek just published an article that touches on what we’ve been talking about at IQ over the past year – the idea that digital agencies are acting more and more as the primary innovation engine with brand marketers.
The article wraps up with a quote from IQ CEO Tony Quin – which is a terrific contribution to the story.
The clothing company Burkman Bros utilizes animation and video to preview their Fall Winter 2010 collection. Typically these previews are photo and print based so it’s nice to see a designer using additional digital mediums to preview their work.
(Conan’s March 2nd Tweet)
Conan O’Brien tweeted for the first time on February 24th, 2010 and already has close to 600,000 followers. Unlike other celebrities who tend to tweet either too much, too little, or inconsistently, he only posts one message a day. If you’re a follower, his single tweet stands out to you. Why? For the same reasons things are collectible — scarcity and quality. He’s only sending one a day and he makes it worth it. In fact, the picture in the post came from a tweet he made about how many people it takes to write his daily message.
He didn’t follow anyone for the first few days. Not listening to others is a newbie mistake brands make and seemed a little strange. Then on Friday, Conan did something that is a combination of altruism and marketing genius. He picked one person to follow at random. We all had to know who this lucky person, Sarah Killen, was and her followers went from 3 to over 10,000 in a day. Conan’s tweet said her life would change and it looks like it will. She’s engaged and like any bride-to-be, she’s been overwhelmed by the costs. Now she’s got offers for free invitations, dresses, and more. She’s Twitter-famous and every wants to be a part of it.
What makes this brilliant is that Conan probably thought, “Wouldn’t it be cool to make one of my fans famous so they can experience what it’s like?” We feel like we know him and over the years and he’s proven to be a really nice guy who recently got a raw deal. I don’t think he was thinking, “Let me show the world that I’m so famous, I can make anyone I want famous.” You know, like in “She’s All That.” If we thought that’s what he was up to, we’d be turned off by the lack of authenticity. The sincerity of his intention is important.
With that sincerity of intention, his success in lending his fame to another person, and innovative approach, Conan’s Twitter account is telling us a story about who he is. If it were a brand statement, it might be:
Conan O’Brien uses innovative media approaches to build connections between fans, celebrities, and sponsors.
If you’re a fan, he’s the everyman who allows you to experience celebrity. If you’re a celebrity, aspiring celebrity, or advertiser, he’s the trusted gatekeeper to his engaged, loyal fans. And his innovative approach to a medium (formerly TV, now Twitter) keeps us all tuned in.
Tags: brand, brand story, conan obrien
IQ 2002
Reality then intervened and we confronted the challenges that come to bigger organizations. It was time to grow up as a company and an agency. So began a journey to re-build IQ into a sophisticated digital advertising agency that could scale and succeed in this new age. It has been hard work, but we have come a long way, survived a brutal recession and the worst is over.
Our new office symbolizes what we have achieved and what we have become. It is a beautiful modern space that values simplicity over complexity. It is a reflection of our focus on creating meaningful human stories with the way the space fuses to the remarkable natural environment. And it is a place designed to empower people to collaborate, connect and create change.
As IQ’s next chapter begins on Monday we find ourselves at a tipping point. There are no barriers to becoming one of the next generation of great ad agencies. We have the vision, the people, the momentum and now the place to succeed.
Wieden + Kennedy London created this brilliant ID on the theme of convergence and collaboration for OneDotZero. The identity was built by developing a custom generative software (processing I think) that pulls online conversations mentioning “onedotzero” from social networks and uses them to create an ever-changing identity. Sick.
Tags: brand, identity, processing
Jamy Ian Swiss at Gel 2009 from Gel Conference on Vimeo.
For magic tricks to work, the magician has to be obsessed with how the audience will experience them. That desire to know the mind of the audience can be exploited by con men (or con persons) or used to create a magical experience. It’s easy to see how those of us who create stories and experiences can find inspiration within this seemingly unconnected field. This talk from Jamy Ian Swiss is partly a story about magicians, partly an audience-driven design philosophy, and thoroughly entertaining.
Tags: audience, design philosphy, empathy, magic, ux
