Trendspotting

Jumping from site to site, I somehow got to trendwatching.com. The 2007 Trend Report seems to be an interesting (but pricey) resource for all you trend-whores who are in the biz of forecasting and being on the edge. There's also a briefing this month on the trend of media placement in video games (you can't escape it, you can only hope to contain it).

"A shadowy glass chandelier enters the dangerous world of a man's career which does not exist."

Via TVSquad. Apparently the Hoff hit a glass chandelier hanging above him while he was shaving at the gym.

"A spokesperson says Hasselhoff was shaving in the bathroom when he hit his head on a chandelier and glass showered down on him. At least one piece actually severed a tendon on his right arm. Ouch, that's a deep cut. Hasselhoff is already out of surgery and is recovering."

BBall gets a new ball.

Found this on NBA.com today: Spalding has redesigned the basketball used in the NBA.

"The new ball, manufactured by Spalding, features a new design and a new material that together offer better grip, feel, and consistency than the current leather ball. This marks the first change to the ball in over 35 years and only the second in 60 seasons."

Conspiracy theory: they redesigned it with a better grip to help Shaq's free-throw shooting.

Flava' Sticks.

Via CoolHunting, skewers that release flavor while stuck through some meat on the grill. Nice.

D.W.P. as bad as D.W.I.

Via wired.com, a study released today stating that driving while phoning is as bad as driving while intoxicated.

"They studied 40 volunteers who used a driving simulator four times -- while undistracted, using a handheld cell phone, using a hands-free cell phone and while intoxicated to a 0.08 percent blood-alcohol level -- the average legal level of impairment in the United States -- after drinking vodka and orange juice."

"I. would love. to be. portrayed. by Matt. Damon."

J.J. Abrams creator of Lost, Alias, Felicity, and director of M:I:3, is boldly going where he's never been before: outer space.

Abrams has officially signed on to do a "new" Star Trek movie about Kirk and Spock in their pre-bad-ass years. Rumor has it Matt Damon may be cast as Kirk. Sweet.

Check out CastingStones via Blogcritics for other possible casting options.

More Flip-flops

Another flip-flop article, this time from the New York Times. This reminds me of the week full of earwax postings over at boingboing.

Comfortable, but bad for your career and health?

This article via the Drudge, asks the question "Are flip-flops damaging your career?" Another related article asks if flip-flops are bad for your health (don't bother jumping to page 2, it's pants.)

I'm pullin' for this guy (pessimistically).

A story of one man trying to change AIGA. Good luck dude.

No postings for you.

No postings yesterday, I was in a FOUR-hour meeting. Like Douglass Scott is fond of saying (I think this is how it went) "If you can't talk about it in under an hour, there's no point in meeting."

V-Dub drops the Golf like it's hot.

It turns out that Volkswagen is renaming the Golf—introducing the new Rabbit. Read more here.

I also saw a cool commercial for it this morning. I'll post a vid, as soon as I can find one on YouTube.

Cable, you're about to get cut.

Tired of paying out the nose for cable and internet services? Keep an eye out for AT&T U-verse, a new service being beta tested in San Antonio. 200+ channels and Internet starting at $69, complete with set-top boxes and DVRs. That's almost half of what Jill and I pay right now.

So...Time Warner...do you see that blue and white deathstar coming towards you? It's got a knife.

Via Engadget.

Screenplays that look like screens when Tom is done with them.

Via BoingBoing, Tom Benedek is a writer who likes to go OK Corral-style on his screenplays. Check out more of his photos. Oh.....he likes to burn things too.

Cheers.

Props to my media-whore friend Jeremy, whose submission to the DWR 2006 Champagne Chair contest is going on tour. Check your local listings.

Picklephobe

Picklephobe

Via Engadget via YouTube.

"Mariah says she is so afraid of pickles she cannot even look at a picture of one."

Check out billsd's other videos.

Maury is the new Jerry.

Donuts on the run.

Dunkin' Donuts is going through a rebrand, thanks to Hill|Holiday. Check out some commentary on the new packaging and cool ideas like the "start line" in the drive through.

Via one of my best friends, Meredith.

I feel this is something worth checking out.

My friend Johnnie told me about We Feel Fine, which is an amazing site that collects "feelings" from blogs all over the world.

"Since August 2005, We Feel Fine has been harvesting human feelings from a large number of weblogs. Every few minutes, the system searches the world's newly posted blog entries for occurrences of the phrases "I feel" and "I am feeling". When it finds such a phrase, it records the full sentence, up to the period, and identifies the "feeling" expressed in that sentence (e.g. sad, happy, depressed, etc.)."

Very cool and worth checking out. It requires Java and may take a bit to load, but it's really interesting to view the information in a variety of different ways.

Cupcrazy

For those of you in the Austin-area, my friends Shelly and Claudia have started a cupcakery called babycakes. Having a wedding? Birthday party? Bar/Bat Mitzvah? Just having a bad day? Give 'em a shout.

A uni only Becks would wear.

This year's World Cup teams are sporting some pretty sweet uniforms (I really like England's St. George's Cross on the shoulder). Uni Watch has a cheatsheet of all the teams and commentary over at ESPN.

Aaron Spelling unfortunately canceled.

Aaron Spelling, creator of 3000+ TV series, died this morning of a stroke at his home at the age of 83. Obit.

Will you be my friend?

Via CNN, an article that talks about how our circle of friends is shrinking.

"Nearly a quarter of people surveyed said they had "zero" close friends with whom to discuss personal matters. More than 50 percent named two or fewer confidants, most often immediate family members, the researchers said."

Don't Hate the Beak.

Via my friend Melissa: for all those parrot-lovers who are members of The Unholy Alliance, you should check out Hatebeak.

"This death metal outfit with a parrot for a singer trashes the pathetic birdfeeder you call the metal underground! That's correct, a parrot for a singer, savaging you with feathers of razored steel! This is not Jimmy Buffet's parrot—be warned! Try as one might, they will not escape the claw; nothing can dodge the talons of hate!!"

Sample MP3 available for download.

Which will win out Brains or Brawn?

It must have been a slow news day in sports, especially now that the NBA Finals, the Stanley Cup Finals and Bruce Arena's career are over. For a few brief minutes the lead story on ESPN.com was about Chessboxing, a new "sport" which features two competitors facing each other in 11 alternating rounds; six of chess and five of boxing.

"A bout begins with chess, which is played on a board placed directly in the middle of the ring. Each round of chess lasts four minutes. After each chess round, the bell sounds, and workmen remove the chessboard for a two-minute round of boxing, the gloves go back on, the punching recommences. Participants win by way of knockout, checkmate, referee's decision, or if his opponent exceeds the allotted total of 12 minutes for an entire match on the chessboard."

Weird.

Let's brainstorm a better way to brainstorm.

Ever walk into a prison cel.....I mean.....conference room and hear the fateful words "There's no such thing as a bad idea."? If you have (like I have), you know you're walking into a brainstorming session that has to start on time because there's another meeting in 17 minutes.

An interesting article called Cubicle Culture: How brainstorming works best by Jared Sandberg of the Wall Street Journal has been talked about on many design blogs....probably because they (like me) are fed up with inefficient brainstorming sessions that don't go anywhere.

Handy in more ways than one.

This "thing" (which looks like it was found in the dumpster of the Adam and Eve Development Lab) called the EZcarry Shopping Bag Handle consoildates the always crazy number of grocery-filled bags onto one easy to carry handle. After you're done EZcarrying your shopping bags up six flights of stairs, you can.....er.....lay back and.....er....relax.

Check out the video demonstration.

A ringtone that doesn't bite...

Teens in Britain are downloading a ringtone that is in a high-range frequency which many adults can't hear, but most teens can.

"Downloading the sound, or another ring tone in that same high-frequency range, allows them to hear their cellphones ring when their parents and teachers (mostly) cannot."

Originally designed as a "no loitering"/teen repellant sound for retail stores and such, British teens are turning the tables. Via CoolBusinessIdeas via The Washington Post.

Let's Hug it Out Ari!

Thanks to javon23's posting on YouTube, I am happy to bring to you a snipet of the PTI guys commenting on Jeremy Piven's Ari Gold-like introduction to "Take Me Out to the Ballgame" during the 7th inning stretch at Wrigley. Did he say "bitches" or "pitches"?

Targèt getting too big for its britches?

My friend Jeremy gave me the heads-up on this story from the Washington Post. Apparently Target is developing a new line of clothes called "Targèt Couture" that WON'T be sold in Target stores, but rather a small boutique in L.A. called Intuition.

The Targèt Couture Fleur De Lis Cashmere Hoodie shown above: 330 bulls-eyes.

As my friend Mimi says "Targèt, don't believe your own hype."

One PANTONE book to rule them all.

(I think the guys over at PANTONE need a lesson in drawing clipping paths.) Jill just forwarded this to me: a PANTONE book set that displays CMYK, sRGB and HTML formulas for uncoated solids. Sweet. Buy it now.

Match solids in process and RGB with the new PANTONE color bridge guide.

Features

• 157 pages of colors printed on #1 grade uncoated stock.
• 1,089 PANTONE MATCHING SYSTEM® Colors.
• Process matches with CMYK screen tint percentages displayed next to each solid color.
• sRGB and HTML values for solid colors.
• Colors bleed for ease and accuracy of checking colors.
• Portable fan guide format.

Benefits

• One guide, multiple uses.
• Saves money knowing when a spot can be adequately produced in CMYK.
• Screen tint percentages serve as a starting point for adjusting the color match if desired.
• Eliminates undesirable color surprises before incurring costly pre-production and printing expenses.
• Optimally display colors on monitors and Web pages.
• Visualizes solid PANTONE Colors on uncoated stock.
• Portable format provides convenience and fast access to color data.

Milton Glaser, Paula Scher and Stefan Sagmeister: sounds like the hot tub at Hillman's.

I was reminded of these short designer documentaries by Hillman Curtis after reading a posting on the shortboard over at Airbag Industries. The download time is a bit sluggish, but they're well worth waiting for. Watching these make me wonder how to achieve this kind of..."design freedom."

Cool Hunting at RISD

Josh Rubin's design blog coolhunting.com recently was the subject of a 6-week architecture project at RISD (my alma mater) which transformed his blog into a physical retail space. It's an interesting branding/experience study of how to take the organizational aspects of a blog coupled with constantly changing content and transform it into a 3-D space. Another interesting tidbit: in the video, if you look to the right of the mock-building (during the segment with Jeffrey Katz) is The Arcade—America's first shopping mall.

Great design can boost stock value by 200%...

...too bad a graphic designer's salary doesn't reflect this.
Earlier this week at the HOW Conference in Vegas, Moira Cullen (Design Director Bad-Ass of Coca-Cola), quoted a study performed by Design Council (U.K.)

"A fund of 63 publicly traded companies renowned for their use of design outperformed the FTSE 100 Index during the 90's by 200%."

Download the PDFs and get start preparing for your next yearly review.