Tomato

Last Wednesday turned out to be a very long day for me, but very worth it in the end. A few classes and one dinner with friends later, I finally found my way (with the help of a classmate's GPS system) to the Downtown Independent Theatre on Main St. A sold out event, the evening began with free food and drinks accompanied by busy conversations amongst the students and designers. A perfect chance to network and catch up with friends. At about 8PM we shuffled into our seats, ready to begin.

An evening with Tomato (a design company in the U.K.) was presented by three members: Michael Horsham, Dylan Kendle, and John Warwicker-- two of the three showed. Tomato works with commercial, exhibitions, film, and music. Here is an excellent collage of some of the work they have accomplished over the years, and also happened to be the first video we viewed that night:

Tomato Graphics Video


As I was watching the video, I was already blown away by how fluid each project was of all that they had been working on. Each project was different, yet Tomatos character was definitely present in each one of them. What hit me the most was that Tomato almost always uses organic shapes in their work. Two examples are TV Asahi and AOL. Both use shape, color, and sound in seemingly always altered forms. Tomato explores the reaction that music has to digital art, and also the reaction to movement through digital images. One example of this is TV Asahi.




photo source: http://www.tomato.co.uk/#tv-asahi/

The images on this billboard, set up on the side of a building, react to the movement of cars driving by. In turn, their commercial has a man or a woman saying "TV Asahi" which causes the graphics in the commercial (composed of long crystal-like colored shapes) to react to the sound of their voice. Funny that here in the U.S. we now have a few billboards that can show moving pictures as well (movie, theme park, television show) and many people find this to be a big breakthrough in advertising. That idea has already been taken to the next level, as you can see here. Another bold idea for advertising is Tomato's use of color for a company. Take a look at this short video for AOL: http://www.tomato.co.uk/#aol/
Most people know that AOL's color is blue, yet this video (and others) invites different colors to enter into the identity of AOL--of course, always ending with the blue logo. Why not do that here? Would other companies be willing to take that leap? Would we?

Something that they said during the Q&A really stuck with me, and I've been carrying it in the back of my mind ever since "...thought to form." Isn't that what we should be doing in this course? Using our minds and senses to bring thoughts to paper, computer, and beyond.