A Legend In My Own Time Zone

This free, on-line time keeper helps when you have to connect with people globally.

In fact, at work my time travel ranges from connecting with people from NY to get them to send an item to California, calling a white paper writer in Brazil, sending marcom work to the UK, and replying to requests from Spain, Australia, Malaysia, Hong Kong and UAE, for example.

Download your time keeper from Qlock.

May The Brand Be With You

Star Wars turns 30 years old today. The first film in the saga, Episode IV—A New Hope, made it's North American debut on May 25th, 1977.

In 2005, according to Forbes, the entire franchise (viz., films, toys, video games, books, etc.) is worth about $20US billion. And because of that success, George Lucas is in the top 100 richest people in the US worth $3.6US billion. (In fact, him and Steven Spielberg are the only film directors in that top 100 list.)

How's that for brand recognition, extension, loyality, equity?

Visit wordpress and flickr blogs for the 5-day Celebration IV coverage in Los Angeles, CA, May 24 - 28, 2007.

Almost Famous

Kaitlyn, my 2nd cousin from Calgary, was at a John Mayer concert holding up a sign that said IT’S MY BIRTHDAY, CAN I HAVE A HUG PLEASE?—watch his reply.

(Thanks Kaitlyn)

Kewl Merch

Broken Social Scene's Treecity tee

Belt Out Some Tunes

iPod Nano Tunebuckle

MarCom Notes

Branding

As I continue to grow in my Marketing Communications career,
which is a lifelong journey into itself, I personally now have defined
'Branding' as ... "the personality of a product / service that is communicated to its targets through chosen media".

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Yugo Nakamura



About 4-5 years ago, I once heard that when Macromedia (creators of Flash, Freehand, Fireworks, to name a few), was up for sale, IBM, Adobe and Microsoft were in the running to purchase the company, which was really the battle to acquire the savior of the universe, according to July 2001 issue of cre@teonline) ... Flash. And Adobe ended up purchasing the company as Adobe’s objectives were better suited to Macromedia’s products than the other two companies’ objectives.

As an aside, I once met one of the founders of Macromedia at a tech function; and he told me that when they sold the company to suits, all they were interested in were investors rather than better enhancing the applications. Perhaps that was how Macromedia eventually became for sale.

Now, Flash is ubiquitous, from YouTube to pedagogic industrial products, to media disc authoring and everything in between.

That brief Flash segue leads me to the surreal work of Japanese, Flash master and interface designer Yugo Nakamura, who has won many prestigious awards including NY Art Director’s Club, Clio and Cannes Lions. And his digital creations have been displayed in renowned London and Paris museums.

Turn up your speakers:
• some past works: visit 1st button from the left, 3rd and 7th, amazing
• Mona Lisa
• latest news

Uber Kewl

Feist, "1234"

(Via Kaitlyn + Kelsey)

When I Grow Up I Wanna Work in Advertising

Meyocks Group's spoof of Monster.com's "When I Grow Up" campaign.

(Via GDC/BC YouTube)

Tall Tale of the Tape

Pinocchio Tape Measure from Lee Valley Tools.

Buzz About Wentworth Miller Fuzz

My cousin's daughter and her friend, who have requested to remain anonymous, conceptualized and pieced together a collection of lint from their dryer in the 'likeness' of Wentworth Miller, Fox's star of Prison Break.

Both U of Toronto students then sold the lint on eBay for $650cdn, which is currently a hot topic on the net.

(Thanks LC and AC)

See Barry Run

10 yrs.; 15,269 yds. rushing; 4.98 avg.; 99 TDs; 5'8" tall

By comparison:
• Emmit Smith; 15 yrs.; 18,355 yds. rushing; 164 TDs; 4.16 avg.
• Walter Payton; 13; 16,726; 110; 4.35
• Eric Dickerson; 12; 13,259; 90; 4.42
• Tony Dorsett; 12; 12,739; 77; 4.33
• Jim Brown; 9; 12,312; 106; 5.21

Wascally Wabbits

Films re-enacted by bunnies ... Fight Club, It's A Wonderful Life, Spiderman 1 & 2, The Shining, ... view more. Enjoy.

" ... the latest in clothing that satisfies your nerdly cravings ..."

From Chop Shop.

(Via swiss miss)

Happy Rabbit

More feast for your senses than Blu-Ray or HD-DVD ; )

Charlie Sigvardsen's factory of mouth-watering chocolates—click on Molded Items link.

Triple Retro Tunes ...

Blogging For Dollars

My blog is worth $2,258.16.
How much is your blog worth?

Visit this site and determine the price of your blog.

From above site, here are some blogs and its respective prices:
• kerismith.com/blog ... $298,641.66
• swissmiss.typepad.com/weblog ... $331,949.52
• thesartorialist.blogspot.com ... $1,410,220.92

(Via Kelsey)

Guy Tech: Tissot High-T

The functionalities of this watch are amazing. Established in 1853, Tissot Swiss watches are the best bang for your buck; for example, you can purchase a scratch-resistant sapphire crystal watch for as little as $379cdn—a Tag Heuer would be more than 3x that price. However, Tag's have the branding behind them. The High-T is about $750us.

Phone Number Spell

Find out what your tel. / cell. number spells.

"Big, big futomaki has so many grains of rice!"

Although this board book is intended for kids, it's a hit with any sushi lover. Another excerpt: "Miso in my sippy cup, tofu in my bowl. Crab and avocado fill my California roll.".

Other books by the same author includes Yum Yum Dim Sum, Hola Jalapeno, Mangia! Mangia!, A Little Bit of Soul Food and Let's Nosh.

Yeahhh—Rock It Tom

" ... From Mozambique to those Memphis nights;
The Khyber Pass to Vancouver's lights ..."

The Dr.'s House Calls

Still The Best—Ever

iPray

Saint B MP3 Player

Madonna's song comes to mind ...
"In the midnight hour
I can feel your power
Just like a prayer
You know I'll take you there ..."
; )

Your Office Has Landed

An associate out of Wicklow, Ireland with kewl office workstations from Knoll A3 Office System.

(Thanks MG.)

Hee Hee Hee ; )

Catch 33

Once you click 'play', simply touch the numbers in sequence starting from 1 to 33. Do not click the numbers, just touch them with your cursor. The object is to touch all the 33 numbers as fast as you can.

My pb is 37 seconds.
Me new pb is 35.
March 4: not bad CE, I'm at 31.
March 9: my pb is 30. Done well CE—I'll be back.

[play game]

(Thanks CE.)

Counterfeit MINI Coopers—Bum Steer

Excerpts from counterfeitmini.org:
• "Experts can uncover a MINI imposter by tracking its Vehicle Identification Number (VIN). But the most effective way to spot a fake is by simply checking to see if the vehicle is ugly."
• "Many fakes look good at first glance. But look closer. Be certain the bonnet stripes are not fashioned from ordinary duct tape."
• "Quite often, the roof of a genuine MINI is customized with a flag decal. Counterfeiters know this and try to confuse buyers. If you find an actual flag on the roof, you've got an actual fake."

Buyer beware!!!

Name that Cyborg, Monster and Lover

Get Your Cyborg Name

Get Your Monster Name

Get Your Sexy Name

Move over T2, Big Foot and Romeo, you can generate way kewler names. Enjoy.

Sport Briefs

Gross. Man. Gross.

Regardless of what happend in the first 3 quarters of Superbowl XVI. Missed Bears tackles. Excellent Manning signal calling. The Bears were only behind by 5 points with 11:27 remaining in the game. Chicago had a 1st and 10 on their own 38 yard line and Rex threw a bad, lousy pass and deserved to lose the game. Not to mention his couple of mishandled snaps from Pro-Bowl Center Olin Kreutz.

A sad ending to an otherwise excellent regular season and two playoff victories. Anyway, the Bears beat the Seahawks twice this year =)

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QB Superbowl Victory Not Equal QB Greatness

Quarterbacking a Superbowl team to victory does not equate to being a great quarterback. Look at all the QBs to have won the game but are not great players ... Brad Johnson, Trent Dilfer, Terry Bradshaw (see Dryden brief below), for example.

Also the reverse, not having won the Superbowl does not mean subpar QB ... Dan Marino and Dan Fouts to come mind.

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Dryden's Jersey Retired

About 2-3 weeks ago, the Montreal Canadian's retired Ken Dryden's number 29 jersey.

During the ceremony, one of his former teammates, cannot recall who, said something like ... in some games, Dryden got only about 13-14 shots against him, but made key saves on about half of those shots.

I'm a Dryden fan, but he reminds of former Steelers running back Franco Harris who won four Superbowls because he was on a great team. Similarly, Dryden's 6 Stanley Cups in 8 years was also backed by a then solid Habs team.

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A couple of great, fun tv sports shows: The Best Damn Sports Show Period and Pros vs. Joes

MINI Big Brother

Each day, it seems, marketers go further in their quest to deliver messages so engaging and personalized that one cannot help feeling special. The latest step will be seen today in four cities when Mini USA begins delivering custom messages to Mini Cooper owners on digital signs the company calls “talking” billboards.

The boards, which usually carry typical advertising, are programmed to identify approaching Mini drivers through a coded signal from a radio chip embedded in their key fob. The messages are personal, based on questionnaires that owners filled out: “Mary, moving at the speed of justice,” if Mary is a lawyer, or “Mike, the special of the day is speed,” if Mike is a chef.

Continue reading nytimes.com article.

(Via Industrial Brand Blog)

I'm Blogging ... The Blogsphere Is Hot

(Via swiss miss)

Indubitably Keri

Keri Smith is an award-winning commercial illustrator with ‘kewl’ publications (Tear Up This Book), and thought-provoking concepts about creativity and life experiments (“wear only one color week”). In a nut shell, those are her ‘public’ brand characteristics that represent her uniqueness and success in the industry.

However, Keri is at a point in her life where she wants to accomplish something bigger but has the risk of jeopardizing her commercial career. Her somewhat life transformation includes support for an Ad-Free Blog and she states comments such as “buy nothing new for a year”, where such motives contradict her commercial profession.

Her introspection has lead her to question the beliefs of corporations. These days, consumers, the public in general, are not only interested in product purchases, but also want to determine the ethics of corporations behind those products and whether to support that company or not.

To what extent can we carry on such an exercise? Perhaps life is too short and/or limiting to be questioning these things (?), and can we really arrive at the truth to a corporation’s indubitable motives—which is a great exercise in epistemology?

I think we can only arrive at the public, surface policy of corporations and then choose to side with them or not. It would be an arduous task to determine the true personalities of the CEO down to the VPs in order to arrive at our conclusion.

Keri’s courageous adages struck a cord in me as I have purchased her product and am willing to purchase more, yet, somehow, attempting to discern whether to subscribe to her brand of philosophy. That’s the role of a responsible consumer.

Despite not agreeing with her complete stance on marketing, I support her honesty. And, mostly, her graciousness in taking the time to reply to my rather lengthy e-mail questioning and criticizing her stance. Hope she follows up with more ‘kewl’ products.

Making of "Always Open" ... ouch, ouch

Now that you've seen the finished advert of the 2005 MC ragtop (posted below this one), here is a behind-the-scenes look. Enjoy. Ouch.

Always Open ... 24x7x365

Advert for the 2005 MC ragtop. I'll post the making of this video soon. Stay tuned.

2006 Art Directors Club's Awards Poster

In the mail today, I received the 86th Annual Art Directors Club call-for-entries poster—which is not as controversial as last year's design (click on above photo to enlarge).

"My money's on the little guy ..."

Title: Anthem
Year: 2002
Creative Direction: Zak Mroueh & Paul Lavoie
Art Direction: Lance Martin
Copywriting: Zak Mroueh
Director: Curtis Wehrfritz
Agency: Taxi, Toronto, ON, Canada
Client: MINI Canada

Post revisted ... The original Mini Coopers, which debuted in the late 1950s, were less superior in many ways than today’s models. Its many years of brand building had resulted in portraying an image that is a “Mr. Bean” car-like.

So to reposition the car in the minds of its target market, the relaunch of the Mini brand has focused on highlighting its newly improved characteristics.

Hence, this particular tv commercial depicts the Cooper’s power, as part of a campaign addressing many of its other features, such as roominess, coolness and overall practicality.

Mini Putt—Not Clubs For The Cooper's Trunk

I am neither a gamer nor a video game owner, but this one is addictive. In fact, it’s supposedly the most played on-line golf game.

Jan. 31, 2007: BD has best score of 28, with 9 hole-in-ones. My best is 31.

Feb. 11, '07: My PB is now 29 w/ 9 hole-in-ones. BD, you're goin' down.

Feb. 12, '07: My new PB is 27 w/ 10 hole-in-ones. BD, who ya daddy.

Feb. 14, '07: Me new PB is 26 w/ 11 hole-in-ones. 24 is within reach BD.

Feb. 20, '07: I'm at 24 now w/ 13 ones. Look out BD here comes 22.

[play game]

iPoo

From Atech Flash Technology via Maclean's Magazine:
Now you can Enhance your Experience in any room with your favorite music from your iPod.

Features:
• 4 Integrated high performance moisture-free speakers deliver exceptional clarity and high quality sound
• Charges your iPod while playing music
• Audio selector allows you to play iPod shuffle or other Audio device
• Integrated Bath tissue holder that can be easily folded as a stereo dock
• Requires AC Power (AC Adapter included)
• Easy to remove from Wall Mount

Specifications:
Dimension (W x H x D):
8.25in x 3.68in x 7.12in
210mm x 93mm x 181mm

Power Requirements:
12V, 1.5A AC adapter

Speakers:
2 x tweeters for highs
2 x woofers for lows

Any suggestions for appropriate tunes?

Cooper Orange

The much anticipated revival of the new MINI Cooper about 6 years ago did not disappoint the automotive industry as the car had won many design awards and earned favorable consumer reviews on a global scale.

The Cooper was designed by an American by the name of Frank Stephenson, manufactured by BMW and assembled in Oxford, UK. Stephenson has since moved on to Ferrari-Maserati and currently to Fiat-Lancia.

I ordered the orange version, exclusive to the convertible, in mid April 2005 and did not receive the car until about 2 ½ months later. It was a long wait where the MINI traveled by ship from Oxford to Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada and then by train to Vancouver, BC.

Complicated with some sunny weather, the last few weeks of the wait was unbearable, where I constantly phoned the local MINI Richmond dealership probing where my car was. In fact, the dealership informed me that they had been asked by some eager customers if they knew map coordinates of their orders so that it can be tracked on their GPS system, which the dealership had no knowledge of such coordinates. Then the last days saw my MINI stranded in a rail car at a nearby train yard with other deliveries. How’s that for a tattoo of the MINI Cooper brand in the psyche of the consumer?

Especially with the top down, the Cooper drive is exhilarating— even provides great views of SUVs' under carriages. It’s slightly over 2,500lbs weight make the car a solid, stable drive at 90mph (have not reached the century mark yet). The ragtop can automatically open in 15 seconds, and is currently the only mass- production convertible in the market with a sunroof—the ragtop can have about a 16” opening prior to fully being opened.

The 170+hp, hardtop Cooper S edition is faster than my 115hp ragtop; however, they are both the same price and I chose sun over speed. There is also a John Cooper Works edition at around 210+hp, but would add about a $10k price tag.

The advertising campaign in Canada was created by Taxi, where the agency created award-winning executions, including print headlines such as “Parks Faster Than A Ferrari” and “Screw Point B”.

The Cooper not only stands out in traffic, but it also comes with a unique subculture with a wide target market: catering to elders who once owned the original Coopers and of course the younger demographics, and others in between.

Lumberjack Song: For Mr. G.

If you immediately cannot see the above video, wait for about 5 secs until the video loads on your screen—then press play.

I thought you need a break from all the Cmas songs.

E-mail Overload

Via GDC BC Blog:

Lowered I.Q. and Bad Manners Caused by Obsessive Communication

An article in The Guardian, a leading British newspaper, in April 2004 reveals that how you handle e-mails can affect your I.Q. The study used 1,100 people and was carried out by psychologists at Kings College, London University, on behalf of Hewlett Packard. The purpose was to see the effect of constant distractions on productivity and concentration. [more]

Some GDC Memoirs

Designer rock star diva Marian Bantjes, Chapter Cmns Chair was responsible for bringing in Rick Valicenti (seated next to her in above photo, quadrants 2 & 3) at the Society of Graphic Designers of Canada (GDC), BC Chapter's Annual General Meeting in Jan.06.

Marian's popularity has escalated in the last year or so, check out her site ... Print, Sagmeister, etc. She can make her pixels sing the opera.

Marian also invited her good friend Debbie Millman for her NY Design Stories, around summer 2005ish. Debbie is one of the only presenters I have seen using just one sentence per Power Point slide ... an amazing woman with great design and branding knowledge.

Next to Debbie in above photo (quadrant 1) is Yves Rouselle, partner at bau+wow communications in Vancouver, BC and Chapter Pres. I had a chance to work with Yves when I was with a previous employer Voith Paper, and he is as nice as it gets in the industry. His shop does amazing work too.

The photo of the paper plate is Rick's notes prior to making his speech—food for thought. I sat next to him prior to his AGM speech, and he was curious as to where I got my orange, Nike Rift, split-toe shoes I was wearing. So I told him shoes from Seattle and socks from California. Then I had a chance to talk to him about the mighty '85 Chicago Bears, since he is from that area. Maybe I'll sell that plate on e-bay ; )


I enjoyed the Jim Coudal seminar (June.06), where I shot some interesting photos too. What stood out was when he said that (paraphrase) designers need to have good taste in order to do good work. He was emphasizing that innate trait over designers knowing trade-related software applications, which can always be learned.

Jim also mentioned that they originated Photoshop tennis. One slow, friday afternoon, they decided to pass around Pshop layers that others built on it, and so on.

Plus, Jim mentioned to me that he had Bears seasons tickets after I made a comment how great the Bears are. Then I voiced my opinion that only if the Bears' secondary could have double covered Panther's Steve Smith in 2006 playoffs, the Bears would have advanced in the playoffs. Smith was single covered throughout the game and he ended up burning all the Bears' corners. I'm still pissed about that one. Enough. (I think I'm listening to too much sports radio and causing me to get fired up about sports.)

Also, I was in communication with Hillman Curtis, as we had plans on bringing him to Vancouver for a talk. And people were excited about him coming to Vancouver. But, after I resigned from the GDC Board, that idea vanished. Perhaps in 2007 the new board can slot him in (?). I thought I would get Hillman to sign my 3 books he has written.

I miss being on the GDC, BC Chapter Board (June.03 to March.06), but not the work. Click here for more photos and reviews re the above seminars.

Holiday eCards For Charity

Last year, I introduced my employer to sending an eCard for the holiday season. And the savings from purchasing actual printed cards and postage will be donated to a charity.

Last week, I quickly created the above and eBlasted to our contact list worldwide. The eCard also sits on our company home page (excuse the site I inherited and will be creating a new one by Q1.07, hopefully).

The eCard does not have to be in jpg format, it can be rich media. Print designers and printers may not benefit from this idea, but charities will.

Bear Down

My Chicago Bears are finally on its way to great playoff football. No I have not taped my ankles and jumped on the band wagon. I have been a fan of the Bears since the Payton days.

Monday Night Football tomorrow will have B. in St. Louis. Some analysts are saying that if Grossman plays bad in the first half, he should get benched for the 2nd string qb Greise -- who some say that he is the best #2 qb in the league. Hell, he has no game experience this year.

Should be an interesting game tomorrow. I say Bears will represent NFC in Superbowl, if they don't -- I owe a co-worker lunch as he is picking the Cowboys.

(btw, I don't know how effective I'll be at blogging, but this is my first attempt.)