The Test Shoot

Indigo’s friend and client Jean Baptiste Degez was recently presented with the challenge of photographing chocolate for a well-known, European Chocolate Company. The challenge was to shoot the chocolate as chocolate.

Due to the extreme difficulty of photographing chocolate on photo shoots, the ever-loved treat is often substituted with a substance significantly easier to work with and able to fare much better under the heat of extreme lighting.

© Jean Baptiste Degez Photography

© Jean Baptiste Degez Photography

Nevertheless, Baptiste was astoundingly successful in shooting the melty challenge in its true form. In fact, the images came out so well Baptiste has been hired to photograph for the chocolate company’s advertising campaign.

But the chocolate will stay on the shelf, in accordance with company standard, Baptiste will be using the chocolate’s well-behaved imposter while photographing rather than the real thing, which should be a piece of cake

© Jean Baptiste Degez Photography

© Jean Baptiste Degez Photography

visit: www.jbdegez.com

Comedian Robin Williams notoriously poured on the sweat as he rallied his audience one show at a time. Whether he performs well-equipped with with a towel and fleet of water bottles along their side, or fearlessly rely on a sleeve, this human sound board and gesture artist benchmarks the art of delivery.

The funk that would cost some a total hip and knee replacement, costs James Brown, a very sweaty brow. Gyrating to the floor this revolutionary performer sweat the sweat of champions.

Between the bright, hot lights and impassioned crowd, geniuses such as Louis Armstrong, and legends such as Barry White have perspired their way to some of the most legendary performances of our time.

For artists and entertainers including Teddy Pendergrass and JAcques Brel sweating is as familiar as the the songs they sing, notes they play, material they write, and fans they inspire.

Whether these mega-performers know they will be drenched, or are surprised by their glands each time, these famous aqua-men  have dedicated themselves to delivering unmatched, quality entertainment to their spectator.

Goodbye 2011, Happy 2012!

The 2010 campaign was just as exciting as the last one, but the focus this time was “Great Vocals”.

This time, the location was Heathrow London Airport in October of 2010… anyway just watch it; you’ll get a kick out of it.

Making OFF:

View the Previous campaign

“The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore” created by ex-Pixar designer William Joyce in collaboration with Moonbot studios
combines the classic 2-D storybook with the same detailed and captivating 3-D animation of Pixar’s claim to fame in one iPad app.

Kids are encouraged to discover animation features for themselves without being bombarded by bright flashing buttons or
obnoxious sounds.

The E-book jumps right into the plot and associated technology without explanations or directions prompting the audience to learn and explore as they go.

The story can be enjoyed with or without the music, voice overs or the interactive animation.
Experience it as you wish!

The Wilderness Downtown, starring your childhood block.

In launching a video that is interactive through and through Arcade Fire has found a revolutionary way to inject nostalgia into their fan base.

Built in HTML5 The Wilderness downtown video by Arcade Fire, Google, and artist Chris Milk unravels new realms and possibilities for the interactive experience. After entering your childhood address google earth accompanies the main character of the video, a hooded runner, to the song “We Used to Wait” and takes you on a cruise down your old block.

By mimicking the camera angles in bird’s eye views, street views and mirroring graphics the separate videos create a seamless experience when played in tandem.

The nostalgia continues with a prompt to write a message to your younger self, then continues on the interactive journey.

The personal interactive video not only presents the user with a unique experience but can also provide valuable fan based information when linked with analytics by requiring a location, or any other information to watch it.

Try it for yourself here

Using Data visualization you will lear very quickly how big the internet is. You’ll will find out how many videos a  average user watches monthly and how many servers major social media sites use. Watch the power of the Internet!

1.73 billon internet users, 247 billion daily emails, 400 million facebook users, 27.3 million tweets per day.  This presentation was made in 2009, can you visualize the numbers today?  How about next year???

Indigo was assigned create a site for Jean-Baptiste allowing the photos to communicate their content to clients autonomously, without extraneous distraction. The importance was placed on allowing each image to be viewed separately as a work of art.

After five years, due to changing technology i.e.smartphones, Ipads etc., Degez’s site required optimization in order to remain consistent and accessible with ever advancing communications. The site which was once entirely flash is now entirely HTML and CSS styled.

In Jean-Baptiste’s case, managing his images is equally essential as their display. Performing constant updates, filtering and grouping work by date, theme, subject, etc. makes up a considerable portion of Degez’s site relationship.

We replaced the former CMS developed in flash which had allowed Jean-Baptiste to access and manage his galleries independently, with WordPress, our choice CMS.

Baptiste can now achieve the same functionality and manageability of his former site while remaining superbly in sync with the technology of his clients and the contemporary public.

visit www.jbdegez.com

KITCHEN ART

Designers are now welcome in the kitchen, and not just for plating.  IKEA now offers an innovative cookbook “Homemade is Best” that  makes the cut on our  Holiday Gift list.

Inspired by high fashion and japanese minimalism this cookbook combines Cooking and Entertainment within 140 pages of baking ideas and instructions and design.

IKEA wisely reaches beyond kitchen appliances to the actual act of cooking using the same clever Swedish simplicity responsible for the needless to mention sweeping success of the brand.

The cook/coffee-table/design text  is a response to the 90% of practically identical  photographs taken in most baking books. This book presents recipes from a totally new angle.

Enjoy baking and  flipping through the art of the ingredients with 30 classic swedish baking recipes everything from small biscuits to large cakes.

HOMEMADE IS BEST

The Book

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You Aren’t What You Eat

IKEA has a solution to for the side effects of the above mentioned text “Homemade is Best.”  After you have been inspired by 140 pages of baked goods there is an app to work it off, or for the planners, the other way around.

KONDIS allows you to choose the cake you want to eat (or have eaten), choose to walk, jogg or bike, choose a route, then exercise away your cake.

KONDIS talks to you while you train, telling you exactly how much you have left to do before you’ve earned or burned your treat.

Finally a conscience clearing app!

Check it out!

Colorful tape is the weapon of choice for this innovative street art group from Slovenia.

Their simple-complex tape creations decorate the streets of Slovenia grabbing attention from every direction.

Multipraktik is a multi-disciplinary platform motivated by the pursuit of new practices at the crossover between design, photography, video production, music, events and art.

They operate as an evergrowing collective of designers, artists, musicians, producers and programers. They create teams based on projects and with each project we try to challange conventional approaches.

need to contact them for an event?
www.lultipraktik.com

What’s more? The video documentations by Multipraktik that provide an inside glimpse of the movement and its quirky medium is immensely visually stimulating artwork within itself.

The vibrancy, public attention, scale, and filming of this work provide the perfect storm for an advertising sensation.

Any wall, street, sidewalk, bench, tree, you name it, can be transformed into an instant ad campaign. The modern, artistic version of the old timey Bill Post.

Pedestrians, your welcome!

Mashups re-compose, space, time, sound, movement,and predefined association. As in the above example Paul McCartney seems as though he is playing the piano for Bob Marley; as Marley’s intro fades out McCartney seamlessly picks up where Marley leaves off.

When a Mashup is correctly mashed, you will find yourself having to stop, and remember that you are viewing originally separate creations.

The ability to splice, crop and blend together a collage of videos and songs by any artist, in any era, is an epic tool.

This is why Mash-ups, both in creation and delivery, provide a window to easily plug-in a marketing agenda that can lead to powerful advertising strategies.

Take a look + listen here.

Hope you enjoy them!

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