A concept for experiential design was buzzing around SIGGRAPH 2010 – the concept of emergence. Emergence is the by-product of the audience’s interactivity, something that isn’t directly incorporated into the piece itself. It can be a variety of manifested qualities when people are put into the right collaborative conditions.
When I read that Volkwagen’s “The Fun Theory” and Nike Livestrong’s “Chalkbot” experiential design work won the 2010 Cannes Festival Grand Prix, I was ecstatic. We’re all aware that advertising is changing. But, it’s quite amazing to see that experiential design is elevating, and has gained acceptance as a communication device.
The Fun Theory is a competition itself where people can upload ideas designed to make mundane tasks interesting. Take the winning submission for example:
And the Nike Chalkbot was a machine that would imprint hopeful messages along the Tour De France– submitted through texting, Twitter and a website. The Chalkbot received some 23,000 messages to be chalked on the roads of France, so it was truly a viral experiential phenomenon.
The National Agri-Marketing Association (NAMA) annual convention was hosted in Kansas City this year, and featured, as always, marketers specializing in agribusiness from all over the United States. Sullivan Higdon & Sink, a local agency with a track record of creative genius and with whom we work on a regular basis, wanted to do something unique and make a big splash at the event. Their strategy was to get people to focus on their clever tagline, “We Hate Sheep” — which really means they love trailblazers and scorn those who choose only to be followers. Our team at the T2 Experience Lab began collaborating with the SHS team on a grand experiential piece that we hoped would put to shame the conventional trade show “booth.”
After doing some due diligence and scoping out the event space in the Hyatt, our vision was to set up an interactive installation right in the lobby, so we set about working together to design something that would be impossible for convention goers to resist getting a closer look at.
Okay, so what’s with all of the frustration lately with the iPad? A lot of people seem to be dissing on it! I mean, come on, this was on the front of CNET yesterday!
I can see why people are apprehensive about new technology. It’s expensive. It’s potentially life-changing. It’s easy to drop and break. Oh, and it’s maybe even because they’re scared. That’s right…. they’re absolutely terrified that a device – something like the iPad – might actually change their life. And most of us don’t really love change.
Well, the iPad isn’t for everyone, that’s for sure.
But for those of you who, like us, are gadget geeks, technology nuts and early adopters, we’d rather talk less about why the iPad is so terrible for society and MORE about why it’s so freaking amazing! I’ll give you 5 things I’ve heard from iPad haters, and follow with my counter reaction.
So, this week Michael Ong and I took a journey to Las Vegas for exposure on new mediums for experiential content. We thought it would be great to start at the Digital Signage Expo in Las Vegas! We saw some fantastic displays, and some interesting new trends in digital signage. Here are a couple of the main trends that we saw.
T2 is a collection of artists who create stories and imagery for all types of media.
Back Alley Films is a daredevil production task force who creates messages across all media platforms.
