FriendsWithYou – a unique creative think-tank that does everything from fine art to large-scale experiential installations and interactive events to public playgrounds, directorial work, live performances, animation and multimedia projects, branding and licensing – came to Boulder web engineering company Quick Left for an update to the look and feel of their website. FWY's previous site relied heavily on Flash to communicate their playful nature with sound design and animation, but the lack of Flash support on smart phones was a challenge they wanted to overcome. Additionally, they wanted to update their storefront to accommodate a growing customer base and ever-expanding product line. Quick Left's challenge was to utilize standards-based markup to create an equally interactive and playful website that could be seen across more platforms.

The FriendsWithYou site has three major components. First, it has a custom content management system that allows FWY to add and update content without having to know complex markup or code. The second major component is a highly customized Magento integration. Magento is a feature-rich open source ecommerce platform that allows FriendsWithYou to expand their online commerce presence. The third (and most fun) major component is the front-end markup which utilizes html 5, CSS 3 and jQuery to create a rich interactive experience without using Flash. Some of this was new territory for Quick Left and they've told us it was exciting to have a client who was as excited as they were to delve into uncharted territory.

Ingrid (@electromute) and Collin (@collinschaafsma) will be at SXSW Interactive this week. If you feel like saying hello while you're there, hit them up on Twitter.

The Cranbrook Academy of Art is hosting a zine and poster show at the forum gallery on their campus. Anyone and everyone is welcome to submit work, which will be exhibited on the event's website during the installation period and will remain active for the following year. Deadline, contact and other details can be found on the event website.

Florence is the shamanic leader of a surreal orchestra where spiritual elation explodes into smokey psychedelic anarchy. Each musical element of the song is personified by a group of colorful characters that combine 60’s girl groups, Hinduism, gospel choirs, drum circles, paganism and pyrotechnics. Florence is a painted primal force of nature that whips a religious experience into a riot.

Directed by Georgie Greville and Geremy Jasper of LEGS.

Florence and the Machine "DOG DAYS ARE OVER" Music Video from LEGS MEDIA on Vimeo.

John McCain announced that he's running for re-election to his Senate seat in 2010 in Arizona. And with that announcement came a new brand identity. Make you hungry to vote for him? (Sorry, that was dumb.)

Get the deets on Brand New.

What do you think of the angle Reebok's taken for their EasyTone shoes? You know the ones that give you the ass of a supermodel just by walking around in them? To us, the strategy seems good, but the ad seems to be lacking.

Euro RSCG, Duesseldorf was asked by STIHL to create a business gift promoting their product range of leaf blowers. But it had to be something, by client request, that had never been seen before. They invented the Autumn Calendar 2010 – a calendar that runs from September 23 - December 21 and automatically drops its calendar pages as the days pass. Effin' Brilliant. Hand them every important ad award in the book now, please.

Via