With the current ban on any form of tobacco advertising on Formula One cars or racing paraphernalia, Phillip Morris was forced to remove all logos relating to Marlboro cigarettes. But, true to tobacco company form, they found a way around the prohibition through a subliminal use of their ubiquitous logo:

They’ve reduced it to a bar code, which reads exactly the same way to a viewer as it would as the car speeds by at hundreds of miles per hour. Clever, dastardly, and probably entirely legal.  ›› Graphicology Blog.

posted on Friday, May 7th, 2010 in advertising, design, outlinks
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It’s spring in the Northern hemisphere, and those of us lucky enough to have gardens to distract us from technology have been planting them and getting them ready for the growing season. But it’s also just as important to decorate the garden properly with the right accessories.

Here are some options those of us with geeky thumbs are considering intermingling with the greenery:

The Garden Jawa

posted on Friday, April 30th, 2010 in design
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I don’t really want to bitch wildly, but there has been an undercurrent I’ve noticed around a lot of sites and services lately that has caused me no end of frustration, and I want to take some time to discuss my recent experiences with:

Customer service.

Those fifteen letters might as well be a four letter word, the way they make people feel lately. Yeah I know we’ve been in a recession; my wallet has felt it as much as everyone else’s. But so many companies have decided that the the fastest and easiest way to “trim the fat” is to cut back on their customer support services.

posted on Wednesday, April 28th, 2010 in communication, eponymous, tips
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All right… here we go. I am tired of how people latch on to one piece of misinformation and freak out. YOUR PRIVACY IS NOT BEING INVADED. You know how pissed I was about Google Buzz. This is an ENTIRELY different concept. That is not what the OpenGraph API is about.

I have already implemented several of the new widgets on the dinner blog. Go and look. You’ll see the new Facebook like button in the upper right hand corner. And you’ll see several other people like the page (and I hope you’ll take the time to like it too). But you only see the name and photos of people you’re already friends with on Facebook.

In my case, I see all but one, because so far only one person I am not friends with on Facebook has “liked” the blog. But, I CAN get info on her because I am the admin of teh page, but not directly thru the blog. That’s a feature for web administrators to keep in touch with people who are interested in their site. The info I get about Likers is their name and face, and access to send messages to their Facebook streams, like I already do/can with the dinnerblog Facebook page. It’s no real change, other than an extension of the venue- it’s still Facebook folks who choose to express their Liking.

Nevertheless, your information is NOT being handed out willy nilly. This is just a method of personalizing your experience as you go to other sites so you can share with people you trust, to your friends you have already made on Facebook. To strangers i.e. everyone else on the web, you are listed as just “a person” and no other information is given out about you beyond that.

Let me say this again: Your name and personal info is only revealed to people you are friends with already. That’s why I don’t have a problem with this, I actually, um, like it. I think it’s a good thing, it makes for a better social experience because it’s transparent and allows for easy feedback from people you know.

Facebook may not be the bestest solution out there, but they’re the one that most of us have chosen, democratically. Unlike Google Buzz, you opted-in by becoming a member of Facebook. If you have privacy concerns, you should by all means delete your Facebook account immediately, not just turn off this one button.

But if you’re like me, and most people, you have your Facebook account for public consumption. The things you post to it and the data you include in your profile are for public consumption as well. You may have tenuous “friend” connections, but Facebook is not a place where you are friends with your stalker ex-boyfriend or abusive former boss. You don’t post about the great sex you had the night before, because you’re Facebook Friends with your Mom.

What people seem to be missing is that this personal-data-that-you-gave-up-willingly is not floating out there randomly. When you opt to go to a website AND you are a Facebook member, AND that site has implemented the OpenGraph API tools that are now available, YES, that site will know information about you UNLESS you have gone and clicked the box on your profile and prevented it from happening. They will only know information relevant to you, however- a message like you and your friend So-and-so and 160 other people liked this page. Again, it’s not random data spewing around the internet.

Really, is this really such a bad thing? Are you really opposed to CNN knowing what kind of news you’re interested in reading before you get there? Or Pandora knowing your music tastes? Or finding a new site and realizing that a couple of your friends found it before you and thought it was pretty cool too, so you’ll stick around and read it and give it a chance?

I think that’s an added value to being a Facebook member, instead of having to re-enter the exact same information every time I visit a new site. On the whole, I prefer a social web to staying in a cave and banging rocks together by myself. I think people are a-feared of what they don’t fully understand. Facebook is a social networking site, not an isolate ourselves in a cave and be a hermit site. We live in the information age now, for better or for worse. It may take some getting used to, but try and embrace the good bits. This is actually one of them, really.

posted on Friday, April 23rd, 2010 in social networking, technology, web
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There’s a huge difference between spec work and pro-bono work. I am vehemently opposed to the former, and a big fan of the latter, and would do more of it if I had the time and money to spare. Lippincott just re-branded the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation in a way that really shows off the value of a good pro-bono campaign: it brings a welcome new level of maturity to GLAAD, and shows that Lippincott pays every bit as much of attention to the details for a pro-bono client that they would for a multi-million dollar corporation. GLAAD’s new identity is quite well executed- it is well-focused, eye-catching, and on-message, far more so than their previous version. Futura may be from the past, but I think it works very nicely here as a solidifying part of their logo. ›› Brand New

posted on Monday, April 19th, 2010 in design, outlinks
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I’ve never been a fan of at&t’s corporate branding since they took Saul Bass’s iconic logo and inflated it into a fussy, overly dated “death star” look. But now BBDO’s really gone off the damned deep end with their new “Rethink Possible” campaign. The hideously shaded and gradiented (yeah I know it’s not a word) 3D globe is now as bloated and fuzzy as their spokesdrone, Owen Wilson.

Oh, there are other versions, too, now without shading, and built of a variety of objects to fill out the logo, reminiscent of the recent rebranding of AOL by Wolff Olins.

Apparently the ultimate goal is to make at&t a company that exists solely on a name-less logo like Apple or Nike, but hideous crap from a company with huge customer service problems like this ain’t gonna cut it. ››Brand New

posted on Friday, April 9th, 2010 in advertising, communication, design
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I have always considered myself a halfway decent photographer, and over the years I’ve collected some of my favorite shots I have taken using my Panasonic Lumix digital camera and made some free desktops/wallpapers for you to download. The reason I love this particular camera so much is because it has a Leica lens- Pansasonic has a deal with them to produce their electronics, and Leica makes the glass. Panasonic’s versions sell for a lot less, but work just as well as far as I can tell. I love the results I am able to get with it, and I’m happy to be able to share them with you!

posted on Saturday, April 3rd, 2010 in design, eponymous, photography
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Yet another sign that my generation is now greying and becoming the establishment. Here’s the guy who designed renegade typefaces like Blur and album covers for Throbbing Gristle taking the reins at one of the most prestigious art schools in the UK, much less the world. ›› mediabistro.com: UnBeige.

posted on Tuesday, March 30th, 2010 in design, outlinks
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So this guy, Alex George, loved his old Volvo station wagon so much, he decided to design a typeface based on it. And it doesn’t suck. I’m as surprised as you are. ›› Autoblog.

posted on Friday, March 26th, 2010 in design, outlinks, type
1 comment »

Sometimes a logo redesign signifies a change in identity from the bush leagues to the majors. Such is the case with Calgary’s Mount Royal’s transformation from college to university. Their new logo is classy, understated, and a lot less beholden to a period in time than their previous identity. An excellent job. ››  Brand New – To Maple or Not to Maple

posted on Thursday, March 25th, 2010 in communication, design, outlinks
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