I am just now back to our computer at home after days and days of eating, drinking and being merry. It’s been a whirlwind to say the least, but more on that in the New Year. What I’m really excited about is my new iPod touch! The possibilities have been creating a backlog of design and advertising related ideas in my head, and I’m sure Neuhaus is going to have many round-table discussions in the New Year about how to better service our clients and take advantage of the technologies available. The sheer ease of use and simplicity of design is really astounding and I can’t wait to begin exploring. In the meantime, a great article on how the iPhone is changing education.
So, the other day I’m at the Gap and I suddenly realized how it got its name. When you buy something, wait 5 minutes and the price will be reduced by at least 30%. I had purchased a few items a couple of days prior to my second visit and sure enough, the items I bought were on sale for almost 50% lower than what I paid (and I already bought it on sale). Maddening? Yes. Agitating? Yup. Confounding? Fo sho mo fo. However, if I was in Vancouver, I wouldn’t care, thanks to Sprize, a service available only to select Vancouver Gap stores that automatically refunds you the difference if a recently purchased item goes on sale. In a city as thrifty as Winnipeg, you’d think someone here would have come up with this idea first. Damn you Vancouver, first you get the Olympics and now this.
Alright, I may not have time to compile a list of my favourite music, design, movies or pretty much anything, I will make one last plea to Santa Clause for my favourite posters of the year (thank you Aesthetic Apparatus).
Neuhaus has Christmas all wrapped up. For a gift this year for most of our clients, we decided to do something a little different and created a ‘Christmas Gift Wrap Survival Kit’. After a seemingly never ending amount of design, bow tying, folding and assembly, all 50 packages are now off. Included in this neatly packaged present are 3 large sheets of screen printed wrapping paper, 1 pair of scissors, 1 tape dispenser, 2 spools of ribbon, 6 gift tags and 1 re-useable gift box. There were a few clients, however, who we adorned with delicious chocolates instead. Why you ask? Our fingers started cramping from all the bow tying. Ok, Ashley’s fingers started cramping. And we couldn’t ask her to tie another bow for fear of a lawsuit. Thanks to Ashley for all her hard work. (please don’t sue the company.)
The best part of this whole gift? The metallic gold wrapping paper! Many thanks to Paul of Modern Man Screen Printing for the help with this project.
This is purely awesome. Until yesterday I hadn’t heard of Ramona Falls or their video, but our photographer told us to look them up. I can’t imagine how many hours were spent in AfterEffects, but it was completely worth it.
Less than two weeks remain until The Impossible Project launches on January 1st, 2010. What is The Impossible Project you ask? Since Polaroid stopped producing analog Instant Film in June 2008, The Impossible Project was founded with the concrete aim to re-invent and re-start production of analog INTEGRAL FILM for vintage Polaroid cameras. As a long-time owner of Polaroid cameras, I have been counting down this day for quite some time. It’s become increasingly hard to justify paying almost $40 for a pack of Polaroid 600 film. Here is a great little film from Charles and Ray Eames reminding us of how great Polaroid film actually is, courtesy of Swiss Miss.
In an information obsessed world, I’m simply obsessed with information. Not in the way you might think, however. I’ve spent the last few months slowly gathering my favourite infographics, and really tried to observe what makes information attractive, better communicated and more interesting. It’s an area which greatly affects our field, and I think it’s really important to keep our fingers on the pulse of information flowing patterns and trends. Today I discovered the work of Nicholas Felton, an author of several Personal Annual Reports. I found his layout, typography, and colour choices quite striking, and it was a couple minutes before I realized his Annual Reports were indeed about his own personal life. I then discovered a site he co-founded call Daytum, used for counting and communicating daily data. If you’re as interested as I am, be sure to dig deeper and start your own personal information journey.
