🧠 BIONICLE is back

Good afternoon brainiacs. Welcome to BRAINWAVES, your go-to newsletter for all things creative. Bite-sized news, curated inspiration, marketing psychology, and much more will be packed into this 5-minute read that you’ll receive every other day of the week! Enjoy :)

🎹 Audio evolution. Last week, the Anaheim Convention Center in California held The 2024 NAMM Show, one of the globe’s most popular musical instrument and technology trade exhibitions.

Plenty of game-changing machines were unveiled, including the sleekly redesigned Grandstage X by Korg, as well as an 80s instrument revival with Suzuki’s Omnichord OM-108. Other big takeaways from the show included that of some brilliant new software coming to our DAWs later this year. We heard that Oeksound’s Bloom plug-in is bringing new ways to shape samples from boring audio waves into pure sonic magic, while users of Arturia’s Pigments are being treated to a much awaited upgrade with the 5th installment of the polychrome soft synth.

Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to attend this year’s show myself but I can assure you that next year I’ll be able to bring some first-ear insights on what the music world will be offered by the synth Gods next. Read more.

🤖 Bring back BIONICLE movies. Not sure if you’ve ever played with LEGO® BIONICLE back in the day (and by back in the day I mean the early to mid 2000s), but the adventurous experience was accompanied by several 3D-animated movies that followed the extensive lore of the BIONICLE world and its featured characters.

So, you could imagine how happy I was to stumble across this incredible video by No The Robot (@no_the_robot via Instagram), a highly talented animator who went micro-viral with this nostalgia trip. Working alongside @iconicstills, who designed the lighting and texturing of this project, No The Robot was able to infuse a more modern styling technique to the animation of this BIONICLE character.

Users who commented under the post pointed out notable similarities to that of the Spider-Verse Saga (2018-2024), a Sony Pictures animated film series about Spider-Man and other multi-dimensional variants of his overall character. The popular movie franchise is a staple in the modern animation industry due to its somewhat artistic reinvention of the animation styles that movie studios were commonly using at the time. Looks like that central style of more bombastic, comic-like energy is finding its way into the indie animation scene as well.

🛍️ Every post could be shoppable. TikTok is currently testing a new technology that identifies objects in users’ videos and links them to similar items that could be found in the already established TikTok Shop. 

The social media company and their ambitious goal to implement this feature could forever change the app. TikTok’s already addictive nature of feeding us uniquely personalized entertainment could now transform into an entirely newfound realm of endless online shopping.

Furthermore, the e-commerce side of the app has already helped numerous smaller business sell their products online in a much easier fashion. Yet, users have brought light to the questionable authenticity of said products while using the TikTok Shop and want more transparency to this ever-evolving digital landscape. Read more.

🏈 Ads for ads. We’re starting to get a glance at some of the upcoming marketing campaigns coming to Super Bowl LVIII. Companies like Starry and OREO have gathered a lot of attention after posting star-studded teasers for their Big Game Ads. Here, we see iconic celebrities like Ice Spice and Kris Jenner as the face of the brands during this year’s game. I guess we’ll have to wait and see how the full advertisements will play out!

📼 Drifting. I found this beautiful song on YouTube when searching for music video inspiration and I’ve gotta say, the alternative/indie band Night Tapes has hit just the right spots in my brain with this track. It’s got the perfect atmosphere for blasting it on a late-night drive with friends, or busting down to it in your bedroom when no one is watching.

🧠 Interesting resources. Just some stuff I read, watched, and/or listened to this week that I think you may find just as entertaining or interesting as I did.

📬 Share this newsletter with your family, friends, and any strangers you meet today! Thank you for reading. Until next time :)