It’s either a dream or nightmare job: Microsoft taps you to come up with a campaign for the 2011 edition of Microsoft Office for Mac.
How do you make it cool? Avoid ridicule?
Director Dennis Liu took that challenge. The resulting teaser for the documentary series called “id3a01ogy” definitely answers the first question but may not be able to sidestep the latter.
Liu, a self-described Mac fanatic, has been trying to make Microsoft for Mac cool since 2009, when the Redmond company contacted him after his clever OS X-themed music video went viral. He’s been directing tech videos ever since.
About the 38-second clip — which features a number of nifty things I wouldn’t mind gracing Cult of Mac’s office — Liu says:
“Our subjects range from a Hollywood screenwriter/literary manager, to start-up company owners and educators. The goal was to integrate the new Office 2011 UI, while having intellectual discussion about where good ideas, originality, and innovative thinking comes from, etc. It’s a little esoteric, but there’s a lot of cool stuff in here.”
The clip is slick and captivating, but the poetry fades pretty quickly if you take the leap to Microsoft’s splash page for Office 2011, which, predictably, has those hard edges and ill-advised color combos you’d expect from them.
What do you think?
