One of the projects we are finishing up involves an adapted flash flip-book incorporated into a custom-made website with embedded video. One of the tricky things has been processing the complicated flip-book code that is rich in math and physics. We must calculate the proper rotation of the image and shadow and mask to imitate the physical movement of a page in a book or magazine. Luckily, I haven’t had the need to alter much of that coding but have been digging deep into the loading process of the individual pages for it to run at optimal levels for our application. Using the actionscript “trace” command, I can quickly display a statement whenever something happens in an actionscript process. This way, it is easy to figure out when something is happening according to an animation or event on the flash stage.

Ever since it came on the scene, Red Bull Energy Drink has always been a little different. Not just because is comes in those funny shaped cans, or because it’s consumed just as often for actual energy as it is mixed with vodka at any bar in America. Red Bull, which was founded and is still based in Austria, has always taken a unique approach to its advertising, marketing, and branding.

First off, the company owns and operates two major soccer teams. But this isn’t just a sponsorship deal, they actually NAMED the teams after themselves. Red Bull Salzburg plays in the Austrian soccer league, and Red Bull New York plays in the American league, Major League Soccer.  The Austrian team plays in Red Bull Arena, and the New York team is building a stadium in New Jersey (cheaper real estate than Times Square I guess) that will be called, shockingly, Red Bull Arena. Both teams serve as walking billboards for the company:

But the point to all of this rambling stems from a commercial I heard on the way to DDA this morning for the Red Bull Soapbox Race, which apparently travels the world, and makes a stop next weekend on the famous “Wall” in Manayunk. Roughly 20 teams have designed outlandish gravity-powered vehicles that will race down the insanely steep hill (which just-as-insane cyclists climb every year in the city’s bike race).

Cars are not only judged by how fast they go, but on creativity and showmanship. It’s a crazy marketing and advertising idea, but it is unique enough to draw thousands of fans every time it descends upon a city (likely including me next Saturday). This is the same company that encourages people to invent flying machines and jump off very high piers in another contest they call Red Bull Flugtag:

I’m not really sure if there is a point to all this (it’s Thursday, and I’m a little loopy), but it does go to show you how ideas that probably seemed crazy when tossed around a conference room table can turn into enormous successes. And how far marketing and advertising campaigns have come since the days of newspaper ads and TV commercials.

It also reminds me of meetings we’ve had here at DDA, especially about a new project called YBML (you’ll just have to wait to find out more). It’s an ambitious project, and very “outside-the-box,” but as we sit in meetings about it, I think we all realize what it could become. At DDA, we make an effort to not limit ourselves to the typical advertising and marketing mindsets. Our programmers, copywriters, graphic designers, SEO specialists, and video artists are always looking for new ideas (Facebook groups, social media optimization, Web 2.0, etc.), and are not afraid to throw things against the wall to see what sticks.

Maybe next year, we can design, build, and enter a DDA car in the race. But we might have to let Indie drive it.

Today is Thursday, and it’s an extra special Thursday because DDA is closed on Monday for Labor Day - so it’s even more important that we work hard to wrap up any loose ends going into the long weekend.

At 1 today we have a photo shoot scheduled with a client of ours who makes a variety of singing snack bowls and a few other products. They are rather inventive and fun. We have been developing the package design for one of the latest products and they have another lined up for the future. Today’s photo shoot will be of around 5 of these products filled with assorted snacks or candy to show the product in use. I’m not sure if these photos are going to be used for the packaging, website, or something else - but I have no doubt they will be put to good use to sell the products. I don’t have a great deal of information about what will be featured in today’s shoot, but I am very familiar with the product and I am the project coordinator for the design work, so it gives me a great head start in what to expect.