After much extensive research (exhaustive, really) I’ve decided that run-and-jump games are my favorite. They are easy, they are addicting, and they tend to have a wicked sense of humor. It’s Friday, enjoy:
Canabalt has you running and leaping off of rooftops to avoid imminent apocalyptic demise. Run away! Watch out for those boxes!
An old one that I am surprised is still around, is Drop Kick the Faint. Take your punk aggressions out on those Saddle Creek weenies!
But perhaps my most favorite of them all is Robot Unicorn Attack, featuring robotic unicorns, stars, sparkledolphins, making dreams come true and perhaps the most perfect soundtrack of them all, the tune “Always” by Erasure.
It’s been a little while since they did anything to the packaging, so I personally do think it was due. The logo has been minorly tweaked, but the packaging on the cases is where you’ll really notice things. Even if you’re not very familiar with the brand, you’ll notice things right away. The ‘Girl in the Moon’ logo adorns the sides of the packaging now and the front/back is much simpler and fitting for the brand. It doesn’t feel like the box is shouting at you, it feels more polished. Other minor tweaks to logo sizing for example are there, but that’s about it.
In terms of how I view the brand, everything about the changes seem fitting to me. For a brand that also has apparently been seeing growth in recent years with consumers changing their beer choices with the economic rollercoaster, I think the update was well deserved and hope that it does well.
The fine folks over at Netdiver recently gave us a shout out on their blog (thanks guys!) after taking note of some of the recently refreshed elements on HyperQuake.com.
I regularly review recent ads and videos from all over the country (if you don’t already, check out/subscribe to Out to Launch, a witty blog full of soon-to-be or recently launched campaigns, promotions, sites, etc.) so as I went through the list of the Cannes Ad Festival winners of 2009-10, I was surprised to run into only a few spots I had seen before.
Saturday I found myself dancing along to the cutest band that ever there was, who happen to be from Ypsilanti, Michigan, right next door to where I grew up, and just a wee bit west of Metro Detroit.
Oh, poor Detroit.
The whole state is suffering terrible economic times, with one of the highest unemployment rates in the country; much of its woes concentrated in Detroit. How many news items about the area have you seen that feature an endless image parade of decrepit, boarded-up homes? It’s really like that, and it didn’t used to be.
Sufjan Steven’s 2003 song, Detroit, Lift Up Your Weary Head (Restore, Rebuild, Reconsider!) describes Detroit as “Once a great place, now a prison,” perhaps alluding to people being too financially insecure to be able to leave. Interestingly, in the background of the last chorus he repeats “Hesitate to burn the buildings,” but that is exactly the city’s plan to revive itself.
“The basis of Detroit’s new plan is essentially the shrinking of a city. While it seems counter intuitive to most city planners: making a city smaller instead of bigger…what’s left is a bold plan to concentrate the city population…Mayor Bing has implemented a task force to oversee the destruction of over 3,000 homes in the next few months alone, with the goal of removing 10,000 during his four-year term. 77 public parks are also on the list to close. Trash cans will be removed, events canceled and the once-groomed lawns and gardens will return to the wilderness…A large city with vast open space is an unknown.”
Bulldozing half a city and rebuilding it is a risky move, and it will be interesting to see what will become of the once-great Motor City. Will it be able to start from scratch, to rebuild itself into modernity like the European capitols after the world wars? Or will southeastern Michigan be reclaimed by meadows?
So you may remember a couple of months back when we shared with you some news about the newest poster in our poster series having been printed and released to the world.
Create Your Own Environment
Well, since then, poster #3 in our series has been finding its way to the far corners of the earth and all spots in between.
Most recently, one of the prints made its way over to Melbourne, Australia (I told you we were there!) where we sent one out to the crew at LifeLounge.com (a design/art/typography blog) as a thank you for feeding our creative juices and providing us with inspiration on a daily basis. Turns out, the gang over there gave us a shout out on their site, which you can check out here. Thanks guys!
HyperQuake's 'Create Your Own Environment' Poster Featured on LifeLounge.com
If you have not been to their blog before, and you didn’t click on the link above, what are you doing? Definitely go visit, do it now, because you are missing out. When you get there, tell them the crew over at HyperQuake says hi.
Spotify is a service wherein you can apparently listen to a library of 8 million songs whenever you like, so far only available in seven countries in Europe. Damn you international Twitter friends for getting all the cool stuff first!
Anyways, so it’s like, mobile access to tons of licensed music all the time, and Spotify reports to “compensate the artists fairly,” which according to this lovely infographic, is a pretty seriously low rate on return, considerably worse than comparable streamers Rhapsody or Last.fm.
BUT it sounds like a pretty good deal for the users, not to mention easy-to-use…seems like Spotify could be the harbinger of that New Digital Music Revolution we’ve been hearing is coming ever since iPods were a thing.
Look at how much fun these young people are having sharing music!
HQ recently had the opportunity to leverage our digital marketing and brand design strengths to pitch and ultimately win the agency of record assignment for the Cincinnati based, Buffalo Wings and Rings restaurant chain. What’s even better is the fact that we will continue to leverage our passion for all things food to help build this nation-wide, 54 restaurant business (and who doesn’t like wings?).
For 2010, our efforts will be focused on developing an integrated campaign utilizing social media, loyalty, customer advocacy as well as both traditional and non-traditional media launching later this summer. Our recent return from the Buffalo Wings & Rings annual franchisee meeting in New Orleans, LA gave us a great chance to hear directly from the dedicated front line teams of owners throughout the US.
“Buffalo Wings & Rings is a different kind of restaurant brand centered on catching up and connecting,” says Roger David, CEO of BWR. “Families and friends choose us because of the unique BWR experience. We want our marketing to reflect and build on that experience and sense of engagement. As a leader in experiential marketing, consumer connection and new media technologies, HyperQuake is well positioned to help us.”
Thanks Roger and the entire Buffalo Wings & Rings team. We look forward to helping build your business and our own knowledge of your 45 wing sauce/heat combos in the future.
