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How do we stay fresh?

Fresh

We make it our job to stay abreast of cultural, social, economic and industry trends—things that influence us and, in turn, you. What's caught our eye lately? What kept us up last night? What can we not stop thinking about? Or looking at? Or dreaming of? Stuff like this ... 

• Jun16

  Take Away Shows

  Posted in Websites by Danielle Stowell Permalink

  Witnessing your favorite music performed live, and sharing that experience with the sea of people that surround you is, for most music enthusiasts, just about as good as it gets - regardless of what musical genre you prefer.

  What I love about the Take Away Shows on LaBlogotheque.net is that it gives you that concert experience, but with an appealing twist. Often there is no audience.

  The Take Away Shows showcase clips of somewhat lesser-known indie bands performing completely out of their traditional element. A few examples include: crammed into a freight elevator (#41.1 - Arcade Fire "Neon Bible"), on a subway train in Paris (#87.1 - Yeasayer "No Need to Worry"), or one of my personal favorites, being pushed around a warehouse on a loading cart (#35.1 - Cold War Kids "St. John").

  These clips give you a very intimate experience with the band, even though you're not there in person. The small audiences that do form around the spectacle (often unwittingly) add to the spontaneous, stripped-down feel of the performance. I am only familiar with a fraction of the bands featured on the site, but those of you with a more sophisticated musical palate might find some of your favorites.

  

  I just happened to stumble upon this musical goldmine one day, so I'm afraid I can't offer much of a background on the creators of the site itself. The main page of the site is in French, and my efforts to figure out how to view the page in English proved futile. I was, however able to determine that the Take Away Shows are just one component of the blog, which also offers opinions about current events, the arts, and world culture in general. Vincent Moon, often the contributing videographer of the Take Away Shows has dedicated the better part of his 20s to making films about music.

• Jun16

  Covering Bond

  Posted in Books by Arlo Guthrie Permalink

  There really is something to how the British approach book covers these days. For every Chip Kidd in the United States, there are several designers under the Union Jack taking the craft of book design seriously.

  Of note: the new series of Ian Fleming novels coming soon in the UK:

  

  The explanation over at The Penguin Blog does an excellent job of discussing the development of these covers. I will, however, direct your attention to this paragraph: "The centenary of Fleming's birth was clearly a good time to revisit the Bonds and cover them in a package that says, yes these are fun, but also makes it implicit that there's no reason not to take them seriously. Most importantly, they should look like books worth owning." I can't think of a more accurate, concise example of the power that design wields that I've read in recent memory.

• May10

  Brand New

  Posted in Websites by Arlo Guthrie Permalink

  

  Brand New examines the design of brands, most notably when a company chooses to refine their branding. The above example shows the before and after of SanDisk's new brand. An interview with the creative director behind the new branding reveals a number of profound insights into the process of developing a single mark meant to express an entire business mission to a broad audience.

• May09

  Fresh. Home baked goodness from ProActive.

  Posted in Ideas by Mick Brennan Permalink

  We have raised the curtain on a wholly new website. ProActive's online habitat has evolved. Advancing technology has enhanced the overall user experience, fine-tuning the way we present information in this section and elsewhere.

  But while Fresh uses an array of bleeding-edge tools behind the scenes, our people and culture power this section. Fresh illuminates what excites and motivates ProActive, inside our industry and well beyond.
  
  The categories are pretty self-explanatory. WEBSITES features posts about, and content from, unique and influential websites; MAGAZINES offers the same for magazines; and BOOKS, well, books.
  
  The lynchpin of Fresh, and the grouping we're most excited about, is IDEAS. This collection details bigger picture ... paradigm destroying ... genre-defining stuff. IDEAS is about something brilliant that happened in the last 24 hours, the innovators responsible for it, and what's next.
  
  Most importantly, IDEAS is the domain of ProActive thought-leaders, and it spotlights our vision of, and aspirations for, transforming audiences through strategic brand communication.

   

• May07

  Pitchfork.tv

  Posted in Websites by Mick Brennan Permalink

  MTV used to show music videos. Lots of them, even during the day.

  In the beginning, MTV would show anything programmers could get their hands on. This meant the channel showed a pretty diverse assortment of videos. Established artists added to their record sales. New acts became stars.

  Eventually though, MTV tightened its playlist, relegating the more underground-leaning acts to smaller and smaller windows of airtime. Fast-forward to higher-ups at MTV deciding they need to get back to the channel's original spirit. Moments later, MTV2 is born.

  MTV2 used to show music videos. Lots of them, even during the day.

  Then reality shows happened ... and Ashton Kutcher.

  So much the way independent record labels rose to prominence in the early '90s, parlaying major label cluelessness into success on their own terms, wildly influential music site Pitchfork Media has launched Pitchfork.tv.

  

  Pitchfork.tv is "the first ever music video channel dedicated to the documentation of independent music." The site features original performances and documentaries, complete concerts, interviews, and a robust collection of music videos.

  Like the website, and music scene, that spawned it, Pitchfork.tv is an independent enterprise, affording its contributors "the freedom and control to stay true to (their) creative vision."

   

• May07

  Antenna Magazine

  Posted in Magazines by Mick Brennan Permalink

  Antenna refers to itself as "the first mainstream magazine to target individuals who are on a constant quest for the newest and coolest products on the horizon." That's a bit hyperbolic.

  But Antenna is the latest, and most adventurously executed, example of a trend in publishing that includes Lucky, Domino, and Complex — magazines, more to the point "style catalogs," that feature page after page of hotly-tipped items, accompanied by their prices.

  

  Antenna sets itself apart by focusing on the pieces themselves ... meaning no celebrities, no models and no concept shoots. Everything from limited edition Nikes to leather jackets to shaving cream, is presented in supremely art-directed fashion, amidst brief articles about the creators and purveyors of the goods.

  Oh, and the products appear in alphabetical order, so the four-page spread of jeans comes before the two-page spread of satellite phones.

• May07

  Feed Me

  Posted in Ideas by Arlo Guthrie Permalink

  ProActive creates experiences. Often, they foster a unified community, like our recent work with Thomson West. Sometimes, our client’s audience needs an individual experience, like what we did for Volkswagen.

  When creating the new ProActiveInc.com, we saw an opportunity to demonstrate our awareness and understanding of the cultural online experience and the instant community that can form around it. This became Fresh.

  We didn’t stop there. We made our content available as an RSS feed. You can get as much or as little content from us as you want by choosing a feed in the bottom right corner of every page. Also, when you see the  icon next to someone’s name in Fresh, you can exclusively subscribe to that person’s posts. (So if you like reading long-winded articles about esoteric internet technologies, subscribe to my feed.)

  But wait, what is an RSS feed, you ask?

  It is one of the technologies truly catalyzing the culture shift in the online experience. The story of RSS, or even what it stands for, is a complicated tale (Wikipedia’s take, if you’re interested). Think of RSS as your favorite beverage. The website is merely the drinking glass, the vessel from which you enjoy that refreshing drink.

  Using RSS, websites offer a feed. Hungry for your favorite website’s latest content, you subscribe to that feed. Every time the website adds new content, the RSS file is updated. Your computer periodically checks that RSS file, captures what's new and delivers it to you. Voilà.

  But why stop at one website? The technology truly shines when you subscribe to a variety of feeds, allowing you to receive all of the freshest content from all of your favorite sites, all in one place. Talk about an individual experience!

  How to subscribe? There are many options. All major web browsers now support RSS. Many email clients, like Outlook 2007 and Apple Mail, also support RSS so updated content appears like new email. Google offers Google Reader for online aggregation. NewsGator offers several stand-alone RSS readers, including some for mobile phones. 

  Remember our "RSS feed as your favorite beverage" metaphor? Now you can use any tumbler you want.

  Because an RSS feed provides raw content, it is easy to share. The sidebar widgets in WordPress offer users the option to include an RSS feed on their own website to display, for example, links from del.icio.us. Google Reader allows users to share RSS content with other Google Reader users.

  And then there are the mash ups, when users take feeds and reshape the content in new and unique ways. FriendFeed allows a user to collect content from all their social networking activities and turn it into one master feed. Twittervision takes the data from the popular microblogging service Twitter and displays where users are posting from on a map. Yahoo! Pipes uses a graphical interface that allows users to create their own mashups. Want an RSS feed of every article from The New York Times, BBC News, and The Washington Post that mentions “Burma?" Here it is, and it only took a few minutes to make.

  Before RSS feeds, web content was served in someone else’s drinking glass. Now you're the bartender, mixing favorites for yourself and your friends.

  ProActive strives to be at the forefront of what’s new in the experience business, and the online experience is no different. Subscribe to our feeds, and we’ll make sure that your feed reader of choice is always filled with fresh content.

• May06

  Film Buffing

  Posted in Websites by James Kinney Permalink

  This year I received one of the more thoughtful gifts anyone could give a (self-proclaimed) movie snob like me ... a six-month subscription to a group called Film Movement. Similar to a book of the month club, Film Movement sends its members highly decorated, festival award-winning films—that may or may not make the studio cut—once a month.

  In an effort to promote underrated, and more importantly, under-marketed independent film, Film Movement's curatorial board delivers selections months, if not years, before you might see them on the big screen. The board includes directors of top film organizations, like Roger Ebert's Overlooked Film Festival.
  
  A community forum of reviews and raves is cultivated via Film Movement's website and newsletters, and subscribers are strongly encouraged to submit comments. Having worked the Sundance Film Festival, I enjoy the ego-stroking ability to discuss films even more obscure than those shown annually in the overbooked, broom closet-sized theaters of Park City, Utah.
  
  Genre and tone of the choices varies monthly. And each film is yours to own, complete with synopsis articles, additional details on the filmmaker, and awarded honors. One of my favorite features is the bonus short on each disc.
  
  The club offers true fans of film—and aspiring writers, directors and producers—a broad look at international independent cinema. The website is worth a look as well; it gives subscribers discounts on Film Movement's catalogue of previously released films, and allows searches by genre, language, and festival.
  
  I'm currently on my second month with Matthew Saville's Noise, an Australian police drama.