Gillian Laub photographs the town of Braddock, PA and its controversial mayor John Fetterman for this Sunday’s New York Times. Laub photographed Fetterman and his wife and son as well as residents of Braddock. Once a booming town, the collapse of the steel industry in the 1980s left it impoverished and dilapidated.  Fetterman is working to change that by launching social change through art. The town has hosted several art installations, opened its first art gallery, and is growing organic produce in the shadow of the abandoned steel mill. Fetterman says of his work, “We use art to combat the dark side of capitalism.” In 2009, Levis promoted their line of work clothes by using Braddock as a backdrop for the campaign.

Bernstein & Andriulli is proud to welcome aboard Gillian Laub. Her recent photographs of actor Robert Duvall appeared in the January issue of Esquire. She photographed disgraced pastor Ted Haggard for the February issue of GQ. Her video “Take Care” has been shortlisted for a Webby and was one of TIME’s Top 10 of Everything 2010. Laub will be in “The Collectors Guide to New Art Photography,” a book and exhibition launching March 25^th at Chelsea Art Museum.

See more of Laub’s photography here.

Publication: The New York Times
Story: “Mayor of Rust”
Photographer: Gillian Laub

Says Vivian Rosenthal, CEO of GoldRun and co-founder of digital media studio Tronic, “After a decade of developing digital media campaigns for top tier brands and recognizing the explosion in smartphone sales and increasing interest in location-based marketing, I realized there was a need for a new type of media buy, one tailored for the mobile space.”

The GoldRun app launches with an H&M promotion that allows iPhone users to view, interact with and take pictures of virtual H&M apparel and accessories in front of any of the fashion retailer’s 10 Manhattan locations. Users select the items they want to view and then “capture” them by snapping a picture to receive an instant 10% discount on any H&M purchase.

Simultaneously a powerful promotional tool and a social network tailored for the mobile environment, the app is designed to drive traffic to physical and online destinations, increase product sales, enhance brand engagement and bolster viral impact.

GoldRun is available for free from the iTunes store, download it here.

User interface stills

Virtually trying on clothes with GoldRun and new looks from H&M

Links:
Watch the demo
GoldRunGo
Tronic
Tronic at Bernstein & Andriulli
H&M: GoldRun at Creativity Online

Viewers will be sure to delight at the characters and animation that FWY Studios have created. The television spot is airing now, look for it on a commercial break!

Screenshots:

Client: Dunkin’ Donuts
Agency: Hill Holliday
Animation/Character Design: FWY Studios

LG Electronics recently launched the LG Optimus, an Android-powdered smartphone that synchronizes with all Google mobile services. The LG Optimus aims to be less intimidating and more user-friendly to first-time smartphone users. Says Dr. Skott Ahn, President and CEO of LG Electronics Mobile Communications Company, “This is a device that was designed for regular people who want to jump into the smartphone experience but have been hesitant to do so because of the learning curve.”

Serial Cut demonstrates the features of the LG Optimus with a 3D illustration in the international campaign by BBH Singapore. A pop-up accordion unfolds behind the phone, each panel representing a different capability. The phone is G-mail and social networking friendly, and perhaps the most unique feature is Wikitude: a mobile application that uses Augmented Reality.

Close-up of the LG Optimus campaign by Serial Cut

Creative Director Sergio del Puerto explains, “Augmented reality is a technique that overlays virtual vision and its information on the real world to enhance human visual perception. Current applications of Wikitude, such as Wikitude World Browser and Wikitude Drive, run on smartphones. These applications can only be used for iPhone, Android, and Symbian software platforms as travel guides and personal navigation devices. Currently, Wikitude World Browser is used for a travel guide. Users can get web-based information about points of interest, where to eat, description of buildings, and architectural images of historical places.”

While the phone is decidedly high-tech, the image draws on something much more simple: paper cut-outs. Serial Cut overlaid texture and worked with lighting and shadow to create an intricate folding piece that looks as if someone had spent hours working on real cut-outs, as they has also been known to do.

Each piece has different textures applied

For more work by Serial Cut, check out their portfolio.

Client: LG Intenational
Agency: BBH
3D Illustration: Serial Cut
Art Director: Sergio del Puerto

FriendsWithYou bring their signature magic, love, and friendship to Taipei, Taiwan for the Very Fun Park exhibition sponsored by the Fubon Art Foundation. “Field of Dreams” covers the facade of the Fubon Banking Center skyscraper in the eastern part of the city. A smiling cloud nestled in colorful flowers reminds us to look up at the sky, reminding viewers of their hopes and aspirations as children.

Very Fun Park extends throughout the entire city of Taipei, with “Field of Dreams” as one of the focal points of the exhibition. Other artists are displayed on storefronts, outdoors, and more, making the art accessible to all and dissolving the line between gallery and viewer. The theme of “looking up” demonstrates how in a small movement, one can be reminded of the vastness of the universe.

Links:
Very Fun Park
Fubon Art Foundation
FriendsWithYou

For those of you who were in Toronto June 10-20th, we hope you had a chance to experience the magical world of FriendsWithYou’s “Wish Come True Festival”. Commissioned by the Luminato Festival of the Arts, FriendsWithYou spread their message of “Magic, Luck, and Friendship” throughout the city. Queens Park in downtown Toronto was converted into Rainbow City, a colorful alternative dimension of gigantic totems, magical mushrooms, oversize bounce houses, and inflatable characters that came to life. Appearing in Rainbow City and around Toronto was the Rainbow King, Wish Come True Festival’s very own ambassador. Rainbow King was present at the ribbon-cutting ceremony of Rainbow City, opened the Canadian Stock Exchange, walked the red carpet at the Prima Donna opening night, and more. A walking piece of art, the Rainbow King thoroughly enchanted all the people of Toronto to join in the magic that was stationed in many parts of the city. The Wish Come True Festival was a complete transformation of the city into a beautiful place where dreams and magic became reality!

As part of the festivities, Narwhal Art Projects presented Day Dreamers, a solo exhibition of FriendsWithYou artists Samuel Borkson and Arturo Sandoval III. Rarely seen fine art and sculpture pieces were on display, portraying an intimate series of portraits and magical moments that seemed to drift in and out of the artists’ personal dream worlds. Lest fine art gallery shows not be of interest, festival-goers could also visit the Magic Pony pop-up shop to take home a piece of FriendsWithYou. New Wish Come True prints, toys, and other products were available for purchase, as long as a meet and greet and signing with the FriendsWithYou founders. Comments Arturo “Turo” Sandoval III, “From the beginning, one of our main concerns was we wanted to make art that was accessible to everyone from a price point to an intellectual level.”

For more coverage on the FriendsWithYou Wish Come True Festival, visit the links below after the pictures.

Rainbow City in Queens Park, Toronto

The Rainbow King spreads love and magic throughout the park

Park-goers interact with the installations

A large inflatable bounce house held joy for all

The Day Dreamers show at Narwhal Art Projects

Rarely seen personal work by Sam Borkson and Arturo Sandoval III were shown

Starburst is the captured moment of an exploding star. In it’s grand scale it is kinetic even without motion. He is constantly exploding and being reborn and you are there to witness it.

Secret Garden – hidden in the financial district the Secret Garden is the story of a spirit and his adventures within a secret garden. Everything is alive and has a part in the story.

New Wish Come True prints available at Magic Pony

Links:
View work by FWY Studios
Learn more at FriendsWithYou
Watch an interview with the founders Samuel Borkson and Arturo Sandoval III
See the Rainbow King around town on Rainbow King TV
Read the interview at The National Post

Zerofractal worked with Young & Rubicam and Tool of North America. While Tool handled art direction and the website layout, Zerofractal developed the Flash website, animated Smart, created 3D assets, and integrated the Augmented Reality capability. The Zerofractal team spent hours of research creating the look and feel of the clay character Smart, modeling the landmarks of each city, working with AR, and developing using Papervision – the 3D engine of choice for Flash.

Each city is unique, built carefully and represented by its most iconic buildings and structures. In order for the city to pop out and look believable, Zerofractal used a variety of tools and methods. First, each city was modeled in high-res in Autodesk Maya 3D, and then remodeled in low-res for optimum performance in Papervision. In order to retain details of the high-res version, Zerofractal used Illuminate Labs Turtle render engine to “bake” textures onto the low-res model.

After the low-res city was completed with the baked-in textures, the model was exported as a COLLADA file to utilize it within Papervision and Augmented Reality. Additional animations such as flying airplanes, turning Ferris wheels, and moving clouds were then added (that were also built in Maya). Further manipulation of certain objects were built in with code. For example, clicking upon clouds or sun would bring up the weather.

After mastering one city, Zerofractal was able to duplicate the process for the others, making adjustments as necessary. However, the complexity of the code and different media types posed challenges to the Zerofractal team when trying to get the different technology to work smoothly in tandem. Paul Kühne of Zerofractal explains “We had to do many trial and errors to have the best optimal experience for the user. We had to dig really deep into ActionScript 3 in order to get the results that we wanted.”

The end result is a website that engages users and allows room for personalization and fun. Reflects Kühne, “It was a challenge for us but together we all pulled through. In this project we used many different media types to create an engaging interactive augmented reality experience which really reflects what Zerofractal is all about.”

For an Augmented Reality vacation, visit virtualvacay.com to get a closer look at the 3D world built by Zerofractal.

Stills below:

The FIFA World Cup kicks off in less than a week. The 3D Agency, formerly known as Candylab, adds to the World Cup excitement by creating heroic sculptures of the 12 most popular football stars for Nike’s “Write the Future” campaign. Anatomically correct models were built in CG and then transformed into life-sized sculptures that are displayed prominently in Nike Town stores around the world. The CG football players are also featured in Nike print advertising campaigns.

Director/Producer John Moffett explains, “It was a real challenge to get all the players created within the time frame as well as making sure that they were ready to be shipped out as assets to agency’s world wide. Seeing them as real life sculpts in the Nike Town Oxford circus has given everyone involved a real sense of achievement.”

To learn more about The 3D Agency, click here.

FriendsWithYou brings color and festivities to Toronto for the Wish Come True Festival in what will be their largest interactive installation to date. The Luminato Festival of Arts and Creativity has commissioned FriendsWithYou to spread their universal message of magic, love, and friendship throughout the city. During June 10th – 20th, 2010 visitors can enjoy larger-than-life inflatable installations, a gallery show, several pop-up shops, community events, speaking engagements, and more. The highlight of the 10-day event is Rainbow City at Queen’s Park. The Luminato 2010′s festival Mascot Rainbow King leads a host of celestial characters in transforming Queen’s Park with larger-than-life dimensions of giant totems, bounce houses, and inflatable friends.

Schedule:
June 16th – 20th – Rainbow City Installation at Queen’s Park
June 10th – Day Dreamers – FWY Solo Exhibition at Narwhal Art Projects
June 12th – FWY Pop-Up Shop & Artist Signing at Magic Pony

June 16th – 20th – Rainbow City Installation at Queen’s Park
Rainbow City welcomes all into a world of Magic, Luck, and Friendship! As the highlight of the 10-day festival, FriendsWithYou transform Toronto’s Queen’s Park into Rainbow City from June 16th-20th with their largest and most impressive installation to date. The Rainbow King and a cast of celestial pals embark on a mission to delight citizens by welcoming them into Rainbow City, a magical kingdom where happiness is the key and the more you play the better you feel! Bounce, dance and chill as the Wish Come True characters bring you into their colorful alternative dimension of gigantic totems, mushrooms, and bounce houses while inflatable friends shower you with magic, color, and love! FriendsWithYou and Luminato are offering this unique experience with the hope of bringing people together to find a central happiness that is common inside of everyone. In addition to the installation, FriendsWithYou will also feature several pop-up shops showcasing a full line of new limited edition Wish Come True merchandise including apparel, tote bags, fine art prints, toys, accessories, and more!

June 10th 6-10pm – Day Dreamers – FriendsWithYou Solo Exhibition at Narwhal Art Projects
June 10th Narwhal Art Projects and FriendsWithYou kindly invite you to Day Dreamers, a bright and beautiful solo exhibition of artists Samuel Borkson and Arturo Sandoval III’s rarely seen fine art flat works and sculptural pieces. On this special occasion the artists allow you to venture into the secret workspace of the duo to witness the precious seeds of their inspiration and the birthplace of all things FriendsWithYou. Day Dreamers portrays an intimate series of portraits and magical moments that seem to drift in and out of the artists’ personal dream worlds – a place where everyday holds a dream.

June 12th 5-8pm – FriendsWithYou Pop-Up Shop & Artist Signing at Magic Pony
During the FriendsWithYou Wish Come True Festival, longtime friends and supporters at Magic Pony open their doors for a very special FriendsWithYou pop-up shop and artist signing on June 12th. As the first home for FriendsWithYou toys and art products in Toronto for over 8 years, Magic Pony has been actively promoting FriendsWithYou’s positive message of Magic, Luck, and Friendship since the beginning. This is going to be an amazing opportunity for long time fans and admirers to experience a one-of-a-kind FriendsWithYou pop-up shop, get all new products and prints, meet the artists, and interact with all of the FriendsWithYou family and friends! Limited edition Wish Come True items will be on sale exclusively at Magic Pony during the event.

Hope to see you there!

Links:
More Info
FriendsWithYou
FWYstudios

N.E.R.D. rolls around the California desert in a custom-wrapped Rolls Royce designed by FriendsWithYou for their upcoming music video “Hot & Fun.” The single featuring Nelly Furtado drops in June. In the meantime, teaser music videos by Fro Rojas have been proliferated around the web. FriendsWithYou’s Super Malfi gets some special attention from a few party-goers in Rojas’ “The Party Version.” In creating the one-of-a-kind Rolls Royce FriendsWithYou says “Magical Explosions [were] born, a psychedelic take over of FriendsWithYou cosmic forces.”

Links:
FriendsWithYou interview at PaperMag
FriendsWithYou
BBC Ice Cream
Promo videos

Thornberg & Forester designed and animated a motion billboard for Disney’s Mary Poppins Broadway musical, working with agency Serino Coyne. The simple yet bold design on 47th street and Broadway stands out among the maze of flashing lights in Times Square.

Chief Creative Office of Serino Coyne Sandy Block says, “In what is the most advertising-inundated location in the world, how better to evoke the larger-than-life magic of Disney’s MARY POPPINS than with the biggest sign you could possibly imagine: a 230-foot high by 80-foot wide, 12-screen, digital display with 15,000 square-feet of LED power. Now, put that in front of 100,000 visitors every day at the epicenter of the most popular New York City hub, and you’ve got yourself the perfect match-up of show and signage.”

Thornberg & Forester is no stranger to creating Times Square billboards, but the multi-panel format brought on new challenges. Creative Director and Partner of Thornberg & Forester Justin Meredith says, “In one respect you want to think of all the screens as one canvas but you need to find a balance between viewing it as a whole versus viewing parts of the billboard. For example, if you are standing at the TKTS booth on 46th street you have a completely different experience than standing on 41st street looking up Broadway. At the TKTS booth you only see two of the nine screens and this area was where most of the messaging needed to be directed.”

The end result is a dazzling display of 12 panels working simultaneously to entice Times Square visitors to see the Mary Poppins musical. Interested theatre-goers can watch the show at the New Amsterdam Theatre, starring Laura Michelle Kelly and Christian Borle.

Watch the billboard in action below:

See it in context in Times Square:

Credits:
Client: Disney
Agency: Serino Coyne
Chief Creative Officer: Sandy Block
Design and Animation: Thornberg & Forester

KTV Media International works with the Brooklyn Brothers to create the new iPhone app “IamaDalek” for BBC America. The app converts any recorded message into the voice of a Dalek, a fictional extraterrestrial race of mutants from the cult British science fiction television series Doctor Who. The new era of Dr. Who premieres Saturday at 9pm on BBC America. Originally created by Terry Nation, the grating voice of a Dalek is ingrained in many a heart of science fictions fans. Thanks to the “IamaDalek” app, now anyone can become their very own Dalek. The iPhone app is available for download at the iTunes app store for free.

As a child, creative director Stephen Rutterford was terrified of Daleks and their “creepy” voices. When it came to choosing a collaborator for the project, Rutterford knew immediately who to approach. After a conference call with Josh Kimberg of KTVMi last year, Rutterford recalls, “[Josh] sounded like a Dalek, so naturally he was the man for the job.”

Dr. Who may be familiar to the British, but for many Americans, the show is as foreign as a Dalek. When asked how the app could connect the Dr. Who audience to America, Rutterford responded, “Our audience in the US are primarily urban influencers and early adopters of the latest gadgets, so we felt the Doctor Who brand should reach them through the latest technology.”

Download the “IamaDalek” iPhone app for free at the iTunes store and start playing with the world of Dr. Who!
Watch a video of the demonstration.

Credits:
Agency: The Brooklyn Brothers
Creative Director: Stephen Rutterford
Producer: Tina Lam
Account Handler: Shana Bellot
Development: KTV Media International

A girl sees a panda spring up from the special board when she views it through a mobile phone.

A new virtual world appears on the iphone as Augmented Reality is at work.

View more demos of Augmented Reality in Ogmento’s portfolio.

The March/April 2010 Communication Arts Interactive Annual is for sale on newsstands now. Featured in the magazine is Capri Sun’s “Disrespectoids.” The tagline for the campaign is “Respect the pouch” and the Disrespectoids are “a motley crew of kids who innocently but foolishly ‘disrespected’ the pouch and were transformed into physical representations of their disrespect.” Working with Ogilvy & Mather, Tristan Eaton designed the 10 Disrespectoid characters that are the center of the campaign.

The “Respect the Pouch” campaign is a collaboration between Razorfish, Fuel Industries, and Ogilvy & Mather. It consists of print, broadcast, and online components. The impressive interactive Disrespectoids site features character profiles and animations, games, and a “Disadventure” where players may take on Disrespectoid characters in a team, explore multiple levels of game play, and compare their scores to other players online.

When it came to designing the characters, Tristan explains “Each character was based on a different stereotype of how kids pop, squash or pierce the Capri Sun pouches. Leaky Louie for example – who stabs the pouch with a straw, turns into a cartoon with a serious case of leaks spouting from all over his body. Basically, if you disrespect the pouch, there are consequences! In general, I wanted the characters to be very likable and awkward looking with bizarre proportions and funny mutations.”

Judges agree that the character design and illustrations were an integral part of making the campaign attractive and eye-catching. Interactive Communication Arts judge Glen Sheehan wrote, “Great character design and gaming structures of powerups and reward.” Fellow judge Nikolai Cornell agreed, saying “Nicely illustrated with a wide variety of enjoyable game play.”

Of the whole experience, Tristan concludes: “The best part of this project was working with Ogilvy’s Arturo Gigante. As an Art Director, he gave me a lot of creative freedom and when he had direction it was on point and insightful. That kind of process really makes the artist want to go above and beyond for the client. Thanks Arturo!”

Be sure to explore the site and check back as more characters and games are unveiled.

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Links:
Capri Sun – Disrespectoids at Communication Arts
Kraft Brands - Capri Sun Disrespectoids
More work by Tristan Eaton

Credits:
Isaac Garcia, Fuel Industries, art director
Benjamin Hawk, Razorfish, writer
Arturo Gigante, Ogilvy & Mather/Mark Semon, Razorfish, associate creative directors
Simon Goodship, Razorfish/Joel Grenier, Fuel Industries/Debbie Kasher, Ogilvy & Mather, creative directors
Glenn Bakie, Fuel Industries/Greg O’Neal, Razorfish, strategic planners
Jon Keon, Fuel Industries, Flash programmer
Tristan Eaton, Ogilvy & Mather, illustrator
Pascal Boraschi, Fuel Industries/ Rosie Rathburn, Razorfish, project managers
Fuel Industries/Razorfish (San Francisco, CA), project design and development
Ogilvy & Mather/Razorfish, ad agencies
Kraft, Capri-Sun, client

FriendsWithYou has also just launched a new and improved version of their website, FriendsWithYou.com. The more interactive and user-friendly site features the latest news from Friends With You, an online store for purchasing colorful prints and beautiful books, and a rainbow of information about FriendsWithYou.

Over Valentine’s Day weekend, Friends With You held a huge celebration at their new boutique in Miami. The “Love is Magic” event had a live band, a kissing booth, special guests, fun surprises, and tote bag giveaways full of goodies.

Party-goers feel the love at the party. See more pictures from the event here.

Pictures from FriendsWithYou: