It’s Nike day! There are five Nike sites competing as finalists in the current Flashforward Film Festival, and today we profile all of them.

The final entry is a double feature: Commerce versus Commerce, Nike Versus Nike, AKQA versus AKQA, San Francisco versus London. Who will triumph?

Neither finalist submitted an artist’s statement so we’ll let the sites speak for themselves…

Category: Commerce

Finalist: Nike Women: Tribes

URL: awards.sf.akqa.com/creative/nikewomen_fa05/home.html

Creators: AKQA San Francico & Nike Collaboration Project.
Bob Pullam: Creative Director
Dan Caporole: Flash Developer
Jennifer Kellogg: Art Director
Peter Cole: Director, Creative Development
Shira Bogart: Copywriter
Stas Udotov: Motion Designer
Terry lee: Flash Developer

Category: Commerce

Finalist: Nike Free Europe

URL: www.nikefree.com

Creators: Developed by the Creative Development and Nike teams at AKQA (London)
Flash: Rick Williams, Andy Foulds
Design: Duan Evans, Masaya Nakade
Video: Stephen Clements
Technical: Matthew Elwin
Managed by: James Jenkins

It’s Nike day! There are five Nike sites competing as finalists in the current Flashforward Film Festival, and today we will profile all of them…

Category: Video

Finalist: Nike Rockstar Workout Hip Hop

URL: rga.com/award/rockstar.html

Creators:
Senior Producer: Jennifer Allen
Art Director: Jerome Austria
Copywriter: Michael Spiegel
Interaction Designer: Fura Johannesdottir
Designers: Thamrongphut Korad, Phil Lubliner, Kenji Shimomura
Programmers: Noel Billig, Michael McLoughlin, Kumi Tominaga
QA: August Yang
Client: Dorinda Ross
Nike Agency: R/GA

Artists’ Statement: The idea was to inspire women worldwide to express themselves through dance—and to showcase Nike’s Fitness Dance Collection.

Nike Rockstar Workout Hip Hop invited users to “step into the music video” with the global pop star Rihanna and celebrity choreographer Jamie King. The interactive music video premiered Rihanna’s hit single “SOS (Rescue Me)”. Users could pause the video at any time and learn the moves directly from Jamie King. They could shop all the dancers’ outfits, download and blog the video and the instructional moves, or send it to a friend.

The video was a technical breakthrough for the Web. It was shot in HD and directed specifically for optimal presentation online. We offered a high-bandwidth Flash 8 version, which allowed for fast download and the highest-quality video.

To further build brand awareness, we added a Dance Personality Quiz. It let users discover their dance personality: are they Old Skool, Krumpalicious, or Too Cool? The quiz featured freestyle moves from the video, and included all the shopping and viral functionality of the music video.

The Nike Rockstar Workout Hip Hop feature brought over a million new users to the site. It generated a consistent buzz among dozens of blogs worldwide and even inspired users to contribute their own “SOS” dance videos to YouTube and iFilm.com.

It’s Nike day! There are five Nike sites competing as finalists in the current Flashforward Film Festival, and today we will profile all of them…

Category: 3D

Finalist: Nike AirMax Celebration

URL: www.method.com/nike_airmax

Creators: Method Team: Kevin Farnham, Chief Executive Officer; Robert Murdock, Design Director; Manny Tan, Design Technology; Clancy Nolan, Project Manager; and Baykal Askar, Designer Nike (Client) Team: Cody Cupper, Art Director; Cory Hansen, Writing Director; David Odusanya, Creative Director Willow Casella, Writer; Liz Christensen, Production Director; and Pam Garrison, Producer

Artists’ Statement: The design of this web site, according to Site Developer Manny Tan, involved extensive exploration of three-dimensional forms in a two-dimensional environment.

“Finding interesting ways to work with the concept of air,” says Design Director Robert Murdock, was most enjoyable. “We had fun experimenting with the various metaphors such as glass containers and floating motion to evoke the feeling of air in a subtle way,” he says. “Many of these ideas made it into the final piece.” It was a particular challenge to promote a series of shoes with such a legacy, but that very legacy is what Murdock found most inspiring. “We didn’t want the design and elements you interact with to overpower the shoes and their story,” he says. “I think this approach led us to take a fairly restrained approach to the design.” Tan found the shoes’ history compelling as well. “The notion of each shoe being a precious commodity, something that has been preserved (in a glass case) over time and finally made available to the viewing public, like in an art gallery,” he says, fueled his creative engine. “We strive to keep interaction design intuitive and playful,” says Murdock. “I think that comes through in this project.”

It’s Nike day! There are five Nike sites competing as finalists in the current Flashforward Film Festival, and today we will profile all of them…

Category: Online Application

Finalist: Nike +

URL: www.nikeplus.com

Creators:
Creative Directors: Nick Law, Kris Kiger, Richard Ting
Interaction Director: Jill Nussbaum
Interaction Designer: Joe Tobens, Matt Walsh
Copy Director: Joshua Bletterman
Copywriter: Alison Hess, Michael Spiegel
Visual Designers: Natalie Lam, Ed Kim, Jeff Baxter, Gui Borchert, Gary VanDzura, Michael Reger, Elena Sakevich, Wade Convay, Kirill Yeretsky, Mark Voelpel
Executive Technical Director: Sean Lyons
Technical Director: Nick Coronges
Server-side Developers: Michael Piccuirro, Stan Wiechers
Flash Developers: Michael Mosley, Ben Sosinski, Noel Billig, Aaron Ambrose, Geoffrey Roth, John Tubert, William Lee
QA Engineers: August Yang, Michele Roman, Nauman Hafiz
Executive Producer: Matt Howell
Senior Producer: Daniel Jurow
Producer: Brock Busby
Associate Producer: David Ross
Client: Bryan Finke, Roberto Tagliabue, Sara Nigbor
Nike Agency: R/GA

Artists’ Statement: Nike+ was born as a multi-channel, multi-sensory marriage of Apple and Nike technologies. We were brought in on the ground floor to create the product’s Web experience, and the entire data spec for how Nike running shoes speak to Apple iPod® nanos which sync with iTunes in turn sending your personal workout data to the Web.

The toughest creative challenge was establishing and maintaining a sense of simplicity. With a seemingly complex product, we had to create an immediately resonant experience for a broad target market, from geeked-out marathoners to everyday fitness joggers.

We had to start with Nike+ music and workout data and open up a world of motivation, competition, connection, and fun—all through the online experience at nikeplus.com. Through the combined efforts of our world-class technical and creative talent, we built a robust platform of virtual racing, progress tracking, motivational goals and stories, and global community comparison tools, which take the Nike+ product experience far beyond just a shoe or an iPod.

We conceived and executed the visual, architectural, tonal and programmatic standards that defined what Nike+ is… and will become.

In this podcast, Lynda interviews Daniel Schutzsmith, who will present the session “The Business of Flash” at Flashforward2006 Austin. He and Lynda discuss some of the same subjects Dan will be covering in his session: the traps creative professionals fall into when managing the business side of their client relationships, advice on contracts and intellectual property issues, which project management tools are worth using, and more.

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