Woa, pretty cool, though I try to do direct deposits, it’s amazing how many paper checks I still get and send!
“A mid-sized bank, USAA, has become the first bank to let you snap a picture of a check with your iPhone and automatically deposit it once you hit the send button.” Video above.
Lemonade the movie:
“More than 70,000 advertising professionals have lost their jobs in this “Great Recession.” Lemonade is about what happens when people who were once paid to be creative in advertising are forced to be creative with their own lives.”
Right after you watch Art&Copy covering the fun hectic creative work life in an advertising agency, it only seems fit to check out “Lemonade” which follows a few creatives who lose their jobs only to find spare time to chase after their dreams!
Can you get the best in both worlds? Yup… Guru graphic designer Stefan Sagmeister during TEDglobal 2009 encourages creatives to take 1 year sabbaticals every 7 years to recharge.
“He described a typical life timeline: The first 25 or so years are devoted to learning, the next 40 or so to working, and the final 25 to retirement.
Then he asked: Why not cut off 5 years from retirement and intersperse them into your working years?
So every seven years, Sagmeister closes his design shop, tells his clients he won’t be back for a year, and then goes off on a 365-day sabbatical.It sounds costly, I know. But he says the ideas he comes up with during the year “off” are often what provide the income for next seven years.” (daniel pink blog)
“ART & COPY is a powerful new film about advertising and inspiration. Directed by Doug Pray (SURFWISE, SCRATCH, HYPE!), it reveals the work and wisdom of some of the most influential advertising creatives of our time — people who’ve profoundly impacted our culture, yet are virtually unknown outside their industry. Exploding forth from advertising’s “creative revolution” of the 1960s, these artists and writers all brought a surprisingly rebellious spirit to their work in a business more often associated with mediocrity or manipulation: George Lois, Mary Wells, Dan Wieden, Lee Clow, Hal Riney and others featured in ART & COPY were responsible for “Just Do It,” “I Love NY,” “Where’s the Beef?,” “Got Milk,” “Think Different,” and brilliant campaigns for everything from cars to presidents. They managed to grab the attention of millions and truly move them. Visually interwoven with their stories, TV satellites are launched, billboards are erected, and the social and cultural impact of their ads are brought to light in this dynamic exploration of art, commerce, and human emotion.”
I blogged about another documentary called The Alchemists back in 2006 which links to the same production company behind Art&Copy… weird yah! . Anyways, great to see the film making its rounds even though the name changed I think. Check out if it’s screening near you here.
I finally watched Food Inc the movie!
“In Food, Inc., filmmaker Robert Kenner lifts the veil on our nation’s food industry, exposing the highly mechanized underbelly that has been hidden from the American consumer with the consent of our government’s regulatory agencies, USDA and FDA. Our nation’s food supply is now controlled by a handful of corporations that often put profit ahead of consumer health, the livelihood of the American farmer, the safety of workers and our own environment. We have bigger-breasted chickens, the perfect pork chop, herbicide-resistant soybean seeds, even tomatoes that won’t go bad, but we also have new strains of E. coli—the harmful bacteria that causes illness for an estimated 73,000 Americans annually. We are riddled with widespread obesity, particularly among children, and an epidemic level of diabetes among adults.”
I found Food Inc to be a disruptive glance into the hidden political powers ruining the food industry where profits overwhelm the integrity of farmers and quality in healthy food. As the film says, you’ll never look at food the same way. You’ll be left appreciating local farming, an understanding in how an individual can influence large corporations, and cringing to take action which you can here. They also have a book you can buy: Food Inc.: A Participant Guide: How Industrial Food is Making Us Sicker, Fatter, and Poorer-And What You Can Do About It
Go watch the film, get everyone you know to see it, and don’t bring too much food into the movie while watching. Start buying from farmers markets, eat organic, get local schools to serve healthy meals, and have restaurants display nutritional facts. Food Inc will not scare you away from food, but it’ll influence your food buying decisions while giving you a better idea in how some foods are manufactured, treated, transported, and concealed.
Last week, I had a brief interview with architect and product designer Michael Graves about his recent collaboration with [yellowtail] wines in creating a limited edition set of glasses which will be auctioned off this month on Ebay with profits going to the American Association of Museums.
I’ve always had an interest between the blurry design intersections in space and objects. Graves is one of few successful architects to bridge the object world most notably known for his Universal designs along with a line up of products sold at Target.
The brief interview with Graves and a video explaining the project more after the jump along with images of the 3 glasses his team created.
Nikon just announced the worlds first Compact Portable Camera with an integrated projector capable in blasting an image on any surface 5-40 inches! The Nikon s1000pj 12.1 MegaPixel Camera is surprisingly thin at .9 inche and will cost roughly $700 $430 when it comes out this fall in Europe! and yes, it still has a 2.7 inch screen.
I’ve played with integrated portable projectors since 2002 during some projects but only now are they coming out in real products. This will surely disrupt the portable media industry, though I’ve grown keen on sharing small screens with people lately.
What will happen… Will projectors over rule touch screens or will projected touchscreens be next. Or maybe augmented data will be projected on people your taking pictures of (watch the TEDtalk on the “6th Sense” project shown this past February embedded after the jump). I do wonder if you can project onto something your about to take a picture of… fun times in creativity and augmented reality!
via dpreview (source reghardware)
Hello world! Thank you for all your messages over the weeks since I have not had time to post anything lately.
I’ve been incredibly busy at the awesome start-up I’m at (We’re hiring creatives/designers..contact me), glued late at night watching the incredible Tour De France or just Lance Armstrong, laughing several times at the video of Buzz Aldrin punching a news reporter claiming the moon landing was fake, seeing very simple fun addictive websites such as this one, comparing the positions of people doing yoga or being drunk, viewing an awesome video of bike pro Danny Macaskill doing some great tricks, attending TEDxBoston, watching the Incredible Youth Symphony of America(YOA) conducted by Ben Zanders, trying to figure out how to help with the inspirational foundation El Sistema USA (a TED2009 wish), and most recently having a great time watching a recent wedding dance ceremony introduction go viral posted above!
Besides the crazy busy month in work and odd distractions, I’ll be catching up to many of the suggestions sent in and posting again soon. Or as I’d like to think, I leaned back briefly, just like President Obama did in this awesome picture in the White House.
Waterproof bags have always been popular in protecting your goodies from getting soaked. Taking it a step further is Timbuk2 and their new Dolore Chiller bag ($110) that not only prevents water from coming in but also keeps it from going out, hence making a pretty nifty bag that also acts as a summer Cooler holding some 20 drinks with ice and a bottle opener on the side.
Sometimes doing the opposite makes something better. I recall a story about kayak shoes, where previous shoes prevented water from getting in, but the problem was that once some water got in it was really hard to get out. So Puma took a flip side and said, hey, let’s make a shoes that lets water in really easily which will let it out easily, hence the puma k1 shoes!
Some wise words from our favorite marketing guru of all sorts Seth Godin about a rather amusing video:
“Paul just sent over this video of a dance tribe forming spontaneously at a music festival.
My favorite part happens just before the first minute mark. That’s when guy #3 joins the group. Before him, it was just a crazy dancing guy and then maybe one other crazy guy. But it’s guy #3 who made it a movement.
Initiators are rare indeed, but it’s scary to be the leader. Guy #3 is rare too, but it’s a lot less scary and just as important. Guy #49 is irrelevant. No bravery points for being part of the mob.
We need more guy #3s.”
I’ve been a fan new juices for some time and usually post about them after trying them out. I came across this new juice called Gloji packaged in a light bulb like container mixed with apple juice or pomogranite, and I’m sure many other buzzy fruits like Acai soon. If anyone can find them, let me know how it tastes.
YawnLog (beta) simply lets you log your sleep time. Once you start using YawnLog you’ll understand your sleep time a bit more, how much sleep you get a day, week, month, or even how your sleeping patterns compare to friends, families, schools, cities, etc. Eventually these logs will be broadcast via twitter, facebook, etc, but what I’d really like is someone to figure out a smart way to auto log these sleeping patterns.. maybe connecting some sensor to your bed or pillow, alarm clock, lights, or something to automate this log.
I’ve only tested Yawnlog for a week, but it’s pretty obvious I don’t get much sleep on the weekedays, and hibernate on weekends. I do have this thought that students at art schools get much less sleep than other schools but who knows.
I’m one of those crafty types that fold the paper sleeve you get with chopsticks in a restaurant to make a neat little stand to rest the sticks on, though usually I’ll get lazy and just fold the sleeve a few times. We’ll, if your one that likes disposable chopsticks, but want something a bit more clever, simple, and fun, check out these Bambu SnapStix which add an extra cut on the back end of the chopsticks which snap off to become a stand. sweet!
You can get them for about $2 each.
