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Paper Transformed Into Art
20 Sep
I just stumbled onto the artwork of Yulia Brodskaya, a talented Russian-born artist who lives in the UK. Her work has been featured everywhere from ads for Hermes to a feature in “O” magazine. Her work is seriously amazing.
I also discovered Canadian artist Elly MacKay in this month’s “O” magazine. Her work is so stunning and breathtaking. She creates these gorgeous small scale paper scenes that are absolutely dreamlike and filled with delight and wonder. She also sells prints of her work on Etsy.
Everybody loves white space.
17 Jul
When Volkswagen launched their industry-changing campaign, they stumbled on something big. White space. While it may have been shocking back then, it’s still incredibly relevant today.
People these days crave white space–not just in ads, but in our own personal lives. Because our lives have become so busy and cluttered. We have no time. We have no peace of mind. We’re constantly distracted and occupied. It’s no wonder when you look at the all design trends, you realize how much we all just really love and appreciate white space.
Recycle your old shoes for a change.
23 AprWe’ve all got them. Old shoes. They’re tucked away in our closets, under our bed or even in the attic. And they’ve sat there, waiting for what seems like an eternity. And they will probably continue to sit there for a very, very long time. So put your memories aside and think about giving them a second chance and a fresh new beginning.
I just discovered Shoe Box Recycling and think it’s a fantastic idea. There is so much we waste and this really is something so simple. Just print out a label and mail your shoes. And someone, somewhere in this world will get to enjoy your shoes as much as you once did.
Now you have to teach your kids not to kill people
13 JanWhen I was pregnant with my first, I remember thinking the thing I would dread most is having the sex talk. But with the latest Arizona shootings, it seems like these days, the hardest talk a parent will have is “it’s not nice to kill people.”
And seeing this video game by Freddie Wong about killing people just scares the shit out of me. I mean, could it be any more real? And I guess what freaks me out the most is that there is a market for this blood bath. That some kids enjoy pretending to kill people for kicks. I mean, I know other video games let you do the same, but the characters look like characters or avatars. They don’t look like real people.
Being a parent just got even harder.
Google Instant tells you what to expect with sons & daughters
8 NovEver wonder what it’s like to have a son or daughter? Well, there are differences and Google Instant can tell you all about them.
Google Instant for "My Daughter" and it looks like girls are lonely, filled with hate and love to talk.
Google Instant for "My Son" and it seems they are quite an enigma.
Google Instant for "My daughter is" and it looks like you've got lots to worry about with daughters. From suicidal tendencies to pregnancy and paying for a wedding, your hands will be full it seems.
Google Instant for "My son is" and boys are bad to the bones. You're son is likely to be a bully, a drug dealer or he's headed to prison.
Google Instant for "My daughter loves" and you get nothing. Sorry, your daughter will never truly love anything.
Google Instant for "My son loves" and it seems sons love their dad way more. Sorry moms! And they also love rapping. Who knew!
Google Instant for "My daughter likes" and well your daughter will either like other girls or she'll like wearing diapers. I guess fashion is at the heart of every girl. I guess Pampers was smart to put out those pricey jean-style diapers.
Google Instant for "My son likes" and it looks like there are way too many paranoid parents out there. Girl toys? Pink? Really? And sons also like feet? Guess sons grow up to have foot fetishes.
Google Instant for "My daughter can" and look at all the negativity. Daughters can't pee, make friends or stop coughing. Well, at least they can sing.
Google Instant for "My son can" and I guess sons are constantly being told what they can't do instead what they can. Looks like sons can't do anything.
Google Instant for "Being a good parent" and it looks like most parents have no clue what it takes to be a good parent. Sad, isn't it?
So what has Google Instant taught us about the difference between sons and daughters?
- Daughters will be lonely. So give them attention. In fact, you will spend your entire life worrying over them and protecting them.
- Sons are tough. They could end up behind bars or overdose. But they love their dads, so if dads spend even more time with their son and continue to be a role model, sons will most likely become rappers. And that’s way better than going to jail.
- Daughters struggle with a lot of things. From who they like to to making friends, parents need to continue being parents long after they learn to walk.
- Parents need to stop being negative and focus on the positive. Stop telling your sons and daughters what they can’t do and tell them what they can.
Well, my little one just woke up. So I’m done for now.
Feature your brand logo in your tweets
18 AugWhen it comes to marketing your brand on Twitter, there are several ways to go about it. You can pay to have your sponsored tweets appear in the trending topics. You can come up with a clever tweet that’s worthy of being retweeted and shared among the masses. Tough, but it’s possible. Or here’s my idea. What if Twitter created a new ad model where brands pay whenever users post a tweet about their brand?
If they agree to join this ad model, whenever tweets mention their brands with a hashtag, then a logo, icon or maybe even brand favicon would appear in place of text. Users are already used to seeing symbols appear periodically in tweets. Remember the World Cup soccer ball that everyone loved? And the flags of all the countries competing?
What I like about this idea is the fact that an icon the size of the World Cup soccer ball would only take one or two characters, which is a big deal when you only have 140 characters. Plus, it’s small enough to not take over the whole tweet. But it’s visual enough to draw attention.
It’s just an idea. I’m sure this might annoy some people. Maybe lots of people. But maybe if users could share the profits with Twitter somehow they wouldn’t mind so much or based on the money generated by a user, they could donate a % to a charity of their choice. This is just something I was thinking about. Thoughts?
Free Birth Announcements from Kodak
24 May
Kodak is giving away 2 sets (20 total) of 5X7 Birth Announcements. No coupons. All you need to pay for is s/h. See the free Kodak offer. (Normally a set of 10 is $8.99.)
Digital Creative Brief written by a copywriter
14 MayIf how we advertise has changed, because of new technology, social media, and the active role users continue to play, shouldn’t the creative brief change, too?
I mean, don’t you think that there are some fundamental questions that aren’t being asked and important insight about users that we’re missing? You might have research that tells you I’m an educated working mom who is super busy. But you probably don’t have enough research on my social currency. What if your brand lets me down in some way, do you know if I will tweet about it, blog about it or maybe share my experience on Facebook? Do you know how you want me to interact with your message?
And why would you even think about recycling a traditional creative brief into a digital one? Fundamentally, their core is the same: sell something. But just because you put the file size requirements and what sites the banners for example will appear on doesn’t make it a digital brief. There are differences.
I took a stab at writing a creative brief for the digital age. It’s a start, to hopefully encourage agencies to start asking more relevant questions that can hopefully generate better user experiences. I’m not a brand planner, so I’m sure there are things that could be better or asked in a more insightful way. But I wanted to at least throw some new questions out that could potentially change the way briefs are written nowadays.
Also, I found this nice slide show by Gareth Kay, Director of Digital Strategy at Goodby, Silverstein & Partners. Check it out.
Update: This is sad. I just googled “digital creative brief” on 8/16/2010 and this post pulls up on the first page of the search results. Guess it’s an even bigger problem than I realized. Shouldn’t more people be talking about digital creative briefs?
Jamin Hoyle + Where The Wild Things Are
11 NovCheck out Arnold DC’s Jamin Hoyle draw “Where The Wild Things Are” with chalk.
euphoria meets holy crap meets badass 
Comments are compliments!