News / Digital

Black Friday reimagined as nightmarish VR experience by Wieden+Kennedy

Words by Jenny Brewer, Friday 25 November 2016

Wieden-kennedy-black-friday-shopageddon-vr2 — Wieden+Kennedy London: Shopageddon

Wieden+Kennedy London has created Shopageddon, a nightmarish VR experience based on Black Friday. “We’ve taken the worst of the digital and physical worlds and merged them together, on your face,” explains the agency.

Designed for a mobile browser to be used with a VR headset, the Shopageddon site imagines what future online shopping might look like. “Your retinas are about to experience an onslaught of consumer goods,” the agency warns, and that’s no exaggeration. Boxes emblazoned with product logos and advertising are thrown at you incessantly for a 60-second period, recreating the frenzied stress of the Black Friday sales.

Then at the end of the sequence it tells you “Your eyes added these items to your shopping list,” and gives you a selection of the products you’ve supposedly looked at for the longest, so you can buy them.

Purposely intense and hectic, the satirical project is a prototype produced by the agency as a result of experimentation with VR technology.

“We’ve been experimenting with VR, making random things, and trying to figure out what it might all mean beyond entertainment,” says Iain Tate, ECD at Wieden+Kennedy London. “Last week we built this odd shopping experience as a rough proof of concept. And there’s only one moment appropriate to launch such an OTT shopping experience – Black Friday”.

Wieden-kennedy-black-friday-shopageddon-vr-6 — Wieden+Kennedy London: Shopageddon

Wieden-kennedy-black-friday-shopageddon-vr-3 — Wieden+Kennedy London: Shopageddon

Wieden-kennedy-black-friday-shopageddon-vr-4 — Wieden+Kennedy London: Shopageddon

Wieden-kennedy-black-friday-shopageddon-vr-5 — Wieden+Kennedy London: Shopageddon

Wieden-kennedy-black-friday-shopageddon-vr-main — Wieden+Kennedy London: Shopageddon

Wieden-kennedy-black-friday-shopageddon-vr — Wieden+Kennedy London: Shopageddon

Shopageddon — Wieden+Kennedy London: Shopageddon

More like this:

Work / Publication Editions At Play’s latest book challenges the conventions of publishing

Editions At Play was created back in 2016 as a collaboration between Google Creative Lab and Visual Editions as a way to explore what a digital book might look like if it made use of the many possibilities of the internet. Rather than succumbing to the limitations and conventions of the publishing industry, Editions at Play – founded by Anna Gerber and Britt Iversen – investigates these notions of print and its increasing digitalisation, where everything seems to live nowadays.

Jyni Ong — 26 April 2019
Work / Digital Max Colson satirises post-Brexit UK in a 3D-modelled animation

Brexit really has brought out the worst in people. The rhetoric spewed by certain right-wing politicians has allowed blatant racism to ooze out of hiding, revealing a cesspit of empire-loving xenophobes that wouldn’t know what makes Britain “Great” if it smacked them in their bland food-loving faces. But with that rather enormous caveat, it’s also been an utterly fascinating time for people-watching. If you’re interested in the idea of ‘Britishness’, like artist Max Colson, the past three years have been a revelation. Via nostalgia for a Britain of the past (in many cases a fictional country that never really existed), there’s a tonne of insight into the values, fears and neuroses motivating us Brits.

Laura Snoad — 16 April 2019
Work / Digital DVTK is a digital design studio that understands the architecture of a website

DVTK, a French duo now based in London, is producing some of the most exciting and innovative work in the digital design sphere thanks to one key understanding: “Just because a screen is flat, that doesn’t force us to do flat design.” Formed of David Broner and Kim Boutin, DVTK understand the architectural possibilities of a website or digital experience, constantly asking, “Why, if interior design in retail spaces is so diverse, rich and fun, do brands’ websites just all look the same?”

Ruby Boddington — 01 April 2019
Sponsored / Digital Creatives share their struggles with networking

When graphic designer Steve Gavan was in his second year at uni, he went to an open studio in Melbourne. “You visit the studio for a night, get shown around and have a discussion about working in the industry,” he explains. “I’ve always sucked at networking and hate speaking up in groups, but thought I’d better get involved. As I raised my hand to ask a question, I knocked a beer out of the hand of the girl standing next to me. It spilt all over a keyboard, some paper samples and the owner of the business. He made a comment about how clumsy kids always become designers.” Steve didn’t end up asking his question and ducked out of the studio the second he could.

Sponsored Content — 27 March 2019
Work / Digital Bingo Type: Datagif animates typefaces in the style of French TV shows

For the sake of our collective sanity, work needs to occasionally be fun. Too much seriousness isn’t good for anyone. Apart from surgeons and EU negotiators, obviously. Parisian information agency Datagif values fun projects as a way of staying explorative and innovative while working on more commercial activity.

Jyni Ong — 20 March 2019
Sponsored / Digital Fabrik is a portfolio website builder specifically designed for the creative’s needs

Fabrik is a portfolio website builder created specifically for creatives to showcase their work. With an intuitive dashboard, the platform allows creatives to exhibit their work in an accessible and innovative way. Whatever the cause, Fabrik’s unique customisation tools strengthen an artwork to shine through on the web. As Fabrik’s founder Tim Jarvis puts it, “With Fabrik, you never start with a blank page – your portfolio is already built and waiting for you to add your content.”

It's Nice That — 12 March 2019

Work / Photography Using flowers and colour, photographer Giseok Cho documents his generation of Koreans

Giseok Cho grew up knowing he wanted to be a creative. His career began working with Korean fashion brands as a graphic designer, art director and set designer but “in my mind, I wanted to use all that to create my own images” he explains, “so I started doing photography”. Today, Giseok works in Seoul, and his myriad creative interests are apparent across his multifaceted portfolio.

Ruby Boddington — 26 April 2019
Work / Graphic Design Paul Gacon's dynamic portfolio spans printed matter, visual identities, type design and more

Paul Gacon says that though he can’t remember his first steps into graphic design, he “almost always drawn to it”. These days boasting a portfolio that spans printed matter, visual identities, websites and type design, his practice is diverse and adaptable. “I’m always interested in varying the type of projects I’m working on, I can get bored if I’m always doing the same things,” he explains. “Right now I want to design books for instance, but maybe in a few months I will want to focus on designing new typefaces.”

Daniel Milroy Maher — 26 April 2019
Work / Illustration Laurie Avon is an illustrator utilising the power, persuasion and human qualities of print

Alongside watching a lot of football, and attempting to grow a good moustache (it’s very good, we’ve seen it), Kingston School of Art graduate Laurie Avon has been “grafting towards [his] big goal of being a freelance illustrator” since leaving the university last summer. Now based in Brighton, Laurie’s work centres around print, in particular, linocut to create work with a firm rooting in activism.

Ruby Boddington — 26 April 2019
Work / Art The latest series by Israeli art collective Broken Fingaz showcases a contemporary twist on traditional oil painting

“It was something we came up with in high school after an accident we had that involved a pigeon, a piece of hashish and an emergency room,” says Unga of how his group, Broken Fingaz, got its name. Established in 2001 in Haifa, Israel, the art collective is comprised of members Unga, Tant and Deso. Working across a multitude of mediums including animation, installation, painting and graffiti – the latter being the first discipline they ventured into as teenagers – Broken Fingaz have become a world-renowned phenomenon. Collaborating on projects with high-profile artists such as U2 (for which they recently directed a music video), Pearl Jam, Primus, Blink 182 and Gaslamp Killer, the trio are certainly a sought after presence.

Daniel Milroy Maher — 26 April 2019
Work / Illustration New comic Cult of the Ibis, arises out of the history of Western magic and alchemy

“I tend to avoid telling people what my projects mean or how they should be interpreted”, explains the Oregon-based artist Daria Tessler on her latest book Cult of the Ibis. Recently published by Fantagraphics, the hardcover book is the result of six years of work, initiated at a time when Daria became fascinated with alchemy which in turn led to a “research rabbit hole”, resulting in this beautifully illustrated story.

Jyni Ong — 26 April 2019
Work / Publication Editions At Play’s latest book challenges the conventions of publishing

Editions At Play was created back in 2016 as a collaboration between Google Creative Lab and Visual Editions as a way to explore what a digital book might look like if it made use of the many possibilities of the internet. Rather than succumbing to the limitations and conventions of the publishing industry, Editions at Play – founded by Anna Gerber and Britt Iversen – investigates these notions of print and its increasing digitalisation, where everything seems to live nowadays.

Jyni Ong — 26 April 2019

Work / Photography Alys Tomlinson's pilgrimage photos probe the places where private meets public

“I’m not a religious person,” says Sony World Photography award winner Alys Tomlinson during a chat with It’s Nice That about Ex-Voto, her latest book-length project.

Josh Baines — 26 April 2019
Work / Illustration Meet illustrator Hollie Fuller's characters, with their piggy eyes and protruding ears

Despite having not yet graduated, illustrator Hollie Fuller has a distinctive, playful style which caught our attention for all its endearing charm. Characters, although part of different scenes, very much inhabit the same world and share one thing in common: their protruding ears.

Ruby Boddington — 25 April 2019
Work / Film Ellen Evans' latest film zooms into the tiny world of miniaturism

London-based filmmaker Ellen Evans’ latest film – an instant Vimeo staff pick and a short worthy of the many accolades it’s already received – zooms into the fascinating, and tiny, world of miniaturists.

Lucy Bourton — 25 April 2019
Work / Photography Kent Andreasen on how he embraces the transience of light in his photographs

“With commissions I find I am always looking for something specific, so to contrast with that, I do these trips. This means I can just go and make images of whatever I find unusual or out of place,” says Cape Town-based photographer Kent Andreasen. “Some of the photos will become memories or postcards that I can look back to as a reminder of the experience. It returns me to the simplicity of why I like photography, rather than just focusing on the outcome of the images.”

Daniel Milroy Maher — 25 April 2019
Work / Illustration Illustrator Baptiste Virot describes his work as an “iron punch in a velvet glove”

“I always want my illustrations to be like a punch in the retina of the viewer”, says Baptiste Virot on his visually-explosive illustrations. As one half of the French-Korean publishing house Animal Press, that he operates with his girlfriend Jinhee Han, Baptiste produces a wealth of Risographed comics, digital illustrations and all sorts of other commissions simultaneously; explaining why we’ve written about his colourful work a couple of times previously.

Jyni Ong — 25 April 2019
Work / Graphic Design Slovenian design studio Ljudje on how it turned the information crisis into a visual identity

“We don’t have a specific design style we apply to every project,” says Ljubljana-based creative studio Ljudje. “We remove the clutter, focus on the essence and choose the most suitable language for the challenge that’s ahead of us.” A team of designers, artists, strategists and writers, Ljudje was tasked with designing the identity for the 26th edition of the Ljubljana Design Biennale, called BIO 26, concerned with the current crisis of information.

Ruby Boddington — 25 April 2019

Work / Animation Tomek Popakul's short film Acid Rain shows the perils of falling in love with a wrong'un

Tomek Popakul’s animated short Acid Rain has been storming the festival circuit, turning heads with its noisy animation style, spot-on observations and powerful use of an original (and pretty eerie) score. In many ways it’s a classic coming of age film, but in many ways it’s really not. We meet our protagonist as she’s running away from home and takes a shine to a bad boy – a guy with cool trainers and a sleazy pencil moustache who she finds playing chicken on some railings above a motorway. An innocuous-seeming visit to his granny’s house turns out to be a magic mushroom picking session, and in no time at all, he’s given her an undercut, they’re breaking into abandoned houses to set stuff on fire, smuggling drugs across borders in his rave-mobile, and heading to free parties in the woods complete with some proper rave goblins and a lot of psychedelic puke. It’s all whirlwind, heat and flash and (avoiding spoilers) things do not end well.

Laura Snoad — 25 April 2019
Work / Photography Photographer Mark Hartman's series is an ongoing portrayal of a traditional Sikh warrior order in India

The Nihang, taking their name from a Persian word meaning crocodile, are a Sikh warrior order originating from India. Traditionally constituting an important part of the Sikh Empire’s armed forces, their role in modern society is mainly ceremonial – though they are still duty-bound to protect the public against crime. Known for their striking uniforms, which have remained unchanged for over 300 years, their attire consists of an electric blue robe, high turbans adorned with military symbols, and an assortment of weapons including swords, spears and daggers.

Daniel Milroy Maher — 25 April 2019
Work / Photography Lucia Sekerkova documents the rituals of Romania’s social media savvy witches

“I love the strange split between the old and the new world, as well as between magic and the internet,” says photographer Lucia Sekerkova about her four-year project capturing the vrăjitoare, or witches, of Romania’s Wallachian Roma community. Working with ethnologist Ivana Šusterová, the pair have documented how ancient traditions have transitioned into the modern world, through savvy social media promotion and live-streamed rituals.

The Wallachian Roma people were formerly nomadic groups who moved across Europe until it was made illegal, explains Lucia. Once banned by the communist regime, a vrăjitoare’s work is defined by fortune-telling and spell-casting and has seen a distinct upsurge in Romania in recent years. Working with Ivana, an expert in the everyday life and culture of Wallachian Roma people, was a huge boon to the project, especially given her language skills. “This group has many traditional norms, specific forms of behaviour and its own community rules and laws. I think that people should know about them and respect them before they just demand something from them,” says Lucia.

Laura Snoad — 24 April 2019
Work / Art Charlie Roberts' paintings are inspired by hip-hop culture, sports and screenplays

Born and raised in Kansas, artist Charlie Roberts later relocated to Oslo after studying at the Emily Carr Institute of Art and Design in Vancouver. Working between various mediums, and different modes within those mediums, he often switches between wood carving, ceramics, painting on canvas and watercolour on paper, and between monochromatic drawing, relief sculpture, flat cartoonish figuration, and a more fleshed out and shaded figuration.

Daniel Milroy Maher — 24 April 2019
Work / Photography In Whispering Blooms Jack Orton documents the eerie perfection of the town of Poundbury

Brexit, we know you’re tired of everyone and their mum weighing in on the topic, but hear us out, this one’s interesting. Titled Whispering Blooms, a series by photographer Jack Orton aptly encapsulates the utopian (or dystopian, depending on which side of the fence you’re sitting) ideals that many have about the hotly-discussed, ever-extending Article 50, and the world that potentially awaits us on the other side.

Ruby Boddington — 24 April 2019
Work / Graphic Design Studio Nuno Fontes on its clean and ordered work for the cultural sector

“Graphic design’s most extraordinary work is often the result of amazing partnerships between client and designer,” explains Nuno Fontes. Heading up his own multi-disciplinary studio in the small Portuguese town of Santa Maria Da Feira, for Studio Nuno, it is essential that “every project in our studio starts with dialogue.”

Jyni Ong — 24 April 2019

Work / Illustration Darren Shaddick illustrates his version of “the ultimate cool person”

Despite being based out of the “sticks of Devon” where the illustration scene is not as fully flourished as some other regions of the UK, freelance illustrator Darren Shaddick is proof that you can still acquire clients such as the likes of giffgaff and Ralph Lauren, and not live in London.

Jyni Ong — 24 April 2019
Regulars / Bookshelf Team Thursday's Bookshelf is full of souvenirs, zines and exhibition catalogues

Every other Wednesday we bring you a selection of books owned and curated by a different creative. Limited to just five – a near impossible task for many – we ask them to choose a line-up of titles which have been influential or important to their practice in some way. This week, the responsibility lies with Loes van Esch and Simone Trum, founders of design studio Team Thursday. Based in Rotterdam, the studio has spent a significant amount of time in Seoul and is well known for its bright, colourful, Risographed aesthetic.

Ruby Boddington — 24 April 2019
Work / Animation Truba Animation reimagines behind the scenes anecdotes from Game of Thrones

Truba, the animation studio behind not one but two of our favourite music videos of 2018 – Unknown Mortal Orchestra’s Honeybee and Feels Like Summer by Childish Gambino – has now created an animated tale imagining behind the scenes of Game of Thrones.

Lucy Bourton — 24 April 2019
Work / Publication Pedro Destefani explores the relationship between Stan Smith the man and the brand

In a recent personal project, the designer Pedro Destefani explores the relationship between Stan Smith, the man, and the brand he has become synonymous with over the past few decades. Arguably best known today for his name’s attachment to a particular Adidas trainer, Stan Smith was in fact a world-famous tennis player back in the 1970s and 80s. In this self-initiated editorial project (which is not affiliated with the sports brand), Pedro looks at the man on and off the court, as well as that famous shoe.

Jyni Ong — 23 April 2019
Work / Photography Xiaopeng Yuan reinterprets the Chinese fable, The Butterfly Lovers, in a series for Télévision magazine

Whilst working as part of Same Paper, Xiaopeng Yuan keeps up his own photographic practice. We’ve covered some of his work in the past, and so when we saw the newly-released issue of Télévision magazine, the cover of which features a new story shot by Xiaopeng, we had to find out more.

Ruby Boddington — 23 April 2019
Features / Film Creativity and control: Stanley Kubrick's obsessiveness and the meticulous films it produced

Bobby Fischer sat forward, his hand covering his mouth and his elbow resting on the table in front of him. His eyes firmly fixed down on the chequered surface below, the American leant forward out of his black leather chair and moved his Bishop from E6 to D7. Across the table from him sat Boris Spassky, a Soviet. They were engaged in the 21st game of their World Chess Championship match, in the Laugardalshöll arena, Reykjavík and with that move, Fischer emerged as the world’s 11th chess champion. It was a politically charged win, which humiliated the country that had gone undefeated for 24 years, and was dubbed “The Match of the Century”.

Ruby Boddington — 23 April 2019

Work / Graphic Design Oscar Maia translates the essence of his native Porto into a new publication

“I have learnt to see graphic design as a kind of puzzle,” explains Oscar Maia. Based out of the historic city of Porto, Oscar has been practising for more than a decade in some of the romantic city’s renowned studios. From Atelier Martino&Jaña to the White Studio, Oscar has honed a career specialising in design in the cultural sector which he continues today as a freelancer.

Jyni Ong — 23 April 2019
Work / Art Louise Bonnet paints exaggerated bodies as symbols of melancholy and loneliness

“I am interested in the body. In what having a body feels like, or how we try to hide the way it feels. To contain it or control it. How it brings shame and humiliation because we cannot control it,” says artist Louise Bonnet. “I am fascinated by the ornamentation of it, the extreme ways of hiding our primal origins with all this external stuff. For example, with the Hitchcock Blonde, or the renaissance portraits, where any sign of wildness is eradicated. I love all the intricate techniques used to achieve this. It’s so prevalent and all-encompassing.”

Daniel Milroy Maher — 23 April 2019
Work / Illustration Mathieu Larone illustrates the "elusive liminal space between the cryptic and the understandable"

Describing, his drawings as falling into “a grey zone between cartooning and colour based-rendering”, illustrator Mathieu Larone says he is able to morph his practice depending on the project he’s working on. “I’m also hellbent on exploring the limits of what can and cannot be understood in an image, and using the practice and form of illustration to communicate in subtle and nonlinear ways,” he adds.

Daniel Milroy Maher — 23 April 2019
Regulars / Ones to Watch 2019 Micaiah Carter interprets Uniqlo’s linen range with a sultry sun-drenched shoot

One of the unique strengths of young American photographer Micaiah Carter (who we picked as one of our Ones to Watch earlier this year) is his ability to conjure a rich mood, an evocative atmosphere, in a straightforward studio setting. His shoots often feel like a heady distillation of the last days of a long summer – there’s a lot of warm sunlight on skin, deep blue and purple-hued skies, and clothes that flow breezily off radiant bodies.

Matt Alagiah — 23 April 2019
Features / Miscellaneous We take a look back at the best stories of the year to date

The Easter weekend here in the UK has given us at It’s Nice That the chance to put our feet up for a few days, but we still want to provide you with your regular dose of creative ideas and inspiration. So we’ve decided to pull together some highlights from the year so far, including a handful of the most popular articles of 2019 and a few of the team’s favourites as well. From an in-depth study of the benefits of boredom (worth reading if you’re heading out of town to visit the family this weekend) to a story about Michael Bierut’s fresh identity for Mastercard, we’ve got all angles covered. There are even a few alpacas thrown in for good measure, courtesy of photographer Daniel Gebhart de Koekkoek. Check out all this and more below.

It's Nice That — 18 April 2019
Work / Graphic Design Atelier Brenda and Amélie Bakker create “squidgy” identity for Beursschouwburg

Squidgy, unicorn-coloured lettering, holographic foil and some hand-drawn illustrations that look like the inner workings of a particularly puzzled psyche – there’s a lot to love about Atelier Brenda’s identity for Beursschouwburg’s Spring programme Normal Schnormal. Working with Amélie Bakker, the Belgian studio has developed a “playful and abstract approach” for the Brussels cultural house’s programme of music, performance, art, screenings and talks, which aims to analyse, question and dismantle the idea of ‘normality’.

Laura Snoad — 18 April 2019