HyperQuake

Yeah, I’ll admit it. I LOVE PROPER PUNCTUATION AND GRAMMAR. I’m not ashamed to say I’ve read Eats, Shoots and Leaves no fewer than three times, and Strunk and White’s The Elements of Style currently resides on my desk. What of it? And now I no longer have to compromise grammatically when making stuff for the Internets, with this handy guide! Typography Quick Tips, from CSS Wizardry.

Ellipses Mac shortcut: Option + ;
Ellipses PC alt code: Alt + 0133

The Bengals finally made the playoffs last year and, as luck would have it, hosted the game at Paul Brown Stadium, right here in HQ’s hometown. The team wanted to create a really exciting Playoff Book to be sold during the game, and they felt HyperQuake would be a great fit for taking the design to the next level.

The goal of the project was to create a commemorative piece to showcase the Bengals’ awesome accomplishment. We all agreed that teamwork should be the primary focus of the design – the Bengals view making the playoffs as a collective achievement – with a strong emphasis on the host city of Cincinnati as well.

The end result was an exciting design that hit all of the team’s objectives and really made the Bengals come across as the high caliber team they are. Despite the fact that the game didn’t finish in the Bengals’ favor, fans can still cherish the memories, and have the playoff book to prove it.

Prepare to be delighted!

70 Million by Hold Your Horses ! from L'Ogre on Vimeo.

Anyone who’s been through art or design school has probably had to sit through a color theory class or two. There truly is a lot of interesting science behind the way particular colors and combination of tones behave optically: how you can fake three-dimensionality by splitting color channels and wearing blue- and red-lensed glasses, how two squares of the same grey can look totally different surrounded by contrasting fields of color, OMG and don’t even get me started on synesthesia. No argument that all that stuff is really fascinating.

What I’ve never been a huge fan of are things like color forecasting, or testing 41 shades of blue to see which “performs better”. I tend to fall more in the camp described by Stephen Drucker (editor of House Beautiful Magazine) who, in a recent Huffington Post article, compared color to sex.

“Color is like sex. It’s mysterious. It’s unknowable. It never looks the same twice. No two people see the same thing. No two people feel the same thing. I once went to China on a cruise ship. Eight hundred of us got off the ship wearing white, because it feels festive and shippy and says “I’m on a cruise.” In China white is the color of mourning. We
looked insane.”

We all know that movie releases are big business, and that social media has moved to the center of all things marketing-related, thus how social media is handled by movie studios is a core component to a modern film’s success. But let’s face it, it’s annoying to have to go to the movie’s microsite AND Facebook AND YouTube AND Twitter etc etc for your movie info. Total ugh, amiright? Not to mention it is also annoying and expensive for studios to build all that for every movie. It is this exact issue that Lionsgate Films, partnered with online media firm ThisMoment, aim to address in promotion of LG’s new film, Kick-Ass.

ThisMoment has developed the Distributed Engagement Channel, which essentially aggregates all of a movie’s social media stuff (Twitter/Myspace/Facebook/YouTube comments and ability to friend/follow/subscribe in those channels), and all of the movie’s official stuff (videos, downloads, contests etc.) into one place, which is THEN posted up onto Myspace, Facebook and YouTube in theoretical-lieu of a custom microsite/branding for each of those sites. (Although they HAVE covered all their bases with a traditional movie website as well in this case. Baby steps.)

The advantage to users and fans is obvious (so convenient!), but less apparent is the advantage afforded to Lionsgate in this move. The Distributed Engagement Channel technology is controlled by one single CMS system, allowing LG to manage their content on all the social channels at once (except Twitter, alas!) and providing consolidated metrics all in one place. Simplicity FTW!

There is a pretty confusing article on Ad Age about it, I recommend reading through the comments, there is a great dialogue going on between commenters and representatives from ThisMoment.

Thanks to Chris Strong for the tip.

YouTube music video darlings OK Go have done it again, but this time they’ve traded the treadmills for a warehouse in which they have built a wonderful, wonderful Rube Goldberg Machine. Don’t miss this one.

BONUS: The answer to the question, ‘will the band make out with the machine’? Find out below!

I’m a designer at heart, and having the opportunity to re-imagine and redesign brands has been part of my life for many years. I was also the near-victim of a choking incident while in grade school at an overnight slumber party (watch out for those Bugles!) All this being said… I can’t say that I condone changing the hot dog… Cut it lengthwise, down the middle, I say!

The American Academy of Pediatrics has recommended that the hot dog be redesigned in order to prevent chocking among children. As you might guess, the American Meat Institute replied that it has no plans to redesign the “iconic food” known for its “distinctive shape.”

In its report, Prevention of Choking Among Children, The American Academy of Pediatrics identified hot dogs as “the food most commonly associated with fatal choking among children.” Other common foods identified as posing a high choking risk included hard candy, peanuts/nuts, seeds, whole grapes, raw carrots, apples, popcorn, chunks of peanut butter, marshmallows, chewing gum, and sausages.

According to the report, the hot dog shares the same choking characteristics as high-risk toys. “It is cylindrical, airway sized, and compressible, which allows it to wedge tightly into a child’s hypopharynx and completely occlude the airway.”

Along with “redesigning” these foods to prevent choking, the Academy recommended the addition of warning labels and recalls of food products that pose a significant choking risk.

In a response from the American Meat Institute (AMI), Janet M. Riley, president of the National Hot Dog and Sausage Council supported the Academies findings, but noted that “as a mother, I redesign many foods – from hot dogs to grapes to carrot sticks – in my own kitchen when I serve them to toddlers. I simply use a knife and cut them into small, bite-sized pieces.”

Riley also pointed out that nearly half of all hot dog manufactures already include choking prevention advice on their packages “and have done so for years.”

“It is important to evaluate the impact the presence of those warning labels has had on choking incidents associated with hot dogs and whether or not those labels have been effective in preventing choking incidents,” she said.

Team HQ showed up in full-force on Saturday for Cincinnati’s first annual Leukemia and Lymphoma Society Race to Anyplace. Red Bulls in hand for energy, iPods cranked for race time tuneage and Team HQ shirts for speed, we didn’t miss a beat. The event took place downtown at the Chemed Center and boy did it have a great turn-out. Twenty-six teams showed up to pedal as hard as they could for 6 hours to help support blood cancer research, and our eleven-person team was proud to be one of them.

Should anyone ever tell you that spinning is easy, don’t listen to them. We pedaled like we had never pedaled before (the speed one of our teammates generated made me severely question the bikes ability to handle our skills) and after all was said and done, Team HQ racked up 73 miles for the day!

Though we may have went home a little sore and tired, we felt extremely happy and lucky to have gotten the chance to be a part of the event and to help raise funds and general awareness for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society here in Cincinnati. It was a great time and we met some wonderful people (and a huge dog who decided to join in on the race day fun) throughout the course of the day.

As sore as we all are, we can’t wait to be a part of the event again next year. We have our eyes set on the elusive 100 miles marker next!

Artists giving away their music via free downloads on the internet isn’t anything new: Radiohead and Nine Inch Nails have both jumped head first into experimenting with this. On February 14th, 2010, Blink 182 singer/guitarist Tom DeLong’s side project Angels and Airwaves (AVA) released their new album, available for free download. Appropriately enough, it’s entitled ‘LOVE’.

The band funded the whole thing themselves, spending about $500,000, sources say. If you are willing to do that, you are committed to your music no matter how good or bad people may think it is.

The whole concept of the ‘free’ download and releasing the album digitally only is more of a goodwill gesture towards the fans, with the hope of unlocking new revenue streams by enticing fans to pay for new content. In AVA’s case, this comes in the form of fan club membership ($20.85 every 3 months). By joining you get an assortment of early access passes to soundchecks, exclusive video and blog content, etc.

As a guy who still buys CDs and vinyl, I’m amazed to see how the music world is changing. Some bands and labels get it and are diversifying their ‘brands’ to cater to how music fans consume their product now, as well as trying to identify what that product will be in the future. If giving away your stuff for free is any indication, the product certainly may not be music. The reality is, even though listeners can donate after they download albums like this, I think most artists realize this isn’t really going to happen, or if it does, that it won’t amount to much.

Regardless of whether you like music or the bands who are giving stuff away, this is still an interesting situation, and since no one’s quite figured out the ideal model for selling modern music yet, you can bet that fun stuff is ahead.

It’s always fun to be in the news, and we’re excited to share the story with you: Recently the Cincinnati Business Courier, a weekly news publication covering all things business-related in the Cincinnati area, ran a small story about HyperQuake and one of our clients, iExplore.