Rival Schools » Design

Good Stuff is Way Better Than Bad Stuff

neil — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 18:46:43 +0000

FastCompany just put up a great little blurb showing why some content works, and why some content doesn’t.

Here are the two videos that they chose as examples:

I like their points, and I’d add one more. The Apple video is speaking to the customer, the Android video is speaking from the developer.

Remember this: as a customer I don’t care what your new tech gadget does, I care what it does for me.

Music and the Mind

dave — Fri, 28 May 2010 18:06:37 +0000

We’re currently working on a project for RIZ MC, a London based rapper / actor whose new album MICroscope melds together the conscious and subconscious, the government and the resistance, the music and the mind. It all takes place in a dark shadowy underground government agency – whose sole purpose is to investigate and document human neurological responses to different musical sequences. HEAVY DUTY AWESOMENESS.

Produced and Written by Swarm. Directed, Designed and Animated by Rival Schools.

www.RizMC.com/lab

Cinema 4D Music and Motion Test

roy — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 20:48:17 +0000

Here are a couple motion tests I did a while back using Maxon Cinema 4D. I’ve been using C4D whenever I need to dive into building anything that requires 3D rendering or animation. I love the program and it’s been fairly easy to pick up due to the fantastic GUI. The star of the show has got to be the stacking layer system, allowing users to easily add modifiers, shaders, properties, etc to objects and keep track of them through the intuitive tree view.

Count Leo Reimagined

roy — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 23:59:24 +0000

My wife and I decided we were going to check out the Harry Potter series (finally). We’ve just watching the first one and we’re planning to check out a couple more this weekend. But the reason we really started to get interested in it was because of the way the new Harry Potter and the Half-blood Prince looks. It looks like a lot of fun and the series seems to have really matured into something very cool.

I was also inspired to create an updated image of the Rival Schools mascot, Count Leo. He really just started off as simple vector illustration, but I had envisioned a more realistic representation. I’m planning to create a whole roster of humanoid-animals with snooty dispositions. Download the wallpaper and iPhone poster here

Nice Type on Vimeo

roy — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 20:39:47 +0000

Nice Type is a collection of videos on vimeo that was created by Matthew Buchanan. Great set of animations that range from title animations to student work.

Buying the Right Toaster

neil — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 05:46:18 +0000

As a creative shop we’ve gone through the agency selection process a few times. I always find it interesting, because it always provides good information about what clients think is important. And, as a rule, if they think it’s important then so do I.

Still, rules are meant to be broken. One instance when I’d like to see some changes is when agencies are qualified primarily based on their technical ability. To me, selecting an interactive firm based on their technical ability is like buying a toaster based on whether or not it can make toast. Every decent interactive company should have the managerial and/or technical skill to deliver a website that lives up to your functional requirements. That’s really the minimum requirement for getting to call yourself an interactive company.

Where they differ is in their ability to deliver online experiences that can do something for your business, and that’s the information clients should be looking for. It’s not a simple issue of good vs bad, it’s more about which companies are the right fit.

So in my continuing buyer’s guide series, here are some hot tips for agency selection (and, for the record, Proxonic is not always the right choice….but we are sometimes).

1.Does the Agency Understand Your Business

A good agency, interactive or otherwise, is going to be looking to help you achieve business objectives. You can tell the good ones because they’ll start asking you questions, and they’ll be good questions. They’ll be curious about how you deal with certain kinds of problems, who your sales come from, and how your competition is positioned. They won’t ask you how you want your website built, they’ll ask you what you want to get for your investment.

2.Does the Agency Care About Your Business

As a rule it’s a good idea to go with an agency that’s the right size. If you have an online budget of $200K-$300K and you take it to some giant agency they won’t necessarily turn you away, but you’re not going to get their top people either. Similarly if you bring a $35 million broadcast account to us we’ll certainly do our best to put it together (you insist, right?), but that’s not really what we’re built to do at this time. Going with an agency that’s a fit for your kind of account is a good idea, because it means your going to get the kind of service you want.

3.Does the Agency Care About the Outcome

The main reason you’d be looking at an agency is to achieve a business goal. The main reason that agency should be working with you is to achieve that same goal (as opposed to getting a bunch of money, winning some creative award, or having a good portfolio piece).

Sometimes design-driven companies lose sight of this, and stop evaluating creative against an outcome. Once an agency stops designing with a purpose, they aren’t actually designing at all. They’re making art. Probably for their own satisfaction. Like finger-painting.

Make sure that you and your agency have the same goals for your investment.

Rival Schools nails quad gold at Davey Awards … Phelps puts up goose egg

todd — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 22:14:56 +0000

Well, we ain’t Michael Phelps, but we did manage to bring home four golds from the 2008 Davey Awards. Phelps Davey Awards total: zero. Suck it Phelps.

With over 4,000 entries from across the US and around the world, the Davey Awards honors the finest creative work from the best small firms, agencies and companies worldwide. Website awards were issued to Rival Schools for Emmy award winning Atmosphere VFX, in the categories of ‘Movie/Film’ and ‘Self-Promotion’, and for our partner company Proxonic Visuals, in the categories of ‘Video/Moving Images’ and ‘Self-Promotion’.

The Davey Awards is sanctioned and judged by the International Academy of the Visual Arts, an invitation-only body consisting of top-tier professionals from a “Who’s Who” of acclaimed media, advertising, and marketing firms. Please visit www.iavisarts.org for a full member list and more information.

Get em while they’re hot!

roy — Sat, 11 Oct 2008 03:43:26 +0000

Brand spanking new

The new Rival Schools name cards. Complete with ‘Titanium’ and ‘SuperHero Red’ inks. Well, I wish I had more time to work on these, but of course I can spend forever. My original idea involved a photoshoot that probably wouldn’t have been approved.

The worst album covers ever created

roy — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 06:57:59 +0000

Thanks Steve for an impactful collection.

30 Brilliant Vector Logos

roy — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 16:52:53 +0000

Chris Spooner has an article on some great modern logo design. The designs are truly fresh and inspiring. It’s interesting to see how logo design has evolved. Check out vectortuts.com