The Barbarian Group - Projects Feed

Plainview

The Barbarian Group — Fri, 22 Jun 2007 18:32:18 -0400

h1. Introducing Plainview. The Barbarians are excited to share with you our latest software offering, Plainview. It's a little something we've been kicking around based on a need we had internally. Once we found a good solution, we figured it'd be useful for other digital professionals, so we figured we'd offer it up to you.

CNN.com T-Shirt Headlines Project

The Barbarian Group — Mon, 14 Jan 2008 11:09:20 -0500

h2. The Challenge CNN had recently re-launched its website with lots more video content. As part of that effort, they unveiled the tagline “I just saw it on CNN.com.” in an attempt to draw attention to and help people uncover the newly reorganized and video-rich content on CNN.com. While the tagline was resonating, they were looking for a bit more oomph behind the marketing efforts. CNN needed to increase buzz, awareness and most importantly traffic to these new videos. They launched a search for an agency that could help them in their task. The Barbarians responded with just the kind of thinking they were looking for and were selected for the assignment. h2. What We Did to Make it Awesome The premise of our idea was simple. We wanted to add a t-shirt icon next to video-related headlines in the Latest News section of the front page of CNN.com. We made no real mention of the t-shirts other than adding this little icon. We knew that the massive amount of traffic would ensure that a good number of people would click on the icon out of pure curiosity. We planned to play off of this curiosity two-fold. Once a regular CNN.com user was intrigued by the t-shirt icon they would be simultaneously informed about the videos. Clicking on the icon would lead them to a custom t-shirt shop, which we created in partnership with Spreadshirt. Here you could purchase a t-shirt with the headline on it. The shirts were emblazoned with the “I just saw it on CNN.com” tagline, along with the date and time of the headline. You could also seamlessly launch right into the video on CNN.com at any point in this experience. Not only would this sort-of-unprecedented marketing effort be sure to get people talking, but it would also tap into a secondary viral marketing effect as people wore the shirts out and about and shared them with their friends or broadcasted their purchase on their Facebook News Feed. People could choose shirts with headlines they were happy about, appalled about, found surreal, or just whimsical. h2. The Results The program rolled out in full on April 21, 2008 with minimal industry PR. In the next six weeks, we’ve had almost 2 million pageviews, and tons of blog mentions, including leaders such as TechCrunch, PSFK, and 37 Signals, as well as a write up in the New York Times. We’ve also sold a lot of shirts, weirdly, though that was never the real goal. The goal, as we said, was about awareness, and we’ve succeeded roundly on that front.

FritoLay.com

The Barbarian Group — Sun, 07 Oct 2007 12:08:37 -0400

We teamed up with Juniper Park and Frito Lay for a new, more consumer-focused version of Frito Lay's corporate site.

Frito Lay Flat Earth Website

The Barbarian Group — Wed, 17 Oct 2007 16:58:19 -0400

Website we made with Juniper Park for the Frito Lay chips Flat Earth. Flying pigs! Woo!

Adobe Photoshop Express Landing Page

The Barbarian Group — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 21:20:00 -0500

The first of several projects with Adobe Systems, Inc., around the "Adobe Photoshop Express launch":http://www.photoshop.com/express. We helped out with the landing page, tutorials, branding, imagery and they even let us offer some insight into the user interface design. Adobe is a fantastic client, and we've loved working on PX.

Internet Week Website

The Barbarian Group — Thu, 31 Jan 2008 15:52:01 -0500

We partnered with the City of New York, and the International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences to make a nice little home for the first annual "Internet Week New York":http://www.internetweekny.com. It is going to be a good time.

TAP Project 2008

The Barbarian Group — Tue, 21 Aug 2007 12:00:55 -0400

The second year of the Droga5/UNICEF/Barbarian collaboration, this year expanded to a dozen-plus cities and agencies throughout the United States.

Motorola Dojo

The Barbarian Group — Fri, 22 Jun 2007 18:33:23 -0400

3 Directors, 3 films, one script. The Barbarian Group teamed up with Ogilvy and Motorola and a few up and coming directors to create a series of films which showcase the sleekness and sharpness of the new Razr 2. All of the films were divided up into separate scenes and users could mix and match scenes from all directors to create their own unique film.

Take TV Site

The Barbarian Group — Wed, 05 Sep 2007 16:03:03 -0400

This is a funny little site we did with Eleven, Inc. for Take TV. It's kinda awesomely over the top. The bombast is a joke. Seriously.

The New Museum Website

The Barbarian Group — Fri, 22 Jun 2007 18:33:18 -0400

We made a really awesome website for our friends at the New Museum of Contemporary Art. Located in the Bowery, it's the first new-construction museum in Manhattan in ages. The New Museum of Contemporary Art, designed by Tokyo-based architects Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa/SANAA with Gensler, New York, serving as Executive Architect, is a seven-story, structure located at 235 Bowery between Stanton and Rivington Streets, at the origin of Prince Street in New York City. The first art museum ever constructed from the ground up in downtown Manhattan, the New Museum will open to the public on December 1, 2007, coinciding with the institution’s 30th anniversary. We are honored to be the New Museum's web partner.

The 2 Husbands

The Barbarian Group — Mon, 10 Sep 2007 15:41:00 -0400

We partnered with The Junior High Men LLC to create a first-of-its kind web reality property, The 2 Husbands. It's weird. It's irreverent. It's a partnership and a story unlike any before it. We are in love with it, and know you will be too. Spend some time with it, we dare you.

Harmonix Phase Website

The Barbarian Group — Wed, 25 Jul 2007 15:41:36 -0400

We teamed up with our friends-in-the-hub Harmonix to create the promotional site for one of their most awesome new games, Phase, for the iPod. Which is sort of like Guitar Hero or Rock Band, but for the iPod, with any of your music. Seriously. How cool is that? We had the most fun making the art for the site. That was a good time.

Kashi.com

The Barbarian Group — Fri, 22 Jun 2007 18:32:17 -0400

The cornerstone for all our work with Kashi: the revamped Kashi.com, launched in late 2007. We love it, and we love the activity, passion, and support from the community members. This was a watershed project for The Barbarian Group - agile development, Web 2.0, a deep client relationship, a passionate user base. One of our favorites.

Palm Thing

The Barbarian Group — Fri, 22 Jun 2007 18:32:19 -0400

It's a Palm Thing! Yes it is. It is too. It TOTALLY is. Is so. Uh huh. We made this with Y&R in SF. Pure straight up Flash minisite with top quality illustrations, and a really great faux-3D navigation style, except in a sorta warm, fuzzy way, and not in a futuristic über cool way that the words "faux-3D navigation style" might otherwise imply.

Magnetic Structure Prints

The Barbarian Group — Sat, 12 Apr 2008 18:16:38 -0400

The Magnetic Structure Prints are the third artistic piece created by the designers and developers in-house at The Barbarian Group, for the McLeod Residence. The McLeod Residence is a gallery in Seattle, Wa. Being prints, as opposed to robots or computers, the Magnetic Structure Prints are the most traditional of the three pieces. At first glance, the prints are reminiscent of images from electron microscopes. Only upon closer inspection does the viewer realize that these prints are almost purely mathematically rendered. Despite their mathematical origins, in the end, the Magnetic Structure Prints are just that - a series of prints. They are a study in the visualization of magnetism itself, and in the mathematical creation of organic beauty. Eight prints are for sale from the Interactivity exhibit through the "McLeod Residence website":http://menu.mcleodresidence.com/collections/interactivity-south-room.

Fox Movies Japan: Horror

The Barbarian Group — Tue, 03 Jul 2007 16:09:50 -0400

Nando Costa approached The Barbarian Group and asked if we would help out with a project his new motion graphics company Nervo was working on for Fox Movies Japan. Rather than delivering a traditional, compiled motion graphics piece, we delivered an application. The application let Nando control several variables, such as population density, gravity, drag, etc., and let him get the footage he needed, without tons of re-renders. We think the results speak for themselves. "Read more about this on Robert's Blog":http://www.flight404.com/blog/?p=99 "See the videos on the Nervo.tv site":http://nervo.tv/index.html?sect=5&proj=foxmovies

Biomimetic Butterflies

The Barbarian Group — Fri, 22 Jun 2007 18:32:18 -0400

In the summer of 2007, The Barbarian Group was invited to participate in the Interactivity exhibit at the "McLeod Residence":http://www.mcleodresidence.com – a gallery in Seattle, Wa. The Barbarians developed three pieces: the McLeod Mirror, Reflection 1: See Yourself in Others, a series of prints known as The Magnetic Structure Prints, and this project, Biomimetic Butterflies. The Butterflies were the centerpiece of the show, an installation taking up an entire room. The Butterflies were a result of a cross-country collaboration between Barbarians located in San Francisco, Boston, New York, and Los Angeles. The pedestals were constructed by Vince, a fabricator in Seattle.

Magnetosphere

The Barbarian Group — Fri, 22 Jun 2007 18:32:17 -0400

Thanks for looking for Magnetosphere, our first iTunes visualizer product. We've had a ton of interest in it, and we've got some exciting plans, but it's gonna take us a couple months to make it all happen. In the meantime we've temporarily taken down the Magnetosphere installers. But don't fret! Keep an eye out here for more info, or "contact us":http://barbariangroup.com/contact to stay in touch with the Barbarian Group about further software endeavors.

McLeod Residence Mirror

The Barbarian Group — Fri, 22 Jun 2007 18:32:18 -0400

Limited Edition of 100. Built with a Mac Mini, 30" LCD screen, webcam, the "Processing":http://www.processing.org/ language, custom-built wood case, paint, metal plaque. For purchase inquiries contact "The McLeod Residence":http://menu.mcleodresidence.com/products/mcleod-mirror-series-1. The idea of a mirror is pretty basic to the whole idea of being an individual. To understand we are discrete, we had to see ourselves, didn't we? Along with fire and the wheel, shiny reflective surfaces have done a lot for us as a species. Maybe not all good, of course, but reflections have been tied to the idea of identity, self-esteem and beauty ever since Narcissus took his long look at the stream's surface. Here we should make some bold claim about improving upon this time-honored tradition, sort of like how the Japanese are always working on a better toilet. And maybe our new mirror is an improvement. We think of it more as a remix, however. It's a connected world nowadays, isn't it? No man is an island, right? Was that Simon or Garfunkel? Kidding. Still, though, there's the idea of us being part of a community, of a group. People are interconnected. They are, in essence, made up of facets of other people. You really do have your dad's eyes don't you? h2. It started with a gig Not too long ago, the Barbarians did a gig with some people: "This is Real Art":http://www.thisisrealart.com/ and Matt Pyke, aka "Universal Everything":http://www.universaleverything.com/. We all worked together on a project for a flagship "Nokia store in Hong Kong":http://www.universaleverything.com/recent_activity/181. Our part was to make a Processing-based software application that took the input from a webcam and assembled a mosaic of the image from the webcam, using a series of pre-stored images, text, and previous input from the webcam. All the source images were the same size, and square, which felt a bit limiting, but the video made for a nice effect. People would walk by the store and ooo and ahh. Robert, one of The Barbarian Group founders, aka "Flight 404":http://www.flight404.com/, made this and we were all well chuffed. h2. Then we met some new friends Late last year the Barbarians made friends with the "McLeod Residence":http://www.mcleodresidence.com/, a new type of interactive art gallery and space in Seattle. It was a natural match, of course - our band of digital artists and designers are always looking for new outlets, and while we've had great success in commercial outlets, sometimes you want something a bit more... pure. Uncompromising. Upscale. Then one day, "Buster McLeod":http://www.bustermcleod.com/ and Barbarian Co-founder Rick Webb were walking down the street, slightly tipsy, and Buster said "You guys should make our bathroom mirrors like you did for that Nokia project." And eureka! An idea was born. The marriage of the like-minded. h2. So we got to work We tweaked our code and made it unique. We got the mirrors working with images of different sizes, creating an entirely new sensation. We wrote code to capture the images from the previous viewers into the mirror to reinforce the community aspect of the McLeod Residence's private bar. You can see your fellow club members in the mirror, reminding you that you are part of a like-minded community. We brought Barbarian Ryan McManus into the mix to apply his industrial design prowess and to design us a case. We also got Brit Charlebois, then a Barbarian producer, and Andrew Bell, a Barbarian visual architect to round out our ranks. Ryan brought his former compatriot Ben Durrell into the game to help us design and fabricate our cases. Rick spent a lot of time tweaking the computer's OS to act more like an appliance than a buggy, crashy PC. Robert kept tweaking his code for beauty, speed and awesomeness. Eventually everything came together. Brit kept us sane. Andrew made Robert's code prettier and generally optimized things. It takes a village. h2. The McLeod Mirror And so you have it: We are offering the McLeod Mirror as a digital art piece in a limited edition of 100 units. The Barbarians' first physical product for sale. Bathrooms unlike any you've ever seen at a new kind of art gallery. We've also provided this video to give you an idea of how the mirrors work, though it doesn't really do the mirrors justice. We'll try to shoot a better one sometime. Or you can go see them in action at the McLeod Residence, in Seattle. Or hey, if you're feeling frisky, you can be the first on your block to own this unique, groundbreaking piece of interactive digital art.

GOULET-ED!

The Barbarian Group — Fri, 22 Jun 2007 18:32:17 -0400

This is Goodby's baby all around here - we just helped out because we love them, Emerald Nuts and, now, Robert Goulet. WDDG created the original site a few years back, and we've been taking care of it for a couple years now, including this year's Goulet-ed!

The Webby Awards Sites

The Barbarian Group — Fri, 22 Jun 2007 18:32:17 -0400

*The Challenge*: The Webby Awards were entering their tenth year as the “Oscars of the Internet.” Unfortunately their site and their identity had not evolved in that time, even while the Internet as a whole had made tremendous strides, and had undergone several monumental changes. Additionally, revenue was down on awards entries, as were residual sales to award winners. The Webby Awards needed a new identity, several new websites and a renewed digital strategy to increase revenue and re-establish the brand’s relevance in a marketplace fraught with increased competition from other interactive awards shows. *What We Did to Make it Awesome*: The Barbarian Group attacked the Webby’s challenges with a wholesale redesign of the brand, along with a comprehensive digital strategy, implementing new Web 2.0 functionality and instilling a community ethos into the redesign of three separate sites: The Webby Awards site, the People’s Voice site - the most popular of the Webbys' sites - and the site for the International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences - the parent organization. By encouraging community participation in the sites and allowing the people to re-establish their voice in not just voting but in sharing, commenting and tagging various past and future winners. *The Results*: Voting participation has more than doubled from the 2006 awards show. Site traffic to all three sites has increased more than 40% since launch. The People’s Voice site had over 25,000 comments left on various entries, and the renewed digital strategy has been cited in countless articles and blogs, creating a renewed sense of buzz and thought leadership for The Webby Awards. "launch IADAS.net":http://www.iadas.net "launch WebbyAwards.com":http://www.webbyawards.com

Tongue Scan 2000

The Barbarian Group — Fri, 22 Jun 2007 18:32:16 -0400

Tongue Scan 2000: yes, it really scans tongues. This is our latest update to our beloved Milwaukee's Best Light minisite. Don't ask us how it works. We're not really sure either.

Freezepop Less Talk More Rokk

The Barbarian Group — Fri, 22 Jun 2007 18:32:17 -0400

Our second collaboration with our good friends Freezepop, this time for the music video for Less Talk More Rokk, as featured on the Expert Level of Guitar Hero 3. Yeah man.

Axe Vice Worldwide Rollout

The Barbarian Group — Fri, 22 Jun 2007 18:32:16 -0400

Here's a site we've been rolling out around the world with BBH London and BBH NYC. It's for a new scent of Axe Body Spray. Rollout is ongoing, and hasn't hit America yet. If you're an English speaker - check the Australian version on the world map.