ss_blog_claim=5f03e3e7fa6ca8c951b6fbd30fa71c10 2008 May | Digital Pivot

Monthly archives

The New Power of Pow! Wham!

I, like many parents and pop vocalists, believe that the children are our future. And looking toward the future, the Joan Ganz Cooney Center at Sesame Workshop has released a conversation-starting report on the potential of digital media to revolutionize education.

The report cites three main challenges facing parents, educators, kids, and digital designers when it comes to realizing the educational power of New Media for the next generation:

  1. Build a coherent R&D effort
  2. Rethink literacy and learning for the digital age
  3. Advance digital equity, reaching all children with today’s most powerful learning tools

A few random items in the report that I found interesting include:

  • What…

Americans like accents

Yesterday I was watching the news at noon and the following soap operas. I was not paying particular attention to the spots for baby products and make up, but the above spot (the first, not the second) came on and I was intrigued with what and how they were trying to sell fiber-licious powder to me.

The woman in the ad is in a very ‘couture’ outfit (if you will), while the voice over explains the benefits of fiber daily. But what struck me beyond the wardrobe and information, was the fact that the voice over carried a British accent.

Shortly after,…

The DVDinci Code

Sorry, you won’t find any hidden code buried in this image that will lead you to fame or fortune, but for those video enthusiasts who grow by the numbers every day, I do hope that you find this blog helpful.

I by no means consider myself an expert when it comes to video, but as we find with most things we do on a regular basis there are better and more effecient ways to do things.

As American families pick up the camcorders, they also find themselves piling up the mini-dv tapes or mini dvd discs by the dozen. I find myself…

Making a Video for Your Site

No one will respect a marketing video that looks like a 5 year old
shot it, but that doesn’t mean you need a professional film crew.

1.  Use a good quality camera.  A cell phone camera won’t do the trick.
2.  Use a stabilizer, this can be a tripod or just a table.
3.  Zoom is for finding your shot.  Using the zoom during filming is
going to annoy the viewer.
4.  Keep the subjects in the center of the frame.
5.  Don’t put too much in one shot.  An abundance of action in a shot
will overwhelm the eye and confuse the viewer.

…

On with the show

After high-end, high-cost and high-pressure network television production came of age, George Burns, who first made his name as a touring perfomer with with his wife, Gracie Allen, lamented the end of vaudeville: “There’s no place to be lousy anymore,” the Old Media legend said.

Looking back, George Burns appreciated the often miserable process of trotting out on stage in front of small, sometimes hostile audiences, trying out fresh material night after night, and polishing the act until it was ready for the big time. Playing in Peoria. Sound familar? It’s what we’re doing every day in New Media.

Today, TV is…

Give them what they want.

VW What the People Want

Last month, Volkswagen found a way to integrate people’s 3 favorite things - texting, the internets, and expressing their opinions. What brilliance!

VW What the People Want Times SquareThe campaign by Crispin Porter + Bogusky isn’t only based around a polling website. In addition to the site, CP+B placed an interactive billboard in Times Square. Any passerby can text their response to the poll, and see the live results in ticker form directly on the billboard. Instant gratification!

There were articles all over discussing the website and the huge response it received.

It’s actually quite fun to see whether or not your choices go along with the general public. Users can also…

New media, old news

As I was shopping at the mall this past Memorial Day weekend I came across this sticker above in the ladies dressing room at Macy’s.

It caught my eye because I haven’t really seen ads in dressing rooms before that were not for the store itself.

But what was funnier to me is the fact that 1. This past season has been over for nearly three months, and 2. the show is not going to be on Bravo after next season.

Picture It!

A picture is worth a thousand words and in some cases it’s true.
Imagine a Coca Cola vending machine with sparkling dew in the middle of
an arid desert.  Now imagine it humming quietly in the corner of your
local mall.  Not even close to the same feeling, is it?

Images can be a strong way to get your customers attention but there
are some times when an image won’t do it.  When you need to:
-Give detailed information
-Let customers contact you more than 1 way
-Need to have interactions/ or get information

Choose and use your images wisely!

…

Memorial Daze

In honor of Memorial Day, I’d like to pay tribute to the Veteran’s History Project, sponsored by the Library of Congress. Created in 2000 by a unanimous Act of Congress, the online project is designed to capture first-person stories of wartime service from World War I to (unfortunately) the present day. It’s history unfiltered.

The Web invites us to consider the future, but for those of us who can’t help dwelling on the past, I find myself endlessly fascinated by sites like the Veteran’s History Project, or my all-time favorite, Archive.org. I’ve often attempted to fire up my design teams with…

Web users ‘getting more selfish’ - A BBC News article.

OK.

I know that times are changing and with speedy broadband, little istuff in every corner, videocamz in my phone and no one to talk to, and toilets that speak about bulls**t! I start to see a change also in human web users patterns. I personally find that my moto as a designer shifted from ‘Mega blast in yo’face’ to ‘less is more’ and ‘ simple my son, simple!’…

So, finding this article in the BBC Technology news website was no surprise to me. I have trust in the user, hell, I am one, so I’m not quite sure about selfish. Impatient maybe, but…