As my mother-in-law knows all too well, I really like old things. Vintage illustrations and package design hold a very special place in my heart. While shopping for pens at Midoco in the Annex I was drawn to the bright packaging for Ridley’s house of novelties toys which just popped off the shelf. Ridley’s has a line of about 20 classic toys, games and magic tricks, all with amazing packaging. The simple illustrations jump at you from their bright, lively backgrounds, bordered with old newspaper and screen printing textures. The typography is clean and bang on for the look and feel, making it an all around 10 in the school of k.i.s.s. (keep it simple stupid).
Eye candy like this makes me wonder why more companies aren’t jumping on the ‘good design’ band wagon. Now I know there are many who have joined and I take my hat off to them, but what is everyone else waiting for? I refuse to accept the excuse that good design is only appreciated by designers!
We have been lucky enough to have open minded and forward thinking clients who actually allow us creative freedom, to let us do what we do best. Although not the case for many creatives, we still have the power to persuade and inspire clients to push their boundaries. Designers who are not willing to push back and take a chance are living a life of complacency.
Good design packs more bang than any whoopee cushion.
And so it’s Thursday again and it’s a good day. Sure I may have skipped the Raps game last night but it was for a good cause: I hung out with my little brother and watched Canada whoop the Russians in a little Olympic hockey tilt that was tabbed as one of the greatest games ever but ended up being a complete blowout of Ovechkin & Co.. So there I was watching the game and enjoying some adult beverages fully knowing that I should be staying on top of my work when it hit me that this was in actuality work and not only was I doing some market research but also getting some valuable material for my Thursday blog post.
So here’s what I saw. Aside from the obvious great game taking place and the good beer going down, I actually took a metaphorical step back and saw a table of about a dozen individuals, all entrepreneurs in one way shape or form, coming together not only to watch a hockey game but to exchange ideas, discuss trends and plan future actions. And that was just our table so who knows who else was there last night. Of the topics of discussion were things like the countries private and public sector investment in our athletes and the games, what it would’ve meant if Toronto had actually landed the 2008 games instead of Beijing (thanks for the quick research Steve) and what the coming Pan Am games will mean for businesses and the city alike.
And so as the discussion moved through three periods and opinions got stronger every time Canada found the back of the net, the consensus was clear; as a city, Toronto has noticeably become more entrepreneurial in the past several years and as we continue to push the economy out of the current recession, there is a level of fearlessness, accountability and ownership present today in this city that is going to carry us forward. And like my friends at derooted (who by the way were not watching the game with us), my friends last night and Ice Cube seem to say, ‘Today is A Good Day’ to step out of the traditional, envision how we as entrepreneurs, artists, business men and women can look beyond the traditional and actualize how we are going to truly build on our visions to be owners and not just live for the weekends but live, work and play every day.
I’ve been noticing a few of our readers posting comments on the derooted blog with the “empty gray guy” icon next to there comments.
The little box with a cool image you see all over the web accompanying the trillion comments on millions of posts. most times proud identity of an anxious commentaire. That ladies and gentlemen, is a Gravatar.
Gravatars are globally recognized Avatars. An avatar is an icon, or representation, of a user in a shared virtual reality, such as a forum, chat, website, or any other form of online community in witch the user(s) wish to have something to distinguish themselves from other users. Created by Tom Werner, Gravatars make it possible for a person to have one avatar across the entire web. Avatars are usually an 80px by 80px image that the user will create themselves.
A Gravatar is essentially the same thing, but they are all hosted on a single server and are called up by encrypting the users’ email address via MDS algorithm. So instead of having one avatar on one forum you visit, and another at a blog you visit, you could have the same avatar on every blog you visit on the world wide web.
Personally I’m a big Gravatar geek. I have many different pictures uploaded to my Gravatar account, representing my many shades. Love checking out other peoples Gravatars online. Its amazing the amount of times the Gravatar can actually gravitate the reader to your own blog but I’ll leave that for another post.
2. When you leave comments on blog posts, make sure that you leave the same email address as the one you set up your Gravatar account with. This is how it will be able to magically connect your avatar image to the comments posted.
Today is day 11 of the Vancouver Olympics. If you don’t know this, you live under a rock. With all of the media coverage and newspapers splashed with Olympic pride, it is hard to avoid Olympic fever. So, in the spirit of the Olympics, I want to ask my readers what you think of the different TV spots currently airing. Some major contenders eagerly fighting to win our loyalty include Bell Canada, RBC Royal Bank, Petro Canada, RONA, McDonalds and Coca-Cola. The advertisers are using both patriotism and air time as a tool to gain top-of-mind awareness in the consumer. How effective is this? Are these major brands winning you over through the power of Olympic pride or are they just wasting their money attempting to get through the clutter of the Olympics? Which spots are winning and which are not?
