If you’ve ever searched YouTube for demonstrations of music gear or techniques, you know that you can pretty much find anything. Within the past few weeks, Israeli musician Kutiman emerged with a project that, by forwarding it to only 20 of his friends, has now been raging around the ‘Net like wildfire.

This guy has talent

Kutiman has created some amazing musical mashups of random clips he found on YouTube. With an amount of media that would have driven the 1970′s David Bowie insane, Kutiman built order from chaos, and compiled it on his site, ThruYou.

This kind of project is something that only a handful of people would think of doing, let alone have the skills to pull off. Check out a full composition:

This is the Internet

This shows off the real promise of the connectivity we’ve been blessed with by the Internet. It’s also another fulfillment of a prophecy made by Andy Warhol in the 60′s: “In the future, everyone will be world-famous for 15 minutes.” Kutiman will certainly be more famous than most, but he’s yet another connection of inspiration for others, just as the musicians he sampled had provided inspiration to him.

Never before, have we been given so much to connect, interact, learn, and entertain with.

Tropicana package redesign by Arnell of New York

After launching their new Tropicana rebranding effort in early January, Pepsi has announced that they will revert back to their prior packaging design next month.

The decision came after a deluge of public criticism over the new package design’s stark departure from the original design by Sterling Brands from just a couple years ago. The new look has been described as looking like a “generic bargain brand,” a “cheap imitation of the popular British sans serif style” of the last decade and “something a friend of mine designed in high school in ’96.” That’s tough criticism for Arnell, the New York group who just recently received equally tough criticism for their new Pepsi logo.

But Arnell is playing it cool: “Tropicana is doing exactly what they should be doing,” says Peter Arnell, chairman and chief creative officer at Arnell. “I’m incredibly surprised by the reaction,” he added, but “I’m glad Tropicana is getting this kind of attention.”

Pepsi is playing it cool as well: Neil Campbell, president at Tropicana North America in Chicago, part of PepsiCo Americas Beverages, states that the decision to switch back to the old packaging came not from the volume of public outcry, but from “our most loyal consumers” who are “a fraction of a percent of the people who buy the product.”

Some see this explanation as a somewhat of a downplay, considering this just on the heels of Facebook’s having revoked their new Terms of Service over privacy issues last week after a wave of public outcry. Such incidences have become increasingly common as online communities enable consumers to quickly convey feedback to marketers.

Tropicana's previous packging by Sterling Brands

Attention is expensive

More often than not, we’ve summoned up a Flash-heavy site, only to stare at a loading bar. It’s in these cases, many people find themselves getting out of there, fast. Why? Perhaps because people’s attention on the web is actually pretty short, as research has shown.

Flash websites can be immediate

It’s true.  When we developed the site, Ryobi Autoshift, for Torque Creative, we wanted to make it painless, as far as speed and loading time. The same goes for Splat The Mat, developed for Erwin Penland.

So, what about purpose?

One of our specialties is Flash development, so we realize its possibilities, and its potential. And sometimes, we see some Flash site executions that completely amaze us, not just with a “wow factor”, but with quick, entertaining, and meaningful intent. The producers of the following sites are big inspirations:

• Get the Glass!
  This site was everyone’s favorite for 2007. It’s easy to grasp the concept that this is a game, as well as a message promoting the virtues of milk. We also love it for its casual feel, execution, and irreverence.
• Big Ideas come out of Big Pencils
  The Leo Burnett agency website was another favorite, from 2005 . It has provided inspiration for dozens of imitators, mimicking it’s snazzy visual methods. The visual paradigm is easy to grasp. And its (mostly) intuitive interface is as charming as its big, black pencil.

So, those “in the know” may recognize these as oldies. But they’re still nice examples of the usefulness, immediacy, and potential of Flash.

It’s not all just “Flash”

By the way, we do Flash, and love it, because we do it right. Marriage is next. Then, microsites.

Where they were

Previously known as Landfair Holdings, Landfair Communities includes three real estate developments: The Bluffs in the Tennessee mountains, Hunters Ridge in upstate South Carolina and The Reserve, also in upstate South Carolina. In addition, Landfair offers a host of individual commercial and residential listings throughout the area.

Previously, each development had its own, independent website, each with a different branding and strategy. Our charge was to rebrand Landfair in a way that brings the three developments and various listings under one roof. This included developing a targeted online strategy, a contemporary look and feel and a robust content management system.

Enter the math

We began with an exhaustive research phase, where we studied the strategies of competitive brands, analyzed how people search for real estate online. From this research, came the strategy to brand the properties “Landfair Communities” and to feature the natural environment and active lifestyle available to these beautiful real estate developments.

Since all of Landfair’s developments are located amongst, or near, beautiful mountains, we felt Landfair needed a look to reflected this natural majesty. To meet this end, we chose a cinematic display area, where we could feature the visuals and videos of the properties. And we designed a elegant, organic motif to house this screen, using textures often associated with both housing and the natural environment.

Differentiate, but keep it the same, could ya?

For each development, we built upon this woodsy motif with visual variations to indicate a defining feature of that development. For instance, Hunters Ridge lay adjacent to a golf course, thus we incorporated the grass background, or, for the Bluffs, we used a rock background indicative of the various caves and natural bridges found there. This gave each development its own personality, while remaining within the family of Landfair Communities.

Making dreams come true

Developed with the Drupal Content Management System, the Landfair Communities site touts many customizable features, including a filtered real estate listings, editable image/video area and updatable copy. The site content and design motif are displayed throughout using dynamic visual themes with XHTML and CSS. The Flash elements load and animate image sequences and contain a custom video player with full-screen playback. Landfair Listings utilizes Drupal’s database to list and filter excerpts from each property listing. And all content is easily updated by the client, with an attractive, back-end CMS interface that mirrors the site’s look.

Visit landfaircommunities.com.

The story of our name begins with a list of several hundred possible names, bequeathed onto us by an old mountain sage. Many options we deemed “pretty good,” “almost there,” or “totally ridiculous, but funny, so keep it in there anyway.” But we rode onward with focused resolve, our steeds never tiring, our armor increasingly uncomfortable…

It’s more than a Van Halen song. It is a rapidly developing country. And most people don’t realize the Republic of Panama’s economy has grown for some time. The fact is, many savvy Americans are moving to Panama to partake in a blossoming economy of various exports, including premium produce and coffee.

To capitalize on their world-class exports and the strategic value of the Panama Canal, the government of Panama has invested aggressively in Panamanian companies. As part of this investment, the government has taken an active role in the branding of these companies and the Republic of Panama itself. They strive to paint Panama as a viable economy and “the crossroads” of commerce for this half of the globe.

enter the math

As part of this initiative, we were approached to develop an identity for a line of produce. This new branding needed to help announce Panama’s arrival as a participant in the world economy. It was also requested that the packaging standout from the competition’s and be recognizable.

Our first step was to name this produce line, and we felt the name should be as direct as possible. Something too fancy or cute would obscure the message, especially within a global context. Thus, the name “Panama Pride” rose to the top, and the client loved it instantly.

In developing our strategy for packaging, we needed to accomplish a few objectives. First, it needed to be colorful and eye-catching. The client wanted this packaging to stand out in warehouses and restaurant kitchens. Second, the design needed to work for various other produce, including bell peppers, tomatoes, squash, etc.

To this end, we settled on a vibrant, illustrative look to showcase the product. With this approach, we could ensure all subsequent packaging felt continuous with one another. In addition, the vector illustration style better lent itself to the silk-screen printing process.

Hablas espanol?

The presentation of our concepts in Panama was unlike any presentation we had been a part of before. We presented to the Minister of Agriculture, ministers of various departments I couldn’t translate and several other government officials in Panama City. There were a total of seven government presentations that day, all of which were well-received.

The next day, we presented to several remote groups of rural farmers who didn’t speak English. Being forward-thinkers, we brought a translator with us. But it yielded a very unique challenge nonetheless. A meeting of two worlds. There we were, the flashy advertising types presenting to the most humble and rural of Panamanian farmers. At the end of one of the presentations, a farmer stared at us and asked, in Spanish, “That’s nice, but why do we need this stuff? The box is just the thing that carries the product. We don’t need to put anything on it.”

We certainly didn’t see that one coming. Years of working in advertising and presenting concepts hadn’t prepared us for this simple question. We paused, looked around the room, hoping for a simple way to explain. And we found it. Sitting there on the table was a glass bottle of Coca-Cola. We picked up the bottle and proposed the scenario where Coke could have very easily put their soda in an unmarked bottle. But with an unbranded bottle, how would anyone understand where this soda came from or how to find it again. After all, they knew of the Coca-Cola brand very well.

Heads nodded in unison, and a bullet had been dodged.

Someone please pass me en cerveza

At the end of the day, everyone loved the identity designs and unanimously agreed upon the below version with the rays. It was also the first time we’ve heard some one whistle at a design concept. Overall, a fantastic experience.

Here you can find a Tumblr with photos of the trip and our tour of a coffee plantation: jmasterlocke.tumblr.com

Client-approved package design.

Alternate package design. Illustration by Suzanne Cox.

Produce sticker.