Muy Tiki Bongo!

El Estratografico has an awesome Flickr set of Vintage 45 Covers that must be seen! - case and point, from the Spanish Microwatt label, this muy bonito 1962 Flexidisc cover for Michelin... I'd love to have the audio from this.

Very nice!

And speaking of Tiki Bongo and Cha Cha Cha... Dig the new single and my primitive keyboard skills, just in time for FIESTA down here in San Antonio: Totally Fiesta Cha Cha Cha.

That's Right,

HMK

Big Bucks for Vintage Machines

Old tractors like this one are exerting a new kind of pull. As collecting interests a broader, wealthier audience, prices for many models, especially those more than 40 years old, have surged. Some of the oldest tractors -- early 20th-century machines often powered by steam -- can now fetch $100,000 or more, up from about $10,000 a decade ago. Rarer models can sell for much more.

While farmers have dominated the antique-tractor market in the past, they are now bidding against a new, well-heeled breed of collector. The influx mirrors the trend of city slickers buying up farmland for vacation homes in rural parts of the country.

And dig this cool rig! More spaceship than farm equipment, this sweetly restored McCormick-Deering Orchard Tractor has smooth bodywork designed to keep wheels, gears and protruding parts from damaging delicate fruit trees.

Kinda reminds me of my first tractor seen here in this shot from back in 1963.



Check out the rest of Jonathan Welsh's story over at the Wall Street Journal.


That's Right,

HMK

Couple Therapist

Nice low budget business card solution for Marisa Shcmidt, Couple Therapist from agency Master Promo, Curitiba, Brazil.

That's Right,

HMK

Thanks Freddie!

Elastico Bookshelf

You gotta love this book shelf concept by Arianna Vivenzio. I found the original post over at Unwritten Doctrine via the awesome Swiss Miss, but I hit a deadend in regard to finding more info. Stay tuned and I'll let you know as soon as I do.

That's Right,

HMK

Audio To Go

Dig the very cool IH85B iPod Bicycle Speaker from the smart folks at iHome.

The IH85B is a water-resistant iPod speaker case that clamps to your bike frame and comes complete with a handlebar mounted remote control. Not bad for 79 bux.

That's Right,

HMK

Genius Concept.

Absolutely Genius. Even if you don't have kids, you gotta love this.

Dig Handipoints, a digital chore-list manager for parents and their kids.

Very cool idea, but if you ask me, I'm pretty sure there'd be alot more chores done if the rewards section included PayPal or an iTunes card.

And while we're at it, let's get the daycare centers to hire senior citizens to nurture and teach the young ones and then next we can add the ability for doctors to check our medical histories on their iPhones and then we'd all have nicer weekends...

That's Right,

HMK

The Rewards of True Collaberation

When it comes to branding a new restaurant the first order of business is “a big discussion about the restaurant, what it is, what kind of clientele they expect and what they want the logo to do for them.”

A restaurant’s logo helps set the tone of the meal to follow, from the signage outside to the typography on the menu. First impressions are vital in the ultracompetitive restaurant biz, and executing those few letters and occasional graphic just the right way is crucial.

Translation: Ditch the free fonts that came with your pc, do some serious and real type research and focus on the core aspects that embrace the spirit of the place.

If you're lucky enough and have the luxury of being able to collaborate with your clients like one of my all time favorite designers Louise Fili, then you've probably got some great work in your book.

Communication between the client and the designer is vital when creating any new identity. Without it, well, we've all seen examples of logos and signage that a one point had the potential to be smart, appropriate, and unique but end up missing the mark - usually due to either a tight budget, poor planning/lack of time or the pompous and visually unsophisticated short sightedness of the client that believes he can do it all himself without the aid of a professional visual communicator.

The exterior presentation of the logo – aka the signage – can have a major impact on the design. “It can’t be a very long logo if there is a short space for it so we have to take that into consideration very early on,” she added.

In regard to the menus, the end product must be flexible enough for frequent updates. “The design is about 1% of my work,” said Fili, “and the rest is figuring out how to do it so it doesn’t get messed up.”

Read the rest of Garth Johnston's Zagat piece: A Logo Is Worth 1,000 Words.

Check out the attention to detail and amazingly elegant work of Louise Fili.

That's Right,

HMK

Thanks to Louise Fili for the inspiration and the smart folks over at Design Observer.

The Real Face of Leonardo

Leonardo Da Vinci's life and work is well known -- but his own face is not. Illustrator and activist Siegfried Woldhek used some thoughtful image-analysis techniques to find what he believes is the true face of Leonardo.

In this short video, he walks viewers through exactly how he did it.

That's Right,

HMK

Thanks to my sister in law Kaye and the smart folks over at Ted.

Pedigree

In an effort to to draw people to the Times Square Pedigree Dog Store in New York Agency TBWA\Chiat\Day, Los Angeles staged this nice outdoor stunt in Central Park.

That's Right,

HMK

Thanks to: AdverBox.

Mad Fold-Ins

If you were young at any time in the last 44 years, you know the fold-in: the feature on the inside of Mad’s back cover that poses a question whose answer is found by folding the page in thirds. September 1978: “What colorful fantastic creature is still being exploited even after it has wiggled and died?” A picture of a garish butterfly, folded, becomes an equally garish Elvis.

The fold-ins these days are as full of youth culture as ever. (March 2008: “What major star has recently admitted receiving illegal career-damaging human growth injections?” And a picture that looks as if it’s going to be Roger Clemens folds to become Jamie Lynn Spears, pregnant.) So the first thing that strikes you when Mr. Jaffee greets you at the door of his studio on the East Side of Manhattan is his age. This man, still credibly negotiating the milieu of teenagers, is 87.

“I work for a magazine that’s essentially for young people, and to have them keep me going, I feel very lucky,” Mr. Jaffee said. “To use an old cliché, I’m like an old racehorse. When the other horses are running, I want to run too.”

Check out some of the classic Mad Fold-Ins!

Read the rest of Neil Genzlinger's story on Mr. Jaffee over at the New York Times: A Veteran MAD Man Remains in the Fold.

Thanks Mr. Jaffee!

That's Right,

HMK

Spine Lamp

You've gotta know somebody that would appreciate getting this very cool Spine Lamp by Mark Beam as a gift.

I'll take mine in bone white.

That's Right,

HMK
Thanks to the smart folks over at: Design Milk.

ABC3D

Very nice. I think one of the coolest things about the ABC3D book is that you can get you very own copy over here!.

That's Right,

HMK
Thanks to my buddy Todd Morey over at: Mosso.

Smart Serving Platter

Allright, let's see... double espresso crema, Miguel si?

Dig this smart, waiteresque serving platter that lets you scribble orders or names directly on to the tray with chalk. Very nice.

Check out the German made Notes Tray exclusively at Koziol.

That's Right,

HMK

Gracias: Josh Spear.

Corporate Logo Quiz

Ok, have you had your coffee yet? Good. Now see if you can you distinguish the real deal from the fake. I got 18 out of 20, missing the first one. Take 5 minutes and check out this fun little: Corporate Logo Quiz.

That's Right,

HMK

OOgmerk Opticians

Tag: Get the respect you deserve.

Good stuff from Christophe Ghewy and Paul Wauters at LG&F, Brussels for OOgmerk Obticians.

That's Right,

HMK

Thanks to: AdverBox.

KVMC

Nice signage! If you're like me, and you simply can't get enough of the genius ingenuity of custom, one of a kind signs like this giant KVMC microphone from Colorado City, Texas, then you'll really dig Debra Jane's huge and ever growning flickr set: Roadside Signs & Archetecture.

That's Right,

HMK

Happy 2nd Birthday Dazy!

Happy Easter y'all. It also happens to be the birthday of our Dazy - she's 2 years old today. Here she is taking a break during our walk this morning. And yup, that's Dazy's big brother Ringo in the background.

Not a bad shot for an iphone camera....

That's Right,

HMK

Mobile Computing

April Fools Day came early as the New York based troupe Improv Everywhere entered a Starbucks one by one bringing their own gigantic computer, monitor and keyboard. After buying coffee they parked and worked at their computers as if they were just part of the normal laptop crowd.

Genius!

As usual, their mission is well documented - check it out: Mobile Desktop.

That's Right,

HMK

Thanks to smart monkeys over at Guerrilla Inovation.

I Feel Better Already!

Version 2.0 of the iPhone's firmware, due this June, could turn the device into an indispensable medical tool if hospitals OK its medical use.

The arrival this June of an enterprise-friendly iPhone is exciting to more than just business users. Doctors, too, are eyeing Apple's handheld and wondering if it could kill off the old-fashioned clipboard and X-ray light box once and for all.

"If you could use the gesture-based way of manipulating images on the iPhone and actually manipulate a stack of X-rays or CT scans, that would be a huge selling point," says Adam Flanders, director of informatics at Thomas Jefferson University and an expert in medical imaging.

Read the rest of Bryan Gardiner's article over at Wired.

That's Right,

HMK

Photo illustration: Jonathan Snyder/Wired.com

A Better Web Site 101

The smart folks over at Inside CRM have a nice post of quick tweaks will help you keep visitors engaged.

Here's a handful of some of my favorite tips from the article: 101 Five-Minute Fixes to Incrementally Improve Your Web Site.

Copywriting
Content, specifically text, is perhaps your site's most important asset. Make sure that it's up to snuff by following these improvements.

#5 Make headlines meaningful. Be sure to change any vague or cutesy headlines to something more up-front and meaningful.

#10 Stay simple. Simplify your message simply to avoid confusing visitors, while at the same time improving conversion rates.

#18 Be concise. Make sure that your copy is only as long as it needs to be to get your point across reasonably.

Usability
If your site isn't usable, visitors will not stick around. Take these small steps, and you'll have a more user-friendly site that's ripe for conversions.

#21 Make navigation consistent. Make sure that your site's navigation is on the same place on each page so that visitors don't get confused.

#24 Never ask for more information than you need. If you're currently asking for excessive information, rethink your data-mining tendencies. When you get greedy for data, you'll turn off some visitors.

#27 Link the site logo to the home page. Visitors will expect your logo to link to the home page, so make it easy for them to find it.

Search Engine Optimization
Follow these tips if you'd like to see an improvement on your search-engine rankings.

#35 Replace underscores with hyphens. In search-engine results, words separated by underscores will run together, while hypens will create a space between each word.

#39 Update content often. Give search engines a reason to keep coming back with fresh content.

#44 Turn off music. No one wants music to greet them every time they click a link, so turn off the music — or at least offer an easy option for disabling it.

#51 Avoid resizing the user's window. Let the user be in control of their browser, or your site will lose credibility.

Design
Spruce up your site's appearance using these design fixes.

#74 Reduce choices. Avoid overwhelming your visitor with lots of different options.

#77 Stay consistent. Check to make sure that colors and design are in the same general scheme so that visitors know they're still on your site.

#86 Limit each page to one topic. Give each page a singular purpose to avoid confusing visitors.

#92 Convert PDF files to HTML. Make browsing flow a little smoother by converting PDF files to a format that's more easily readable in a browser.

Great stuff, thanks guys!

That's Right,

HMK

Peace Symbol Turns 50

It started life as the emblem of the British anti-nuclear movement but it has become an international sign for peace, and arguably the most widely used protest symbol in the world. It has also been adapted, attacked and commercialised.

It had its first public outing 50 years ago on a chilly Good Friday as thousands of British anti-nuclear campaigners set off from London's Trafalgar Square on a 50-mile march to the weapons factory at Aldermaston.

The demonstration had been organised by the Direct Action Committee Against Nuclear War (DAC) and the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) joined in.


Read the rest of Kathryn Westcott's BBC News article World's best-known protest symbol turns 50.

That's Right,

HMK

Satchmobama

Although caricatures won’t sway an election, they can influence public perception. Through caricatured distortion President Lyndon Johnson, with his elephantine ears and hooked beak, and President Richard Nixon, with his exaggerated five o’clock shadow and witches peak, were made equally buffoonish and demonic.

The visual satirist’s time-honored role is to make mountains out of physical molehills, thereby reducing their targets to comical icons, knocking the pomposity right out of them.

Read the rest from Steve Heller's NYT article Drawing the Candidates.

Satchmobama by Rick Meyerowitz.

That's Right,

HMK

Safety First

Now this is brilliant!

Thanks to the smart folks over at SparkFun, designer Leah Buechley used LED’s and her self-developed wearable e-textile technology known as: LilyPad Arduino to create the this sweet biking jacket complete with controls located on the wrist.

Each LilyPad was creatively designed to have large connecting pads to allow them to be sewn into clothing. Various input, output, power, and sensor boards are available. They're even washable!

Genius!

That's Right,

HMK

Thanks again to Swiss Miss.

SXSW Cheat Notes

So, are you feeling left out, a little uninformed or perhaps maybe even downright lame simply because you supposedly missed all the fun at this years SXSW Interactive 2008?

Not to worry! Thanks to Mike Rohde you can still soak up some really good stuff to think about via his bitchin', old school sketchnotes he captured while at the Austin Convention Center.

Between hangin' in Austin this week and reading these notes I almost fell like I'm back up at Mass Art, feeling young, happy, optimistic (and just a little hungover)!

Thanks Mike! Do yourself a favor and go read all 34 pages over at his smart blog: ROH Design.

That's Right,

HMK

Thumbs Up SXSW!

Sweeet! I got the official SXSW thumbs up yesterday afternoon from Mr. Andre Williams at the 14th Annual Bloodshot Records showcase at Yard Dog. Sir Andre's a regular and a favorite on my HMK Mystery Streams, always adding the perfect dose of funky soul to the mix.

If you're not familiar with the genius of "Mr. Rhythm" check out this 1966 single Sweet Little Pussycat and dig what you've been missing. Meow!



Thanks again to all the cool folks at Yard Dog, Bloodshot Records and Shiner for the cool schwag, burgers and beer, my good buddy Shane Whitefield for the awesome crash pad - and especially my young one, attending her first SXSW just a few short days before her 14th birthday, Brette Moss Grieder, for taking this cool shot of me and Andre!

See y'all next year!

Migwell