Inspiring Interview With Michael Wolff

If you have a few minutes to spare, this interview with Michael Wolff is definitely worth your time. As one of the founders of design firm Wolff Olins, Michael Wolff shares his insight on how he views the world around him and how he keeps his passions alive by his observations.

I love the shots of the ordinary things around us, like the pots, umbrellas,  and supermarkets. Most people may take them for granted but Wolff guides his passions with his curiosity and appreciation for everything. This idea is the central theme I had when I created this blog and the last few posts, and it’s great to see an interview that is aligned with my thoughts right now.

The Mysterious Black Cubes

Those big tickets remind me of Charlie & the Chocolate Factory :]

Clever Elevator Ad for Kagatani Knife

Being uprooted and relocated is never an easy process. In the past month or so, I’ve seen myself being uproot and relocated in a small island across the world. The whole thing can be described as interesting, exhausting, exciting, nerve-wrecking (or wracking), and constant stimulation. I’ve sat down a few times to try and blog what has been going on in my life, but mostly I just become overwhelmed by contradicting emotions.

However, I have made mental bookmarks of all the awesome finds and observations during my move. I’ll be slowly posting them up in the next few weeks!

This clever elevator ad was created by GREY Tokyo, an ad agency in Tokyo, Japan for Kagatani Knife:

(Images via Ads of the World)

I love how visually stimulating the whole concept is. You’re eyes are immediately drawn to this bright red lobster, probably wondering in hell its on the elevator doors. When the doors open and the knife is slowly revealed, everything makes sense. It’s simple and delivers a clear message.

I’m not sure how effective this elevator ad is in terms of prompting people to take action and buy a Kagatani Knife but I love it when companies do things out of the norm. Sometimes advertisements don’t have to prompt action and translate into sales and figures. Sometimes it’s just nice to appreciate a creatively executed advertisement for what it is.

Logorama – Pulp Fiction for Brands

The world around us is dominated by products, companies and brands both figuratively and literally. Logorama, created by French animation collective H5, François Alaux, Hervé de Crécy and Ludovic Houplain, takes this idea one step further by building a world solely constructed by brands. This short opened the 2010 Sundance Film Festival and won a 2010 academy award under the category of animated short.

A brand is the identity of a product, service, or company. There’s  a fantastic website that I love browsing called Brand Tags. Brand Tags is a collective experiment in brand perception. The site works by flashing a brand image at the viewer and the viewer writes the first word or phrase they think of when they see the image. These tags generate a word cloud for each individual brand. In my opinion, the top words/phrases are usually pretty indicative of what the majority of people think of a brand. For instance, the most common words that are tagged of Abercrombie & Fitch are moose, clothes, preppy and gay. Apple, is most frequently tagged as apple, mac, cool, and ipod. McDonald’s on the other hand is perceived as fat, fries, food, and big (haha).  It only takes one image to trigger a bunch of words, thoughts and emotions;  it’s fascinating and powerful. This is why companies spend so much time building brand equity.

I love the personalities that the creators have attached to the brands in this short. Ronald McDonald is most definitely the best pick for the bad guy (clown, scary hair = evil) and Big Boy can totally pass as the annoying young perv. Never thought that the Michelin man would be speaking in ebonics, so unexpected and hilarious. I’m surprised it took me this long to discover the video…did it not go viral?

Edit: 1.5 million views according to Vimeo. Not that many considering how many views Justin Bieber has for any one of his music videos. Also, it is sad that I’m using Justin Bieber’s MV views as a benchmark…