Pantone Rubik’s Cube

Argentinian designer Ignacio Pilotto created a concept Rubik’s Cube mashup with Pantone color swatches.

The ‘Rubitone’ has different intensities of a colors on each side of the cube — which makes things more difficult to solve—with each row of the same shade.

The Rubik’s Cube has a selection of 18 Pantone colors and would make a lovely gift. It should be quite easy to recreate by printing on adhesive and applying.

Source: Design Taxi

Chopping board design of the week

Apple welcomes you to Grand Central

To promote the opening of its new shop in Grand Central station, Apple has installed a giant digital version of the traditional split-flap train schedule board using 58 computer display monitors.



Each letter appears to flip into place to reveal a series of headlines, including "Only one bar in Grand Central has Geniuses." ,"Drop off your Mac at 8:42. Pick it up at 6:29." "Grab an iPod touch. You'll wish your commute was longer." and "Soon, missing your train won't be so bad."

Source: Creative Review

What google looked like in 1998...

The domain name for Google was registered on September 15, 1997 and the company was incorporated on September 4, 1998.

A Harvey Nichols Christmas 2011 - Ever faced the Walk of Shame?

Forget the saccharine-sweet John Lewis Xmas ad, I think a fair few of us might have much more in common with this Walk of Shame ad from Harvey Nichols.

Google gives YouTube a new look

Google has given YouTube a seasonal makeover with the introduction of a new homepage, Channel design and a fresh coat of digital paint. Here are three ways these updates will improve your YouTube life.

1. A new homepage

YouTube says the changes to the homepage are designed to make it easier to find and follow Channels when you arrive. On the left side of the homepage you can create your own, personal, customisable YouTube Channel line-up.

Sign in, or create a YouTube account. Then you can browse recommended Channels, customise your homepage’s feed, link your YouTube account to Google+ and Facebook and see what your friends are sharing.

The new homepage feed it launched earlier this year is now front and centre on the homepage and you can switch between feeds by clicking on different Channels on the left.

2. Simpler, customisable Channels

Given the homepage’s new focus on helping you find and organise your favorite Channels, Google has also updated the look and feel of the Channels themselves.

Today it is launching an improved Channel design focused on what matters most: helping users find great videos. As different uploaders have different goals, it has created new a channel templates to meet their needs whether they produce one video a week or have thousands of videos for a fan to browse.

Some partners have even uploaded videos talking about the features, or giving tiphttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifs on how they’re taking advantage of the new design. To learn how to opt-in to and test this new Channel design, check out its help center.

3. A new overall design

To bring the new homepage and Channels designs together Google has also applied a fresh coat of digital paint across the whole site. In July, it unveiled an experimental design called Cosmic Panda and it has used user feedback to improve its overall design, and today, it offers a cleaner and simpler YouTube, with a consistent gray background, bigger video thumbnails and a more streamlined watch page.

Source: The Wall

Great Ad campaign: SwissLife : Life’s Turns In A Sentence

I love this campaign for SwissLife life Insurance's Flexible financial plans. They've cleverly used reversed sentences that reflect lifes twists & turns…

21 Suggestions for success

Oops

A bottle of fancy French wine. Look closely at the label. Yes, it's lorem ipsum filler text.

Samsung takes a swipe at pretentious iPhone owners in its new viral ad

New ad for Samsung Galaxy S II shows urban scene kids with delusions of creative greatness (who are actually baristas, apparently) queuing for the latest iPhone. It goes on to show people outside the queue who already have a great phone with 4G and a big, bright screen.

It's a great ad, even though I’ve been pretty loyal to iPhones, it digs right to the centre of what I think about a lot, which is, if I actually did a little research…



Source: The Wall

World’s largest, longest 3D painting has been created in Canary Wharf, London

Reebok has collaborated with CrossFit to set two new Guinness World Records with the world’s largest and longest 3D artwork.

Street artist ‘3D Joe & Max’ turned part of London’s Canary Wharf quayside into the longest and largest 3D artwork, which covers an area of 12,490.441 square-feet and measures approximately 349.4 feet.

The painting, unveiled on 17 November 2011 (Global Guinness World Records Day), features a waterfall in a deep canyon image, as a ‘fun and thrilling’ outdoor workout experience.





































Source: Design Taxi

Is this the best use of a cut-out ever?

World Leader Porn: Benetton wants the world to UNHATE

US President Barack Obama and Hugo Chavez of Venezuela

A new campaign from Benetton recalls the brand's controversial heyday. A series of posters features world leaders with lips locked to launch the UNHATE project

Benetton, says the accompanying press material, is inviting "the leaders and citizens of the world to combat the 'culture of hatred'". The UNHATE campaign is the first initiative from a new Benetton foundation of the same name, launched by Alessandro Benetton, executive deputy chairman of the Benetton Group.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Nicolas Sarkozy

A series of posters, created by Benetton's 'research communication centre' Fabrica, features political and spiritual leaders kissing (shown above, The Pope and Ahmed Mohamed el-Tayeb, Imam of the Al-Azhar mosque in Cairo. Below, US President Barack Obama and Hugo Chavez of Venezuela)

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu

According to Benetton "These are symbolic images of reconciliation - with a touch of ironic hope and constructive provocation - to stimulate reflection on how politics, faith and ideas, even when they are divergent and mutually opposed, must still lead to dialogue and mediation."

The Pope and Ahmed Mohamed el-Tayeb, Imam of the Al-Azhar mosque in Cairo

Hu Jintao, president of China and U.S. President Barack Obama

North Korean Supreme Leader Kim Jong-Il and South Korean President Lee Myung-bak

Additional social media activity includes the Kiss Wall where users can upload images of themselves kissing.


Source: Creative Review

What does an Art Director do?

This is very funny. As Jacques Séguéla said, "Don't tell my mother I work in an advertising agency. She thinks I play piano in a whorehouse."

BA's latest ad: "To Fly. To Serve"

An industry email has just lead me to BA's latest ad, and my G-d they've pumped the pounds into this one. They're riding high with this "To fly. To serve" line and in my mind a bit too soon after the strikes for this type of ad campaign. 'To Fly, To Strike' is ringing through my head.

Additionally I dislike the gender stereotyping of male pilots and the way they've erased early female aviators from history. I do like flying BA but it's embarrassing that a major airline can still be so sexist.

WHSmith have pulled off a publishing coup

Brian of course...

The facebook version of you vs the realistic version of you

Source: Comical Concept

How logos are made

Don't you hate when this happens?

Cute

Pantone Christmas

Pantone Christmas baubles. Just perfect. Cool Gray 10 for me, please.

Special Tone of Voice award to Apple’s Siri on the new iPhone 4S

They’ve *really* thought this through.

Find all the gems at shitthatsirisays.tumblr.com

Own a colour, save a life

Dulux has launched a website initiative with Unicef in which users are asked to buy one of the 16.7 million colours that a smartphone screen can display in order to help the charity.

Through the website ownacolour.com, the public, for a donation of at least £1, can put their name to their favourite colour and see themselves featured up alongside famous donors.

I bought 'Heartbeat Red':





Source: Creative Review

Hitler finds out that there’s no Apple iPhone 5

This had me in stitches...

Facebook finally launches iPad app

Facebook has finally taken the wraps off its long-awaited app for the iPad, extending its presence in mobile devices.

The app features a new layout for the site, with games, apps, groups and lists in a left-hand menu, and messages and notifications at the top of every screen.

It is available in English, Chinese, Dutch, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish and Turkish.

Facebook's iPhone app is the most downloaded iPhone app to date and with mobile usage of the social network rising, its move to tablet devices has been hotly anticipated.

Source: MediaWeek

Steve Jobs at the pearly gates

The cover of the October 17 issue of The New Yorker.

iPhone 4S grief. Yup - today I am indeed throwing money at Apple.

RIP Steve Jobs

RIP Steve Jobs. You left your mark on our desks, on our ears & in our hands.

Don't forget to take the sun into account in your design...

Latest Ad from T-Mobile - The Parking Ticket

A departure from T-Mobile's previous flash-mob style adverts, but just as good...

LDF 2011: design from all angles

LDF posters

This year's London Design Festival opened at the weekend, complete with an identity by Domenic Lippa and his team at Pentagram; their fifth iteration for the annual event...

The design is hooked around the phrase 'design from all angles'. Lippa and team created the identity by printing text on pieces of paper, folding them and then photographing them from different angles. "The differing angles enable the 2011 festival to have a flexible identity across the whole gamut of events whilst maintaining a consistent look and feel," say Pentagram. "Once more the identity leverages its ownership of red in order to create maximum impact."

More details of what's on when at londondesignfestival.com.

LDF guides
LDF invites
LDF badges
LDF map

Source: Mark Sinclair at Creative Review

BBC unveils new touch screen inspired bbc.co.uk homepage

The BBC has unveiled a new version of the bbc.co.uk. homepage It’s in beta, but is looking good and serves as a reminder of how much the BBC offers.

The new look now sports sliding screens, that are clearly inspired by touch screen phones and tablet computers, that sweep across the page allowing visitors to easily navigate a lot of content much.

The BBC home page has a big job to do in fighting to keep its traffic. At the moment it attracts 9 million unique users a week, but like all portal type homepages that is declining.

I personally never visit it, going instead straight to news, to BBC iPlayer via search and social links.

The change to the homepage comes after the BBC announced its plans to reorganise the BBC’s online service into ten product areas in January 2011 and also announced a 25% budget reduction for BBC Online, which resulted in 360 jobs losses over the next two years.

Would like great on an iPad but does it lack buzz?

You know this would look great on an iPad and that might be part of its problem as it is really designed for that more than your average PC. But that said I like the way it is very easy to navigate and design wise it draws you around the page. It is easy to jump around.

What I don’t like is that it feels utterly divorced from the web and social media. I know it has a most popular, but there is no sense of what people are saying about BBC programmes. In essence there is not buzz. There is no sign of social networking or social media at all that I noticed. I think you really have to have something of that.

Key changes

Some of the things the new look allows visitors to do include setting local preferences for information that is local to them, including news, weather and TV schedules.

The at-a-glance guide to top stories from BBC News and Sport and highlights from across BBC TV, Radio and Online.

You can choose the headings that appeal to see much more of what interests you (such as entertainment, news and sport). You can also see what stories and programmes are proving popular with other BBC users in terms of most read, watched and listened.

And of course, you can see what is being broadcast on TV and Radio right now, and look ahead to plan your viewing and listening.

You can find more out about the BBC Homepage here.

Source: The Wall

Colour picker pen by jinsu park

Korean designer jinsu park has designed a concept pen that adopts the eyedropper tool from Photoshop for real life. The colour picker pen enables colours in the environment to be scanned and instantly used for drawing.

The sensor detects the colour and matches it to the colour display. Then the RGB cartridge located within the pen mixes the inks together to create the colour that has been scanned.






Source: Design Boom

The best responses to celebrities on Twitter

Merciless responses to celebrity tweets can be very satisfying...



















Source: Happy Place