Special Creativity - Web design, art, Google and your business: November 2015

Tuesday 24 November 2015

Virtual Tourism, the Sistine Chapel from your armchair

Well, it still never ceases to amaze me just how well travelled we can be without leaving our home. An internet connection is all we need and we can be a virtual tourist.

The world is responding to our desire for imagery whether that is for shopping or visiting tourist spots or seeing virtual exhibitions. Here’s a small collection of museum and art exhibitions from very well know locations around the world.

Starting with a real exhibition at the Fundacion MAPFRE in Barcelona. The exhibition is called The Triumph of Colour. From Gauguin to Matisse. It features paintings from the collections of the Musee d’Orsay and the Musee de l’Orangerie and runs until 10th Jan 2016. It’s a pity that it’s not on an HTTPS server so click on the image below and a new page will open. When you find a ‘+’ sign this means you can see the painting close up, and look for other icons to find written and audio commentaries. Explore and see what you think. (It’s in Spanish, I did look for other language versions but I could not find any).

Fundacion MAPFRE Barcelona Virtual Tour

Next here’s a Google Street View tour of the Orangerie Museum in Paris from way back in Dec 2011. Pretty cool for those days and still excellent today, it’s one of my favourite exhibitions in Paris. It’s on a HTTPS server so just click on the image embedded below and move around and zoom.

And finally for some real funky stuff, we have The Sistine Chapel at the Vatican in Rome. There is so much detail here, it’s just amazing. The controls are quite ‘sensitive’ and I can easily end up with the picture spinning, but my goodness, it is so beautiful. Again it’s not HTTPS so this will open another window, but with such high resolution you can forgive anything. [Post edit: Please note this tour is in 'Flash' which is not supported by Apple iPhone or iPad which means it will not work on these. You need to access this on other devices and non-mobile devices such as desktop or laptop. It would be worth the Vatican re-engineering this into a non-Flash version to be accessible to so many more people. I think it's worth it].

The Sistine Chapel, at the Vatican Rome, Virtual tour

There’s plenty more to come with virtual reality, watch that space….virtual or otherwise

Go and explore on line.

www.sciarts.co.uk

http://www.sciarts.co.uk/GTP/GTP.html

Monday 23 November 2015

Perfect for your Christmas Presents!

This place is just perfect for your Christmas presents and stocking fillers. Or at any time really. Takes me back…

Jacksons Models in Wigton, (specialists in model railways and diecast models) the place to spend a while…

Click on the image above and move about the premises.

Jackson Models before the Google Tour on an iPad

Jackson Models AFTER the Google Tour on an iPad. LOVELY.

What a difference a day makes!

www.sciarts.co.uk

http://www.sciarts.co.uk/GTP/GTP.html

Monday 9 November 2015

Jewellery by Michael King, photography and Google virtual tours

Following on from our previous post, we were delighted to do some photography for Michael King Jewellery including a Google Virtual Tour, which we start with here. Try clicking and dragging on the first image below.

Jewellery by Michael King

Jewellery is one of the most complex and difficult areas of photography, due to reflections on polished surfaces and facets in the jewels themselves. Special lighting helps, but mainly it’s experience plus a fair helping of time and patience to get it absolutely right. We think it’s worth it!

Jewellery by Michael King

Michael King has been commissioned for ceremonial crosses for bishops and Elizabeth II, items for films and many other unique pieces of jewellery. They have recently made the designer pieces for the House of Holland consumer experience on the catwalk – see our earlier post.

Jewellery by Michael King, signature piece

Here’s some more of my favourite shots.

Jewellery by Michael King

Of course we did a Google tour, which you can find for yourself on Google and Google Maps, and now they are presented like this on the web when you search for Michael King Jewellery (for example using an iPad below).

A vast improvement to what went before, I think you will agree (below).

A pleasure and a privilege to have worked with Jewellery by Michael King. Thank you.

www.sciarts.co.uk

Smart jewellery, wearable tech and Henry Holland

When is wearable tech really cool?

The answer; when it’s a Henry Holland fashion statement.

It all started with a teaser from Henry Holland of House of Holland ‘to create a consumer experience as part of a catwalk presentation showcase’. See Henry Hollands YouTube teaser

When you take your debit card and just wave it at a screen in order to purchase something, you are already doing something pretty smart.

And the ring in question @HouseOfHolland #VECollabCatwalk #HOHSS16 #LFW2015 #LFW pic.twitter.com/R8wTBES6Op
— Visa Europe Collab (@VECollab) September 19, 2015

But imagine if you could make a purchase simply with the wave of your hand using a pendant, a ring, a bracelet or just a cuff on your jacket then you can immediately satisfy even the most hardened of shoppers desires.

See now, buy now. Contactless payments.

It’s called NFC or near field communication. In simple terms you bring your special piece of jewellery towards what you want to purchase and hey presto you’ve bought it. London fashion week SS16 was buzzing with wearable purchasing technology in various forms.

It was demonstrated most beautifully by Henry Holland using wearable tech rings that allowed a purchase, in this case, by Alexa Chung and Daisy Lowe, of items being worn by models on the catwalk.

We’ve been involved with a photographic project with the company that made the special designer rings for the catwalk show…..more on that later. The jewellery for the catwalk was colourful and oversized in order to be seen. Henry Holland calls his wearable designs ‘connected jewellery’.

Originally devised as a project by Visa Europe Collab, this was to test the feasibility for consumers and it went down a storm.