Tag Archives: holler sydney

The Haeckel Clock

Check one of the latest art projects to come out of Holler Sydney: The Haeckel Clock (free install). Its unique art direction was inspired by the artistic work of an eminent German biologist, naturalist, philosopher called Ernst Haeckel. Around the turn of the last century he discovered, described and named thousands of new species and drew microscopic creatures with fascinating skill and detail.

Haeckel illustration

Haeckel illustration

Holler’s Mike Hill, himself a zoologist and nature photographer before he entered the interactive agencyscape, is a big fan of Haeckel’s work.

The application is a pretty abstract clock that uses different sized balls to signify hours, minutes and seconds.

Haeckel Clock

Hours floating together

Fittingly for such a scientifically-inspired piece the elements all adhere to the laws of gravity and have their own elastic coherence.

Haeckel Clock

Hours, minutes and seconds separated

The modern genius behind this app is my frequent collaborator Lukasz Karluk, who developed the application in openFrameworks. He describes the project, its interface and technical detail here on his blog. Have a peek at the flow in his screen video and don’t forget to install this free clock on your iPad by going to the app store.

Disclaimer: I was only very partially involved in the clock’s design and development, mainly correcting any typos in German pieces of copy.

Pharrell Williams and Holler (on the Granimator)

OK, we aren’t really tight with the mastermind of N*E*R*D fame. But we did manage to be included in the same wonderful iPad app.
Holler Sydney has contributed to one of the most successful new iPad applications, Granimator. Holler’s contribution is the only one from Australia and was designed by our own Kerry Edward and accompanied by sounds from Sydney musician Eli Murray.

The application which is currently in the Top 10 of free apps in the UK was developed by English studio UsTwo. It lets users design wallpapers, using only their fingers.

Holler pack on Granimator

Holler pack on Granimator

The graphics are sourced from globally recognised illustrators and creative studios such as Airside, Buro Destruct, Rob Bailey, mcbess and Jon Burgerman. And now it also includes cross over groups like N*E*R*D (+ Friends with You).

N*E*R*D on Granimator

N*E*R*D on Granimator

Also worthy of a click:

And just to round it up in style, here’s Pharrell/N*E*R*D with Everyone Nose:

A race of “Like” across facebook – Melbourne Cup 2010

The Melbourne Cup is being held for the 150th time this year and is often described as “the race that stops the nation”. In 2010 it seems to live up to its moniker with torrential rain flooding Victoria’s capital.

But it also signals the beginning of spring, and for us at Holler it meant a fresh idea for how to best transfer a horse race onto facebook.

Greatest Cup Never Run on facebook

Greatest Cup Never Run on facebook

Check out Boag’s Draught’s “Greatest Cup Never Run” and click on Photofinish. Here you can Like any of the 24 best horses of all time. Besides engaging with other horse experts on the walls of Longfacebook, you will see how their race for some facebook love pans out. Currently the top two, legendary horses Makybe Diva and Phar Lap, are separated by nothing more than a single Like.

Greatest Cup Never Run - Longfacebook

Greatest Cup Never Run – Longfacebook

Holler Hidden Talents # 12: Unicycling

Our newbie Lauren has fallen in love with unicycling. At the same time most people have no idea how fast unicycling really is. So we decided to host a special facebook competition: Tour de Lunch.

Lauren on her unicycle "Tour de Lunch"

Lauren on her unicycle "Tour de Lunch"

You guess how long it takes Lauren next Friday to unicycle to our favourite eatery in Surry Hills, “City Edge“. Check her route on Google Maps. Whoever gets closest to the actual time in minutes and seconds wins a lunch for two at said place. Go ahead and place your guess in the comment section of our facebook post. In the meantime Lauren will practice her fully sick urban unicycling skills. There are no T&C’s but expect an entertaining video of our “Tour de Lunch” next week.

Urban Unicycling by NZ's Pedro Tejada

Urban Unicycling by NZ's Pedro Tejada

Content Strategy towards a semantic web: data for living a summer lifestyle.


Rachel Lovinger from Razorfish gives a good overview over how content strategy helps “machines get what we are talking about and searching for” – my 5-second definition of the semantic web.

The semantic web of XXXX ?

Our work for XXXX is all about publishing interesting content, revolving around living the good life, using all of the brand’s sponsorships such as V8 racing XXXX Angels or Rugby League as assets. Earlier in the year I have commented on this Bannerblog “brands going social” post by Ash from Soap on the underlying strategy.You can also have a peek at our case study on it:

Vodpod videos no longer available.

We are already connecting XXXX’s output to supporter blogs, facebook pages and other publishers of similar content, establishing connections, collaborations and traffic/consumption/engagement with a mutual benefit. Which together with our SEO is hopefully creating a small semantic web for XXXX.

Now in conncetion to Rachel’s presentation: I wonder what a piece of semantic web for the Australian summer life style would look like? The government of New South Wales has recently held a competition around applications that use freely available data to foster better community life. So XXXX’s service could possibly provide a holistic data view on where high quality of life can be achieved = affordable, sunny, peaceful and with an option to go fishing, surfing or having a beer with your mates!  Admittedly, it is only a sketch and a simplistic set up, considering Australian real estate prices even a dream scenario. But with something along these lines XXXX could the enabler of said service, being utility and brand experience in one.