The buzz surrounding 3D printing is undeniable. From jewelry to weapons, the new technology is guaranteed to change everything we know about manufacturing, product creation and even design.
The possibilities behind the 3D printer are astounding. Think about it, an idea can become a product immediately, and the only cost is design and prototyping. Once the product catches on in the market, old manufacturing techniques are available for mass production, but there is a low-cost experimental stage that requires very little in terms upfront cost (aside from the printer price tag). The technology just makes sense for both consumers and manufacturers.
How Will It Change Advertising?
Well, we’ve got a couple theories in the works.
First, We’ve Got To Keep Up
One thing is certain, the 3D printer is really something advertisers need to embrace, and soon.
Everyone knows that in order for advertising to work, we need to be informed on the latest of everything, from trends to technology. Clearly, as technology offers faster solutions and immediate gratification, our jobs become increasingly fast paced.
Unlike our advertising forefathers, we’re under a different kind of deadline; we’re expected to reach customers as quickly as possible and as creatively as possible, but our deadline relies on the speed of the evolving technology of our society.
Second, We’ve Got To Encourage
Once we become experts in 3D printing, we’ve got to get our clients to realize its potential. Just like we’ve convinced clients to utilize the endless possibilities of social media, we’re going to have to do the same for 3D printing (and the technology after that, and the technology after that).
The consumer today expects more than what it used to. They have the world at their fingertips, and get to choose where their dollar goes more than ever. Consumers love the idea of tweaking or designing their own version of a product and having it printed especially for them, and it’s not long before they’ll not only be impressed by 3D printing, they will come to expect it.
Finally, We’ve Got To Produce
Right now advertising agencies are making lots of pretty things to look at, clever things to read, and interesting things to hear. Next we have to make things to touch. We’re talking about tangible items that fill in a marginalized gap somewhere between physical craft and virtual craft.
The challenge is that the things we print can’t be tchotchkes that offer nothing, they have to be pieces of design that encourage, inspire and enlighten.
Go ahead and learn more with this awesome video:
http://www.textually.org/3DPrinting/2013/01/031585.htm
1.You’ve heard people say there is a science to everything, except we always sort of thought that statement excluded the arts. Statistician Vinny Bruzzese disagrees; in fact, he’s “solved” the creativity equation for screen plays. If money is the only goal for creativity then he might just be right?
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/06/business/media/solving-equation-of-a-hit-film-script-with-data.html?_r=1&
2. In the very rare case that you don’t know what a hexadecimal is, that’s okay. We won’t nerd out on you with matrices or anything. Just know that hexidecimal time and color was combined to make this really nifty clock. And, after watching the clock you become fascinated with the concept here’s the simplified conversion:
One Traditional Day= Sixteen Hexadecimal Hours
One Traditional Hour = 256 Hexadecimal Minutes
One Traditional Minute = 21.09 Hexadecimal Seconds
One Traditional Second= 1.32 Hexadecimal Seconds
Your linear algebra professor would be proud.
http://thecolourclock.co.uk/
3. If you’ve got a kid that really wants a pet fish, but you already know you’re going to be the one cleaning the tank and flushing the doomed guy down the toilet in a few months, you might think of learning some tips from resin artist Keng Lye.
http://www.thisiscolossal.com/2013/04/three-dimensional-animals-painted-in-layers-of-resin-by-keng-lye/
4.The snuggie boom is a great example of a goofy product getting attention thanks to Internet humor. The same is true for the Hutzler 571 Banana Slicer on Amazon. The 4,000+ absurd reviews has made it the #5 best selling kitchen slicer on the site. Read through the reviews and have yourself a good laugh.
http://www.amazon.com/Hutzler-571-Banana-Slicer/dp/B0047E0EII
5. It’s important to leave a good impression with your clients. So, when a Brazilian cheese company decided to print their business cards on a tiny wallet friendly cheese grater we were both impressed and hungry for some Parmigiano-Reggiano.
http://gizmodo.com/of-course-a-cheese-store-has-a-tiny-grater-business-car-505465406
Shoes Meet Instagram
The days of personalizing your shoes with a sharpie in Algebra are officially gone. Nike successfully targeted every shoe enthusiast/hipster on the planet earlier this month with their new marketing campaign Nike Photoid. Plus they did it for almost free.
Cupcake Inspired Shoes!
The company took advantage of the popularity of Instagram and paired it with everyone’s secret desire to design their very own special pair of kicks. Basically, potential customers are encouraged to visit Photoid.Nike.com and grant the site permission to their Instagram account. Then users pick the style they want and design away, their treasured Instagram memories are dropped in as the background. When customers are through they can order the pair for anywhere between $135-$200.
It’s incredibly easy and fun to fool around with: Win
It’s totally free for Nike: Win
Win. Win.
Plus, It’s Impeccable Timing
But there’s more. In addition to the increased sales, building a new type of brand loyalty, and not needing shoe designers for this project, Nike’s campaign has perfect timing.
Earlier this week Instagram introduced a new feature that allows users to tag their photos (much like their parent company Facebook).
Tag Away!
Rather than just use hash tags and @s, the “Photos of You” feature encourages users to tag not only their friends, but brands they follow.
It’s perfect for a company like Nike, with over 1.3 million users, and only 600 of their own photos; they can showcase their products as highlighted by users without doing any actual marketing.
Other brands will have the same good luck. For instance, if Beyonce tags H&M in her photo, the clothing company reaches almost 4 million of her followers immediately.
Maybe Instagram won’t need to advertise after all.
1. As our past Friday Fives have evinced, we are fascinated by unconventional mediums for artistic expression. Brilliant and talented artist, Rashad Alakbarov, uses found objects to “paint” his walls with shadows.
http://catinwater.com/2012/08/21/rashad-alakbarov-paints-with-shadows-and-light/
2. Gamers rejoice, you no longer have to pull out your phone to order a pizza. Unfortunately, you’re still going to leave your parent’s basement to get the door. Oh, and don’t forget the Mountain Dew.
http://news.cnet.com/8301-17852_3-57580998-71/breakthrough-order-pizza-hut-from-your-xbox/
3. If Facebook is about collecting the most friends, then the Buddy Cup by Budweiser might be on the right track. It’s basically a cup that connects to your Facebook, and when you bump cups in celebration it automatically adds the other cup holder to your friends list. The drawback: Usually, you don’t want to give access to your place of work, life events and photos to 90% of people you meet in a bar. A for effort?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9FdnssHlcRk
4. A couple of our clients have helped make us experts in lighting and energy-efficiency. So when this article hit newsstands last week, we were pretty stoked. It combines the astronomer within us all with our invested interest in lighting.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-22292129
5. Everyone knows all about engagement marketing; corporations have their customers participate in their marketing by letting them take a crack at their brand. Whether it’s voting for your favorite flavor, with Lays potato chips, or coming up with a commercial for the super bowl like Dove Soap. This designer made his own fake ice cream flavors based on pop culture. Although he hasn’t been hired by Ben and Jerry’s yet, it did prompt the company to release an official statement that Ron Swanson’s “All the Bacon and Eggs You Have” is not a real flavor. We’re curious, hungry and craving “Dude Food”.
http://jonnyetc.prosite.com/18214/220082/portfolio-/pop-culture-ice-creams
Starting back in 1995, World Graphics Day began to bring designers and artists together to celebrate communicative and graphic design. The day was created by Icograda, the International Council of Graphic Design Associations. Founded in 1963, Icograda is a non-profit, non-partisan, member based network of individuals that actively promotes the significance and value of design practice, education, thinking and research world wide. Members strive to represent interdisciplinary collaboration and the collective voice of the design industry.
Happy World Graphics Day!
Icograda, coupled with this special celebration of art and design fostered an important discussion at Echo-Factory about the wonderful job our designers do, and the enormous influence of communicative design. For us, it’s a huge part of why we do what we do, and why we’re good at it. However, it’s a lot more than just that.
Through the years we’ve come to realize that graphic design and visual literacy has become one of the most influential professions. Every day we are fortunate to be part of a movement that becomes more and more significant to human interaction.
Just How Valuable Is Creativity?
After years of discrimination in the work place, the creative industry is finally a place of esteem and value. In a hotly contested New York Times article back in 2008, “Let the Computers Compute. It’s the Age of the Right Brain” Janet Rae-Dupree posits that the marginalization of alternate thinking in corporate America is not only a thing of the past, it’s now a celebrated and sought-out skill.
We are in a time in which computers can perform most of the sequential skills of the brain’s left hemisphere, but what makes humans different from these computers is the creative ability.
Our Take Away
Individuals across the world are often bound by emotional reactions to art; together artists and those that appreciate works of art can experience something that technology can offer in a limited sense. So, go out and appreciate graphic communication, a painting, a book of illustrations or photography. Thank an artist for giving you something priceless.
Happy World Graphics Day!
