Interactive Two: Digital Case Study 2: Google Creative Labs

When it comes to the future of branding, the following agencies are leading the way, influencing how technology is used and inventing new ways to reach people offline as well -- in one case, even redefining the term "ad agency."

The world's most popular search engine has already established itself as just that, the world's search engine. However, that doesn't seem to be enough. Google now has ad agencies within its sights and ruffled the feathers of WPP head, Martin Sorrel. When you've angered someone this important to the industry, you've really got something special. Former Ogilvy New York creative lead, Andy Berndt, has taken on the task of redefining how clients, agencies, and the entertainment industry works together, and he's poised to take Google Creative Labs to the forefront of digital technology and experiential design. But don't call his shop an ad agency.

Berndt says, "We are not an ad agency. We will not pitch clients. We will not have client business. We won't compete with any agencies."

Berndt's true aim? To build Google across multiple platforms, even the ones that haven’t been invented yet. Berndt and his team are well on their way to doing that. And one thing Berndt understands well is that you are only as strong as your team.

Google Creative Labs has been recruiting top talent from top agencies who haven't been able to realize their ideas fully due to client restraints. The toy box that is Google is sparking a pilgrimage of the best creative minds. Below are a couple Labs creatives who are making digital waves.

Ji Lee (http://pleaseenjoy.com/)

Ji is a CD at the Creative Labs. He most recently worked for Droga9. He was the brain behind the bubble project.

For Macworld 2009, Lee re-imagined the iconic Google logo.

Aaron Koblin (http://www.aaronkoblin.com/)

Aaron Koblin is another CD at Google Creative Labs who has a knack for taking complex data and painting pretty pictures with it. He doesn't create ads per se, but experiences.

Flight Patterns

A collaboration with Wired Magazine and FlightView Software, these flight path renderings show the altitudes, makes, and models of more than 205,000 different aircraft being monitored by the FAA on August 12, 2008. FAA data was parsed and plotted using the Processing programming environment. The frames were composited with Adobe After Effects and/or Maya. Visit original project website here.

Flight Paths over the southwest US from Aaron on Vimeo.

Flight Paths over the northeast US from Aaron on Vimeo.

Koblin speaks to Cnet about Flight Patterns.

CNET Interview: Art With Flight Patterns from GAFFTA on Vimeo.

Visualizing Amsterdam SMS Messages
Data studies with MIT Senseable City Lab, Salzburg University Z_GIS and Current City. Data provided by KPN Mobile. Interactive tool built with Processing and OpenGL.