By: Adnan Arnautlija
HDD 1516 ANNOUNCES NOMINATIONS FOR THE GRAND PRIX
The Selection Committee of the Exhibition of Croatian Design 1516 – composed of Iva Babaja, Andrej Filetin, Marko Golub, Silva Kalčić, George Korac, Mladen Orešić and Koraljka Vlajo – decided on three nominations for the Grand Prix of the Croatian Designers Society (HDD). The winner of the Grand Prix will be decided by the international Jury of the Exhibition 1516, and the decision will be announced at the exhibition opening on 13 September, 2016, at the Museum of Arts and Crafts.
HDD’s Grand Prix is awarded to a project or initiative that with its quality, innovation, complexity or a clear and strong message of broad social recognition, significantly stands out in comparison with the rest of the design production, and thus marked the Croatian design scene and its wider context in the past two years.
The nominees are:
Design District Zagreb, author of the project and creative director of the festival Ira Payer
Installations Tape, Net and Tube, Numen / ForUse
Louvre Serif and Louvre Sans, SDDS / Sandro Dujmenović and Marko Hrastovec.
INSTAGRAM FINALLY INTRODUCING A LONG-AWAITED FEATURE
Instagram is introducing several changes in its options, which will make many people happy. Namely, they are introducing the possibility to delete comments and filter them. But that’s not all, because we will soon be able to generally exclude comments from our posts, Washington Post writes.
This great idea is the brainchild of Instagram developers, and it be safely said that it’s never too late for good moves because this news has already made a bunch of users happy, particularly those who receive negative, nasty and depressing comments.
“Our goal is to make Instagram a friendly, fun and, most importantly, safe place for self expression. We have slowly begun to offer accounts with high volume comment threads the option to moderate their comment experience. As we learn, we look forward to improving the comment experience for our broader community,” said Nicky Jackson Colaco for the Washington Post.
AIRBNB’S $850M CASH INJECTION PLACES ITS VALUE AT $30BN
Airbnb has reportedly raised $850m in its latest funding round, according to Bloomberg – a move that could see it become the world’s fourth most valuable tech startup.
The cash injection places the value of the company at the $30bn mark and could help it claim a higher spot on the coveted list of so-called tech ‘unicorns’; companies which are deemed to have a value of $1bn or more.
US ride hailing giant Uber, which has been valued at $68bn, is currently the most valuable unicorn in the world.
Investors in the Airbnb funding round have not been revealed, but the move comes as the company looks to position itself as a brand-building channel, making calls for advertisers to view it as a “media owner” rather than an accommodation website.
SNAPCHAT NAMES SONY, WALMART AND HARIBO AS OFFICIAL AD PARTNERS TO ITS OLYMPICS CONTENT
Snapchat has revealed the seven brands it’s selected as partners for the duration of the Olympic Games as it looks to capitalize on the content running on the platform.
Sony Pictures, Walmart, Dick’s Sporting Goods, Hershey’s, Dunkin’ Donuts, Haribo and Ford will all run adverts on its Live Story and Discover channels, Ad Week reported Saturday.
It doesn’t affect other brands that are taking to Snapchat – such as Samsung – they will simply not be official partners.
BBDO AND PROXIMITY PROMOTE KIT KOH TO ECD, SOUTH CHINA
BBDO and Proximity Greater China has promoted Kit Koh to Executive Creative Director of BBDO and Proximity South China – a marquee appointment to the group’s Hong Kong and Guangzhou offices.
A BBDO veteran of 12 years, Kit is currently the Executive Creative Director of Energy BBDO in Shanghai, leading several brands including VISA, Bayer, SC Johnson, DENZA, Master Kong, and Platinum Guild International.
With this significant promotion, Kit will relocate from Shanghai to spearhead the growth, creative excellence and culture of BBDO and Proximity offices in both Hong Kong and Guangzhou, joining a strong management team which includes JC Catibog (Managing Director), Owen Smith (Head of Planning), Eric Zhou (General Manager- Guangzhou) and Jason King (General Manger, Hong Kong).
FACEBOOK TESTS SNAPCHAT-STYLE INSTANT SELFIE FEATURE WITH RIO 2016 FILTERS
Facebook is testing out a new feature that lets users open up a ‘selfie’ camera within the app to overlay filters on to their pictures.
The Snapchat-esque tool is currently positioned at the top of select Facebooker’s news feeds and invites them to share a snap or video of themselves with friends using a special set of Olympic-themed filters.
It is visually similar to Snapchat’s Lenses feature, which lets users decorate their pictures with a range of animated filters, some of which are sponsored by brands.
The Olympics-themed test is currently being trialed in Canada and Brazil and if successful could be rolled out globally.
This isn’t the first time Facebook has been accused of snapping Snapchat’s features. Earlier this week the platform’s sister company Instagram courted attention online after unveiling its own version of Snapchat’s Stories feature dubbed Instagram Stories.
