father piñata

57: oops...

2011-07-08T09:20:00.002-04:00

Hi all. So clearly, clearly, I suck at the blog thing. I started an entry back in March, apologizing for how sucky I am at updating the blog - but of course I never ended up posting it because, well, I suck at updating the blog.

Some news: I spent this past spring term (January to end of April) in London, studying abroad and interning at an independent ad agency called Inferno. I learned a lot, saw a lot, met a lot of lovely people, and can say that without a doubt it was my best semester ever as a student. Now that it's summer, I'm home in Atlanta and interning at Newell Rubbermaid, which has been an educational experience on a whole different level, and filled with all sorts of perks, to boot!

I have a handful of posts in the queue, just waiting to be finished and published, but until then feel free to keep in touch on Tumblr (where I post image inspiration and interesting stuff) or Twitter!

56: HCI and music

2010-12-12T22:52:00.004-05:00

Yann Tiersen on six iPhones:

My church's worship team on iPads (skip to 5:00 to see Seth Condrey making good use of the T-Pain app):

Collective win, yes?

55: a visualisation critique from my HCI design class

2010-12-02T10:29:00.004-05:00

artifact: map your moves

Moritz Stefaner's Map Your Move visualization shows where New Yorkers have moved in the last ten years. His data comes from an informal survey of 1700 people, and because most of it reflects people moving from, to, or within the New York area, he uses that entire region as the focus of the graphic. All other parts of the world are mapped relative to New York City.

When you first go to his project, you see a bunch of brownish-purple circles of varying sizes. Each circle represents one zip code, and its size represents the number of moves to or from that zip code. He uses rings around circles to indicate which behavior is more prevalent (red = people moving out, blue = people moving in).

You can interact with the graphic by clicking on a circle to look at moves to/from the area, or you can drag your cursor to make a radial selection of dots that let you see a bunch of zip codes. Once you click on a zip code, all irrelevant dots fade away, and you see a bunch of red and blue lines, which represent each person's beginning and ending location, the year the person moved, and the reason why. There is also a side bar that shows general statistics for the zip code(s) you selected (# people moving in/out, reasons for moving in/out, when people moved in/out).

critique

Overview: The first thing that I always notice is aesthetics, so when Map Your Moves (MYM) loaded on my screen, I was a little grossed out because all these different sized dots reminded me of the measles. However, it's important for these circles to be different sizes because they show you at a glance where people are coming and going. Also, Moritz maps his graphic so that you can see other locations in the world, but he doesn't attempt to make his map geographically accurate (i.e., distances are disproportional), in order to make sure everything fits on the screen without having too much unnecessary extra space. It's nice that he considered this because it goes along with Fitts' law - bigger + closer = faster. The colors are nice as well, because the red and blue contrast nicely, and the background is very neutral and therefore not distracting.

MYM doesn't have very robust zoom and filter features. You can "zoom" in on a cluster of zip codes by making a radial selection of circles. However, it's not a very precise method at all. When you select a zip code area, the graphic automatically eliminates all other items for you, so you can see your current data points very clearly, but based on your goal, some points might be more important than others. The system may be too rigid in that respect.

Details on demand: MYM is fairly good at providing details; whenever you position your cursor over a circle or a line, the circle/line becomes outlined, and a text box with information pops up, which not only helps you maintain your orientation but lets you glean specific information very quickly. The sidebar is also useful in that it shows you statistics for your current selection area.

At first glance, it's hard to compare relative numbers, because the bar graphs for each variable are in the same line. However, the designer does include gray baselines when relevant, so you can easily see whether these numbers are actually statistically significant, which may be more important than positioning the bar graphs to appear more comparable.

redesign

Because the mapping is not to scale, it's hard to find specific zip codes. Most people only know a handful anyway (office, home, school), so in order to navigate, users really need to rely on trial and error. An easy fix would be implementing a search bar based on address. That way, users wouldn't have to know individual zip codes, or have to look through each circle one by one; they could type in a familiar street or nearby restaurant to navigate (similar to the way Yelp and Google Maps work).

There is also an issue with size. It seems that Moritz made tradeoffs in usability and ability to interpret and understand information. According to Fitts' law, bigger may be better, but in this case, actual circle size is a defining characteristic and relevant to the interpretation of data. Because the thin lines and small dots are hard to select, and because many of the lines overlap each other, it's easy to either select the wrong one, or miss it entirely and click on the white space instead (which actually clears your selection completely and takes you back to the overview). You could address this with a gravity function or a magnetic cursor so it's easier to jump from circle to circle or line to line. You could also add a history bar with the last several regions you looked at, to undo unwanted or accidental actions.

In Carr's paper, he says that visualization is designed to help people who are "pursuing a goal that is unknown to the designers and requires sifting through a lot of data," but that supporting specific tasks is also good. My goal was definitely unknown at the time - it wasn't until I actually started playing with the visualization that I realized I wanted to know why people were moving away from New York and where they were going. When I scrolled over lines, I'd see general reasons for moving ("Work or School," "Can't Afford What I Used To," etc.), but there were also people who wrote things like "building was being replace[d] by a 'luxury' condo," or "Neighborhood was scary," or "didn't like australia." To me, these are the little pieces of information that make data so interesting and help people relate to one another. I'd like to see a feature that shows almost the opposite of what this visualization currently does: Start with the why (reasons) and show where people moved. This could be as easy as making the reasons listed in the sidebar clickable; zip codes with people moving away due to roommate or relationship issues could vary with size.

54: the best sad winter/cheer up playlist ever

2010-11-19T16:03:00.001-05:00

It's six songs, all the better to put on repeat.

Soft Shock (acoustic) - Yeah Yeah Yeahs
Twilight Galaxy - Metric
Moth's Wings - Passion Pit
L.E.S. Artistes - Santigold
All I Need - Radiohead
Past in Present - Feist

53: but it's only november

2010-11-12T10:23:00.001-05:00

To all hipsters and "ironic" gift-givers:

The makers of Snuggie have caught onto you. And they're coming out with a Christmas ad campaign too. See below for a sneak preview:

52: runaway, kanye west

2010-10-27T18:42:00.002-04:00

I love Kanye. I can't help myself. The phoenix that rises and falls... LOVE IT.

51: artsy-fartsy friday

2010-09-24T00:55:00.000-04:00

A little over one year ago, I came up with this idea to have an "Artsy-Fartsy Friday" feature on this blog. I made one Artsy-Fartsy Friday post and then kind of proceeded to forget all about it for the next 365+ days.

So. In honor of what currently appears to be an annual feature, this post shall be a conglomeration of the fabulous music videos of the Chicago-based band, OK Go.

Let's start with their newest release -- this is for their song, "White Knuckles":

One featuring their awesome Rube Goldberg machine...

More stop motion (if you didn't know already, I have a thing for stop motion)...

Incredible choreography... This is the video that helped launched OK Go onto the Billboard charts.

Public response, according to some of the things I caught on Twitter the other day:

(via)

(via)

(via)

(via)

(via)
Whether or not you love or hate OK Go's sound, it's hard to deny that they're producing really innovative music videos with some pretty groundbreaking ideas.

50: screencaps from love in the afternoon

2010-09-22T09:42:00.004-04:00

Two screen captures of the opening credits from the 1957 romantic comedy, Love in the Afternoon (later released in Europe under the title Ariane). Keepin' it classy.

49: a critique on computer interfaces—chrome vs. safari

2010-09-10T21:24:00.004-04:00

For those you who aren't in the know, Chrome is Google's new-ish web browser. It's fast, streamlined and simple, keeps you more secure on the Internet, and has other nice features. Now, I'm a Mac user, and for a long time I strangely took pride in my usage of Safari as a browser. None of that Mozilla Firefox or Internet Explorer nonsense—Safari all the way...until my former roommate introduced me to Google Chrome, that is. The first thing I noticed was how colorful her browser window was. Pink hearts and bunnies in the background? I'm sold. I've been using Chrome on my laptop for a few months now, and I've noticed some good and bad aspects about it.

the good

The themes, obviously. Sounds funny to say, but having a little color and a taste of your individual aesthetic in your browser makes your Internet experience that much more personal. Switching from Chrome to Safari actually feels like going back in time—shocking, I know. But Safari is just so monochromatic; I never want to stick around for too long for fear of all the gray and black sucking out my soul. With Chrome, it's also really nice not to have to download an add-on just to have browser themes (like you have to do with Firefox). It might seem like a tiny little 2-minute step, but it's still 2 minutes of my life that could be spent doing anything else. Google Chrome makes the whole process completely painless.

Easy access to recently closed tabs. Safari has a "Reopen last closed window" button, as well as a "Reopen all windows from last session," but sometimes you don't want to be constrained to either/or. Sometimes you want to see more than the last website you visited but fewer than the fifty that were open during your last session. Chrome gives you a lot more flexibility in that respect.

the bad

Unlike Safari, Chrome doesn't have a title bar at the top of the window. It's really annoying that I can't see the full title of the page I'm looking at unless I hold my mouse over the tab, and even then I shouldn't have to find a work-around for something so basic. The lack of visibility becomes a bigger problem when I have a lot of tabs open and I start accidentally closing out windows, not knowing what exactly I just closed. I'm sure there's a way to make the title bar visible, but that would take more work than I'm willing to exert. I don't know what would possess Google to remove such a standard feature from its browser, but I'm pretty sure it wouldn't take that much more time, labor, or effort to add it back in.

Speaking of title bars, I'm really used to double-clicking the title bar to minimize my browser window. However, since Chrome doesn't HAVE a title bar, I was caught off-guard the first time I tried to double-click my windows away. I kind of stared at the screen for a while before tentatively choosing a very thin sliver of window that wasn't occupied with a tab or some other button. Same goes for just dragging a window around your screen. It takes a lot more focus to aim your mouse because that thin strip of space doesn't really afford easy access.

Easy fix—add back the title bar and give users more leeway to grab onto the window. (Really, it's like killing two birds with one stone.)

Not being able to open all my bookmarks at once. In Safari, I have the option of opening all the bookmarks in a folder with just one click, but in order to do so in Chrome, I have to right-click on the folder to see my options—this lack of visibility makes my gulf of execution a lot wider. In Safari, I'd use the "Open all tabs" feature like fifty thousand times a day, but because it's harder to see what to do in Chrome, I'm finding that a lot of the time, I just end up not using my bookmarks nearly as often.

Redesign suggestion: Add an "Open all tabs" option in the bookmarks folder, like Safari has. Or maybe even cater to us drag-and-drop aficionados, and make it so that you can drag a folder into the navigation bar, which will open up all the bookmarks in that folder.

the ugly

Weird secret hidden key commands. In both Safari and Chrome, Command-W is a shortcut for closing the current tab you're looking at. In Safari, Command-Option-W closes out all windows EXCEPT for the current tab you're looking at, which might actually be one of the dumbest shortcuts I've ever encountered, seeing as the Option key is RIGHT next to the Command key, which makes it so easy to accidentally close out all the wrong tabs, which I've done many times before because I have clumsy fingers. In Chrome, Command-Option-W just closes out EVERYTHING, which might possibly be even more irritating. Similarly, Command-Q closes everything out and quits out of both browsers—however, with Safari, if you have more than one tab or window open, you get a pop-up message. No such message with Chrome—if you accidentally Command-Q your way out of the browser, you lose everything and have to reopen all your "recently closed" tabs again. Redesign suggestion (or demand, really): Get rid of Command-Option-W. So useless and hazardous for the accident-prone. Add an alert for every time you press Command-Q, so that you don't accidentally/blindly quit out of everything you're looking at.

48: mixtape - fall

2010-09-06T20:26:00.018-04:00

No album art or downloadable tracks this time -- just something to listen to while you're doing stuff on the Internet.

Tracklist:
Where I Stood - Missy Higgins
Where We Gonna Go From Here - Mat Kearney
Breathe - Taylor Swift
Buildings & Mountains - The Republic Tigers
Brown Trout Blues - Johnny Flynn
The Lengths - The Black Keys
Sleep - Azure Ray
In These Arms - The Swell Season
You Could Be Happy - Snow Patrol
How to Say Goodbye - Paul Tiernan
9 Crimes - Damien Rice
Lies - Glen Hansard and Markéta Irglová
Moon and Moon - Bat for Lashes
I Will Follow You Into the Dark - Death Cab for Cutie
Make This Go On Forever - Snow Patrol
Won’t Back Down - Mat Kearney
The Park - Feist
Bird Song Intro - Florence + the Machine

47: a critique assignment for which i got called out for not addressing aesthetics

2010-09-02T23:13:00.004-04:00

artifact

I'm looking at a Poland Spring's Grip-n-Flip water bottle, available at most convenience and grocery stores for less than two dollars. As far as water bottles go, this one designed fairly thoughtfully (although I did encounter some issues with the flip cap).

good elements

Poland Spring's Grip-n-Flip design differs from other water bottles in that the bottom half of the bottle curves in slightly and has textures and grooves that are supposed to help users grip the bottle more securely. The little textured bumps and lines don't actually help me hold onto the bottle that much better; if anything, the two textured sides of the bottle add a level of comfort to holding the bottle (it's almost like a massage for your fingers), and improve visibility by indicating more clearly where I'm supposed to put my fingers (in contrast, the rest of the bottle is relatively smooth). This bottle also has really nice affordances - two of the curved sections on the side of the bottle have three very subtle indentations, a perfect fit for small semi-cylindrical objects, like your fingers.

Another nice thing about this bottle is that it has a flip cap (as opposed to a twist cap) that makes it much easier for the user to drink water on the go. The flip cap's clear blue color stands out and makes it very visible to the user that it is probably an important feature on the bottle. The cap has this slight ledge that possibly affords wedging something into it - in this case, if you put your finger under it and apply a little pressure, the cap opens easily.

bad elements

If you're not used to drinking from a bottle with a flip cap, then there's probably a learning curve. It's not obvious that you have to push open the cap to drink water because there's not really a natural mapping to it; in fact, Poland Spring even lists instructions for opening and drinking from the bottle on the label because it's not intuitive. Another element that sucks is the fact that the cap pops open SO easily - whenever I have this water bottle in my bag, I have to make sure it's standing upright because it has a tendency to snag on my notebooks and leak water all over my belongings, which is really, really irritating and a definite liability.

other stuff

Of course, in my critique, I'm ignoring aesthetics (I actually prefer a smooth sleek water bottle - picture VOSS and smartwater - to one that is textured and somewhat unusually-shaped), as well as cost/sustainability (apparently Poland Spring's bottles are supposed to be really eco-friendly... less plastic is used, which means the bottle is thinner than most and more flexible, and flexibility affords bending and crushing, which is good when you want to recycle stuff, I suppose). There's also the fact that my Poland Spring fits nicely into a cup holder on a car, which is more than can be said for those square FIJI water bottles...

redesign suggestions

The label on my water bottle says, "The easy grip sports bottle from Poland Spring is designed to fit naturally in your hand, and in your life," and I think the first part is true... the latter, not so much. Some easy redesign fixes - first, add a small bar of plastic in between the cap and the mouthpiece so that there's more friction to keep the cap from accidentally being jostled and opening. Second, instead of making the "ledge" go all the way around the cap, designers could cut off part of it so that the user has a clearer idea of where exactly to push to open the lid. The smooth dip in plastic seems to be the perfect size for a finger to slide along; that simple little detail guides the users movements and actions very nicely.

As far as helping the user grip the water bottle better, Poland Spring could add bumps that are more heavily textured or made from a different material, or even add a handle, if they wanted - though some people might consider this too bulky an addition. In general, implementing these design ideas probably wouldn't cost a ridiculous amount, but it would make the product better and maybe more valuable to the user.

46: this post is dedicated to kanye west

2010-08-10T12:00:00.005-04:00

New video directed by Marco Brambilla. It's beautiful. One of the WSJ blogs has posted a lovely interview with Brambilla here. "It's not a video .. It's a moving Painting!!!" (via)

And here are some older but still fabulous artistic endeavors involving Kanye West:

Short film in which Kanye West portrays a drunk version of himself and then dies at the end. Directed by Spike Jonze. (Yeah, I know.)

Video for "Good Morning," produced in collaboration with Japanese artist Takashi Murakami.

This whole song is beyond stellar simply because, well, Daft Punk. Duh.

One word: Typography.

45: mixtape - dog days vol. 2

2010-07-27T14:02:00.010-04:00

Download (.zip): http://www.mediafire.com/?rh78ra2oloz3nzk
It is with great pleasure that I bring you the second installment of my summer playlist, featuring Johnny Flynn (le swoon... Purchase his new album, Been Listening when you can -- it's divine, I tell you! Divine!), Jessica Lea Mayfield (she has an amazing track record including a recent performance on A Prairie Home Companion, and she's only twenty!), and my British husband Bobby Long. Includes 16 songs that add up to just over an hour of absolutely fabulous sounds. May it prove to be excellent background music as you carry out the remainder of your dastardly/non-dastardly deeds.

Download (.zip): http://www.mediafire.com/?rh78ra2oloz3nzk

Tracklist:
McFearless - Kings of Leon
Stained - Blue Foundation
Blinding - Florence + the Machine
I'm On Fire - Bat for Lashes
Left to Lie - Bobby Long
The Lengths - The Black Keys
The Wrote & The Writ - Johnny Flynn
Various Stages - Great Lake Swimmers
I Don't Mind - Marcus Foster
The Bucket - Kings of Leon
Drumming Song - Florence + the Machine
Arizona - Kings of Leon
Hey Ya (acoustic) - Mat Weddle
Kiss Me Again - Jessica Lea Mayfield
Good Love - Bat for Lashes
Dog Days Are Over - Florence + the Machine

Download (.zip): http://www.mediafire.com/?rh78ra2oloz3nzk
Side note: I realize that most of the artists in this mix are tied someway or another to a certain vampire-related franchise, which skeeves me out a tiny bit... but it's also kind of reassuring to know that my aural aesthetic is evidently satisfactory enough to warrant some sort of entry into the world of OSTs. There may be hope for me as a soundtrack designer yet.

44: re: museum quality or market success

2010-07-20T22:00:00.025-04:00

(Second photo via The Dieline)

Last fall, Kraft Foods updated its natural cheese packaging to give it a cleaner, fresher feel. Goodbye to familiar lettering and vibrant colors -- hello to the new, minimal, sans-serif look. Interestingly, this same package design has now been scrapped from supermarkets, evidently due to poor sales performance.

In response to this apparent consumer snubbery of "good design," Michael Colton -- Director of Design and Strategy at Brandimage -- shares his thoughts in an opinion article on The Dieline (link).

I really love this point that he makes:

To understand design that works, you must evaluate design under a different lens than the one used to identify aesthetic beauty. Design that works seeps beneath consumer consciousness, while we are very aware and appreciative of museum quality. Design that works uses subtle visual cues such as beading water on glass or the reveal of the inner fleshy part of the fruit to trigger hunger and craving in the primitive brain. Design that works, sells volumes, while design that is beautiful is heralded in the design community.

If you have some time to spare (and if you're interested in design, packaging, buying things, etc.), do read the entire piece. It's a tad bit lengthy but a great read nonetheless.

43: the hidden world of girls

2010-07-19T12:14:00.001-04:00

Speaking of interesting projects in which you share personal things you've created, a few days ago, I found a brief feature on NPR, titled "Dear Diary: A Peek Inside The Pages Of Our Lives." (The story is just one brick in their Hidden World of Girls series, which you can keep up with in its entirety here.)

In short, NPR is compiling a database of intimate (private, confidential, innermost) diary entries from girls. With enough of these pages, NPR says, we can "form a comprehensive tapestry -- from elation to depression -- of life experiences. And give us insight into a world most people rarely see."

I really like the sound of this project. I don't know about you, but the idea of sharing secrets with strangers is just so appealing to me... especially given that so many of these strangers have probably, if not certainly, felt the same insecurities, fears, joy, sadness that I myself have gone through. What can I say? I'm a sucker for that common thread.

If this open diary call intrigues you as much as it intrigues me, you will find the following information useful:

How Can You Help? Submit pictures or scans of your diary's pages — or even the pages of your mother's diaries or grandmother's diaries.

How To Submit: Photos should be submitted through The Hidden World Of Girl's Flickr group. Or if it makes things easier, just upload them anywhere and leave us a link to the picture in the comments section. We will be getting in touch with you through Flickr mail or through the e-mail address provided when you sign up for an NPR community account. On Flickr, you'll know if you've submitted photos correctly if they show up here.

42: mixtape - dog days vol. 1

2010-07-15T00:26:00.010-04:00

Download (.zip): http://www.mediafire.com/?kgz0xzykyi3ztzj
It's hot here. And rainy. And humid. All at once. And I'm pretty sure someone has put my life on pause or something, because my days are going by very, very slowly... Welcome to the dog days of summer, right?

According to this mysterious thing called Brady's Clavis Calendarium, the dog days refer to the time when "the seas boiled, wine turned sour, dogs grew mad, and all creatures became languid, causing to man burning fevers, hysterics, and phrensies." Sounds awful.

...Awfully exciting, that is!

I'm happy to present the first part of my summer soundtrack, entitled dog days vol. 1. This mix consists of one hour, two minutes, and nine seconds of assorted tunes and dancey-dance music to accompany the boiling seas, mad dogs, and feverish, hysterical and/or frenzied people in your life. (I've included a smattering of lazier songs for you languid creatures, as well.)

Hope you love it as much as I do! Here's the tracklist, and cover art is posted above (click the thumbnails for bigger sizes):

Seasun - Delorean

U + Me = - Dan Black

Moth's Wings - Passion Pit

Blood Bank - Bon Iver

You're Gorgeous - Babybird

Make You Crazy - Brett Dennen & Femi Kuti

Amsterdam - Peter Bjorn and John

The King and All of His Men - Wolf Gang

Brackett WI - Bon Iver

I Feel It All - Feist

Something Good Can Work - Two Door Cinema Club

The Golden Floor - Snow Patrol

Untitled 06 - Brand New

Leaving You Behind (ft. Lykke Li) [explicit] - Amanda Blank
Soco Amaretto Lime - Brand New

Excuses - The Morning Benders

Download (.zip): http://www.mediafire.com/?kgz0xzykyi3ztzj
Check it out and let me know what you think. And of course, if you like what you hear, be sure to support these artists directly. Go to their shows (with me, preferably -- I love concert buddies, I need more), buy their music and merchandise, give them lots of love/cupcakes/secret handshakes/kisses, you know the drill.

41: the sketchbook project

2010-07-10T14:13:00.007-04:00

A few days ago, my friend Sam filled me in on a fun little piece of news... The Brooklyn Art Library is installing a permanent sketchbook collection, and is crowd-sourcing for content (ha, that sounds just as dopey in print as it did in my head). What I mean is, anyone from anywhere can participate in the exhibition -- you just have to pay $25 for a medium-sized Moleskine Cahier/Volant and other handling fees (the sketchbook is barcoded and catalogued so that it'll never get lost, and so you can have access to stats on how many people have looked through it, etc.).

It looks super neat, and you get the pride and satisfaction of being part of a collection that tours the country (it's coming to Atlanta in April 2011! Spring Break plans, anyone?). If you want to participate, you have to sign up here by Oct. 31, 2010, and finish and mail out your book by Jan. 15, 2011.

Loads more details and fun information at The Sketchbook Project.

And speaking of sketchbooks, these are a few of my own pages from 2007-2008 that I like for their haphazard yet endearing qualities. (Click for larger images.)

Swell. Well, I'm off to watch Germany kick some culo. Happy weekend!

40: i like wacom tablets

2010-07-07T00:32:00.016-04:00

I have every intention of purchasing a Wacom Bamboo Pen tablet -- instead of a tattoo as originally planned -- for my birthday, so I thought I'd gear up for the big day by displaying a small gallery of my favorite illustrations that have been done using a tablet.

Above are illustrations by the famous Kris Atomic -- she uses an Intuos for her design work and did a great post on her whole illustration process a few months ago (link). She has such a distinct style. I love.

These two were done by my friend Gizem Vural. She's an illustrator and graphic design student in Istanbul, and she is frickin' amazing! Seriously. All the quirky and precise details, the patterns that are so prevalent in all her work, the narratives that each piece tells... I'm sort of obsessed. You can keep up with Gizem via Tumblr (link).

Maria Diamantes is an illustrator from Barcelona. I really love the imperfections in her lines -- they sort of run into each other at times, they're kinda squiggly, they're not totally consistent, but they are still very detailed and clean. Her drawings all have a very quaint feel to them. It's always nice to see personality in an artist or designer's work.

These illustrations were done by Rita, a graphic design student in Colombia. Gorgeous line work, really lovely textures. The last one is my absolute fav.

39: shredded shirts and a serious update

2010-07-05T09:29:00.001-04:00

If Tim Burton paired up with Raquel Allegra to design a T-shirt for AT&T, this is what it would look like (give or take a bar):

In other news, I've been on a major "series" kick recently. I'm really good at making lists (also known as a series of points -- possibly also known as a line... har har har... okay, stop it, Tiffany), so I'll do that here, instead of just spitting out a giant blob of words.

Watching: FIFA World Cup 2010. This is technically a series, though I'm not sure anyone actually calls it that...
Listening: NPR's Tiny Desk Concert series, which I've been catching up on and love-love-loving.
Listening, continued: Currently, I'm also jamming to a series of super obscure, super recherché songs right now. Yeah. My vocabulary is so indie that I bet you had to look that one up. I'm so hip that I'm square.
Reading: The Chronicles of Narnia book series. (I'm half-way through Prince Caspian. I keep picturing Binbons as Caspian. It's awesome.)
Considering: The different "series"-related prompts in the Cooper Union hometests. When I'm bored or procrastinating, I stalk different applicants' hometests. This one is nice.
Viewing: My friend Sam's crazy, slightly sassy, completely brilliant series of photographs, entitled "You're My Little Cupcake".
Researching: A series of botanical journals.
Planning: My WK12 application, which will be a series of books. Or a series of something...-I-don't-know-what. I'm pretty sure I won't actually be sending this in, on account of I'm barely twenty, and I'm still highly lacking in life [and work] experience, and oh yeah, I'm still in school! Ha. Ha. But I consider it good exercise for my creative muscles, and it's also way less intimidating than doing Cooper's hometest for fun. Ha. I'll keep you posted on any project developments.

38: edward cullen piñata

2010-07-01T00:19:00.006-04:00

This is really just a quick housekeeping issue, but...

For those of you who are searching for Edward Cullen piñatas and keep finding yourself at my blog -- it's called Father Piñata, by the way... no Edwards with candy here, unfortunately -- please redirect your searches to the World of Piñatas, where you will find a very small but hopefully sufficient variety of Twilight-related piñatas for your party-throwing merriment. Additionally, you could always make your own if you have a strong hankering to bash in Edward Cullen's face, in particular. Okay, cool. Best of luck!

37: england in roo-ins!

2010-06-28T14:11:00.017-04:00

Due to the atrocity that was Sunday's Germany-England game, I've decided to temporarily leave my British accent in the vault.

From Daily Mail columnist Richard Littlejohn: "If The Few had defended as badly as England, we'd all be speaking German now." Talk about a sharp tongue. Zing!

Also, please view the following comments posted in response to Nike's Write the Future advertisement, which was first uploaded on YouTube a few weeks back (and which I wrote about here). I was amused:

Update: Curse of the Nike ad confirmed with Portugal losing to Spain this [Tuesday] afternoon.

36: tiffany's favorite office workplaces, summer 2010 edition

2010-06-25T11:47:00.005-04:00

No personal studios or home offices allowed. Factories and warehouses OK.

Liganova (link)

Photos via company promotional materials

Last summer, I worked at DDI Magazine as an editorial intern, which entailed all sorts of responsibilities, including but not limited to contacting PR reps to gather information, photos, and so forth. I got in touch with a lady who works at Liganova ("brand retail marketing" company), and she sent over a bunch of promotional materials. I fell in love with and screen-capped some photos of the company's offices, and am now sharing them with you. If this is illegal, I'd appreciate if someone could let me know in the comments. As soon as possible. Please. Kind thanks in advance!

NYLON (link)

Photos via The Selby

It's possible that I'll live and work in New York City someday after graduation. If I do, I hope to be able to spend my time in a place as charming as the offices at NYLON Magazine. I love the very open, airy feel of the place, the studio lights, the clean colors and the workspace set-up, the reference materials all along the walls. No cubicles here! Very young, very fresh, very alive-feeling. Perfect for putting together a bold, hip[ster] magazine. Just lovely.

W+K Portland (link)

Photos via W+K Portland

If you know me IRL, you may be aware of my slight obsession with this agency. The previous photos may help you better understand why. (By the way, I'm fairly certain that the tent and makeshift hammock in the third photograph are not actually permanent pieces in the building. Details here, if interested.) I've never seen pictures of the other W+K offices, so I can't be sure if this is just the "W+K style" or a Portland thing (two of my favorite things, incidentally -- W+K and PDX), but either way, it's fabulous and quirky and divine. I want my real-life home to look like this.

Ink & Dagger Tattoo Parlour (link)

I guess technically this is a studio, but it still qualifies to be in this list for a number of reasons. First of all, it is not called "Ink & Dagger Tattoo Studio." It is called a parlour. Second of all, the guy who opened the place -- Russ Abbott -- evidently decided to spell "parlor" the British way. And anyhow, everyone knows Brits do their own thing, so I've decided to take a leaf out of their book (oh, there's my idiom for the day) and ignore the few stipulations I've listed at the top of this post. Don't question my logic.

Photos via Ink & Dagger Facebook

I really adore this place. It's masculine, strong and bold, without being disgusting or dirty (sorry for the generalization, boys). It's not over-designed or -furnished. It feels very comfortable, warm, cozy -- which I imagine is perfect for people coming in to get tattoos for the first time, or for people who have long sessions ahead of them... Very classy, dare I say handsome, and it screams out -- in a polite, tactful tone of voice, of course -- a resounding "BITE ME" to all those who hold stereotypical views and misconceptions regarding tattoo artists.

Mast Brothers Chocolate Factory (link)

Photos via The Selby

Such a beautiful place to spend your day. All of the wood accents and warm brick walls make Rick and Michael Mast's Brooklyn chocolate factory a very welcome place, even during the early hours of the morning -- hah, at least, in my head this is the case. I really like the giant world map on the back wall, as well; gives it a bit of a rustic yet sophisticated feel. And of course, there's the obvious fact that this is a craft chocolate factory. 'Nuff said.

Other people's lists:
The Coolist: Office Design Excellence
Positive Sharing: 10 Seriously Cool Workplaces
Office Design Blog: Office Design
New York Magazine: An Inside Look at the Offices of...
Tutorial Blog: Cool Workspaces

What about you? Where's your ideal place to work?

35: volvo still thinks edward cullen is dreamy... but then again, who doesn't?

2010-06-23T11:29:00.020-04:00

It's not that I'm a big Twilight fan. Honestly. But whenever any Twilight-related ads come out, I can't help but be drawn to them. (So what if I find Robert Pattinson handsome as anything? I can't help it. He was made that way.)

I discussed Volvo's marketing approach for New Moon in an older post (click), and I'm sure you'll be thrilled to hear that, in conjunction with its Boston-based ad agency Arnold Worldwide, Volvo Cars of North America is launching another online campaign to promote its XC60. Excellent timing, of course, since Eclipse -- the third and sappiest installment of the Twilight franchise -- premieres in one week on June 30.

(I'm both slightly embarrassed and oddly proud to announce that I have a pass to see an advanced screening of Eclipse on June 29, courtesy of my friend Stephanie. Not Meyer.)

The campaign is called "Lost in Forks," and features print and TV advertisements starring RPattz and K.Stew, as well as an online game, developed by Euro 4D. The goal of the game is to reach the fabulous Cullen home "in the shortest number of steps, by successfully navigating a series of forks" (hah, forks... good one...). If you manage to find Edward's impossibly hidden house*, your name will be entered for a chance to win a Volvo XC60. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, you too can have Edward's personal car! Oh, Stephenie Meyer... you have worked such wonders for Volvo.

Apparently there are clues at each fork in the road, some of which are actually misleading (w-t-f?), so you really do have to know your Twilight stuff (update: no, you really don't). As the game goes on, you can click on things and find Easter eggs, which as far as I can tell, include brief little montages and video clips related to the film. Oh wait, I just found some wallpapers! You guys! Now I can have a line of newborn vampires on my desktop! Wow, Euro 4D. You went all out.


1024 x 768 right click save as, please	1280 x 1024 right click save as, please

Interested? You can play the game and check out the campaign here. Don't be ashamed. I've been playing it too. It's kind of convoluted and fun and REALLY difficult and also incredibly true to life, because if I had to find Edward's house on my own, I'd probably get lost a thousand times over. (Sorry to all the people who are Google-searching "how to find edward cullen's house" and ending up here instead! That said, I have finally found the Cullens' awesome home, after constructing a tree diagram to map my steps.) Lost in Forks, indeed.

(via)

*Seriously? No wonder the Cullens have no non-human friends... Can you imagine having to give directions to people? "You really should stay away from me. You might get lost in the forest and be eaten by wolves. It actually would be my fault this time." "It REALLY WILL BE like I never existed because you probably won't be able to find my house again, anyway!" Oh, Edward. How you underestimated Bella back in New Moon. It's like she's got a GPS system installed in her brain.

34: "concept promotion" does not sound fun, but it is -- promise

2010-06-22T23:43:00.015-04:00

It's been such a hectic yet non-hectic two weeks. My grandparents from Taiwan moved in for the summer, my grandmother got sick, my grandfather got sick, my dad got sick, my mother is now sick. Four out of six -- I'm probably next.

At any rate, I've been thinking about concept promotion for the past few months. I've decided to finally verbalise and organise these thoughts (and yes, I do mean verbalise and then organise -- please bear with me).

The phrase "concept promotion" makes me sound all high and mighty, but before you begin to judge me, I will qualify my imaginary terminology with a link to a website with all sorts of inspiring ideas -- actually make that two links; check out Colour Me Katie again -- as well as a video which you've probably already seen, since it's been passed around for ages already:

Both Colour Me Katie and Volkswagen's The Fun Theory are about incorporating fun into ordinary aspects of our lives (although the ultimate goal of the Fun Theory is to change people’s behaviours for the better, according to their website). In the past, Volkswagen has used fun and whimsy to encourage people to do stuff like putting their rubbish in rubbish bins, taking the stairs instead of the escalator, and recycling their glass bottles.

I'm super fascinated by this -- using true creativity and real interaction to advocate certain actions and/or ways of thinking, instead of promoting commercial products, places, things, as is typical in most advertising/marketing initiatives you encounter. (Get it now? "Concept promotion"? Yes/No? On second thought, it may be a bit of a sloppy generalisation; I'll be happy to clarify if need be...) It's just all so interesting to me.

I mean, all too often, we resort to new technology, new products, new this, new that, new everything, to resolve problems that we encounter. Why don't we try to nab problems at the source instead? You know, look at human behaviours, the way humans think -- study and understand what it means to be human. And then go from there. (Aside: That's pretty much what simplicity is, isn't it? Understanding the area of interest and extracting the essential? This is why simplicity works.)

Clearly, people like Colour Me Katie (sorry, her name is officially Katie Sokoler, which I've mentioned in a previous post, but she's still "Colour Me Katie" in my head) and Volkswagen get it -- they know that an inherent part of human nature is our affinity towards fun. Sure, you can logically convince someone to do something; you can scare me into exercising, you can tug at my heartstrings and make me donate all my money to your charity, you can leave me with no other choice but to do what you're asking... but when fun is involved, when you make me actually want to do more? Now, that's a horse of a different colour.

P.S. Wow, I feel my Persuasion and Social Influence class slowly creeping up on me again.

P.P.S. I think my until-now-unexpressed-and-subconscious goal has been to use some sort of outdated expression in every single one of my posts. Have you noticed this recurring pattern?

P.P.P.S. Why, yes, I do think I'm British.

33: cars and freedom -- we're 'merican, y'all

2010-06-06T16:17:00.019-04:00

Hear the roar of the crowds... the buzzing in the stadium... foreign accents galore... It's World Cup season, baby! This is exciting in its own right, of course, but also for Father Piñata in particular, because it means lots of exciting new advertising campaigns and television spots to be seen, discussed, and snarked at! (And oh, is there lots of snark ahead... Take it with a grain of salt, hah.)

For example, the Dodge Challenger "Freedom" commercial from W+K Portland debuted today after the first half of the South Africa-Mexico game, and I found it to be both fascinating and slightly effed up.

Actually, if I must be honest, I was a little offended the first time I watched it, simply because I feel somewhat of a greater though unfounded loyalty to England than to the U.S. (Hah, sorry -- no explanation there.)

But it also annoyed me that this commercial seems to have been developed from an overwhelmingly stereotypical American perspective of English culture, placing England in this outdated, stuck-in-the-past kind of light, which is really quite unwarranted and makes no sense whatsoever... Bah, do your research before you knock other countries for entirely unsubstantiated things. Not to mention, the entrance of George Washington and his men is a little doltish, like we're the jerks who think we own the world, with our -- with our -- "panache" was the word used in the press release.

Oh, don't mind me. I'm just irritated and bitter. This commercial makes Americans look silly. And forget about the fact that a good handful (nine of 23!) of the American players were trained in England. No big.

That said, at least the execution is nice. Lovely colors, the way the red pops against the muted green-gray background. Plus, given that this TV spot is clearly a "hoorah-let's-kick-England's-butt-tomorrow!" message of inspiration, you can't help but be a little more lenient on the ad as a whole... or something like that.

32: bad press? broken promises? beastly plight?

2010-06-03T23:37:00.007-04:00

Surely by now you are well aware of the epic mess that BP has made in the ocean. It's devastating and beyond infuriating. I read this comment on an online news article, and I feel the need to share it with as many people as possible. Paul says: "I don't understand how this has been allowed to continue for so long without criminal charges. If I started to pour mass amounts of oil into my local river and lake, I'd be charged for sure. Poor animals." This point is exactly what Bruce Monger, my oceanography professor from Fall '09, keeps trying to instill in us.

Bruce runs a website/blog called It's My Ocean. I'm just going to copy and paste his post on the concept of ocean ownership, because he explains it so well:

This site is devoted to promoting a realization within ordinary people that they, as individuals, own all of the ocean and its content. The hope is that when people feel a personal sense of ownership they will feel empowered to insist that no one be allowed to mess it up.

The analogy I give to the students in my oceanography class at Cornell is that lots of people in the world who read about an oil spill in the ocean will often react the same way they would react to reading an article in a newspaper about someone else’s house being broken into. They have some momentary level of sympathy for the poor guy who had his house broken into and then they move on the next page without much more thought. However, if their own house was broken into, they would be much more upset and they would scream for law enforcement to find the criminal and they absolutely would not rest until the criminal paid for the damages they caused. Well… the ocean is YOUR ocean! And when you read about an oil spill you should see it as someone spilling oil into YOUR ocean and react just as if they dumped a bunch of oil inside your house! The ocean is not owned by the oil industry. The ocean is not owned by the fishing industry. YOU own the ocean! You have a right to say, “Stop taking all of MY fish out of MY ocean!” You have a right to say, “Get your crummy oil out of MY ocean!" You have a right to say, "I am sick and tired of others coming into MY ocean and messing it up!”

The ocean is not somebody else’s property. You-Own-The-Ocean – Plain and Simple!"

Yes, both BP and the government are getting a ton of flack for the way they are/are not handling everything, and it's leading to some crazy, crazy responses, but we can't always use other people and entities as scapegoats. It's not just about what BP has and hasn't done. It's not just about what President Obama has and hasn't done. It's also about what we have and haven't done -- what we've allowed to happen with our habits and our purchasing power -- what we haven't protested or stood up for.

That said... yes, BP is still responsible for its actions and the outcomes of those actions, which, unfortunately, are proving to be but a drop in the bucket. Greenpeace UK, for one, has had enough, and is now working on an international "rebranding" effort for the company. Straight from their website: "BP's slick green logo doesn't suit a company that wants to invest in tar sands, the dirtiest oil there currently is. We're inviting you to design them a new logo that's more suitable for their dirty business." Very scathing... and sadly, this resentment is not wholly unfounded. The entire gallery of entries can be found at their Flickr page.

I think it's safe to say that Greenpeace is running an interesting little concept, but frustration alone won't change things. People may be more aware of the BP brouhaha, but we still have a very long way to go.

31: wieden+kennedy's new nike campaign

2010-05-23T21:42:00.004-04:00

Finally home in Georgia after two neverending weeks of studying, finals, interviews, packing, and being sick. I'm going to make this brief so I can finish watching the Brooks & Dunn tribute concert (heh) and call it a night, but check out Nike/Wieden+Kennedy's new international "football" (soccer) campaign. Please also keep an eye out for my husband, Gael García Bernal.

LOVE. More details from W+K London's blog:

The epic TV spot, written by W+K London’s own seasoned veteran Stuart Harkness and fresh-faced youngster Freddie Powell, showcases a series of international football stars in their quest for victory and shows how one moment can be met with heroic achievement or defeat, sending a ripple effect across the globe. Some of the world’s best players, including Wayne Rooney (sporting a ginger beard), Cristiano Ronaldo, Didier Drogba, Fabio Cannavaro, Franck Ribery, Andres Iniesta, Cesc Fabregas, Theo Walcott, Patrice Evra, Gerard Pique, Ronaldinho, Landon Donovan, Tim Howard and Thiago Silva are featured. Special guest cameos are made by tennis legend Roger Federer, basketball superstar Kobe Bryant and even Homer Simpson. To bring the film to life W+K partnered with renowned Hollywood director Alejandro González Iñárritu.

30: the nook has a nook

2010-05-01T21:41:00.012-04:00

My second year at Cornell is winding down (finally, and yet so soon), and I am frantically trying to juggle group projects and last assignments (and personal side projects, as always). As part of my Business Management final project, I've spent the past 3 days doing research on Barnes & Noble's Nook eReader and analyzing it according to the 4 P's framework (product, price, place, promotion). Of course, the promotion part is the most interesting to me, so I thought I'd share with you the TV spot that Barnes & Noble has been using to promote its Nook.

I wouldn't say I'm particularly captivated by this commercial, but it definitely carries a sweet sentiment to it, and certainly there is something very sharp about the link between individual and technological evolution, if you will -- from child to teen to college student to a mother-to-be; from picture books to hardbacks to eBooks on digital readers. It really brings home the idea of the Nook as "the only eBook Reader from the bookstore you've grown up with."

Given that B&N and Amazon are major competitors, it's kind of exciting to see B&N finally really leveraging its retail store presence. I mean, I sat between bookshelves, looking at Beverly Cleary books when I was just a six-year-old baby. I did the whole "Friday night movie at Regal/sugary drink from Starbucks/debauchery at Barnes & Noble" special as a semi-autonomous pre-teen (just kidding on the debauchery part). I wrote college entrance essays just a few years ago, curled up in little Barnes & Noble armchairs with US News reports on either side (don't judge).

It's easy to hate on Barnes & Noble for being this big corporation -- you know, the type of mega-bookstore that tried to kill Meg Ryan's business in You've Got Mail -- but through this advertising campaign, Barnes & Noble is reminding us all that their bookstore has been a place we've been able to consider home for much, if not all, of our lives. And it's good that they're bringing that to the forefront of their campaign, because it implies that the introduction of the Nook is not just some out-of-the-blue push to get market share in the eBook industry. Instead, it feels like a natural progression, and makes the Nook seem that much more integrated with the rest of the Barnes & Noble brand.

29: bringing the ocean to ithaca

2010-04-30T15:26:00.004-04:00

Thanks to Jess, my friend and resident partner in crime, I recently discovered Color Me Katie, a blog that has quickly risen to my top five list of favorite reads. Run by Brooklyn street artist Katie Sokoler, this blog is filled with color and imagination and playfulness and cheer... It's divine. It's charming. It's whimsical.

It makes us happy -- so happy, in fact, that Jess and I have decided to bring our own artistry to the streets (walls, sidewalks) of Cornell University in Ithaca, NY.

Here's what we started with:

Some of our ocean friends decided to join us. Our squid went for a swim in the rain.

The diver from Finding Nemo made an appearance.

A dolphin/porpoise joined the party.

Here we are! Look at you, Jess. You're a champ.

(P.S. Here's a quick side project we did, involving magical steps.)

Sparkle on, world. Sparkle on.

28: when a relationship goes "facebook official"

2010-04-20T21:15:00.022-04:00

These days, who doesn't know what it means to like something on Facebook?

Joe just posted a picture of him and his new 'stache -- you like this. Bob Saget might make an appearance at Slope Media Group's Earth Day celebration -- you like this. [He didn't show up, by the way. Whatever.] I'm willing to make the sweeping assumption that Facebook's "like" feature is the one social media quirk that we all wish we had in real life. (There's a llama on Ho Plaza? Automatic like!)

Simply stated, we like to like. And lucky for Facebook, too. This little notion puts them in a prime position to stir up a lot of buzz in the marketing/advertising industry, especially given the recent replacement of their "Become a fan" feature with the "Like" button.

The interesting thing about liking something is that it doesn't require much commitment. You can "like" as many things as you want. (We do this all the time in the physical world; we like colors, we like food, we like events that take place.) In contrast, people are typically more cautious to actually become a fan of those same things. Announcing to the world that you are a fan of a company or a person just seems to demand and indicate more enthusiasm and more devotion toward that name.

Becoming a fan versus liking really seems to boil down to the level of commitment you're willing to offer. It's kind of like dating versus being "just friends." Just because I like hanging out with my boy friend doesn't mean I want to actually call him my boyfriend. (Take note, boys.)

Now that Facebook has done away with its "Become a fan" option, companies don't have to worry as much about commitment. They can gather multitudes of fans and followers without too much difficulty. Customers can get involved way more easily because they don't have to climb over any sort of significant barrier.

I wonder, though, if this change will have implications for consumer action. Several of the articles I've read seem to suggest that with the replacement of the "Become a fan" feature with the "Like" feature, more people will be both willing and inclined to "like" brands, and their approval will nudge their friends and family and possibly their general network to develop an interest in the brand.

It's sort of this idea of referrals, right? We trust and value what our significant others, family, and friends think. If Jamie likes Cost Plus World Market, then I will think to myself, Well, maybe it's worth checking out. Similarly -- but on a different plane of understanding -- as humans, we have a desire to be accepted and approved by others, so it's possible that if my friends "like" Chick-fil-A on Facebook, then I might try to like -- in real life -- Chick-fil-A too, for the sake of social validation.* (Of course, this is totally my own personal speculation/theorizing... but it's certainly something to consider.)

However, at the same time, since we are very used to Facebook-liking everything, it's very plausible that as we "like" more and more pages, our actions and the attitudes that we hold toward a company and convey to our contacts will become less meaningful. Think along the lines of "boy who cried wolf."

Just based on my intuition, it seems that becoming a fan of Procter & Gamble has a much stronger connotation than simply liking Procter & Gamble. Liking is milder -- more mild? -- than being a fan; it requires less allegiance. In general, I am more willing to respect the opinions of people who are devoted to a brand, because I assume that those people are devoted for a reason. It gives me more incentive to try out the company's products or services. (And this is half the battle, isn't it? To merely get your market to try out what you're offering?)

In conclusion, I have no answers. Will Facebook's Like feature be successful at developing and retaining customer loyalty? Who knows? There are so many factors associated with it, so many nuances... but it's a fascinating dynamic, that's for sure, and it's one that we can all keep our eyes on.

*I don't feel that social validation kicks in as much when you find out people are "fans" of something. "Fans" tend to be at more extreme ends of the spectrum, so generally speaking, we might not feel the need or obligation to identify as much with them. However, when two people like the same thing, they are usually brought closer together, so in that sense, "liking" seems to have a greater impact on relationship development -- at least on the surface. Going along with this train of thought, if we find that our friends/family/significant others/crushes "like" certain brands, we might be more inclined to try out the same brand, simply to increase our chances of being favorably received and accepted by the others.

27: what ever happened to inner beauty?

2010-04-15T20:59:00.013-04:00

There are some days when I'm just in love with packaging and all the brilliant designers who are thoughtful about what they want to say and what they want people to think about. Passion + awareness + consideration + skill = staggering results. Truth!

Unfortunately, it appears that not all copy-writers, designers, and companies stop to consider the full repercussions of their messages. Many seem to take a concept (weight loss, or body mass index, as you're about to see) and hone in on it to the point that they get tunnel vision. All they can think is, "My message hits the spot exactly and completely," and as a result, they end up ignoring all the other ways people could interpret the same few words.

I think that this is what happened with General Mills' Multigrain Cheerios cereal box.

The intention of the packaging is to promote good health -- and there is absolutely nothing wrong with wanting to live a healthy lifestyle -- but it does so in an extremely unsophisticated way.

Image from Multigrain Cheerios' corporate website
Two things that immediately stood out to me:

(1) There are a lot of SMALL THINGS you can do every day!
Notice the typography: Because of the weight and capitalization of the text, the phrase "small things" is what stands out to you. It's almost as though "small" should be your focus within that whole statement.

(2) The slogan "More grains, less you!" is a clever play on semantics. "Less you" refers to less of you physically. Less body fat, less "excess," less "glut," less you.

The phrasing is certainly clever, but it is also incredibly distasteful at the same time (not that "distasteful" automatically means "bad" -- sometimes we get a kick out of things that are distasteful. Sometimes companies do well with "distasteful"). But in this case... seeing as Multigrain Cheerios are a widespread commercial product, I'd say it would be in General Mills' best interest not to offend its market, no? Whether consciously done or not, the company is promoting the idea of body as identity. You = your fat. You = your body mass. Let's aim for less you!

As a woman, I understand the importance of having the ideal weight, the perfect shape, tiny arms and slim legs. I get it. I really do. In a world where, like it or not, we are bombarded with images of beautiful people, the rich and famous, stick-thin models, all the clichéd perceptions of beauty... how can we not want -- to some extent, at least -- the same for ourselves? We all want to be fawned over, complimented, admired for our physical appearance, the shapes of our bodies, our external features...

It's okay to want to be seen as beautiful. There's nothing wrong with that. But it can become an obsession, an extreme, and it turns into an issue when we look in the mirror and see "portion control," or "double chin," or -- heaven forbid -- "more grains, less you."

There are many, many, many, many people and campaigns out in the world, fighting against this type of self-identification, this idea of weight and BMI as an indication of allure and level of happiness. Unfortunately, Cheerios is one brand that does not seem to be doing much in the way of this.

26: owning it

2010-04-10T01:42:00.027-04:00

Last month, there were a lot of deaths at Cornell. It brought on a bunch of preventative measures, like all the professors reminding their classes of "resources" they could use, like the "Lift Your Spirits" rally on the Arts quad, like all sorts of Facebook groups in which community support is the theme of the day... But none of these measures were so controversial as the installation of temporary fences alongside the bridges all over campus.

This sparked the creation of Facebook groups such as "Don't fence us in!" as well as an outpour of actions to make the fences a little less of an eyesore. In the month that the fences have been constructed, I've seen fake flowers stuck in the chain links; little wooden signs of bees and butterflies and positive words; streamers; Hawaiian leis... I've seen fences painted red and blue and yellow and green, just to bring some life into the gray... Someone even bought several potted plants and real flowers to set along the bridges.

Yes, having fences to prevent people from jumping off bridges and killing themselves is a depressing notion. But it doesn't have to be just that. It could be so much more. Imagine a fence filled with "graffiti," all the things that make people smile. Bright ribbons. Key chains. A bulletin board of people who want to share a little bit of themselves with the campus, who want to bring a little beauty to a wall of mesh.

It's all about creativity. Taking something that exists and giving it a life of its own.

I wrote all of the above yesterday afternoon. Later in the evening, I attended a special Friday night Christian fellowship with lots of different Christian fellowships on campus. Afterwards, we had a post-fellowship activity that involved dividing into teams, targeting locations all over Cornell's campus, and chalking.

Chalking, for those of you who don't know, involves using chalk (duh) on sidewalks to publicize or promote events, organizations, ideas, and so forth. In light of the recent suicides here, and also because we wanted to spread love to the Cornell community, we decided to chalk encouraging Bible verses on North Campus, Central Campus, and in the Engineering and Ag quads.

My team was one of the two groups that went all the way up to North Campus, and we chalked on the sidewalks along Thurston Bridge. Materials: a big box of Crayola sidewalk chalk, our hands, four other lovely women with great minds and resourcefulness.

I offered to write and draw out all the text -- all my time spent drawing block letters has finally paid off... sweet -- and we each embellished. We made it a point to use a lot of colors, but we also ensured that they corresponded with the words (light blues and lavenders and soothing turquoises for "rest," for example), so that people would get the message even more. It was fun to consider what we know about people's attention spans and to then use that information to guide our chalking strategy.

I'm proud of all of us. We spent a considerable amount of time in the cold (34 degrees, man! and windy!), bruising and scratching our hands and knees, rubbing our fingers into chalk dust to blend colors and get them to stay... but it was well worth it to attract the attention of cars passing by, of students walking home, of kind words and open conversations with strangers. We poured our love out into our work, and I think it showed.

A senior girl walked by and commented that she absolutely loved what we were doing; that our chalking was one of the best she'd ever seen; that she was happy to see us bringing color to this place; that she was delighted that we were just hanging out and relaxing and spending time with friends; that she was glad to see us doing a little bit to make these fences our own. "Making these fences our own." What a great way to put it.

You might not be given the best or most favorable situation, resources, etc., but it's up to you to change that. Bring yourself to the project. Commit and give it your all. Make it your own. Content is important, but emotion -- expressing ours and appealing to yours -- is what makes things stick, what makes you even consider what we have to say in the first place.

Sadly, it's supposed to rain on Sunday (it's currently snowing now!), but with luck, tons of students, faculty, and staff will get to walk by it and appreciate what we've chosen to speak. Visit my Flickr to see more photos.

25: speaking of innovation or lack thereof

2010-04-08T16:37:00.025-04:00

AT&T is rolling out a rebranding campaign, drawing attention to itself as a foward-thinking lifestyle and innovation company under the theme "Rethink Possible."

The whole effort is being headed by Esther Lee (Senior VP of Brand Marketing and Advertising). This woman is intense. She used to be the Global Chief Creative Officer for Coca-Cola, and before moving to AT&T, she worked as the CEO of Global Brands for North America at Euro RSCG (!!!). Yeah... she's legit.

Apparently, the campaign is stemming from the whole Verizon vs. AT&T 3G fiasco that popped up back in November. You know what I'm talking about...

Verizon busted out with its "Yo AT&T, I'm really happy for you... I'mma let you finish... but we have the best 3G of all time! Of all time!" commercials.*

And then you had AT&T responding with a lawsuit that went nowhere, and Luke Wilson standing around, trying to prove to the world that AT&T rules... (Comparative ads, what up!)

(This is their "Marbles" spot. Marbles. As in, "Verizon has lost its marbles." Oh, ho ho. I see what you did there. So clever, AT&T.)

(Oh, Luke Wilson. You're charming. You really are. But I must say, I prefer your Wes Anderson films immensely.)

In general, shifting away from "telecommunications" to "lifestyle and innovation" is a smooth move. I like this quote from Robert Passikoff, President of New York-based Brand Keys, a consumer & brand loyalty research company: "Selling on price is a pathway to commoditization. The only way to get out of that is to have the brand stand for something meaningful to consumers." (via the New York Times) +2 for staying away from marketing myopia and getting the bigger picture, you know?

However, as a consumer, knowing that this campaign was at least partly sparked by Verizon's little, uh, blitz makes me wonder if this whole rebranding strategy isn't just another "surface" move. I'm hesitant to trust in companies who rebrand as a reaction to competitors. It just seems less purposeful, less guided, less directional.

Not to mention... besides AT&T's U-verse service (which is still slowly being implemented in residential communities... I haven't gotten it yet, but apparently my neighbors down the street have), I can't think of anything particularly innovative that the company does... It all just feels very contrived to me, as in, "We're calling ourselves an innovative company! Look how innovative we are! See? See? Aren't we innovative?!" So... I'm really hoping their rebranding "strategy" doesn't end up being all talk. Good or bad, it'll definitely be interesting to see where this all goes.

Some places worth checking out/keeping an eye on:
Rethink Possible (corporate website)
AT&T trying to convince you that it's innovative -- Successful? Unsuccessful? You be the judge
AT&T research labs - Proving that the company is indeed innovative (if you can get through all the technical jargon and research terminology, that is)

(via Advertising Age)

*Okay, okay. Yes. I know this is so 2009, but secretly I can't get enough of it. Don't judge me.

24: on innovation & popping bubbles

2010-04-07T23:05:00.006-04:00

Oh, blog. I've missed you. It's been a while. This semester has consisted of: lots of dabbling in new ventures, new student organizations, new conversations with new people; exploring different avenues, not knowing what I'm doing; flowing and challenging myself like never before. Scary, yes, but deliciously rewarding in its own way.

I've got legitimate content coming soon, bookmarks and folders of things -- old and new -- that keep sneaking into my mind, so I will share in the very near future. Promise!

23: good ads make me happy -- fact

2010-01-13T23:17:00.010-05:00

Charming, charming TV spot from Try, Oslo for Flax Instant Lottery:

It's a sweet little commercial. And um... scruffy foreign men make me happy too.

And here's one from Definition 6 for Coca-Cola (tell me this doesn't make you smile):

Nothing says "You are awesome" to the consumer like a person in a vending machine giving you complementary Coke and flowers...

(via Creativity Online)

22: merry christmas from anthopologie

2009-12-24T12:29:00.009-05:00

"Anthropologie has stolen my heart. And my money." Truer words have never been spoken. Sort of.

Anyway...

Not only does Anthropologie always have some of the loveliest winter store decorations, but their e-mails are charming, to boot.

I received this image in an e-mail this morning, and I lurves it. The cut-out, handwritten quality to it is sweet and rather endearing. The swirls add a quaint, flirty touch, but the woodgrain keeps it from looking too frilly/froofy (though, if I'm to be honest, I'm actually quite partial to frilly/froofy).

So very lovely...

Hope you all have a merry Christmas! I'm off to Orlando for a few days to bask in the magic that is Disney World. Can't wait! In the meanwhile, take care and enjoy your time off from work/school!

21: wine labels at whole foods

2009-12-21T14:17:00.007-05:00

My sister and I were shopping at Whole Foods last week when we stumbled upon their wine racks, which were filled with all sorts of lovely contemporary labels. Here are a few images for your viewing pleasure:

Look at the typography on this one... So snooty, I love it! And um, it's pink.

Words that come to mind: sxe, vegan, -xcore, tattoo. I imagine the customer of this product to be a dude with a beard and tattoo sleeves (featuring zombies, deer, owls, Frankenstein, etc.). And maybe an eyebrow piercing. (Oh... this is bad. Isn't it? This whole "me cataloguing/stereotyping the consumer of a product based on the appearance of a product" thing? But then again... Oh, let's just chalk it up to me being intensely shrewd and perceptive about market segmentation, ha!)

Many apologies in advance, but this label is more than somewhat tacky. Interesting, yes, but so tacky that it's sticking to my shoes...
There have been a lot of really clever packaging ideas popping up in the wine industry, so it's nice to at least see some of that creativity physically manifested...

Please also view: Toast-its, a collection of wine bottle "greeting cards." (via The Dieline)

20: stop motion, pt. 2

2009-11-27T15:41:00.006-05:00

In continuation of my previous post featuring Target's [obviously] Oren Lavie-inspired commercial, here are a few more stop-motion commercials... but this time, Procter & Gamble and Amazon are the ones who have jumped on the bandwagon. (Okay, so... I know these commercials aren't especially new -- at least, the Bounce Dryer Bar commercial is not -- but to my credit, I've had very little television access for the past 3-1/2 months!)

19: volvo thinks edward cullen is dreamy

2009-11-01T17:17:00.009-05:00

Oh geez. Well, it's about time. With Twilight's ridiculous popularity, I'm actually surprised it didn't happen sooner. What am I talking about, exactly? Volvo, the automobile corporation known for safety, has taken its brand identity to a whole new level by adhering itself -- officially -- to the Twilight phenomenon.

Edward Cullen, the brooding heart-throb vampire in Stephenie Meyer's book series, drives a volvo. Why? Because it's fast and slightly less flashy than, say, his "sister" Rosalie's bright red convertible. And evidently, Volvo is getting a kick out of this, because they've launched a new website called "What Drives Edward" (click). Talk about a co-branding co-op.

Favorite features on the website:

- The description: "There's more to life than a Volvo. There's having the power to keep safe what you hold most dear. That's why you drive one."

- "What Edward drives may soon drive you." Nice.

- "Volvo XC60 as seen in New Moon" and "Volvo C30 as seen in Twilight."

The website also features all of the available New Moon trailers, as well as images of the new car model and promotional shots from the movie. I love this whole thing more than words are able to describe.

And of course, you have to check out the advertisement:

18: desktop puke

2009-10-10T19:38:00.004-04:00

It's been two weeks. I've been busy... I've been sick. Simultaneously. It's kind of sucked. But now I am no longer sick. Still busy, but I'm making space for the world. These are the images that have been reappearing in my mind even when my eyes are closed:

(via Erin Jane Nelson)

(via vacantlots)

(via Maira Kalman)

(via gridlockcaravans)

(via E V △ Y Z)

(via lookatthisfuckingtriangle)

Paper and pen, 35mm film and a hotshoe flash, they're all calling my name... It's almost enough for me to get up and go. Everything I shoot will go in triangles this semester.

In other news, October is hitting me beautifully, overwhelming me with the orange and yellow and clouds and gray. I've learned that when it comes to your surroundings, sometimes you just have to shrink your perspective down to the little details, so that you can properly appreciate the view... and perhaps all the little things that make up a life? Perhaps.

17: fall bargains from better world books

2009-09-23T13:27:00.003-04:00

Received in an email...

That's all.

16: understanding design errors: pesky desk

2009-09-19T12:46:00.012-04:00

(Written for Comm 2450)

As we all know, poor design exists everywhere. Sometimes things are designed ugly, which is unfortunate, but still tolerable. Other times, things are just really badly conceptualized, and that is another issue altogether.

My roommate Alice thinks that her desk in our shared room in Cascadilla Hall is one very pertinent example of horrible conceptualization. When Alice does work, she's always got books open to her left and right, with handouts, notebooks and papers everywhere in between. However, her desk in Cascadilla makes it hard for her to use all her desk space, in the way that she needs to use it.

Alice: "I wish the space under the desk were bigger. I want to use the entire desk. They give you all this room to work, but since you can't move your chair very far, you can't even use it."

(via Computer Desk Info)
The entire smooth, level, wood surface of the desk affords holding materials and being written on, but the mapping of the desk makes it so that you can't even access that space effectively. The space beneath the desk affords putting your chair and legs into it; but since it's positioned under the right half of the desk, once you're sitting in the way that the design “forces” you to, you realize you can only comfortably access the right side of the desk. You really have to crane your body and neck in order to reach and see whatever notes/textbooks you put on the left side of the desk.

Alice's current solution is simply to move her chair to the center of the desk, even though it doesn't fit. It's not very comfortable, and she resents how the space beneath the desk acts as a "forcing function" that designates the way she manages her workspace. She doesn’t understand why she should have to cater to the design in the first place.

The desk is an everyday object she has to deal with. To the designer, it's probably just a simple, standard dormroom desk, but to Alice, its poor design makes it a hassle to use. There seems to be a gap between the designer's mental model of how the desk should be used, and Alice’s mental model.

However… based on what Donald Norman has to say about designers pleasing their clients (who may or may not be the end users themselves), I suppose this issue of poor design is, in a way, to be expected. From a practical point of view, if they got rid of the drawers and just left an empty space for you to move your chair as you like, students would inevitably complain about not having enough storage space in their desk. If they moved the empty space to the middle and had drawers on either side, the desk would inevitably have to be larger, to accommodate an appropriate drawer size and an appropriate chair size... and let's be real -- buyers for Cornell housing know that if our desks were any bigger, they wouldn't fit in the room at all. Unfortunately, it's just like being stuck between a rock and a hard place.

15: let's get physical: white-out vs. the delete key

2009-09-15T14:45:00.007-04:00

(Written for a Comm 2450 blog assignment)

Over the past two years, my pencil usage has dropped significantly... These days, the only writing instruments I ever use are black or blue pens. However, seeing as I am a complete neat freak when it comes to taking notes, my exclusive use of ink leaves me in a bit of a mess, making my BIC Wite-Out correction tape an absolute necessity for me.

For starters, it is physically constrained by the amount of correction tape in the dispenser, 33.3 ft. The correction tape spool cannot rip, either, or else the entire object will no longer function. The actual shape also molds its use. To operate it, the tip has to be held at an angle, with constant pressure applied to it, and on flat paper, as it doesn’t really adhere to plastic or anything particularly textured. Furthermore, once you white-out something, there’s no way to “undo” it, so you have to be sure you want to get rid of the text in the first place.

Defunct BIC Wite-Out tape
Cultural constraints: Our current generation knows the use of correction tape because it's been around for so long -- since the age of typewriters and fax machines. We understand that it’s not meant to be used as actual "tape" to hold things together, nor for entertainment purposes (see video below). It exists to cover up errors made with ink -- mistakes that are otherwise un-erasable. Additionally, culture advises us to use correction tape on white paper, so that it doesn't stand out on the page. Similarly, you also don’t want to use your Wite-Out TOO much because then your paper will look messy and un-presentable.

Wite-Out tape on a fan...?
For those of us who rely primarily on virtual measures for taking notes and writing papers, the "delete" key on keyboards is an alternative method for correcting content.

It is physically constrained by the actual, tangible object itself: The delete button must be pressed down on -- it certainly doesn't afford much else.

From a virtual perspective, however, its use requires that you have a text box open. Otherwise, it won't function like you want (e.g., if you have an Internet window open, and you’re not typing in a text box, but you press the delete key, the Internet window will return to the previous page you were viewing, rather than remove text). Also, the text document cannot be "read-only" -- you need to be able to actually edit it.

Cultural constraints of the delete key include the “delete” label on the key, which explicitly indicates its function -- we understand this meaning through our knowledge of language. From our observations and understandings of culture, we also know that holding down on it allows for a continuous stream of deletion, whereas repeatedly pressing down on it deletes characters individually. We also know not to pound on the delete key over and over, because it makes a racket, and people will stare or find it disruptive (remember the scene in “You’ve Got Mail” where Tom Hanks doesn’t know how to respond to Meg Ryan’s email? He keeps coming up with different things to say, but ends up deleting his emails letter by letter, in annoyance).

Physical constraints as applied to virtual objects are tricky since the actual constraints are themselves only virtual and not self-evident. However, in the virtual world, you have outs that aren’t necessarily present in the physical world. For instance, when you accidentally delete something, you often have the ability to “undo” your action and recover your text, whereas if you accidentally Wite-Out something, you might forget what it is you just corrected, and lose that information forever.

Also, unlike Wite-Out, the delete key allows you to make as many mistakes as you want. The final, clean copy will not expose any of your deletions/mistakes. This influences the way we use each object, because if you’re writing a paper by hand, you’ll probably take more time and care into composing your thoughts, to keep from making mistakes while writing. When typing, though, you’ll probably work more quickly and less watchfully, because you’re under the assumption that you’ll be able to easily alter the text later.

14: artsy-fartsy friday

2009-09-11T21:45:00.025-04:00

"Artsy-Fartsy Friday" is an idea taken from Mr. Madden, my former almost-art teacher in high school. Every Friday, he'd show off something "artsy-fartsy" -- his words, not mine -- that he liked. Once, he played a clip from "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind" (the one where Joel's memory literally starts to crumble); another time, it was an indie musician that he'd found... Basically, the point was to expose us to different artists, styles, concepts, techniques -- you get the picture.

I want to do something similar here. So, for the first Artsy-Fartsy Friday of Father Piñata, I'd like to present to you...
Great Lake Swimmers!
Canada-based Great Lake Swimmers is the brainchild of singer-songwriter Tony Dekker, and could be genre-ly (ha) described as indie/folk rock. To date, the band has released four full-length albums: Great Lake Swimmers (which was recorded in an abandoned grain silo in southern Ontario), Bodies and Minds (recorded in St. Theresa's Church in Ontario), Ongiara (recorded in the Aeolian Hall in Toronto) and Lost Channels (recorded all around the Thousand Islands region in New York, including Singer Castle). All of these albums -- with the exception of Lost Channels, which I have not yet had the pleasure of hearing in its entirety -- are wonderful and very easy to listen to.

Now, reviewing music is not exactly my forte, but I absolutely adore this band, and cannot bear to leave you with simply "indie/folk rock," or "easy to listen to," so I will do my best to elaborate:

Listening to Great Lake Swimmers is like filling your soul with soft, folksy lullabies and simple yet starkly intimate lyrics -- much like waking up to a cloudy day, a cup of coffee and an empty bed. It's the day after your best friend moves away, and you find yourself wandering the neighborhood, looking at things on your own, seeing things you never really saw before. Like drinking chocolate milk and eating a grilled cheese sandwich with Dijon mustard and apple slices. Walking barefoot on carpet and hearing your feet slide across the floor; or perhaps sitting cross-legged on your bed, cutting out construction-paper hearts while the heater is humming behind you...

I know this description does little in the realm of "evaluating" Great Lake Swimmers. It doesn't describe the music, or the style, or the words Tony sings... but I figure, hey, if you want straight reviews, you can find them easily enough. Finding visuals, memories, concepts of how things sound, on the other hand... not so easy to come across. And if we're being perfectly honest, sometimes a vision carries more weight than words do. In the words of a couple of Cornell professors, language is complex and constrained by an awful lot of things. And so I leave you with some words, but also with images, sounds and other media to append to your vision of Great Lake Swimmers.

These are the covers of Great Lake Swimmers' four albums. To me, they are quite reminiscent of a high-school geography book. You know, kind of used, worn and torn, creased, crinkled, a little bit of heritage and history. I like how rustic and unassuming they are as a whole, also. Plainly stated, the album art does a great job of accurately representing the sound and feel of the music.

Make your own judgments:

(via NPR's Tiny Desk Concert)
"And the words tumble out of your mouth / like apples from a wild tree. / Mine, they spy out cautiously / like a creature from its cave... / My body aches for you, / and shakes for you, / sways for you, / and dances with your little woman body / long into the evening."

13: design hall of shame

2009-09-06T02:13:00.027-04:00

(Written for a Comm 2450 blog assignment)

Earlier tonight, I was thinking about some things I miss from home, namely a user-friendly kitchen, and easy access to Food Network so i can watch all my cooking shows. (Sure, I have cable in my dorm, but do I really want to try and navigate the 50 gazillion channels and 23948923 buttons on the remote? Yeah, not so much... but I suppose that's another post entirely.)

So anyway, all this ruminating about food, and kitchens, and user-friendliness got me thinking about the plethora of completely useless kitchen gadgets that are on the market... which in turn led me to the subject of this post: the overrated, under-criticized cake knife.

Seriously, who came up with this thing? You're supposed to be able to cut a cake with it AND use it to serve, but I'm convinced that not even the Food Network chefs themselves could properly and effectively work this thing. Let's take a closer look.

As far as affordances* go, you could say that the dull handle of the cake knife affords holding or grasping. The stainless steel affords applied pressure and getting dirty without being damaged. The pointed tip affords making holes and incisions. The serrated edges afford cutting, or at the very least, nicking a material. The slight dip between the handle and the blade affords supporting and leveraging or lifting... The functions of each element in the design are pretty intrinsic, I think.

However, while the cake knife's simplicity is a nice break from more complicated designs (such as the monster ultra-remote in my dorm), it allows for way too many conceptual models that differ from the actual, correct model -- for instance, the cake knife pictured above almost resembles a gardening or digging tool. People in other cultures might see it as some type of weapon. There are really just too many possibilities for its use.

Also, visibility^† is pretty minimal -- no buttons, labels, controls or blatant indications as to how to operate the thing -- but I suppose that comes with the territory. It is a very simple serving tool, after all. In fact, because it is so simple, the minimal visibility doesn't seem to be too much of a problem. As Donald Norman says, "When simple things need pictures, labels or instructions, the design has failed." I do have to point out, though, that lack of visibility can become a bigger issue when cake server designs get more and more... flamboyant. (one, two)

There is, however one thing I really like, and that is the shape of the cake server. You'll notice it's kind of triangular, which suggests that whatever it holds should be a similar shape as well. By taking advantage of the natural design of the cake knife, the user has an immediate understanding of what the slice of cake should look like when she uses the knife.

Unfortunately, though, the handy triangular shape is not enough to redeem the design as a whole, because overall, there is not ENOUGH mapping^‡ to suggest what you can actually do with the object.

Let's say you cut the cake and slide the cake knife under it so that now your slice is sitting on top of the server. Okay, then what? You can slide the knife back out; and if your cake comes out in one piece, and if the shape generally fits the server, you can tell that you've properly cut it. Instant visual feedback^§, right?

But how do you get the cake off the server without unceremoniously dumping it onto its side and making a hot mess? It's not really possible, unless you grab a fork or use your finger to leverage it onto a plate... and doing so would simply defeat the purpose of a cake "server" anyway. Not to mention, there's a sanitation issue in there somewhere. Ultimately, there is just no mapping to suggest any other way to operate it.

So in conclusion, down with the traditional cake server! I think these people are of the same opinion...

Here’s a brilliant, simple solution to the problem:

Magisso Cake Server from maxwellgillinghamryan on Vimeo.
(I love the comment on the Vimeo page, about how the guy doing the demo "can't help but laugh at how simple the product is, and how rich he is going to be." It's so true -- in a technology-laden world, simplicity slips our minds... which is quite ironic, since simplicity tends to be the one thing we really need more of.)

*affordances = "perceived & actual properties of how a thing could be used"
^†visibility = making controls "visible" to lead to easier use
^‡mapping = relationship between two things (e.g., controls & actions)
^§feedback = information sent back to user to reflect effects of an action

(via Swiss Miss)

12: surface magazine

2009-09-05T01:34:00.008-04:00

Blog. Oh, blog. How I long for the days of summer, when I could update every other day -- twice a day, even, if I was so inclined! Alas, attending class takes precedence, which leaves me with maybe-weekly updates. What I have for you today is Surface Magazine.

Surface Magazine, a really progressive-thinking print publication with an emphasis on style and design, comes out six times a year, and is a wonderful source for design inspiration.

One thing that immediately stood out to me the first time I saw the magazine was its distinctive text treatment. As a play on the idea of "surface," the magazine constantly "trims" the type a little bit (you can see what I mean in the first and third pictures I posted). It's not a design element I commonly see, but it's definitely dynamic -- keeps things interesting.

Also just wanted to point out the neat table of contents layout (fourth photo) -- I always pay attention to little structural and organizational elements, as I think it's the small details that really pull an entire magazine/layout together. Readers might not consciously notice whether or not the minor details (TOC, masthead and so forth) are consistent with the feature pages, but if they're totally divergent, you'll leave 'em with a weird taste in their mouths. People appreciate consistency, even if they don't recognize it.

One final thing to note: I'm kind of in love with the "unexpected" text in the second and last images, i.e. the "hotel" sign and the wall type. Very cool to see designers playing with typefaces and lettering in real-life, non-print applications.

See the rest (as well as an archive of previous magazine shots) on my Flickr (click), and be sure to check out Surface Magazine's website -- they feature a lot of really neat and beautiful, contemporary designs (click).

11: posters from portland center stage

2009-08-29T23:43:00.009-04:00

Just a short update, but since I plan on moving to Portland, Ore., someday, I thought I'd point out something pretty: new-ish poster designs from Portland Center Stage!

Designed by Kris Hargis

Designed by Andrew Holder

Designed by Lee Moyer
I love the first one ("The Chosen") for its cut + paste quality. It feels a bit folksy, and internalized, and dated, which of course, is perfect, given the subject of the poster. You can see more designs on their Flickr page (link) -- they're super nice, and very graphic-looking. Lots of brushes and interesting type... the Alfred Hitchcock one, especially, haha! Classic.

(via Portland Mercury)

10: kumon sux!!#$@!!%!!!!!

2009-08-26T21:37:00.018-04:00

Kumon. You know you're Asian if you see these five letters and shudder.

Kumon is every Asian kid's personal hell. Protocol demands that if you're not already spending your Saturday morning in Chinese School, you must go to this little building often located in an Asian shopping center and do math worksheets. By yourself. To, you know, understand stuff better, or to get a head start on studying for the math portion of the SAT, or to drill "3 + 2 x 4 = 11, not 20" into your head.

Fortunately, I've never been sent(enced) to Kumon, though my sister played that hapless role at the ripe old age of 12, perhaps 13. (I imagine that, had I been propositioned to go, another sort of personal hell would've been in the making... Ha, just kidding. Maybe.)

Anyway, that was roughly 1995. Now, it's 2009, and Kumon has received a bit of a makeover since then...

Then:

Now:

The new trademark is kind of cute, huh? It's pretty simple, with the sky blue and a clever little face embedded in the name... Significantly more streamlined than the old logo with the awkward, clashing royal blue-and-white color combination, and the creepy dot pattern that kind of reminds me of a disease (no pictures to illustrate my meaning, but you could always do an image search for "measles"). Apparently, Kumon's new logo is referred to as the "thinking face" and represents that of both children and adults. The sky-blue color is supposed to represent human intellect, integrity and earnestness. Erm, okay. (via Wikipedia)

Kumon, your logo may be more modern and way less passé than before, but the "o" ain't doing NOTHIN' for you... especially when said "thinking face" looks more like an "I'd rather gouge my eyes out with a dull spoon than be here, at Kumon, on this Saturday morning" face. Or maybe it's just a "meh" face. Yes, I think that's it. Meh. I mean, come on. Nothing says "WARNING, WARNING, AVOID AT ALL COSTS" like an unamused expression on a chubby face! Seriously.

So, I guess, on second thought, maybe Kumon hasn't really been that made-over... Maybe the logo is completely accurate and appropriate, after all.

All right, I'm not entirely serious about all the Kumon hate. Personally, if I had gone to Kumon, I probably would have liked it. I actually sort of have a thing for algebra and calculus...

nine: on flexibility

2009-08-19T17:36:00.013-04:00

eight: branding for a better world

2009-08-17T18:55:00.010-04:00

Two weeks ago, I ordered a few books from my favorite, favorite online bookseller, Better World Books. The reason I love buying from BWB is because they have great customer service, and they always make my online shopping experience so enjoyable.

First, a little background for you: BWB sells both used and new books online and donates a percentage of the revenue to fund literacy foundations all around the world. You get carbon-neutral shipping -- free within the United States (loves it!) and great prices (my past purchases have been roughly less than a third of the original selling amount). BWB calls itself "the online bookstore with a soul," and with a three-part economic, social and environmental mission statement, that's pretty much the truth. (via Better World Books)

The company also runs a very personal business. I'm not saying they call and chat you up in the creepy, please-please-please-don't-ever-talk-to-me-again way... but they do inject personal touches wherever they can. For example, when you order a book, the company sends you a follow-up/confirmation email, signing off with "Your friends at Better World Books" (aww! Professional and endearing)... and this time around, I got an adorable little shipment notice. I'll post it for you here:

Hello Tiffany,

(Your book(s) asked to write you a personal note - it seemed unusual, but who are we to say no?)

Holy canasta! It's me... it's me! I can't believe it is actually me! You could have picked any of over 2 million books but you picked me! I've got to get packed! How is the weather where you live? Will I need a dust jacket? I can't believe I'm leaving Mishawaka, Indiana already - the friendly people, the Hummer plant, the Linebacker Lounge - so many memories. I don't have much time to say goodbye to everyone, but it's time to see the world!

I can't wait to meet you! You sound like such a well read person. Although, I have to say, it sure has taken you a while! I don't mean to sound ungrateful, but how would you like to spend five months sandwiched between Jane Eyre (drama queen)and Fundamentals of Thermodynamics (pyromaniac)? At least Jane was an upgrade from that stupid book on brewing beer. How many times did the ol' brewmaster have one too many and topple off our shelf at 2am?

I know the trip to meet you will be long and fraught with peril, but after the close calls I've had, I'm ready for anything (besides, some of my best friends are suspense novels). Just five months ago, I thought I was a goner. My owner was moving and couldn't take me with her. I was sure I was landfill bait until I ended up in a Better World Books book drive bin. Thanks to your socially conscious book shopping, I've found a new home. Even better, your book buying dollars are helping kids read from Brazil to Botswana.

But hey, enough about me, I've been asked to brief you on a few things:

We sent your order to the following address:
Tiffany Jyang
-----
-----
Item Titles:
Designing With Type: A Basic Course in Typography
Griffin & Sabine Tenth Anniversary Limited Edition

We provide quick shipping service to all our customers. You chose USPS Standard Mail shipping, your book should arrive within 4 - 14 business days. The Postal Service may occasionally take slightly longer to deliver your book.

At this time, we are not able to offer tracking on our USPS Standard Mail shipments.

If you have any questions or concerns, please email my friends in Customer Care at help@betterworldbooks.com. If you could please include your order number (-----) that would be very helpful.

Eagerly awaiting our meeting,

Designing With Type: A Basic Course in Typography
Griffin & Sabine Tenth Anniversary Limited Edition

... and that's how it ends. Seriously.

It's a bizarre business transaction, that's for sure. But it's kind of quirky and quaint and entirely charming, too. These little business strategies are what distinguish between "good" and "great," and help build customer loyalty to the brand. If you think about it, low prices can be found anywhere -- eBay/Half.com, Amazon, library booksales, thrift stores, yard sales... but when you combine affordability with a pleasurable experience (not to mention visual appeal -- hello, website! -- and books that compliment me on my well-read self)... Well, I'll just shut up and say, "You had me at hello."

seven: making lemonade

2009-08-13T15:34:00.006-04:00

This is a trailer for a new documentary film called Lemonade, which captures "what happens when people who were once paid to be creative in advertising are forced to be creative with their own lives." It's a very neat idea, and really encouraging to know that there are still a million things you can do with your life if/when your five-year plan doesn't pan out. I'm finding that it's a very necessary thing to understand, especially for those looking for or hoping to work in the field of communication, like myself... (via Lemonade movie)

And a relevant quote I snagged from Frame Magazine:

six: does target hit the spot?

2009-08-11T09:42:00.010-04:00

I just watched this stop-motion Target commercial posted on a blog I follow (linked below -- you should definitely check it out... very insightful guy). He brings up this really good point about technique versus concept, and which one you remember more.

Ideally, if it's a commercial, the answer should be "concept," right? That's the point of a commercial, after all... to inform or promote a brand by sparking the viewer's interest in some way.

A lot of creative agencies are great at both parts -- linking the name and the image seamlessly (TBWA\Chiat\Day, for one, have done wonderful advertisements for Apple, Pedigree and other clients)... but I'd argue that more often than not, ideas get lost in translation.

For me, this commercial gets the concept across after a couple of views (need time to absorb everything), but my mind just doesn't connect it to "Target." I register all the colors -- which is what the commercial is getting at -- but I think I'm too accustomed to Target's distinctive red-and-white, "sans serif," etc. etc. branding initiative, so this commercial reflects a different style, different brains behind the whole thing and so forth. (I guess that's why they show the Target logo at both the beginning and end of the commercial... to reinforce the brand.) "Different" is not necessarily bad, but it certainly requires more precision on the ad agency's part to make sure viewers are able to link everything together.

Would love to hear your thoughts!

Some more of my favorite stop-motion videos...

This Is Where We Live from 4th Estate on Vimeo.

(via Thinking Aloud, Love Letter to the Universe, hagebutten and emails from my friend Lydia)

five: frame magazine

2009-08-08T14:34:00.007-04:00

Lifted a couple shots from back issues of Frame Magazine, which is a really nice-looking trade magazine that focuses on interior and product design. I really love the innovative text styling, the graphic treatments and the way the pages are all laid out. Truly, it's a gorgeous magazine, and if you have an extra $24.95 lying about (I know, right?!), I'd recommend purchasing a copy! You can take a look at my Flickr for more photos (link).

four: always coca-cola...

2009-08-04T17:46:00.008-04:00

A funny little image has been making its way across the Internet...

I think it's safe to say that the Coca-Cola Co. (Atlanta-based, represent!) knows exactly what it's all about.

And yet. What's better, marketing innovation or reliability, stability and permanence?

Edit: There is a rebuttal from Brand New, which happens to be one of my favorite sources to read up on branding and corporate identity strategies... Evidently this little Coke vs. Pepsi graphic is inaccurate (of course it is -- it only exists to make a point, after all). For a more complete story, you should know that Coke has indeed had changes in its logo. Granted, they are minor adjustments, but to be fair, you should know that they exist all the same.

(via Swiss Miss & Brand New)

three: "this is home" project

2009-08-04T14:16:00.002-04:00

Erin Loechner from Design for Mankind is starting a new project called "This is Home."

In a nutshell, you will:

a. write a one-sentence anecdote about "home." (I like how she calls it an "anecdote," even though it's just one sentence long. It reminds me of all of my own stories, which also typically range from one to three sentences.)

b. create an image (or two or three or ten) using any medium, based on the one-sentence anecdotes that are uploaded to the project blog.

There is some voting of favorite images that occurs, as well as some creating and purchasing of postcard packs... various different logistics that I didn't really read carefully and am now glossing over (oh, hush)...

Regardless of whether or not you submit anything, it's definitely a fun little project to challenge yourself with. Illustrate a quote, and bring someone else's story to life.

(via Design for Mankind)

two: trends in cover design

2009-08-03T00:29:00.003-04:00

Did I miss the memo regarding the new trend in album covers or something? All set for release on Sept. 22, J. Tillman's Year in the Kingdom, The Hidden Cameras' Origin:Orphan and Hallelujah the Hills' Colonial Drones (personal fave) each happen to feature collage-style artwork on their covers.

J. Tillman

The Hidden Cameras

Hallelujah the Hills
What is the significance of this trend, and does it mean I can get a job designing jacket covers for indie/folk bands? (Dearest bands, it would be my pleasure... Please see my contact information in the column to the right.)

(via Pitchfork)

one: valspar's branding campaign

2009-07-29T14:32:00.004-04:00

The following TV spot from Valspar's "The beauty goes on" campaign was my absolute favorite commercial from 2008 (certainly, it's the only one that I can consciously pick out from my memory)... The music is perfect (composed exclusively for Valspar by Jonathan Elias, I believe), as are the color palettes (understated but with a sharp contrast), textures (in terms of both sight and sound) and just the overall feel of the ad. See for yourself...

(This is very old news, seeing as the TV spot was released sometime last year... but I finally found an embeddable version of it, and I really wanted to share with you all.)

Valspar 2008 from Olivia C on Vimeo.
I think that this was a really clever move on the company's part. I mean, they essentially jumped straight from private ("Val-who?") paint company to "Oh, Lowe's carries Valspar colors! I love their commercials!" and that in itself is a pretty major feat. Talk about a distinctive branding initiative.

Scot Havrilla works as the VP Account Director at Euro RSCG Chicago (the marketing communications agency involved in the Valspar campaign), and he articulates the idea beautifully: "Valspar saw an opportunity to create a brand that was different from the competition: Sherwin-Williams, Behr and Benjamin Moore... It's the most emotional $20 you'll ever spend." (via BrandWeek)

And that's the important part, isn't it? Ultimately, it's about selling what is essentially the same product as everyone else, but figuring out a credible way to make yourself stand out to customers. After all, brand loyalty is worth its weight in gold.