How Inventables makes a site that inspires exploring

I still remember getting my first Popular Science subscription in the 3rd grade, and every month I would flip to the back pages and dream of the hovercrafts, personal helicopters, and ray guys that I could build by myself with the mail-order assembly guides.  When I found the Inventables site on 37signal’s Signal vs. Noise blog this morning it sparked a similar urge to tinker, experiment and invent.  I have no clue what I could make with hand moldable plastic, skin conductive switches, squishy magnetic gel and glow in the dark thread, but now I’m determined to find a use.

Rather than taking the typical approach for selling scientific materials by listing the crystallisation temperature, viscosity, melt flow index, Inventables created their site to spark inspiration with great product photography, example applications and easy to read descriptions.

It’s a good lesson for anyone who’s trying to compete with bigger competitors. If you’ve got a smaller product mix, you can obsess over these details in a way that big guys can’t. Customers respond to that.

Take the time to read the article on Signal vs. Noise and browse through Inventables.  Both are full of lessons that can be applied to any site, product, brand, or business.

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“The Social Network” Sound for Film

Two months ago I ran across SoundWorks Collection’s profile on the sound and audio composition behind Inception—if you haven’t seen it yet it’s fantastic.  This week SoundWorks released the profile for “The Social Network”.  Although the movie isn’t full of sound in a way that you’d expect for an action movie, director David Flencher and Skyworks Studio used a wide range of ambient tracks and environmental noises to help shape and define scenes.  It’s incredibly fascinating to see how even minimal sound impacts the mood of a movie.

If you have a few more minutes to spare watch the sound profile for the new game “Halo: Reach”.

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Iron Man 2 - Interface Case Study

New York based design and animation studio Perception was asked by Marvel Studios to work on a simple graphics package for the upcoming movie Iron Man 2.  Impressed by the results, Marvel Studios continued to work with Perception over six months to develop 125 shots, UI concepts, futuristic interfaces, mock broadcast packages, and compositing work to bring it to life.

Perception recently published a detailed case study with motion tests, style boards, concepts and final composites of all their work that went into the movie.  Read the entire case study.

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