Cre8ive Commando » Miscellaneous

What do people really think about brands?

Cre8ive Commando — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 13:35:08 +0000

I wonder what people really think about some of the brands out there today? It would be great if there was a way to collect all of this data and display it visually somehow. Brand Tags have done just that, and they have done it in a very simple and clever way.

Brand Tags is a website which basically displays people’s perceptions of a brand visually via tag clouds. To generate these tag clouds, the website shows people a brand logo then asks them to tag that brand with the first word that comes to mind. All of these tags are then used to generate a tag cloud for that brand. Like most other tag clouds, the size of the tag reflects the amount of people submitting that particular tag. I think it’s a great social experiment and a clever idea to visually display people’s perceptions of brands today.

In order to browse through the tag clouds of the different brands, you firstly need to tag a few brands yourself with words that come to mind. The Brand Tags website even features a “Battle Mode” where brands are placed against each other and people need to vote for the brand they like more. You can check out the leaderboard here which currently ranks Google in first place ahead of Pixar, Adidas and Apple.

So let’s see what people think of the Apple and Microsoft brands. I’ve taken a small screen shot for each brand to see what their brand perception tag cloud looks like. Check it out below or visit the Brand Tags site to see the rest of the brands.

Apple Brand Tag Cloud

We can clearly see that people associate Apple with stylish technology.

Microsoft Brand Tag Cloud

It looks like Microsoft has the power PC market in the bag.

Sydney based Web Designer looking to get out of his pyjamas and into a new job!

Cre8ive Commando — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 08:27:49 +0000

Freelancing is great, but I think it’s time for me to leave my pyjamas behind and move out of my bedroom and into a nice design studio with a great team of people. Don’t get me wrong, I love my pyjamas, they’re warm, colorful and very comfortable but I think I’m ready to put on some jeans instead. I have finally finished my new design portfolio website, you can check it out at www.adhamdannaway.com. I’d love to hear your feedback. Now, all that’s left to do is get a job!

A bit about my site

My portfolio site took me a few weeks to design and build from scratch. The hardest thing to come up with was the concept and it’s always tricky to come up with a brand, especially when it’s for yourself. My site was built using a combination of HTML, CSS, PHP and JavaScript. I tried to keep the amount of code to a minimum and also used CSS sprites to keep my server requests low. I’m pretty happy with how it turned out and I have already received quite a lot of positive feedback which is awesome.

What I have to offer

I am basically an all round web designer and developer based in Sydney, Australia who’s been making websites for over five years now. I have experience in web design and development, UI design, branding, art direction and WordPress. I’m passionate about design and love to keep up to date with the latest developments in the Internet sphere.

Why hire me?

Because I’ll wear my pyjamas to my first day of work!

You can even suggest which pyjamas I should wear. LOL! Here are some popular options.

Create your own World Cup jersey on Facebook

Cre8ive Commando — Mon, 14 Jun 2010 12:08:24 +0000

You may have noticed that some of your friends are supporting their favourite World Cup team by displaying a personalized World Cup jersey on their Facebook page. You can create your own World Cup jersey for your Facebook profile and I’ll show you how below. Don’t worry, it’s very simple and it only takes a minute.

Firstly you need to login to Facebook and then simply click on the button below to create your jersey. You will need to “like” the “WorldFootballFans” Facebook page and also “allow access” to the application before you can create your jersey (don’t worry, this is standard practice for Facebook apps). The application will take you through this process anyway. It’s time to create your jersey!

Once signed into the World Cup Supporter Facebook App you can choose your favourite country and write your own name and number on the back. Once you’re happy with your jersey you can post it as your profile picture. Here are some screen shots of this clever little app.

Here is my own World Cup jersey. Aussie, Aussie, Aussie! Thanks to Digital Buzz for putting together this great app! They have really done a nice job with it.

Edit 21.06.2010: Here is another great Facebook application to create your own world cup jersey: Take me to the Facebook World Cup Jersey Application

World Cup Brand Design

Cre8ive Commando — Thu, 10 Jun 2010 16:24:21 +0000

The World Cup is a huge global sporting event that occurs for one month every four years. During this month the whole world lives and breathes football. People from different countries all over the world wave their flags high creating a sea of colour and energy. Every four years it is up to one country to host the World Cup and of course a different brand is designed for each World Cup reflecting the host nation. This post looks at the World Cup brand designs over the past 44 years and briefly outlines some of the similarities and changes in the World Cup branding over the years.

Looking at the brands below it is clear that one thing has remained constant over the years and that is the use of vibrant colours to evoke a sense of fun and multiculturalism. Nearly all of the logo designs and mascots below use an array of bright and vibrant colours. After all, soccer is “the world game”, so it’s no surprise that this theme has remained over the years.

The mascot character designs have definitely improved over the years. The 2010 mascot, Zakumi, was executed quite nicely and represents the South African country quite well. Footix (the France 1998 mascot) and Striker (the USA 1994 mascot) also do a good job of representing the host nation and capturing the hearts of children all over the world.

As for the logo designs themselves, over the years there have been a mix of very simple designs and vastly complex ones. Sometimes it seems like the basic logo design principles don’t apply to World Cup logos! Some of the designs look more like illustrative posters than logos, the South Africa 2010 logo in particular. For me, the France 1998 and USA 1994 logo designs do the job quite nicely as they are clean, simple, balanced and dynamic.

I guess we will all have our own preferences, likes and dislikes, but in the end each brand represents a worldwide sporting celebration and will go down in the history books forever.

World Cup South Africa 2010 Brand Design

World Cup Germany 2006 Brand Design

World Cup Korea/Japan 2002 Brand Design

World Cup France 1998 Brand Design

World Cup United States 1994 Brand Design

World Cup Italy 1990 Brand Design

World Cup Mexico 1986 Brand Design

World Cup Spain 1982 Brand Design

World Cup Argentina 1978 Brand Design

World Cup West Germany 1974 Brand Design

World Cup Mexico 1970 Brand Design

World Cup England 1966 Brand Design

I think France 1998 has nailed their branding well. Which one is your favourite?

Google gets World Cup Fever!

Cre8ive Commando — Thu, 10 Jun 2010 11:59:28 +0000

With only a few more sleeps to go until the 2010 World Cup it seems like everyone is getting World Cup fever! I know that I certainly am. Even the search giant Google is celebrating in their own way. Have you tried searching for “World Cup” in Google recently? You may have noticed that Google is displaying the match time information on the top of the search results. But if you scroll down to the bottom you will also notice that the search results pages no longer say “Goooooooooogle”, but instead “Goooooooooal!”. I think that’s a very cool way to get into the World Cup spirit. Good on you Google!

The Google search results pagination no longer says “Goooooooooogle”, it says “Goooooooooal!”

Google also conveniently displays the match time information.

World Cup 2010 Wallpaper

Cre8ive Commando — Mon, 07 Jun 2010 13:38:17 +0000

We’ve all been waiting for the past four years for it to happen. Finally, World Cup 2010 is just around the corner. The Soccer World Cup 2010 is being held in South Africa from June 11 to July 11 and you can feel the excitement starting to build. To celebrate the World Cup, graphic designers all over the world have been busy creating beautiful desktop wallpapers. Here are some of my favorites. The wallpapers link back to their sources where you can download them. Only a few more sleeps to go, can’t wait!

Pacman Google Game is still available!

Cre8ive Commando — Mon, 24 May 2010 12:06:17 +0000

A few days ago on May 22nd 2010, Pacman celebrated its 30th anniversary. The Pacman game has stood the test of time and on its 30th birthday Google decided to honour it by turning the Google logo into a playable Pacman game. Google has since removed the game from their homepage (although it was kept up there for an extra 48 hours). Don’t worry if you missed it, you can actually still play the Google Pacman game thanks to Paul Macek and a few other enthusiastic developers. Great work guys!

Edit 07.07.2010: Google has also made the Pacman game available.

I don’t know anyone who hasn’t heard of Pacman and it is amazing to think that such a simple game could still be entertaining people of all ages 30 years down the track. The game was originally invented by a Japanese inventor and called “Puck Man”, he named it after the sound of opening and closing one’s mouth. Google’s Pacman Doodle was a great idea and a nice way to honor the Pacman legend. One of the Google staff involved in creating this interactive Google Doodle, Ryan Germick, “thought it would be awesome”. I think we all agree.

The Google Pacman game is a fully-playable version complete with 255 levels and authentic sound effects. It’s easy to play using the arrow keys. Just click on “Insert Coins” to get started. You can even click on “Insert Coins” twice to play with 2 players. Player 2 can use the W, S, A and D keys for Up, Down, Left and Right respectively. I wonder if anyone has actually finished all 255 levels yet?

Play the Google Pacman Game Now!

Free papercraft toys that you can make yourself

Cre8ive Commando — Tue, 20 Apr 2010 13:49:06 +0000

Papercraft toys are basically models created from sheets of heavy paper or cardboard. They come in an array of different shapes, sizes and complexity and making them can become very addictive. There are many websites that offer different papercraft toys for you to download, print and fold. Some require glue while others are clever and only require folding. There are many great papercraft toys and some of my favourite include X-Men, Star Wars, Sonic the Hedgehog, Ninja Turtles and various other custom designs. In this post I’ll show you some of my favourite papercraft toys and where you can get them so that you can make them yourself.

Awesome papercraft toys:

Here are some of my favourite papercraft toy characters. They are all free for you to print out and create yourself. Be careful, it can get very addictive.

Some great papercraft websites:

There are many websites where you can download free papercraft toys as well as see some amazing papercraft creations. Creating papercraft toys is very simple. All you need to do is download the image, print it out onto some heavy paper, cut it out then fold and glue if required. Of course these papercraft toys can have varying levels of complexity, some people spend months on a single toy. Below are some sites to get you started on your papercraft toy journey.

Have fun and don’t cut your fingers!

Create your own personal homepage with Flavors.me

Cre8ive Commando — Tue, 23 Mar 2010 13:15:28 +0000

There seems to be new website building tools appearing all over the internet these days. Some of them allow you to create your own blog, while others allow you to quickly and easily create a business website or shopping site with only a few clicks of your mouse. Many of these website builders are quite cheap to use or even free and pretty much all of them require little or no technical knowledge. Flavors.me is a free personal homepage builder that pulls all your online presences into one place. Here are some of the reasons why it caught my eye.

Sometimes the simple things in life are the best and Flavors.me is no exception. Created by the guys at HiiDef Inc this simple and elegant homepage builder allows you to create your own personal splash page and aggregate all of your other online profiles including Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Flickr into one stylish website.

Signing up for your own homepage is free and it only takes a few minutes to setup a great looking website. You basically just need to link your homepage to your other online presences through a quick and simple interface. Here are some great looking existing sites created using Flavors.me.

You can see more great personal homepage websites in the Flavors.me Directory.

As you can see, the website templates are quite limited and do strongly rely on the background image used. This is not necessarily a bad thing as it ensures a simple design and also allows you to put your own personal touch on your homepage by using an image that’s special to you. You can also customise the colour scheme and fonts used on your homepage.

If you are looking to use your own domain name then you will need to upgrade to the premium account. No need to get alarmed, it’s only $20/year to upgrade and this will also give you access to real time stats and allow you to add a contact form to your website.

So if you want to create your own personal homepage and pull all your online presences into one place, Flavors.me could be worth a look. You can check out more details at the Flavors.me website.

Avatar movie artwork that you may not have seen before

Cre8ive Commando — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 12:35:08 +0000

I just watched the Avatar movie yet again and got lost in the amazing world of Pandora. After seeing the visual feast of colours, special effects and amazing characters I found myself still wanting more. Now, I’ve already seen most of the Avatar movie desktop wallpapers and movie posters out there, so I decided to explore the digital art world to see what it had to offer. To my surprise I came across some amazing Avatar movie artwork that you may not have seen before. I have included the artwork below with links through to the original artworks along with the very talented artists that created them.

I hope you enjoy the artworks as much as I do. Please let me know if you find any other unique Avatar movie artworks by leaving a comment below. Which one is your favorite? For some more Avatar fun you could create your own Avatar character. Avatarize your face!