WEDO

So which one do you like best?

(RED) - Nike

A company with a very good CSR, is Nike.

Unlike most brands that are taking part of U2's frontman, Bono, charity - (Product RED), nike makes it very simple and clear that will give 100% of their profit from the RED products to be spent on education and medication.

"NIKE and (RED) are working together to leverage the power of sport to fight HIV & AIDS through a focus on two initiatives: EDUCATION and MEDICATION. As a proud partner of (PRODUCT)RED™, NIKE will contribute 100% of the profits from the sales of (NIKE)RED laces to the Global Fund and to support football-based programs to help fight AIDS in Africa. 50% will support football-based community programs supported by NIKE. 50% will go directly to the Global Fund which provides medicine and support to those affected."

The beginning of a long research.

Moving images

There are alot of moving image videos that fascinate me. So here I'm going to try to show the ones that when i first watched I was very excited, surprised, or simply gob smack by the quality of animation, effects and creativity.

The first video i'm sure most people have watched before, but is always worth it watching it again, it is D.A.N.C.E. by french music duo Justice, the video was directed by Jonas & François with animation by So Me. The video was nominated for the 2007 MTV Video Music Award "Video of the Year." The whole video is fantastic, quite difficult to decide what T-shirt I like the most, but prob around 2.24 there is quite a nice scene, check it out!

If the first video I showed here excelled with creativity the second one impresses with the quality of the animation specially at 1.35. The video was directed and produced by Rocco Pezzella , Andrea Staiano, Francesco Castellani for the "Savants Collective."

Now i know most of you already know I'm a Madonna fan, but when she opened her last concert with this animation it really blew my little mind away! The combination of impeccable graphic with many huge screens and making them mechanic really pushed some boundaries.

The people behind it are called Veneno Inc, and they pretty much focus on videos for big concerts, go to REEL and then choose Graphic Reel, for a high resolution video on what these people can achieve, it if you are feeling a bit lazy you can watch here the Low Res.



Last but not least, these video when I first saw was extremely beautiful, directed by James Lima and produces Hi! Production and Max Burn, the animation was done by California agency Sight Effects in 2008. The animation was created based on designs by Miuccia Prada for the spring summer collection, I could explain what happens in the video, but i think it's better you see it for yourself.

Where?

That is the type of question wayfinding doesn't want to hear but is happy to answer. Wayfinding works very closely with signage, but they don't mean the same. The concept that was firstly introduced, in the way we are looking at today, in 1960 by architect Kevin Lynch in his book, “The Image of the City”, where he referred to maps, street numbers, directional signs and other such elements as “way-finding” devices.

Wayfinding works on the basis where the person will walk around the space almost intuitively, signs are obviously necessary but is all about positioning them in the right place, with the right lighting and the in a clear and effective way.There are many places that have so many signs and directions, that the information in them is simply missed by most human beings because of the image pollution that is being caused.

Retail places are very aware of the concept of wayfinding as they want to sell their products. A good example of wayfinding is Selfridges's in Oxford street, even though the building is old and extremely big, it is quite difficult to get lost in there or miss something you wanted to see, it is also very rare that when you are walking there with tim you need to ask someone where something is.

Then there is Harrods, now some people might know that place like the palm of their hands, well those people have a very confusing hands. Every time I go there I get lost, need to ask people where something is, and even with their directions I still keep walking around in circles, the place is a labyrinth, I'm sure it's some on purpose, so you are always finding something beautiful and exciting on the next corner, but what if I just want the toilets?!

But there is also the 'happy' medium, which for me in in wayfinding terms is John Lewis, easy to go around, don't really need to ask where something is, but you do have to go around a lot to get to one place to another, specially with the way the escalators work, I suppose is for you to walk around the whole floor and maybe on your way you see something you didn't have in mind but want to buy, ok it works, but for that can be a tad annoying.

It also comes to my mind the Cocoon in the National History Museum when wayfinding was mentioned, the place is amazing, impossible to miss anything, all done with ramps, which makes it accessible and easy to navigate not only for most but also for disabled people.

Now these were the videos that helped me understand the meanign of wayfinding:

Century Gothic

Probably this is the font that I most likely will end up using for when I am trying to achive a stylish and modern look, this is the font that pretty much almost every letter i like the look of, maybe the t looks a bit too much like a religious cross, but the a, o, g and pretty much everythng with a circle looks pretty good
. I am usually a fan of sans-serif fonts, but this one is also very light, of course there are bolder versions, and even those can still be light compared to other fonts.
Like Neutraface, Century Gothic, is a geometric type and it was designed for Monotype Imaging in 1991, it takes inspiration from Sol Hess's Twentieth Century.
As most types, Century Gothic shouldn't be over used, as it might be used for something that is not appropriate. I would certenly not use it for a strong or serious message.

Neutraface

One of my favourites fonts is called Neutraface. It wasn't untill I saw the infamous video on You Tube of a few geeks doing their homage to the beautiful font, created by Richard Neutra, doing a satire of Lady Gaga's Poker Face.
The main characteristics of the font is it's unusual proportions, the text has a larger x-height and increased contrast in its strokes for enhanced readability in lengthy passages. Released in 2002 by House Industry designer Christian Schwartz, Neutraface is a family of fonts based on architectural lettering created by Richard Neutra is his modern architectural design. House Industries started adapting sign lettering to typography by consulting Richard Neutra's son and associate, Dion, and closely studying the archives of photographer Julius Schulman.
Some say Neutra is becoming the new helvetica for being over used in magazines, ads, buildings and other forms of media. In my opinion there are always going to be typefaces that are wrongly used, but when used in the right content, even if it was over used, it can still have the same impact as when you see a typeface for the first time. A good example of the use of the font was for the identity for the latest 007 movie, Quantum of Solace.