Tuesday, June 17, 2008

Get Schooled


As the Learnlist website states: We're a simple resource for graphic designers, illustrators, web designers, developers, basically anyone creative! It lists the best websites and books available to help you learn something new!

Far from being super comprehensive, the LearnList is a nice resourse and not a bad place to start/contiune one's quest for knowledge.

Get schooled: The LearnList.

That's Right,

HMK

Thanks to The LearnList.

Saturday, June 14, 2008

Price War!



Really digging the art direction and especially the illustrations for these ads.

Copy: "As our competitors bombard you with explosive offers, our only weapon is building materials at constantly low prices."

Nice work for ByggMax from art directors Ole Henrik Stubberud and Björn Andreassen from an agency called Kitchen in Norway. Illustrator: Björn Nordberg.

Click the ads to check out the detail!

That's Right,

HMK

Thanks to Ads Of The World

Thursday, June 12, 2008

Professional Amateurs


I'm totally digging Tim Leberecht's take on the mystique of Big Branding and the concept of shrinking and fragmenting a brand.

It is acknowledged that brands have to deal with what John Moore, the author of “Brand Autopsy,” dubs “the Growth Paradox”: “The smaller you are, the bigger you must look. The bigger you are, the smaller you must get.” And yet, the bewildering disruptions in the realm of social media, in conjunction with significant changes in consumer behavior, raise many new questions for marketers that go beyond sporadic, anecdotal smallness.

Q: What are the strategic implications for brands and branding? And what are the vehicles in the micro-marketer’s arsenal?

A: Read the rest from the smart folks over at Frog Design's Act Like An Amateur.

The piece closes with what I believe is the most sound approach: Be eye-to-eye with your customers instead of bigger than life. Make your brand the water and not the rock. Be around your customers, at all stages of the customer life cycle, and surround them with meaningful conversations. Every interaction with the customer is a referendum on the brand. Re-create your brand every day and make it the fabric that embeds your customers’ micro-verses. Do everything as if you did it the first time.

In other words: Act like an amateur!

That's Right

HMK

Thanks again to Frog Design.

Tuesday, June 10, 2008

Crisps For Snobs



I say! If you're a crisp aficionado and you like your crisps to taste scrummy... you've jolly well come to the right place!

My mouth is watering over the Paul Baker illustrations used for the cheeky packaging and web design of Johnathan Crisp, the Crisps For Snobs.

Wicked nice!

That's Right

HMK

Monday, June 09, 2008

Mitch Webb & The Swindles CD Release Shindig!

Mitch Webb CD Release Poster
Finally! Ok, it's official! This Friday, June 13th at Casbeers down here in San Antonio is the spot for the official release shindig celebrating the brand new and highly anticipated Mitch Webb & The Swindles "Lonely Kind" CD!

6 Bux gets you in the door and 15 gets you in + your very own copy of "Lonely Kind" CD!

Don't miss this last historic show at the old Casbeers at 1719 Blanco Rd.

More Info: Mitch Webb & The Swindles.

That' Right,

HMK

Sunday, June 08, 2008

Hennie Haworth


Focusing on the every day objects of this thing we call life, do yourself a favor and check out the awesomely fresh and stylish sketches of London based illustrator Hennie Haworth.

That's Right

HMK

Thanks to Another Company.

Saturday, June 07, 2008

Enough Already!


"Four-dollar-a-gallon gasoline may be a cause for outrage. But it pales next to the righteous fury provoked by five-dollar-a-pint beer.

Beer prices at bars and restaurants have risen over the past few months, as prices of hops and barley have skyrocketed and retail business has slowed alongside the economy.

Some restaurants have replaced 16-ounce pint glasses with 14 ouncers -- a type of glassware one bartender called a "falsie."

And customers are complaining that bartenders are increasingly putting less than 16 ounces of beer in a pint glass, filling up the extra space with foam."

Outrageous!

Read the rest of Nancy Keates' piece over at The Wall Street Journal.

That's Right

HMK

I forget who shot these beers, sorry!

Friday, June 06, 2008

Hip To Be Square


Behold the Minox DCC Rolleiflex AF 5.0.

I used to shoot with a similar twin reflex, a Yashica-D to be specific, back in high school in the late 70's. I loved the big, upside-down preview window as well as the large square format negatives.

As one of the most recognized cameras in the world, the Rolleiflex now returns with modern digital technology.

With this fully functioning, high precision replica of the world famous Rolleiflex 6x6 camera (scale 1:2) Minox presents yet another exclusive design and technical highlight in an outstanding pocket camera.

Many functions and details reproduced to scale create that true Rolleiflex feeling when shooting photos. Just like the square negatives produced using the original Rolleiflex, with the Minox Rolleiflex AF 5.0 the photographer has square format digital photos with a resolution of up to 5 million pixels.

More info at Let's Go Digital.

That's Right

HMK

Thursday, June 05, 2008

Silver Joe's Coffee


I'm really digging the functional packaging C3 BrandWorks out of Fort Smith, Arkansas, created for Silver Joe's Coffee.

The front end and both sides of the can display key information about the brand and coffee flavor so it’s functional in three directions and stackable in any number of ways.

The embossed graphics, satin finish and streamlined shape (not surprisingly, it’s the official coffee of Airstream™) create a connection that compels shoppers to pick it up, hold it, turn it around and look at it from all angles.

Interestingly, during the initial design phase, a prototype was tested among focus groups and 99 percent of the people tested stated they would buy the product at least once—just to own the can.

Designer: Cameron Clement, Manufacturer: Planet Canit.

Thanks to Communication Arts.

That's Right

HMK

Wednesday, June 04, 2008

Go Ape!


That's Right - Go Ape! What are you waiting for? Check out the trippy bizzaro Cinerama Set from Dr. Odio...

That's Right

HMK

Thanks again to the Easy Dreamer Freaks...

Monday, June 02, 2008

Free iPod + iPhone Book 4


Well, they've done it again!

Normally, when you get something for free, it's usually worth exactly what you paid for it, right? Well, the smart folks over at iLounge have just released the 4th and ever improving version of their Free iPod + iPhone Book.

With over 20 world exclusive Sneak Peeks and complete tutorials to all things iPod, iPhone, iTunes, and Apple TV, I just have to extend a big personal gracias once again to iLounge Editor-in-Chief Jeremy Horwitz for another awesome "must have" resource.

So what are you waiting for? Head over to iLounge and grab your Free iPod + iPhone Book 4!

That's Right

HMK

Sunday, June 01, 2008

McNay Art Museum Stieren Center


As proud members of the McNay Art Museum down here in beautiful San Antonio, Texas, my wife and I can harldy wait until this Friday night's grand Opening of the new Stieren Center!

With the opening of the Jane and Arthur Stieren Center for Exhibitions, the McNay Art Museum can claim the best of two worlds, retaining the cozy intimacy of founder Marion Koogler McNay's 1920s Spanish Colonial Revival mansion while gaining a sleek new wing specially designed for large-scale modern and contemporary art.


The Marion Koogler McNay Art Museum, pictured above, or simply the McNay as the locals refer to her, is the state's first private art museum, and now can be mentioned in the same breath with the Menil Collection in Houston and the Kimbell Art Museum in Fort Worth.

Designed by French architect Jean-Paul Viguier, the center has about 45,000 square feet of floor space, including the 7,500-square-foot Tobin Exhibition Galleries for large shows. A state-of-the-art lecture hall, high-tech learning centers, a new gift shop, a works-on-paper gallery and an outdoor sculpture garden are the icing on the cake.

The public opening will be preceded by a black-tie gala Thursday night for donors who gave at least $5,000 to the McNay capital campaign, and a private members opening on Friday night.

Continue Reading: New Stieren Center.


That's Right

HMK

Saturday, May 31, 2008

My Life Is A Makeready

A Not A: Reality Test

My life is a Makeready.

(Makereadies, as Design Observer and Drenttel partner Jessica Helfand accurately defines them and for the uninitiated, are sheets of paper, re-fed into a press to get the ink balances up to speed, leaving a series of often random, palimpsest-like, multiple impressions on a single surface.)

So that really spoke to me. I believe whole-heartedly that every word we write, every thought we commit to the page, is heavily influenced by our surroundings, our speech, our language, and (most important of all) our past. I am the sum total of my past experiences, and there is no way that I could ever extricate myself from what I have seen/heard/done, and my writing, whether it be inspired or prosaic, is the direct result of that.

And that, dear readers, is my palimpsest.

That's Right

HMK

Thanks to Christopher Keep and Tim McLaughlin.

Absolutely Smashing Type Inspiration

Cerveza Corona Extra
This one is for all my fellow typography freaks - the smart folks over at Smashing Magazine have compiled a killer post showcasing over 70 examples of sexy, bold and experimental typography.

Dig: Sexy, Bold and Experimental Typography.

And these flikr pools don't suck: Signpaintr, a pool of images dedicated to the lost art of sign painting and hand-drawn lettering and Typography and Lettering feaures letters made my machine or man.

Cheers and have a great weekend!

That's Right

HMK

Friday, May 30, 2008

How To Create A Butt Ugly Website


From the moment a visitor hits your site to the time they exit, there are plenty of effective techniques to not only annoy them, but insure that they'll never come back.

In this dead on piece, Alec Rios identifies 28 points to remember during a website development and how to execute them properly.

Here are a few gems:

Use as many random colors as you can. It doesn’t matter if they look good together or not, just make a rainbow. Eat some skittles for inspiration.

Play background music automatically. Everyone in the world likes the exact same music as you, so feel free to play some automatically. Don’t allow me to pause it or anything, though.

Use HTML tables. Forget CSS. Travel back in time and use some HTML.

Use at least five different fonts. The more variation, the better. Be sure to include a few fancy, cursive, illegible fonts. Don’t make it look like you had a scheme of any kind.

Show no professionalism whatsoever. Don’t make your website look professional, don’t act professional. Just be a kid.

Don’t pay attention to your visitors. Completely ignore them. Don’t answer email, don’t accept feedback, nothing.

Force me to register. People think that registering will keep visitors coming back. It won’t. So keep making people do it.

Never update your website. Outdated information is in this year.

And if for some odd reason you want to create a good website, simply do the exact opposite of all this.

Check out all 28 points over: HERE.

That's Right

HMK

Thanks to The Design Observer

Thursday, May 29, 2008

Concrete Floor Concept



Taking vector art to an entirely new level, Transperent House has just introduced a beautiful alternative to your basic sealed concrete flooring.

Contrasting the cold austerity of concrete, these floral designs are an awesome way to enhance any room. This design concept allows for the application of any pattern to the surface, either when pouring or afterwards when the concrete has set.

Very cool, and not just to the feet.

That's Right

HMK

Thanks to Yanko Design.

Wednesday, May 28, 2008

Eisenbahn Strong Beer


Funny stuff from Agency CCZ Communications, Brazil.

That's Right

HMK

Thanks again Freddie.

Tuesday, May 27, 2008

Introducing the 256GB Flash Drive


That's Right!

Thanks to Brooke Crothers over at CNET's official Nano Tech Blog in Korea, Samsung has just announced the development of a 2.5-inch, 256GB solid state drive (SSD) at the fifth annual Samsung Mobile Solution Forum in Taipei, Taiwan.

Typical solid state drives shipping in notebook PCs today have a storage capacity of 64GB.

With a sequential read speed of 200 megabytes per second and sequential write speed of 160MBps, Samsung is claiming some of the fastest SSD data transfer rates to date.

Samsung is slated to begin commercial production of the SSD by year's end, with customer samples available in September.

And dig this: A 1.8-inch version of the 256GB SSD is expected to be available in the fourth quarter!

Nice! Remember, (and, not to be condescending, that means talk down to...) SSDs or solid state drives have no moving parts, which means they avoid both the risk of mechanical failure and the mechanical delays of old school hard disk drives like the 2 crappy Western Digital My Book Pro Edition II drives that both died on me less than 6 months after they were purchased!

Odds are that you already own a few - like your flash drives, iPod Shuffle or Nano, those dinky camera memory cards, and of course the iPhone and iTouch and the sexy new Macbook Air.

That's Right

HMK

Monday, May 26, 2008

5 Simple SEO Rules

iF: Sweet Diamond Eyes

First of all don't be fooled by SEO professionals. 95% of the offers are scam. The rest are serious professionals, but unless you are running a million dollar business you don't need them.

Just follow these 5 suggestions from Creative Bits and you can be sure you've done everything you can to rank high in Google.

A: Include the keywords in your domain name, page title and h1 article title. So for example if you want to sell squirrel food, register the domain squirrelfoodforsale.com. Include the keywords Squirrel Food in the page title and h1 article title. Include the same keywords in the body copy as well, but don't overdo it. Just make it natural.

B: Make sure as many related sites link you as possible. Not only the link has to include your keywords but the title of the article linking you should include it too. So if petfood.com links your site from the article Feeding your squirrel then you've got a valuable link.

C: Use Analytics and AdSense on your page, so Google can monitor the traffic of your site and make sure many people visit your page.

D: Update your site and page often. Google gives priority to content that has been updated within a week for obvious reasons.

E: Avoid links from spam and fake sites. You can get blacklisted easily and you will do more harm with such links than good.

Bottom line - don't spend too much time on SEO, working on your product is time better spent, because there is nothing better than being linked organically.

That's Right

HMK

Big Gracias to Sir Ivan over at Creative Bits.

Sunday, May 25, 2008

Awesome Tree Houses


Man, I wish we were spending the long weekend in something like this!

Now this is what I call a tree house. In fact, this concept would be the perfect guest room add-on in one of the huge trees on our friends Tish and Bryan's lot.

It's curved roof and large terrace makes for an inviting and impressive sight, especially with the interior lighting on.


baumraum specializes in the planning and realization of tree houses and other constructions in natural surroundings.

According to their site, baumraum can transform your individual ideas and wishes into ingenious and inspiring dwellings that combine versatility with craftsmanship of the highest quality and maximum safety standards. A major objective thereby is to handle the trees and their surroundings with the utmost care, ensuring their protection and preservation.

The cool part is that not only does baumraum combine the creative and constructive expertise of an architect with the long-standing experience of a landscape architect, they've also got established, reputable craftsmean and an in-house tree expert.

All we need now is a big tree...

That's Right

HMK
Thanks to the Cool Hunter.

Saturday, May 24, 2008

Friday, May 23, 2008

El Planeta Misterioso


Who says Tequila and Xacto knives don't mix well?

I'm really digging this set of 1950's Sci-Fi Novel covers, just one the cool sets of ephemeral goodness from El Estratografico.

And you just gotta click the above cover image and check out the detail of not only the gnarly off-registration, but the wicked hacked-up paste-up kerning job on the El Planeta Misterioso type! I love it!

That's Right

HMK

Big gracias to the freaks over at Link Dump.

Thursday, May 22, 2008

Logos & Math


Behold the mathematics of logo design.

Funny stuff!

That's Right

HMK

Thanks to Michael Bierut and all the smart folks at The Design Observer.

Wednesday, May 21, 2008

The Four Day Work Week


This is an awesome piece from Professor Goose, one of the smart folks over at The Oil Drum, a site dedicated to discussions about energy and our future.

The notion of our standard work week here in America has remained largely the same since 1938. That was the year the Fair Labor Standards Act was passed, standardizing the eight hour work day and the 40 hour work week. Each Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday workers all over the country wake up, get dressed, eat breakfast and go to work.

But the notion that the majority of the workforce should keep these hours is based on nothing more than an idea put forth but the Federal government almost 70 years ago.

To be sure it was an improvement in the lives of many Americans who were at the time forced to work 10+ hours a day, sometimes 6 days of the week. So a 40 hour work week was seen as an upgrade in the lives of many of U.S. citizens. 8 is a nice round number; one third of each 24 hour day. In theory it leaves 8 hours for sleep and 8 hours for other activities like eating, bathing, raising children and enjoying life.

But the notion that we should work for 5 of these days in a row before taking 2 for ourselves is, as best I can tell, rather arbitrary.

The idea of a shorter work week is not a new one to anyone old enough to have lived through the energy shocks of the 1970's. It should be fairly obvious to anyone interested in conserving oil that reducing the number of daily commutes per week would reduce the overall demand for oil.

There are about 133 million workers in America. Around 80% of them get to work by driving alone in a car. The average commute covers about 16 miles each way.

So let's stop and do some math...and I'll try to argue for 16 reasons why a four day work week is a good idea.

The math, as I see it, goes as thus (I welcome a discussion of these numbers, by the way...): 133,000,000 workers X 80% who drive alone = 106,400,000 single driver commuter cars each day.

106,400,000 X 32 miles round trip = 3,404,800,000 miles driven to work each day

3,404,800,000 / 21 mpg (average fuel efficiency) = 162,133,333 gallons of gasoline each day

Each barrel of crude oil produces, on average, 19.5 gallons of gas. (It is important to note that other products like kerosene and asphalt are produced from that same barrel.)

162,133,333 / 19.5 = 8,314,530 barrels of oil each day.

What this shows is Reason #1; the impact a 4 day work week could have on crude oil imports. I'm talking about perhaps a 40% reduction in the amount of oil we need Monday through Friday simply by rearranging our work week. No wonder this idea was utilized in the 70's.

But the clear fact that a 4 day work week would save such a precious non-renewable resource is just the first of 16 reasons why I think it's time to revive the idea of reducing the numbers of days we work each week.

Think about it.

Read all 16 Reasons:
The Four Day Work Week: Sixteen Reasons Why This Might Be an Idea Whose Time Has Come
.

That's Right

HMK

Thanks to Fanny B for the 4 shot.

Tuesday, May 20, 2008

What Every Good Marketer Knows:

Go Modern

Once again, here's some genius 101 advice and things to ponder from Mr. Seth Godin and his mucho smart blog.

What Every Good Marketer Knows:

Anticipated, personal and relevant advertising always does better than unsolicited junk.

Making promises and keeping them is a great way to build a brand.


Your best customers are worth far more than your average customers.

Share of wallet is easier, more profitable and ultimately more effective a measure than share of market.

Marketing begins before the product is created.

Advertising is just a symptom, a tactic. Marketing is about far more than that.

Low price is a great way to sell a commodity. That’s not marketing, though, that’s efficiency.

Conversations among the members of your marketplace happen whether you like it or not.

Good marketing encourages the right sort of conversations.

Products that are remarkable get talked about.

Marketing is the way your people answer the phone, the typesetting on your bills and your returns policy.

You can’t fool all the people, not even most of the time. And people, once unfooled, talk about the experience.

If you are marketing from a fairly static annual budget, you’re viewing marketing as an expense. Good marketers realize that it is an investment.

People don’t buy what they need. They buy what they want.

You’re not in charge. And your prospects don’t care about you.

What people want is the extra, the emotional bonus they get when they buy something they love.

Business to business marketing is just marketing to consumers who happen to have a corporation to pay for what they buy.

Traditional ways of interrupting consumers (TV ads, trade show booths, junk mail) are losing their cost-effectiveness. At the same time, new ways of spreading ideas (blogs, permission-based RSS information, consumer fan clubs) are quickly proving how well they work.

People all over the world, and of every income level, respond to marketing that promises and delivers basic human wants.

Good marketers tell a story.

People are selfish, lazy, uninformed and impatient. Start with that and you’ll be pleasantly surprised by what you find.

Marketing that works is marketing that people choose to notice.

Effective stories match the worldview of the people you are telling the story to.

Choose your customers. Fire the ones that hurt your ability to deliver the right story to the others.

A product for everyone rarely reaches much of anyone.

Living and breathing an authentic story is the best way to survive in an conversation-rich world.

Marketers are responsible for the side effects their products cause.

Reminding the consumer of a story they know and trust is a powerful shortcut.

Good marketers measure.

Marketing is not an emergency. It’s a planned, thoughtful exercise that started a long time ago and doesn’t end until you’re done.

One disappointed customer is worth ten delighted ones.

In the googleworld, the best in the world wins more often, and wins more.

Most marketers create good enough and then quit. Greatest beats good enough every time.

There are more rich people than ever before, and they demand to be treated differently.

Organizations that manage to deal directly with their end users have an asset for the future.

You can game the social media in the short run, but not for long.

You market when you hire and when you fire. You market when you call tech support and you market every time you send a memo.

Blogging makes you a better marketer because it teaches you humility in your writing.

Obviously, knowing what to do is very, very different than actually doing it.

That's Right

HMK

Thanks again Seth! Seth's Blog.