Category Archives: Creative

AGENT X Weekly Digital Awesomeness Awards v1

Posted on by Josh Stauffer

There are plenty of things out in the wilderness of the internet that fly under the radar and bubble up at unexpected places. As part of the creative team at AGENT X I spend a part of each day making sure I stay abreast of as much cool new industry activity as I can without getting lost in any rabbit holes along the way. In my daily effort to find at least one thing out there that is both awesome and relevant I sometimes find things that surprise me, enjoy.

Filmmaker Jacob Sutton spent multiple days in the -25 degree temperatures of France capturing pro snowboarder William Hughes as he carved up the hills in a glowing white LED suit. The surreal quality of these shots create some incredibly gorgeous visuals and are hauntingly reminiscent of astronauts on the moon (although the soundtrack really solidifies that). Check it out…

 

B REEL has posted up a video highlighting their interactive multiplayer game installation called EELS. The whole project is a great showcase for what can be done using device interoperability, projection mapping and a lot of careful planning with a great eye toward usability and multi-person interactions. Check it out…

 

Pretty cool visualization of the movement patterns of Norwegians using tax return data from 2011. Written in C++, the code behind this would make your brain bleed but Even Westvang’s done a number of these projects. Check it out…

 

Even though these are actually all digital they look so close to being possible that it messes with your mind. This paper craft style is pretty original and unique, take a look at the larger scale projects Jeremy Kool is working on as well, including the interactive iPad application currently under development. Check it out…

 

Andrew is responsible for finding this and sending it on to me and I can’t thank him enough, since this might possibly be the best toy ever, except for the original G1 Transformer toys . Either way i’ll still buy two of these as soon as they’re ready if he puts in a flamethrower attachment. Check it out…

 

Alright, by this point I’m sure you can tell that I’m a sucker for cleverly done data visualization. Especially when it has great art direction, I especially love the submersible and the penguins in this HTML5 site. The Astronaut on the moon is pretty amazing as well. Check it out…

 

If this is the first you’ve seen of Wayne Dorrington’s Star Wars Iconoscopes I advise you to go through them in order if you have the time. Wayne does such an amazing job of summing up each scene that even though I haven’t watched the original movies in the better part of a decade I can clearly tell exactly whats going on.

Episode IV - A New Hope

Episode V – The Empire Strikes Back

Episode VI – Return of the Jedi

 

Project View // Alpha

Posted on by Josh Stauffer

Even with the very best project management system in place it can often be fairly difficult to help everyone in and outside the office understand where all of the various projects stand and who is working on what. Having something that very clearly provides that sort of oversite is incredibly beneficial to not only the project management team but also upper management and and all of the ‘doers’ on your team as well.

This has been a topic of lingering and consistant discussion at every agency I’ve worked at for so far in my career. It also happens to be something that I have yet to see implemented really well in a way that helps out every part of the team, not just a specific section. Sure, it’s easy to throw up a whiteboard and scribble out all of the projects your teams working on but you have to reorder things constantly and no ones checking that board on a regular basis but the PM. Or you could try using something like Basecamp that lays out all of the milestones and events your team has to get done, but I’ve found that using a calendar feed to help with your deliverables just muddies up your entire calendar.

Project View // Alpha is our attempt to create a piece of software that works for our team, which means it may not work for your team. The features below are things we wanted right away realizing that we’d need to add in an admin interface later.

  • Highly visual and intuitive layout
  • Ability to add individual employees and vendors as resources
  • Ability to add project deliverables and assign client, status, due dates and estimated hours per resource to it
  • Calendar style view of deliverables for the next 3 weeks
  • Ability for the software to generate and reorder deliverables based on a priority ranking system, more on this below
  • Ability to place deliverables on hold and still view them
  • Ability to easily see each resource and the estimated hours across all projects for the next 3 weeks along with an additional lump sum of the remaining hours beyond 3 weeks.
  • XML driven data structure for ease of use
  • Ability to view the output projected onto one of our office walls, through a browser page login off site or through a desktop app that pulls in the latest feed if an internet connection is available.

Now it just so happens that these kind of software applications are a passion of mine and so it didn’t take much for me to sit down one weekend and start prototyping something in Flash. Why Flash you ask? Well, there are a number of reasons really, and a few of them get back to the last feature in the list above. We really wanted this to be something that was viewable in and out of the office, with or without an internet connection and something that offered a bit of interaction. Animations, design and overall performance are great pluses as well with Flash.

In the long run after the final design is locked down we’ll be transitioning this over to an AIR application that we can distribute internally so everyone can see it at all times as well as a widget and an online portal. We’ll also be using a centrally stored XML feed on a server to download updates to the tool and keep everyone up to date as the PM staff adjusts things.

Starting off we realized that the most important part of this software was it’s ability to clearly show all of the current deliverables being worked on in the office and prioritize them for us. In order to do that the interface would need to be comprised of some sort of list that could expand downward from most to least urgent deliverable. Here is a look at our first pass for the list view of the project deliverables. You can see below each deliverable has the client / project information, resource allocation by initials, due date and calendar view.  The list element also displays a priority ranking that adjusts the deliverables ordering based on the number of resources allocated, hours left on the deliverable and due date for the project.

The system also has a resource overview element that visually totals up all of the hours per resource so our project managers can help load level the expected workloads. The element breaks out the projected hours per resource into the same week period displayed by the calendar view and adds up any additional hours for projects that go beyond the time frame.

Stay tuned for some more updates as we make progress and adjust the software to fit in better with our SCRUM meetings and Squash sheets.

Interactive Welcome Screen

Posted on by Kyle Harris

// The Concept

We are starting something pretty exciting here at Agent X. In an attempt to make our office more connected, we are in the works of creating an interactive welcome screen that can also serve as an ambient control system for our entire space.

There is a lot that we want to do with this, and while we are still in the planning stage, we are sharing using this first post as a mind dump of components that we want to include.

// Components

In order to create an experience that is both engaging and useful, we don’t want to leave any possible element unturned.

  • Clock Resting state for the interface.
  • NewsNot that we are too busy, but for the occasional visitor waiting, it is a great way to pass time.
  • Virtual Check-in A visitor is typically looking for someone. With the virtual check-in feature, they can send an alert directly to the person’s computer notifying them of a visitor.
  • Attendance Possibly done using RFID, if en employee is not in the office, the system will show them as out.
  • Weather Our headquarters in Michigan, the weather changes constantly. From the time a visitor enters the office, until the time they leave, it may be completely different outside. Pulled from weather.com or a similar source, the weather feature is a fully-capable weather app with high definition visualization of current conditions and forecasts.
  • Company Information Elevator speech, portfolio elements, general company information, history timeline… you know, everything someone might want to know about our company.
  • Ambient ControlsThis is where I get really excited thinking about the opportunities. Nothing would say technologically adept than to have ambient controls such as lighting, temperature and music controls in a central location.
  • Agency Calendar For internal use mostly. A nice exercise in visualization of data, with the benefit of seeing company wide bandwidth. If possible, pulling in iCal information to show meetings and availability would be ideal.
  • The actual welcome screen We have tried this in the past by uploading the logo of a visiting client on the TV in the conference room. It was rather successful, but a bit time consuming, and requests to have display screens typically came last minute. Nonetheless, with proper planning this would be a nice touch to let potential clients feel even more welcome.

// The Build

Some basic ideation and planning has been done as to how the finished frame will look. We want to create a unit that has the ability to not only house and feature the touchscreen, but also hide the other various components that enhance the overall experience, i.e. Kinect, speakers, RFID reader…

// Technology

I’m sure we are going to find different / more elements that we are going to need  in order to create the best experience possible.

/ Hardware

  • mac mini The power behind the experience. Compact enough to hide.
  • 42″ Touchscreen monitor Sufficient size we think. While we want to make this an immersive experience, we certainly want to avoid the overwhelming
  • Microsoft Kinect Detect voice and movement.
  • Speakers Part of creating ambience in the office will rely on sounds and music.
  • RFID detection

/ User Interaction

  • Touch Ahh, the physical touch. Most of us are accustomed to it through smart phones and tablet; the challenge will be to create and experience that would rather be had on a screen that would be better than not…
  • Movement For us, this is key. Most interactive displays detect touch, but we want to this experience to go further. When you walk up to the screen, or walk past it, it recognizes a potential user. This creates a much more organic experience between the user and the interface.
  • Voice Also done with the Kinect.
** None of the examples in the main image are the work of Agent X, but instead of the incredibly talented creative individuals that continue to create and inspire. **

Kinect – OpenNI and Processing

Posted on by Matt Plichta

(part 1 of series)

Why OpenNI?

We’ve all heard of the Kinect device, or the Microsoft XBox 360 by now and those of us in the developer community are aware that Microsoft has released a second version of the Kinect SDK for Windows. When asked to try to uncover the capabilities and possibilities of this new technology the Microsoft SDK is where I began.

Note: A standalone Kinect is required as the units that come with the XBox 360 use a non-standard USB connector. An adapter is available but rather hard to track down, so I went with the extra camera available at most big box retailers.

While the demos are cute, and installing the camera and SDK is fairly simple (Windows 7 only), the Visual Studio development environment created a super steep learning curve.

Enter OpenNI and Simple OpenNI open source drivers and libraries that can be used whether you work on a Mac, PC or Linux and like to code by hand using Processing.

Depth Camera

The camera consists of (left to right) an infrared projector, infrared depth camera and RGB camera. In addition to the camera there are 4 microphones and a servo motor in the base. WALL-E anyone?

Above is what the camera sees with the depth camera at left and RGB camera at right. Not a whole lot to look at, but notice the shades of grey and black in the depth camera image (lighter shades the closer the subject). The infrared projector projects thousands of infrared dots that the depth camera uses to measure distance.

 

Point Cloud

The image above shows how I was able to create shapes within the point cloud that when touched will trigger drum sounds. Being a musician myself, the idea of a virtual drum set was too cool to pass up. What about the angle of the view? Yes, the kinect camera is right in front of me so how did I get that shot? One more thing to add… the image rotates in 3D.

3D

In the video clip below from daniel shiffman you can see the effect in action:

Another kinect sighting

While browsing the flickr gallery for the New Zealand band Pajama Club I came across this behind the scenes shot from their upcoming video:

Here’s a link to a preview of the video giving some clues as to how the director is using the kinect, OpenNI and Processing:

Click here (use Chrome, Safari or Firefox for best results)

What do you want to see created with this new technology? I’ll be writing another post soon to let you know where I’ve taken my ideas.

The Sphere

Posted on by Josh Stauffer

We’ve been working with this piece of technology for about a year now and the more we do with it the more possibilities we seem to unearth. In its most simplistic form the sphere is a pretty cool and novel piece of technology that lends itself well to group settings and events. It can be used for things as simple as projecting video in 360 degrees or as complex as fully interactive touch sensitive applications built to spec for clients. But where we’ve begun to really see some cool new possibilities is the area of mobile device interoperability.

This idea here is to build up an application for the sphere that can allow for multi-player cooperative game play using your mobile device as a controller and possibly even motion capture from a Kinect to create a engaging experience that will become the RnD framework for client pitches later.

We’ve also been looking into interesting ideas of combining AR (Augmented Reality) and the Sphere, heres a look at a screenshot grabbed out of one of our iPads running a prototype app to test if the curvature of the sphere would throw off the image recognition software, initial success seems promising in this area.

Here are some videos of the initial prototype apps we’ve created for brands like Symantec and Redbull to help illustrate soem use cases for the sphere specific to their own brands.

 

 

The two major challenges we have here are hardware and software. From the hardware perspective we already have a pretty solid framework to start from since were dealing with a mostly complete product and modifying it to fit our needs. The custom lens, projector equipment, LED touch ring and sound system have already been tested out and are ready to go. Aside from that the rest of the hardware will end up off site in the form of a server and wireless network setup.

The software component of this is where the real tricky parts are going to come into play. In the past we’ve used Unity 3D to facilitate prototype development for the sphere and right now we are planning to use it for this RnD project as well. From there were going to need to hook in Touch OSC and some multiplayer capability for the prototype.

Right now we’re focused on getting some open source components up and running on the device so we can test out the general functionality and get a better idea of the strengths and weaknesses of each software option.

 

X Now Marks the Spot

Posted on by admin

In case you haven’t noticed, something is different about our blog.  No, it’s not that we’ve shifted directions and are now food critics at large (because the world needs another one of those). But there is definitely something different…

We have a new name! Steketee Greiner and Company has merged with experiential marketing agency Agent X out of Chicago, and we are now calling the new collective Agent X.

We’re still offering our clients the same full-service solutions in strategic planning, creative services, and measurement and insight analysis that we always have, but we’ve added some serious experiential marketing firepower to the stable.

Let’s face it – the marketing landscape is continually changing, and this merger enables us to mash together our services to create measurable, end-to-end brand engagements focused on live experiences that extend into the digital space. We feel this new focus is necessary to compete in a time where the lines continue to blur between experiential and digital.

The other good news is that this means we now have offices in both Grand Rapids and Chicago to serve you better!

Stay tuned for more stories, insights and so on as things develop.

Where to Start

Posted on by Kyle Harris

As designers, we loves us some new technologies. The latest version of Adobe Creative Suite, 17″ MacBook Pros, Digital SLR Cameras, etc. are common tools of the trade for Graphic Designers. But our most prized possession, the one thing we cannot do without—pencil and paper.

That may sound funny to a lot of people, but it’s true. Before I ever get on my computer to “design” something, I always start by jotting down ideas on a piece of paper.

The great thing about pencil and paper is that it’s a visual extension of the brain, and it can capture ideas just about as fast as I can think of them. Contrary to belief, most designers (should) spend most of their time thinking and concepting.

It is great to be able to write down a word list really fast, or scribble out a quick drawing of whatever it is I am designing could look like. It is a great way for me to get all of my bad ideas out of my head. In fact, I carry a Moleskine that I have affectionately called my Fail Book. Almost everything I put in it is a failed attempt or idea pertaining to a project. But, all it takes is one idea, one simple sketch to make everything click.

My Fail Book is where I sketch out scads of images for logo ideas, or draw countless sitemaps and wireframes. It’s where I take notes on things I like and don’t like. It’s where I can look at something fast, make a decision on it and then move on. Projects always start off rough, but it is cool to see through simple sketching a thought process take shape. Ideas become more thought-out, sketches look cleaner and more refined. Everything comes together.

Adobe products are great, and my new 17″ MacBook Pro is amazing to look at. In the end, they make my projects look great, but it’s not where they take shape.

Things get too meticulous on the computer. It is too easy to get hung-up on little details such as pixel size and exact angles. It is a waste of time to design on the computer only to realize after all the effort of making it “perfect” that the idea or concept doesn’t work.

I heard a song one time, can’t remember it for the life of me, but the lyrics were “you don’t know where your going ’til you get there.” While that may be true in life, it is a very dangerous path to take when working on a design. I love knowing where I am going when I get on the computer.

Design is process. There are many steps that must be taken to make the end product look good and work to perfection. It is nice to have a solid place to start every time.

Cheers!

Kyle

Dangerous words…

Posted on by Kyle Harris

I really hate Helvetica…

Before you hit up the comments section and start a debate over which one of you hates ME more, please hear me out. I am not trying to be a rogue designer that just wants to be different (and tick people off in the process). And it’s not that I didn’t pay attention during Typography 210 (or something like that), where we were told which fonts were good, which were bad and which was the greatest (Helvetica, supposedly).

I also understand that Helvetica is arguably over-used, but that doesn’t even bother me. Honestly, it is a nice typeface; it has great, safe characteristics which make it viable for a lot of applications and mediums.

But…I can’t stand the capital ‘R’. The descender is awkward to say the least. For a typeface with such little connotative character, where did this rolling leg come from? The rest of the family is so sterile, so defined, so geometric, but the ‘R’ is so, so confusing.

To me, it looks likes Max Miedinger played “Pin the Tail on the P.” Sure, he put it in the right place (impressive for having been blind-folded), but that is to be expected from such letterforms displayed in the rest of the  family.

Or maybe his hand slipped when finishing out the letter. Many long nights have been put into his work, the accidental yawn / slip could be expected.

Whatever the case may be, I can’t stand it. Now, I realize that I have been praising the rest of what Helvetica has to offer, so I guess I have to retract my previous statement a bit. I actually hate 1/26th (not counting numbers or punctuation, who needs those anyway?) of the entire family (from 27 to 93).

And I thought I was the only one that had this growing internal irritation with Helvetica. I mean, it’s so universally loved that there was a movie made because of the impact and popularity of the typeface. But I have 2 “R’s” in my last name, and seeing it set all caps in Helvetica makes my left eye twitch a little.  Luckily, in my research (to prove I am not crazy) I found this guy. It’s comforting to know I am not alone.

Unfortunately, I don’t think I will ever like the capital ‘R’ in Helvetica. I don’t change my appetite much, considering I still don’t like grapes, bananas or many other forms of fruit.

I want to hear from you though. Let me know whether your a lover or a hater (of Helvetica that is, not me).

Cheers!

Kyle

Are you content with your content plan?

Posted on by admin

Content is the Key

Question: In this developing world of social media and digital marketing, we all know that we need to reconsider the way we’re delivering content to our audiences, but do you feel like you have things under control? There are threads everywhere discussing how we’re losing control of the conversations going on around our brands and how we’ve entered into the age of transparency in messaging. The rage today seems to be around monitoring and measuring and conducting damage assessment and control once a conversation is made public. But let’s consider content in the context of measuring and monitoring and think about how brands can move from “reactive content victim” to “proactive participant in a meaningful conversation.”

So then, how are you developing content in the new media age? How are you planning to update all the social media channels and blog(s) your company is launching, or has already launched over the course of the year? These are big questions, and unless you know the answers to them, you may want to consider scaling your digital media plan to accommodate your ability to create content that will effectively represent your brand effectively in a two-way conversation with your audiences. The key word there is “two-way,” because you’re entering an environment that is built on networks and opinions and transparency, and if you’re merely in a position to launch messaging (even if you’ve spent millions of dollars testing its relevance) into the digital space without being able to measure its effectiveness and, more importantly, without having a strategy on how to respond if a conversation erupts around your thought, you’re leaving yourself vulnerable.

As we get into it, here’s a little background on where we are and where we’re heading:

Web 2.0 has enabled a two-way dialogue. Audiences have become “search savvy,” information flows and, most importantly, the line between professional and amateur content has started to blur. The challenge isn’t finding information, it’s knowing what to do with it…

The new age of Web 3.0 is about semantics. It’s enabling a new distribution relationship around content/data centered around Filtering (information and content) and Context (delivering the right message, at the right time, to the right person, with the right device). This approach to content is creating an open source social structure that will allow databases to talk to each other and encourage social network content that urges audiences to use snippets of content as they please and where they please to reach new levels of meaning between brands and audiences.

These changes are creating a MARKETING STRATEGY SHIFT…

Web 2.0 asked us to build massive sites and drive traffic to a place where we could try to control messaging. Web 3.0 is asking us to create content that can travel throughout the digital world via conversations with multiple participants, creating connections that drive content consumption, data collection and new content generation.

So, here’s the rub, and it’s a simple “if/then” proposition: if we’re now in a position that requires us to create content that will enable and respond to conversations about our brand, then how do we generate content plans that aren’t simply focused on feeding information and stories out to audiences, trusting in their ability to run with it? The answer’s simple: plan. Build a plan that maps out your entire content strategy across all your channels for the entire year. Of course, you need to leave some room to be reactive, but if your marketing plans are aligned with your business objectives, you should be able to create a conversation that you can feed to your audiences and interact with in an organized, ongoing basis throughout the year. And if you do this well, you’ll be able to measure not only the sentiment of what’s going on around your brand, but also the effectiveness of your content (for good or bad). Once you know that, you can create a content baseline that allows you to generate planned, targeted content year after year that is valued internally for its measurable effectiveness and externally for your contributions as the subject matter expert around your brand.