When Good Old-Fashioned Competition Gets in the Way

I never thought I'd hear myself(as someone who believes in capitalism) say this, but I think the competitive spirit might be getting in the way of Capitalism. Can we please unite already? Under the few causes we believe in? I know it's kind of Socialistic/Marxist and all but...Until we do this, do you think we might be duplicating our efforts here?

Take this Tea Party deal for instance. Why are there so many different websites up? It seems like everyone and their Native American buddy has thrown one up. Which one do I go to? Which one is the real deal? teapartyday.com? taxdayteaparty.com? And for crying out loud, those two were in the same article in World. And there's this one. Who knows how many more are out there. Tea Partiers, I wish you well.

Surfs Up!

I’m not a surfer. But I thought this was a good use of negative space in forming the surfboard.

Phil's Toilet

My brother in law is an engineer. Can you tell!?
It's funny, but I love how efficient he is!

Logo/Tag Line Placement

How do you add a tag line to a logo? This question haunted me for quite a while but recently I think I was able to work it out with a few buddies of mine.

I used to think that the tag line unbalanced the logo, but I think that might just be the nature of tag lines. THE most important thing is your logo. The tag line is secondary, thus rightfully named, a tag line, because you tag it on. Adding an additional, but minor element(such as a tag line) may not require the original composition to adjust. This exercise may help:

1. You need to look at the logo without the tag line first, and ask yourself, “Does the logo(bug+word) look right”
2. Then(w/out adjusting your logo) tag the line of copy to your logo where it best fits.

Southwest is Nuts!

This weekend I flew Southwest from Denver to Fort Lauderdale, FL. I couldn't believe my eyes – I was staring at a little golden pack of sweet and salty goodness – peanuts!? That right. Honey roasted even. And they did not disappoint. As good as I remembered them. Yum! Thanks Stacy! I bet it's been over 10 years since I've had peanuts on an airplane.

When's the last time you were offered peanuts on a plane?

Oh, they even had catchy phrases printed on the pack like:
"Tasty Fares" and "Crunch the Numbers"

And here's a nifty way to eat them
Step:
1. Open
2. Pour into mouth

MmmMmmm!

Guess Who Makes this Laptop?

That's right. It's an Apple Macbook. Everybody is using it. It took me like 15 seconds to find one in World.

Do you know why you can so easily guess this? You know why this works so well?
It's not their logo. It's the very design of their product. I can't tell you how many movies or magazine ads I see with an Apple computer in them. I don't even have to see the Apple logo.

See, Apple has this genius idea of making all of their products look relatively the same. You know why this doesn't work for Dell? HP? Gateway? The products are so different from one another within the brand, but I wouldn't be able to tell one brand from another(except for Apple).

One of the Coolest Wastes of 5 Minutes Ever!

Actually it was only about a minute, thirty. Then I lost interest. So maybe it's not that cool. But here it is. I hope you find it enjoyable and waste more time than I did. Here: nownetwork.

Great Funny Danger Icon

Somebody had a lot of fun illustrating the graphic for this project. Not to be out-funned, the copywriter wasn’t about to pass up this opportunity! I passed this while strolling the construction site of Living Way Fellowship at Wildcat and Broadway.

Free Audio Bible(New Testament) MP3

Simply reading the Bible just doesn't compare to this! Not to be cliché, but the gospels really do come to life. You've got to download this! You have to first download an App, but then you can download your New Testament. Each chapter is an MP3, so I just keep them in my iTunes library.

Oh! And you can download up to five different versions. I got the KJV.

Not a bad ministry either. I support. They work with oneverse who let nationals do the translating. Why do the nationals do it? B/c they are stoked to! They want their family, friends , and communities to be able to read the Bible themselves.

Effective Email

See the "After" Version and the website.

I got an email the other day form my parents(See "Before" image). Apparently this was being forwarded around asking folks to send a teabag in in defiance of Washington's taxing us. But there were a few issues I had with it.

Here is a list of some problems and how they could improve on their marketing:

1. Get to the point FAST. It took way too long to get to the point.

2. Provide web links. There wasn't a SINGLE link in the email.

3. Avoid saying things like, "Send this to everyone in your address book." The last paragraph made it feel like a chain letter.

4. Headers are nice. Use them. There was no layout. Provide some kind of hierarchy to organize the content.

5. There was no masthead. Image headers are a great way to pull your audience into your email and gives you a credibility that far surpasses text only emails.