I love how the designers of this IBM micro-site interpreted their subjects (along the bottom) into stark and simple iconography while staying true to a consistent visual language. Very often we're tasked with taking cliches and making them fresh and invigorated. I think this team has done that well here across these 14 concepts.

I was stuck for a couple of extra hours at the airport in Dulles and I noticed this amazing visualization of the Internet from AT&T Labs and a company called "Lumeta". Yes, I know these have been done before, but rarely with any sense of aesthetics in mind. Alas, some extensive searching revealed no aditional information on this monstrosity (it is rather large). It is one of those things you'd really like to get a copy of, but for some reason, a company smart enough to map the Internet is not smart enough to put an URL on the poster to follow up on their creation. Something this cool deserved a "How We Did It" type of explanation somewhere. Oh well. If you are in Dulles or Reagan airports, be sure to check it out. It color codes major nodes and networks, and that faint gray "haze" is actually thousands of labels for major servers in the network. A great marriage of science and design.

And apologies for the quality of the picture. It was taken with my phone.

Well, it's been a few years since the book "Skip Intro" by Duncan McAlester and Michelangelo Capraro. I'm guessing that its lessons weren't quite absorbed by the web strategists for each of the presidential campaigns.

A thorough analysis of each site would be a worthwhile effort for several articles, but for now let's just take a look at how each site employs the splash screen.

This is the best interactive idea of the year (ok, for beer drinkers) and I am sure many of you may already have seen it: the labels on some beer bottles change color to blue when the beer is the right chilly temperature. All this is the magic of temperature sensitive inks.

One of the keys to designing great interactive is that the system provides feedback to the user. Questions are answered consistently such as "where am I in the system?", and "Why am I waiting and for how long?", and "What just happened and how do I fix it?". There are many other examples.

I was surprised to see a beer bottle do a better job at this than most websites. Considering that the mass market beer bottle label or can has not changed in any meaningful way for decades, this is a pretty significant innovation. Hmmm... getting thirsty.

The team has just refreshed our AIR-based Top 100 Video widget with a great new Intel-sponsored skin. Download the latest version to apply a groovy new Intel desktop to your computer. To get to the desktop file click the in-stream Intel ads that appear at the bottom of the videos. Several performance improvements were also made to this release.

As if that were not enough: the FUZE "unbreakable" campaign microsite has just launched within AOL Music. Conceived in a brainstorm with Coke's online media agency, this advertiser program shows just how advantageous it can be to wrap great programming around a rich advertiser experience. The Flash site was built by the development team within two weeks (!), after a design gestation period of approximately three weeks (that is concept to sketch to approved design). We were fortunate in that the work was accepted by the clients very early in the process. They were great partners in that regard and helped us make the deadline by expediting approvals and empowering the AOL team to make it happen.


Check out the hammer and try to find the hidden clues :-)

I am sooooo tired of my mouse. Move-click-move-click-move-click-move-click-click-move. We've been using mice for almost 25 years now while movies like Minority Report have shown us a glimpse of a future where all you have to do is wave your hands around a bit to get the job done (OK, you also have to live with Tom Cruze in a distopian future (OK, some might argue that we already are living with Tom Cruze in a distopian future)). Yes, there are some extremely big expensive systems thate promise to do some cool things, but we need something cheap and portable.

The portfolio for Publicis & Hal Riney are taking us into the future with a Flash site that allows you to navigate with hand gestures using your Web cam. Just move your hand over certain "hot spots" in front of your computer (shown in a handy mini-window on the bottom right of the screen) and you can move around their portfolio to see their ideas, news, and examples of their work. It may not be replacing your mouse anytime soon, but it's still pretty cool.

Ask any typographer and they will tell you: the font-family you choose can say as much as the actual words you print. When you are running to be the President of the United states of America, you can not afford to say the wrong thing. One of my favorite NPR shows, On the Media, just ran an interesting little piece on the typography of the 2008 presidential candidate's signs and stickers. They talked to Sam Berlow of The Font Bureau Inc. about his recent article in the Boston Globe about what the candidates' fonts say about them. My favorite comment is where he compares Clinton's logo to a poorly fitting Talbot's suit with the pants hiked up too high.

You can listen to the interview or read a transcript at the On The Media Web site.

Congratulations to the Dulles team that pulled off this year's Superbowl adverts package. I have to say it is the best year yet and we have been packaging these Madison Avenue mini-epics for years. Enjoy.

I also have to say it is a relief to not have to live through incessant pre-roll commercials (imagine seeing commercials before commercials?). Moving through this type of "pre-roll free" environment you really get to understand why the industry needs to move on to new advertiser integration models that are less disrespectful of the consumer's time and patience. Stay tuned on that score.

Yes, it is that time of year when every agency tries to outdo each other with the ultimate Holiday card site. I am giving the award to RGA this year for this hilarious use of new Flash "Papervision 3D" technology. After Christmas R/GA can just change the subject to Cupid and have a huge hit on Valentine's day as well. You'll know what I mean after you send your loved one a personalized tattooed Santa card.

If you want to know more about "how they did that" you can check out this overview and tutorial by Paul Spitzer, an ActionScript Architect writing on the Adobe Developer site. He says, "With the introduction of a new 3D engine, Papervision 3D, the creative control you can exert over Flash video has gotten a whole lot wilder". Just when you thought video playback was becoming a stable and standard "viral play" implementation. This new wildcard will ultimately allow ads and other related video to be played on the surfaces WITHIN a video! Far out.

Our Key Experiences team is already thinking of ways to leverage this within our programming and interfaces in 2008. I can't wait to see what they come up with.

There are few examples more startling of the transformation going on here at AOL than this viral ad created by the Marketing team. Whether or not you think it is funny and tasteful (everyone I have shown it to has laughed so far), the contrast to the bland customer-service-centric TV ads of two years ago is dramatic. Is this our company finally "getting" how to leverage the viral Web for marketing? I'd love to know your thoughts. My take? I am excited to have marketing attention on our websites, especially work this creative and unexpected. Let us know what you think...

It's old news now that House & Garden magazine will no longer be published, the December issue is the last. As far as the website goes, I'm not sure of its fate - but on that site is a page I refer to almost weekly:

Go ahead. Check it out. I'll wait...

Sites We Love


Back yet? See what I mean?

All that design.
One Page.
Possibly about to be killed.
So terrifying.

Get out your bookmarks folders and copy and paste like mad!

Does anyone know what will become of the site?

It's the most wonderful time of the year, right? The whole world decorates, the lights are up, the candles are ready, the air is crisp and full of spirit. We've all received holiday catalogs, been spammed with wonderful offers, and are struggling to schedule our holiday calendars to be full of cheer and low of stress. It's a time to give good tidings to all and special gifts of thanks and love.

This also happens to be the time when really cool interactive greeting cards make their way onto the stage. Instead of our usual daily gruel of news and RSS we finally get a chance to sink our dentures into some figgy pudding. This was my favorite from last year:


http://www.bigspaceship.com/holidaycard2006/

Brilliant! Make your own Mystery Science Theater 2000 piece... send it to others. How funny. How creative. How easy. How.. well, jolly!

Please sir, may I have some more?
Tell us about some of the best ones you remember?

Let's all try to put some silly (Ger. selig "blessed, happy, blissful") into our holidays (O.E. haligdæg, from halig "holy" + dæg "day").

Elizabeth Bruneau (Head Photo Editor for AOL Music) and I recently interviewed Photographers Smallz and Raskind to chat about musicians they have shot for AOL Sessions. The boys are our most prolific shooters, documenting a hodge-podge of musicians ranging from girly pop acts to dirty boy bands. Check out the video below for insight into the artists we have featured, and some exclusive photos you wont see anywhere else on AOL.

Whether or not you dig the music of pasty Icelanders Sigur Ros it is hard not to be stunned by the images of landscape and dreary still life worked into this fascinating concert movie trailer. The cinematography here is sublime (as is the music in my opinion). Find the biggest monitor you can and fire it up at HD (1080p) quality. Then crank the volume and prepare to soar. I never wanted to go to Iceland before now.

As far as the film itself: how often does Rotten Tomatoes show 100% compliance with the vision?

As part of the recent IAB Mixx Conference on online advertising I had the chance to face the cameras and discuss content and user experience strategy. These videos have surfaced on about.com, including some interesting interviews with other presenters at the conference.