Bye bye Left Right & Centre. Hello RAAK.
I recently started a new company with my ‘compadre’ Wessel van Rensburg and as the overlap with LRC is too big, I will now post my thoughts on all things communication on the RAAK blog. Hope you will join me there.

The first post so far has been on how we crowd-sourced our logo and ended up with an ever-changing mash-up of a logo.

Check out this range of ‘brunch equipment’, made by London-based Dutch designer Ivo Vos. Neuroses have never been so much fun. 
The site has some other interesting design explorations too.  

Via Ryan Yeah.

The first one was the great 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art in Kanazawa. If you’re familiar with the work of design studio Sanaa, you’ll understand it when I say that the space is quite minimal. Still, it works very nicely, also because they had a few art works commissioned as part of the architecture. There’s one of those James Turrell sky-windows, but the real clincher was this clever, but beautiful piece by Argentinian artist Leandro Erlich. 

They also had a really nice collection, mixing Western conceptual chaps like Jan Fabre and Damien Hirst with local artists and incorporating more ‘popular’ platforms like animation and figurines. I particularly liked this great installation by Yoshitomo Nara, in collaboration with graf.

The other museum we visited was possibly one of the most amazing buildings I’ve ever seen. The ChiChu museum was commissioned by some big cheese at the Benesse Corporation, on the old fishing island of Naoshima, just to house his 4 ‘Water Lilies’ by Monet. That’s right: one museum for 4 paintings. But it’s an amazing space, designed by boxer-turned-architect Tadao Ando and built more or less into a hill. 
It’s all very Nihon-clinical and almost lab-like (you have to take off your shoes before you tread on the white marble mosaic that makes up the floor of the main room), but it’s so well done it makes you smile. 
Taking pictures if forbidden, but this person managed to take a few.
Just go.

I’ve always floated around the music industry in some shape or form and I’ve always been surprised how un-creative the environment (and its output) is; despite the fact that there are so many talented people involved.

When I was commissioning music videos (I still do the odd one), I always felt there were quite a few other ways of translating music into moving image or into a (dirty word coming up) ‘campaign’. But there weren’t many examples and everyone kept making music videos; some great ones, lots of disposable ones.
But it seems the music industry is coming round and is no longer completely averse to exploring non-traditional routes.

It’s not really a surprise that creative artists like Soulwax do something as ambitious as their tour-film ‘Part Of The Weekend Never Dies’, but none other than Oasis recently did something that made me smile.
Not only did they give away sheet music of songs on their upcoming album, allowing people to play/record/upload their own versions; they also taught a bunch of buskers in New York how to play the songs and sent them out on the street, as an exclusive preview. Original, simple, to-the-point, pretty much (another dirty word coming up) ‘360′. And you document it and you have a film. I think it’s great. 

So yesterday I was talking to some friends and we were wondering who came up with the idea. And the answer is: the advertising agency BBH. While I find it a bit scary that the big advertising agencies are getting involved in music, it actually does make sense. I’m not talking about positioning a ‘brand’ like a pack of butter, but at the end of the day agencies generate ideas. And if anything, the Oasis ‘campaign’ shows that in an era where everyone has a video camera, a strong idea makes all the difference.
So maybe, just maybe, the major record companies and mainstream artists will start tapping into the creativity that’s all around them. 

I’ve worked on a few pro-social and environmental video campaigns, trying to bring across a message that no one really wants to hear. So I know it’s not easy to come up with something efficient, let alone creative. Because in the end, the client just wants to show polar bears or big lumps of ice falling into the sea. 
But this film-slash-installation by director Tim Godsall tackles that challenge pretty well, me thinks.

And a YouTube link, just in case the Quicktime version is taken down at some point. 

I’ve always found that the Dutch are pretty good at exploring the opportunities of digital platforms. And this widget from the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam is a very good example. 
Bringing a 15th century painting into the digital realm is not that obvious. But this plugin is a simple, quick and inspiring way to sample art. 

Bloody Radiohead. They’ve done it again.

While the music video industry is nervously looking around, trying to avoid gloomy nose-dive scenarios, those Radiohead fuckers do something no one else has done before. Again. 
An interactive, no-camera-just-code, ready-to-remix video experiment.
Genius, right? Or is it just another marketing ploy, as cynics were keen to point out  last year when the band gave away their album on a pay-as-want basis?

I think you can judge from a few angles. 

From a creative point of view, I feel it scores well.
Apart from the fact that I’ve never really seen anything like it, it’s a great piece of visual expression that is typical for the band/brand Radiohead.
I also think that as a piece of filmmaking it does have its values. I watch a lot of music videos and my attention span is close to that of a goldfish, but this video kept me watching. Quite a feat. 

From an interactive point of view it’s a bit limited. The fact that it’s open source is obviously a genius thing. But unless you’re quite a geek -and let’s be honest, not that many of us are- it’s hard to interact with the work. In that way, Arcade Fire’s attempt last year was more successful, be it less aspirational. 

Technologically I’m sure it’s all great, but I personally couldn’t care less. Velodyne Lidar technology, whatever. 

And marketing-wise? A success, no doubt. After 3 days it’s already racked up more views on YouTube than a lot of it the band’s older videos. And which music video has recently received that much attention in the broadsheet media (ok – it’s the online version, but still). And has a collaboration with Google. 
But is that because Radiohead had a clever marketing plan? Or because it’s a great piece of work and worth the attention? 

One last point. Is this the solution to the flailing music video business? Obviously not. Although I’m sure production companies are already thinking about how to ‘implement’ this and score a YouTube hit themselves, this video really is just one example of doing something creative that also gets noticed.
Afetr all, even Robbie Williams made ‘interactive videos’ 5 years ago.