Since 1986, the Geminis have recognized and celebrated the best in Canadian English-language television. We’re developing a look and campaign for the Geminis’ important milestone year – and the industry and broadcast galas held in November. The new logos (shown here) hint at the direction. Stay tuned for more, including a commemorative artwork we commissioned from our former intern – and now internationally recognized designer – Eric Chan (aka eepmon) to form the basis of the Gemini 25 campaign.

By 2020, Vancouver will be the greenest city in the world. Sound impossible? Naïve perhaps? The City of Vancouver doesn’t think so…and neither do we. In fact, we jumped at the chance to create a public awareness and social engagement campaign around the City’s ten bold green goals and its aim to become a global green leader by 2020. Our approach? Depart from typical municipal-style marketing fare to grab the public’s attention and motivate them to engage.

‘Talk Green to Us’ became the rallying cry, a playful call-out letting the public know that the City is seeking their green ideas, input, and involvement. The cheeky tone also helped pique curiosity and drive people to the campaign website where they could learn about the City’s goals and targets, share their ideas, and vote on those contributed by others. We supported the ‘Talk Green to Us’ theme with a signature image of a future green Vancouver. A cement mixer pouring a garden is a slightly surreal, slightly utopic image but has a distinctly Vancouver look with a forward-looking, inspiring quality. Most importantly, it turns heads – in print and online – prompting people to find out more by visiting the url.

Just two days after launch, there were 700 visits to the website. A week in and there are already over one hundred shared ideas and comments on the site, with more contributed every day. When it comes to ‘talking green,’ it seems that Vancouverites have a lot to say – exactly what the City hoped for as it kicks off its quest to become the greenest city in the world.

A friend of mine – Max Brandl – recently finished his degree in MultiMediaArt at the University of Applied Sciences in Salzburg, Austria with a very compelling concept for an interactive promotion piece for Mercedes. The following quote from his thesis summarizes the scope of the project:

Employing more than 80 sensors, the new Mercedes-Benz E-Class is even more finely attuned to its environment than the human body – making every ride more comfortable and safe. In order to demonstrate this advantage in an innovative manner, one E-Class sedan, which is available for test drives, is equipped in a way that allows the data from every sensor to be transmitted to the internet while driving. This information is converted into text and pictures and published live on the social web platforms Twitter and Flickr – and one can watch the complete „creative“ journey on a Google-Maps-based website in real-time.

Let’s hope the car manufacturer has already set a budget to actually bring the concept alive. Would it not be nice to see the test drives happen in Vancouver? I’m really curious what downtown would look like in graphics.

What musicians have influenced you? Has music played a role in shaping who you are? What music are you made of? These are the questions you are confronted with when you engage with the interactive “Billboard Yourself” campaign created by Billboard Magazine Brazil and Almap BBDO. The interactive installation builds on the outdoor print campaign ‘Influence’ featuring major musicians like Bono, Marilyn Manson and Eminem as compositions made from images of the musicians who influenced them. Taking the concept one step further, the interactive experience lets music lovers select their favourite artists, and then create a picture of themselves made up of their own personal influences.

Cool new augmented reality iPhone app by the Museum of London places historic photographs and images around London in 3D space. Simply by holding up your camera to a street scene in front of you, you can see what the same location looked like decades – even centuries – earlier. The app puts 2D images in situ in a 3D environment, providing users with a visual time travel experience. It’s also possible to select a destination from the London map or use GPS to locate an image near you. Click the info button if you want more details about what you’re seeing. Developed by London-based creative agency brother and sisters, the app is not only a fun and engaging way for both locals and tourists to get a unique perspective on a city dripping with history – but also a fabulous marketing tool for the Museum by encouraging users to explore more of London’s past at the museum’s galleries.

Design types flocked to Canvas Lounge in Gastown last night for appies, cocktails, and the presentation of the 2010 Graphex Awards. Capping off Design Week, the Graphex Awards celebrates the best of visual communications across Canada. Our bicycle branding and graphics for Mountain Equipment Co-op was nominated in the Miscellaneous category and won a Judge’s Choice Award – the Passion for Design Leo Obstbaum Tribute. This was a great collaborative project between Switch United and MEC’s In-House Design team and it’s especially meaningful to us to be recognized with an award named for a designer who made a huge impact on design – and designers – in our city.

Image Care of thinkgeek.com

This product (real or not) provides a great example of applications and products surounding the iPad. I believe that the iPad will revolutionize how we precieve a digital device in our daily lives. I know we have all seen tablets and book readers before and they haven’t changed things, but for whatever reason Apple has a way of making it just work perfectly. At Switch United we have already started brainstorming ideas around applications we could create that are not suited for a websites, phones or environments. They will be unique to the iPad.