Happy birthday, mr Miedinger and Helvetica.

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This year we celebrate the most universal typeface ever, created by Max Miedinger in 1957. Initially developed in an attempt to replace Akzidenz Grotesk, it became the typeface of choice for many companies, and is widely used by any graphic designer (altough some of them don’t seem to be very fun of it).

From packaging to the new iPhone, it was renamed Helvetica in 1961, and since then it has been copied extensively, most notably by Arial, a cheap ripoff on Windows.

I became aware of this event, through Helvetica, The film, a documentary screening next March (and a SXSW selection).

This movie will surely be one of inspirations for many designers, and a reference to the role of typography in our daily lives.

“This can be a tricky one…” says the secret agent on the site’s intro. A few seconds later, a sexy lady goes “You don’t need to look, you just need to drive”. Suddenly, you find yourself in the street of Paris, driving like a mad to reach the checkpoints with the precious help of the CK 20w car system from Nokia.

What a ride. Fantastic interactive experience, a game narrative in the pursuit of a challenge and the certainty that you’ll not forget the new product from Nokia (besides the GPS features it allows you to change your car tunes, handsfree).

This Nokia experience through the street of Paris, has also a great soundtrack and sound fx, so if you have a broadband connection then you are set for a ride in Paris. Speed up to the site, “or we’ll never make in time”.

• URL: http://www.the-passenger.com/
• Client: Nokia
• Product: Nokia Multimedia Car Kit CK 20W
• Interactive Agency: Fuel Games + Hyper Happen
• Film Production: Karbon Arc

After all the buzz around Of Montreal that Pitchfork did, it was almost unforgivable not to listen to “Hissing Fauna, Are You the Destroyer?“. The band of Kevin Barnes (from Elephant 6 collective)  went over a smooth reinvention of their sound, more distant from the previous glam/psychedelic/experimental albums.

Of Montreal’s album starts with some vibrant tunes (particularly the first one, “Suffer for Fashion”) reaching a turning point in the extra-long “The Past Is a Grotesque Animal”,  and revealing a new musical rainbow in the second half of the album, that i’m still learning how to appreciate.

But it surely is one of the greatest albums of 2007.

As i’m picking up my old drawing passion, i’ve found some brilliant people out there, sharing their love for illustration and drawing. The amount of dedication and work you see on some sites is amazing, and i’m not mentioning the major community sites like CGsociety or deviantart, but some smaller stars like Dani.

An illustrator working in the children’s market, besides her portfolio site, she has a blog with several inspiring videos on the art of drawing and illustration, available on YouTube, where we get to see a in-depth look into the magical world of an skilled artist.

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YouTube link for RSS readers

If you’re into illustration, after watching some of Dani’s knowledge, you might want to check these ones also:

• Illustration Class
• The works of Bobby Chiu or his YouTube channel.
• Riven Phoenix videos (learning how to draw the human figure)
• Itchy animation tutorials
• More tutorials by GFxartist
• Digital drawing at The Photoshop Experiment
• a Comics Workshop
• and if you think you’ve got the touch you can become an illustrator

Enough of information. Start drawing !

Wait, just one more: The Little Chimp Society.

Just a quick note on a freelance job i did last month, for a new portuguese B2B company: HamletB2B

Two of the partners are old friends so i helped them out, designing and developing a temporary internet presence. As we’ve discussed in a metting prior to the website launch, in today’s media landscape it’s essential to have an interactive strategy and a solid hability to communicate through digital channels. So, i’m expecting that HamletB2B will evolve to consulting on matters such as corporate blogging, internet PR and interactive branding.

Good luck Jayme an Eduardo.

Vitamin has a great post on naming your company, with a step-by-step guide:

1. Set Your Constraints
2. Schedule Your Time
3. Structure Your Brainstorming
4. Sleep on It
5. Test it

Definitely worth reading.

Just in time for Valentine’s day, a new wicked website from Herbal Essences: Dump Cupid.

Some really cool stuff: a music video, a online game, a chance to win $25,000 and the (non) classic e-card “Help a Friend - Dump Cupid”.

With a smooth interface and subtle background sounds, it’s really handy for tomorrow.

For your eyes only.

via FitaCola

* Part 2 of 3 of my lecture “Advertising 2.0″ [read part 1]

In 2006, Chevrolet launched a website endorsing the reality show “The Apprentice”. Users could play with the site tools to create their own version of a Chevrolet Tahoe commercial, mixing several audio and video clips. But not everything went the way it was supposed to …

Of course there are also some positive examples, like this one, created by Firefox fans.

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