It’s been one crazy month of work, so apologizes for the lack in posting, but there has not been too much to post about either. I had an amazing weekend in sunny San Francisco last week and am now back in the east coast, which has been rainy all week, but this weekend seems to be nice. Anyways, as an activity for the weekend: Send someone special a hand written letter by mail! =)
Radiohead again innovating with new ways in seeing music!!! I’ve seen tons of great innovations in data visualization, but its takes some gut to make it mainstream like Radiohead! Remember that creativity is as much about perspective than anything else!
I’ve been playing around with Viewzi.com for a few days and must admit, it’s a visual pleasure to tinker with. There’s zoomii, Searchme, redzee, oskope, and a handful of other sites that intensify the visual sensors, but Viewzi definitely takes the cake in delivering high quality design within their interface and brand.
I could talk about them for some time, so I’ll just point my finger to their site, tell you to type in something like “food” then press enter and move your mouse around everywhere. Also check out their story through Viewzi.tv and their corporate site which isn’t at all corporate.
Speaking of pictures, here are two other interesting sites rethinking full screen picture viewing. Blowup and PictoBrowser.
oooo sooo very true! Brands that create amazzzing products still survive even when their broken. I love twitter, hate it when it’s down, but still use them!
“Possibly the most wonderful thing in the world that a brand can achieve is love so strong that users worship your failures.
Twitter has been a victim of its own success. So many new users, so much volume that the application crashes regularly. Sometimes hourly. From the getgo, they’ve managed to brand their “failure screens” in true twitteresque flavor. When Twitter is down beyond repair, users get the screen that is now lovingly referred to as the “fail whale.”
Here’s the thing. Despite the failures, Twitter fans remain users. And they joke about the down time, the failed tweets and the fail whale. Someone’s even produced a line of Fail Whale merchandise.
Can your brand generate that kind of love? Can you fail consistently, over and over and STILL keep your customers fans? Not many brands can. And that’s a wonderful testament to the power of Twitter. Tweet. Tweet.”
A few months back I attended and blogged the “Art Center: Serious Play” conference which I’d highly recommend anyone to attend to get inspired and get serious about playing (working). They just came out with a series of videos about some students pumping out some work! check it out!
“The Art Center of Pasadena, California is linking its upcoming Art Center Design Conference with the launch of Wrap Magazine, the next incarnation of the Fish Wrap publication. The theme for this joint project is “Serious Play,” a term which encompasses all the work done at the Art Center.
In this episode of Designing Minds, eight student illustrators and eight student graphic designers combine their varying skill sets for a common goal. This collaboration sparks innovative concepts and intense connections.
For more episodes of Designing Minds, click here.”
A nice assortment of cool business card creations! I love the one atop… it’s a second hand store business card….get it? hahaha
Check them all out here via fubiz
You want passion, Benjamin Zander defines passion that’s viral, awesome, and addictive! Reminds me how I love classical music sooooo much! Watch it here then buy his inspirational book “The Art of Possibility” here.
Hey all! I’ve got a little secret to spill that I’ve been keeping hush for almost a year! I’m in a TV show and it premieres on PBS today!!!!
The shows called “Everyday Edisons“:
“Everybody has a great idea that could change the way we work, the way we live or the way we play. Everyday Edisons documents the development process of 14 inventions and the parallel stories of the people who invented them. Selected from thousands, the 14 Everyday Edisons learn how their extraordinary ideas are taken from a sketch on a napkin to a store shelf.”
It’s a thrill to be one of the dozen inventors hand picked from thousands to be on the show. This adventure continues a project I invented while at RISD back in 1999 which made the blogsphere rounds in 2004-5.
I’m not sure what to expect nor how the show ends (good or bad) but that’s all part of the fun. It might not be as entertaining as reality TV, but you’ll get to see my goofy serious self!! And no, it’s not like the “other” reality show I’ve been on… this one is much more professional. There is no competition, the US patent office sponsors the show, and they actually spend over a year developing each inventors idea!
I’ll post a few articles that have been published about the show and myself after the jump (fun pictures)! Please watch and let me know how it goes, cause I don’t receive the channels it’s being broadcast on (booo).
Here are some semi super hero links…. I saw Iron Man finally which was awesome. Later on Indiana Jones, Incredible Hulk, Batman, Hancock, Kung Fu Panda, Get Smart, Love Guru, Hellboy II, and filming for Transformers 2 just started! What a Super Hero summer this is going to be!
Call it what you want, but I think this is a great idea by student Nick Demarco! Buy this plastic bag/mesh shaped chair, stuff it with dry items you’d be throwing away anyways or what you have too much of, and you have a comfy chair. Take those old shirts, magazines, bottles, stuffed bears, newspapers, etc.
This is a great “Reuse” project. I’ve got a huge pile of old shirts and magazines that would work great for making a snazzy couch! Reminds me a bit of the very expensive yet cool Campana teddy chairs!
In short, he had a grand vision to draw a huge self-portrait. He sent away a briefcase containing a GPS device around the world through DHL which plotted it’s journey in 55 days. The end result, a pretty sweet self-portrait. The GPS container became his pen and the world became his canvas.
However true or fictional this may be, it’s a pretty cool idea. He has a good documentation of it online, and a youtube videos here.
I was at a party last night and stumbled upon a few passionate “CouchSurfing” ladies into Boston for the night from Australia. So what is Couch surfing? Watch the video above, or in my take, it’s the new hotel! It’s free, you meet new locals who can probably give you the best tour of the city skipping all the BS, you become friends, learn a ton about the local culture, perhaps get a homemade cultural meal, and in the end, become an official “CouchSurfer!” What an experience!
I’ve always couch crashed at friends around the world and love it over hotels, but meeting newbies from cities I don’t know might just be the next best thing! I’ve met some of my best friends in the most random situations and this couch surfing idea sounds great! Meet new people, get a free place to crash, and get a heads on dive into the local culture wherever your adventures take you. Sure, it may seem a bit sketchy to stay over at a strangers… but treat it like a friend of a friends! Where there is trust comes new opportunities! They also have global gatherings for CouchSurfers… checkout some Flickr pics.
