LSN : News : Need to know 03 : 10 : 17

1. Music video features break-up story with no gender references

Hours music video by Julien Dyne and Frances Haszard

New Zealand – The music video for artist Julien Dyne’s new track Hours takes a Neutral Culture approach to post-break-up heartbreak by avoiding any references to gender. The video, created by animator Frances Haszard, is a combination of abstract and more literal forms produced by layering blocks of colour in TVPaint to create a hazy aesthetic in which objects and people appear to melt into one another.

‘With this version, I ended up making the characters deliberately gender-neutral and it’s strange – people don’t seem to even notice that the element of gender is missing,’ says Haszard.

Find out how designers are re-imagining the tired aesthetic around gendered stereotypes in our Femininity Rebranded design direction.

2. Assassin’s Creed offers lessons on ancient Egypt

Discovery Tour by Assassin’s Creed Origins

Global – Assassin’s Creed Origins now includes a new Discovery Tour feature that enables players to explore ancient Egyptian civilisation in combat-free mode. The tours, which are found within the Animus Database – a record of all of the data collected during the game – have been curated by historians and Egyptologists, and each one focuses on a specific aspect or period of Egyptian life, such as the Great Pyramids or the life of Cleopatra.

‘This is something we have wanted to do for a long time, that we’ve been asked to do by teachers and by institutions,’ says Jean Guesdon, creative director of Assassin’s Creed Origins. ‘It’s a more educative mode, so it’s clearly focused on education and on bringing to people facts and more academic knowledge.’ The game illustrates how education is no longer constrained specifically to schooling institutions as brands help to foster The Learning Economy.

3. Shell plans to open a service station for alternative fuels

London – Multinational oil and gas company Royal Dutch Shell will open Britain’s first no-petrol service station in 2018. The facility will offer drivers biofuels, electric vehicle charge points and hydrogen cell refuelling in place of traditional petrol and diesel pumps. The building is also expected to be powered by solar panels attached to the roof of the forecourt.

Although not confirmed, the project is expected to open at a central London location, and will form part of the company’s wider plan to develop alternative fuels, which will also include the opening of three hydrogen cell refuelling stations this year. In countries such as Germany the uptake of electric cars has often been hindered by the lack of appropriate infrastructure.

For more on whether the future of automobiles is electric, read our Opinion piece here.

Shell service station

4. Evelyn & Bobbie creates bras for individuals

Evelyn & Bobbie, US

US – Lingerie brand Evelyn & Bobbie is using technology to create bras designed for the individual wearer rather than having to conform to traditional sizing metrics, which the brand believes to be both arbitrary and detrimental to women’s self-esteem.

Evelyn & Bobbie’s range of wireless, seamless, strapless bras are each produced using an algorithm, allowing for a bespoke fit. This algorithm was created by feeding 3D body scans of hundreds of women into the software, enabling the brand to identify optimal sizing with only a few measurements, namely the waist, breast and shoulder. Brands such as Evelyn & Bobbie and Heist are promoting a more inclusive approach to lingerie and hosiery, to help women feel both comfortable and confident.

See our Bare-It-All Branding microtrend for more on how the underwear market is moving away from a hyper-sexualised approach towards a celebration of the female form.

5. Generation Z aren’t engaged by sales assistants

A new US study by global payments processor Adyen indicates that retailers need to do more to engage Generation Z while in-store, as this demographic is less interested in interacting with sales staff. For more on the key drivers that are shaping consumers’ expectations in-store, download our free The Future of Service Report 2017 here.

6. Thought-starter: What would tv look like without sex-phobia?

As a porn site proposes an extraordinary new kind of television merging pornography and fiction, picture researcher Holly Friend asks whether this intriguing concept could change how we view sex on tv.

Aided by the adage ‘sex sells’ and Pornhub’s persistent efforts to be seen as a mainstream lifestyle brand, explicit pornographic content has become increasingly normalised. In September, porn site xHamster attempted an unexpected move into mainstream television, a sector that typically cringes at brazen displays of sexuality.

As well as offering unparalleled web traffic and a generous budget, bringing regular tv to a porn site could create an entirely new genre of story. Without the limitations enforced by Netflix or commercial studios, this could open up a new type of intelligent pornography, or a new style of fiction with storylines as provocative as the explicit content.

In a far cry from Hollywood’s sterile love scenes, honest sex on tv has the potential to immerse and educate viewers in the lives of characters, whether straight, gay, bisexual or transgender.

To read more on xHamster’s vision for a new television future, read the full Opinion piece.