Future of Television.

First let me start out by describing what the current TV experience is today. Until now one must either have an DTV receiver or subscribe to a content provider such as Comcast, AT&T, Direct TV etc. Once subscribed the average TV viewer would either browse the TV guide and select shows to record and or watch them live. If you missed a show or forgot to record it, well you’re either going to have to wait until that particular show re-runs or you’re just out of luck. With the advances of Direct TV and U-Verse they have now introduced on-demand tv, with the option to rent movies, watch tv series with the click of a button. Features like U-Verse’s Multi-view (to see multiple channels at once), or the weather/local headline stores it has certainly enhanced the TV experience today. However in the near future this is all about to change.

Apple has the power to revolutionize the television industry with its recently released iOS 5 and iCloud platform, the TV experience as we know it today will be history. Imagine a TV that can interact with all of your iOS devices. Imagine having the power to pick and choose what you watch when you want, even if it hasn’t aired, without recording it. Imagine having the ability to download apps directly onto your TV to expand your viewing experience, speaking with a friend over face-time through the built-in camera and microphone in your TV, or using your iPhone or iPad as a wireless remote to control your TV or even to play games.

The Challenge.

There are many challenges that Apple must consider if they were to take on such a huge endeavor on competing with Direct TV, U-verse, etc.

1) A Subscription model similar to Spotify will need to be in place to make it worth while for cable/satellite subscribers to make the switch.

2) People are accustomed to watching Live TV and recording shows as they’re listed in the TV Guide. Apple will need to take the lead in creating a user interface that basically takes the traditional DVR TV guide to the next level. Here’s how it should work. Networks that signup to be a content provider within the iTunes Store will need to submit a playlist that Apple TV subscribers can play. These playlists would access the on-demand content within iTunes Store. Just like a TV Schedule is submitted to the cable/satellite provider, the playlist will be submitted to iTunes, allowing users to see that day’s suggested lineup. This should be a very visual experience, showing a combination of thumbnails, album art and descriptions. Users would be able to select any non-live show and play it at anytime within the chronological order that it would have aired on Live TV, however there no longer is the need to record it because its already in the library. For those who like to turn on the TV and walk away for background noise, they simply pick a network and press “play all”. This especially makes sense for TV shows that have been previously produced and uploaded to the iTunes Store.

3) Live show’s such as the 5 o’clock news, the Today show on NBC or that tv special that only airs once a year, those shows would simply be a live stream that would be available to be played once the network goes live. Live streams that air would then be immediately archived into the iTunes Cloud/Store available to play immediately. No more recording, no more missing shows waiting for re-runs. This all would happen between the network, and iTunes without the need of interaction from the viewer.

4) All content would be considered on demand. TV Shows, Movies, Music, Games, Apps etc. To address the argument that if it comes on TV, its “FREE”, Apple would have to work with content providers to allow iTunes Subscribers to access all TV Shows, Movies, Music Videos, Interviews etc an unlimited number of times, without an extra fee.

5) The end product must be a well designed Flat-panel LED TV with a Built-in Camera, Microphone, Wifi/Bluetooth that is completely wireless (with exception to the power cord.)

6) For Movie junkies high-quality sound is very important, so Air-Play support is a must to connect to Air-Play ready amplifiers, transmitting loss-less audio to their speakers seamlessly.

7) Content providers will have a hard time letting go control of advertisements and commercials in-between and during broadcasts, so there will need to be some strategic negotiations around incorporating iAd styled commercials within specific playlists or in front of certain content.

Apps and Gaming.

This opens up the door for Apple to open up the market for third-party apps for the “ten foot experience”. Apple has began to dominate the mobile gaming market through its App Store on Mobile Devices. The iOS based TV would allow for developers to create productivity apps for the TV that would be controlled by your iPhone or iPad using a companion app. Apple must develop Apps like video conferencing, Facebook or even an action packed game that takes advantage of the built-in multitouch surface for keyed input, microphone for voice commands using Siri, accelerometer, and gyroscope for gaming controls and gestures. In future releases Apple would utilize the built in camera to have XBOX Kinect like features, thus removing the need for a traditional control altogether.

Timetable and Placement for Success.

With the news of Sharp Corp. to supply LCD Panels for Apple’s next iPad, I speculate that within the next 2-5 years Apple will make updates to the Apple TV before they eventually discontinue the product in hopes to increase sales of a speculated Sharp Corp based TV set. Apple must continually increase their license agreements between content providers to keep a large variety of content readily available on-demand, based on whatever networks potentially plan to air on traditional TV.

Conclusion

Apple has a track record of first dreaming of ‘what is possible’ and then convincing the consumer that their dream is precisely what the consumer has always wanted. I believe Apple can and will have the same influence on television of the future.

Tweet

From the outset of the project we focused on how we could incorporate the already established brand equity of the at-symbol, into a unique and easily recognizable design. The at-symbol has the obvious connection with an email address, and so the client specified the need to retain that element. The goal was to find a design that would allow the observer to make the mental connection with email and communication, without relying on the at-symbol any more. As a side effect, it also caused a lot of confusion on what the proper name of the company was: @mail or Atmail?

In the concepts that are displayed here you can easily tell that we set out to find a pleasing way of combining both letters into one letter shape. The earliest concept show a rather awkward execution of that, but when we reached the center concept, there was that spark! Drawing on the loop that encircles the letter a, we drew up a similar looking design, this time integrating the letter t, into the loop. And doing it in a way that makes sure the name is spelled correctly. This concept really hit home with the client, only wanting to see some alternative for the typeface that was chosen.

As soon as the client decided on the concept featuring the typeface Neo Tech, we moved on to implementing the design in the standard branding pieces, like envelopes, business cards and letterhead. Featured here are the latter two. The bright blue has been broken up with transparent instances of the rounded rectangular shape, to create an interesting visual stimulant. Altogether, this project was a great success for both us and the client. We were able to update and align the brand with what Atmail is all about: providing next-generation communication technology to over 16 million users.

Special Thanks to Marc Roman, Identity Strategist, Eighty8Four, for taking the Creative Lead on this project.

- Mike Gonzalez

Entrepreneur Avenue (EA) is soon to be “The Most-Trusted, Premiere Marketplace for Entrepreneurs”. We provide strategic and practical guidance to entrepreneurs in the many aspects of starting, owning and exiting a business. Entrepreneur Avenue provides a global marketplace of products and services framed by the highest standards and level of excellence. EA is a subsidiary of Light Point Holdings Corp.

Testimonial
“In our business, I hold every stakeholder, employee and sub-contractor to a high level of excellence. Eighty8Four is the only creative firm that lived up to the level of excellence required to produce successful results. My experience with them has been priceless and I highly recommend their creative expertise.” — Robert W Wells, President & Principal of Entrepreneur Avenue, Inc

Another successful brand, and a happy client. Special Thanks to Anthony Lane, Identity Strategist, Eighty8Four, for taking the Creative Lead on this project.

Michael Gonzalez – Founder + Creative Strategist
With a passion for perfection, self-taught, Florida native entrepreneur, Mike founded Enhanced Labs in 2004 at the age of 16 while studying business and design in high school. Since then he as been designing icons, user interfaces, custom web presences for a wide range of industries. Mike continues to develop strategies to grow Eighty8Four | Creative and its sister Venture Firm Harborside Holdings Group. Twitter: @enhanced

Marc Roman – Identity Strategist
Nine years ago at an early age Marc always was doodling, which transitioned into his passion of graphic design. Self-taught, and 23 years of age, he is still expanding his horizons learning how to work with Cinema 4D. Outside of designing, Marc loves to travel an enjoys watching TV, music, whipping up a big bowl of tagliatelle carbonara, and sharing that with his friends over a glass of wine. Twitter:@conceived

Michael (Ryan) Stacey – UX Lead + Front End Designer
Former Enhanced Labs intern, joining the creative force in April of 2009, Ryan with his creative thinking keeps the team right on target. Outside of his daily tasks here, Ryan is the backbone to an up and coming venture firm, Harborside Holdings Group which is a sister company of Eighty8Four. He is activity pursing ways to enable small businesses and individuals to have a foundation to their ventures.

Anthony Lane – Identity Strategist
Eighty8Four Welcomes Anthony Lane to the Creative Team! Full Bio coming soon…@AnthonyLane

Philipp Antoni – UX Designer
Born and raised in Austria, Philipp Antoni is known by his pixel-perfect designs for Microsoft Office 2008 for Mac. Philipp continues to work with our team in providing his undivided attention to every thing his hands touch. Twitter: @PhilippAntoni

Henri Liriani – UX Designer
With four years of experience and not a day older than 20, based in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, Henri enjoys Junk food, Soft Leather and devising icon and interface concepts that are uncompromising in execution. Twitter: @henriliriani

Manuel Sanches – Icon Designer
With over six years of experience and faster than light, San Diego, California based, Manuel enjoys old foreign movies, music and in his free time he loves to shoot photos. Manuel handles a wide range of design tasks from high-resolution icons for on-screen use, to intricately designed, pixel perfect toolbar icons for Desktop and iPhone applications.

Eighty8Four goes through very intense screening and auditioning processes turning down what most would say are “really good” designers, simply because they weren’t good enough. With that said all of our team exceeds our expectations in showing passion for each and every project. Executing a very high level of detail for each pixel, and in-depth understanding of the Apple’s Human User Interface Guidelines as well as designing websites that continue to innovate the W3/XHTML/CSS standards.

Oh, and feel free to Follow us on Twitter @eighty8four

“Supercar Experience will elaborate on an already successful concept and expand its entertaining formula to further entice connoisseurs, enthusiasts and supercar owners from around the world.”

Our main contact, and long time client, co-founder of Supercar Experience Inc, John Temerian, UX Strategist, Ryan Stacey, Marc Roman our Identity Strategist and Creative Strategist, Mike Gonzalez sat down and outlined the vision for the new brand. After a few creative sessions this project quickly evolved into a very exciting project that consisted of Event Maps, Postal Mailers, Magazine Advertisements, VIP Materials, Sponsorship Brochures, Billboard Designs and Email-Marketing Campaigns.

Old Brand/New Brand

Old Promotional Material/New Promotional Material

Later after a successful launch of the brand we suggested a solid idea of a total website Makeover to cary over the cohesiveness of the newly developed Brand & Campaign.

Here is an example of the out-of-date OLD Supercar Homepage.
Home Page
Blog

Outlined in the Makeover, we proposed a national website for all of the events for 2010 which includes Palm Beach, FL, New Orleans, LA, and Hamptons, NY. Eight-weeks of design, code, creative sessions and this was the final result.

New Home Page and Blog

Special Credit to Enta USA for handling the templating and code for the Ticket System.

Be sure to take a look at the new Supercar ExperienceWebsite and checkout the Palm Beach Event, we’ll be there!

In Winter of 2005 Icon Designers Michael Gonzalez & Philipp Antoni designed 20 christmas themed icons for release. Since its release the icon set has had over 50,000 downloads and has been featured on many christmas print material, blogs and websites. Back by popular demand, we’re making The Real Christmas Available for download on our website as a treat for you and friends on this christmas season.

Download Now: Mac | PNGs | Windows

Whether you are actively involved with your branding or not, the fact of the matter is that your target market, and far beyond that, is already well aware of  who you are, what you do, and what you have to offer; without you even having to say a word, or hand out a brochure. This idea, of how people perceive your brand, is what branding is all about. Although logo designs are the most ubiquitous example of branding, every form of interaction your clients have with your brand can be considered part of your branding. This explains the importance of realizing that an all-encompassing philosophy lies at the core of a successful brand; from your letterhead design, the music callers hear while on hold, to the way you and your employees address your clients.

Because branding represents all the aspects of your brand, e.g. your business or product, it is of the highest importance that the expectations of the client are in sync with what you or the product will be delivering. When designing a brand philosophy, we very much aim to create a style that perfectly reflects the brand in question. To make sure expectations are met and that there is still plenty of room for growth, in the years to come. As companies and products evolve over time, it is good to regularly consider if the brand values that once were devised, are still properly representing the actual company or product. Should that not be the case, a re-alignment of the brand can take the base elements of your brand, and update them to make sure that the perceived qualities of your business match up with your business’ core values. Re-alignment is usually your best option, especially if your product or business has experienced organic growth, not deviating too far from your starting brand.

Revolutionary change however demands a different approach altogether: rebranding. For instance, in the matter of two businesses merging, you want to consider where the power balance will be. Is it equally shared, or will the smallest of the two lose its identity all together? These are important questions to consider. Also in cases not involving a merger, when a business or product fundamentally has changed, a rebranding would be the better option. In either approach, what lies at the core is the same: making sure your values match up with your brand’s values.

Whether times are good or bad, it is always wise to take a step back, and take a good look at how you are perceived by your customers, and more importantly, how you want to be perceived. By utilizing the power of branding, you can effectively, for instance, increase your market share, attract a different type of customer, or make sure you stay true to your most loyal clients. By good use of branding, you can make sure your unique selling points are well known for your clients, and far beyond that. As the branding strategist at Eighty8Four, my goal is to create brands that fully embody all that your business is about.

One of the many things we are introducing is a Creative Strategy Session. What is a “Creative Strategy Session”? Well I’m glad you asked, simply put, a Creative Strategy Session is another word for “Design Project”. This is where we as a team work closely with you to design and develop your vision, your project. With our expertise in branding, web, and user interface design – we’re now offering the ability to provide our undivided attention to your project and dedicate our team in helping you create the next BIG thing in your industry.

You’ll also notice that we’ve launched something we call the “Design Partnership Program” or DPP. The DPP is a program we have developed to allow entrepreneurs with great ideas, and smaller budgets to get high-quality design services with little up-front costs. You may ask, why would you do something like this? Understanding that good ideas take time to be profitable, we have developed agreements that allow you to pay for our work as you make money. We’re excited to announce that we will be taking project submissions for the program starting in January 2010.

Stay tuned to the website to see what we roll out. Oh, and Happy Thanksgiving!