MAKING FUTURE MAGIC / DENTSU, LONDON
17 September 2010
London-based interactive design consultancy BERG imagines a magical version of the future of media for Dentsu
- Media Type
- New Technologies
- Product Category
- Media & Publishing
- Country
- UK
- Source
- News
- Agency
- BERG / London
- Dentsu / London
- Tags
- iPad
- Media
- Design
- Technology
- interaction
BERG used photographic and animation techniques to create an iPad light painting on behalf of Dentsu, London. The project allowed Dentsu to explore the idea of 'making the future magic'.
Dentsu explain the full thought process behind the film on their blog, but we are particularly impressed by the aims of their 'Making the Future Magic' strategy: 'To make creative work that is contributory and sensible to its culture and environment; to be exploratory and sensitive with regard to materials and media; to wonder what magical visions (as opposed to the familiar dystopias) of the future of media might look like.'
BERG explain on their blog that they chose to answer the brief by 'exploring how surfaces and screens look in the world'. We think you'll agree that the results are pretty incredible.
An interview with BERG's co-founder Matt Webb appeared in the latest issue of Contagious. Subscribers can access the pdf here.
Here's what Matt had to say about creating positive design...
Q. BERG seems to take a positive approach and has an impressive social outlook, working on projects such as Schooloscope and Michel Thomas' innovative app for learning languages. How important is this kind of ethos to your work?
A. A friend of mine told me about an old-school, New York marketing man he'd once met. He had claimed that there are four reasons people will buy your product: hope, fear, despair and greed.
Hope is when your meal out at the restaurant is because it's going to be awesome. Fear is because you'll get flu and lose your job unless you take the pills every day. Despair is needs not wants: buying a doormat, or toilet paper, or a ready-meal for one. Greed gets you more options to do any of the above, like investing.
We try to make all our work hopeful. (Also, beautiful, inventive and popular!) It would be lazy to fall back on a despair good - or, worse, to use a fear motivation.
The Michel Thomas iPhone app could have used a competitive game mechanic to get the listener to chase through language lessons, purchasing more lessons in order to beat their friends or not lose a challenge.
Not only would that not have fitted the gentle Michel Thomas Method, it wouldn't have been 'hopeful'. The app relies on pretty, absorbing animated flowers, and the listener's own aspiration to learn. It helps them get back on the learning wagon without judging, and is there for revision whether it's in a quiet place at home or a snatched few minutes on the bus.
Keeping to this ethos is a good way to create a great experience (and a product is its own marketing: happy users will tell their friends). And it's a good way to sleep well at night.
http://interconnected.org/home/2007/12/28/wrapping_up_2007
Images courtesy of BERG Studio
Dentsu explain the full thought process behind the film on their blog, but we are particularly impressed by the aims of their 'Making the Future Magic' strategy: 'To make creative work that is contributory and sensible to its culture and environment; to be exploratory and sensitive with regard to materials and media; to wonder what magical visions (as opposed to the familiar dystopias) of the future of media might look like.'
BERG explain on their blog that they chose to answer the brief by 'exploring how surfaces and screens look in the world'. We think you'll agree that the results are pretty incredible.
An interview with BERG's co-founder Matt Webb appeared in the latest issue of Contagious. Subscribers can access the pdf here.
Here's what Matt had to say about creating positive design...
Q. BERG seems to take a positive approach and has an impressive social outlook, working on projects such as Schooloscope and Michel Thomas' innovative app for learning languages. How important is this kind of ethos to your work?
A. A friend of mine told me about an old-school, New York marketing man he'd once met. He had claimed that there are four reasons people will buy your product: hope, fear, despair and greed.
Hope is when your meal out at the restaurant is because it's going to be awesome. Fear is because you'll get flu and lose your job unless you take the pills every day. Despair is needs not wants: buying a doormat, or toilet paper, or a ready-meal for one. Greed gets you more options to do any of the above, like investing.
We try to make all our work hopeful. (Also, beautiful, inventive and popular!) It would be lazy to fall back on a despair good - or, worse, to use a fear motivation.
The Michel Thomas iPhone app could have used a competitive game mechanic to get the listener to chase through language lessons, purchasing more lessons in order to beat their friends or not lose a challenge.
Not only would that not have fitted the gentle Michel Thomas Method, it wouldn't have been 'hopeful'. The app relies on pretty, absorbing animated flowers, and the listener's own aspiration to learn. It helps them get back on the learning wagon without judging, and is there for revision whether it's in a quiet place at home or a snatched few minutes on the bus.
Keeping to this ethos is a good way to create a great experience (and a product is its own marketing: happy users will tell their friends). And it's a good way to sleep well at night.
http://interconnected.org/home/2007/12/28/wrapping_up_2007
Images courtesy of BERG Studio
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