Amazing integrated ad by Tostitos + Vimeo. Click the picture to see for yourself…

When AfterEffects & Cinema 4D make sweet, sweet love…

Looking for that perfect pattern for your next design project? Well look no further… Pattern Wall – brought to you by Caleb Kimbrough at Lost and Taken and Oscar Godson at Knee Deep In Code – has a great collection of patterns free for the taking to use on anything from a Twitter background to that rad new MySpace layout you’ve been working on for weeks – and anything else you can think of that requires a tiling background. While it may not be the largest collection of patterns you’ve ever seen, the interface is silky smooth and simple to use. Both of their blogs are great reads as well, so be sure to bookmark them for future reading…

Do yourself a favor and follow Caleb and Oscar on Twitter. While you’re at it, be sure to tell them thanks for solving all your pattern deficiencies!!

Why choose sides when you can choose… BINGLE! Let’s face it. With the advent of Microsoft’s new search engine Bing, the search engine wars are heating up. Google, which rules the roost – and has done so for quite some time — now has some stiff competition. Who will win? That has yet to be determined. Until then, the undecided masses can now rely on Bingle, a clever little “middleman” search site which gives you side by side results of your search term.

All joking aside, this could be a very powerful tool for many people who make a living with the internet, be it social media, marketing, blogging or general design and development. Be sure to bookmark this one for future use!

http://bingle.pwnij.com/

Ethereal Icelandic sounds consume this debut release from Sigur Rós’s singer Jón Þór Birgisson and Alex Somers. Riceboy Sleeps was released on July 20, 2009 and features acoustic instrumental music and the collaboration of the string quartet Amiina and the Kópavogsdætur Choir.

If you are looking for some excellent soothing music for your work day or while relaxing, this is without a doubt it. This album is by far the most refreshing thing I have heard in quite some time. You can purchase the full release in several different formats on the Jónsi and Alex website – including 12″ vinyl, cd, special edition box set and more - or you can instantly download at iTunes. If you are more of a try-before-you-buy kind of person, they have provided a free streaming version of the entire album, available on the music section of their website.

Also on their website you will many other things including recipes, news, visual art galleries and more. So be sure to visit jonsiandalex.com.

Here is the video for one of the singles off the album, “All The Big Trees”

A four-and-a-half minute window into the sea…This incredible video was shot by Jon Rawlinson using a Canon 5DMKII with a 28-135mm lens and was filmed at the Okinawa Churaumi Aquarium in Japan. It is the world’s second largest aquarium tank and holds 1,981,290 gallons of water. Whale sharks and manta rays are kept amongst many other fish species in the main tank.

This stunning video is set to the sounds of Barcelona – Please Don’t Go. If you like the video, you can download the 720p HD version here. Be sure to follow Jon on Twitter!

Awesome multi-level integrated viral campaign from Discovery Channel for Shark Week ‘09.

frenziedwaters.com is a well done component of a new viral campaign making the rounds for Discovery Channel’s Shark Week 2009, which begins August 2. There are four floating jars in the sea, two of which you can click on – with dates corresponding to certain historical dates. The third jar is dated 7/20/09, which was not click-able at the time of this writing.

If you click on one of the jars, you are taken to a cinematic of a first-person shark attack, although the violence and gore you would expect isn’t there. It is stylized in such a way only to elude to the fact you are getting attacked without actually forcing it on you.

The fourth jar, labeled “My Story,” brings you to a Facebook app which integrates your profile photo, your occupation, your status updates and generates a story using you as the main character.

In addition to this mysterious website, several ‘care packages’ were sent out to bloggers and entertainment writers nation-wide that contain a frosted glass jar, along with a floating keychain labeled “Discovery Marina – SW09,” a beach closed sign with a phone number to call, an obituary personalized for the specific recipient and several other items.

All-in-all, this is definitely one of the best and most integrated viral’s I have ever seen. If anyone has additional info or knows more about the Frenzied Waters site, please email me or leave a comment below!

What do you get when you cross the Tour de France, a team of robot engineers and hundreds of gallons of liquid yellow chalk? You get Chalkbot, of course!!

It is a long-standing tradition at the Tour de France for fans to spend hours creating elaborate messages and illustrations along the course for riders to see as they whizz by. Chalkbot automates this process by allowing user-submitted messages of hope to be sprayed on the road about eight hours ahead of the riders. Once the message is approved, it is sent to the Chalkbot which will then spray the 40-character message, take a photo and then email the photo along with GPS coordinates to the person who submitted it. Pretty cool, isn’t it?

Built by DeepLocal and StandardRobot in partnership with Nike and Wieden+Kennedy, Chalkbot is like a giant self-contained pneumatic dot matrix printer that is mounted to a trailer pulled by a truck and can print messages and graphics of varying types on the road. Users can submit their own inspirational messages by Tweeting them @chalkbot, texting “LIVESTRONG,” followed by your message, to 36453 or directly at the official Chalkbot website.

Check the video for some action-shots and a little behind the scenes magic.

What do you get when you put a homeless father & daughter into The Sims 3 game with no money or food, giving the father traits of a crazy, mean spirited old man and the daughter traits of a kind young girl with low self esteem? You get Alice and Kev! This virtual social experiment has become a play-by-play of the daily lives of this father and daughter trying to make it with absolutely nothing. The blog is run by Robin Burkinshaw, a game design student based in the UK. It’s usually updated daily and will feature a group of events that happened to either Alice, Kev or both from the previous day.

Now, before you dismiss it – give it a shot. I thought it couldn’t even be remotely interesting – but you will grow to love the characters, the trials and tribulations they go through and the other strange people they meet. Keep in mind, these characters are running on ‘auto-pilot’ – meaning they are rarely interfered with… and THAT’S what makes it so interesting. The things they do, the relationships they form, the fights they get into – they are all done on the intuition of the character!

You can start with the introduction or you can jump right in to the first post. They also post when the blog updates via their Twitter account here. Definitely one you will want to check regularly!

Often unnoticed, movie titles are (usually) a lost art. The Art Of The Title Sequence aims to give movie titles and their creators the credit they deserve.

With in-depth interviews with producers, directors, title-designers, animators and the such, Art Of The Title Sequence shines a light on many nuances of often overlooked — but necessary — pieces of movie greatness. Giving insight into otherwise unknown tidbits of information, you can learn a lot about the process and thought that goes into these works of art. Opening sequences have suddenly become more than just a few lonely text blocks fading in and out of the first few minutes – these featurettes are becoming epic novellas that tell their own story and give a peek into the upcoming motion picture you are about to witness.

Definitely one to add to your RSS readers, be sure to subscribe to their feed here and if email subscriptions are more your speed, you can find their link here. Well worth it, as this blog is quickly becoming one of my favorites – and I’m sure it will be one of yours as well. They also have a podcast which truth be told, I have yet to listen to – but if you care to do so, you can find that link here. And if Twitter is more your speed, you can find them over here.

Unfortunately, they do little to illustrate what would happen if Saul Bass were to design the opening credits of Star Wars. Luckily, I have the elite resources these people do not (read: YouTube) and I diligently searched for something for you. So without further adieu, I present to you…