Denuology: The Observation and Observations of Denuo. » Design

Instagram friends, it’s just a matter of time…

Matt Story — Mon, 03 Oct 2011 18:17:27 +0000

It was with a heavy heart that I joined team iPhone this summer. As a self-appointed Apple h8r, I spent the previous 3 years of my mobile phone life with Android devices. As with any relationship, there were good and bad times but at the end I realized that we needed to test the waters with others. I was not the least bit enthusiastic about this decision but it felt necessary at the time. Now that I’ve had a few months to adjust, I can say it was the right decision if not for one main factor…Instagram.

Most of us Denuologists find ourselves as early adopters of most apps. We convince each other to be friends in order to play around with social features (while blocking all Facebook notifications to ensure our non-nerd friends don’t catch on) so that we can intelligently speak to capabilities when asked by clients. However in the case of Instagram, I wasn’t able to nab that early adopter status given their lack of an Android version. The frequent tweets by friends with Instagram links led me to expect to show up to the filtered picture party late with many of my friends touting huge libraries and follower lists. Minutes after signing up I was surprised to see that this was not the case. I found roughly 25 non-nerd friends and 25 industry/nerd friends. Considering the app was released almost a year ago and is rumored right at ten million users, all my digitally connected, Apple loving friends should be using this right?

It then dawned on me that this situation resembles another fairly successful app’s trajectory and adoption within my circle of friends…Foursquare. There are a number of striking similarities:

Clunky UI – Both started with a rather awkward user interface. Neither does what you really want them to when/where you want them to. Though despite the frustrations, you find yourself still compelled to check-in/upload pictures because they are so darn…

Addictive – Each experience is improved and more valuable with more interaction. Before you realize it, you are compelled to instantly jump into the app at every ‘moment’ (Foursquare’s being when walking through any door and Instagram being when you anything that must be shared with a witty caption).

Multiple Uses – Where most apps focus on one distinct behavior and look to address it, each found a way to allow for multiple ways to engage. As an example, our Denuo LA office has daily conversations on how one person is using Instagram the right way and the other is not (for the record, my capturing of every Saturday night’s follies is the right way). Foursquare did the same thing where many of us approached it as a game to collect badges, points and mayorships, while others simply saw it as a way to connect with friends on the go.

Limited Web Functionality – They both have initially focused on pocket interactions and left the in depth web experience to third parties. Many would argue that this is leaving money (or impressions) on the table but as many predict we are moving to a browser-less future, you can’t argue with the decision.

Plethora of Competition – As first movers, they both have been confronted with many competitors (big and small). Just as Foursquare was able to weather this from the likes of Facebook, Instagram has seen Google give up on their own version (Photovine) in just the past month.

These comparisons may hint at continued success for the guys over at Instagram. Let’s hope so as I’d like to see more of my digital savvy friends in my feed. If they are lucky, it may only be a matter of time before I’m ignoring/blocking people on Instagram. I can’t wait.

Clash of the Meat Markets

llim — Thu, 05 May 2011 22:34:44 +0000

Every June, more than 50,000 conservative suits descend on Chicago for NeoCon (National Exposition of Contract Furnishings). There are so many of them, I feel like I never left my lovely hometown of DC, where Capitol Hill politicos run rampant and style still runs short. (Sorry, DC, you’re trying!) NeoCon is the most important show in the American contract furniture industry, with $25B in sales even during an economic slump. Your office chair, desk, and file cabinet were probably first scouted here. You haven’t given them a second thought once you were situated, and why would you (*yawn)? Fortunately, someone else is paid to do so and that person goes to NeoCon.

Established in 1969, NeoCon is always held at Merchandise Mart, a historic structure built by Marshall Field & Company in the 1920s. Once the largest building in the world at 4 million square feet, it has its own zip code and is a monument to architecture, design, and merchandising. It’s quite fitting that NeoCon is here: a pillar of a traditional American industry inside an American landmark. Merchandise Mart is now home to high-end designer showrooms, ad agencies, tech firms, and government agencies.

What you may not realize is that NeoCon is also a huge meat market. The conservative suits visit booths manned by attractive women in Ally McBeal miniskirts representing industry stalwarts. That’s how the manufacturers get the [mostly male] prospective buyers’ attention. Let’s not talk about the parties and after-parties, where the conservative suits take off their wedding rings.

But it makes sense that NeoCon is a bit of a meat market. Just as with politics, in a well-established industry how do you stand apart from the competition and gain attention in the market? How do you make yourself heard? Not everyone chooses to use miniskirts but they certainly can be effective, especially when the sluggish status quo needs a breath of fresh air. So what if you design furniture that offers a new perspective on working and living but do not enjoy wearing miniskirts? What if you want “innovative design” that’s more than one company meshing a Herman Miller chair with Steelcase’s colors from last season? Are there alternatives? Yes: The Guerrilla Truck Show.

You’re probably wondering, “What is the Guerrilla Truck Show and don’t you mean ‘gorilla’ as in ooga-booga?”

Founded in 2004, the Guerrilla Truck show is the independent designer’s answer to NeoCon and is an event where creatives of all types showcase work in a temporary, public gallery space – a truck – with minimal financial risk. Think yard sale meets pop-up shop, because what you see is for sale. For one night in June, the trucks park in Fulton Market (Chicago’s meatpacking district) outside Morlen Sinoway Atelier, a design store named for and owned by the show’s founder. It’s a different type of meat market.

While NeoCon is industry-only, the Guerrilla Truck Show feels like a street fair and is open to the public. The trucks, usually U-Hauls, are transformed into spaces that invite personal interactions with the designers and their wares. You’re free to look and touch [the work, not people] without feeling the laser-beam eyes of a miniskirted blonde willing you to plunk down a $50K order or leave. What’s exhibited can be in the more traditional vernacular – sofa, table, bookshelf. Regardless, it’s new, refreshing, and speaks to more than just function or aesthetics but how they inform each other. Often the design questions object interactions we take for granted but never took the time to understand. A different kind of tabletop lighting that defies traditional mounting surfaces. A high-end spanking paddle that publicly pokes fun at private boudoir activities. A whimsical and friendlier traffic cone.

This show is incredibly successful, with attendance, exhibitors, and press coverage growing each year. What continues to draw people is the casual and relaxed atmosphere in which they can enjoy art, design, and each other. The work is interesting and accessible, the exhibitors personable, the environment neighborhood-like, and the pressure to buy or sell is non-existent. Artists and designers are sharing their views on life in a comprehensible way and the public relates to these insights. The vibe is creative and spontaneous. Momentum is building, as other design events have begun piggybacking off it to create a one-night design extravaganza. Last year, there were thirteen off-site venues.

So of course, as I sit at my desk, I’m asking myself, “What can we Guerrilla Truck-ify for our clients? And here comes the personal plug: I will be in this year’s show, and the spanking paddles are mine. Bring cash.

(The 2011 Guerilla Truck Show will take place on June 14 from 5:30PM-9:30PM at the corner of Fulton and Aberdeen)

REFLECTEUR – Issue 81

Lizzy Bogacki — Thu, 07 Apr 2011 15:50:18 +0000

There’s a lot of data out there about us. In fact, it’s easy to forget just how much information various companies and organizations (and the Internet in general) know about us. The first page of Reflecteur this week looks at the ways two separate sites used infographics to display a huge amount of information with very different results:

* Where Americans are Moving looks at 2008 IRS data to map county to county moves. It’s your one stop shop to US migratory information and it only takes a few minutes of playing with the maps to realize that there are a lot of stories hidden within this data. Just click on ‘Detroit’.
* Watch a Phone Company Stalk a Customer is, not surprisingly based on the title, far more disturbing. This site maps, via a video, all of the data a phone company in Germany gathered on one of their customers over 6 months. It seems more spy movie thriller than real life.

Travel over to Page 2 for a bit more fun:

* Classic Arcade Game Deaths is just that, a video of the death/Game Over scene from numerous classic games. We love that it ties into the nostalgia so promenent within digital culture but remains original. A large reason it stands apart from the countless other 90s video game tributes is the fact that it focuses on an often ignored (but important) part of these games while also playing with its context. Together these attributes help make this such an amusing and captivating view.
* The Reflecteur April Fools Overview discusses our opinion on why this holiday has taken off within digital culture. (Hint: because it shares so much in common with digital culture.) We also include links to some of our favorite website and brand April Fools Day efforts.

As always, Reflecteur is part of VivaKi’s intellectual capital and can be shared with outside parties including clients and partners. Reach out to Ellen Bird, ellen.bird@vivaki.com, or your assigned agency lead for more information about the publication or the other Reflecteur assets.

Download Issue 81 of Reflecteur here.

REFLECTEUR – Issue 80

Lizzy Bogacki — Wed, 23 Mar 2011 19:10:41 +0000

Page one features 2 reinventions:

* In an interesting twist to the reimagining world theme we often discuss, Picture Cook takes the stuffy old recipe format and redesigns it with a focus on experimentation. Even if you’re more into the cut-and-dry recipe format, these flowchart-like versions of recipes will look great on your kitchen wall.

* Travel Time Tube reworks the classic London Tube map. A fixture in the design world, this site completely changes the focus of the map from relation to time. Put in two stations and watch it change forms based on routes that take the longest.

Page two looks at two captivating photo collections:

* Ghana- The Electronic Dumping Ground of the World highlights the dark side of technology and electronics. Perhaps the ‘new gadget smell’ isn’t everything it’s cracked up to be?

* Finally, we get a glimpse of a somewhat odd underworld in Taryn Smith’s Contraband. These images showcase 1,000 various items confiscated at JFK airport in New York. Some items make sense, but some…. well you just need to see them to believe it.

Download issue 80 of Reflecteur here!

REFLECTEUR – Issue 79

Lizzy Bogacki — Tue, 08 Mar 2011 23:04:04 +0000

In this week’s Reflecteur, we highlight two games (Zombie Streetview
Apocalypse & Famous Objects from Classic Movies) to help you waste
oodles of time and two popular photographic memes (Looking Into the
Past Photos, and Young Me/Now Me) that you just might go out and try
yourself.

We’ve also included some recently popular tumblrs under Top Reflecteur
Links… in case you have a few more hours to burn.

Download the latest issue here!