2A Brands Adobe Max / Creates Adobe Toys Transmissions
Thursday, November 20, 2008 Posted 12:17 AM
For this year's Adobe Max conference, Adobe had a new vision: bring together 3 interactive design studios and have them collaborate on a landscape-themed web & print campaign that would ultimately become the center of the branding for this years event in downtown San Francisco.
Adobe enlisted 2Advanced Studios, Big Spaceship, and Blitz to create a series of landscape environments (ranging from the jungle [2A], to the arctic [BSS], to the desert [Blitz]), and develop an engaging interactive experience that could not only be leveraged for the web, but also for an extensive print campaign that would extend from t-shirts, to massive building-size banners, to 14'x48' freeway billboards.
The project, lasting 4 weeks, consisted of several conference calls between Adobe and the 3 studios as the landscapes were fine-tuned and ultimately approved to go live on max.adobe.com. (To activate the experience, click outside the content border once the background scene loads).
2Advanced created the jungle scene using traditional matte painting techniques, as well as high resolution landscape renderings from Vue xStream, 3D foliage, and something Adobe had not planned on...an array of characters representing the Adobe product line.
Beyond the basic environmental artwork designed for the conference, 2Advanced Studios' Chief Creative Officer Eric Jordan decided that the concept needed to be taken to the next level, and designed a series of figures to inhabit the landscape. As soon as the concepts were presented to Adobe, word spread like wildfire within the company and it wasn't long before a deal was signed to make the loveable characters into actual vinyl toy figurines. Several thousand 3 inch "Max the Explorer" and "Flash Builder-Chimps" arrived on the scene at Adobe Max 2008 at the Moscone Center in San Francisco...making their debut in miniature boxes decorated in the 2Advanced jungle environment. A future line of Flex Air-Bots and the Photoshop Cave-Painters is set to debut later this year, as well as a vinyl version of the Adobe Air Blimp. In addition, 2advanced Studios has been commissioned to create an entire set of Adobe figures to represent the full Adobe product line. The Adobe characters will be available for sale on the Adobe web store shortly. For more information, email: characters@adobe.com.
Have a look at the entire conference branding effort by 2Advanced:
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“Inside the Studio” Adobe Max Session: Powerpoint Download Transmissions
Wednesday, November 19, 2008 Posted 12:57 AM
For those of you whom attended the 2Advanced "Inside the Studio" session at Adobe Max 2008/2009, our presentation Powerpoint file is now available for download here.
Thank you to all of the Max attendees for your support.
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2ADVANCED CONFERENCE TABLE COMES TO LIFE General 2A
Tuesday, October 21, 2008 Posted 03:06 AM
Weighing in at 2000 lbs, the custom 2Advanced conference table, a collaborative concept developed by Eric Jordan and Tony Novak, has finally become a reality.
Based on preliminary concept sketches, Eric designed the 17 foot long table in 3D using Cinema 4D. It consists of a textured lightweight concrete with a 2x2' metallic logo inset, a steel truss support frame, two end bases each wrapped in 1" chrome accents, one middle base stand, eight 1" chrome rod accents, 8 power outlets and data ports, a multifunctional inset channel to accommodate bottled water, as well as special insets to hold a circular conference phone and circular media PC . The table is so large, and so heavy, it needed to be cleverly designed in 3 separate sections in order for it to make it to the 2nd floor of the 2Advanced Studios facility. Everything was built to exact scale in 3D so that the table could be precisely fabricated according to the design. Below, you can see the concept from start to finish.
The 3D Concept:
Dimensional Specification Renders:
The End Result:
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Eric Jordan Exhibit at FlashForward 2008 General 2A
Tuesday, October 21, 2008 Posted 01:07 AM
The recent FlashForward 2008 Conference featured an exhibit of six themed experimental pieces by Eric Jordan entitled the "Virtual Series". The six 24x36 prints were on display for 3 days at the Masonic Center in San Francisco, alongside an exhibit by Joshua Davis.
Posted by admin » Permalink2A launches Call of Duty HQ for Activision General 2A
Tuesday, October 07, 2008 Posted 08:50 PM
2Advanced recently launched the "Call of Duty Headquarters", a content-rich and community-centric destination revolving around the upcoming video game title, "Call of Duty: World At War", which will be released by Activision on November 11th in the U.S. and on November 14th in Europe. The site features a robust system of social networking features such as a unique Flash-driven "Avatar Builder" which enables users to customize a community avatar with unlocked backgrounds, borders, insignia holders, and even special military badges that they earn via the site's advanced reward system. The more users participate, the more they move up the ranks, allowing them to rise from a simple "Private" rank to the esteemed "General" rank. You can check out the site here. Posted by admin » Permalink
2A Launches James Bond: QOS for Activision General 2A
Tuesday, October 07, 2008 Posted 08:00 PM
2Advanced recently launched the "James Bond: Quantum of Solace" website, which is centered upon the upcoming video game title "Quantum of Solace", being released by Activision this Fall. The site features a robust system of social networking features such as a unique Flash-driven "Avatar Builder" which enables users to customize a community avatar with unlocked backgrounds, borders, insignia holders. Additional customization features can be unlocked via the advanced reward system. You can check out the site here. Posted by admin » Permalink
Star Wars: The Force Unleashed & Fracture
Semi-finalists @ Adobe Max 2008/2009
General 2A
Wednesday, September 10, 2008 Posted 11:54 AM
We were notified today that the Star Wars: The Force Unleashed website and the Fracture website, which we developed for Lucas Arts earlier this year, have both been selected as semi-finalists in this years Adobe Max Conference, taking place in San Francisco, Milan, and Tokyo. Winners will be announced in October 2008.
For more information on the Adobe Max Conference, visit: http://max.adobe.com
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Guidelines for Online Success General 2A
Monday, September 08, 2008 Posted 08:56 PM
Rob Ford, webmaster of the legendary FWA (Favorite Website Awards - www.thefwa.com), asked myself and Shane Mielke to contribute some advice in a new book he just released entitled "Guidelines for Online Success", a book published under Tachen which is filled with invaluable tips for Web designers & developers.
I contributed my advice in the "Technology & Programming" chapter, mostly touching on how websites have changed over the past few years and how designers and developers can take advantage of the latest technologies to make successful websites.
Shane offers up some very helpful "do's and dont's" in the same chapter, specifically related to Hybrid web sites.
The book is filled with other valuable insights from amazing industry gurus on several topics ranging from Interface & Design to E-commerce. This book is not to be missed. You may purchase the book here.
-Eric Jordan
-2Advanced Studios Posted by ejordan2A » Permalink
Adobe unites 2A, Big Spaceship, & Blitz General 2A
Wednesday, June 25, 2008 Posted 06:35 PM
To promote this year's Adobe Max 2008/2009 Conference, Adobe pulled together 3 design agencies to collaborate and develop a unique interactive experience that would highlight the theme of the upcoming conference: Connect. Discover. Inspire.
2Advanced worked hand in hand with Big Spaceship and Blitz over the course of several weeks to conceive a special interactive/print campaign to promote the conference.
Never before in the industry have 3 interactive agencies collaborated on such an immense task; design and develop 3 unique landscapes based on 3 different themes (the jungle, the arctic, and the desert) and utilize these landscapes in a variety of mediums to promote the conference. Each studio's contribution would be fused together to create a seemless, yet stylistically unique, campaign across the Web, Print, Email, Signage, etc.
With our assignments in hand, we went to work. Big Spaceship was to handle the Arctic scene, Blitz was tasked with developing a Desert environment, and 2Advanced would conceive the Jungle landscape. In the end, each studio worked together to blend the scenes together into one seemless panoramic image. Finally, this panoramic image was to be deployed on the web, with each studio developing interactive layers on top of each landscape. The intent was that a user could scroll from left to right, up and down, and explore the different landscapes and interact with them. In the end, Adobe seemlessly tied all the landscapes together programatically and inserted it into the backdrop of the Adobe Max website.
Ultimately, you will find a very special experience awaiting you at the 3 different Max conferences that will take place in San Francisico, Milan, and Tokyo. 2Advanced, Big Spaceship, and Blitz will all have a large roll to play at each conference. You can expect to encounter a very interesting visual experience at Max, based upon our collaborative efforts, as well as have the opportunity to speak one on one with various team-members of each agency.
We strayed from our normal style this time around and tried to come up with something fun and slightly comical. Here is a look at the jungle environment developed by 2Advanced, in additional to a race of "Adobe Characters" we created in 3D which correspond to each of the key Adobe applications:
Below is the culmination of the collaborative effort, the blending of all 3 environments by each studio. (From left to right: 2Advanced, Big Spaceship, Blitz)
To view the interactive experiece visit http://Max.Adobe.com and click anywhere outside the informational window. Each visit is randomized to start at a different environment. Use your mouse to scroll left, right, up, and down in order to traverse all three landscapes. For the 2Advanced jungle scene, there are certain actions that you must trigger in order to progress the story (Drag & drop, clicking, etc). See how far you can get by interacting with the environment and the clues it gives you.
Posted by admin » Permalink2A Animates for Adobe.com General 2A
Wednesday, June 25, 2008 Posted 05:27 PM
2Advanced Studios put together an animation for Adobe.com, touting the upcoming MAX Conference, which will be taking place in San Francisco, Milan, and Tokyo. The animation is based upon an interactive piece which 2Advanced designed in collaboration with 2 fellow design studios; Big Spaceship & Blitz.
There are 3 randomized animations on Adobe.com, so just refresh the page until you see a large vista with blue skies and a funky little 3D robot with a jetpack.
2Advanced, Big Spaceship, and Blitz will have a very large roll to play at all 3 upcoming Max conferences. Stay tuned for more details.
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