LINKS FROM June 2006
Warren Buffett's lesson to the rich.
Advertisers grapple with consumer online revolution
"Consumers are hijacking top global brands using blogs and online communities but advertising companies are trying to find ways to embrace the revolution rather than fight against it." Yup.
Tags: marketing business cgm media2.0
Recent Rebrandings 13: All FutureBrand
I really like the International Rescue Committee and the Yuerba Buena logos. MasterCard I'm not so fond of.
Tags: logos branding design inspiration
What is good PowerPoint design?
"Without a good knowledge of the place and circumstance, and the content and context of a presentation, it is impossible to say this is "appropriate" and that is "inappropriate.""
Tags: design presentation powerpoint simplicity
Prince meets the Muppets and sings about Starfish and Coffe.
Tags: funny music muppets video
"Ray builds software that allows lawyers to monitor what they pay attention to so that they can bill clients accurately."
Fred at A VC explains why he runs ads: Not for himself, but because there's someone out there who needs the money.
Tags: advertising charity
"The greatest efficiencies come from identifying the areas that people, yes living breathing people, find extremely boring. Then seek ways to make those tasks as painless as possible."
Tags: process business management
Creativity is a discipline of learning
"Most recently I have found myself asking if this vocation can move further, and lead us to create good in our world and communities. Can we do things beyond helping companies communicate?"
Tags: creativity design communication marketing
A look at 'prosumerism' (aka co-creation aka brand democratization) and its effects on design.
Brands and 2.0 - proceed with caution
A good look at brands in a 2.0 world.
Tags: branding media2.0 marketing
The Sins of American Sportscasting
"All these strands together add up to the crisis in American sportscasting that is made evident at every World Cup, when English-speaking fans flee in enormous numbers to listen to commentary in a language they don’t even understand."
Tags: soccer journalism sports television culture
Disney Uber-Sells Depp's Jack Sparrow
Disney has "registered the trademark for Johnny Depp’s pirate character, Jack Sparrow, in a tsunami of categories, including bikinis and bolo ties and badminton sets, licorice and lemonade and leg warmers, bagels and bowling balls and BBQ mits!"
Ford is documenting their attempt to save the company.
Tags: branding business cars marketing blogs video
"'Consumer-generated ads make sense for some brands and not for others… if you don’t have an insight to back up your idea, you’ll fall flat on your face.' - Noah Brier, Senior Writer at Renegade Marketing"
Tags: cgm quotes media2.0 branding
WOMBAT2: TRIP HUNTER, RENEGADE MKTG.
"Trip is in charge of guerrilla marketing at Renegade in NYC. We discussed their recently launched Panasonic/Oxyride "Neuter Your Bunny" campaign, and asked him how Renegade works when going into a new business pitch."
Tags: rmg video interviews marketing
Lawrence Lessig looks at An Inconvenient Truth, specifically at the way the media has handled global warming.
Tags: environment globalwarming science media journalism
Jeopardy super geek Ken Jennings has a blog.
Tags: blogs television
I Like Bill Simmons, Really I Do
Wages of Wins takes on Bill Simmons.
Tags: basketball sports statistics
Motorola Q: Snatching Defeat from the Jaws of Victory
"For a product to feel harmonious the user, the system that surrounds it must be harmonious. No product is outside of a system, though not all products are systems."
Advertising In the Post-Advertising Era
"In a post-advertising era, when the consumers are in complete control of brand perceptions, there’s only one effective way to “advertise�  create REALLY great products and services that people love and that offer an unrivaled experience."
Tags: marketing advertising branding cocreation media2.0
"The Internet is forcing the entire media business into a disaggregated horizontal model where the creation of the content will happen in one place, the editorial function will happen in another . . . "
What cutting-edge science tells us about mastering the art of the brainstorm. Plus: Why do the best ideas always seem to happen in the shower?
Tags: brainstorming
"New technologies are disrupting and inverting these economics, by making attention the scarcest resource in the value chain."
Tags: attention business trend media2.0
The N.B.A. Draft: Now for Grown-Ups Only!
"Garnett shifted the paradigm for hopp greatness: suddenly, attending college was almost like admitting your game had flaws. College was for the staunchly nontranscendent."
Tags: sports basketball nytimes
Hollywood is buzzing with the revolutionary idea that real opportunity -- and profit -- lies well beyond blockbusters.
Tags: longtail business media2.0
"Bazooka’s chief problem was the fact that the tiny comics that come wrapped around the gum weren’t funny to anyone born after 1962."
Top Designer Says World Cup Design "Just Embarrassing"
Erik Spiekermann, one of Germany's most respected designers, has been openly critical of the design concept for the 2006 World Cup, from the mascot to the logo. He told DW-WORLD.DE why it hasn't been successful.
Tags: soccer logos design germany interviews
Bruce Sterling on media, design, fiction, and the future
Tags: design culture environment scifi technology
Design. Architecture. Football.
"And it's this tension which is reminiscent of adaptive design ideas discussed here previously; that design isn't the end of the process, but the beginning; that interpretation and improvisation will define the end-product, not the original design."
Tags: design architecture soccer
Social Isolation Growing in U.S., Study Says
The Number of People Who Say They Have No One to Confide In Has Risen
Tags: culture emotions health psychology relationships
The Top 10 Questions Investors Asked Us
"If you’ve never met with angels or VCs and are curious as to what they might want to know, here is a list of the more common questions we fielded."
Tags: venturecapital business entrepreneur startups
Google Launches ValueClick Killer
"In other words, Google is launching a fully-fledged cost-per-action  otherwise known as affiliate marketing  network."
Tags: google advertising search
"Basically, unconscious design is design where there is no “conversation with the situation�. Sometimes we make design decisions based out of habit; we are simply following the norm; or we just never asked ourselves “Why?�."
What Goes Down Drain Eventually Bobs Up Here
"The best place to see Manhattan's byproducts  what is stuffed down its sinks, flushed down its toilets and washed from its gutters  can't be found in tour ..."
How to lead your customer into temptation
"People choose cake more often after being asked the following hypothetical question: "If strong evidence emerges from scientific studies suggesting that cakes ... have some major health benefits, what would happen to your consumption of these items?""
Tags: psychology marketing emotions
A leading atheist says people must embrace rationalism, not faith -- or they will never overcome their differences.
Tags: religion culture interviews politics science
How Public Prediction Markets Simplify Concepts about Buying and Selling Events and Ideas
Tags: design ia economics gambling markets wisdomofcrowds socialsoftware
A look at postal service design from around the world.
Tags: design
After stormy discussion CSSBloom team has chosen the best 20 blog designs.
Tags: design blogs lists bestof inspiration
8 Invaluable Wordpress Plugins!
Great ways to extend Wordpress.
"Conservatives have benefited in the recent past by keeping a firm grasp on talking points and positions. It is clear that they want to use the channels of CGM, but want that to be an amplifier of their messages."
Brainstorming under attack: 8 errors in the WSJ
"It is hard to imagine that an institution as smart at the WSJ should be capable of generating so many stupidities about brainstorming. And this at a time when the corporation is having to flourish in an innovation economy where creativity is the new nam
Tags: brainstorming business ideas
Database of American Proprietary Eponyms
Popsicle, escalator and rolodex are all trademarks. Who knew?
Tags: branding marketing names culture
Cubicle Culture: How brainstorming works best
A look at the pros and cons of brainstorming.
Tags: brainstorming creativity business collaboration ideas
Where Visual Design Meets Usability
An Interview with Luke Wroblewski, Part 1
Tags: design usability interviews
Trusted filters, trusted protectors, trusted concierge, human or technical, removing distractions and managing boundaries, filtering signal from noise, enabling meaningful connections, that make us feel secure, are the opportunity for the next generation.
Tags: attention
As Alan McGee books a made-up band, Dave Simpson looks at the science of creating a buzz
A "menu engineer" based in Palm Springs, Calif., Rapp works with restaurants across the country and around the world to transform innocent lists of meals into profitable, user-friendly sales tools.
"The Cognitive economy revolves around memory, attention, perception, action, problem solving. It will be the businesses, organizations, services and people that build value around those key components that will be sucessful in the long term."
Tags: attention media2.0 economics
The Mysterious Power of Context
"A good logo, according to Paul Rand, provides the 'pleasure of recognition and the promise of meaning.'"
How to avoid lame morale events
Including eight tips for creating great morale events.
Tags: management business
A breakdown of the NBA Finals from the Wages of Wins people. Choice quote: "Final lesson: Role players matter. In each game players other than the stars made a difference – for better or worse."
Tags: basketball statistics
50 ways to become a better designer
The way you work can have a huge impact on your creative success. We present the best advice from leading designers on every stage of the creative process, so that you can keep clients satisfied and make the most of your talents
Tags: design tips photoshop illustrator lists creativity
Typographic Tips: Apostrophes & Quotation Marks
Quotes can be smart or dumb. To set type intelligently, read this easy introduction to the differences between prime symbols, acute accents, apostrophes, and quotation marks.
Tags: typography tips
"Up until now, people thought that [shyness] was mostly related to avoidance of social situations . . . Here we showed that shy children have increased activity in the reward system of the brain as well."
Tags: science brain psychology personality research
Pigeons May Coo but They Aren't Cute, the Mayor Says
"Under an unusual agreement, a pigeon-advocacy group has been allowed to scatter corn in a corner of the square [Trafalger in London] for 10 minutes at 7:30 every morning, then leave."
Tags: strange funny london pigeons
Media Should Evolve Into Marketing Services
"I increasing believe that in order to survive and grow in a digital, networked, social, participatory world, media companies need to evolve into marketing services companies."
"Like it or not, fair or not, correct or not… All first impressions matter. You make them about everything and so do your clients and prospects."
Tags: design business marketing
Hip-Hop's "Unwelcome Attention" Redux
More on Cristal's stupidity in making hip-hoppers feel unwelcome.
Tags: hiphop marketing alcohol
Guardian: Print Your Own Newspaper
"G24 will be a free service featuring news content from the Guardian Unlimited website. . . Users will be able to log on to Guardian Unlimited and download an eight to 12-page A4 pdf document, which can then be printed off."
Tags: newspapers
The Future of the Object Expanded
A fantastic explanation of Bruce Sterling's “internet of things.�
Tags: things internet rfid identity spimes
And what I said at Princeton. (By David Sedaris)
Digital Digressions: The Secret of Happy Employees
"What makes a great workplace and happy employees? It's not countless training courses or 'away-days' or even a selection of free cakes and an office dog. It is three very simple things."
Tags: management business happiness tips
Online blackmail for the masses.
Does the World Cup have a lingua franca?
"If a player doesn't happen to share a language with the referee, he might yell in his native language just to convey that he's upset. "Any kind of fellatio comment is inevitably understood," says Alexi Lalas, who was on the U.S. World Cup roster in 1994
Is There Really Something Wrong With CGM Research?
Max Kalehoff takes consumer-generated media opponent Bill Neal to task.
Tags: media2.0 cgm research marketing
Apple's mean-spirited ad campaign
"Apple hopes to shift the debate away from a battle over specs and value and toward a battle we can all understand: cool kid versus nerd. But . . . isn't smug superiority (no matter how affable and casually dressed) a bit off-putting as a brand strategy?"
Tags: apple advertising commercial
Chicago Tribune comes out with their big list again. Lots of old reliables (Economist is number 1, Wired is number 3) and a bunch you've never heard of (VegNews).
Tags: magazines bestof2006 lists
How do I hire geniuses without sharing my idea?
"Ask any creative person -- especially a writer -- for the most loathsome sentence in the world. (It's 'You're past deadline.') But the second is 'I have this great idea!'"
Tags: creativity ideas business
Wheelchairs given design makeover
A designer who has spent most of his career working on parts for Formula One cars has come up with a new, off-road wheelchair.
Tags: design innovation health
Some bigwig at Cristal implied that he wasn't necessarily happy about all the hip-hop attention so Jay-Z has said he won't stock it, drink it and neither should any other hip-hoppers.
Tags: alcohol marketing pr hiphop
"The time is long since past when morning newspapers can pretend they are breaking big national and international news stories. They have to remember that their readers know what has happened."
Tags: journalism internet newspapers technology
Myth and Measurement after Game Three of the NBA Finals
"What are the myths (some of which I just made up) – and corresponding measurements (which I didn't just make up) – from these first three contests?"
Tags: sports basketball statistics
Scaling up is good. Scaling down is even better.
"Traditional businesses target the top end of the market. . . But the lesson of the Long Tail is that, as Nobel physicist Richard Feynman predicted, 'there's a lot of room at the bottom.'"
Tags: longtail simplicity business internet
Momus answers the question: "What should I blog about?"
Tags: writing blogs creativity bestarticlesof2006
Ubiquitous Blurbs: The Future of Search
What happens when searches crosses over from the computer and enters the 'real world'?
A Grand Old Flag And Very Modern Art
"Plenty of rigorous abstraction from the 1960s shares the hard edges, asymmetries, unusual proportions and unlikely color combinations of the American flag."
Which products, used by few today, will be essential in five years?
A great look at the year 2011.
Tags: future trend technology innovation attention
"OK, I’ve heard of some strange cooperative marketing campaignsâ€â€but this one takes the cake."
Tags: funny panasonic rmg marketing pr
10 principles Nike lives by.
Tags: nike management marketing branding
Drinking coffee cuts alcohol's harmful effects
Just a cup a day helps prevent cirrhosis of the liver, researchers say
Tags: coffee alcohol health research
Google's tv eavesdropping plan
"By using its microphone to listen in and then connecting to an online database it could identify the show, and how far through you are."
Tags: google future television advertising attention
Individual Talent as Media Brand
"As Google continues to destroy the value of branded content, individual media brands may be the last line of defense."
Tags: branding identity blogs media2.0
Figure out how many hours you've spent on the toilet in your lifetime.
Top Ten Truths About the Digital Ecosystem
A great state of the digital ecosystem piece.
Tags: business culture internet media2.0 technology
"In this article PingMag introduces a cross-section of all sorts of balls: from the official FIFA final ball, to designer balls, DIY balls, soccer ball graphics, football food and the matching bra."
"The plenitude of information, not its scarcity, defines the world we live in now. And journalism must change to accommodate that fact."
Tags: informationoverload journalism trend attention
How Brazilian soccer players get their names
How Brazilian soccer players get their names.
Tags: soccer sports language culture brazil
"In a consumer driven world, money will flow from advertising to service and product development as companies invest in what enables them to deliver a truly exceptional experience."
For Some, Online Persona Undermines a Resume
College kids are facing the hard truth from all the stuff they've posted about themselves online.
Tags: jobs college youth internet identity trend nytimes
Maxim rates the top 20 chains in America . . . Taco Bell comes in at number one.
The N.B.A.'s Secret Superstars
What the non-scorers do matters, and in fact, it is those players who might ultimately decide who gets to be crowned NBA champions.
Tags: nytimes sports statistics basketball
Marissa Mayer's 9 Notions of Innovation
9 things Google does to incubate innovation.
Tags: innovation creativity brainstorming google
Canton chain's new owners hope for 15,000 locations by 2020, with multiple formats and new menu offerings
Your Pocket Guide to PoMo's History
"Before all the hooha about postmodernism, there was something called modernism. What was all that about?"
Tags: postmodernism philosophy history
"Consistency assumes that presentation and messaging are the only model for brand marketing. That is simply not how communities, word of mouth, interactivity, experiences, imitation and other proven good ideas work."
Tags: marketing advertising trend business
Video explains the world's most important 6-sec drum loop
"This fascinating, brilliant 20-minute video narrates the history of the "Amen Break," a six-second drum sample from the b-side of a chart-topping single from 1969."
Tags: video music remix culture copyright dj documentary hiphop bestarticlesof2006
Architecture and interaction design, via adaptation and hackability
Dan Hill talks about hackability and architecture.
Tags: interviews design architecture hackability innovation bestarticlesof2006
What Netflix Could Teach Hollywood
Five million families now have a Netflix account, making it one of the most impressive companies around. So why do so many people think it's doomed?
Tags: netflix business movies longtail nytimes
"Since the 1960s, when management gurus crowned the consumer king, companies have been tapping ethnographers to get a better handle on their customers."
Tags: business innovation ethnography research strategy
The evolution of the NetFlix envelope
A look at the changes the NetFlix envelope has gone through in seven years.
Tags: design business netflix packaging shipping movies dvd
Attention Scarcity and its Effect on Marketing
"Marketing was formerly based on ... Intercept, isolate, inhibit ... it should be based on the three A's: attract, assist (develop understandingn of context both pre and post purchase); affiliate (mobilize people to help deliver value)"
Tags: marketing attention trend future
"In a world where people are looking for brands to be more human and authentic, perhaps behaving predictably has issues."
Some huge Obey Giant stuff out in LA.
Tags: streetart
No Instruction Necessary: part 1
Andy Rutledge on affordance: "A common object with an obvious affordance is a glove. When you look at a glove, there appears to be one, and only one way to “use� it."
Tags: design education usability
Social Engineering, the USB Way
What happens when you leave a bunch of USB drives around a credit unions with trojan's on them? Everyone plugs them in.
Tags: security psychology marketing
"Radiant is a no-fluff, open source content management system designed for small teams."
Tags: cms ruby opensource free
"And so it goes as media companies formerly known as mainstream try to figure out this Web 2.0 thing. When everything begins with "where's the money," nothing innovative comes out the other end."
Tags: media2.0 video community business
Interaction Design Summer Reading List
Nine reading recommendations from the Adaptive Path blog.
What Makes a Good Creative Director?
"Finding the right mesh of talent and interpersonal skills is a very difficult task, which is why good creative directors have been revered  there are so few people who can be creative and manage creative."
Tags: creativity marketing design management
Guardian targets American audience
"The Guardian plans to expand its print and online presence in America as part of its ambition to become the biggest liberal voice in world media."
Tags: newspapers politics
Officials in Sydney are going to pipe Barry Manilow music into a park "in an attempt to rid streets and car parks of hooligans." Awesome.
Tags: funny music politics australia
The Road to Hell: Now Paved with Innovation?
Michael Beirut on "the brave new world of spec work."
Tags: design competition spec ethics innovation magazines
Like "hot or not," but not.
Serendipity casts a very wide net
"It is no accident that technology commentator Bill Thompson believes that the web does a lot to promote chance discovery"
Tags: culture search technology serendipity
"Wife 1.0 has an undocumented bug. If you try to install Mistress 1.1 before uninstalling Wife 1.0, Wife 1.0 will delete MSMoney files before doing the uninstall itself."
Tags: funny geeks romance relationships software
Metadata is (Still) Democratic
'[Attention data] is the easiest--and most democratic--form of expression."
Tags: attention metadata internet
Colbert Tells College Graduates: Get Your Own TV Show
"His suggestions for securing the U.S.-Mexico border went beyond walls to include moats, fiery moats and fiery moats with fire-proof crocodiles."
Tags: funny politics college celebrity
"What Apple and Netflix did, while not simple, was straightforward. The value they created came from innovations that dramatically improved the user's experience. They looked hard at the current experience and focused on designing an ideal one."
Tags: innovation design usability ux
Things You Didn't Know About Your Body
"The world's most amazing, practical, and powerful health tips for men"
Tags: health lists tips lifehacks
"Why the country's reliance on imported brainpower is on a collision course with its home-grown distaste for science."
Tags: education science politics
"Who killed the cool hunter? I think contemporary culture did. It got more complicated, in the process outstripping the cognitive abilities of even those who claimed guru status."
Wes Anderson American Express Ad
"The brilliant Wes Anderson My Life, My Card ad starring Jason Schwartzman and a cast of, er, um many!"
Tags: video advertising commercial creditcard funny
Jakob Nielsen's Usability Fighting Styles
XML Thumb Strike! Blue Underline Grab!
Take This Internship and Shove It
"What if the growth of unpaid internships is bad for the labor market and for individual careers?"
Tags: nytimes education youth jobs internships
"Whatever one thinks about this administration’s domestic and foreign policies, the White House’s garish type selections are so thoughtless they trivialize rather than enhance the rhetoric of our POTUS"
Tags: typography politics
Mobile-Phone Models That Improve Upon the RAZR, SLVR, and PEBL.
McSweeney's: "ANGL HAR PSTA"
Shaq compares the guards he's played with to Vito Corleone's sons in the Godfather trilogy.
Tags: funny basketball sports
Russell Davies: "Inspired by the splendid Guy Kawasaki here are The Top Ten Lies Of Ad Agency Account Planners."
Tags: planning marketing advertising lists
"I'm not afraid of raccoons or possums...and they are basically stinkless skunks. Has anyone ever heard of a skunk biting someone? They just stink you."