I love music videos. Yes, the genre is littered with some rather disturbing commercialization, repetitive imagery and soulless preening BUT I still believe there is great potential for four minutes of striking visuals and music. Done right, they can become pieces of art. Case in point: I love the new video for “Try” by Pink (a legitimate talent powerhouse). Directed by Canadian Floria Sigismondi, it’s a fusion of beautifully choreographed dance and vibrant powder. I particularly like the end section as a dusty room and carpet fill with colour and desert light bounces off pigment covered skin. One powerful use of colour…

(video directed by floria sigismondi, choreographed by the golden boyz; screen caps made from video)

Designed by Studio Iknoki, I love this packaging for the album “Black Rainbow” by band Aucan. The Italian studio took a series of coloured smoke photographs at night and in the rain “trying to reproduce the dark energy, color and explosive music that emerges from Aucan”. I love when music packaging feels more like art than vapid promotional images. Colour and music are so intertwined and this identity showcases the connection beautifully…

(photographs via studio iknoki)    

The first time I watched Breakfast at Tiffany’s, I was blown away by how beautiful, vibrant and timeless the colour palette was. Actually, the entire design of the film, from the half bathtub couch to every impeccable stitch of costume, is fantastic. I love so many of the sets, especially Holly Golighty’s apartment which is kept very neutral so costumes and objects pop to life with colour. Audrey Hepburn is often in black and white or warm hues like hot pink or orange. The other woman, Patricia Neal, is always in green and blue hues (perhaps to denote her icy, cold personality). From the putty shades of apartment interiors to the gritty browns of New York streets, the pops of jewel tones and bright colours make one dazzling palette. I think the big party scene is my favourite part as bold shades and details dance with the neutral setting. After screen-capping like a mad-woman, I can confirm there is no shortage of inspiration in the Breakfast at Tiffany’s colour palette…

(screencaps by plenty of colour)

I think music videos have so much potential to be beautiful, stirring, innovative pieces of art. Lately, they feel more like repetitive product placements than statements of art which seems like a waste to me. On the flipside of that trend is the fabulous band OK Go. They make one fantastic music video after another that showcases how an awesome end result does not need a giant budget. This new video for Skyscrapers is lovely in its simplicity – 3 minutes and 45 seconds of gorgeous colur and dance. I love the travels back and forth through rainbow hues including the vibrant costumes and painted background walls. The video was directed and produced by Grammy Award-winning choreographer and director Trish Sie (she’s the dame part of the couple) and also features dancer Moti Buchboot. Proof that a great music video just needs innovation, talent and a big dash of colour…

(information via the always colourful Colossal)

I have been meaning to do a post on Saul Bass as he is a true colour and design hero of mine. I spotted this poster for 1957 film Love in the Afternoon today and couldn’t resist posting it. Gorgeous handcraft typography and cluster of primary colour. Don’t you wish modern movies would experiment with illustration as handsome as this? Time to prep a Saul Bass post…

(photograph via brain pickings)

If you’re like me, you might have double digit browser windows open at any given time. Don’t even get me started on the number of tabs I manage to create. The dramatic minimizing of browser window to dock on a Mac has always intrigued me and Emilio Gomariz explores this effect in his fascinating video, ‘Spectrum Cube’. Layer upon layer of perfectly organized browser windows form a beautiful study of colour and a dynamically shaded cube. How great is that end bit when all of the squares minimize together? After seeing this, I will never look at browser windows the same way again!

(thank you joseph)

Watching the Oscars and its red carpet of fashion has to be a high point of February. What colour trends emerged victorious on Hollywood’s biggest night of the year? I would say winter white was the runaway style choice. Other trends focused on various shades of red, blue, green, neutral and gold. I can’t remember an award show with less black! To be honest, I was a tad disappointed with Oscar 2012′s sartorial showing. I guess I just loved the fashion of last year’s show and wasn’t overly enamoured with many of the dresses selected this time around. That being said, I loved Emma Stone’s raspberry-crimson Giambattista Valli, Michele William’s coral-red Louis Vuitton, Penelope Cruz’s blue-grey Armani Privé, Tina Fey’s deep blue Carolina Herrera, Viola Davis’ emerald Vera Wang, Maya Rudolph’s plum Johanna Jonson, Cameron Diaz’s buff Gucci, Octavia Spencer’s white Tadashi Shoji, Meryl Streep’s golden Lanvin and Milla Jovovich’s sparkling Elie Saab. There were plenty of fashionable gents (and a mini-trend of navy tuxedos) but my very favourite was Christopher Plummer’s dapper midnight blue tuxedo complete with black trimming and a handsome Order of Canada pin. Now that’s true style. What was your favourite?

(photographs via harper’s bazaar, elle, the province and instyle)

A colourful troupe runs around town infusing hue into interiors, wardrobes, cosmetics and mundane corners of life? Yep, I love this commercial for Target by director Filip Engstrom. Featuring the French-Canadian children’s song “Alouette“, the spot has a beautiful colour palette (love the costumes!) and is just plain fantastic. I especially love how a bounce on a couch results in bright throw cushions and the overhead visual of a grey intersection filling with colourful runners. Anyone want to form a similarly well-styled colour gang who travels by hot air ballon and frolics around adding dashes of hue to life? I’ll send out membership details soon…

I’m a big fan of bold branding and the recent trend of more flexible, customizable features like stickers, stamps and tape. The identity for Round Hill Music, a boutique music rights company with a catalogue including The Beatles, marries creative-focused detail with a slick, trustworthy corporate feel. New York studio Established NYC focused on the necessity of tape in so many facets of the music industry “from notes on a grand piano to markings on a recording studio’s mixing board to taping plectrums on the microphones during a live gig or damping snare drums”. Tape became not only the central logo feature but is used as an bold branding detail across the identity suite. It’s instantly recognizable (always the mission) and I love the mix of hot pink, silver foil and black and white. Elegant and artistic – the best combination possible…

(photographs/quote via september industry)

More4, a UK television channel, has a smashing new logo and identity that manages to be slick, modern, colourful and a bit magical. Yes, the combination is possible! London studio ManvsMachine focused on the channel’s core topics of design, fashion, style and interiors to create a vibrant colour palette, strong typography style and bold visual identity as a whole. I saw a static preview image of the logo in November and just loved it. However, with the launch of the complete identity yesterday, I am borderline intoxicated. The animation of the More4 logo moves sort of like flip-digits schedules once used at European train stations or perhaps like pieces of fabric, flickering television lights, fanning Pantone books, streamlined butterflies or tiny soft covered books? In collaboration with Jason Bruges Studio, the flip-digits were created by hand (see the making of video) and crafted into this gorgeous video. Magical, right? I love the idea that the channel infuses different locations and objects with dancing squares of colour. Yep, I could watch this video all day long. I know it is only January but I think I have found the one to beat in my “best identities of 2012″ list…

(p.s. if you are a fellow flip-digit lover, check out my posts on peter wegner and rebecca baumann)

(photographs via manvsmachine & weheart)

It’s hard to go to a grocery store’s vegetable section or a farmer’s market and not be astounded by the vibrant hues of fruits and vegetables. This advert for Lurpak Butter directed by Dougal Wilson celebrates the glorious colours and patterns of vegetables. How exquisite is that purple cabbage pattern? I love the dramatic, cinematic feeling (aided by the voice of actor Rutger Hauer) and how the vegetables move in rapid rainbow sequence. The ad seeks to show that “healthy doesn’t have to taste humdrum” and I think that it more than achieves that goal. I don’t know about you but the ad makes me want to cook and eat a rather large heap of vegetables…

This joyful video is making plenty of news today and for good reason. It is a happy maker! A few months ago, I posted a stop-motion video by Canadian designers Lisa Blonder Ohlenkamp and Sean Ohlenkamp featuring a colourful bookshelf re-organization. Well, the talented pair took things to the next level in their latest piece, “The Joy of Books”. With the setting of Type bookstore in Toronto and a whimsical score composed by Grayson Matthews, Sean and Lisa (and many volunteers) spent sleepless nights turning the shop into a truly magical world. I love the patterns and colours of flickering book spines, the two dancing book covers and the ending when all of the supplies pop back into their spots. I couldn’t agree with the last frame more – ”there is nothing like a real book”. I just know this is what shops do while we are sleeping…

(thanks Jen and Catriana!)

Lately it feels like FedEx is leading the way in making clever and effective ads with a handmade sensibility. Remember the parcel via windows one I posted about a few months ago? The latest effort is this advertisement for less urgent shipping between Canada and the US created by BBDO Toronto. We travel between Montreal and Miami via a route of toppling domino-like FedEx boxes and spot many landmarks and geographical features on our journey. The craftsmanship of the set and all of its purple details is fantastic. I can’t even imagine how much work this set-up required nor the terror of having what appears to be one take to do it in. It also warms my heart when a company embraces the creative possibilities of their brand colour the way FedEx has here. The ad is exploded in their signature purple. I’m not sure why a Canadian goose needs to mail a puppy a hockey stick but when the results are this good, who cares why! Both purple offices are fabulously designed from purple dog bones to the purple bow tie-clad goose’s desk photos of his wife and the man at the park who feeds him. How about his poster with the fitting quote “C’est la V”? I love this ad because it not only shows how a brand colour can be explored but it highlights that any company, from tiny to insanely large like FedEx, can make make a unique and truly creative advertisement.

Milan’s Cinema Manzoni was one of the most important film venues in Italy for over fifty years before it closed to the public in 2006. In her show ‘Parasimpatico‘, Swiss artist Pipilotti Rist took over the historic space and covered every surface with “a new skin of imagery” resulting in gorgeous and ethereal light, sound and movement installations. Those photographs of rooms lit by coloured gels make me want to hop a flight to Milan and be immersed in hues. How beautiful is that top image of magenta and blue floors with a dash of red light? I also love the ornate Italian details covered in modern colour (including that intriguing chandelier that acts like a screen for projected imagery). If you happen to be in Milan, the show is on until December 18th. See more about the installations here.

(spotted on and photographs via designboom)

behind the scenes

A second Kate Spade post this week because their holiday collection is just that good. I love “Give Colourfully”, the Holiday 2011 campaign video. It is bursting with bright colour, pattern, design supplies, paper and all things devoted to the season of festive wrap. It’s quite impressive how much Christmas comes across without relying on traditional colours, snow scenes, winter clichés, etc. Continuing with the theme, the front page of their website animates colourful presents you can “unwrap”. A larger Kate Spade post will pop up one of these days as their design team and brand as a whole is one of my true ‘colour heros’. Check out the behind-the-scenes video too. The team used 1,000 yards of coloured tape, 15,000 square feet of tissue paper and 400 yards of paper ribbon to create the mini-film (including wrap a 1965 VW beetle!)

Helmo is a great design studio from France and I recently came across some work they did in 2009 for the Sonorama Music Festival in Besancon, France. Th CMYK typography is fantastic and the black and white illustrations are playful yet modern. What a mix! I love the program and its rainbow of one-colour photographs. The wayfinding is my favourite though as it brings so much life to the streets and grey weather. If I had been at the festival, I probably would have walked away with all of the merchandise (and an illegally procured bus shelter or wayfinding poster!)