One Show Interactive, Volume 15

ISBN: 9780929837550

One Show Interactive Volume 15 published by Rockport is one of many in the successful series on interaction design. Simply put the One Show Interactive series is the best visual reference guide as to what’s hot in interaction design and this title doesn’t disappoint. For those unfamiliar with the series One Show Interactive is an annual world-wide competition for graphic/interactive designers and animators to submit their best portfolio pieces. The pieces are judged by an expert panel which this year consisted of 30 expert judges. One Show Interactive Volume 15 showcases all these 2012 winning entries in all their glory and might.

For those who want to know a little bit more about the goals behind One Show, below is a quote from their website:

The One Club exists to champion and promote excellence in advertising and design in all its forms. It is the world’s foremost non-profit organization devoted to elevating creative work in the industry. It seeks to celebrate the legacy of creative advertising and to use that legacy to inspire future generations. The One Club is the ‘keeper of the flame’ for advertising creatives. The One Show remains the pinnacle of achievement by providing a showcase of the world’s best work, and by inviting collaboration among individuals who are actively developing outstanding work. And finally, The One Club exists to inspire clients to seek the rewards that come with calculated risks and new ideas. As long as great ideas are allowed to take form, The One Club will continue to exist to encourage and promote them.

There really isn’t too much to talk about when it comes to One Show Interactive. It is filled with gorgeous large images page after page split up into the gold, silver and bronze prize sections. Each image has a background on the artist/designer and most importantly there are small blurbs for each design entry written by the author of the works. These blurbs really help put the designs in context and detail information on the background of the design and some of the key challenges. These give a great insight into the projects and really add value to the design as if this information wasn’t available one would often be very confused on what is going on in some of these experimental designs.

One can find a variety of different media tupes from websites, banner ads, gaming and apps for phones and tablets which keeps the book fresh. There are some very successful campaigns featured many I am sure you will recognise from television and magazine advertisements or on your local app store. There is a good mixture of large corporates to smaller indie works which is nice to see. One of the greatest trend in this book has been the rise in social media with some of the designs actually being social media profiles and campaigns, for example the AT&T social profile pages designed by BBDO New York. The rise of apps or ‘appification’ as it is known is certainly not going away with many entries having websites, apps, and television to supplement their offerings.

There are some beautiful graphics which I am sure will inspire any prospect designers, advertisers, students and people who just love digital technology. One thing I like about this series is yes you can use it as a picture book, but if one explores further into the title you will find heaps of good support material online. For example there are youtube videos in the book which simply have a screen capture, so it’s a no-brainer to crank open your computer and check out the whole thing. Likewise with the websites and apps it can be difficult to comprehend this interaction and activity on 2d pages, so it is worth exploring these designs to the full.

This leads me onto my consistent criticism of this book is that it should be turned into a movie, or be presented on a website or an app to best showcase some of these designs; of course there is a lot of expense in this. However this title holds onto the high benchmark of great quality imagery presenting some awesome designs. For anyone in this industry especially in the advertising industry this book is a must.

[rating:4]