The 7 (new) Wonders in 3D

The New 7 Wonders of the Worldwere announced at a ceremony in Lisbon, Portugal on Saturday, July 7, 2007 - 07.07.07

This site includes an archive of hundreds of 360 degree panoramic images which have been stitched together and are streamed via QuickTime Virtual Reality (QTVR).

I tried to find images like these integrated with Google Earth, but all of the placemark links seem to be 2D! It would be amazing to embed a QTVR inset into GE mapped to each location.

For more info on how these images are created, click here.

Paintjam

I love portraiture - the ability to capture someone's face and, in the best examples, their spirit, in a single drawing or painting. And to do it as part of a performance - in such a short timeframe - is just cool! This isn't an innovation, per se, just a really interesting experience to sit back and enjoy.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OIJtKxdRQzY

Etsy.com has a navigation system with many innovative options for finding products listed on the site. While it has the usual list of product categories, such as "Candles" or "Quilts", it also allows for more right-brained/creative searches by color, user-created and compiled themes (such as "grass" or "hamburger" related items), or by geographical location.

Not to mention most of the search option interfaces are completely mesmerizing.

Michelinman.com attempts a similarly creative navigation. To learn about how Michelin is doing its part to save the environment, users must travel to the amazing 3d online compound of the Michelin men and search around buildings for more information. This makes the interface fun, and the 3d work is amazingly done but it's still overkill when they only have information about tires.

Unique Navigations/Concepts via the Webbys

I found these Beenovations via The Webby Awards website. The first 2 (IKEA and Peroni) are notable for their creative navigation with a 3D perspective. The other one is interesting navigation and in general an interesting concept in compiling how people around the world are feeling.

http://demo.fb.se/e/ikea/dreamkitchen/site/default.html

http://www.peroniitaly.com/gb/flash.html

http://www.wefeelfine.org/

3D Modeling

What struck me was the idea that kids are already working in 3D with Cosmic Blobs - and then when you think about 3D printers - wow! There are possible applications for construction - and for our visualization exercises.

http://www.innovateforum.com/innovate/article/articleDetail.jsp?id=431582

http://www.cosmicblobs.com/index.html

http://www.innovateforum.com/innovate/article/articleDetail.jsp?id=428334

http://www.innovateforum.com/innovate/article/articleDetail.jsp?id=424192

Spore

This is one of many videos of Will Wright's (SimCity, etc.) new game that is slated to be released next year. It shows a demo of the program at E3 and shows you how the program goes from a single-celled organism to an intergalactic sandbox. Pretty amazing and way, way beyond the state of the art.

Anyone finding cooler or higher-res examples please send them to me.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=8372603330420559198

The Importance of Color

As a company where design is central to what we do, we are always considering so many things - user experience, brand, aesthetics, etc. And color is one of those choices that get made no mater how strong a brand direction we begin with. Coming up with a palette that just clicks can be a challenge for those of us who are not color theorists! When I came across this site, I was impressed with the simple idea - trust nature to provide palettes the eye will find pleasing. There are some surprising examples here and it got me thinking about what other ways nature can influence our work.....

http://www.colourlovers.com/blog/2007/06/01/colorful-beauty-in-nature-butterflies/