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.”

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!

If you’re even the wee-est bit of a typophile, you can’t help but have your heart set a-flutter by a really wonderful ampersand. The above comes from 300&65 Ampersands, and they have plenty of lovelies for your perusal.

For amps out in the wild, see The Ampersand blog, and for a ridiculously awesome ampersand font pack, head over to Haäfe & Haph. You’re welcome, font geeks.

This past weekend, Cincinnati saw the best and brightest in the local ad world come together to recognize the great work that took place in the advertising community across the region during 2009. Put on by AdClub Cincinnati, The Addy Awards (much like Santa), come only once a year bearing gifts of trophies and recognition to all the agencies in the Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky whose design work is deserving of the ever-coveted award.

We’re proud to share that we were nominated in the ‘Advertising Industry Self-Promotion: Mixed-Media Campaign’ category and took home the gold for our brand new HyperQuake Identity System.

From a website redesign, to stationary and business cards, even a complete office environment overhaul, a lot of work was done this year in re-developing the HyperQuake visual identity, and we’re proud of our team that was a part of it and pumped for the recognition.

Redfixfive’s California office

If you’ve ever graced HQ’s halls, you might have noticed we’re undergoing some decorative changes lately. For folks looking for a little workspace inspiration, might I humbly suggest This Ain’t No Disco (it’s where we work).

If you’re more of a lone wolf-type, check out Where We Do What We Do.

Panhojda’s Cracow workspace

The happy chaos of Threadless’s Chicago office

“…I decided to ask some of today’s most exciting artists and creators what they do when the ideas aren’t flowing. I left the question fairly open ended and asked, What do you do to inspire your creativity when you find yourself in a rut? As expected, I was presented with an array of strategies, ranging from listening to Boards of Canada in a forest alone, to cooking up a storm (recipe provided) and waiting for the mind to clear.” Here’s what they had to say.

Much like how hipsters and Internet folk love to hate Owl City, most people who are not madly in love enjoy hating Valentine’s Day. And why not? Try to truthfully tell me those HE WENT TO JARED!!! commercials don’t make you want to punch someone in the face. Valentine’s Day has become one of the most hackneyed holidays we’ve got, thus Brand New has been charged with reinventing it.

“…Bryony and I were invited by Studio 360…to tackle a rather interesting problem: Redesigning Valentine’s Day, everything from the hearts, to the roses, to the chocolates, to the expensive dinners, to Cupid. Everything we know about Valentine’s was due for a new approach…Of course, we said yes. Yes, to a project that we had to finish in less than two weeks, with no pay, and without any precedents to refer to. Regardless, we decided to approach it just as we would any identity or branding project.”