Via Kottke I just skimmed an interesting article about the sort of test subjects that 3D artists use when creating their work (see the article here if you’re interested: http://www.artfagcity.com/2008/07/28/img-mgmt-20-archetypes/).

It made me think about the sort of FPO (which stands for “for placement only“) images and text that Buk uses in our projects. Of course there’s Lorem Ipsum, which I’ve been grabbing from Lipsum.com now for years. I take for granted that the majority of people (marketing people even) have no clue what Lorem Ipsum is, and can’t help but chuckle a little bit when they ask me “site looks great, but what’s the deal with all of that weird greek text?”

But where we get to have a little bit of fun is regarding FPO videos and graphics. It’s rare when a job is designed with the final assets; there’s always photo/video shoots to be produced, final logos to be delivered etc. And where we really get to flex our “FPO chops” is when populating a client’s new site’s CMS with test content.

So to that end, I am proud to show you some of our developers and designers “Island of Misfit Content” of sorts that we use to populate our sites and CMSs, most of which never see the light of day. (Note: some of the more scurrilous and NSFW images will remain locked deep within the http://locahost vaults of our more devious devs; we can’t put everything on front street!).

Centerfolds have their favorite lists, this is what web-centerfolds have.

Robert

Favorite FPO copy:

• poop
• pants
• pirates
• ninja

Favorite FPO images:
This is a French singer named Alizee who’s dancing inspired the Night Elf /dance in World of Warcraft.

Ben

Favorite FPO copy:

• Nuke

Favorite FPO images:

• Anything found by Googling “burning buildings”.
• Yacht Rock - Ed. note: if you haven’t seen Yacht Rock, stop reading my silly post and watch it now!

Mark

Favorite FPO Audio:

• Bottom Dwellers (of course!)

Favorite FPO Video:

• Anything from Tim and Eric, especially Uncle Muscles.

Favorite FPO images:
To quote Mark, “uptight clients get these kinds of photos”

And “easy-going clients get these”

Greg

Favorite FPO images (most of which are Photoshop funnies, which I will compile in another post):

Aaron

Aaron uses the most professional method, a nice snippet of code.
img {
border: 1px solid #000;
background: #553344; /* I get creative here! */
color: #000;
line-height: 75px;
font-size: 72px;
font-family: "Helvetica", Arial, sans-serif;
}

Jeff

Favorite FPO images (like Greg, Jeff’s are mostly Photoshop funnies):

What do you use for you FPO?