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As the future of the printing press hangs in the balance, what with that pesky Internet thing and gadgets like the iPhone reader, the Kindle and the fabled Apple Tablet, publishers of paper are finding new ways to appeal to digitally-saturated audiences. This we like: it means books now come with jazzy little virals! From breath-taking animations to powerful cinematic shorts, these teasers give potential readers a taste of tone, style and flava – but pass for standalone ouevres too, if you ask us. And while we’re on the subject of trans-media book promotion, let’s have a chortle at this Zen of Zombie gathering in New York’s Central Park, inspired by the tome of the same name.

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Our blog-post on the Dock Ellis LSD No-No a few weeks back unleashed an insatiable appetite for animated documentaries that are based on audio archive matter. Animation, we came to discover, can breathe new life into valuable sound recordings that may otherwise be relegated to gathering dust in some long-forgotten digital shelving unit. And as our pick of 5 toppers testifies, the visual element adds a richness, depth and poignance that may otherwise be lost on the over-saturated ears of today’s super-savvy public.

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While brands, advertisers and window (un)dressers are beginning to include dynamic digital displays in their PR strategies, the gritty underworld of cutting-edge creativity is seeing an explosion of interactive projects that invite public participation. Utilizing computer graphics, LED light-walls, motion tracking, and any other new-fangled devices that you care to mention, digital fata morganas are engaging unsuspecting audiences in cities around the world. Here is our pick of five super-smashing ones:

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The words “web documentary” were once the domain of thrifty filmmakers with gnarly production values. Not any more! In fact, quite the reverse is true. The many splendid ways in which the interweb lends itself to interactive storytelling and multiple mediums, has spawned an explosion of top-notch web documentary-making – marked this year by the first ever award for this emerging genre. We’ve seen a ton of exceptional specimens lately, but to whittle it down to ten, we used excuses like lack of language options to help us make executive decisions.

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Before Flash there were… animated GIFs! Whole entire movies made out of Graphics Interchange Format! Apparently Thomas Edison, inventor of something they call the light-bulb, died a very frustrated man, having touched the edges of GIFology but never quite having reached the core. Torture! But we digress. The silent and seemingly endless quagmire of animated GIFery on the interweb, reveals a marvelous array minimal-frame offerings by savvy hipsters and obscure artistes. Compiling this Top 10 was a challenge (and then some), as there are myriad rad ones, but here’s our Top 10 nonetheless:

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If the words “data” and “visualization” make you wish the left side of your brain was a tad sharper, read on! Nobody – least of all the creative (at best) right-brainers among us – enjoys looking at graphs or statistics. Yawn! Lucky for us then, that boring charts etcetera are fast becoming a relic of the past. Nowadays, the global graphic design army (how many do YOU know?) do the boring bit for us, and produce beautiful works of art which communicate an abundance of information while entertaining us - and pleasing our peepers - all at once. We rather like these five:

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