Yo! MC wraps!
This year, MediaCatalyst's Christmas gift to our clients and relations is based on the ancient Japanese tradition of Furoshiki (pronounce with stress on 'rosh', swallowing the first 'i'!). The cloth serves as a sustainable carry-all in lieu of, say, your regular plastic bag. It looks good too as it can be, to quote the accompanying card, "... folded and re-folded in a number of simple, practical and decorative styles based on the very object it envelops."
As we don't expect anyone to be a natural at the art of wrapping, we have filmed a bunch of instructional videos to instruct and delight. Simultaneously, all is filmed on the premises of our main office in Amsterdam. You may come across a familiar face or two... Curious? CLICK HERE or on the picture above! For study purposes, you can click and enlarge each separate film, in order to get the wrap done.
As always, our New Year's resolution is to start the holiday gift process even earlier in 2008. Once we settled on the Furoshiki idea, MediaCatalyst's custom cloth needed to be designed and produced. Every in-house designer was enlisted to come up with a 'tile' for the design, which were then all arranged together to form the pattern we were after. If you inspect a little closer, you will come across a pack of dogs chasing a frisbee, a forest of christmas trees, a bunch of flowers and even our tagline, "Intimate Interactivity". And is that the Mona Lisa hiding amidst it all?
Subsequently, we needed to branch out to develop some ad hoc expertise on producing and printing of cloths. This proved a great deal more complicated than anticipated, as Holland, once the hub of textile, tends to outsource nowadays. We soon learned some fabrics are less suitable for printing than others, demanding last-minute adaptations of design and changes of fabric. In short, a test of our capacity to compromise as deadlines loomed. Add to that the labels that were to come from yet another place (Spain? Germany?), you can imagine our relief when we finally had the finished product in our hands.
Finally ready to film, story boards were drawn up, locations and angles settled on, casting calls held. And in the meantime, a nifty production line was set up to fold our cards in the cloths and stick 'em all in envelopes. Thanks to Mariah Carey singing us through! Once all was wrapped, - film and cards - MediaCatalyst's very own Furoshiki was ready for shipment. We hope it found you well, and full of inspiration for the new year.
Huge thank yous to the whole team, from brainstormers to designers, from actors to wrappers, from logistic masterminds to address list keepers: thanks everyone for pitching in!
Merry Christmas and a happy New Year!
Keywords: christmas,2008,holiday,season,greetings,furoshiki,instructional,videos
MediaCatalyst hits the Emerce top 100!
MediaCatalyst has debuted at number 89 in the yearly Emerce top 100. Even better, we've entered the 'best image' top ten web agencies at number 9!
Keywords: emerce,top,10,top,100,best,web,agencies,media,catalyst
We are hiring!
Did you come across anything that strikes your fancy while browsing our blog? Then it may be of interest to you that MediaCatalyst is always on the look-out for talented, skillful and inspiring people to fortify our team. From our main hub in the heart of Amsterdam to our offices in LA, New York and Malta, we seek people with vision, intelligence, and character. You may be the art director, flash developer, or project manager we'd like to meet.
If you want to know more, or introduce yourself to our team, simply send your enquiry to jobs@mediacatalyst.com. You can also check out our job openings at our website.
Flavour of the Month: New faces, new tastes
Name: Alvaro Marquez
Avatar: alvaromqzTM
Role: Art Director
MC-er since: Oct 1st, 2007 (newb!)
Origin: Spain (Madrid)
“I need chocolate,” Alvaro says to me as we leave our lunch of Asian noodle soup.
“Chocolate? After that huge bowl of soup?” I say, bewildered.
Alvaro grins. “I am Spanish,” he says. “For me, life is all about good food and good wine. And now, I must have a chocolate cookie.”
So off we go, Don Quixote and Sancho Panza, on a search to conquer the definitive chocolate cookie.
I am beginning to get an idea of why Madrileño Alvaro Marquez - the guy walking around like the love child of Serj Tankian and Jason Lee – traded in his job as Interactive Art Director at Madrid’s star advertising agency, Shackleton Group to find his chocolate cookie over in Amsterdam. And why we brought him on as one of our Art Directors in the first place.
(Read more...)Canon Eos 400D - Behind the scenes
| So we made this website, the Canon EOS 400D, which uses the every-present Papervision engine (respect to the papervision crew is due here: "Respect!"). We got great feedback from customers and the client alike apart from getting a FWA for it, so we wanted to show a bit of the process we went through to bring this site alive.
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Wii 4 all -- & seniors 2!
Looks like Nintendo Wii has spread the fun to the elderly population. Retirement communities and municipal senior centres in the U.S. are purchasing Wii, using wellness grants and public funds to pay for the video-game system.
Although it's a challenge to get 60-plussers comfortable with games in general, many Wii proponents in retirement homes claim that it "...offers a welcome reprieve from a sedentary lifestyle and boosts hand-eye coordination." Bowling nights and boxing tournaments are a hit, and the proponents promote such activities to market the Wii. The social interaction that Wii brings to the gaming experience helps bridge the gap between games and the elderly.
This isn't the first time that Nintendo has reached out to seniors or groups who weren't previously video-gamers. In 2006, Nintendo DS "Brain Age" game was launched, which the company claims stimulates cognitive abilities. The idea originated from Japan, where the population is aging more rapidly.
This is a nice reminder to our industry to invite the unexpected and explore every nook and cranny. While gaming has advanced tremendously, the simple games still retain their cool and addictive factor. Who hasn't, at least at one point in their lives, saw Minesweeper, Pacman or Tetris behind shut eyes? 
Very few seniors play games because they're too complicated and because there are no games created for them. This is where Wii get to score the bonus points and level up.
Keywords: Wii,gaming,seniors,social,games
Design Week profiles our ex-pat copy writer’s induction into Media Catalyst.
Via the London recruitment agency Gabriele Skelton that gave us one of our newest recruits, copy writer Carl Rogers, we landed a profile in Design Week. Or rather: Carl did. Carl shares his experiences about making the move to our Amsterdam office, and speaks of Media Catalyst in the fondest terms laced with superlatives. His enthusiasm far outshines those other ex-pats profiled in the piece!
To give you an idea: Carl praises Media Catalyst’s assistance in sorting through the bureaucratic details of his move, the arranging of taxes, and finding a place to live in our city as “nothing short of brilliant”, and as “the exception rather than the rule”. Stop it, you’re making us blush!
Read the rest for yourselves here:
