http://kantarmediamix.com

sometimes opportunity comes twice. we just re-launched the second version of a nice little project visualmerc did with our creative partners at cult 360. a few months back we launched the US version and now we just released the european version. since i never wrote about it the first time, here’s my chance.

using art that was part of a larger rebranding campaign - along with the ‘Our Insight. Your Inspiration’ tag line - that cult 360 developed for kantar media, we helped design and program a cool microsite and game/contest. the concept is simple: using kantar’s multiple media analytic business units, marketers and agencies can make correct decisions in their creative campaigns. the more data, the better and the more you mix them the more insight you get. so using that concept, the site is a painting game - developed in flash - where the colors represent kantar’s media units. how you mix them it’s up to you.

the kantamediamix mug

so although the contest is only open to our european readers for now (US contest closed), trust me, it’s fun and even kids love it. so go create some art and use the social tools to tell your friends to vote for yours. you can even make it in the colors of your favorite world cup team 2010 team in the spirit of the season.

http://jamesbeard.org

for all of you foodies out there, you probably already know the james beard foundation. if you don’t, it’s america’s pre-eminent culinary foundation. they have beautiful member dinners produced by the best chefs of the country, along with the james beard awards and many educational programs. we had the honor of being part of the team that took on the huge project of updating a website with thousands of archival entries and daily updates. we never wrote about it before because our blog wasn’t live in early 2008.

although we finished the first phase of jamesbeard.org in april of 2008, we spent the following 8 months adding to the massive structure built on the drupal framework. the site was beautifully designed by our friend scott of simplissimus (with whom we’ve done other projects) and we did all the multimedia and interactive elements along with the build. the site currently gets about 37,000 hits a month.

anyway, fast forward… the reason we’ve decided to write about it now, is because today is the last entry day for the w3 awards (yes, yes, i’m always running late - but we make the deadlines). we think it’s a really beautiful and comprehensive site and therefore we decided to enter it in the the food and beverage category. so if any of you out there have any pull with the w3 awards judges —-> nudge, nudge, wink wink.

macnrg

this post actually has a dual serving purpose. the first is let you all know about the new look and microsite we developed for nyc based apple consulting firm macnrg and the second is to give them a shameless plug because they’re our friends and we like them and the work they do, anyway.

apple logo over the years

although macnrg is all things mac, they specialize in final cut pro server and video systems. because of that,  while we were thinking about their logo design - we thought we’d have a bit of fun and play off the apple brand. if you like, you can read a quick little history of the apple logo. we decided to turn the apple into a tv monitor. the leaf fells like an aerial antenna in our design (how analog lol). then we gave it a late 20th century glow effect to match the ‘nrg’ name. we think it’s a good blend of old and new.

macnrg has installed and set up our file server and is now in the process of running the voip line for our other friends, cult360. rob (the director at mcnrg) would like us to use the logo in an animation for the site, but we’ll see… it all depends on how good he sets up our fcp server ;P