Described on iTunes as –
“An interactive anthology of Classic Cars. Made specifically for the iPad – it comes alive with rich video, audio and cutting-edge design.”
I think Road Inc has to be one of the prettiest and most enjoyable to use Apps out there. As someone who knows nothing about cars (and has very little interest in them) I was surprised by how much I like playing with it. The 3D rotatable models, extremely clean and intuitive navigation and beautiful imagery make the whole experience a joy. Had it been designed for desktop, or even mobile, it wouldn’t have worked. It being for iPad suits the more laid back browsing style and is what makes it so successful. If you have a spare half hour (which may turn into longer once you start unveiling more models…) download it and take a look. Well worth every penny.
You can download it from the iTunes store here – https://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/road-inc.-legendary-cars/id458600673?mt=8
Introducing The Britain (to quote the campaign..), the first multi-platform ‘experience’ I’ve designed while freelancing at Burberry! Designed as a form of micro-site within the main Burberry.com site, it’s purpose is to promote their new range of watches. With mobile and tablet visitors to the site increasing daily it was a necessity for it to work across all devices, and I think the result does that pretty well! It has a separate mobile version, with a crystallisation of content (as well as some nice mobile specific features), and a responsive version for desktop and both tablet aspects. Some nifty (or “whizzy”, as The Guardian called them…) features include a real time and real weather watch on mobile, and 360 rotatable and exploding 3D versions of the hero watch on desktop/tablet.
You can take a look and have a play here – uk.burberry.com
Designed while working for: Burberry
Creative direction: Marga Arrom Bibiloni & Chester Chipperfield
Interesting second issue of POST’s iPad magazine. I’m not totally sold on the design of the copy sections, but some nice ideas throughout. They describe it on iTunes as –
“…an extra-terrestrial exploration of the ways in which humanity has sought to transcend this invisible force that binds all of life. Pushing the boundaries of what can be achieved on the iPad, POST Gravity opens with a groundbreaking, interactive 3D fashion story powered by infra-red technology in which users can distort, bend and flip the dimensions of model Iselin Steiro.”
I especially like the interactive beauty shoot, with the twinkling galaxy reflecting off the visors, which through hiding the product from initial view built a nice intrigue before the user unveils them. Other nice features are the interactive 3D models in the ‘Inner Space’ Shoot, as well as the skydiving models in the ‘The Man Who Fell To Earth’ shoot. Overall some really nice concepts, and all pretty slickly executed. I look forward to seeing what they come up with in their next edition!
You can download it on iTunes here – itunes.apple.com/app/post-gravity/
A simple update to the Burberry Tailoring experience. Comprising of a nice parallax to transition between modules and a selection of carousels to provide additional detail in the areas Burberry wanted to highlight. Designed to work on touch devices and desktop it’s a fluid, interactive experience that hopefully packs in all of the information while still looking uncluttered.
You can take a look for yourself here – uk.burberry.com/tailoring/
Designed while working for: Burberry
Creative direction: Marga Arrom Bibiloni & Chester Chipperfield
Some nice UX from the BBC with their new BBC iPlayer Radio App. Using the dial at the base of the page you can now scroll through stations with your thumb and tap to choose. Simple, but very nice and smooth to use. There are some other handy features too, like setting an alarm so your favourite show wakes you up, on demand shows from the past seven days and the ability to stream through AirPlay. It’s a pity they didn’t carry the design through to their iPad counterpart, but still a good addition on mobile.
You can download it from iTunes here – https://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/iplayer-radio/id560458506?mt=8
When it comes to iPhone apps ones for weather reporting must be up there with transport apps. My main issue with most of them, however, is the amount of information they try to pack in often makes them confusing and cluttered. This is where WTHR by David Elgena steps in. Designed and inspired using Dieter Rams’ ten principles of “good design” it tells you what you need to know, and in the simplest way. It’s clean, tactile feel supported by simple iconography make it a pleasure to use, and they’ve even thrown a nice ‘night’ version to boot.
You can download the App here
Or see more of David Elgena’s work on his site here – www.DavidElgena.com
I’m pleased to say my first project for Selfridges has gone live! With the brief of finding a way to integrate their growing editorial and events based content into their mobile experience it was an interesting one too. Designed to proxy the content from their ‘What’s On’ and ‘What’s In’ sections on the main Selfridges site it takes a live feed from each section and re-styles it to be a little more mobile friendly. With a simple second level navigation separating the two sections, full width imagery as a preview for the articles and a handy filtering system it makes the process of finding an event or article much less frustrating. As additional features I also added in a geo-locate to find events near you and a nifty Shop/Share footer, just in case the user quite likes anything featured.
You can check it out on the Selfridges mobile site here (if you’re on a mobile that is…) –
Beautiful iPad app by Spring Creative for fashion photographer Sølve Sundsbø. Conceived by Sundsbø and styled by Marie Chaix, it plays on the old mix and match body parts concept. As you swipe through you can create your own combination of the video assets as well as moving and expanding each element, which in itself is a lot of fun to play with, but you can also tilt and the accelerometer angles the image depending on your tilt. The first time I played with it I had my sound turned off and I still enjoyed it, just for the pure aesthetic of the app, but with sound on it transforms into a different experience. The two bespoke tracks mixed by James Lavelle also react to tilt, so as you tilt it the ethereal track slows down and warps with your movement.
For the purists who think all apps need to serve a purpose I’m not sure how useful it is, I don’t think it was ever intended to be, but for something to enjoy looking at and playing with I’d recommend it to anyone. Also, it’s free. So you’ve got nothing to lose!
If you’d like to have a play you can download the app from the iTunes store here
And you can see more of Spring Creative or Sølve Sundsbø’s work here:
www.springstudios.com/springcreative
www.solvesundsbo.info
The latest interactive project from Google Creative Lab’s Aaron Koblin and Director Chris Milk, ‘This Exquisite Forest’, has gone live this week at The Tate Modern. A clever take on an old surrealist parlour game called ‘Exquisite Corpse’, where each person adds to a composition before passing it on to someone else to continue, they’ve developed a version which runs concurrently within Tate Modern and online. The initial digital ‘saplings’ have been created by Tate favourites Miroslaw Balka, Olafur Eliasson, Dryden Goodwin, Raqib Shaw, Julian Opie, Mark Titchner and Bill Woodrow. From these animations anyone with browser access can choose to continue on the same story, or to take it in a different direction and create a new ‘branch’, using a web based drawing tool developed by Google for the project. As the submissions grow, so will the forest, creating an almost completely user generated art installation of animated ‘leaves’ from around the globe.
You can visit This Exquisite Forest online here (only supported in Google Chrome though, of course…) – www.exquisiteforest.com
Also, check out their previous collaboration on Arcade Fire’s ‘The Wilderness Downtown’ here, another great digital project.
Nice work from Bunker Design for the London College of Fashions 2012 promo video. Using a combination of split screens, reflected shots and playfulness they’ve managed to create an engaging and entertaining promo, while still showing off the student’s collections.
You can see more of the students work/collections here – showtime.arts.ac.uk/lcf/
and you can see more of Bunkers work here bunker-london.com
