Architectural Interactive Sculpture Thing-A-Majig

I can't explain it, but it's awfully cool.

Business Development Rations

I wish people would use these at conferences and trade shows, so I could have an alternative to throwing them away. Come to think of it, all communications should be laser etched into beef jerky...

We start with 100% beef jerky, and SEAR your contact information into it with a 150 WATT CO2 LASER.

Screw die-cutting. Forget about foil, popups, or UV spot lamination. THESE business cards have two ingredients: MEAT AND LASERS.

James Jarvis and Nike

Onwards from akqa on Vimeo.

I found this video posted on PSFK. What can I say, other than it is a fun animation for a sunny Friday. Below are comments by James Jarvis regarding the inspiration for the video and how the "collaboration" with Nike worked, are included below:

"I had become interested in the idea of characters that were less referential and more iconic and abstract. I particularly wanted to do something with a potato-headed stick-man that I had been drawing at that time."

"The film was inspired by certain personal experiences in running – a favourite run over Blanchland moor in Northumberland, being attacked by a crow in Singapore – and also by the transcendent, almost psychedelic experience of the simple act of running."

"Rather than a marketing project inititated by Nike, the film was something proposed and produced by myself, and as such I hope represents a much more equal collaboration with a brand."

The coolest simple idea you'll see today (Day-Light Savings Related)

Commence kicking yourself.

How to Make a 7-Inch Single

I thought there might be at least one or two of you interested in this... Courtesy of the BBC.

The Lost Tribes of New York City

The Lost Tribes of New York City from Carolyn London on Vimeo.

Very clever and fun. Below is the description of those responsible.

"The latest short film from London Squared Productions. Urban Anthropologists, Andy and Carolyn London interview some of New York City's more overlooked citizens. "

Found via PSFK.

Skype Brand Book

Skype has made their brand book available for download along with logos and illustrations. It's definitely worth a peek if you have a few moments. You can download the files from here.

Writing On The Wall (NYC Libraries)

Sweet new mural series coordinated by Pentagram. An initiative to inspire young minds, and to revitalize and bring some consistency to NYC public school libraries. Murals were contributed by several well known artists and designers, including Charles Wilkin, a college instructor and mentor of mine. Click the title for the full story. 

Smallification Gone To Far?

Ooooo, a new Apple product, so sleek and small and simple. So sexy. This time a redesign of their micro-mp3 player the ipod Shuffle. Discuss amongst yourselves.

The up-side:

- Well, it's smaller. Yeah, I get it, but isn't there a cut-off where we don't really feel a difference between a product that weighs 1/8 oz. vs one that weighs a 1/16?

-They've incorporated a way to navigate different playlists, Ok, that's nice, in theory.

The down-side:

-All controls are incorporated into the  apple earbuds, which I guess a lot of people like, but I find them to be doodoo garbage.

-And a new voiceover feature seems weird and not really useful.

More on Rebranded Beverages...

Apparently there is a lot of updating going on and not just Pepsi products. Click here to see all of the Pepsi brand updates as well as some recent refreshes by Coke and the Dr. Pepper Snapple group. The article is from psfk.

Tropicana: Back to the Old Look

According to the NYTimes, Tropicana is going back to its previous packaging design. Below is an excerpt from the article, and is an example of rapid consumer feedback influencing not just the product itself but also how it looks:

The about-face comes after consumers complained about the makeover in letters, e-mail messages and telephone calls and clamored for a return of the original look. Some of those commenting described the new packaging as “ugly” or “stupid,” and resembling “a generic bargain brand” or a “store brand."

"Do any of these package-design people actually shop for orange juice?” the writer of one e-mail message asked rhetorically. “Because I do, and the new cartons stink.” Others described the redesign as making it more difficult to distinguish among the varieties of Tropicana or differentiate Tropicana from other orange juices. Such attention is becoming increasingly common as interactive technologies enable consumers to rapidly convey opinions to marketers.

And people say designers are the only ones that care about these things...

Even more on the New Pepsi logo

Humorous, albeit far less informational than Rich's post.

More on the New Pepsi Logo

Find more videos like this on AdGabber

More information on the new Pepsi logo has surfaced. It is interesting to see some of the process and development that led to the 3 new versions. Above is a promotional video for the new logo. The design brief can be viewed here. The Fast Company article on the subject can be found here.

Links are courtesy of PSFK.

I like this, 'cause it's weird...

Isn't that reason enough? Besides, it's been like two months since I've posted a music video.


Animal Collective "My Girls" from Chad von Nau on Vimeo.

Shepard Fairey On Art & Beautiful Mistakes

Video provided by PSFK Conference in Los Angeles. You can find the whole blog post with quotes here.

Type, Video, Constitution

Nice combination of the above mentioned elements by Andrew Sloat.


Article 2 (for BHO) from Andrew Sloat on Vimeo.

A Evironmentally Friendly Font?

Believe it or not, SPRANQ has created Ecofont, a typface that reduces ink-usage by 20% due to the addition of small circles. The font is available for free at their website. Green gone overboard? I don't know... What do you think?

The Buchstabenmuseum

Core77 has posted a photo gallery of images taken from The Buchstabenmuseum (aka Berlin Museum of Letters). Below is an introduction provided by Core77:

'Since May 2005, the Buchstabenmuseum organization has been rescuing typographic icons of our time. Today, the Buchstabenmuseum preserves an immense collection of historical letters from all over Berlin and beyond. Enjoy a visit yourself (by appointment only) or enjoy our sneak preview right now."

You can find the photo gallery here.
You can find the museum's website here.

Thoughtpile by Herman Miller

Thoughtpile is a site created by Herman Miller where visitors can both browse through ideas relating to the topic of the day, or even contribute their own idea. The website is both simple and fun to use/interact with. As a special bonus, each day a lucky contributor wins a brand spanking new Herman Miller Embody Chair. Check the site out here.

Clever 2009 Calendar by DJ DSL

More of DJ DSL's work can be found here.

The Sharing of Your Best Ideas

Interesting video describing the Creative Commons initiative, which is a new way to think of copyrighting creative material with looser restrictions to promote sharing and common resources to all creative types. It's currently being used on legally questionable photo sharing site Flickr. Check the clip.

United Airlines, Time to Fly

And for my first post…I am including a link that has a few videos of United Airlines current AD campaign.  I am intrigued by this.  The music by Gershwin is so fitting.

I'm not trying to turn this into Cory's music blog I swear (But, I guess I'm not trying that hard to avoid that either, this will be my last for a while I promise). New one from Gnarls Barkley, feeling the song, feeling the animation. Mysterioso!

Flip That!

Flip books never get old, especially when you're doing something new with them. Radical new video for the Kraak & Smaak track "Squeeze Me". Jumping Jaaks.

Shapeshifter Patriot

Fun and kinda creepy new video from The BPA aka Norman Cook aka Fatboy Slim. Content seems somehow apropos today. Blast off.

The New Pepsi

The new Pepsi can, and a lineup of previous Pepsi logos, courtesy of PSFK.

Vicki Dasilva - Fine Art Photography

Beautiful photographs involving fluorescent tubes and a very long exposure. You can find more great images at her website.

Help Me Obi-Wan

Not sure how it works, but it's sweet! I can finally live out my fantasy of having Princess Leia beg me to help rescue Skywalker during my Dj sets.

Ascender Creates New Droid Font for G1 Smartphone

Ascender created a new font, "Droid," for Google's Android platform that is found on the G1 Smartphone. According the the blog at Metropolismag.com, " Droid was intended to split the difference between the cutesy primary-colors seen in Google’s logo and a severe, squared-off 'techno' font. Steve Mattison, Ascender’s chief type designer, says: 'There was a fine line between wanting the font to have character but not cause too much commotion.' "

Ascender's press release and 5-page type specimen pdf can be found here.

Airport Wayfinding and Signage

Airports are big, and have a lot of people, and a lot of those people have never been to that airport before and are in a hurry. This translates to one of the more challenging and important signage systems. The link will take you to an interesting article about how to approach a project like this, what works and what doesn't, and lots of examples.