I Love JunKi Website

First, the site. I’m not a big fan of K-Pop… and hearing the three tracks on the website makes me like it even less. But considering the target audience of this korean pop star’s website (teens, tweens, or just anyone into K-Pop overseas… or over on this side of the ocean, too), it actually does quite an excellent job of making the pop star seem innocent, affectionate, cute, talented, creative, etc. etc.

The concept behind this site, I believe, was to be looking into Lee Jun Ki’s personal diary (but really it’s just a fancy revamped way of navigating a regular site, with normal sections like music samples, buying his DVD, videos, and a fan page). Nothing out of the ordinary nor all too impressive here, but I think what would make me want to post this as inspiration is the ‘randomness’ of navigating through the site. You shake the diary thing until something pops out – every shake results in some flowers or something coming out, and this is repeated until one of the sections falls out of the diary. It makes the person navigating the site wanting more, because you’re never sure what will pop out of the book next. I can imagine that navigation through this site would be very enjoyable if I actually liked this guy’s music.

Troublemakers

This company is a cut above the rest! As they said, “troublemakers.tv is a production company that represents a new generation of directors who use live action, 2D and 3D animation to create innovative imagery for commercials and music videos.” Their website is a simple gallery of all the spot and vids they’ve produced. Each and every one of the works has a strong concept, exceptional execution, explaining the sparseness of the web page – each video speaks for itself.

Every conceivable method or technique of production and 3d motion is used in this company’s work. From simply things like duplicating a video and offsetting them just a bit, to fancy graphics of glass flying, to something remarkable like a sound system blasting a woman out of her own clothes, this company makes the unbelievable and undoable a real/virtual experience. Their work goes to show how this time-based course only begins to explore the world of motion design. Real awe-inspiring stuff.

Here’s their site.

LAO Digital Design

 

It’s funny how the way you see things change when you learn about the process needed to get to the final product. And prior to project 2 I would’ve seen the works at Laura Peña  (LAO Digital) differently from how I see it now. Much in the way that the design we encounter everyday – posters, billboards, magazines, etc. – had been quickly broken down into the types of filters, typefaces and textures used to achieve the final product, diving into AE and learning the kinds of masks, tricks to create a false sense of depth, and the kinds of effects you can create has changed my perception of LAO’s digital work.

The work looks a lot more logical, precise, and also a lot more difficult than before. You can practically see the designers turn on ‘3d object’ with shadows and blur on while they working on the piece, and imagine them fiddling with the timing and keyframes of a new camera object to create the sense of depth in a lot of the pieces. Then there’s also the stop-motion animation – the one named “Beautiful” reminds me of one of the student works from last year’s class.

In any case it’s definitely an inspirational site, more so when you know a bit about the execution process to achieve the final result. Good work always makes something difficult look easy!

FPM: Different Colours

I was recently looking for music videos for Fantastic Plastic Machine, a J-pop DJ/Artist that I absolutely love. Different Colours is definitely my favourite one.

Struggling to tie image and sound together cohesively in my own project at the moment, the video is a source of guidance and inspiration because what you see totally reflects what you hear. The quirky, cheerful music is reflected in the light-hearted, crazy adventure of a little girl that finds herself chasing a Louis Vitton panda into another dimension after it takes her cell phone from her.

You can notice some very good use of visual depth cues (even if I myself can’t figure out how to use them well), resulting in the viewer feeling like they are also flying down the LV-pattern tunnel, floating in the bubble world, and peeking right around the shop window into the outside world. I’m a far shot from creating a fully fleshed environment with an elaborate sense of depth like this video, but it’s still a nice video to look at critically.

Explose

A good indicator of the new direction that ‘designers’ are headed as exemplified by Explose.

This creative team is a jack-of-all trades. As it says on the website, the company is “not an advertising agency”, but rather a collective of Image and Sound Artists, as well as Freelance artists.

Aside from the extremely strong portfolio of web, print, photo, illustration – standard repertoire for a design firm – they also have people on board that make MUSIC. The tracks are cool mixes of everything imaginable – urban sounds, hip hop beats, instruments and musical influences from the Middle and Far East and Eastern Europe, and the occasional vocals. It makes for a good metaphor of what design is quickly becoming: no longer restricted to the people that are waving some diploma or degree saying they’ve been educated in design, this collective did not come from a design background per se, but they’re doing some pretty serious stuff regardless now.

Seriously inspiring stuff. And I love their music – their attitude and take on design really reflects the direction that design is headed in the near future.

PS3 Games Universe

Websites: some are over-the-top flashy, while some are drab and have nothing but plain HTML. Well-designed sites always find a good balance between the two, and while this one may lean on the flashier side, it still gets the purpose across, along with some other bonuses. The PS3 Games Universe website is one that knows its place but does a fine job of what it’s meant to do.

The website is basically a showcase of the latest PS3 games to date. Being the latest Sony gaming platform, it’s not a surprise that the website reflects the system’s advanced technology – the experience becomes a semi-experience unto itself when you fullscreen the window. With the ‘PS3 gaming cosmos’ theme and intermittent ambient sounds to go with it, the glass cube motif plays off of the otherwise sparse design and sound of the site – the games are there, but not much else: very pure, very clean, but also shows how technologically advanced the PS3 is.

You get a real feeling of slowly floating, and get to navigate the space by clicking on wherever you want to center on. A short click moves the screen over slowly, while holding it makes you float in that direction faster. The rollover on the glass cubes leads to small preview of one of the games. Clicking on it leads to an even flashier interface, and a full showcase/preview of the selected game. In the end, the design here is in the interface, and it really does pale in comparison to the footage of games once you open the glass cubes (take a look at Metal Gear Solid 3’s preview video, for example). It doesn’t go over the top, which in this case is actually very appropriate because the site is supposed to be nothing more than a framework or showcase for the actual games. But in any case, it’s interesting to see design increasingly effective create digital atmospheres.

Uniqlock

International Japan-based clothing company Uniqlo has come up with a truly quirky, hip, creative and cool campaign and site with their Uniqlock concept. Click here to see it!

The website structure itself is innovative, but this is further accentuated if we are to remember what this is all for – to sell clothes. Uniqlo sells high-quality ‘basics’, like single-colour shirts, for example. But the site makes it seem so much more than that.

The user sees very little when they first enter the site: a perpetually running timer/clock (of the time in Tokyo, Japan), and a navigation tab in the left. What makes this site so cool is the fact that most elements and sections of the website is synchronized perfectly to the one second blips. The main page alternates between cuts from the clock to a large reel of full-screen videos of girls dancing. The cuts in between the timer and videos are synced precisely with the second blips, which are also synced with a hip music mix; all of this gives the site a playful, creative and cool impression.

This kind of hipness is taken further by bringing it back to what Uniqlo is all about – selling clothes. With a sparse and easy-to-navigate menu, the one that stands out for me is the one named ‘Cashmere Knits’ – because it’s the tab that has anything to do with clothing (implying that Uniqlo is going more for a brand culture/lifestyle than for a functional website that will sell its clothes). In this section there is a an array of photos in the top right that rotates every second like a clock. Every photo is then blown up to full screen for every second. The idea of dancing, music and time is brought out further because the photos are usually in sets of three or four, showing the same model doing a little dance in still captures.

I leave the site leaving quite convinced that that they’re making more of a statement about how hip they are, rather than try to sell clothes online with this website. Which is fine by me, because, like millions of other customers, I already know about Uniqlo and love their clothes already. =) And it’s interesting to see how they managed to work an entire website music track around a blip on every second. I even left the website on so I could work to it – you don’t get tired of hearing it. There’s something deadly hypnotic about it.

Pika Pika

Pika Pika is an abstract art movement that began in Japan around 2005, but has gained a global following rapidly over the course of the past few years. Their work basically turns the slow-exposure rates of a camera lens into the medium of a new kind of digital artwork. It reminds me of when I accidentally set the camera to the wrong exposure level so that all the light captured in the camera end up as streaks of yellow and orange!

“PIKA PIKA is an abstract animation film made with flashlights.

A series of photographs using long exposures are edited together to make them appear as an animation.”

Simple as the idea may be, the final edited films this group produces are captivating and highly entertaining. Just as how my ten-second leader will be created through editing and compiling of multiple photographs, PIKA PIKA is a compilation of many photos to give the appearance of drawings that come to life. The compiled slow exposure photos show all sorts of people drawing simple objects and animals.

What is really most interesting is how this form of time-based media really creates something that otherwise would not be seen in the real world – the final artwork is only possible by placing the movement of light in a very specific framework. The fascinating appeal of the PIKA PIKA videos is largely due the fact that they captured a playful manipulation of light that cannot be seen without the camera lens.

PROLOGUE

PROLOGUE Live Action and Graphic Design

http://www.prologuefilms.com/

A group demands respect when their work precedes their name. The site itself is minimalistic, clean, and opts for a sleek interface. The straightforward interface is effectively juxtaposed against their advanced, professional and highly-polished digital work. With a whole slew of blockbuster movies’ opening credits authored by this group and an equally hi-tech website, viewers and clients are left with the impression that this group are wizards at motion design.

With the use of two colours and designs that imitate the preliminary sketches of storyboards, the site stays on target both in terms of unity of design, as well as in function of the site (as a portfolio site). The work is divided clearly into three types of media outlets (film reels, television, other media), navigation is clear and simple, and everything remains conveniently accessible in the side menu.

Looking beyond the no-frills website structure, their works really show how serious these guys are. With main title sequences done for big-name movies like Bridge to Terabithia, Curious George, Dawn of the Dead, Eurotrip (their intro sequence is my personal favourite), Spider-Man 2 and 3, and Superman Returns, it goes without saying that Prologue have been doing this sort of thing for a while, and doing it right.

Now if only I can be a creative wizard at time-based media and work for them…

Rinpa Eshidan

My friend told me about this group earlier this break. This group of artists takes the idea of ‘art as process’ to heart – they create organic works with various mediums, like paints, markers, papers, leaves, etc. that never stay in one static state for longer than several hours. Once a piece reaches a certain level of ‘completion’ these artists proceed to break down what they had just created and recreate something completely new, sometimes from scratch, sometimes using one or two of the previous elements.

I was doing a small job this break and was running dry of ideas. Watching their videos instantly inspired me though – the bold, thick illustrations was a style I certainly clicked with. I love this one in particular, titled “1 week of art works”. Great illustration, and you could see how they start anew or isolate one element of one state and take it to the next – essentially showing exactly how these artists think.

From their site:
“Rinpa” is a word created by the founders of the group meaning “to bring people together, while “Eshidan” essentially means “art crew.” The Rinpa Eshidan is a team of artists brought together by a common creative expression.

With their philosophy of truly organic art, their emphasis shifts from the creation of the piece to the process of creation – and this is all recorded on tape. Thus the record of the process of creation becomes the actual artwork, which are all put on their website at http://rinpaeshidan.jp/works/index.html