Viva Design Inc.

Last Wednesday I spoke at fishbon (fishbon.org) about the highlights of the 2008 BDA conference.

This year's conference was surprisingly inspiring...maybe due to new management there is fresh wind at Promax/BDA. The things that inspired me most was

1. PSYOP - Their work is stunning and they truly deserve the "lifetime achievement" award (check out psyop.tv)
2. The Best of design session and State of the Art - the shown samples were awesome, delivery by Justin Cone was great (check out his site motionographer.com). A lot of great spots can be found on that site (http://motionographer.com/index.php?s=procrastination)

3. interactive storytelling on multiple platforms - it is no longer that simple, content is found everywhere...Is tv dead?

4. I presented the ideas of Nicholas Negroponte about One laptop per child (laptop.org).

5. Sir Ken Robinson has the right ideas about creativity and the lack of it in our schools. One of his speaches can also be downloaded from ted.com

6. I love the shortfilm "procrastination" (http://motionographer.com/2008/04/08/johnny-kelly-procrastination/)

5. Last not least I showed the ted-video of "Jill Bolte's powerful stroke of insight", downloadable at ted.com

Cosmopolitan TV got a makeover. Bold, sassy, and unapologetic. Backed by Hearst Corp and Corus Entertainment, the new digital TV network designed for women 18-34 began airing February 14th.

Viva Design was called to the challenge to capture the Cosmo spirit, celebrating the sexy lifestyle of young women via shows about men and relationships. The network is the first English-speaking version of the Cosmopolitan TV already running in Spain and Latin America. Cosmo TV in Canada was coming next, en route to the U.S.

Six IDs were shot, animated, and composited into a comprehensive, on-air ID package. Viva's creative director Ulrike Kerber found "the challenge was to find the right medium between too fashionably "Vogue" and the more practical "Cosmopolitan" mag style." Meg Barbour, Viva producer recalls, “Although the deadlines were tight, we were given great creative freedom using live action with two- and three-D elements.

Corus Entertainment creative director Dolores Keating was happy with the launch: "Viva Design totally got and contributed to the creative brief. They were realistic and creative about how to achieve the amount and quality of the work. They totally understood the demo and took the creative execution up at least 100% over the Spanish and south American companies. The caliber of design is totally amazing and world class."

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