MakeTheLogoSmaller T

I love it! So irreverent.
Available in Men's and Women's.

Obama's Web Campaign

A quick word from the guy behind the Obama web campaign. Brilliant! But not rocket science. Any organization CAN do this. The question is WILL they? Will they see the value in it?

United Everywhere

Who says the airlines are in a pinch!? Their advertising on the flatware even in a middle eastern restaurant here in Denver. So they can't be that bad off. :-)

I guess this just shows the importance of an easy/quick to identify logo.

iPhone/Kindle Similarities

Not even Amazon can resist the influence of Apple design. Notice the striking similarities between the back of the iPhone and the KindleDX. Not the following:
1. both are made of two different materials: silver and, what appears to be, plastic (bottom of iPhone, top of the Kindle)
2. both have logo at the top center
3. both have the device's additional info at the bottom center

IF MODE Folding Bike

What a sweet design! It was always a pain getting my bike through the doorway at work – and up the stairs...

See specs and get it from AREAWARE.

In Address Book Map Of...

I was shocked to find that my address book(running OS X Tiger) opens maps of my contacts in MapQuest. But here's a sweet pluggin to open maps using Google Maps!

Survival Straps

A real man bracelet is made from military-issue 550 paracord. Survival Straps ($18-$25) have a tight braid work that fits 15' to 20' of cord into a bracelet. If you find yourself in an unexpected emergency requiring strong rope, this could save you. If/when you do use your Survival Strap, send it back, with your story, and they'll braid it back to new for you, for free.

Starbucks Cup Icon

I noticed this in Maui on the front door of a Starbucks as I walk in. Has Starbucks' cup icon raised their brand identity to the same level as CocaCola? Maybe not, but they are pretty well on their way there as far as branding themselves, I think. Will they ever be as big or have the presence to get there? Probably not; I’m not sure how many latte drinkers there are in Ethiopia.

Can you see the similarities between Coca Cola's bottle icon and Starbucks' cup icon?

Underline + Bold = Improper

In the days of the typewriter, because there was no such thing as bold(nor italic) character keys, the method for providing emphasis was to simply underline. Here's how that worked: Let's use "example" as an example. You would type "example" then backspace 7 spaces and hit the "_" key to underline beneath each letter to get "example". Then you would continue typing your document. You could sometimes get a bold look to a word by typing a letter and backing up and striking the same key again – this would make it a little darker but not necessarily bold. So the proper style for writing was either use the "_" key to underline or retype the same letters to "bold" the characters – but not both.

Thus to bold and underline is redundant and not proper style for writing. (Keep in mind this is for standard writing, such as reports, letters, white papers, etc.) For flyers, copy, other marketing material, this may not necessarily apply as a rule.

In fact, most people do not understand or remember the origins of much of the writing style usage and tend to simultaneously use italicized, underlined, and bolded text for their writing. While there are no style police that will come and lock them up, this still can look pretty hokey.

Thank you, Phil!

Spec Work. Ugh.

David Carson looks like he's about to either start punching people in the face or curl up into the fetal position on the floor; I'm not sure which.

There is great creativity out there and there are some ideas that I myself will never think of. But some one might. Like a mom in Kansas might have the perfect solution for a client I'm working for, but maybe she just #1. can't reach the client or #2. doesn't know how to execute her solution in the best fashion. I wonder, could Spec designers and Professional designers collaborate?

I wonder if a company would be open to getting specwork done, then run it by an experienced designer? But if there are changes, or the spec designer misses the mark, you might have to start back at square one. So it might not be worth the runaround. However, if the spec designer has a good IDEA, it might be worth showing it to a qualified/trusted designer to see if it's executed well. Thoughts?