I don’t typically post showreels on this blog. But when you have a one the best in the biz putting together an incredible reel, you do it. The Mill is a fantastic production and special effects company behind some of this blog’s favorite ads, including Das Handwerk’s Craft, Adidas’ Star Wars Cantina, DirecTV’s Opulence, and yes, even Nike’s Write the Future and Old Spice’s The Man Your Man Could Smell Like.

Much love.

Everyone is familiar with those wacky Japanese… their weird pop culture shows, their awkward fetishes and of course their deranged commercials. Well, Dentsu, the largest agency in Japan has put together a Design Ninja Project Team focused specifically on the task of creating WTF moments in broadcast, branding and product design. Stupidity and the unexpected for the sheer sake of it? Sign me up.

From AdAge.

Leo Laporte from TWiT interviews Wieden + Kennedy geniuses Craig Allen and Eric Kallman about everyone’s favorite Old Spice ad. Don’t have 20 minutes to spare? Here’s the gist:

- This ad is done with set trickery. The bathroom is lifted by a 50 ft. crane off of a half-boat set. He then sits on a contraption that slides him over a horse. CGI only comes into play when they’re splicing in a fake hand that spits diamonds and when they’re painting out part of the contraption in the final shot.

– The shoot was done on the 57th take on the 3rd day.

- Isaiah Mustafa is the actor. He’s a true man’s man… strong arms, deep voice, and a former professional football player for the Seattle Seahawks.

From the W+K blog.

Just noticed that one of my favorite designers dropped a new site. iamalwayshungry, now on it’s seventh version, is now up and ready to be eyeballed. Nessim Higson is definitely one guy that takes exception to the generalization that agency and designer sites are rarely updated, this new edition contains a bunch of new work that, as usual, looks like no one else’s.

The site also, however, falls entirely into the cliche that agency and designer websites are less than intuitive to navigate. What saves Ness on this catch is that he’s aware of it. Flaunts it even, noting that perhaps all too often now we’re worried about standards and usability, especially with the onset of Web 3.0. IAAH takes a different tack: it’s all about the process, the evolution. More than anyone else I’ve seen, this portfolio is full of sketches as well as finished work, rejected versions, experiments, musings, etc. He’s always linked back to the previous versions, so one could spend a whole afternoon sifting back through a whole history. Good stuff. And I suppose I should be checking back soon, because it’s already noted that v7 is temporary, and the next big thing is gonna be coming.

MuscleBeaver hits one out of the park with opening intro to a documentary about Germans addicted to the  World of Warcraft videogame. Depicting the evolution of computer games, every character in this prologue was “reinterpreted, redrawn (…one pixel at a time), and animated frame by frame.”

Awesome. Thought it starts out a bit slow (apparently due to the client’s wishes) it soon ditches the foreplay for a full on romp in the sack. Literally. Scooped from Changethethought.

MuscleBeaver has some pretty wicked illustration work as well.

Every once in awhile, I’ll take a look at some agencies doing some interesting work. So let’s step back and envy, admire, be inspired by, and steal ideas from, a hip little agency in Cleveland called Brokaw.

Despite the lame name, they seem to have a keen grasp on the nuances of pairing solid design with even better copy. In doing so, they’re able to say a lot without saying that much. The Horton Crossbow ads below are an example. Rather than finesse around a sensitive subject, they embrace it. The result is great copywriting that will might offend but damn, will it grab.