Where do you find inspiration? This is a question that I recently fielded in a conversation via twitter. The answer to that question was way to complex for 140 character tweet.
While I am generally inspired by all sorts of smart people, when it comes to visual design I keep my eye on blogs and like minded designers.
here are a 8 new links and a IDEO video that have offered recent flavor:
This is one to watch! This is the first stage of a Nike journey that will ultimately see fans around the world write their own future through experiences that put them at the center of the action. In June, fans will be able to live like their heroes through a unique experience on nikefootball.com that generates ripple videos and visuals from their own photos and information, placing them at the center stage.
It was directed by renowned Hollywood director and producer Alejandro G. Iñarritu (21 Grams, Babel).
Footballers can use this creative to build their own Facebook campaign to get noticed and selected for “The Chance” – an elite Nike Academy football camp in partnership with the Barclays Premier League in England that allows players to get scouted and get noticed at the highest level of the game.
As many of you have
been following in the mainstream and tech media, in late April, Facebook [FB]
announced and launched a number of new and updated products for developers. This set of products is centered on the
Open Graph platform that allows the sites,
brands and apps to share information about users in order to tailor offers,
features and services. FB’s
approach will lead to a truly social semantic experience across the web.
Why do you want to integrate your
website or blog with Facebook?
Context. FB has amassed more than 400 million users, 100 million mobile Users, 100 millionFacebook Connect users
and 25 billion items shared each month on FB. While integrating
with FB may not be right for all businesses and situations, it will likely be a
valuable tool to create rich connections between marketers and their audiences.
What does that
mean for your brand today? Lets start with the social plug
ins. Imagine a person coming to your website
and knowing what their friends thought about the content of your site. FB has developed a set of portable social
plug-ins that will make it easy for users to see information from or about
their FB friends, share things with their friends or even log in to FB all
without leaving your site.
You may have recently noticed that the
fan page you were a “fan” of has become more of a community, company or brand
page that allows you to “like” it. When you “like” a brand or product page, their
content will appear in your personal news feed.The FB feed is the femoral artery of the FB and social
experience.If you are a brand who
wants prime real estate on the social web, the “like” button is the permission
you need to deilver your content into people’s daily lives.Under this new release the “like”
button is much more powerful and now more portable. You now can implement the “like” button,
with a line of code on to your website.
TheActivity Feed exposesthe actions your friends on any website. When you're logged
into FB and visit CNN.com, you will instantly see articles & topics your friends’
sharing, recommending & commenting on via Activity Feed.
The Recommendations Social Plug In helps make sites more relevant to you by highlighting content
based on top "Likes" across a site. Think of it as a people-powered
"most popular" list. For e.g., if logged into FB, a user can visit
your brand web page and instantly see articles, product summaries and features
that people are liking & sharing with their friends most often, in real
time.
The
portable FB Log In now lets you increase sign up rates at your site. This feature has the potential to
catapult the power of the social CRM space. The Log in with Faces plugin displays
your friend’s profile pictures that have already signed up for your site in
addition to a login button.
We cannot
forget the FB Social Bar. This nifty toolbar can be
added to the bottom of your site. The Social Bar includes a like
button, friends who like the site,
as well as Facebook chat. I expect to see chat addition groups pop up across the web.
What does this mean for consumers on sites in the FB ecosystem?
Tonight
when I visited Pandora,
using FB’s new
open graph protocol, I was able to see
that it picked up my FB music interests and recommended Bebel Gilberto’s latest and recommended that I create a Pandora
station because of it. Now
that what I call personalization.
The new FB platform
has jump-started the semantic web so that a users experience is
incredibly personal and social with easy and simplicity.
If you have not had a chance to check out this video of the f8 conference key note address, I highly recommend it for anyone who wants to connect their brands to consumers in a relevant way.
Last night's Saturday Night Live Mothers Day Special resurrected the best of SNL in the last 10 years. This resurrection was lead by Betty White who us gave us 90 minutes of non-stop laughs.
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Betty's appearance was made possible by a Facebook petition. The page was created to "encourage both Betty White AND Saturday Night Live that Betty would be a FANTASTIC choice to host SNL." A little over half a million Facebook Users clicked the "like" button and SNL listened.
The kicker of the night was the digital short. What began as a heartwarming collaboration of all Saturday Night Live current cast members and returning female all-stars paying tribute to White by singing “Thank You For Being A Friend,” then took a very dark, sadomasochistic turn. [video still not posted to hulu]
Last night NBC & SNL made TV relevant again with the power of a social media platform.
Awareness of Twitter has exploded from 5% of Americans 12+ in 2008 to 87% in 2010 (by comparison, Facebook's awareness is 88%)
Despite equal awareness, Twitter trails Facebook significantly in usage: 7% of Americans (17 million persons) actively use Twitter, while 41% maintain a profile page on Facebook.
Nearly two-thirds of active Twitter users access social networking sites using a mobile phone
51% of active Twitter users follow companies, brands or products on social networks.
I have found a ton of inspiration from them. Their Creative Design & Art Festival, Tokyo Graphic Passport 2010 will be held from 23rd to 29th September. They have just begun portfolio reviews and are looking for exhibitors. Check them out at http://www.grapass.net
If you have been watching my updates lately you have seen me reporting new finds in Harlem. I have been doing this with the new Nokia Nuron and Ovi Maps. Last month this mobile device was launched and we created the social platform and campaign that allows you to update your status through our banner ads, widgets, FB app.
Instead of limiting our audience to just facebook, we used a new social authentication API called Socialize from Gigya. This new service opened up the entire social web to our audience. From any one of our banners, widgets or sites you can update your status and share your location.
The Gigya Socialize service aggregates authentication and social APIs from Facebook Connect, MySpace ID, Twitter, Google, Yahoo, and AOL to allow for easy sharing. You can see it in action in the widget above.
What I love most about this feature is that it's a full on demonstration of how easy it is to share your location, tag a picture or place with the Nokia Nuron. Another cool feature is that the API allows you to customize just about everything in the status update. We were able to create branded status updates that link you to purchase the phone. [see below]
So...Where are you right now? Click the "share" button on the widget and let me know.
