Thinking Interactive

The Visual Repertoire of Obama’s Run for the White House

I think I am going to have to start a separate Obama links blog. The man has generated an endless amount of great links.

“The project is an analysis of the wide range of visuals which accompanied the 2008 presidential campaign of Barack Obama. Obama’s campaign was mounted on numerous platforms and provided and triggered multilayered…”

I really want to get my hands on that journal, but in the meantime, we can settle for the images.

I Lego New York (courtesy of Adam)

I love Lego. I love New York. I love this. Christopher Niemen did a wonderful set of Lego illustrations of New York through the lens of everybody’s favourite interlocking plastic blocks. There’s a few of them below, but be sure to check them all out here.

TED Talks Updates via Twitter

I’ve always been a huge TED fan, but all the updates via Twitter gave me a much richer feel for the experience, cementing attending TED as one of my life goals. @austinhill, @loic and a number of others did a great job keeping the rest of use filled in on what was going on and I am glad that they did.

Check out the first TED Talk of the year below. Bill Gates talks about battling Malaria and improving the education system.

It’s Nice That (courtesy of Eve)

It’s Nice That is a gem of a blog documenting different forms of creativity (like the sweet Cookie Monster cupcake below). It also has a clean, elegant layout.

Better the World Launches

Better the World is a new start-up with a clever business model that allows users to raise money for the cause of their choice by installing a browser sidebar or search tool. 90% of the profit from the ads you view go to the charity of your choice. 

Disclosure: Better the World is one of our incubation projects at Idea Couture.

Obama’s coronation er… inauguration had the entire world (and by extension the Interwebs) buzzing and some great links came out of it.

Clouds Comparing Bush’s Inaugural Speech Versus Obama’s

I thought David Wescott did a clever thing punching the two transcripts into Wordle. Have a look below and tell me which one is Obama’s and which one is Bush’s (I desaturated the images. The colours made it too obvious). There a few commonalities, but a couple of the prominent words are dead giveaways.

Collage of Newspaper Front Pages from the Next Day (via @jasonfried)

As Jason said, “Anyone know who this guy’s PR firm is?”
 

CNN’s Photosynth of the Inauguration (via @kevinrose)

Television really didn’t do it justice. They should have done some 360 degree pans. Interestingly enough, when you zoom in from some angles it captures moments when Obama isn’t on the podium. How is that even possible? I assume that 95% of the photos taken would have been while Obama was on stage.
 

Obama Skywalker

This is one incredibly detailed action figure with some awesome accesories (sold separately no doubt). Check out the link for the full photo shoot.

My President is Black - Jay-Z Remix (via @vasta)

I don’t care if the Young Jeezy/Nas version was first. Jay is the man.

1. AKQA’s Christmas Card (Thanks B1)

A lot of people are hating on this because it is fake. Who cares? It is awesome.

2. A Charlie Brown Ad Agency

I don’t know who did this, but it is brilliant.

3. The Design Process of the Obama Logo

I love seeing the progression and thought process behind logo designs. Logo Design Love lays it out very nicely here. You can also watch a video of Sol Sender, one of the designer behind it discuss the process below. It is interesting, but be forewarned, he is not the most charismatic guy in the universe.

4. Unlike (Thanks Fred)

This is the next logical step for a company like Lonely Planet, except they didn’t do it… Unlike did instead. I wish I knew about this service (if it was around) two summers ago when I was in Vienna and I will be sure to use it next time I’m in Europe. 

5. Happy Holidays From IDEO Labs

My apologies for all the Christmas content, but that seems to be what is going around. Also, I love Rube Goldberg machines and I think a bicycle-powered music box qualifies.