http://www.brilliant.ltd.uk/blog/ Brilliant Ltd. - Recent Blog Entries en-gb 5 http://www.brilliant.ltd.uk/blog/entry/authors-of-modern-culture.php We don’t usually like to peddle our wares on this blog, we would rather share the amazing, crazy and talent filled things we find on the internet that truly inspire us, but sometimes we can be all of the above too and there is no shame in a little self love once in a while.Over the last few months we have been working on an awesome website for the equally awesome Initium eyewear brand and we have literally put our blood, sweet and tears into it... seriously, I actually took shrapnel to my finger in the form of a rogue paper clip and I’m pretty sure Luke has spent time locked away in the toilet, quietly sobbing to himself whilst gently rocking for comfort in his happy place!The hard work and major team effort by all has been fantastic and although we are sad the work is over, we are also kind of glad it’s over :)Go and check out the Initium website and all the wicked sunglasses by Initium eyewear.Oh and Ben, my Birthday’s coming up... *Cough*Exacta 203’s*Cough* http://www.brilliant.ltd.uk/blog/entry/when-i-grow-up.php This is a fantastic animation by Jasmin Lai about a girl who doesn’t know what she wants to be when she grows up. Imagining many future possibilities and yet feeling unsatisfied so she decides to just be herself. (at least this is my take on the story.) http://www.brilliant.ltd.uk/blog/entry/210-hours.php We were checking out a new radio station on itunes in the studio this week, Buzzoutroom.com filled with loads of awesome downbeat breaks, blips and bleeps. On their website I found this video which really had nothing to do with anything except it used a ninja tune track over the top of it, but seriously, give this a watch!The guy creates a truly fantastic portrait of his dad using dots... a couple of million dots actually and all hand drawn... with one pen. I can’t remember the last time i put more than a few hours into a piece of artwork before calling it a day, but 210 hours is some mental dedication. http://www.brilliant.ltd.uk/blog/entry/red-bull-bc-one-2011-promo.php Everyone knows of Red Bulls ability to put on an awesome event from the Soap Box Race to the Air Race but did you know they put on break-dancing battles, nope me either.Hamburg based agency Sehsucht has put together this amazing animation to promote the event with an incredible style and execution. http://www.brilliant.ltd.uk/blog/entry/cupcake-ipsum.php Tired of using boring old lorem ipsum in your GUI’s and layouts, feel like your personality could shine through more in your master pages? Then Cupcake Ipsum is the app for you.Cupcake Ipsum is an auto text generator built by Applicake that takes the idea of dummy text and makes it so much more sweeter:Cheesecake marzipan powder faworki jelly-o jelly-o jelly-o fruitcake. Chocolate bar danish gingerbread pudding oat cake halvah wafer chocolate bar lollipop. Jelly-o applicake liquorice bear claw chocolate muffin faworki souffleacute;. http://www.brilliant.ltd.uk/blog/entry/lego-advertising-imagine.php This is a series from the Lego campaign: Imagine, created by Jung Von Matt using single column stacks of colored Lego that represent iconic TV characters from our childhood. An extremely simple and clever idea that is executed perfectly... can you ’imagine’ who they are? http://www.brilliant.ltd.uk/blog/entry/ipad-juju.php The iPad allows us to do many things, whether it be to watch and interact with media, utilise hundreds of thousands of apps, browse the web, send email or simply play games.People are continually finding new ways to use the iPad as a promotional tool, but this video from Swedish magicians Charlie Caper and Erik Rosales, on behalf of the city of Stocklholm... is pretty awesome, combining seven iPads with a bit of sleight of hand and a live audience.or check out Simon Pierro’s voodoo fueled iPad demonstration.Enjoy http://www.brilliant.ltd.uk/blog/entry/how-not-to-ruin-great-design.php This morning I was tagged in a video on Facebook called amp;quot;How not to ruin great designamp;quot; where Mag+ fire their client Frank Woods for being an ignorant dick and as a result create an app to help clients work with designers. Now I can’t work out whether this is fictitious or not, but either way it’s a bit of fun.As I began hunting around for some validation on this video I found this sweet guide to design for start ups, although the information in the guide should be absorbed by all...Start Ups, this is how Design works. http://www.brilliant.ltd.uk/blog/entry/coca-cola-contest.php Dancing Coca-Cola bottles promo by Korb for the Eyeka co-creation community contest in 2010. Treated more as an iconic object, red topped white glass bottle with brown drink inside. This is what happens when a legendary image meets sounds of the harp in sterile neutral space. http://www.brilliant.ltd.uk/blog/entry/martin-schoeller.php Martin Schoeller is a New York based photographer hailing from Germany whose style is distinguished by similar treatment of all subjects whether they are celebrities or unknown, capturing them with a slightly embellished visual representation of their personality traits.It seems that there is nothing Martin can’t get people to do which ultimately ends in a fun insight into the subject.His most recognizable work are his portraits, shot with similar lighting, backdrop, and tone. His work has appeared in The New Yorker, Outside Magazine, Entertainment Weekly, Rolling Stone, GQ, Esquire, and Vogue. http://www.brilliant.ltd.uk/blog/entry/awesome-beetle-website.php Whilst doing a bit of research on Uuml;ber long websites I found this fantastic design for the Volkswagen Beetle, not only is it beautifully designed but very different! http://www.brilliant.ltd.uk/blog/entry/the-chase.php This is a totally awesome animation by Philippe Gamer. At first I thought it was some sort of promo for Nissan but maybe just an unorthodox choice of vehicle to use, you would expect to see massive Hummers or tuned Gtr’s. The ending is fantastic too. http://www.brilliant.ltd.uk/blog/entry/monster-pop-ups.php Most children are amazed by their first pop-up book, and I felt like a kid again when I first saw Beercamp 2012. A website promoting the after-party of the 2012 Front-Ends conference programme (a ’gathering for front-end lovers to discover the current trends to build a professional career out of innovative website front-end development’), it takes the pop-up book idea to the next logical step. All built in HTML 5, it shows just how creative this new web technology can be. Go to Beercamp 2012 and get caught by the monsters. http://www.brilliant.ltd.uk/blog/entry/rubbery-mutants.php Ji Yong Ho is a Korean artist who uses tires to create new sculptures that show the material’s possible mutations, reborn as a whole new other form of life. His works vary from an 11-inch-tall dog to a 10-foot long shark.There are many more showcased on his website from animals to hybrid animal/humans to total mutants check it out. http://www.brilliant.ltd.uk/blog/entry/ralph-mcquarrie.php This week conceptual designer and illustrator Ralph McQuarrie past away. Even if you don’t know it, you will all have seen his work come to life on screen. Ralph was the concept artist behind the original Star Wars trilogy, George Lucas commissioned Ralph to draw up some scenes from a space-fantasy script and ended up designing most of the main characters including Darth Vader, Chewbacca, R2-D2 and C-3PO. His artwork heavily influenced the film with Lucas taking a lot of reference from Ralph’s artwork when considering scenery, buildings and vehicles.McQuarrie played the role of General Pharl McQuarrie in The Empire Strikes Back and he also appears in Echo Base on Hoth in the film’s opening sequence. So not only did he get to design Star wars, and star in it but an action figure in his likeness as amp;quot;General McQuarrieamp;quot; was produced for Star Wars 30th anniversary... how awesome is that.Star Wars is not Ralph’s only triumph, he also worked on the original Battlestar Galactica TV series, E.T., Cocoon, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home, batteries not included and Jurassic Park.Cheers for all the beautiful illustration and inspiration Ralph. http://www.brilliant.ltd.uk/blog/entry/chris-labrooy.php Summer Streets is a series of typographic illustrations designed for the New york summer streets festival produced by Chris Labrooy. The festival is all about using New Yorks streets to play, walk, bike, and breathe, getting outdoors, having fun and enjoying NYC’s environment. Nearly seven miles of NYC’s streets are opened for the festival over three Saturdays during August.Check out the rest of the series or visit the Summer Streets festival website for more info. http://www.brilliant.ltd.uk/blog/entry/max-kostenko.php This morning I stumbled upon the portfolio of Max Kostenko whilst googling the date for mothers day (It’s the 18th by the way), I’m not sure what I clicked on to find Max’s portfolio but I’m damn glad I did... the power of random link clicking hey.Max is a Russian Illustrator and that’s about it really because everything on his blog is in Russian so all that is left is to go and enjoy his stunning work. http://www.brilliant.ltd.uk/blog/entry/timeline.php Seeing how the ’social dictatorship’ that is Facebook is forcing its users to switch to the new timeline layout, we decided to bite the bullet and do something about it now. I wont rant on about how unintuitive the customisation options are or how bad the compression is when you upload an image, if you haven’t experienced this yet then you’re in for a treat.I wanted to see what others had been doing with their space other than use a poorly cropped image and found a huge amount of blog posts on the subject with a few people changing their cover images weekly... and yet once again, Facebook have to go and spoil the fun with a set of ridiculous rules such as no calls to action or contact information, I’m sure this list will start to expand over time.80 Creative Facebook cover images. http://www.brilliant.ltd.uk/blog/entry/the-walls-have-ears-eyes-noses-and-mouths.php Nikita Nomerz is a Russian street artist who travels around local cities in search of derelict buildings to deface with, erm... faces.His work isn’t restricted just to this but it really is quite unique, at least to me it is. He paints on anything from water towers to dilapidated buildings and beyond.Check out more of his work. http://www.brilliant.ltd.uk/blog/entry/big-brands-score-with-2012-super-bowl-xlvi-tv-ads.php The annual Super Bowl game is often the most-watched TV programme in the US, and so naturally has become something of an advertising hotspot, as big brands fight to promote their wares to hundreds of millions of viewers (Apple’s ‘1984’ launch ad for example was aired during the 1984 Super Bowl). As in previous years, car adverts made up the bulk of the one and two-minute commercials, but beer, soft drinks, sportswear and technology products also featured.With slots costing around $3.5m for 30 seconds, many companies pulled out all the stops to make use of their big budget. Below are three which play the nostalgia card to tempt viewers to part with their money. Head over to the Creative Review and Branding Magazine websites to see full round-ups of commercials from the 2012 XLVI event.MetLifeInsurance company MetLife brought together famous cartoon characters from the past, including He-Man, Mr Magoo, and the casts of Scooby Doo and Charlie Brown.SamsungElectronics giant Samsung resurrected 2000s glam-rock group The Darkness, using frontman Justin Hawkins to lure prospective Apple buyers to sample its products.HondaHonda brought Ferris Bueller’s Day Off back, casting original star Matthew Broderick, and inserted over a dozen references to the cult-1980s film.