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I was pretty excited back in in Q4 2008 when awarded an assignment to design an in vehicle motion graphics logo startup sequence with sound design for Lexus Enform – the cutting-edge new premium subscription telematics service available in all 2010 Lexus models.

This was a case of reverse-engineering logo design. Come up with a compelling 6 second futuristic 3D animation for Enform that plays upon startup of the vehicle, and back that into a logo for print using corporate colors. In a combined design project, over 400 logo variations were created, with several final rounds making their way to Toyota headquarters in Japan for reviews and approval.

The final “ribbon” concept that you see here recently made its debut in all new 2010 Lexus models. So, if you buy one, please let me know so I can check it out!

[ Click the image above to see the slideshow ]

In these stylized expanding video banners, users can explore three Lexus innovations per vehicle via hot spots and a building block nav. Featuring the entire Lexus fleet of twelve vehicles, these banners function more like a microsite. One of the many click-thru destinations is the Lexus Innovation section of Lexus.com.

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Don’t forget to  rollover to explore Lexus technology  so you can see my nifty transparent block wipe transitions.

I was pretty excited for a few weeks at the beginning of the summer. I had an opportunity to do some comps for Melissa Etheridge’s upcoming holiday release, A New Thought For Christmas (released 9/30/08). The theme was global peace and tolerance. I came up with an iconic solution, which I can’t say I’ve seen before. A simple, graphic Christmas tree made out of peace signs. Melissa saw my comps and was thrilled to choose this one for the cover. I was psyched to think that I could add this to my collection of rocking holiday CDs!

About six weeks later, I got the unfortunate news from the Island Records representative that they decided to go with something else. C’est la vie.

While I admit their design is quite nice, I think my design would have looked way cooler featured in the iTunes music store. What do you think?

L Studio, the broadband entertainment community that I designed for Lexus, launched its beta last week. What is L Studio? Here’s what Reuters news agency had to say…

“The carmaker is launching an Internet-only branded channel Tuesday (September 23) stocked with a full slate of original programing headlined by [Lisa] Kudrow [from Friends] in a shortform comedy series in which she plays a nutty shrink.

In an effort to keep the buzz going for the project, Lexus plans to recruit more celebrity contributors in the coming months. For now, the rest of L Studio is an eclectic mix of high-toned nonfiction programing that concerns everything from art to architecture to science. Some notable figures who are profiled on the site include the Doors’ Ray Manzarek and designer Patricia Field.

Taken together, the connective thread between the programing mix and the Lexus brand, Blanchard said, is the theme of innovation. “We kind of look at ourselves as a broadband HBO,” she said. “Being on broadband in and of itself is innovative for a lot of these artists.”

I can’t wait until it’s finished, and everything is running smoothly. Lisa Kudrow’s “Web Therapy” series is pretty damn funny! And so is Starlee and Arthur Review. Go check it out.

—– here’s a positive review of the content.

—– here’s an article from the Hollywood Reporter.

From the press release…

“Speedshape, Inc, with offices in Birmingham, MI and Venice, CA and providing services including CGI 3D/2d modeling, animation, virtual environments, VFX, motion, film, multimedia design, pre/post production, retouching, web design, digital asset management, distribution, closed captioning, and tagging has hired Nels Dielman as Sr. Creative Director.”

Wow. That is a mouthful. Stay tuned for updates.

Lexus vehicles have a well-deserved reputation for quality, dependability, and reliability. We needed to excite prospects by redefining the brand, so we introduced the concept of technological innovation inherent in each and every new Lexus vehicle.

While there are several ways to entice consumers to purchase a new vehicle, we had to identify attributes that would influence the user to choose a Lexus based on the features related to their world.

The new innovation section of Lexus.com uses a minimal, block world, with futuristic red toy cars in a fun and interactive demo environment to simplify the concept of some complex, innovative features.

What do you think about the Lexus Innovation Site?

If you have a very small monitor, please click here.

http://lexus.com/innovation

This image of two HTML emails I designed for L Studio was published as a teaser in the April 2008 issue of Lexus Magazine. So now I tease you in much the same way! L Studio is coming…

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

And a little bit of my band Urban Family Dog as soundtrack: “Pelham” from 3-Finger Charlie.

A friend alerted me today that there is a promo for the upcoming Lexus Innovation Website on the Imaginary Forces homepage (where I snaked this video).

In these stylized expanding banners for Lexus Innovation, you can attempt to park the car. Good luck with that! (nod, nod, wink, wink).

Don’t forget to mouseover to expand.

A little while ago, I did some interactive expanding ad banners for XM Nav Traffic with live traffic updating on the latest Lexus vehicles. You might run into the ads on some car enthusiast sites, or you can check out the message board, lederboard or skyscraper here. When the banner expands you can play with the sonar map to control the speed of travel. Some really cool randomizer programming makes the pretty shapes fly by. Fun stuff.

Wish I had XM Nav Traffic with live traffic updating on my car!