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.

Boy do we want… Mini are launching scooters. And electric ones at that.

Funniest ad placement ever...

Grey Stockholm moves their entire site to Facebook

On Tuesday this week, Grey.se underwent a transformation. Now there's simply a link to facebook.com/greystockholm there.

"We're moving to Facebook
We want to be where people already are, and 2.5 million Swedes are on Facebook, so that's why we have moved our site to Facebook."

What the?... There's no clever use of YouTube like BooneOakley.com, nor is it the very clever javascripted Modernista.com social web framing of Modernista work on the web, but it's a move. To Facebook. Why?

Grey's David Schwieler explains: "We've been planning/doing this for a while. The big advantage is that one doesn't have to update ones ordinary homepage, which is both boring and complicated."

Source: Adland

Selling becomes sociable

E-commerce is becoming more social and more connected to the offline world. This great article form The Economist forecasts its future.

Ikea ads switch from guerrillas to cats

Here's some lovely work for Ikea from Mother. Every shot is clearly Ikea, yet it's all far more elegant than than preceeding work.

The Swedish giant has scrapped its quirky guerilla kitchen makeover adverts in favour of a new approach involving filming 100 cats making themselves at home inside a superstore.

Mother, which has developed the new tagline "Happy Inside", has taken a completely different approach with a stylishly shot ad featuring 100 cats making themselves at home in Ikea's Wembley branch.

"The idea behind the work is that cats know better than anything what makes them feel happy inside, they live their lives in pursuit of their own comfort," said Feh Tarty, creative director at Mother. "So we released a hundred cats in to the Ikea Wembley store, for real, to see where they went and what furniture made them happy."

Ikea's TV campaign is part of a wider marketing push to launch the Swedish retailer's 2011 catalogue, which will include press advertising, in-store media and a Facebook page, developed by the communications agency Cake, and a "making of" video.

Source: Media Guardian

Who loves their iPhone more than this girl?

Show the world your real face. On Sept. 18th, turn off your mobile device and get some real facetime

Click, send, call, text, Like, tweet, undo, reset, delete… it never ends. Which is why two marketing guys are dubbing September 18 “No Device Day” for consumers who might be too involved with their gadgets.


Mark DiMassimo, of ad firm Digo, and Eric Yaverbaum didn’t randomly choose September 18th for the latest installment of the larger Offlining ad campaign, though. It’s also Yom Kippur, considered by many Jews to be the holiest day of the year. On this day, also known as the Day of Atonement, observant Jews disengage from things like playing on their BlackBerrys, as well as other daily activities like writing, playing instruments, and even eating. To read more click here.

It's a good idea but sorry guys, it's been painfully executed.

The Tipp-Exx Bear

Hot on the heels of Old Spice for capturing imaginations and breathing life into a withering brand is the latest campaign for Tipp-Exx. It’s so brilliant that you kinda forget that Tipp-Exx is an almost obsolete product, for which there’s very little demand in a digital age….but there again, the same could be said for Old Spice.

The film – created by Parisian agency Buzzman is titled ‘NSFW. A hunter shoots a bear!’ It shows a hunter brushing his teeth before a bear lumbers into view. The 30-second long video then stops, before asking if the bear should be shot or not. Tipp-Exx won’t let you shoot the bear.

he hunter then breaks the ‘fourth wall’ and uses Tipp-Exx to earse thye word ‘shoot’ in the video title, leaving the viewer to type in what they’d like to see happen next in the blank text box. Type in ‘creates art with’ a bear, for example, and you’ll see a scene of the bear posing while the hunter paint him using a palette. Yes, you can type in ‘fuck’…and yes, that’s what they do, very amusingly.

Cleverly, while it looks like a YouTube page, it isn’t. It’s a full page flash file. It’s brilliant….and if you stall on ideas, the hunter come out and hassles you to type in something else. Here are a few that work; shoots, cuddles, dances, kisses, likes, feeds, sleeps with (it's not what you'd expect), tickles, rides, meets, is, plays football with pee kicks, smokes weed with, talks to, plays with, tipp ex, breakdances with, cuddles, goes fishing with, farts with and moonwalks with.

The science which creates success for interactive and so called ‘earned media’ is by no means certain. Not every company which has invested in such strategies has experienced viral success. It can backfire and create a negative, trying-to-hard vibe and once the customers become the channel, the client has no control over its evolution. However, when it works, it boasts a level of credibility that money can't buy. The consumer has to genuinely enjoy the campaign enough to share it, while feeling independent from the product’s game plan. That’s a tough call, but Tipp- Exx have pulled it off.



Text from: The Hospital Club

Uniqlo Lucky Counter

A new one from Uniqlo, Lucky Counter: You tweet about a product and its price will come down for everybody. Excellent social interaction idea.

Source; Adverblog

Don Draper checks his iPhone 4

In suit and tie with hair slicked back, Don Draper looks a testament to 1960s style…except for that iPhone 4 he’s toting.

Nope, you didn’t read that wrong. The iPhone might have only been available a good 40 years after Draper’s time, but in a wonderfully-shot behind-the-scenes look at the acclaimed serial, Rolling Stone captured a few jarring moments.

In another shot, Kenny Cosgrove and Harry Crane, both in full costume, can be seen peering into the screen of a MacBook Pro, the glow from the laptop cast across their Wayfarers.

The drama serial is especially lauded for its attention to detail—set designs are immaculately put together to reflect its mid-century time-frame accurately. So it’s a little bit jarring to see these characters whipping out devices from the far-flung—to them, at least—future.

All photos by James Minchin III for Rolling Stone.

Source: Design Taxi

The iWatch is real: It’s the new iPod Nano. Would you wear one?

Apple makes computers, tablets, phones, portable media players, TV set-top-boxes, displays and a dozen other things, but to date, it hasn’t made a wristwatch. Oh, wait, actually, it has! It’s called “the new iPod nano.”

Sure, battery life will be a problem when you leave that screen on the whole time, but you could just act like it’s an LED watch and it’s nighttime by hitting the button to see the time.

People have dreamed of fancy computer watches for a long time, and they’ve recently become a reality in a sufficiently usable form. LG started the latest upswing trend by introducing a watch phone concept at the 2008 Consumer Electronics Show.

Apple may not have intended the nano to be used this way, but the above Flickr photo from Kei Ogikubo leads us to believe that maybe tablets aren’t the only geek fantasy that Apple is recently the first to get right

UPDATE: 10th September, your iWatch Dream can be a reality thanks to ilovehandles.net. See http://mashable.com/2010/09/10/ilovehandles/

Source: Mashable

Another reason to upgrade to the iPhone 4 !

San-Francisco-based photographer Joey Celis decided to merge two iconic devices together and created a Leica M9 skin for the iPhone. How cool is that?!

Hu2 Computer Stickers

I love these cool and ecofriendly stickers(£15-£23 from hu2.com) for laptops, MacBooks or iMacs that include shortcut reminders, energy-saving tips and Robert Indiana-inspired designs.

New England shirt design by Peter Saville

Multi-coloured dandruff / crucifixes... That's the latest design quirk in the new England football shirt designed by Peter Saville which will be worn by the team for the first time on September 3rd for their match against Bulgaria.

Which long-sufffering fan will be willing to spend £49.99 on this?






Source: Creative Review

Notice to all iPhone 4 owners

Inspired sneaker designs

Using regular Nike sneakers, Daniel Reese, sneaker designer, has created this fabulous collection inspired by video games, movies, musicians, Google and even Twitter!

If you want to buy a pair, find them here.

Source: Design Fetish

'The Wilderness Downtown' interactive video project

On August 30, rock band Arcade Fire, together with Google and artist Chris Milk, launched an interactive video set to the band's track "We Used to Wait." Called "The Wilderness Downtown," the online project makes use of Google Maps and Google Street View to incorporate images of the viewer's hometown into the video.

Viewers begin the experience by providing their childhood address. The video experience then unfolds in multiple windows, taking viewers on a tour of their hometown to the tune of the Arcade Fire track. Users can also write a note to their younger selves in a tree branch-inspired font that is incorporated into the video.

Make a customized video for "The Wilderness Downtown"

Source: The Independent

Nicely executed Breast Cancer campaign for Singapore

Google Cool

If you search "google gravity" and then click "I'm feeling lucky" something awesome happens....

The Little Black Book iPhone and iPod Touch case

Carry your iPhone around in a Moleskine notebook with these Little Black Book iPhone + iPod Touch cases. I love the romantic, old-fashioned feel of them.

Thanks to Avishay Sweiry for pointing them out to me. You know me well, Avish!

Facebook Places on the iPhone

Facebook Places is now live in the USA. It does three things essentially. Allows you to share your location, find your friends and discover new places.

It comes with all the privacy settings. Either you can opt out of it altogether, so friends can't tag you or you will be notified every time you're tagged, so you can remove individual tags manually. Businesses can claim their shops on the map.

Right now, you need an iPhone to start using the app, but soon all mobile devices will be supported. The API allows developers to plug-in to the system and create games and other applications. It's not yet live in all regions, but will be soon. Wonder which agency and brand will take advantage of this new technology first for their marketing activities.

Source: Creative Bits

Messages from Mars

Masterfoods and FHV BBDO in the Netherlands encouraged 16 to 24 year olds to engage with the Mars Bar brand with “Messages from Mars”, a Gold Design Lion winner at Cannes International Advertising Festival. The campaign involved removing the iconic labelling from the bar, leaving it black, and providing consumers with the complete alphabet in Mars typography, including punctuation marks. The bar became an interactive object that gave people the possibility to create their own messages and give these to friends, colleagues or family.



Source: The Inspiration Room

Guilty...

Karen Cinnamon in Design Week: 8 August 2010

Design Week asked Karen Cinnamon, what alternative name she would have given the London bicycle hire scheme, which is currently called Barclays Cycle Hire?

"London's public spaces are being occupied by widespread swathes of characterless corporate branding. It's time to go against the grain with 'Bikesy'. A warm and informal name that alludes to the greatest visual revolutionary of our time, the one and only Banksy. All about the outdoors, it represents freedom, adventure, fun and creativity, it would also make the Barclays brand corporate cool, and the city feel inviting. I wonder who Banksy banks with?!"

Map Envelope

In today's digital messaging world, it's even more apparent that nothing can beat a good old fashioned hand-written letter. Here's a lovely idea that makes snail mail even cooler, and I'm already a big fan of it.

It's called Map Envelope and it's a free service that allows you to create an envelope whose inner lining is a custom Google Map featuring a satellite photo of whatever address you choose.

The lining is a crisp satellite image of the location you select, with your address and a custom message you write attached to the location pin, just as it would appear on Google Maps.

Very very cool...

BlackBerry planning iPad rival

Research In Motion, Canadian maker of BlackBerrys, is rumoured to be working on a rival to the iPad, dubbed the BlackPad by tech watchers.

The device is scheduled for launch in November, according to reports, and will be roughly the same size as Apple's device. RIM has already acquired the rights to the blackpad.com internet domain.

Users will be able to connect their BlackPad to the internet using the wireless connection of their mobile phone, rather than having to pay separately for 3G network access as users of the iPad must.

The introduction of the iPad, which hit UK stores in May, has reinvigorated the market for so-called tablet computers. In its recent results, Apple said it has sold 3.27m worldwide. But Steve Jobs' Californian design empire is unlikely to have the market all to itself for long.

Several computer manufacturers are planning tablet devices based on Google's rival Android software, which is already gaining a major foothold in the mobile phone market.

Samsung is expected to launch the Galaxy tablet before the end of next month while LG plans to introduce one under its Optimus brand by Christmas.

Source: Media Guardian

Back to School Campaign for Marks & Spencer

Just completed major projects for Marks & Spencer's 'Back to School' online campaigns.

Design work included Back to School branding, 3 for 2 and £6.50 Value Uniform campaigns.

www.marksandspencer.com/kids

Dog made of beermats

Mayor Boris adds second wheel to the London Eye to mark cycle hire launch

Source: The Poke

Superlative Apple Store opening in Covent Garden on August 7th

The new Apple store opens on 7 August in Covent Garden, on the site formerly occupied by the Rock Garden nightspot.

According to a blog devoted to the subject of Apple retail outlets, it will be the largest store Apple has opened, occupying three floors, and the most expensive in terms of refurbishment. Apple will also have offices above the store.

Apple is as good at creating hype around the launch of its stores as it is around the launch of its phones – when the first London branch opened on Regent Street in 2004, people began queuing outside days before, in spite of it being November.

One report says that more than a thousand people were in the queue prior to the doors opening at 10am.

The company has a strategy of selling 'Lucky Bags' to the people coming through the doors. These have limited edition goods and souvenir T-shirts, adding up to greater value than the selling price, as well as being sought after by Apple fans.

Apple stores are so busy that the company advises people to come in early in the morning or late in the day, or to make a personal shopping appointment, to avoid the crowds.

The Covent Garden shop is the fourth Apple store in London.

Source: Marketing Magazine

Apple's new Magic Trackpad

If you've used a MacBook Pro or MacBook over the last couple of years then surely an Apple Magic Trackpad is old news? I say that because from what I've heard, the technology is the same, the experience is the same, and the usability is the same: anything you can do on the trackpads of the latest MacBook or MacBook Pro laptop range, you can do here. So do I really need to buy this £59 accessory?

I found a review from Pocket-lint who were assessing just that:

The device itself oozes typical Apple minimalism design. It's a sheet of aluminium that sits on your desk at a slight angle waiting to be touched, topped with the wear-resistant glass surface for you to touch. The angle is created by the battery tube at the top and it takes two AA batteries. Apple claim this will be enough to power it for around 2 months. That tube houses the power switch and the gubbins to make it all work. Aside from a green light that only lights up when it is pairing, there is very little to report here.

While the top is metal the underside is white plastic - identical to the Apple Bluetooth keyboard. In fact design-wise it is identical its approach. It's the same brushed metal on top, the same angle, the same depth, the same height, in fact you can put the two together and pretend they are one piece.



Unlike most other computer peripherals, the surface is free from buttons. But you still get the ability to left or right click, thanks to the small feet on the leading edge of the underside. It's an incredibly simple and clever idea that works just like the MacBook Pro's system - you just click on the trackpad without realising there is no button.

The Magic Trackpad is connected to your Mac via Bluetooth, and the only other requirement here is that you are running OSX 10.6.4. Connect the device to your Mac and at first you'll believe that you've bought a rather uninspiring and expensive trackpad that doesn't do much.

Perform a software update to get the latest software (if you haven't already) and empower your Magic trackpad to deliver on its promises. A quick restart later and you're ready to tinker if you so wish, although for the most part you won't have to.

The new software gives you the power to scroll, rotate, pinch open and close, screen zoom, and secondary click when using two fingers.

Add a third finger and you can swipe to navigate, and drag windows around, while four fingers up and down opens Expose and swiping left and right gives you the ability to change applications.

Don't panic you can just use the one finger. The travel of your finger on the trackpad is more than enough to cover your screen within a single motion and that saves you having to keep lifting your finger.



There are other options with your single finger; i.e. tap to click (which can be turned off) and secondary click zoned into the bottom right corner for example: we found a two finger click was easier, but there are choices so you can set it to your preference. You can adjust tracking, double-click and scrolling speed as well.

In practice and it really is the same as the MacBook Pro trackpad, although we found it easier to use three and four finger movements due to the increased real-estate. The glass is beautifully smooth on your fingers and the click, which can be done from anywhere with very little effort, is responsive and don't really have to press that hard.

With the resting feet responsible for the clicking part of the trackpad you will have to have it on a level surface. We tried balancing it on a leg - it just doesn't work - but you can use it up to 10 metres away. We're sure that swapping trackpads around in the office will lead to a great deal of hilarity.

So the question is, can it become the primary input device for professional graphic designers?

App of the week: Dragon Dictation

Dragon Dictation is a voice recognition application that allows you to speak and then instantly see your text or email messages. I've just downloaded it and it's brilliant - a real time-saver. Find it here.

The Free Apple iPhone 4 bumper program is now open in the UK

To get your free case from Apple click here.

There are a range of different cases available and this article can help you choose the right one for you.

Flipboard

I guess a lot of you have heard of the awesome Flipboard iPad App by now, but if you haven’t and you own an iPad, you’ll be excited to see what this brilliant Social Magazine app actually does.

Franking Fail

An awesome gift for male geeks: USB Flash Drive Cufflinks

Not only are these cufflinks engravable, they each feature functional USB drives, so you get a total storage capacity of 4GB.

Available from CuffLinks.com.

Brilliant online ad idea

A very creative online ad for Ikea: when clicking the banner the user has to select an mp3 from his or her own computer to be played through the ad. Click here to view the ad and see what I mean...