Sep 17 2010

Wednesday, Microsoft launched its beta version of Internet Explorer 9, the new enriched version of its navigator, with groupeReflect and Design is Dead, who won the pitch involving some of the most creative agencies in the world and by this entered Microsoft’s « Beauty of the web » hall of fame. .

The MONA project (Museum of NeverEnding Art) is a virtual collaborative museum to which every surfer will be able to bring his own artistic contribution. This canvas, which is white at the beginning, will evolve over time and will be filled with new pictures, new designs or new texts. They can be either uploaded or they can be made in the web navigator itself. This will be a great international collaborative work of art, that is destined to live forever after…

In order to meet the MONA challenge – one of the technical difficulties is managing the contribution of thousands of surfers -, a team of 8 persons, working in Paris and Antwerp, worked for a period of four months. On top of the technical challenge, they had to face a tight deadline: the entire production of the campaign needed to be done in just a few months.

This international campaign is the fruit of the first close collaboration between the Antwerp agency Design is Dead and its Parisian homologue groupeReflect. The two Emakina agencies share a passion for creative and technical excellence. Since September, Design is Dead has also become the official creative partner of the Parisian branch. A selection of Design is Dead designers will now regularly visit France to support the digital team of groupeReflect, under the supervision of Creative Director Hendrik Everaerts.

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Sep 1 2010

Design is Dead’s KIDsite for deFilharmonie keeps on hitting the jackpot! After scoring an “Official Honoree” distinction at the latest Webby Awards, the childfriendly website now won a “Best in Class” award and the maximum jury score at the recent Interactive Media Awards.
With a score of 500 points out of 500, the jury made it quite clear that this educational and entertaining kids site about classical music stood out in the categories “arts & culture”, “kids” and “music”. Let’s keep those trophees coming!

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Jul 30 2010

Design is Dead and Emakina/Motion have joined forces to create a movie for Nuance, the largest speech recognition company worldwide.

Nuance is launching a set of fantastic new applications, including an iPhone and iPad application (already live in US, UK, Germany & France), a speech recognition software for Mac (MacSpeech) and a new version for PC (Dragon NaturallySpeaking). Nuance also provides technology for navsystems like the ones from Ford, BMW, Mercedes and TomTom.

Nuance wanted Design is Dead and Emakina/Motion to bring all these technologies together in one movie. See the results bellow…

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Apr 21 2010

We have some excellent news: Design is Dead has won a Webby Award, the Oscar of the Internet. They won the prize ‘Official Honoree’ in the category Cultural Institutions for the site they made for ‘deFilharmonie for Kids’. This honorary prize awards the best sites and campaigns out of a selection of 10,000 entries from 60 countries.
The winning website is a realisation for deFilharmonie that promotes classical music to the youngest generation. In order to succeed, Design is Dead created an intuitive, interactive and very attractive online universe for young surfers. The website initiates kids in a fun way to the orchestra and its different parts.

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Mar 17 2010

New client Delek asked Design is Dead to perform a quite radical makeover on both Texaco.be and Texaco.nl. They scrubbed up, put on their surgical masks and started cutting and shaping. Creative surgeries resulted in a dynamic website which looks attractive and contemporary, and is extremely easy to move around in. On top of that, the user is instantly stimulated to take actions (find a station, visit a shop,…) thanks to strategically placed and aesthetically designed content. Check out the refuelled and futureproofed Belgian and Dutch Texaco websites!

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Jan 27 2010

Each year, the festival season countdown begins with the launch of the new Rock Werchter website. For the 2010 edition, Design is Dead pimped the 2009 structure with new graphics and extra features such as an extended picture gallery. Browse through a decade of festival fever, super bands and shiny happy party people and check out the latest news online. And if that doesn’t get you in the mood for RW 2010, we suggest you perform a little sundance…

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Jan 20 2010

Design is Dead goes for bigger and better! Last week, they packed their bags and moved into its new headquarters!. It took them 1926.83 kilos of manpower to move: 124 boxes, 5 and a half aliens, 4 near-dead plants, 52 terrabytes of server capacity, 19 grey mice and much more to our new headquarters.

From now on, your trusted creative force is to be found in the Duboisstraat 50, 2060 Antwerp. You’re more than welcome to pop in for some coffee and a guided tour. For a sneak preview, click right here.

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Nov 26 2009

When Panasonic Batteries asked the Design is Dead team to develop a campaign involving energy and travelling, they soon came up with the perfect match. Iceland, with its seriously zen sceneries and revitalizing spa’s, was absolutely the way to go. The result is a mouthwatering campaign and a matching mini-site, offering french customers the chance to recharge their ‘inner battery’ up north.

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Nov 25 2009

Always in for a wacky creation, Pienternet (which provides support to young people trying to make a career) assigned Design is Dead to create an online quiz to kickstart the new school year in a fun yet educational way. Which led to the creation of the Ass Kiss Class: a game where you have to answer as correct and fast as possible to please the teach and win some Pienternetastic prizes.

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Oct 8 2009

Design is Dead just launched a brand new and minty fresh website for Mentos’ latest chewing revelation, Aqua Kiss. A bubbly Flash-production including fun facts and an online survey about kissing behaviour in Belgium and the Netherlands.  They also developed the mail-campaign promoting this new kissproof product. Go click and kiss!

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Sep 22 2009

How will interactivity manifest itself in the coming years? What will interactive marketing look like?  And what will it mean for customers and for companies?

Whether you realize it or not the possibilities of interactive technologies for marketers are endless. The 19th Emakina Academy Session invites you to discover those possibilities and capture what could by the highlights of interactive marketing in 2015.

During this Emakina Academy, you will:

• Take a look into the future of interactive marketing.
• Discover an exciting future that interconnects everything, everywhere, all the time and erases the borders between the physical and worlds.
• Learn how mobile technologies will create unlimited possibilities for making interactive communication a new part of life.
• Know how to engage in an authentic positive word of mouth to raise brand awareness and drive direct sales through social shopping.
• Understand the connections between emerging trends and design thinking (graphic design, web design, or simply in design in general).

This free seminar will take place Thursday, 22 October 2009 between 09:00 and 14:00 @ Tour&Taxi – Port Avenue 86C – 1000 Brussels. View road map.

Register online: www.emakina.com/academy and follow us on Twitter and Facebook.

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Jun 17 2009

Our colleagues at Design is Dead have recently received four distinctions for their nice work on The Healthy Home:

Built for Ecover, the leading ecological cleaning products brand in Europe, The Healthy Home is an interactive platform targeting “light green” consumers who are aware of the environmental issue but are still reluctant to change their lifestyle. In addition to accessing information and tips about ecological well-being in every day life (kitchen, bathroom, garden…), registered users can also create their personalized “green passport” that sets their ecological footprint on the environment.

By lowering the treshold of communication, The Healthy Home acts as the perfect bridge to work on brand awareness and to increase Ecover’s customer database and customer knowledge for direct marketing.

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May 20 2009

On the back of their recent success tour through sold out arenas in the States, the folks at Design is Dead have now announced a European crusade. A once in a lifetime opportunity to see them live, ’cause — like true artists — they tend to spend more time in their studio than on stage. So, don’t hesitate…Book them now for a mindblowing performance of their greatest hits and some brand new material.

By the way, have also a look at the new Design is Dead website.

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Apr 7 2009

This year, Rock Werchter rocks harder than ever. Sure the fingerlickin’ line-up has got something to do with that, but, let’s be honest: the website is quite a headliner too! For this year’s edition, we broke a tradition of many years: no Flash, but a funky html-creation, with “userfriendliness” as a main target. Visitors now find their way to the required band-, line-up- and ticket information easier than ever, and they can “share” and “print” it in a twinkling. A mouthwatering gallery and jukebox-application are the perfect warm-up for those four fabulous days planned in Werchter. And as for those with a sense of festival-fashion, the virtual shopping mall filled with band-branded and festival proof gear just might offer some inspiration. To put it short: the festival has already started… with the launch of the website! (by Design is Dead)

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Mar 10 2009

For centuries, Vikings have raided and colonized wide areas of Europe. They were explorers, warriors, merchants, and pirates. Now, they’ve become a movement that fights for free Internet on your mobile phone. Join them (website by Design is Dead).

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