Blog 3 - ADA award weaners

I went through all of the designs in the mobile design, video and motion categories, animation, live action and motion graphics...and the two that I was most attracted to were the two that were the most simplistic and easy to use, yet were peppered with stream lined elegance and purpose. Let me just say as a preface before I reveal my "fabuloso two"...with ever increasing interfaces for new technologies, simplicity in design and ease of use for any multimedia/technology appliance will become critical. "Dumbing" down the interface to more powerful technologies will become a integral component to human interactive technologies.
Ok...so down with the nitty-gritty blogging for the assignment.

My first nomination for outstanding performance at the ADA awards nominations is for Valentina Venza from Italy. First up, I like her profile picture. The "3 babe" triangle. Excellent design group idea, to design people you are close to. I am guessing "she" primary babe designer, is the one juxtaposition right next to the name "Valentina Venza". With Maria Tasca and Valeria Donati, the 3 some make a good design team in terms of usable designs being marketed to currently applicable products.

Nokia is being sold here for sure with the display of the "NOKIA N73.
With the vibrant colors, ease of use display, (in 2 and 3) it's easy to see a young urban market type gravitating towards the colors of the design interface and the simplistic navigation. The 90 degree curves are great, swept with ambient gradients. The demographic of all of these designs would attract any age group, male or female that enjoys identifying with visually pleasing design and simplistic ease of use. Simplicity, employing more powerful technologies.
One of the things that really stands out in my mind as to what makes these works great is the fact that the design interface for the NOKIA is so simple. The information is displayed clearly and there is unused space elsewhere on screen that identifies the rest of the space. The creative approach taken here is "eye popping" warm colors that make this piece of technology "warm and fuzzy" to humans, making the NOKIA warm to touch with the clear text and information dialogue box.

I am sure this was either created in Photoshop or Illustrator (well, 92.367 % sure) using the grid and colors that are complementary and pleasing to look at.

I can't imagine, unless the screen interface was bigger, that this would be a good layout for someone who couldn't see closeup as well unless there was a zoom function. It may be a struggle for the near sited to melsh with this campaign design.

This design is memorable for its warm colors and simplicity. It feels balance and well constructed on the grid. For such a small design layout, the grid must be kept simple and balance to perform it's job as a communication/interface device for the slow humans, tech creators.

I believe that if the advertiser were able to "picky back" on this design, they could track everything digitally. Embed a "01 1011 00 10 0110 0100" somewhere that enables the check writing corporations to know where the money is going and who is subscibing to the product and it's interface design.

The idea with technology is to shorten the learning curve all the while extending your own personal broadcast. This first design sequence is great as it lineates itself with simplicity.


For my number two award as "worth mentioning for this blog is from the "Live Action" portion and comes in from Germany. Mathias Kohl and Christoph Schulter are the designers for the still story boards and motion graphics. I picked this because I don't speak German. My girlfriend does, but I didn't ask her to translate as she is too tires. Even though I am not sure exactly what is being advertisedI love the use of line, grid, overlays, masking and all else that make these all great pieces and memorable for the black and white back ground, the nostalgic black and white story line, further supported by the detective type character player.
Looking at the content matter, like the hiking boot white mask imagery or the graph over black and white video implies a preferred demographic. Male/female, 30's to 40's. Definitly the age group the video indicates would be an adventuresome group with the funds to adventure. A detective is looking for clues in the video media.

I think the motion graphics these guys created and the masking layers are successful because the are white and mesh well with the black and white images and video layers they are super imposed over.

The creative approach taken appeals to media philes, adventurers, mystery lovers. The crisp lines, black and white tones and the video background and masked front layers interplay an interesting rhetoric. The masked footprint exaggerated the paper print behind it. The planes of both line up nicely.

I think the measure of success on this piece could be gauged in web hits.

I suspect the brand behind the scene is Stiefelabdruck. I'll have to ask my lady what that means.