I guarantee that you will love this video. For a high-def, albeit briefer, version, visit Capacity’s site.

Although it is tons of fun and entertaining to watch, what is most compelling is the huge leap forward displayed here in the notion of what a logo and a brand can mean. Conventional ideas of brand identity, shaped by decades of emblems and tag lines, still seem to confine it to a word mark or a glyph. This campaign demonstrates how much more fertile ground there is (for the right brand, of course) to define and display the vibrancy of their identity.

The idea is that Cartoon Network is a palette of characters (the Noods) who interact – and not just a cable chanel with an animated bug in the corner of the screen. It is brought vividly to life by first showing us cute but featureless dolls who are then injected with personality by pops and bursts of color and motion. The brand is alive. It is interactive, fun, and playful. (Of course the phenomenal soundtrack plays a key role). Try and get that message across with a logo and a tag line.

For more background and analysis, a good write up from CartoonNothing:

The latest jewel in [LA-based Capacity's] crown is a massive rebrand for Cartoon Network built around Noods, blank Dunny-esque figures created by the crew at Kidrobot. Props to CN for dreaming up such a clever, collaborative concept.

Capacitys CN montage starts off in a minimal white space but builds in complexity and vibrancy as more characters, environments and seasons are introduced. [...] Yoda reducing General Grievous to a puddle of paint [is] a clever way to deconstruct the underlying concept of the rebrand.

The frenetic soundtrack (also created by Capacity) tinges the entire montage with a playful 8-bit tone and moves things forward with a cheery optimism befitting such a grand undertaking.

I might have to rip that soundtrack into an MP3.

Here we have a conceptual version of Ford’s second generation Sync system, to debut next week at the Detroit auto show.

Beyond the flawless voice recognition capaciy, there are two striking things about this video.

First, the natural language the model uses to control the SYNC system. The ability to use voice commands without necessarily utilizing specific code words is a vast leap forward that really can move this technology from the hyper-focused capacity it now occupies, to a vast frontier of mobile applications. Delivery drivers and iPhone tools are two that pop to mind.

Second, the example shown in this video exemplifies how new cars are transforming from transportation tools to a pseudo-office, with all the comforts, tools, and connectivity we once associated with a luxurious office space. It seems that in this new age driving is, uhh, taking a back seat.

Apple was, of course, the big news in the technology world today. Most inspiring of the product updates was iLife 09. Specifically, iPhoto has added some powerful new features to enable users to organize and find photos in their library. The new tools, Faces and Places (in addition to Events, from ‘08) bring new, better ways of organizing and finding your pictures.

The fact that they tie into your Facebook and Flickr accounts, and use built in geo-tagging to support these functions, is icing on the cake. But for a designer, these features are case studies in the profound impact of user-oriented information architecture (or Domain Language, as Paul describes it in his fantastic post over at 37signals). From the post:

A domain language is the set of words that reflect the way you cut up a domain. It consists of the pieces you sliced and the names you chose to give them. This language defines an application and makes it special.

Rather than stick with the old, tried and true – but ultimately dysfunctional – means of organizing pictures (roll and album) the new iPhoto app uses location, face recognition, and of course Events to cull together these artifacts in ways that are meaningful to people, rather than databases.

Each chance we have to examine and perhaps create IA (or domain language) for a new website or other app, we have the same chance to truly examine the way people think of the products or tools they’ll be using, and to ensure – or at least try – to make our language fit the way they think of things, and not the other way around.

Ubiquity for Firefox from Aza Raskin on Vimeo.

Mozilla labs blows minds with this mold-breaking, innovative, and nearly genius addition to the browser kingdom: Ubiquity. As they describe it,

Enable on-demand, user-generated mashups with existing open Web APIs. (In other words, allowing everyone (not just Web developers) to remix the Web so it fits their needs, no matter what page they are on, or what they are doing.)

This is an alpha 0.1 release, so I am sure we can expect a few bugs, and sure the interface is less than perfect, but the ability to simply and intuitively do things like: add a map to email; map a selection of housing listings from craigslist; or insert selected items into an email, is so powerful and so useful, that Ubiquity is already, even in this 0.1 alpha stage, remarkable.

Download it or read more from Aza here.

Seth Godin had a great post today about designing for users who just don’t get it:

Great design is intuitive. Great design eliminates confusion. But not for everyone, not all the time. The words and interactions you use often have a sophistication that will confuse some portion of your audience.

One  of the constant tensions I deal with, as a designer for a corporate behemoth, is my innate desire to push boundaries vs. the common-sense practicality that rules our culture. Of course, we do take chances on occasion, but the bulk of our daily work is spent making incremental changes. Add a link. Refine the masthead. Remove a disclaimer. … Et cetera.

When projects of a grander scale do arise, there is often a broad sense of wonderment. But inevitably, at some point, novel design conepts are watered down. Could be at the governance review, could be after a usability assesment, or maybe the product manager is concerned that users wont ‘get’ the new features.

Sometimes, though, isn’t that a good sign? Think back years ago, to the first time you rode a bike. It was hard. It took lots of failure before you figured it out. But then, the magical moment occurred, and BLAU! you were riding your bike. And how terrific bicycles are: a place for all your extremities, a place to sit, and never in need of refueling. But. It was hard to get going.

Good designs can be a challenge at first. Heck, I have had to learn how to use my new iPhone. But once you get to understand how to use your contact list, or to save photos to the phone, it is a snap.

In other words, it is ok to have a learning curve. It is ok if not everybody can use an interface flawlessly, immediately. Yes, you may loose a few users. But if the design functions intuitively and easily for most of your audience, then you are creating a great experience for those users. When we dumb things down, or design for the ‘LCD‘ as we used to say, you often lose the magic and fun of a great new design.