Stephen Gates - Interactive Creative Director - Web Design, Online Advertising & Marketing Blog

Get this blog any way you want it.

noreply@blogger.com (Stephen Gates) — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 23:13:15 -0500

I wanted to let everyone know about some upgrades I have been doing to the blog to make reading it easier than ever before. First, I have installed a completely new subscription service so you can get updates sent to your email, Skype, AOL IM, Twitter (as a public or private post), Microsoft Messenger and Yahoo! Messenger. You can sign up for any or all of it in the right hand column right above the Facebook banner. Speaking of Facebook, I have added the blog to the Facebook Blog Network so you can keep up with everything through your Facebook page. Hope you like it and that it makes reading easier.

10 Realizations For Productivity & Making Ideas Happen

noreply@blogger.com (Stephen Gates) — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 19:44:37 -0500

Behance.com is far and away my favorite online creative community for the quality of their content and their members. They recently published an article to their online magazine called "10 Realizations For Productivity & Making Ideas Happen" that explores the concept that there are too many ideas in the world and not enough action. It then goes through ten tips they put together from interviewing hundreds of the most productive individuals and teams in the world. It's worth the read no matter what your experience.

Scion: United

noreply@blogger.com (Stephen Gates) — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 22:05:14 -0500

Scion probably does digital better than any other car company out there right now and their latest entry is called United by Individuality. It follows on the heels of Scion Speaks and Scion Little Deviants which were both very well done and also stayed consistent to their core values of creativity, personalization, authenticity, and community.

This new site asked owners to submit images of their stock to wildly customized Scion's and the 300 chosen vehicles are the stars of their new campaign which is supported by this new site. The centerpiece of the site is their new tv commercial that is broken down into numerous large blocks and shows a pixelated version of the commercial with each block represented by one of the 300 chosen vehicles. You can turn this pixelated grid on and off so you can flip between this mosaic and the real commercial. The rest of the site is made up of behind the scenes commercial, photos of the cars, copies of the advertising and various downloads.

In the end the site falls flat for me for me because the site doesn't do anything but play a supporting role to the print and tv. Their last two outings have been smart, robust and engaging experiences but here all the content is either the ad campaign, it's supporting assets or behind the scenes content. The video mosaic of the TV commercial is an interesting presentation and use of the assets but I've seen it on a number of other sites. I don't know if it because of tightening budgets or because the model year has pretty much come to a close but I hope their next effort brings them back to form.

IE8 to block online advertising... sort of.

noreply@blogger.com (Stephen Gates) — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 21:37:22 -0500

It doesn't seem like Microsoft can ever release a new version of Internet Explorer without it causing some big problem (Blocking Flash content anyone) and get everyone in an uproar. Their latest version, IE8, is still only in beta and it's "InPrivate" feature has a lot of people in ad industry worried that it could block their ability to distribute, track and even profit on online advertising. The feature lets users surf without caching any content like the URLs visited or cookies. It even tells users about sites that consistently try to track their browsing histories and will automatically block third-party content if it detects that the third party has seen the user more than 10 times. In plain English that means that if a third party is stephengates.com and it I have ads on 10 different sites a user visited during an InPrivate session, it will begin to block stephengates.com tracking codes and possibly even my content on the 11th website.

So with the market share that IE has it is concerning about what this could do to the online ad industry and it makes Microsoft look like they are really look out for the consumer. That held up until I talked to some friends about all of this and found out that Microsoft is talking out of both sides of their face as they have sent tips for publishers and advertisers on how to get third-party content and ads seen during these session. The one that came up the most was that you can get around it by serving online ads directly from your site which makes the advertising then first party instead of third party and it will pass through the filter.

Real time information design - DIGG Labs Arc

noreply@blogger.com (Stephen Gates) — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 10:20:42 -0500

I am a sucker for great information design and I have thought for a long time that what Digg labs does with it in real time is probably the best I have ever seen. I first wrote about Digg labs back in November of 2006 with their Swarm information display and today I was cleaning out old entries that I never published and realized I never wrote about my favorite tool - Digg arc. The concept here is again the information display of stories in real time as people Digg them on Digg.com. The stories arrange themselves in a circle in color coded groups depending on their subject matter like science, lifestyle or entertainment. The screen name of the user who created the Digg appears around the outside and if they Digg more than one story during the session then a connector line appears between all of the stories they have acted on. You can also down arc as a screensaver which is interesting since it is able to run for a longer session than you would normally have in a web browser so the resulting chart is really elaborate.

Audi should have left their iPhone app in the garage

noreply@blogger.com (Stephen Gates) — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 23:08:06 -0500

It's obvious by now that the words 'iPhone app' have replace 'social networking' on the lips of agencies and designers everywhere lately as we all scramble to find an effective way to use this new tool in the toolbox. The first attempt I have seen came this week from Audi who launched The Audi A4 Driving Challenge. It's a game that let's you drive the new A4 by using the iPhone's motion sensing accelerometers to steer the car from a SpyHunter like top down view. You have to drive the car through three solo laps in a series of five courses. The game is supposed to be about precision and not "pedal to the metal" driving so it favors slow and steady instead of more video game like driving. This all sounds good until you play the game and you quickly question if the precision driving angle of the game came from the concept or was used to explain away the glitchy controls that only seem to work when the car is moving at a crawl. In their case the game just isn't fun and certainly doesn't make you want to have that experience everyday if it is what it is like to drive an A4.

The obvious question is could something like this help put an A4 into a consumers consideration set when they are going to buy a new car. In this case I can answer first hand as I am about to buy a new car and the Audi A4 and S5 were finalists in my consideration set since I love their new design style and I even like the new site for the A4. I can say for me there is nothing about this experience that did anything but hurt my perception of their cars because in the end this game which is supposed to help sell a dynamic sports car is about as much fun as your teenage driving test.

2 brands enter, 1 brand leave

noreply@blogger.com (Stephen Gates) — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 09:41:51 -0500

Back in May I wrote about BrandTags.net that was created by Noah Brier who is a strategist with Naked Communications and had launched an this interesting experiment to explore the popular perception of numerous major brands. Over the past few months there are a lot more brands participating and a lot more people participating so it continues to be a great experiment and knowledge center. They have just added a new wrinkle called Battle Mode where you are shown two brands chosen at random and asked to choose the one you like better. It is again a really interesting exercise when you put different brands that represent different products in different categories together and you choose based on your perception of them and hopefully not their logo design. When you get tired of going through the battle you can go to the leaderboard to see which brands win their fights most often. It comes as no surprise that Pixar, Adidas, Ferrari, Google and Lego make up the top 5 tight now. It again will be interesting to see how this evolves and changes as more brands get involved and more people people take part in the battle.

Evernote - A concepting, notetaking iPhone app

noreply@blogger.com (Stephen Gates) — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 08:38:06 -0500

One of the burdens of the new App Store for the iPhone is that you really have no choice but to download a lot of apps, try them out and trash what you don't like. For the past week I have been using a new one called Evernote that has quickly become the most used one on my phone. At it's core it is just a not taking application where you can record your ideas in writing, photos or voice recordings and this isn't anything earth shattering. The thing that made it special and has me using it so much is that in addition to the iPhone app you can also download a desktop version or log in to a web version which are all synced together. Each version is a little different so the voice recording that is on the iPhone becomes iSight notes on the desktop version and it adds the ability to take screenshots and attach those to notes which isn't in the other two versions. It is the ability to sync all of this together and the fact that they have created each version to take advantage of it's platform that makes it work so. The more I use it the more I way way of working with it changes to take advantage of it's features. The only addition I would love would be the ability to have a sketch pad in the iPhone version so I can concept on the run but their solution is concept on paper and then take a photo of it.

Great typography site

noreply@blogger.com (Stephen Gates) — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 19:58:09 -0500

Thanks to my father I am type hound where bad typography and kerning cause my physical pain. I have always been disappointed that I could never find a really good site that was either bout or featured great typography. A few weeks ago I found the aptly titles ILoveTypography.com and my search was finally over. The site has everything from work samples to a game where you can test your knowledge of typography and type faces. It is worth putting in your daily bookmark routine if you love typography or just need a little inspiration.

IDEO site redesign

noreply@blogger.com (Stephen Gates) — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 20:30:14 -0500

Icon creative think tank and agency IDEO has re-design their Web site. The site is an almost white paper style catalog of their varied works of creativity which is what you would expect but what I really like is that the site bring IDEO's culture and process to life. Both of those celebrate doing things as transparent process that is sometimes messy and always highly creative.

SG.com Blog lands in the Junta42

noreply@blogger.com (Stephen Gates) — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 20:09:17 -0500

I got an email over the weekend that my blog had landed on the new Junta42.com Top Blog ranking for this year at #30. The total ranking is actually for 172 sites but as the name of site indicates the top 42 get top billing. For me the best part of all of it is that part of the score comes readers voting on the site. So go, join up and vote now to keep it heading up the list!

Ralph Lauren brings QR codes to the U.S.

noreply@blogger.com (Stephen Gates) — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 20:40:47 -0500

I was in NYC today for a few meetings and picked up a New York Magazine at the news stand in Grand Central and on the back page I found a Ralph Lauren Polo ad with a huge QR code in the corner.

For those who don't know QR stand for "Quick Response" and is a square shaped label that looks like a cross between a bar code and crossword puzzle. They have been around since 1994 and are used a lot in China and Japan for everything from advertising, c-commerce (cell commerce), train tickets and buying products in vending machines .

I was intrigued with the ad since I have been playing with QR codes for a while now and I did some research and found out that Ralph Lauren launched this new campaign and new store windows here in NYC today. So I had to head over to the store and check it out. The store windows have the usual set-ups with mannequins sporting different outfits but each one has it's own QR code. There is also a large explanation of what the codes are and how to get the software that will let you read them. Once you have the software installed and photograph one of the codes it will pull up the item on their mobile site and you can buy it on the spot f you want. You can see a sample of how the mobile site looks and works here.

This isn't the first time they have done something like this as about two years ago they did a large touch screen window in New York and London. Consumers could browse the clothes and if they liked an outfit they could enter their contact info and would be contacted by e-mail or phone the next day to securely enter their payment information and arrange shipping. This newer version obviously cuts out the day wait the middle step by letting you get the instant gratification of buying the outfit while standing on a street in New York. I applaud them for taking a proactive position to be the first brand to finally bring this technology to the U.S. even if it is years later than it should be. This is one of those pieces of marketing that isn't going to generate a sales spike but it does spike the aware of your brand, the perception of that brand as an innovator and it gets people to like me to go to their store.

Flickr Relational Tag Browser

noreply@blogger.com (Stephen Gates) — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 15:30:48 -0500

Thought this was an interesting on application and exercise in information design. You can do a Flickr image search and it returns the images with that tag and shows all the related tags in a circle around the results. If you have ever used the visual thesaurus you will get it right away but it is a nice way to browse through flickr and find alternate results.

Japanese typography as art

noreply@blogger.com (Stephen Gates) — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 19:26:20 -0500

The name Morisawa & company probably isn't familiar to a lot of western designers. They are a Japanese company that sells fonts and software for typesetting and have been around since the 1920's. They have just released the second version in their Font Park online series that is pretty cool.

The original Font Park was a series of 4 Java applications that would let you play with Japanese characters by doing things like dropping them in water, using them as a paint brush or having them form a semi-organic looking tree. This new version, un-originally called Font Park 2.0, continues what was started with the original but takes full advantage of the change from Java to Flash. The site let's you create artwork by using either Japanese characters or any character you want by entering it into a form field as a brush you can create with. You can use different series of clicks and mouse actions lets you manipulate the characters so they work the way you want them to. Once you have finished your creation you can save it to a gallery where it can view and rated by visitors to the site. The twist that makes it work for me is that the gallery saves your creation process so viewing the art means you see how it was created from a blank canvas to the finished product. The only big miss is that it doesn't have a mute button because the sound effects can get real old, real fast.

It will be interesting to watch the site and see how it grows and how much work gets created. I have been blown away because since I started writing this entry this morning the amount of work has doubled.

Agency Blacklist

noreply@blogger.com (Stephen Gates) — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 08:57:06 -0500

We have all seen it time and time again that in this industry your portfolio is king and horrible designers who were brutally fired for screwing something up and they get new jobs a week later with no reference checks at all. We all take each others word that we did and worked where we said we did. I was looking at the site for the agency BBH today and found that they had created an interesting application on their site called The Blacklist that is a dynamic record of everyone who's ever worked at BBH, where they came from, where they went and what they like for a lot of the 2594 people who've worked there since 1982. Obviously anyone can view the application but only those who have worked there can contribute. In an exercise in information design the application displays employees as small dots that arrange themselves into patterns displaying things like location, the agency logo and the number 25 for their 25th anniversary. It is a simple application that could have been done on any number of social networking sites but I like that an agency wants to remember the people who got it where it is and took the time to create a space just for that.

A List Apart 2008 Survey

noreply@blogger.com (Stephen Gates) — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 09:34:49 -0500

Once again this year A List Apart is conducting their survey of designers, developers, information architects, project managers, writers, editors, marketers, and everyone else who makes websites to try and get a true picture of the way our profession is practiced worldwide. Once again this year I highly encourage everyone to participate as I think the resulting survey is extremely helpful and informative.

LuxuryCollection.com wins Adobe Site of the Day

noreply@blogger.com (Stephen Gates) — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 20:02:45 -0500

Got an email tonight from Adobe that the new LuxuryCollection.com has won the Adobe Site of the Day and will be featured this weekend and Mondy on Adobe.com. Huge thanks to everyone at Starwood, Atmosphere BBDO and Electric Artists who put their heart and sole into bringing this site to life.

A response to 'Why Tiger Woods doesn't care if I pick up a golf club'

noreply@blogger.com (Stephen Gates) — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 19:10:18 -0500

Many of you probably don't know that I am a second generation creative director and I cut my teeth in advertising at his agency in Pittsburgh. He emailed me a response to my article from last week called "Consumer design fears or why Tiger Woods doesn't care if I pick up a golf club" and I thought he made a great point and I wanted to share it with everyone. It read:

"I just saw your blog about Software and Tiger Woods. I agree that the attitude, or philosophy, expressed by your old Creative Director seems logical, but history would indicate the opposite.

There used to be a time when only TV production houses could shoot and edit video...and only musicians could play music (and only groups of musicians could play like an orchestra)...and only type setters could set type...and only photographers could take professional photos...and only retouchers could retouch photos...

It is true that word processors have not allowed bad writers to become good writers.

But the thing that has always been the agent of change is BUDGETS and almost all clients are going to opt for the solution that costs the least. In the past it wasn't all the clients who opted for the low cost option, but it was enough to change the business in a negative way. There will always be large high quality clients who want to work with large high quality design firms, but the business will change and it will probably not be in the way we would like.

I had a Creative Director describe this same phenomenon as we were watching the changes happening to the video production business. His description, or analysis, sounded like a rule from Economics 101 and it follows..."as an industry becomes more mature and the knowledge and ability to produce a product becomes more widespread the costs will come down and the need for high priced specialists will no longer exist."

Tiger Woods isn't selling his skills to clients...he is winning tournaments...we can't do that."

The $1000 iPhone icon

noreply@blogger.com (Stephen Gates) — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 18:56:48 -0500

Clearly hoping that there really is one born every minute and targeted at guys who need to prove how little manhood they have is a new entry to the Apple iPhone application store that appeared yesterday with a $1000 price tag and it doesn't do a damn thing. The application called "I Am Rich" displays a red gem icon on the phone's screen and "always reminds you (and others when you show it to them) that you were able to afford this. It's a work of art with no hidden function at all.". The funniest part is that if anyone bought the app they now have a a limited edition copy since Apple didn't let it live there more than 24 hours. It must have been an interesting decision for them because on the one hand they would get 30% of every sale but at the same time it had to really piss off the developers who actually real spent time creating their applications. I just want to hear the story of how it got approved and the head rolled because of it.

Kidrobot and The Simpsons - the final word

noreply@blogger.com (Stephen Gates) — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 15:03:41 -0500

I wanted to put this whole Kidrobot Simpsons thing to rest because the last few days have brought about a few interesting turns of events. Needing to keep up my stuborn ways I did repost my question under a new account which racked about 40 pretty good responses from other collectors, a Kidrobot designer, the Guru who threw me off the site in the first place and I think even Paul Budnitz but I'm not sure. It also quickly became clear I was not alone in the way I felt when I saw Kidrobot founder Paul Budnitz posted a LONG response and explanation on his blog about the subject. Part of which reads:

"The day Kidrobot starts creating by the rules, even if we WROTE the rules, is the day we're going to begin to truly suck. We will no longer be acting in the service of life -- and when that happens I invite our fans to tell us to fuck off. I am serious about this.".

He also then went on to explain that in the case of the Simpsons, Matt Groening actually redrew all of his characters in a Kidrobot-Dunny-Munny style for the toys so they were not direct copies from the show. So in the end I got what I wanted which was an explanation. Still pissed about the road I had go down to get it but I think there are a lot of creatives out there who talk big but when push comes to shove they lack the courage of their convictions. So if I agree with what he said or not I respect the fact that he owned the decision.

East meets West for the Olympics in Coke WE8

noreply@blogger.com (Stephen Gates) — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 22:45:02 -0500

With the Olympic Opening Ceremonies this Friday I thought I would take a look around at the avalanche of advertising that would accompany the games. I started with the major international sponsors and found only Coca-Cola had anything of interest with their We8/Design the World a Coke project. We8 stands for "West/East 8". The West/East comes from them having this project be an east/west creative expression where Coke has enlisted eastern pop artists and techno DJ's to musically interpret visual bottle designs by noteworthy Chinese artists. The 8 then comes from the fact that each design is based on one of eight different themes including peace on Earth and individual perseverance. The resulting work will be featured on aluminum collector's edition bottles and the designs and music will also be included in an eight-city world tour.

The supporting microsite lets you see the resulting work of these artists and the ability to down the designs as wallpaper and music as ringtones. When I saw the concept I knew what was coming next and indeed found the "Design Your Own" bottle section. The interface allows you to place various color, elements and patterns on to 2 dimensional checkerboard that is then mapped to a 3D rotating bottle. I have to be honest that as I designed the bottle I was strongly reminded of PaperCritters.com that allowed you to create similar 3D objects but it launched a year ago. I also found the Paper Critters interface to be much better and ultimately more engaging as it let you design directly onto the 3D object instead of this 2D/3D interface. When you have created your bottle you can then submit it to the gallery with your name, title and description where it can then be viewed and rated by the public.

So this is one of those cases where it is good to see a strong concept that combines artists creativity with an interactive element that allows for consumer participation but because of my perspective it just doesn't feel that fresh or breakthrough. Like it or not it is a major judgment factor for interactive design as we all have to strive to break new ground. I have seen other sites that have do the 3D object creation better and have seen concepts like this before. I am going to keep trolling through all the Olympics hype to see if anything else is worth the time and if you see anything let me know.

Ruby Tuesday's blows up their brand - literally

noreply@blogger.com (Stephen Gates) — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 20:12:30 -0500

The restaurant chain Ruby Tuesday's has been working to renovate pretty much everything about their brand recently from the menu to the stores to the branding. To celebrate the conclusion of this work at 3pm tomorrow they are going to literally blow up the last Ruby Tuesday's with their old look and show it all live on their Web site. I think this is really smart because normally something like finishing a restaurant chain renovation doesn't get doesn't get much attention past the industry trade papers and doesn't get anyone to your Web site.It will be interesting to see if this is as much of a spectacle as they want you to believe but it is the first time I will be going to a restaurant chain Web site for anything but to the find the nearest location.

Consumer design fears or why Tiger Woods doesn't care if I pick up a golf club

noreply@blogger.com (Stephen Gates) — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 13:26:10 -0500

There has been an interesting trend that I started to see at some of the conferences I attended this year and has grown into several email I have received from designers all over the world asking the same question. It all centers around companies like Apple and Adobe making entry level design software available to the masses and if it will hurt our business or how we are viewed as professional designers.

I wanted to go on the record with an answer that I will admit is not my own but honestly I couldn't say it any better. This discussion came up with one of my old creative directors who looked at us and said "Do you think Tiger Woods gives shit if I go and pick up a golf club? Do you think he is losing any sleep over me hacking away out there every other weekend?". Looking at this example I don't have the ego or the portfolio to begin to say that I am Tiger Woods but the sentiment is dead on.

First, if you are a professional and you do this everyday then you better crush some guy doing design nights and weekends or you shouldn't be doing this for a living. Just because people can get the same tools as you doesn't mean they know how to use it the same way. Look at sports where we wouldn't think we could perform at the same level of a pro athlete but we can all go to a sporting goods store and buy a baseball bat or golf club. It's how you use it that makes all the difference.

Second, if you have a client that thinks that your web design experience is the same as the site his wife created for their son's little team then you need to run away - now. Just because there are clients out there who don't see the value in good design and thinking doesn't mean it isn't there. You need to be able to know when to walk away from situations that aren't going to let you do good work so that what you create is unique and has value and doesn't just become a commodity. From my experience that work that would be created for a client like that isn't going to be anything you are going to be proud of so just save yourself the headaches and arguments.

So use the tools like a pro, leave the weekenders to have their fun and stop worrying.

Kidrobot and The Simpsoms hypocracy follow-up

noreply@blogger.com (Stephen Gates) — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 10:31:18 -0500

So anyone who read my posting about Kidrobot and the Simpsons from about a week and a half ago could tell I was really bothered by that turn of events. After I wrote that posting I wanted answers. I wanted to hear from someone about how they came to this decision and how it didn't make them hypocrites. I started with trying to find a way to email their founder Paul Budnitz through his blog but there wasn't any way to communicate with him. So them I moved in Kidrobot.com and the section in the discussion boards where you can ask questions about the company and their guru or a staff member will answer them. I posted the following -

Topic: "How do the Simpsons not make Paul a hypocrite?"
I have been been a fan and collector since pretty much the beginning of Kidrobot. I heard Paul Budnutz talk about his philosophy of making toys that bring back fun and design toys. I have seen him talk numerous times about the company and define it by defining what Kidrobot isn't. His usual example are either a dinosaur from Jurassic Park or Stormstoopers gathered around Star Wars toys in Toys R' Us with the explanation that these toys aren't bought because they are good but rather just a memory connection back to the movie. So I have to ask as I see Kidrobot making Simpsons and Adult Swim toys - how are these any different than those dinosaurs and stormtroopers? How is Paul not a hypocrite to say one thing and then seemingly caving in to the all mighty dollar with these brands?

I will admit that clearly this wasn't a warm fuzzy email how great they are but I also didn't think I went off the deep end on this one. What was the response from the company that is a bastion of creativity and expression? They deleted the posting and shut down my account.

I have talked with consumers in focus groups who used to be a brands biggest supporter but then through a series of events found themselves disillusioned and advocating against them. Between my original problem and their reaction to it they have taken one of the brands that I had such a strong connection with and made it feel hollow. I am not sure if I am at that point where will be selling my collection any time soon (sorry Arturo) but there won't be any more Kidrobot added to my shelves anytime soon.

Adobe takes a little Creative License

noreply@blogger.com (Stephen Gates) — Sun, 27 Jul 2008 20:18:39 -0500

Anyone who has been paying attention to this blog has seen that I have not been a fan of what Adobe has been doing to reach out to the creative community. To me it has felt too simplistic and at times just not very imaginative or well thought out. Now they have launched yet another new site and platform called Creative License. This new site has launched with 5 video case studies that detail the work of individual artists and agencies. The content is pretty good and worth watching while this site holds promise to become something interesting but at the end of the day I just don't believe it will last or that Adobe will follow through. The few glimmers of hope they launched in the past never got off the ground. The Adobe Inspire Experience Design launched with very little content but the promise of becoming something interesting and now sits empty with an "on vacation" sign and no way into the site. Also the fact that they created this new video content yet it doesn't appear anywhere on their completely video focused Adobe Media Player. For me until Adobe can prove to me that that really care about all these sites and actually add new content to them or they get some focus I am not going to invest much into their short lived project.