Who knew you could do so much with paper?

Zim & Zou, a French graphic design studio, seem to know no limits with paper. Their project ‘Back to Basics’ is a great demonstration of craftsmanship, creating retro 80s objects from bright papers.

‘We decided to use paper in many of our projects because not only is it a basic material, accessible for everyone, but because it’s a way to show the balance of power between digital and paper production. When today you can read a book on a screen, we needed to create ‘real’ things. The aspect of craftsmanship is really important for us and paper gives us an infinite amount of possibilities.’

The attention to detail and intricacy is incredible. Click here to see more of the Back to Basics project.

I love lamps. They’re great aren’t they? You need light…hey presto! there it is at the press of a button or flick of switch. Marvellous I’m sure you’ll all agree. You know what else I love? Ducks. Love em’, the little feathery bundles of joy. Especially when they’re served with pancakes, hoisin sauce and those strips of cucumber and spring onion. Delicious. I’ve often sat alone in the dark wishing I had my two loves smashed together into some horrendous Frankenstein’s monster; a terrifying conglomeration of feathers and shadow-casting light.

Well…thank God for artist Sebastian E then. Thanks Sebastian, my world is now complete.

Check out more marvels from Sebastian after the break…

Check out all of Sebastian’s work at his website.

A beautifully shot and (in a couple of the executions) beautifully post-produced campaign for Mammadaba Latvia State Forests by MOOZ. Simple and direct but the lush photography and the 3D / Photoshop work really sell the idea. Some are better than others (the RUSH one is my favourite) but even so, the headline is a winner…top stuff. See all after the break…

Source: Ads of the world

So Coca-Cola is bad for you, is it? Well, there’s always a positive for every negative, now isn’t there? So some people may moan that it’s bad for your insides and rots your teeth…but on the flip side of the coin it is really good for ‘actually’ cleaning coins and it does marvels for getting rid of stains in your toilet as well. So, the prospect of legions of toothless kidz running amok on the streets with foul breath and bad digestion has definitely been wrapped in a comfy blanket with a tasteful silver lining there I think we’d all agree.

However, Coke isn’t resting on it’s laurels as purely a head-on competitor to Domestos, oh no…now they’re taking on the insidious and evil bits of chipboard and laquered steel all shoppers fear…that’s right, The Display Stand.

Read on to see some real environmental good being put into action by a company that most people would believe didn’t give a toss about the environment. Oh how they’ll all be regretting that belief…

From The Coca-Cola Company’s press release:

Coca-Cola is developing a family of 100 percent recyclable merchandise display racks for use in grocery and convenience stores in the U.S. The first GIVE IT BACK ® racks are free-standing units made of easily recyclable corrugated cardboard and designed to communicate sustainability to shoppers.

The GIVE IT BACK racks are the first step toward a comprehensive, closed-loop retail equipment program where Coca-Cola creates recyclable in-store merchandise racks and then recovers, reuses and/or recycles the displays – an industry first.

So…everything’s right with the world again.

Source: Unconsumption

The power of social media for marketeers and consumers alike, is undoubtedly huge. It allows anyone to express their view openly, which can in turn be viewed by their Facebook ‘friends’ or Twitter ‘followers’, in turn, this can directly influence the decisions that we make as consumers, or as businesses. That is an intimidating prospect for anyone, especially a retail bank in the midst of the credit crunch…

First Direct, however, weren’t intimidated. The brand had recently achieved number one status in the Consumer Satisfaction Index, and wanted to tell consumers about it, at a time when trust in banks had plummeted by a massive 69%. Combined with achieving this number one status, First Direct had also run some consumer research which revealed that it was often the little things that First Direct did, that made the difference to it’s customers. So – they made an online film about exactly that. You can watch the ‘Little things’ video here . Then, they streamed live feeds, on their website, about the bank from sources such as Twitter, Facebook & Money Saving Expert.

To prompt conversation around all of this they ran consumer research about ‘openness’, a sensitive subject at this time, combining this with their social media strategy – and the idea of becoming more ‘open’ – they created another video called ‘First Direct openness video’. Simple but very effective. Click here to watch it.

This campaign was hugely successful – with over 1.6 million views of the online film on The Times Online and CondeNet sites . The key point though, is that First Direct so genuinely believed in their brand and it’s customer service offering, that they were prepared to put their neck on the line to prove it.

Social media – they weren’t afraid to use it.

Sources: First Direct, Utalkmarketing.com

Heroku now supports the Logo programming language, a pretty exciting development for all the techies amongst us, but mastering Japanese cranes is harder than it looks…

Logo has a great feature known as a turtle – essentially an onscreen pen you can control with commands to draw images with. Imagine Etch-a-Sketch but controlled with words and with the option to move the cursor without actually drawing.  It’s a good way to get into basic algorithmic thinking and understand how computers work.

Have a go on this blank canvas here!

The commands to control the turtle are simple: Type them in and click “Run”, then see your masterpiece unveiled.

FORWARD

LEFT

RIGHT

PENUP

PENDOWN

So to draw a line 100 pixel forward then slope left for another 50 pixels you would do something like:

FORWARD 100

LEFT 45

FORWARD 50

Make sense?  Now back to my attempt to copy Guernica…

This is absolutely ASTOUNDING. it’s a long video (4:12) so if you have the attention span of a 6yrd old after drinking a Mountain Dew, then skip to 1:04 and watch the world of tech get one step closer to Minority Report.

LINK to write-up on project.

Hot Wheels…we all remember them, and if we don’t…then, umm…well, we don’t. We were probably doing something a lot more interesting with our day. I’d hazard a few guesses but one likes to keep things family friendly don’tcha’know? Anyway, here’s a little bit of loveliness from Oglivy & Mather on a Bogota motor-way in Colombia. How they did it and other installations from Hot Wheels inside the break…

Source: Paper Plane

Imagine life if all the drab and dreary grey buildings and structures were brought to life in vibrant colour. What a different journey to work we would all have. Surely it would be a better start to the day, being surrounded by colour rather than boring grey.

Well that’s the idea behind Dulux’s ‘Let’s Colour Project’…

One year on and the above advert for the Let’s Colour Project has been nominated by TED (a global non-profit devoted to Ideas worth spreading) as one of the “Top 10 Ads Worth Spreading.” The project started last March (2010) and has already brought colour to Brazil, France, the UK and India, where the local communities joined together in painting schools, streets, homes and squares.

Founders call the project, “the beginning of a colour movement that will spread around the world.”

A nice idea I think , that could brighten up everyone’s day!

To find out more, or to join them in their effort –  visit the Let’s Colour Project website by clicking Here.

Mysterious black cubes appeared in Paris recently. Dubbed “Escape machines”, these formed part of a brilliantly fun campaign by DDB Paris to promote French travel company Voyages-SNFC…

Ominously sitting in busy streets these cubes only come to life when a brave passer by gets close enough. The cube asks where the person would like to travel to if they could get away now. After answering they have to push the red button.

Watch the cubes explode into life and celebration as they produce a huge imitation ticket.

This is a great interactive campaign to show that Voyages-SNFC are the travel company that can take you to any destination you desire.