coldcut / ninja tune

after some heavy clicking on the net, I found somebody else

Coldcut

http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&VideoID=730284

English DJ Matt Black and Jonathan More - the founders one of the most popular mixing program VJamm, also owes a second record label called Ninja Tune.

Ninja Tunes leans strongly towards electronic, abstract hip hop, instumental hip hop, nu jazz, drum and bass and chillout music (sourced http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ninja_Tune)
After looking into the companies' style I think it's good - I'm a person who begs to differ and has a strong liking for unique 'things' in general, be it music, interest or even just food.
I do have a strong preference in music leaning towards drum and bass / metal, personally I think it allows for much more interpretation visual-wise. Often with the help of no lyrical element involved therefore the music sets the mood and is open for endless interpretation.

More and more I've been looking into the matter of audio-visualization which to me now literally means translating the sound into something people can see and understand.
(if you're at all interested it used to just mean 'combining sound with videos')

I look forward to winning my MIDI keyboard on ebay, hopefully!

it's all about VJs

BOPA / Ne1co / Eclectic Method Bopa is a she... began her career as vj in 2001 - pretty much developed a growing interest in the combination of club culture and the art of the moving image

Her style is subtle, often packed with colour and like work done by most other vjs it flows with the beat of the music.
Her work includes adverts for Vodafone and Bacardi -

http://www.bopa.tv/samples3.html
http://www.bopa.tv/samples2.html

She now works in connection with Ne1co

Ne1co, agency opened by VJ Anyone, is a hybrid startup fulfilling both duties of label and agency for selected audiovisual artists.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BM64qxBtdn4




















Associates inclueds Ecletic Method -





http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xarca1AFAHE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xwWsbNL9xXE

i know I'll lose important notes like these so I thought I'd make a reference point like above.

what next?

I know I have no interest in animation and virtual enviroments so I thought audiovisual would suit me best

As I've looked further and further into the topic audiovisual I found myself shocked.
There are jobs out there associated with audiovisual yet it's never hit me that they are

for example, a VJ

"VJ -video performance artist" someone who creates moving visual art (namely video) on large displays or screens, often at events such as concerts, nightclubs and music festival, usually in conjunction with other performance art. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VJ_%28video_performance_artist%29)

it interests me that audiovisual is so different from each other yet they coordinates with each other so well that we're even allowed to blend audio and visual into one word.

I like it when you go clubbing and you see the massive screen, usually behind the dj booth, flashing with visual elements that flows with the music, giving so much more vibe and brings the house alive.
If you haven't tried it already, go to gatecrasher down town.
In conclusion though, I think drum and bass music makes great bases for sucessful vj-ing

Starbucks Coffee

http://www.starbuckscoffeeathome.com/

Simple layout, easy to use, simply Starbucks offering more of what they do best online!
It reflects the brand identity flawlessly, a perfect website for it. Colour-themed with earthy tones and that exactly heart-warming feeling you get when you go into Starbucks, and buy a hot chocolate(with marshmallows and creme) on the coldest day of winter.
It's not scary, its not dramatic, its not overly complicated, its what starbucks being themselves.
It also reflects the company's brand philosophy - its the image that they environmentally friendly, organic coffee, honest people who makes coffee with honest ingredients.


The site itself was also highly interactive - in terms of how the user gets to intereact, not only does the user find stuff out (which is what they want to show you, as a customer caring company), after what you've found out online, you can go into their shop and buy that exact product that you found on their online quiz would be 'most probably suit your taste'.
That is clever advertising.


now thats starbucks you can serve yourself at home - another successful but lesser known advert campaign

walkman - 'like.no.other'

http://www.walkmankomiks.pl

oh my god its polish!!

nevermind, its a nice flash site anyways.
It was nice to see during 'loading' right at the beginning - a story unraveled itself.
I found it hard to navigate round mainly of a language barrier but if i was Polish, I think it's a pretty awesome site - it's flashy, colourful, done with cartoon characters and what makes interesting is that it has a storyline to it - people want to find out what happen next and thats us being caught out by the curiosity.

Common layout within all pages, easy to navigate round, hassle free site to be truthfully honest(apart from it being in Polish)

I think it reflected the walkman range identity fairly well - because I think they'd be aiming at the teenage market - and cartoon is a perfectly good connection with teenagers that I myself would make too.
Plus, it's part of the 'like.no.other' campaign promoting its uniqueness and that special experience that you and only you will encounter is unique, in comparison to other products you may have tried before.
That, is some serious good advertising campaign.

In terms of the flash interaction design element I think it's well thought out - it works, its interesting, thats the simplest basic that some company fails to achieve.

To me, I think as soon as the user closes the browser(from viewing a page) immediately that page has failed because it hadn't been able to keep the user engaged.

So all in all, another job well done.

got milk?

http://www.gotmilk.com/

this website has awesome layout.

the one thing i can associate with milk the most is probably the milk carton. On entry, when you're waiting for the flash to load(into the home page) a milk carton popped up and twirled itself, on each of the 4 sides having different prints and by the time the first side comes back around again, it's a different print again!


possibilities are endless here.

anyway, I manage to get into the website, and the layout was very interesting indeed. It took me some time to find out exactly what I was doing - a lot of hidden buttons and i had a lot of fun playing round.

I wouldn't say its the easiest site to navigate round with - it was sophisticated, both good and bad. From a design point of view, the site was well built, very well managed and layout-ed. The themes from one page to another matched and coordianted flawlessly.

From the usability point of view, if I was no clever cookie who worked well with computers, it is total internet nightmare. I can imagine it being a hard to navigate round site for people who are unfamiliar with online environments(but thats hard to achieve these days).

Content-wise, it was rather confusing to be highly critical. Upon hovering over a logo that said 'Bone Chilla', i clicked and entered it not know what to expect. I then realized to my surprise I was expecting something - certainly what turned up on screen! I was expecting some form of information page or perhaps an advert campaign (i.e. Sony Bravia - Colours like no other) but what i got was an interactive game.
Which is thinking out of the box - I didnt get what I expected.
I then moved onto trying out other buttons but it turned out they were all games :'(

And I just found out, whoever designed this website must have been a total idiot!
After all that time spent getting confused over why there are only games on a website that promotes milk, I found out why I was being led to think that way.

Half the menu you will NOT see unless you scroll down
like this!



So i take whatever I've said back - and its suddenly now become a very fun site to go round!
It had recepies, news and events(recent updates etc) and even a shopping cart!
But what it also has, is a branch of the site dedicated to the brands' identity - the got milk? brand. How it came about, why it came about, and even with people gradually growing out of the line 'got milk?' how they come to refreshing the brands image without going to far removed from its original tagline.

Basically, it has taught me stuff, I participated and gave them a hit, they in return has given me new knowledge and a good time mopping around on it.

Very good interactive website - apart from the scrolling down and finding out theres some much more to the site!