The first time I saw Robert Frank‘s photos for his project ‘The Americans‘ I got a glimpse of the connection between exhausting road trips and great photographs. Perhaps it has to do with the lack of sleep, the lack of good food, the monotony of endless roads that push your body –and your head– to the limit. After all, extreme fatigue does develop a sense of acute awareness and sensitivity that’s difficult to replicate with non-chemical (and may I say, legal) substances.

Unlike Frank’s compilation, Tina Bagué and Tori Morimoto‘s Japan Photo Project is less about Japanese society and more about the culture and beautiful landscapes of the country, less about capturing instants and more about knowing the right towns. But the veil of fatigueness-channeled perception is there. No question about it.

Plus, the JPP blog is the perfect traveller’s guide. In 365 days they visit all sorts of towns and meet all sorts of people. Next time I’m in the country, I’ll be sure to throw away my Lonely Planet and instead, read their blog carefully and save every single stop in a map.

A compilation of the photographs has recently been published. The book is called, ‘Japan’. Published in collaboration with the Catalan publisher, The Private Space, Japan’s first edition is officially sold out but, after December 8th you’ll be able to order the book here.

The location, the actor and the voice-over are made by Vostok. The script, the photography, the music and the editing are made by Riot Cinema. A special thanks goes to Luis Enrique Carrión. This man can do wonders with a Canon EOS 5D and a bit of light.

I would encourage you to read along side a great post by Arquinauta’s Karina Ibarra in UX Mag that covers extensively lessons learned, she now shares, when designing for kids. Especially kids 3 and under.

We wish Arquinauta’s team the best and hope to see such a beautifully-designed app used in many more languages.

So the news is that the IFC Center  will premiere Eames: Architect and Painter by directors Jason Cohn and Bill Jersey. PBS will air it in December as part of their American Masters series. From this interview (Part 1 and Part 2) I get the impression that the documentary will be really good. Cohn’s devotion to the project (he has spent five years working on it: fundraising, documenting and filming) and his passion for both the Eames’ work and work ethos gives me confidence. The fact that he’s a journalist with a design sensibility and not a designer with a journalist sensibility is also a good sign. It’s a subtle but important difference.

The difference between telling the story of two people that happened to do great design and were able to convey the value of it to non-designers, making “the best for the most for the least” and something more centered on doing an appraisal of their work and the value of their legacy. I’m not saying that a designer wouldn’t have done a great job, I’m just saying it’s a matter of focus.

Sometimes people who are not designers are good at explaining the value of certain design concepts in layman’s terms. Sometimes not. We’ll see.

Until then, here’s the trailer:

In Cockedey‘s own words: stick it on full screen, watch in HD, turn the sound up, sit back and just take it all in.

Camera: Canon 5dmk2
Music: “Main Titles” and “Blush Response” from Vangelis.

More information on the process here.

But, as with all artificial restraints, temptation always ends up looming in. And following the trace of Murakami through Tokyo in this NYT article is what did it for me. (Side note: it’s great to see what the NYT design team can do when they don’t have to juggle with enormous amounts of content and ads):

Perhaps I will read 1Q84 after all. Just, you know, one more for old times sake.

I suggest reading the entire NYT piece, The Fierce Imagination of Haruki Murakami, and if you’re interested in buying the paper edition of the book, watching this video of Alfred A. Knopf’s cover designer for 1Q84 for a sneak peek of what your money will be worth. Fun fact: “The title of “1Q84” is a joke: an Orwell reference that hinges on a multilingual pun. (In Japanese, the number 9 is pronounced like the English letter Q)”.

UPDATE 31/09/2011:
A beautiful signed and numbered (only 111 copies) limited edition of 1Q84 is now available. This project is a collaboration between Simon Rhodes, Kristen Harrison at The Curved House and designer Stefanie Posavec. Covers printed by Justin Knopp at Typoretum. Photos available here.

Almost seven months have passed since 3/11. Time enough to erect a barrier separating what was from what will be. And it looks like Japan is making the most out of it.

The bittersweet reality of catastrophes is that, despite everything, they honor you with a precious gift: the opportunity to start over. Funnily enough, what comes across most strongly is their desire to start anew, create something that’s their own and not just an interpretation of other cultures. This documentary grasps a tiny tiny glimpse of that.

You can watch the complete series here.

We were hired by Movistar, a high-powered Spanish telecom with important international presence, to envision the best solution for what their online video and television service should be like. We have spent the last few months designing it and collaborating with Movistar’s UX team. And we are incredibly proud of the results.

It’s the product of months of work but, most importantly, it’s a representation of Vostok’s design principles: it’s simple, it’s elegant, it’s honest.

The premise: An online service for film, TV series and linear TV that could be accessed anytime, anywhere. For clients and non-clients. Our solution: a native grid system that responds to a set pattern of interactions that work across all platforms (PC, TV and mobile phones).

To share our thought process we have uploaded a slideshow that puts together the design premises we kicked off with. And a webpage that shows a selection of the design aspects in the final product we find most interesting.

Last, but not least we release a video made in collaboration with Riot Cinema that is the perfect accompaniment to this product. Don’t forget to check it out :)

Curious to know what you think.

The Madrid electoral board is pushing to have the protest banned before the elections. To defy the ban people must get together and sign a petition. And they are. From all over the world. And a map is registering it all live.

There are only two things I have to say:

• You would never ever find this kind of map coming from traditional spanish mainstream media. And that says something.
• It’s a great example of a simple but powerful mesh between mapping, information design and political awareness.

Kudos to Vizzuality and Actuable for documenting and sharing this real time. Not only for Spain but for the world.

They put their visual and interaction design skills to the service of initiatives that, using their own words, matter. Be it to locate and identify stars, endangered species, protected areas, migratory species or even visualizing aid in disaster stricken countries. To put it bluntly, they choose their projects wisely and put their money where their mouth is. It makes us proud to have someone we respect so close to home.

Yesterday they launched a video made by Riot Cinema featuring one of their most recent projects: Planet Hunters. Let them speak for themselves:

Go back ten years or so and the image would have looked something like this:

Today though, pixels can be just as beautiful as (and more informative than) picture posters:

What’s the best approach? Let’s see…

• Ad posters make us skeptical, we’ve been so perverted by publicity we no longer believe what they say; numbers on the other hand…well, we still associate them with hard facts.
• Infographics allow you to  play around with data visualization, using images, diagrams or icons to make your data more…(for the lack of a better word) graspeable. 100 million means nothing, a pile of cards that’s actually taller than Mount Everest, does.
• Ad posters are movie-frames, Infographics are more like short films, you need to put several frames together to come up with a story.
• Ad posters allow for one layer of (simple) information (the message must be understood at a glance, so the idea must be conveyed quickly and efficiently); Infographics allow for various layers of (simple) information helping you give more bits of information without over-complicating the message. Plus, the LinkedIn guys even get to be kind of funny.

When it comes to advertising a company it looks like an infographic is better equipped for storytelling, better equipped to look more like a ‘serious study’ and less like blatant publicity. So well done, LinkedIn :)

See it in full here.

The universal language of love? How about the universal language of pictograms?

Javier Cañada talked about the ISOTYPE (International System of Typographic Picture Education) project in 2002. It’s hightime we made reference to it again. The project was created by Otto Neurath and designed by Gerd Arntz and is believed to be the base upon which the AIGA was built on.

Neurath recognised something crucial to the theory of communication, through creating icons of objectivity. Since a considerable part of the information to which an individual is exposed is optically processed, as Gestalt Theory and perceptual psychology were able to demonstrate at the end of the 19th century, it can be conclusive that information must be visualised or data must be transformed into pictures in order to be perceived at all.

Frank Hartmann

A new book on Arntz was edited last year by designers Ed Annink and Max Bruinsma. If you’re lucky enough to be in London before March, don’t forget to check out the exhibition on ISOTYPE at the Victoria & Albert Museum in London.

If you want to read more, Neurath’s book International Picture Language is a good start.

UPDATE (12 Feb, 2011)
Katie Treggiden, from ‘Confessions of a design geek’, has a great account of the V&A exhibit, with a bit more insight about the history of the ISOTYPE project and pictures of the exhibition.

BlackVostok WordPress theme in Japanese

Both the website and the theme have been translated by Daniel Gutiérrez Alías and his team at Shaking Asia. Thank you sir.

It’s meant for you to focus on what’s important: your writing. No distractions.

This dreamy video tutorial sets the mood to help you see it in action:

Other convenient functions on Writer: easy read, sync with dropbox, email content.

Among the many enchanting stories, there is one in particular that caught our eye: a design consultant/ adviser/ counsellor/guide personified in a wedding wardrober. Mr. Kramer- Metraux talks about certain aspects of life that are particularly close to our hearts: elegance, beauty, timeless design.

The series received a Silver award in the Best of Multimedia Design 2009 competition organized by The Society of News Design.

Take a minute to browse through the rest of the stories, they’re certainly worth your time.

[In] film titles we see the bond between the art of filmmaking and graphic design — and perhaps visual culture as a whole. They have always served a greater purpose than themselves: to move the overarching story forward.

Our partners and friends at Riot Cinema (they make movies) just did this amazing video for Unience, a social network of investors. We love it not just becuse of the aesthetics but also because the script is so well written it makes you open an account right away:

For the meal to be complete, we invited filmmaker Nicolás Alcalá from Riot Cinema Collective. We talked about the film industry, the difficult times it’s going through (both in Spain and outside), the democratization of film, how now anyone can do a short but not everyone can do a good short, the limits (or lack of) and differences between cinema and narrative branded content, the problems with distribution and monetization. It’s tough out there. Lots of questions, very few answers.

Check out Álvaro’s vimeo: the man’s an artist. Special mention to his work with GQ Spain and the first two minutes of his short Marrakech.

We have the impression that there are very few filmmakers with daring and innovative ideas of using web tools to sustain profitable business models around their movies. Would you agree?

Why do you think this is? Or even better: What do you think innovation in films should look like?

yuuuuhuuuuuu… Where are you filmmakers? We need you. Films need you.

It all changed dramatically in the 50′s when the transistor was invented. Technologically it allowed for smaller and cheaper radios. It was no longer one radio per family, neither one radio in the center of the house. It meant that content wasn’t shared anymore. Content was moved to the bedroom and to the car thus alloing new forms of entertainment: late night shows where people would call to air their confessions, and music in the cars. Youngsters could have their own radio. Rock’n'Roll was then on the streets.

The iPad could be the same catalyzer today.

The iPad as a transistor

Today I read this quote on how the managers of Hulu think it makes sense to move it to the iPad:

Typically media consumption in the house was confined to the living room or home office, tablets allow consumers to serendipitously discover and consume media in every room of the house.

Jason Kilar (hulu) at The New York Times

Don’t you see parallelisms? Traditional visual media (shows, movies, series) has always been something that was consumed socially. All we wanted was good content and both the biggest scren and the biggest couch we could afford on our living room. Laptops are ok for that but still they have a design that’s optimised for work (big keyboard+trackpad, short battery span, a complex UI and OS…).

The iPad could be the transistor for the new media. It could bring consumption of narrative media (especially audiovisual content) everywhere: to the very private sphere and to the streets, allowing for new forms of consumption.

Augmented reality, yes but also… Augmented fiction!

Imagine being on a vacation in Barcelona, stopping for a café at a terraza in a cal square at the Born while watching movie scenes that happened right there, on the streets you just walked. That’s not augmented reality but augmented fiction. Same goes for long train or plane trips (movies about hijacked planes, love stories on the train? Thousands!). Nothing impossible these days, we only need a comfortable device and an app that takes care of it.

That would also be possible for cheap productions, not just big movies. If I owned a hotel and had to make a promotional video about it I’d make a short fiction film instead where the barman, concierge and all the staff are part of a cool story wich at the same time informs the customers about all the hotel facilities. I would make it available on the internet, of course, but also for customers who are already there with their tablets. I woud even put that in context with the surroundings and the nearby attractions if it was a touristic destination, so it was informative to visitors. That’s geolocalisation mixed with amateur cinema mixed with portable media devices.

Private realities

Now think of private spaces, specifically your bedroom. Transistor radios favored programs where people would call to talk about their love problems, to complain about their jobs, to make anonymous confessions. Could a iPad-like device be good at that? Could it be better than a laptop? Perhaps, if we put a camera on it.

I see the iPad as the best videoconference tool ever (if it ever comes with a camera). And now I’m thinking of chatroulette. Not the best example but maybe a good starting point if someone ever comes up with an app that has different mood or themed chatrooms where you can have *real* conversations with *normal people* (not just perverts, or piano dudes).

I’m also thinking as videodiaries, private ones, just like the one Jake Sully had on Avatar. Wouldn’t you love to see yourself 10 years in te past talking about your life back then in a decent video quality? I’d love to do that right now if I had the right tool and could do it on the spot, not just in front of a computer that needed a surface to stand.

Yes, you can do all this that I mention with a laptop or even an iPhone but they are not optimised for that. The iPhone is not good for video and carrying a laptop while traveling and opening it in the middle of the street doesn’t sould like leisure. And… welll.. I know that the first models of the iPad won’t have camera or GPS but you get the point, right?

New audiences

The transistor made radios cheap and affordable. One family, one radio was no longer valid. Now the kid could have his transistor and go out with friends to listen to music. Radio stations saw the opportunity and started to air that new music the youth were listening. Not orchestras or big bands but Rock an Roll.

The iPad will be to our parents what the transistor radio was to the 50′s youth. They now barely use the computer and are unable to take full advantage of it. Websites are not designed for them, too crammed with lots of info and buttons. Operating systems are also a nightmare for those over 50 years old.

The iPad (or any tablet where file system and OS are invisible) will make a difference for these audiences. I’m not saying anything new here, you know… “the iPad will be the perfect computer for my mom” it has been said a thousand times already. But…

I see an oportunity for content to be tailored to these audiences. There is no media for them on the web right now. Studios make movies and shows for their audience and that’s people from 15 to 45 the most. Would that change if we had 10 milion elders ready to watch movies? All the classic movies would be available for them easily. Someone would make that move. Also new fiction could be made. Videoconference would be easy for them: no window resizing, no other programs on the background that would pop and overlap confusing them… Just contacts and a call button. Grandpa could call my son from everywhere, be that his favorite armchair or in the middle of a country walk when he sees that beautiful flower they were painting days ago and wants to show it to his grandson right away.

The transistor brought true mobility for old media and morphed it into something completely different. This new device, be it the iPad or whatever similar, allows for completely new scenarios too. The most exciting thing about it is that none of them is science fiction. It’s all completely available, it only needs some work from our side, which is what I’m about to do right now.

Thanks Daniel