Jersey, gorillas and cupcakes

This fun ad for Jersey Tourism France  combines video with animation in a real feel good format. A bit surreal at times but that adds to the charm.

It starts with a bored businessman being pulled into a colourful poster at a bus stop and then takes you on a tour around Jersey.

From gorillas to the white rabbit from Alice in Wonderland this certainly challenges the standard holiday ad treatment of beaches and sunshine - although the gorilla is seen heading off into the sunset on a golden beach with a surfer girl.

Definitely adds colour to your day - great work. See below or click this link.

Ready to make a monster?

If you're looking for something to keep yourself (or the children) occupied this Easter then download these great model monsters.

They are a promotional tool for a new film called Waste, that I am afraid we know nothing about. But on their website you can download a monster kit and see a demonstration video of how to make it.

There are three to make and we have added the video for one of them below.

Download them all from the Waste website here.

Hole to another universe

These wall stickers are great fun for any home - you could even buy them for the kids!

They are designed by Dan Golden Studio and available from Blik.

Mini Lego posters pop up around London

Keeping the lego theme going their new UK advertising for Legoland Windsor has featured mini Lego poster sites across London. The signs are 12-inches high and were placed around London and highlighted by Google Maps with those that found them being encouraged to share their photos on Twitter using a special hashtag.

The ads were created by DLKW Lowe - nice work but we did feature something similar for Channel 4's Seven Dwarves last year.

Google's right in front of your eyes

Take a look at the future with Google - a vision of your life in augmented reality with AR glasses that will allow you to interact with your world just like a phone; but these sit on your nose.

You certainly won't be able to ignore the small icons popping up in front of your eyes as you look at the sky, the tube or at your breakfast.

Google has already started testing the glasses and has created the video below to start a conversation around their potential uses and improvements.

They want your feedback so watch the video and then click here to make your suggestions.

Nike ad is a running romantic comedy

Fancy a bit of running romantic comedy - well this Nike ad will be a treat.

Featuring a couple living on opposite coasts in the US, it starts off quite cheesy but soon brings on the humour.

It is quite similar in style though to the Match.com ads running in the UK.

Directed by Rattling Stick's Ringan Ledwidge, the film promotes the Nike Free Run+ 3.

Skype challenges impersonal social media in new ad campaign

Skype has launched a new ad campaign challenging the lack of humanity in social media and focussing on the theory that technology makes communication more efficient, but less personal.  

In a $12 million campaign Skype looks to leverage consumer anxiety about alienation promoting that it is better to talk face to face than via text or Twitter. The campaign launched last week in transport hubs, like Heathrow Airport, with a series of ads by Pereira & O'Dell which challenge the superficiality of text-based technology like Facebook, Twitter and SMS.  

These are quite challenging and make you think about how social channels are changing our lives, similar to the impact that email had a few years back. We often talk in the office about how email has killed the art of conversation. How will social channles eventually change the way we communicate?

What do you think?

Scottish Minister for Energy opens FoundOcean’s Livingston facility

The Think Tank headed to Livingston, Scotland last week to help with the official opening ceremony of FoundOcean’s newly expanded Offshore Service Base. The event was held to celebrate FoundOcean’s achievements and the Scottish Minister for Energy, Enterprise and Tourism, Fergus Ewing, was guest of honour. He gave a passionate and humorous speech to the delight of the guests – in spite of an influx of overhead aircraft seemingly trying to drown out his voice! 



While stressing the need for businesses like FoundOcean to be able to transfer their technologies, services and products between industry sectors, Fergus also remarked that he had come a long way since the first opening ceremony where he was guest of honour, at a sewage works 12 years ago!  



The event also included guided tours around the facilities with FoundOcean’s offshore personnel explaining the function of equipment to the guests – representatives of offshore oil and gas, and renewables companies, industry bodies, media and even the RNLI. 



FoundOcean is the global leader in subsea and offshore grouting, which to translate into layman’s terms means fixing offshore structures like oil and gas platforms and wind farms to the sea bed. 



The opening ceremony was a huge success and with more offshore projects in the pipeline than ever before the future looks bright for FoundOcean. The company is celebrating doubling its revenue and personnel since 2009.



Find out more about Found Ocean here.

An ABC of monsters takes you back in time

Taking you back to those sleepless nights when monsters entered your dreams, 'ABC Monsters' by La Pompodour is a great short film that combines animation with sound effects to spine chilling effect.

A great compilation (and not really that frightening). Enjoy a bit of nostalgia.

Fancy dress rugby played on Hong Kong's streets

For all you rugby fans out there - or anyone who fancies a bit of a laugh - take a look at this ad for HSBC created by JWT London.

It promotes HSBC's sponsorship of the 2012 Hong Kong Sevens and sees teams dressed in fancy dress playing rugby through Hong Kong's streets.

Legionaires take on elves and cowboys take on samarai.

High powerd and very exciting. Enjoy.

The amazing musical jelly game

Be prepared to be amazed by musical jelly - if science kits did this when I was a kid I may have taken more notice in chemistry lessons.

Raphaël Pluvinage and Marianne Cauvard have developed Noisy Jelly, a game that allows players to create their own musical instrument out of jelly.

Using a mini chemistry lab, players make their own set of jellies using water, agar agar powder and a series of molds. The jelly shapes are then placed on the game board, and can be manipulated to create sound.

The video for the project has not been edited for sound and needs to be seen and heard to be believed...

Selling cars Bollywood style

We found this great ad for Nissan India, called New Star of India, which takes car marketing to a new level with a four and a half minute Bollywood extravaganza.

The ad features Bollywood star Ranbir Kapoor and includes a cast of thousands, 100 Nissan Micra's and an elephant. It tells the story of two star-crossed lovers in true Bollywood style.

Its a bit long but well worth the watch. Enjoy, you can't help tapping your feet.

 

Ad by AKQA, San Francisco

A must for design and typography enthusiasts

Here's a great gift for any design and typography enthusiast - a limited edition Scrabble set that comes in a beautiful solid walnut storage case with drawer and a six-panel solid walnut, magnetized gameboard lined with slip free cork.

The solid walnut tiles feature a variety of different and exciting fonts and each limited edition set is signed and numbered.

There are only 1,200 available and when we posted this there were only 99 reminaing so you would have to be quick.

This very stylish game is available from Winning Solutions in the US.

World's largest paper plane takes to the skies

The 'Great Paper Airplane Project' was organised by the PIMA Air and Space Museum, Tucson, Arizona and involved the launch of the world's largest paper airplane.

This amazing feat of engineering measured 45 feet (13.7m) long with a wingspan of 24 feet (7.3m) and was named the 'Desert Eagle'. It was fabricated from Falcon Board, a form of corrugated cardboard, and weighed 800 pounds with a design based an award winning normal-sized paper airplane, created by a 12-year-old Arturo Valdenegro, which was entered in the museum's fly-off competition.

This design was then adapted by one of the designers of the B-2 Stealth Bomber, Art Thompson, and to launch this amazing plane the 'Desert Eagle' was towed into the air by a helicopter to a height of 2,700 feet and released.

It flew for a total of about ten seconds and reached speeds of up to 100mph (161 km/hr) before crash landing as a result of stress on its tail.

Have a look at the video below to see the flight.

The Think Tank heads off to Nordbygg, Sweden

Did you know that Nordbygg is the biggest building exhibition in Northern Europe? I did (as I have been working on it for a few months)…but last week I attended the fair and was reminded by anyone to whom I said " Förlåt, jag prata inte Svenska" (I don’t speak Swedish) as they immediately wanted to be sure that this non-Swede knew how proud of the exhibition they are.  

Well, they should be…with three halls packed to the brim at Stockholmmassen, just 10 minutes outside of Central Stockholm, this event is full of tools, materials and everything you can think of to do with the building industry. Over three days I had the opportunity to speak to journalists from many Scandinavian publications and experience the building industry from a completely different cultural perspective.  

I had the privilege of going to Stockholm with our client Formica Group to help launch its VIVIX exterior facade panels. Offering opportunities to play with colour and shape, VIVIX panels can complement or add interest to office buildings, public, cultural and sports facilities, transportation centres, industrial buildings, educational facilities, residential developments and more.

Eva Hoernisch, Formica Group Design Manager, Europe, was on hand and together we were able to take a few moments to explore the building materials section. With her eye on colour Eva spotted a stand with insulation sample pieces in the most beautiful colour palette. We were dumbfounded at first as to why insulation would be so colourful until we realised it correlated to different degrees of density. VERY clever!  

With room for FIKA (traditional Swedish coffee and cake), a little of bit of Swedish entertainment and a lot of hard work, being part of Nordbygg was definitely an experience to remember.

Developing a brand to Nurture growth

The Think Tank was recently briefed to create, from conception, a new brand and identity for a recently incorporated property asset management company and the subsequent launch of the business in the North West area of the UK.

We worked with the client on a selection of brand names and identities until Nurture was chosen for this fledgling company, complementing their ethos of asset growth through effective management.

Through a coordinated campaign of advertising, PR, direct mail, telesales and social media we launched the business to landlords and tenants across the North West, delivering enquiry and new contracts and raising the profile of the brand. The campaign focussed upon Nurture's Guaranteed Rent scheme and the offer of a Free Gas Safety Certification for new customers. Advertising and PR in the local property pages was supported by a direct mail campaign and telesales to local landlords. The brand profile was further raised through social media activity focussed upon Twitter and LinkedIn.

There has been a great response to the marketing so far and the campaign continues.

Lift your spirits with Cumulus and Nimbus

This is a bit of fun - a very endearing short animation that lifts you into the clouds.

Cumulus and Nimbus by We Think Things.

 

Cumulus & Nimbus from we think things on Vimeo.

Get 3D printing at home

Earlier this week we mentioned the Universal Construction Kit - a free downloadable selection of adaptors for some of the world's best loved construction kits. The only problem was that you needed a 3D printer to make them.

Well now you have the chance to get your very own 3D printer for your home.

According to their website, ' The MakerBot Replicator™ is the ultimate personal 3D printer, with single or dual extrusion (2-color printing)--and a bigger printing footprint, giving you the superpower to print things BIG!'

Have a look at what can be achieved in the video below. (And sorry but it will set you back $1,749).

Don't get type cast with Type Connection

For all designers and budding typographers out there this new typographic dating game, Type Connection, helps you pair and compare typefaces to your hearts content.

Have fun!