Shonzilla, a pattern-seeking animal

Life is a game of patterns and chance, and those who play well will win.


Twitter

See also (via Entrecard)

programming coupons powered by RetailMeNot.com

Sun Jul 4

Logorama

This is the most awesome animated short movie I’ve seen recently and you will too. It’s called Logorama and all characters in it, buildings and additional props are entirely comprised out of company logos.

The movie uses logos as metaphors to succinctly communicate a number of obvious or subliminal messages (YMMV). I don’t know about you, but I’ve always looked behind Ronald McDonald’s fake smile (well, all clowns have those) and considered him evil as much as the company he’s representing. Further on you’ll see an earthquake (financial crisis) bringing down a number of buildings (financial institutions Ronald is calling “losers”, since McDonald’s wasn’t too affected by the crisis). My take on choosing Michelin men to represent cops (one good, one bad, of course) is that it reflects pretty nicely the common perception/prejudice of cops being donut-munching fatsos. After seeing many other interesting usages of logos, you may think that the movie foresaw some events like BP Oil Spill.

The authors are a French animation collective called H5 who have also created a number of animated music spots for the likes of Röyksopp, Super Fury AnimalsAlex GopherMassive Attack, and many more. The movie also won a bunch of highly acclaimed awards including Academy award for Best Animated Short Film (at 82nd Academy Awards 2010, the Kodak Prix at Critics’ Week at Cannes Film Festival 2009 and many more.

Authors’ commentary on the message of the movie is also worth reading: ”Logorama presents us with an over-marketed world built only from logos and real trademarks that are destroyed by a series of natural disasters (beginning with a hurricane, cyclone, tidal wave…). logotypes are used to describe an alarming universe (similar to the one that we are living in) with all the graphic signs that accompany us everyday in our lives. this over-organized universe is violently transformed by the cataclysm becoming fantastic and absurd. it shows the victory of the creative against the rational, where nature and human fantasy triumph.

Thanks to Christopher for the link!

Sat Jan 10

The new Google favicon remotely resembles the Windows logo

Google has changed today it’s favicon, again.

Putting it under a looking glass it looks like this, next to the Microsoft Windows logo:

Note the colors are the same. Sure enough, Google uses these four colors in its corporate branding since the beginning. What is curious is that when you rotate the Windows logo 90 degrees clockwise, you get the colors of the Google favicon.

For a good measure, I’m adding another logo using the same colors - the logo of AVG Technologies, a Czech anti-virus software vendor:

The new favicon is a derivate of a Google contest which has drawn a large number of entries. However, designers at Google decided to change one of the entries they liked best.

Am I the only one seeing a resemblance?