me

Creative Workspaces

Posted by _tango! on June 10, 2007
Posted in: art, brand, design, experience, fun, ideas, inspiration, me, style, thoughts. 5 comments

my.studio.space
NowNow.com.au has a great post “desktop-desktop” documenting an ongoing series of desktops both physical and digital of creatives around the world. The collection includes French Designer Jean Sebastian from the playful design team Atypyk, guru graphic designer Stefan Sagmeister, and several others. After scanning through this series I felt inclined to snap a shot of my current studio space pictured above, though it changes constantly.(after the jump: close-up of my toys and desktop screen)

Otherwise, I’ve always questioned the impact of creative workspaces; minimal, cluttered, comfy, colorful, industrial, modern, goofy, cubicles, etc. I have my own preferences, but for a diverse visual list check out “10 seeeeeriously cool workplaces” from the Chief of Happiness. Also take a look at Guy Kawasakis recent trip photos to Threadless.com and their kick-butt space! If you have a nifty workspace ya’ll want to share, take a picture, send it my way, and if I get enough, I’ll post them here.
Continue Reading

BestBuy: brand value and experience, booo.

Posted by _tango! on June 5, 2007
Posted in: brand, design, experience, information, me, thoughts. Leave a Comment

best.buy.yack

I recently voyaged to one of my favorite hands-on testing grounds store BestBuy, but what I left with was a diminish in their brand value and trust. The events experienced were not new, but they were unnoticed in the past as in recent years my expectations in brands, customer-centric services, and brand experiences have changed a bit.

So, what happened? I needed an external hard drive since my measly laptop was under 1 gig of space. I went to BestBuy and bought a pretty nifty external Hard Drive that you basically just plug in via USB and your set to use. At the check out counter, the sales rep kept insisting that I have a GeekSquad service added to install it since there was a sticker on the box. I said no thanks, and she kept telling me about how much easier it would be to install etc. I told her that all I needed to do was plug it in. Then she said “oh, well I don’t even know what you are buying.” Right there and then, I lost my brand value and trust in BestBuy. First, they had a dumb sticker on a product that does not need a person to come help install it for $$$.(It’s like having a person come install a toaster at your house). Secondly, the person working and selling me the product did not even understand the product nor understand what I meant when I said hard drive.

For crying out loud, don’t hire people into your company that don’t understand the products you are selling. I’m not just ranting at BestBuy, but there are many other brands that have employees that don’t have a clue to what the company does. Yes, I know it cost more to hire people that breathe your brand, but I’m guessing it cost more money to re-market your brand value to customers that have had a bad experience. Good things are easy to forget and bad experiences are never forgotten. I’ll stop my ranting here, but BestBuy, take for example some kick-butt brands like Jetblue, Wholefoods, Patagonia, or TraderJoes; they get it, their employees do it, and their customers know, experience, and live their brands like a religion. Brands are truthful users experiences today, not just portrayed over-marketed lifestyles anymore. We live the digital age…we ignore ads, research deeply, and leave nothing hidden.

mix1 beverage: all-natural fast food

Posted by _tango! on June 5, 2007
Posted in: brand, design, food, information, me, thoughts. 1 comment

mix1 beverage life fast food

On another random drink journey to Wholefoods I came across these brightly packaged Mix1 beverages claiming to be the “all natural fast food” drink packed full of the optimal mix of ingredients to maximize your all-day energy and balance needs.

At first glance, these bottles seemed more like mini paint buckets or large nail polish canisters with their flat sides and corners, but hey, they grabbed my attention being surrounded by the the other over-texted transparent like packages upon the shelf. I picked up the lime flavor to try out. It taste like a mini blended smoothie with bits of protein. It also had this distinct flavor that reminded me of the famous Asian mini bacteria drink called “Yakult“, though pronounce in Cantonese “Yu look doe”. Anyhow, the drink itself was tasty and refreshing, though I’m not sure how much of a boost it gave me.

On a side note: It’s amazing to see how many new companies are spawning out that become their own brand, or need to. Take for instance Mix1. They all sell a story, a story about how they themselves started and wanted to create a drink they would use. Not only does the story apply to the founders, but every single worker down to the sales rep. Another great example is HonestTea. The founders had a hard time finding a drink in the market that was not too sweet yet tasty. Most Iced teas were jammed full of sugars, so they created Honest Tea, which taste like real home brewed iced tea without the over saturation of soda like sugars.(read there story here, or an interview with the co-founder here)

Web TV Streams

Posted by _tango! on May 23, 2007
Posted in: brand, entertainment, information, me, tech. 2 comments
abc.com videos lost show

I’m the type that rarely has time for TV(seen more shows on airlines), but sometimes that TV playing in the background catches my attention and I’m hooked on a TV show or two(three, four). One huge problem is catching a show in the mist of a series and not really understanding everything. What now; TiVo, Bit Torrent, Kazaa, alloftv.net, or wait for the DVDs?

Well, now for the great news! I recently (finally) caught an episode of LOST and got addicted a few weeks back and was drastically confused and curious. Luckily abc.com started streaming all of their episodes online last summer, and just recently announced they would be streaming their shows at HD(high definition) quality in July!

Anyhoots, The LOST season finale “Through the Looking Glass” is tonight, so if your like me, and missed a bunch of their episodes, go watch their TV streams and prepare for the ever elusive season finale tonight! Otherwise, watch any of your other favorite ABC shows. NBC.com(HEROES) also streams their shows now. I’m sure many other TV networks will do the same (it’s TiVo online!)

update: in case any of ya’ll are interested in what was written in that mysterious “newspaper clipping” from the seasons finale episode, click after the jump for the rumored somewhat seen answer. via LostPedia

Continue Reading

PBS TV: Everyday Edisons

Posted by _tango! on May 19, 2007
Posted in: brand, design, entertainment, ideas, information, inspiration, me, style, tech. 6 comments
Everyday Edisons pbs tv show inventions

“Everybody has a great idea that could change the way we work, the way we live or the way we play. Everyday Edisons documents the development process of 14 inventions and the parallel stories of the people who invented them as they are taken from a sketch on a napkin to a store shelf.”

If your the type that craves to see, watch, and understand the creative methodology of a product idea to market, take a glimpse at the new documentry invention show Everyday Edisons on PBS (a Bouncing Brain Production), which follows a handful of inventors through their journey to bring their ideas to shelves for everyone to buy. Unlike some reality shows, there are no winners or losers and no cheesey competitions. This show follows and documents the story behind each individual over the time of a year working with a large team of people to make their products a reality with the real prize being a spot on store shelves.

The series started a few weeks back, so check out your pbs listings for your local air times(usually on Saturday). Even though the first season has not finished, it seems the show has licensed through some pretty good channels, skymall, and a few of the inventions have popped up on Amazon though not available at the moment.

update: They have their very own YouTube Channel to watch and subscribe to!!!!

RISD Collections Fashion Show

Posted by _tango! on May 19, 2007
Posted in: art, design, entertainment, experience, information, inspiration, materials, me, style. Leave a Comment
risd collections apparel fashion show 2007

I’m off to the fabulous RISD Collections Apparel Fashion show (2007 press release here) over the weekend displaying over 150 outfits from 50 select students. If your in the area, there might be a few tickets (2pm and 7pm shows), but from previous years, it’s pretty jam packed during both walks. If your around on sunday may 20th, the one-of-a-kind outfits are for sale in the market square. Off to RISD!!! Whoohoo!!!

Dragons Den

Posted by _tango! on May 11, 2007
Posted in: brand, design, entertainment, experience, ideas, information, inspiration, me, thoughts. Leave a Comment
dragons den bbc

If your an inventor, designer, entrepreneur, business leader, or just curious about what make and breaks great business ideas, take a look at the hit show Dragons Den in the UK where entrepreneurs pitch their ideas to Venture Capitalist (the Dragons) in seek of investments to develop their ideas even further in exchange for a percentage in their company. The show ranges from product inventions, to services, to strategies, business models, and every little aspect of what’s needed to be successful in creating a new company.  I’ve actually met one of the dragons during a pitch once before, but I’ll keep that to myself 😉

If your not in the UK, no problem….just go to their small video page here of winning pitches,(click the full screen button) or cling on to awesome video streams of each show at High Resolution at AllofTV.net (Dragons Den season 2, season 3, season 4) Most of the shows result in no investments, but the ones that make it through are pretty darn good. Here’s an hour long episode I watched recently…pretty good.

Washington DC

Posted by _tango! on May 8, 2007
Posted in: art, experience, me. Leave a Comment
Washington DC trip 2007

I made a quick trip into Washington DC over the weekend and had a few hours to trek abouts the rather majestic, patriotic, and very beautiful landscape, though the kick-butt sunny weather helped out a bunch. I don’t have much to say since I only had 3 hours to walk around, but I’ll post some pics of the somewhat touristy areas I passed by after the jump…enjoy!(also a pic of the cool airport security machine that spits air at ya)(aboves the incredible subway system, the Metro) Continue Reading

Joost invites!

Posted by _tango! on May 3, 2007
Posted in: brand, entertainment, me, tech. 2 comments

Joostâ„¢ the best of tv and the internetI’ve been beta testing the wildly buzzin Joost for the past few weeks and now I have a ton of invites to give away. If your a TV watching, multi tasking, internet driven, designverb reading, early tech adopting individual, send me your email with your full name with subject “Joost invite please” and I’ll send you an invite in the order that I get them in. (designverb(a)gmail.com) If ya don’t know what Joost is, check out their cool intro video or read about them via Lifehacker w/screenshots.

update: To save me loads of time please use the time saving automated joost invite version thanks to GigaOm and NewTeeVee right here.

“Book” means “Cool”

Posted by _tango! on April 24, 2007
Posted in: entertainment, experience, fun, ideas, information, inspiration, me, tech, thoughts, wacky. Leave a Comment

txt msgBesides this weeks news of 13 year old Morgan Pozgar winning $25k for being the world text messenging champion, another fun, social, behavioral, and somewhat pop cultural fact I learned this past week was the effects of the T9 predictive typing system found on most phones:

“That’s so Book! In an interesting technical flavor to linguistics, T9 predictive text on mobile phones is now starting to have an effect on language. For example, ‘book’ now means ‘cool’ because when either is entered (2665) into a T9 predictive phone, ‘book’ is offered before ‘cool,’ and is now used in place of the latter.”

I don’t use T9 often since it never outputs my designerly modified crappy lingo but this might also be old news as my phone currently does output “cool” before “book”, as does the GUI on the T9 site.

So, can technology change our language or even definitions….sure! Many cultures shorten or replace words much like our Australian friends down under(lingo list). Even mashups are becoming more common. I learned a bunch of pretty sweet custom terms during word queen Erin Mckeans ‘Word Lovers’ Boot Camp during GEL last week. The two words that stuck in my head were:

1.”CrappyJack”: any kind of empty, snacky junk food.
2. “Drunch”: to consume alcoholic beverages with like-minded individuals between the hours of 10 a.m. and 5 p.m. on Sunday. 😉

I also learned the the term “Ecosexual: A person who’s into hybrid cars, low energy lightbulbs, and recycling.” via Treehugger

IDSA Shift Conference: RISD

Posted by _tango! on April 21, 2007
Posted in: art, design, experience, ideas, information, me, style. 2 comments
idsa shift conference risd

I’m off to this years IDSA conference “Shift” over the weekend which is being held at the wonderful campus of RISD. I have not been to an IDSA conference for some time so I have no clue what to expect though I’m doubting it will as diverse as TED, GEL, or Poptech. Otherwise, I do look forward in seeing the students portfolios and seeing how digitalized, web savvy, and smart they are….hopefully none have fallen into the the “cool rendering” trap as good ideas! I’m seeking more of a real problem solving, storytelling, global changing, methodology type. If your near RISD this weekend, swing by…I think tickets are still available.