Agency Hires Bodypaint Artist to Transform Models Into Human Motorcycles

International Motorcycle Shows - Human Motorcycles

To promote this season’s Progressive International Motorcycle Shows, San Diego creative agency The I.D.E.A. Brand came up with the concept to create 3 uniquely customized motorcycles. But instead of simply adding cool accessories and an customized paint job, they decided to create the illusion of motorcycles using naked people.

The people, which included a group of bendy yoga-folk, were stacked, twisted and body-painted to transform them into human motorcycles. The shoot also included sideline reporter, TV host and motorcycle racer Erin Bates as the pilot of the human motorcycle.

A team lead by body-painter extraordinaire Trina Merry, spent 3 days transforming the models into a sport bike, motocross bike and a cruiser.

USA

Australian Artist Paints People to Create Illusion of Smashed Car

MAC - Body Crash

You probably already seen the work of Australian, body-painting artist Emma Hack. She painted singers Gotye and Kimbea for the video of worldwide hit song ‘Somebody That I Used To Know‘.

Recently, Emma collaborated with advertising agency Clemenger BBDO and Motor Accident Commission of South Australia for a project called ‘Body Crash’.

She, and her team transformed 17 nearly nude bodybuilders, models and acrobats into the illusion of a crashed car. The 5 women and 12 men were carefully positioned and covered with up to 5 layers of a body paint during the 18 hour shoot.

The campaign hopes to bring attention to the serious consequences of even low-level speeding.

[via CarBuzz]

Australia

Google Doodle Celebrates 107th Anniversary of First ‘Little Nemo in Slumberland’ Comic Strip

Google Doodle Celebrates 107th Anniversary of First 'Little Nemo in Slumberland' Comic Strip

As Google gradually takes over more and more of the utility of our digital lives, thankfully they continue to entertain us with inventive and unexpected (to me at least) doodle takeovers of their home page. Today, October 15th, they celebrate the 107th anniversary of the launch of Winsor McCay’s comic strip ‘Little Nemo in Slumberland‘.

The comic appeared each Sunday in the New York Herald from October 15, 1905 – July 23, 1911, and then the New York American September 3, 1911 – July 26, 1914 where it was known as the ‘In the Land of Wonderful Dreams’.

The comic strip featured the nightly dreams of a little boy named ‘Nemo’, and his adventures to ‘Slumberland’ where King Morpheus invites him to be a playmate for his daughter, Princess Camille. Each comic strip would end with Nemo waking up just in time to avert misfortune or a certain disaster.

The Google homage, entitled ‘Little Nemo in Google Land’ faithfully recreates the style and spirit of the original comic strip in an interactive animated form. The comic strip expands as the user pulls on tabs, allowing Nemo to tumble from his bed, through the floor into a surreal ‘Slumberland’ where he’s caught by Princess Camille. A brief adventure ensues before Nemo tumbles down through several panels, ending up back in his bed.

Today’s Google doodle joins my long list of favorites that include tributes to Valentine’s Day, Star Trek, Les Paul, Martha Graham, Freddie Mercury, Jim Henson, Robert Moog and more.

USA

Philips Russia Recreates Classic Dutch Paintings in ‘The Art of Ironing’

Philips Russia - The Art of Ironing

Philips Russia has come up with a highly creative way to demonstrate the ability of their Azur iron and Pro Touch steamer to remove any trace of a wrinkle, fold, or crease from linen.

In the video, an artist folds and creases the linen re-creating the work of three famous Dutch painting masters (Philips is a Dutch company). He then uses the Philips iron and steamer to return the sheets to their original flatness, before repeating the process for the next piece of art.

The three works are Girl with the Pearl Earring – Johannes Vermeer, and self-portraits of Van Gogh and Rembrandt.

The ad was created by DDB, Moscow.

Russia

Samsung UK Recruits 250 David Baileys to Promote NX Smart Camera

Samsung - David BaileySamsung is promoting that their NX smart cameras can turn anyone into a great photographer, maybe even as good as famed UK-photographer David Bailey.

To find out, Samsung are recruiting 250 people in the UK with the name David Bailey. They’ll be supplied with a Samsung NX smart camera, weekly assignments and special personal training from “the” David Bailey. The amateur David Baileys will capture photographs of their daily life to be used in the second phase of the campaign.

A few of the David Baileys have already begun posting examples of their photography.

The campaign was created by Cheil UK.

[via brand-e.biz]

UK

Lego Celebrates 50 Years in Australia with Top Ten Aussie Moments

Lego Australia - Top ten moments

[photo by Mike Stimpson]

Although the Lego company first launched in Denmark in 1932 (the plastic blocks we know today first appeared in 1949), it took til August 1962 for the colourful bricks to make their way down under in Australia.

50 Years later, Lego is celebrating with ‘Festival of Play‘, a nine month schedule of activities from April to December, taking place both online and in the real world.

Just to clarify, the real world is that place where you find that last piece of missing Lego… at 3am… in barefeet.

The latest online part of Festival of Play launched in early July, with Lego inviting Australians to vote on their favorite moments from the last 50 years. In August, after receiving nearly 14,000 votes, the top 10 was finalized, and UK photographer Mike Stimpson was tasked with recreating these iconic moments using Lego Minifigures.

The Top 10 Moments in reverse chronological order are:

  • Australian racehorse Black Caviar undefeated in 22 races (2012)
  • Cadel Evans wins Tour de France (2011)
  • Steve Irwin feeds a crocodile with one hand while cradling his baby son in the other (2004)
  • Steven Bradbury wins gold in the men’s 1,000m speed skating at the Winter Olympics (2002)
  • Nikki Webster stars in the opening ceremony of the Sydney Olympics (2000)
  • Cathy Freeman wins gold in the 400m at the Sydney Olympics (2000)
  • The Castle film receives widespread acclaim (1997)
  • America’s Cup victory for Australia ends US domination (1983)
  • Mad Max, an Australian post-apocalyptic film starring Mel Gibson, is released (1979)
  • Sydney Opera House opens (1973)

View the entire Creating History gallery.

Australia

See Diane von Furstenberg’s New York Fashion Week Show Through Google Glass

DVF Spring 2013 show at New York Fashion Week through Google Glass

Google Glass technology was front and centre last week at the DVF Spring 2013 show at New York Fashion Week. The head-mounted devices were worn by the models, stylists and Diane von Furstenberg herself. It’s unlikely that the advanced augmented reality features of the device were ready and available to the wearers at the event.

However, the video and still capture functionality was being used, with photos being shared to the Google+ page and video compiled for DVF [through Glass] produced and edited by Greenpoint Pictures
.

In June at Google IO 2012, co-founder Sergey Brin announced that the public will have to wait until 2014 for the devices, while developers can get their hands on an “Explorer Edition” sometime early next year.

USA

Peugeot Promotes Hybrid4 Features with Interactive Graphic Novel

Peugeot Hybrid4 Graphic Novel

French-automaker Peugeot is promoting its new 3008 Hybrid 4 with an interactive graphic novel titled ‘A Mission in Four Modes’. The graphic novel is presented as a a visually stunning parallax HTML5 website.

A parallax website is designed with multiple layered backgrounds that move at slightly different speeds creating an illusion of depth. Awwwards.com recently posted 30 great examples of parallax scrolling websites.

A Mission in Four Modes features a female spy who’s trying to grab a few pictures of some secret information that she’s obviously not supposed to see. As the door blasts open and guns are drawn, we see the mission switch to ‘sport mode’ for a quick escape. Our heroine dives through the glass window and races away from the guard dogs, and the chase is on.

The story was illustrated by Gerald Parel (who has designed covers for Marvel) with site developed by Sylvain Tran for Paris agency BETC Digital.

Sharpie Showcases Fan Creations in California Wives’ Music Video

Sharpie - California Wives

Up-and-coming bands doing co-promotions with major brands is becoming commonplace these days, and this past week Sharpie debuted their project with Chicago band California Wives on the 2012 MTV Video Awards.

The video for ‘Purple’ features the band performing in front of dozens of monitors flashing the artwork that had been submitted to the Sharpie Gallery. Fans can use the Shazam app while watching the music video to get access to a free download of the song.

Shortly after the video premiere, Sharpie launched an interactive site where fans could create their own mashup of the music video by uploading their own images at startwithsharpie.com.

The project was created by the Chicago office of DraftFCB, and was directed by Ben Flaherty.

USA

Rovio Support ‘Freddie For A Day’ with Freddie Mercury Angry Bird

Freddie Mercury - Angry Birds

Wednesday, September 5 marks the third annual ‘Freddie for a Day‘ fundraising event. The event was created by Liz Swanton, web editor of the Mercury Phoenix Trust, the charity founded in 1992 by Queen members Brian May and Roger Taylor and manager Jim Beach to raise money to fight AIDS. Fans are encouraged to don a mustache and dress up like Freddie, and recruit friends, family and co-workers to sponsor their effort.

To help raise awareness and funds for ‘Freddie for a Day’, Angry Birds developer Rovio Entertainment have transforming the flamboyant frontman into a bicycle-riding Angry Bird. ‘Freddie-bird’ has been animated to the tune of ‘Bicycle Race’, Queen’s double-sided hit with ‘Fat Bottomed Girls’ in 1978). The song was infamous for it’s promotional video featuring dozens of nude women riding bicycles around Wimbledon Greyhound Stadium (a foldout poster of the event was included in the sleeve of the ‘Jazz’ album).

Rovio is releasing limited-edition Freddie Mercury Angry Bird T-shirt, and making it available in the Angry Birds and Bravado online stores. A portion of the proceeds will be donated to the Mercury Phoenix Trust.

Last year at this time, I posted about Google’s elaborate Freddie Mercury doodle in honour of his 65th birthday.

UK