Great idea for a digital Christmas Card

A Starry Night from Torchbox on Vimeo.

Wills and Kate memorial plates

I'm no royalist but these are brilliant. Love the designs, colours, typography and illustration and ideas. They'll be available to purchase from KK Outlet from January 15th.












Source: Creative Review

App of the week: Word Lens is awesome.

Stuart Baggs: "I damn well am a brand"

Hhhmmm... I think it turns out that Stuart Baggs is neither a brand nor a fish.

Did you know that Adobe Photoshop do a free mobile App version that you can download for free from iTunes?

Who better to offer photo-processing software than the makers of Photoshop? Adobe's free Photoshop.com Mobile app offers the following basic features with a simple swipe of the finger:

Basics: Crop, Straighten, Rotate, Flip

Colour: Exposure, Saturation, Tint, Black and White, Contrast

Filters: Sketch, Soft Focus, Sharpen
Effects: Pop, Vibrant, Border, Vignette Blur, Warm Vintage, Rainbow, White Glow, Soft Black and White

Borders: Rectangle, Rounded, Oval, Soft Edge, Vignette, Rough Edge, Halftone, Film Emulsion

But that's not all. Photoshop.com users have access to 2GB worth of photos and videos that can be viewed within the app from wherever you are.

Fab free app for all creatives. More info and link to download on iTunes here.

Feel calmer instantly...

Cick here for just you and the Sistine Chapel (you'll need sound).

An amusing response to it's critics' from Comic Sans font...

I'M COMIC SANS, ASSHOLE by Mike Lacher

"Listen up. I know the shit you've been saying behind my back. You think I'm stupid. You think I'm immature. You think I'm a malformed, pathetic excuse for a font. Well think again, nerdhole, because I'm Comic Sans, and I'm the best thing to happen to typography since Johannes fucking Gutenberg.

You don't like that your coworker used me on that note about stealing her yogurt from the break room fridge? You don't like that I'm all over your sister-in-law's blog? You don't like that I'm on the sign for that new Thai place? You think I'm pedestrian and tacky? Guess the fuck what, Picasso. We don't all have seventy-three weights of stick-up-my-ass Helvetica sitting on our seventeen-inch MacBook Pros. Sorry the entire world can't all be done in stark Eurotrash Swiss type. Sorry some people like to have fun. Sorry I'm standing in the way of your minimalist Bauhaus-esque fascist snoozefest. Maybe sometime you should take off your black turtleneck, stop compulsively adjusting your Tumblr theme, and lighten the fuck up for once.

People love me. Why? Because I'm fun. I'm the life of the party. I bring levity to any situation. Need to soften the blow of a harsh message about restroom etiquette? SLAM. There I am. Need to spice up the directions to your graduation party? WHAM. There again. Need to convey your fun-loving, approachable nature on your business' website? SMACK. Like daffodils in motherfucking spring.

When people need to kick back, have fun, and party, I will be there, unlike your pathetic fonts. While Gotham is at the science fair, I'm banging the prom queen behind the woodshop. While Avenir is practicing the clarinet, I'm shredding "Reign In Blood" on my double-necked Stratocaster. While Univers is refilling his allergy prescriptions, I'm racing my tricked-out, nitrous-laden Honda Civic against Tokyo gangsters who'll kill me if I don't cross the finish line first. I am a sans serif Superman and my only kryptonite is pretentious buzzkills like you.

It doesn't even matter what you think. You know why, jagoff? Cause I'm famous. I am on every major operating system since Microsoft fucking Bob. I'm in your signs. I'm in your browsers. I'm in your instant messengers. I'm not just a font. I am a force of motherfucking nature and I will not rest until every uptight armchair typographer cock-hat like you is surrounded by my lovable, comic-book inspired, sans-serif badassery.

Enough of this bullshit. I'm gonna go get hammered with Papyrus."

From Timothy McSweeney

Spotted in Ted Baker stores globally

Source: The Coolhunter

A Pot Noeldle Christmas - by Pot Noodle

Bloody brilliant Xmas ad by AKQA that mocks the schmaltz of most of the seasonal ads out there, offering a more down-to-earth, and particularly UK-based Xmas experience... beautifully observed and genuinely funny.

Light-reacting RGB wallpaper

Loving Italian studio Carnovsky's wallpapers that react to different coloured lights.

Each wallpaper features overlapping illustrations, different elements of which are revealed depending on whether a blue, green or red light is shone upon them.



The designs are now on show in an exhibition at the Johanssen Gallery in Berlin. There are three overlapping patterns, different elements of which are revealed according to the colour of the light shone upon them.






Source: Creative Review

Pantone iPhone/iPad Cases

This would indeed be the best case scenario: You take your favourite gadget and dress it up in with your favourite colour. Monaco-based Case Scenario has linked up with Pantone and as a result, they are now able to make this scenario a reality.

In their Case Scenario Pantone Universe collection for Fall and Winter 2010-2011, this means specifically that you can dress your iPhone 4 and iPad in a protective case in a limited range of PANTONE® colours.

For iPhone 4, there are nine colours ranging from the deep Pantone Blue 7462 to the juicy Pantone Pink 226. For iPad, the Fall fashion colours are Pantone Black, Pantone Cool Grey, Pantone Blue 7462 and Pantone Red 711.

Source: The Coolhunter

Geek Chic

I've just discovered these genius Echo Design Touch wool gloves (£28)that have nylon tips on the index finger and thumb, allowing iJunkies to tap away without risking frostbite (or embarrassment from trying to answer calls with their nose). Genius!

The analogue Facebook

In a promotion for French telecommunications company Bouygues Télécom, DDB Paris recently devised a way to take your Facebook profile offline...

The agency realised that while people may share their most treasured memories and photographs via Facebook, the constantly changing nature of the site means that they can quickly be forgotten, or lost amongst the amount of info stored in a profile. So Bouygues Télécom created the option of turning your Facebook profile into an actual book.





Participants could pick up to ten friends to include in their book, and also pick the timeframe covered, whether it be a birthday, wedding or other significant event. As these images of Francis Peric's book show, the styling of the books were also thoroughly in keeping with Facebook's look. The application was a huge success, with the limited edition run of 1,000 books all requested within one hour.

When Facebook becomes a book from Siavosh Zabeti on Vimeo.

Credits:
Agency: DDB Paris
Exec creative director: Alexandre Hervé
Creatives: Siavosh Zabeti, Alexander Kalchev

Source: Creative Review

Latest from the newly launched Google Street View in Germany: Naked man climbing into the boot of his car.

Google Street View has been launched in Germany after a lot of skepticism and protest from the German population. And after yesterdays new of a woman apparently giving birth on a pavement, we now have the naked man climbing into the boot of his car. What is it wiz zese bonkers Germans?

NB Notice the dog lying in the driveway, either asleep or permanently with the angels.

20 profane URL’S

1. Scrap, fresh from America... 
www.americanscrapmetal.com
 
2. Cccan you spot it? 
www.anker.com
 
3. Mr Dover appears to have opted for a childish classic.
www.bendover.com
 
4. Blinds, shutters and more... 
www.blindsexpress.com
 
5. Man and machine love.
www.carsexpress.com
 
6. Who knew a country could hurt you so much?
www.choosespain.com
 
7. It seems Dicksons wised up to their mistake. The URL now redirects. 
www.dicksonweb.com
 
8. Don’t make me swear at you! 
www.effoff.com
 
9. Looking for a change? 
www.expertsexchange.com
 
10.Google. In the Cook Islands. 
www.google.co.ck
 
11. Mixing art and surgery. 
www.graphicartsexchange.com
 
12. Never heard of a toilet? 
www.ipanywhere.com
 
13. Say it as it is. 
www.itscrap.com
 
14. The best tunes around. 
www.Mp3shits.com
 
15. An island of pens! 
www.penisland.net
 
16. More childish humour. 
www.speedofart.com
 
17. When school just isn’t enough. 
www.teacherstalk.co.uk
 
18. A site of therapy. 
www.therapists.com
 
19. Web One appear to have now changed their name to iiNet... 
www.webone.com.au
 
20. Who’s managing who?  
www.whorepresents.com 

The story of a man told through Facebook's interface

Merry Kissmas

Sweet idea for this year's 50ft Christmas Tree in Covent Garden. You activate the 50,000 red and white LED lights on the tree by kissing (or holding hands) under the mistletoe. It's there from today until 2nd January in Covent Garden's West Piazza WC2.

The Queen on Facebook: one has updated one's status

The Queen continues her foray into social networking with the launch of the British Monarchy's very own Facebook page. Below is a screengrab of the latest feed, as seen by Tim Dowling

ASOS launches an independent marketplace

Loving ASOS's innovative and bold idea to feature a Fashion Marketplace allowing smaller, independent designers to sell through their website.

The company said the "ASOS Marketplace" initiative - allowing small boutiques to sell their fashion products to ASOS customers - should boost traffic to the site and drive further sales"

ASOS Marketplace launched today along with another new feature, Fashion Finder - which allows customers to search for brands the company does not ordinarily sell.

Grandmas discover Photobooth

Are you an iPhone, Android or BlackBerry user?

Screw the iPad, I'll have an iTable!

Star Wars headphones

Write a Bike

By Juri Zaech

The Independent's i

The Independent's new i newspaper - launched today. The first UK national daily newspaper to be launched in a generation

Beautiful

Matchstick Art of the Day: Pei-San Ng’s “Passion”. 2,500 matches glued to a piece of reclaimed plywood.

via the Cool Hunter

Pop up Book of Phobias

All kinds of phobias just pop up in your face

Via Design Fetish

Mr. President, sign my iPad

The more you like on Facebook, the less you pay with Skoda

Skoda Belgium has certainly been doing some clever things with Facebook recently. On a microsite and a Facebook page, for each Facebook ‘Like’ received, the price of the car drops. This group buying power is an interesting way to drive fan growth and gives the fan instant gratification.

It also goes some way to answer the external problem of how much a Facebook Like button is worth. Two Euros, according to Skoda. Of course, the catch is that only one fan will get the car at the ‘Facebook Price’ but it’s a compelling and shareable idea – upon liking you are encouraged to invite more friends in the interest of driving the price down.

This is a strong and simple idea that makes great use of Facebook functionality. While previously, brands such as Burger King and iTunes have offered coupons and tickets in exchange for tweets, it’s interesting that Skoda is one of the first major brands to step up and attribute an actual monetary value to a Facebook Like.

Source: The Wall

MySpaces's new logo

Set to be the next brand to get the crowdsourcing peeps going nuts is MySpace who have just unveiled their new logo which is, get this, the word “my” in Helvetica and then a symbol delineating a space. Heavens above!

I smell a PR stunt

Having stirred social media up over the past week with a much-hated new logo, Gap is right back where it started—announcing last night that it's ditching the new mark and returning to the old one.

Gap North America president Marka Hansen says in a statement: "Ultimately, we've learned just how much energy there is around our brand. All roads were leading us back to the blue box, so we've made the decision not to use the new logo on gap.com any further. At Gap brand, our customers have always come first. We've been listening to and watching all of the comments this past week. We heard them say over and over again they are passionate about our blue box logo, and they want it back. So we've made the decision to do just that—we will bring it back across all channels."

The language there is almost too perfect. Perhaps this about-face—and not the now-ditched crowdsourcing idea—is what Gap had planned from the beginning. You know—get people to talk about you for a week, admit your "mistake" (in essence, underestimating how much people love you), and have the last laugh by appearing to listen to your customers and then giving them their precious logo back—a logo they never even knew they loved.

Source: Adfreak

Unintentionally brilliant satire

Daily Mail prints their horoscopes today using dummy text.

Mark Ronson's Record Collection ad

This stop-motion ad for Mark Ronson's new album Record Collection features a variety of his musical collaborators in toy form

Great execution, lo-fi in style but polished and performed so skillfully it is pure charm.



And here's the 'making of'

The top 20 CoolBrands 2010

1. Aston Martin
2. iPhone
3. iPod
4. BlackBerry
5. Bang & Olufsen
6. Harley-Davidson
7. Nintendo Wii
8. Google
9. Ferrari
10. Dom Perignon
11. BBC iPlayer
12. Vivienne Westwood
13. Apple
14. Tate Modern
15. You Tube
16. Mini
17. Chanel
18. Ray Ban
19. Alexander McQueen
20. Jimmy Choo

The full list is at coolbrands.uk.com.