Oakley Dokley

We went searching for well-designed websites, and our discovery of moto.oakley.com presented us with a question: is it appropriate that a site promoting "impact protection" should itself make such a powerful impact?

The clean, cool design of Oakley's site employs parallax technology, and sensibly avoids the cheesy effects to which said technology is often put. What you get is an interactive site that conveys the product's value to its intended audience, blends with the aesthetic of other companies in the competitive dirt biking space, and makes keeping mud out of your eyes seem like a fashion choice. We approve, Oakley: we approve.

HER

Sexbots have been the dream of lonely nerds since time immemorial, but who knew we were living in the age when they become a reality?

This weekend, users of dating/hook-up app Tinder who happened to be in Austin for the SXSW conference found a fresh new face to swipe right on. Her name was Ava, and she was gorgeous. She was also interested in what they had to say, and seemed full of questions. In every case, she gave the person with whom she was texting an Instagram handle and told them to check it out.

Those who did check it out experienced a mix of disappointment and admiration–for, of course, Ava was a bot, a bot specifically created to promote a film called Ex Machina about artificial intelligence. A surprising number of people responded with praise for the audacity of this viral marketing campaign—though how many of them were just trying to put on a brave face is impossible to say.

As we only heard about this after the fact, and never got our heart broken by this achingly beautiful bit of software, you can believe us when we say the whole thing is genius. Ava caught the user’s attention, engaged their emotions, and gave them an experience they will always associate with the product she was promoting. The perfect marketing machine.

via AdWeek

It's A Crazy Case Camera Kit!

Most of the DML crew is out of the office today, in Miami filming a video for one of our clients (more on that later). Those that are left are busy helping another client conquer SXSW via Twitter and other social media platforms.

So that just leaves us to man the store. And our way of manning the store is to find cool designs to share with you. This one is via Laughing Squid--and though it came out late last year, we only just noticed it.

It's a crazy case/camera kit for the iPhone 6. We admit that part of our fascination with it is due to the Amy Adams-ish charms of the spokesmodel in this video, but that's just because we appreciate good marketing.

The case itself looks handy--though it goes to such great lengths to look like a real point and shoot that we start to wonder "why not just buy a point and shoot?" One of these days, someone is going to invent a pro-grade camera that comes with a phone as an add on. Probably someone already has.

A Logo Romance

It’s time we told you about our boyfriend. We haven’t mentioned him before, which is kind of incredible, given how much we think about him. But it’s true: our company has a boyfriend. And he is awesome!

Our boyfriend is the Dosa Man. The Dosa Man runs a dosa cart on the southern edge of Washington Square Park, a few blocks from our office. When the weather is warm, he sets up shop and starts selling his dosas—a delicious South Indian pancake made from rice batter and lentils and filled with wonderful vegetables and spices.

We aren’t the only people who love the Dosa Man. He has many admirers, and the line to buy lunch from him is always long.

But even so, the Dosa Man wants to grow his business and spread the word online through new branding. When he mentioned this to us, we jumped into action. After all, this is what we do for a living.

So we took some time and designed him a logo. We thought it was pretty cool, and we sent it to him.

He didn’t end up using it. Dosa Man is his own man, and he marches to his own drum. He settled on a different logo. The one we made is above, the one he settled on is below. We’re sad, but we still love him, and will never stop going to him for lunch.

As we think more about it, we realize that Dosa Man has taught us an important lesson about being a marketing agency. Sometimes, your aesthetic doesn’t match that of your client. Sometimes they see things differently from you. And that’s ok. In the end, having a good product is the most important thing, no matter how you package it.

Thank you, Dosa Man. We will never forget our time together.