Pepsi

Pepsi had redesigned they logo and looks a few years back but it was a pretty racked when they changed it cause people were saying it lacked the old design. However I have to say the new logo is not bad even though I still get reminded by the thick belly cartoon that someone made with this logo. But essentially it kept allot the old features and restyles it to be more sporty to able to fit more on the athletes they sponsor.

However now also able to see the bottle designs in Holland it a pretty boring packaging design and also they just reused the old bottle and caps too, they literally just sanded off the old logo and placed those caps on the bottle. The simplistic look doesnt really attract and work much, but maybe also be that if they did not just use dark navy blue but a more metallic dark blue would been more interesting. Atleast do not look that cheap to the eye or atleast have some interesting graphics which they use to have.

If I ever got time I would get a bunch of cola by several brand and show which one looks more attractive to buy then others. Also need to see what World Cup packaging there are too.

Chocolate flakes or what?

Ok How the heck did they approved this packaging/ graphic design, what is that monkey holding between his legs? Either is it a chocolate cornflake or the flakes are crap or his ding dong. This is actually an illustration which is found on the Chocolate Cornflakes by Albert Heijn. But when I want walking through the supermarket stumbled upon this and yes I had to buy it and show the world. Any where else his hands would had been ok but why between his legs. Also he flakes are like flying out between his legs or butt. If I find any other indecent or odd packaging I would post it up online.

Inspired hand gesture control

Hand gesture control is not a new thing its been shown in many sci fi movies and the most known is for Minority Report. However I have also played with it about 2 years ago which is a webcam that could see your hand movement and can analyze the difference between hand gesture and can put what it would do between the hand gesture. Now even Xbox have a same system called kinetic however 2 years ago a company Mgestyk would made a system that would use a 3d webcam however now 2 years later still have not seen the system gone on sale.

However I also tried a system which did not made use of a 3d webcam but can also be done with any normal webcam. What it does is it searches the color of your hands and it will only look at your hands and also looks at the gestures. However that system was very crude and it works better with a glove on if your background is same color plus it often recognize your face as on of the hands. So you often had to wear a glove with a certain color.

However most of the researches and developements I found stopped in 2006 and I haven't seen much until today another vid shown up at TED talking about hand gestures.

They asked when but actually its already available to download and use but it still to crude and not many have done much to made them to work much smoother. If you want to try it out visit this website and download the software.

However now the iPhone 4 have a front facing camera, the development of new apps would probably make allot of use of that. And in a near future there will be someone making an app for hand gesture so you don't even have to touch the multitouch screen at all but just hold the iPhone in front of you hand use hand gesture to control it, either the interface or also games. Especially the front facing camera will be used for plenty of games and if the hand gesture of the iPhone would blow up I am sure that Apple will be the first to implement the system on the Mac systems, making a touchscreen, tablets keyboards or mouse obsolete.

And now watch a video by StudioSmack called Pimp my Planet, a video with interesting gesture control how to control the planet. However this is all effects and not real.


I hope that within 5 years to see more hand gesture control on personal computers instead of only having it on game consoles. And if I got time I might try some hand gesture controls on a website of mine.

Learn Depth of Field

Depth of Field Explained (by snodart.com) from NT on Vimeo.

this video is reprint at snodart.com(http://snodart.com/tutorials.php)

Here is an interesting video I found on vimeo by Snodart which teaches about DOF or Depht of Field. Depth of field is tool for photographers and cinematographer to put accent on what is the most important subject that you should look at and have that in focus while the rest is all blurred out. Watch the video and learn more.

Technical isometric illustration

This is an image of a project I am embarking on, however this is not in an assignment for Canon in any way, its just interest in this camera and I wanted to build up my portfolio with more technical illustrations. Here above you see that I have build up the top and front in the isometric view, however the blueprints are made by myself and are not found on the internet, also I own the camera myself which I can use as a reference point. However I am still far from done to start on actually making the illustrations cause I am still missing 2 sides the which would make it easier, the side and the rear. When I am finished I will show the results and also probably make and tutorial how I have made the illustration.

Inspired Prezi Presentations

Here I introduce you to Prezi a brand new way to hold presentations, no more plain powerspoints but now use Prezi the zoom and rotate presentations. Normally it would take hours with Flash to make such and interresting presentations with everything zooming past and rotating around, having to motion key and having to make start and stop action scripts. However not with Prezi which is also an online program which you don't have to intall to use, you can easily make an interesting presentation by just uploading images and writing text and then just by clicking the order of how you want to show your presentation. Making an presentation has never been this easy. Its also totally free, however if you want more there is also packages you can buy with add ons. Check out Prezi.com and start making presentations interesting.

Inspired: Augmented Reality explained

Here is an interesting video by Common Craft explaining Augmented Reality. However I know about AR but there were still allot of people who never heard of it. I even tested augmented reality on my own laptop and also tried making own AR with Flash. However it is a big thing in the future it will be implemented to be able to help making life easier but also making life more interesting. Think about games that actually interacts with the world around you, depending on where you are the game levels are different. Think of Mario jumping on your furniture and on the walls instead of Hopping in a 2d space.

Inspired iPhone 4!

Apple Keynote showed the new iPhone 4 which is totally awesome, however I never had an iPhone cause I never saw how much different it was compared to other smartphone. But the iPhone 4 is surely the best phone that is out there right now and I am blown away and probably would get it when it is out. The iPhone 4 is going to be released in many countries at the end this month. The iPhone can record HD and also directly edit on the phone?!? However I wonder how long it would render? But the multitask and facetime is just awesome. What is great too is that allot of places in Holland got free wifi, with whole Rotterdam to be wifi but it is slow but able to go to the McDonalds to wifi with faster internet. Also the city where I live got free wifi through out the city. For sure the new iPhone set the standard of the phones to the next level! I think I am going to Mac within a year with so I could also try and design apps, cause I think I can already think of allot of interesting stuff for that phone.

Q&A Motherland at Cinemasia

At the Cinemasia 2010 was the Dutch premiere of Motherland a very personal movie by the Director Doris Yeung, however it is not a biographical movie. Watch the trailer of the movie here. However on the 28 may 2010 I helped out and filmed the Q&A of the movie and also view a part of the movie, watch the Q&A below.


If you want to watch more Q&A from Cinemasia click here.

TEDxRotterdam

Last friday June4th I went to the TEDxRotterdam talk and watch several great presentations and shows at the new Luxor Theather in Rotterdam. However not all of the appearances were all that there were few that was a bit of a horror. Also couldn't take any pictures while I was there and I only able to take few sneak shots. However was also horrible to see non event photographer making a mess of them selves. However they had filmed the whole even and will be putting them online soon. So check TEDxRdam if you want to see the videos.

However got a major headache after watching all the presentation there were just so much info that I had to absorb. Bit it does inspired me to think of more things and be more creative. I hope to be there too the next year and maybe even on stage if I can think of a cool idea to present.

How to improve western econemy by copying the Asians!

Yes I am talking about copying things from Asia, however I am not talking about product, low wages or building allot of production factories but I am talking about shops and stores open till late.

As some of you might know I spend a whole year in Hong Kong last year and not only tried some culture tasting but also bit trendwatching and trying to understand the market while also doing allot of other stuff.

However upon arriving back to Holland I saw that the shops in Holland felt lazy compared to Hong Kong. Allot of shops open really late and also closes pretty early. Mainly if you work 5 days in a week and work from 9 till 5 you could only shop around during the break or weekends. However break time is not that long to be able to shop around and weekend on certain area is both days but most are still just Saturday. Also you got like one day in the week when the shops only open till 9 o'clock. Mainly the amount of time you could go out shopping is not enough, because it the opening times overlaps the work hours. However I know it's impossible to open shops from 9 till 12midnight like in Hong Kong. However most of the shops nowadays actually open around the afternoon but still closes early at 5 or 6 pm, but mainly they say six but they are already closed at 5.

My idea or concept is to open shops in the afternoon and close them around nine everyday. However only the luxury shops and not the grocerystore cause those should be open early till late. Also cause shopping in the morning I would not call that a luxury more sleeping out in the morning is a luxury.

How would it help the economy?
People would have more time to shop around after work and also able to socialize after work too. But also it give people to have a part time job at store at night to either earn more or for students to work after school. Cause students can only earn so much cause they can only work at times that does not compete with their school and I myself had felt I wanted to earn and work more but the school is really an obstruction. However if the times do not overlap students can earn more money and buy more things and also achieve more.

When I was young until I got my first job I finally saw that with earning my own money, I could also achieve allot cause I can buy things to improve learning but achieve a dream of becoming a cyclist. Cause my parent are not that wealthy and did not want to spend allot of money on an expensive bicycle. However I still had to save for a certain time before I could actually buy things, however did felt so limited to work cause there was just only the weekends. The rest of the week we had to go to school.

Also shopping is a good way to move around instead of being lazy couch potato and watch tv and internet behind the computer.

And I see there is more plus than negative and should be tested. I hope that someone in the politics would figure this out too and put it to the test in certain cities,cause about a decade ago they added that shops can be open on Sunday in the most busy cities so people to shop more. But for me opening shops later and closing later is the way to go.

Future socialmedia/mobile gaming

I am not talking about just Facebook games with sim games like farmville or restaurant city nor mafia games. The future with social gaming will more on mobile platform and now you are not playing games on the screen of you mobile but actually the games will be your life what you do, where you are and who you meet can help you score points.

There are already apps on the iPhone which already is already showing such games. When I was in Hong Kong I had seen these apps already being shown and used. There is a certain app where you could actually tag where you are and show friend where you are at the moment,you can tag certain shops, restaurants and more. You can also write certain short messages about the places, like certain reviews or tips so your friend of followers could read.

Playing tag
However these does not sound any different than using a tweet, but the most special part is there are rankings of who have visited these shops or places the most and these rankings the shops can use it as a certain game. Cause there are for certain coffee shops you can get a free cup of coffee if you are ranked in the top 10 and if you are number one you would get a bigger price that the certain place have set. But they can also set discounts if you have visited certain places for a certain amount. This is one of the first steps of social media being a game with an actual reward system in real life and not some point that you see on the screen.

However your life being a game is very interesting it would make living to be more fun but somehow maybe more hectic having to remember to tag a place each time you visit. However this will be the easiest games you can play but in the future it would become more advanced and more interesting.

Fancy playing a game of hide and seek om a more advanced level?
In the very near future special contest for special event will be more radical and more like playing life games than ever. With hide and seek people would go in search of a certain pointed person to able to win certain prizes or discount. It will be with gps tracking so you know where you have to go and if you find the person you have to take a picture that either recognize the person or they have a qr code on them to scan. However it does not even have to be a person you have to find but a certain location.

Going to school/work is a game?
Yes even to school or work can even be a game, just to get people even more excited to do instead of thinking of a boring routine. Being on time can be a game and I am sure there will be someone building a website or apps that would keep these ranking records and update them automatically and be easy to register and start up a school or company game. However I am not doing it cause I dont know anything about coding and dont have much budget to able to hire anyone to do this. However being on time probably easy game to think of but in the future most school will be working with computers and most companies already use allot of computers, but I think most interesting game will be work progress, it will be a game on who is first done with their work plus also measure if people are always viewing and working in the correct programs or not and are not web browsing and chatting all the time instead of doing their work. However it kind hacking into your privacy at work or school but you are there to work and not to do other stuff so it also a good thing to less the boss or teachers to see if you are lazy and are slacking or not.

School games
For me school was always a game for me it was, cause I always wanted be first to finish everything and also good work with the highest grade doesn't sound bad either. However I never got rewarded to be first always basically same if I finish it at the planned date. However also few times got like yelled at cause I finished everything within 2 weeks while the school had planned it took 7 weeks. While working fast is a good thing for me I think it should be a good value. I would have like to see a ranking of who fast fastest done with their work and also that they could have ranked and measured how good students are and also adopt these information to change how they teaches. Also bad thing was that they didn't bend rules like most teachers said I could been in the master class but I was too old. However back to the topic instead of bashing my old school. Ranking are able to make student to be more active in what they do but also give school information to learn the goods from the bads.

Games for driving?
However these games are not meant for that people would drive faster to go to checkpoint but more designed for other purposes. Like on the freeway there is a checkpoint for getting a discount if you pass a certain point however the checkpoint is only on the freeway you cannot stop to tag it. The checkpoint will be at a certain distance and if drive over it on the correct speed you will have a certain amount of time to tag it. So if you drive slower it would be much easier to tag if you are driving too fast it would be really difficult. The award could be that you get a certain amount of discount cause you are driving on a save speed. However the location of the checkpoint are not the same and can be regulated by the electric signs that are on the freeway. This way people might keep riding on a safer speed so they can get discounts.

Another game would be gas vs mileage that if you ride less gas on a further distance that you would get discount cause you are doing something sustainable and helping for better earth. However it can only be done and activated when you are in the car so in the future you there should be a build in plug for you phone in your car to able to send or record these informations so it becomes a game with real life rewards.

The game of sports
Most sport are games but most sport are not always that much fun to play. Like running is a great sport but it hard to see where you are going and a bit too hard to keep up. There is mainly the lack of motivation while doing sport, however there is a way to motivate people while doing sports, the motivation of improving and being faster is a great motivation but normally you can not see if you are faster or not cause there is not check point you can see, but in the future it will be different. You will be able to run and see the data of your previous run and see if you are running of the same pace and speed or distance. You will be able to see and get motivated to be faster than your previous run. The reward is mostly the feeling of winning over yourself.

There are tons of things possible in the future making living more pleasant and fun. And also more ways to get discounts then just cutting out coupons out of magazine or newspapers, cause everybody will be playing a game called living and do things for better society ,sustainability and even health by scoring points and getting rewards for them. I hope to see these apps soon or maybe even make one of the come true. But for now I wait to get my hand of a new phone that can able use these kinds of apps.

Queer Asian Discussion At Cinemasia

On 28 May 2010 after the screening of the documentary of QUEER CHINA, "COMRADE" CHINA, there was a discussion panel with the director of the documentary Cui Zi'en, Doris Yeung, Jeroen van der Kloet, Kit Hung , Michiel Baas and Yang Yang not sure if I spelled it correct cause I could find her name anywhere on the Cinemasia site or any other places.

First thing I have to say I am not gay nor queer, but dont mind people being that way or hang out with them. Knew like when I was in Hong Kong a guy who could made girls into lesbian which was kind weird but awesome power. However back on topic it is surely interesting development having movies with gay topics. However I have to say in Hong Kong you do have movies with the main characters from the same sex being lovers, like Abnormal Beauty which the roles played by Race and Rosanne Wong are two girls who are in love, with one of the girl having a tragic childhood making her to love girls.

However the topic very interesting cause is China allot of things are very restricted and also gay or queers in China. However I think it is just a matter of time cause even China I experience is starting to become more western in many ways. Cause when I was in HK and Shenzhen I found the respect for their own heritage and culture are getting less and less.

But what is interesting is also writing a script which main characters that are gay or queer cause I actually tried looking into the topic and found it is very interesting cause I felt same story would not always work when you change the sex of the lead characters. Cause I found that gay and queer would have more compassions and understanding for their partners than normal boy and girl couples in a certain context.

However if you want to see the whole discussion visit the Cinemasia Channel here.

Events for June

June 4 2010 - One of the bigger event coming this month got to be TED talk in Rotterdam at the new Luxor Theather. However for this event you had to apply up ahead to join in. Luckly I applied on time and am also on the guest list and will try to report and film there. For those who don't know TED talk, TED is a great event where people share and spread their ideas around in an inspirational presentation. For more information about TEDxROtterdam click here. To know more about TED Talk click here.

June 2 till 3 2010 - At the Amsterdam Rai there will be a fair for marketeers, media and creatives at the Shift>Ctrl>Move Marcom 2010. Its a great event for networking and maybe to find a great business partner. Pre registration is needed for free entry otherwise it cost 50euro. For more info click here.

June 10 2010 - BNO Flashmob exhibition, people are aquired to bring their own designs to exhibit at the BNO in Amsterdam for one hour from 6 pm till 7 pm. Registration is till 1st of June. More info at www.bno.nl

June 11 till 21 2010 - In Amsterdam there is an exhibition of the Pioneers of the Industrial Culture at the Van Loon Museum. Click for more info here.

June 17 2010 - In Nieuwegein there is a National Marketing Day, during this event there will be 50 top brands giving speeches and presentations about cases of their brands. Pre registration will have free entry and otherwise it cost 35euro. Click here for more info.

June 20 2010 - There will be a BNO Talk a kinda TED Talk but then from the Dutch designers association in Amsterdam. There will be talks about Design processes and how to avoid designer blocks and more. More info at www.bno.nl