The Lovie Award Winners Announced

A couple of weeks ago I was spending 3-5 hours daily for a week and a half judging for The Lovie Awards. I was judging Video, Montage, Game DEsign and a couple of other subjects like best web personality. It was a lot of work going through all the entries. Some were absolute crap, but others were exceptional. Overall I would say the quality was more towards the good than towards the ugly. And it's all EUROPE!!! At least that's what the Lovie's say. There is an amazing amount of creative talent, design, creativity and production Europe has to offer. The Lovie Awards really show the best of what Europe has to offer. If you have some time to kill and are tired of 9gag or I-am-bored, hop on over and have a look at the winners. Let me know if you think they should have won or not. The Lovie Awards.

Gabe Mac for Hire

After 3 years it is time for me to take a different path from Indie. It has not been an easy decision for me to leave. I really love my co-workers who are an amazing group of people. I will also miss the opportunities that Indie has given me in pushing the boundaries of advertising. When I first came to Indie I had no idea what really went on in an Ad Agency. It was soon apparent that I was not a usual fit for an agency...

I love hats. Indie allowed me to wear a bunch with a variety of roles under the title Head of Innovation. I've enjoyed designing games, directing and editing films, being the english voice on Indie's films, developing digital strategies, programming applications, concepting campaigns, designing webpages, new biz development, producing presentations and every now and again cooking a large feast for the team.

In my time at Indie I have learned a lot about marketing and advertising from the Indie team. I'm very grateful to have had this chance to learn from incredibly talented and experienced advertising legends.

I see lots of changes happening in advertising. With new technologies emerging, there is an enormous challenge for agencies to adapt slow reacting clients to these changes. Ultimately, I don't believe that the traditional ad agency will thrive. With the speed at which technology is changing the game, those agencies which do not adapt to working like a technology start-up will be left behind. This is why I have decided to become a freelance consultant.

For professional reasons I want to be a bee flying onto a variety of flowers to cross-pollinate ideas. For that I need to open myself up to working on projects with a variety of different companies and technologies. I have first hand experience with using game design in marketing. I would love to help new markets with these insights.

Could I help you? Let me know!

Send me a quick email

Gabe Mac

A Nano Swarm

If you ever wonder what the world may look like in a few years with Nano bots flying through the sky. In perfect formation they could act as giant CO2 scrubbers, or even survey disaster sights for search and rescue. The possibilities are enormous but the sound will be much like a swarm of bees coming towards you. Have a look and see for yourself the work being done at the GRASP Lab, University of Pennsylvania. Quickly you can imagine a world filled with swarms of flying robots.

A swarm of flying robots

MUST SEE ART!

My good friend Eyal Gever has been tearing up the Art Scene ever since he went in it with his whole heart. I am so proud of him, and jealous as hell at his genius and talent. After successfully exiting on a number of startups, he's been using the time, and technology to kick start his long awaited art carrer. Considering he has been in Wired Magazine, traveling the world talking to the top curators and now is on the BBC shows that he is doing it well.

Actually whenever I'm in Israel, I always stay over at Eyal's place. It is such a trip to see my crash pad (Eyal's Studio) on the BBC. Have a look for yourself!

Collaborative Creation Presentation

Here is a presentation I gave at the Marketing Expo of DMEXCO in Germany. It is one of the largest Marketing Expo's in Europe and it was a real privilege to talk about the projects and the collaborative creative process we use at Indie. I hope you enjoy it.Click HERE if you want to skip to my part of the presentation or just skip to 11:55 in the video below.

Burn Cycle - My Ride through Burning Man 2011

I hope you enjoy this cycle through the Playa at Burning Man 2011. It was the most unforgettable journey of my life. This video only captures a small segment of what I saw an experienced. Thanks to Jeffrey and John for the best bike on the playa. Thanks Rupert for the photographs. Thanks to all the burners.

UPDATE: Since the publishing of this video, it has been video at some bike festivals down under. Fun to think people had to cycle to keep the projector running.

Restore Pattern Security Android

I really like my security pattern on the Android phone (Nexus 1). Basically I can draw a pattern to unlock my phone rather than using some pin number or password. I don't like password or pin as it is just annoying to quickly input on my phone with the keypad. I've seen many friends using this feature, however recently there was a problem.

After trying to install e-mail from my work account on my phone, I kept recieving security updates from the server. [Note to self: do not install stuff when you are intoxicated]. After allowing this by accident I realized I coudn't use my pattern security swipe anymore. I kep[t recieving the message "pattern disabled by phone administrator". What? So how do you fix this?

1. Goto Home > Settings > Location & security settings > Device administration

2. remove the device administrator.

Now I'm not sure what other security problems this may have, but I've got my security pattern back. If you have the same problem I hope this helps. And of course if anyone has any tips or comments about this and why it may be good or bad, leave a comment!

And remember to keep your fingers clean or it doesn't work so well :-)

Related articles

• Smartphone Security Thwarted by Fingerprint Smudges (pcworld.com)

Data Visualization Movies

Image via Wikipedia

I really love the incredible boom of data visualizations. To me this exploding artform is really offering us a new insight into our lives. As an example, via Many Eyes [an open data visualization site developed by IBM] I came across an interesting graph for all my film making buddies. A graph that shows all the various genres of films made since the late 1800's. Interesting that Reality TV has the most increase lately where as Westerns have been in the decline for years. Funny enough Musicals have been rather steady since 1920's. The most interesting is the enormous rise of Short Films in the last years, and seems to be making a comeback. Probably because the tools are getting easier again to not only create but also to publish. I say if you're making a movie check which genres are doing best if you wanna get your audience, or go for a niche that is in decline if you feel you can bring something new to the table. There are lots of other graphs to check out as well on the site, or even make your own.

If you are interested in learning more about data visualization there is an excellent film on Vimeo that I received via my old colleague Peter Hutton. The film describes how Journalists are starting to use these tools to research stories. Once we start to navigate information in new ways, new conclusions and discoveries begin. My feeling is that Good Data Visualization Designers are going to start creeping into every aspect of our lives. From our bank statements, tax reports, health reports to even our report cards from school [if you are still in school]. I say try making a simple data visual of some data block from your life and see what you discover about yourself. If you want some inspiration go check Nicholas Feltron and his beautiful personal year reports.

Journalism in the Age of Data from Geoff McGhee on Vimeo.

Related articles

• Google Expands Data Visualization To Europe (informationweek.com)
• Six Stunning Projects That Show the Power of Data Visualization (pbs.org)
• Where should an aspiring data journalist start? (onlinejournalismblog.com)
• ManyEyes is a Powerful Visualizer for Your Data [Data Visualization] (lifehacker.com)