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Archive for Hoverblog: October 2005 | Main >
Another 10
| 10.28.2005
Unfortunately, I've used all of these. Sometimes 4-5 in one meeting. The scary thing is that no one blinks. They're all accepted verbiage and terminology. However, it's a different story out there in the real world...
I was in CompUSA the other day looking for a wireless component for my home network. As usual, I couldn't find what I was looking for and solicited a sales 'specialist' to help me. After a few frustrating minutes of him trying to sell me everything I didn't need, I said, abruptly, "Net-net, I need something that has blue tooth integrated into it." Net net? We have Netgear and Linksys but no net net."
1. Handshake - "I'd like to develop a stronger handshake between our two departments." MEANS: I'm paid to know what the *&$#^*& you're doing over there so tell me 2. Airtime - "I'd like to get a little airtime at the next meeting." MEANS: Can I please get a word in?? 3. Air Support - "Why don't I take the lead and you chime in with some air support." MEANS: If I say something wrong, please bale me out 4. Drill Down - "Lets drill down on this issue a bit." MEANS: I know you're not telling me the whole story so I'm going to dig a bit more 5. Blue Sky - "I just want to blue sky a bit at the beginning of the meeting." MEANS: Listening to yourself talk about nothing related 6. Broad Strokes - "Let me paint some broad strokes for you." MEANS: Let me talk at such an abstract level so I can't hang myself 7. Ahead of The Curve - "Bob. I think you're ahead of the curve with this idea?" MEANS: You strayed from the herd and made your boss look bad 8. Sidebar - "Lets have a quick sidebar when the meeting breaks." MEANS: Lets not fight in front of everyone 9. Take it offline - "Lets take this topic offline for now." MEANS: See #8 (above) 10. The Way the World Works - "Get with it! This is the way the world works." MEANS: You were probably right in the first place
posted at 11:25 AM
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Typecast
| 10.27.2005

Everyone does it...don't deny it....People love to people watch people and make assumptions and decisions about their character without even getting to know them first. That lady's cool cause she's wearing the newest Lucky-brand jeans OR that guy's a dirt bag...just look at his bad hair and cheap Aldo shoes OR those guys over in Starbucks must be "creative" drinking all those fancy machiatos OR why do some people break up their taco shells into little pieces and then put all the fixin's on top OR you get the point! What about Movie Stars? They're a bit easier as the all are typecast in their own ways...Arnold schwarzenegger is always in action movies (or should be), Sean Penn loves to play "troubled" characters and Ben Affleck always sucks! The point is that we all have typecasts for people, actors, places, cars, restaurants, etc. Typefaces also have a typecase, literally! A typeface helps establish the mood and purpose of what it's helping to communicate. Whether is be a wedding invitation, retro 50s or gothic, type is a powerful "visual shorthand" to make us perceive a certain way.
Try your skill at matching each letter to the following description below. Then turn your monitor upside down to see which ones you got right. Get them all right on the first guess and breakfast is on me at the Deluxe Town Diner in Watertown. Best fricken pancakes on the earth! Special Thanks to @issue.
Nuptial Art Nouveau 50's Diner High Finance Newroom Gen-X Roaring '20s Home Grown Dick & Jane Digital Age Top-Hat Formal Campground Medieval Varsity Whimsical Credit Card Psychedelic Heavy Metal Kinetic Elgant Fashion High Tech Shipping Crates
posted at 9:12 PM
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Cereal
| 10.22.2005

For the last several years, I've been really interested in cereal. Not necessarily the hundreds of years of history that accompany some of the original to-be breakfast food. It's more about taking a closer look and appreciating the true essence and character of these jewels. So much beauty and detail is lost on us each day because we don't always have out of context experiences. Take for instance, manhole covers. Most of our experiences with manhole covers is experienced while in the car or running across the street. These metallic circular works of art are beautiful and tell there own personal historical story about where they came from, how long they've been around and what they were (are) covering up. Same for cereal. Most of the time, when we eat cereal, we're just waking up or in my case, going to bed. Indi (my daugher) and I love to split a bowl of Capt'n Crunch while we watch M*A*S*H reruns. Yes! These only come on later at night so no need to "preach" to me. She's a little night owl!
So my point is that most of us don't think about what cereal really looks like. Sure, we remember that Fruit Loops have nice colors, Lucky Charms have nice shapes and Special K is good for you while tasting exactly like cardboard, but have you ever really taken a close look at these glorious confectionary objects? We've all seen pictures of insects and objects magnified to the Nth degree. Notice how they take on a whole new presence and meaning when they're experienced out of context? In my opinion, cereal is some of the first mass adopted edible artwork in modern history.
Several years ago, I was invited to be in a show at the Ashua Irving Gallery in Boston. The theme was fruit. I had a feeling that most of the participants were going to stick mostly with oils and pencil sketches as their medium. Meanwhile, I was heading toward something called exhibition suicide. I decided to use pears (who doesn't love pears) and place them in out-of-context settings (light bulb, intercom and laundry rope). I also decided to photograph them in a large format at long exposures. The idea was to experience the pears in an alternative setting and capture that experience in an alternative medium. As a result, I think viewers understand the pears at a level not typically experienced in an oil on canvas. So once again, we start to understand and appreciate subject matter at new and more intimate levels when viewed out of context.
My latest project is called Cereal. Working with acclaimed photographer, Frank Rapp (his pinhole series is one of the most beautiful landscape collections around). I'll be in the studio in a couple of short weeks shooting 12 different types of cereal up close in both digital and medium format film. I'll also be leveraging my success with the Fruit series and printing these out to 25 x 40 IRIS watercolor prints. I haven't lined up the opening yet but stay tuned and remember to look more closely at your cereal tomorrow morning.
posted at 7:37 AM
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Site of the Month
| 10.18.2005

So this is a new "forum" for me in addition to my "Island Top Ten." If you're looking for some time to kill (or not) and want the closest thing to the pixel version of crack, then check out www.homestarrunner.com. Several of you already know about this site but for me, it's like a good wine...it gets better....(you can fill this part in). I'm especially jazzing on the Strong Bad Emails.
I've been wanting to buy a premium for a while but have all the desktop icons and wallpapers.
posted at 5:15 PM
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Bad Packaging Design
| 10.16.2005

In a world with Zip-Lock this and re-sealable that, why are there still so many products that don't use any of the latest "stay-fresh" packaging technologies? Cold cuts, shredded cheese, nuts, coffee are all just a few of the items that have re-sealable packaging. Why not flour, cereal or Paul Newman's organic pretzels. I'm getting sick and tired of eating soggy Captain Crunch. You would think if anyone wanted to conserve and preserve the planet, it would be Paul Newman (Newman's Own). The bags tear easy and they're all stale before you can say "chipped tooth!" Even Oreos have a zip lock on them now. If the king of white trash cookies can do this, you'd think Paul would ask for a few dollars back from his charities to employ a similar solution, especially given the premium we all pay. The real killer for me is packaging that's designed to contain goopy stuff like spreads, cottage cheese and yogurt. Under the re-sealable lid is a thin plastic film that’s glued to the outer edge of the tub. This is to be removed when you're ready to use it. Thus, here’s where we can separate the package designers into two camps: those that make it easy on us, and those that make it hard.
The bad camp glues the plastic film around the edge, with not nearly enough of an overlap. The overlap is crucial for being able to grab the excess film with your fingers, pulling it off quickly and easily. Removing the film in this scenario involves piercing with a sharp knife, then peeling it back. The pierced film nearly always comes in contact with the food below, resulting in a messy removal. It’ll also split into several pieces, requiring multiple peels.
The good camp leaves a little “tab” of excess film at one spot on the tub’s edge. this little tab is big enough to grab with your fingers, easily pulling the entire film off the tub without piercing. No mess.
So lets make the world a better place to get fat in. Email Paul and ask him when he's going to do the right thing. If that feels a little to intimidating, email Hood and suggest that they put a little more film around the edge of their cottage cheese.
I've become an expert at precisely holding a knife's blade just low enough to pierce the film as i rotate the container. I'm getting pretty good at it but I shouldn't have to be....why is this important you ask? No idea! Thanks to "BITS"
posted at 10:19 AM
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Top 9 OS X Applications
| 10.15.2005
My Top 9 OS X freeware and shareware applications. What are yours?

GrowlTunes
There is a Widget that shows current song information for Itunes but you have to be in the Widget screen and who does that?? GrowlTunes is a great way to display song details in a little floating box that appears everytime the song changes. This also shows user ratings so Dan will love this. GET THIS APP!
Acquisition
I was telling Frankie about this application the other day. If you're in a pinch and can't afford softward and/or music, this peer to peer shareware application is the best out there for all your "borrowing" needs. It's set up with the sexy OSX buttons and interface and functions a lot like Itunes.
X-Tunes
X-Tunes is a really nice, simple iTunes controller. Hitting alt space brings up a floating panel that displays basic song details and lets me stop, jump forward or back in the playlist, or change volume.
Transmit
There are many FTP applications out there but eveything from Panic Software looks better. Probably because all there products and product icons look so cool. Design is everything. It's simple to use and works perfectly on the Mac.
FontExplorer X
Lets face it, Apple font book sucks and putting all your fonts in the system font folder is just plain crazy. So I was fantastically pleased when I found this app. Doubly so because its free. The app basically works like iTunes for your font collection. You can drag fonts around, group them, preview them, enable them and disable them, all in a familiar and intuitive interface. Very nice. I blogged about this a few weeks back.
xScope
I'm not a Photoshop power user but if I was, I'd have this application in my tool belt. xScope provides a series of Photoshop like tools for your desktop. You can set up guides, measure things with the ruler, zoom in to layouts and check colours with the eye-dropper.
Earthworks Wallpaper
No really an proper applicatoins, this wallpaper is provocative, soul-stirring and sometimes disturbing while lending a dark and sometimes ghostly atmosphere to your desktop.
Synk
I have a pretty large MP3 library. We've all had our MP3 drives fail and were left to re-rip our discs again. Not me! I have two identical drives. Every night, one mirrors the other so if one S.T.B., I have an identical one to take over. Synk is free but has a lot of functionality for setting up schedules, syncing options, etc.
Omni Graffle
Lastly I really like Omni Graffle. Again, its one of those apps that I feel I don’t use enough, but that is probably because I’m not doing much IA at the moment. This is the perfect app for doing all your site mapping, wireframing and any other IA work.
Special thanks to Andy the inspiration.
posted at 1:03 PM
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The 5 Phases of any given project
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Many of the projects I work on at New Tilt are typically 3 months in length give or take a couple of weeks. Some projects have gone for up to a year or more! I'm happy to announce that one of those projects has finally launched and is live! I sometimes feel that the 5 stages of grief sometimes mirror a large project such as this.
First, you start off with denial, thinking you could pull off eveything that you thought of in the original conceptual brainstorm sessions. Then you move into anger, feeling constrained by technology, client requirements or budget. Next is bargaining; "if I could only get that Flash piece to really articulate the brand, I would be happy enough.". Depression typically sets in shortly afterwards-being frustrated by how difficult things were up to this point and questioning if it was all worth it. Lastly is acceptance, realizing that this is the profession I've chosen and that it's going to happen all over again in about an hour.
So I'm happy to announce the launch of Funusual, both a physical and online store that sells fun, kitchy products like martini classes on cars, dog bowls that look like crowns and flyswatter clocks. Keep hitting the refresh button and see the different animations. Thanks to Jonathan for helping bring these product to life.
posted at 9:20 AM
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3 Golden Starbuck Tips
| 10.13.2005
I know what you're thinking. What the hell does Starbucks have to do with the mantra of hoverblog ("Hoverblog highlights meaningful, design-related content, links, events and other neat stuff"). The answer? Everything! Coffee makes the world feel better about design, gives me energy to keep this blog up, is a place I go every morning before work and seems to be one of the more fashionable hangouts for creative types. Not convinced yet? Then file this one under "and other neat stuff."
So patronizing Starbucks is less of a religion and more of an addiction. I'm not really addicted to Starbucks but more to espresso. Starbucks just happens to be the only establishment (3 of them) on my route to work everyday. I can't believe the types of drinks people order at these places. After all my years ordering the same modest drink (doppio macchiato), I heard one called the other day that left me feeling like the most inadequate over-caffeinated freak on the planet. And the barista called out..."Can I have a venti triple shot decaf carmel skim pumpkin spice latte with 2 pumps of hazelnut double cupped to go?" After I heard that I wasn't sure weather to cry or throw up. A few people standing over by the pickup counter all started to look down at their paper and in different directions as to not be associated with this particular drink. Through the small crowd, I quickly spotted the rightful owner to be. It was easy. He was the only one paying attention to the barista while waiting for the drink to be made. I couldn't resist. So in Larry David fashion, I walked over to him and told him I've had a desire to try this drink and was it still good with the 2 pumps of hazelnut in it? "This is the most delicious drink!" he said as he put a hot sleeve around the cup. "I wish they had this year round." All I could think was that this poor bastard doesn't know that pumpkins only grow in the fall.
OK. OK. I just wanted to set the stage properly before I give you the rightful message of this posting.
1. If your order comes to a penny over an even amount ($3.01 for example) and the cashier doesn't take a penny out of the tip jar, don't tip. I know if sounds a little harsh but money talks.
2. Many times, baristas are busy chatting or multi-tasking beyond their capabilities. If you're ordering a latte or other milk-based espresso drink, they will many times pull the shots first while they're steaming the milk. Getting milk to 180 degrees takes about a minute longer than pulling the shots. So the shots of espresso sit around cooling off and getting bitter while the milk is being heated. This makes the drink taste less than desirable. If this happens, ask to them to pull the shots again. They will gladly do it cause they know they've been caught.
3. If you buy a pound of coffee, you're suppose to get a complimentary cup of coffee (well, not quite complimentary...you just paid $5 more for that pound of coffee than if you bought it at Stop & Shop). Now if you buy two pounds, you're suppose to get two complimentary cups of coffee. Now if you're solo, you can't drink two cups by yourself. You can trade those two complimentary cups in for a specialty drink. They don't advertise this but if asked, they will accommodate. I recommend a venti triple shot decaf carmel skim pumpkin spice latte with 2 pumps of hazelnut double cupped to go!
posted at 12:38 AM
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Web 2.0-Fact or Hype?
| 10.09.2005

Along with Wicki, "Web 2.0 is starting to gain momentum rapidly as a new philosophy. I've been reading a bunch of related blogs and the buzz is getting buzzier. There are even several conferences that are popping up and are already sold out. The days of pure marketing/collateral sites being the majority, seem numbered. There is still much debate about whether it's hype or real. You decide.
posted at 8:26 PM
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Technology makes Litaricy..Lieerisee...Literacy!
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I barely have time to read these days but when I finish a good book, i usually go onto another one by the same author. The problem occurs when I've exhausted every single book by a particular writer and am looking for something in the same style or subject matter. That, my friends, takes a lot of time and work if you're not a bookworm like my wife or in a book club which creep me out. Amazon tries to do this but there recommendations are usually based on a more primitive technology database (if you like this, you'll like this).
For those of us that still enjoy and find the time to read actual books in this day and age, What Should I Read Next? is a little gift from the Database Gods that encourages literacy and for me to give my poor eyes a rest from my alternate life as an RSS crawler. It's fairly simple. You go to the website, enter a book you like, and based on other people's book lists, it spits out a list of other books you may enjoy. From there, you can create your own book list by entering your email address, which will stop the database from recommending books that you've already read as well as increase the pool of books in the database. This project is owned by Thoughtplay, a creative agency based in the UK, and was programmed by 3aims.
posted at 9:29 AM
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They make such a cute couple
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I know everyone has heard of Craig's list. I actually like it better than ebay-it's quicker to post, quicker to sell and there is usually no shipping involved. I recently sold my new iPod nano (too small and sound was less than perfect), iPod 2nd generation, Fuji 6 x 9 camera, Airport wireless card and my kids (joke).
There is a cool new utility that adds a genius mix to it all-the cross pollination of two of the best resources available on the internet-- Google's new mapping service, and the classified listings page, Craigslist. This utility lets you surf both at once-- you can select city, price range, and drag along a map while seeing icons representing apartments for rent or sale. It shows you which listings have pictures, and which don't--and even gives little thumbnails of the property. Now if you're not like my friend Jonathan who walks around neighborhoods in Portland to find houseing, you'll really need this! Make sure to use Firefox if you're on a Mac, Safari has quirks.
posted at 9:05 AM
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10 Business Colloquialisms
| 10.07.2005
1. Boil the Ocean - "Lets try not to boil the ocean in this meeting." MEANS: Lets stop spinning our fucking wheels here 2. Wheels Up - "We're wheels up at 1:30." MEANS: Lets get the hell out of here no later than 1:30 3. Hard Out - "Lets make this quick. I have a hard out at 1:00." MEANS: If you say it too fast, it's going to come out wrong 4. Knee Jerk - "My knee jerk reaction is that it makes sense." MEANS: I have no idea what I'm about to say but I'm going to show you how brave I am by going first 5. To Be Perfectly Honest - "To be perfectly honest, I think your idea is the best." MEANS: They're really lying through their teeth 6. My Bad - "Sorry. My bad." MEANS: I screwed up royally 7. Net Net - "So net-net, we have a deal?" MEANS: Let me cut to the chase so you'll shut up 8. Stake in the Ground - "Lets put a stake in the ground and set the deadline for next week." MEANS: Let me try and bind you to a deadline that you'll never meet 9. I Hear What You're Saying - "I hear what you're saying but I'm not sure it will work." MEANS: They think you're an idiot and you're lucky they're still listening 10. No Worries - "Hey dude. No worries." MEANS: You should worry
posted at 3:02 PM
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Wicki. Resistance is Futile...
| 10.05.2005

Social Computing is a term that you're going to hear more of-soon! Our primary experiences with the web, up until recently, has been a "push" experience. That is, there are web sites and we visit them. The content for the most part is static and we're driven to these sites either my marketing, interest or both. Recently, blogs have become a popular way for anyone (literally) to publish their own content and be "heard." One great differentiator of blogs is that you can leave comments, which makes the experience a little more dynamic, interactive, organic and community-centric. There are a number of popular Blog packages out there. Movable Type is Perl-based and is very flexible in what it can do but it requires an engineering degree to understand. Blogger is a more "canned" blogging package (it's the one I use) but it has limitations in customizability and scalability. A younger and more exciting form of social computing is called a Wiki. A Wiki is a simple piece of server sided code that lets people create and edit content using a standard web browser. It's so simple but it makes the possibilities mind boggling-A social computing experience that allows the publishers of contributions to be edited in addition to the content itself. The only analogy I can think of is the process of how the Borg from Star Trek communicate. It's thoughts in progress and a place where people can share and contribute ideas on the fly making the medium ever-changing. Right now, it's still in "geek" form but it's just a matter of time before it makes its way into marketing applications.
I'll be speaking about Wikis at the upcoming Museums and the Web show in February, (hopefully) but if you want to learn more, there is a MITX event being held tomorrow in downtown Boston.
posted at 5:30 PM
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Blogging, Podcasting and the Museum
| 10.03.2005

Well, it looks like once again, I'll have the privledge of attending this year's Museums and the Web conference in Albuquerque with the rest of the team. The 2006 conference will be featuring a variety of sessions exploring all aspects of the creation, development, maintenance and evaluation of Web sites in museums, cultural and heritage organizations. New Tilt is probably the 10th biggest player in in the country that's designing and critically thinking about the web within the museum space.
One of the reasons this year is special is because New Tilt has asked me to submit an abstract on new and innovative ways to attract users (especially young ones) using technologies such as Podcasting and Blogging (something I know a little about). If approved, I'll be conducting a workshop on this while in Albuquerque along with checking out all the other great players that will be attending.
I don't want to reveal the abstract just yet to avoid upsetting the spirits, but I could really use everyone's ideas about Podcasting and Blogging and how they may or may not be innovative ways in helping "extend" the reach of the museum to new audiences as well as provided a different dimension in viewing art work. Please send comments!
Special thanks to Jeanne for cracking the whip!
posted at 8:33 AM
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Font Management iTunes Style
| 10.02.2005

Linotype has announced FontExplorer™ X, a full-featured font manager for OS X that will go head-to-head with current front-runners Suitcase and FontAgent Pro. FontExplorer X will preview, organize, and auto-activate fonts, but its most alluring feature might be its iTunes-like interface. This is genius. Managing fonts isn’t all that different than managing music, so why not copy the UI of the most popular music app in the world? Users will also be able to purchase fonts from Linotype and other vendors from the Linotype Font Store within the app — in a manner very similar to the iTunes Music Store.
Noticeably absent from the feature list is font repair, which Linotype claims would violate most license agreements. Well, that’s just silly. Also missing is auto-activation for Photoshop and Illustrator.
You can download a beta now, but Linotype warns that you should not install it on a production system. So check it out!
Special thanks to Typographica
posted at 7:10 PM
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Forrester Research Conference
| 10.01.2005

Most people have heard of Forrester Research but in case you weren't sure exactly what they do, I've included the following: An independent technology and market research company that provides pragmatic and forward-thinking advice about technology's impact on business and consumers. So I was lucky enough to get my hands on an extra pass (valued at $2,100) to this past weeks conference down in NYC - Innovating in a Consumer-Driven World
How it basically works is that they have a ballroom and other smaller rooms on the same floor. In the ballroom are held the keynote sessions which are highly produced-sort of like being on the set of Good Morning America along with giant overhead screens. A Forrester moderator will give the intro about a particular topic and then call upon a couple of experts to come up and dive in further a la Larry King style. The smaller rooms are for "break-out" sessions-basically smaller presentations and more specific topics.
I must say that I was jazzed about being at my first Forrester event in many years and the first of this kind. It was stimulating to be around industry experts discussing relevant topics and issues, taking questions and giving insight into where industry, consumers and technology is heading. Is that enough for the top half of the sandwich?
So the format, agenda and forum were all great. What I was most surprised at was the types of things that the "industry experts" consider innovative. The VP of Interactive marketing at Cody (makers of Lovely, the new Sarah Jessica Parker perfume) was stating that content and product are no longer of value to consumers. "Both price and product are pretty much commoditized at this point (everyone has the same product and selling at the same price)." "The real key to interactive marketing was to create compelling experiences which will engage consumers and building a very personal relationship." I agree completely but the "innovative" piece that he showed, a Flash-based marketing piece, does not feel very targeted, intimate or compelling. Actually, they would have lost me before the download, which was only a few seconds. Coupled with this piece, people who opt in, might get a scented letter or other promotion in the mail that is suppose to evoke the same personal experiencebut in an offline medium. The opted in consumer is suppose to think that Sarah is sending these letters to them. When asked by the moderator if Cody actually thought that this audience believed they were getting something from Sarah, he just reiterated that it's suppose to mimic a very personal experience. After he was almost laughed off the stage, he confessed that they have a team of men and women who scent, sign and seal these promotional pieces everyday before they go out in the mail. My mother would love this perfume.
Maybe it's me, (it usually is) but this effort does feel like it's suppose to be personal, but because it's lacking anything remotely innovative, it feels more like a plea letter you might get in your locker at high school from a boyfriend you just broke up with, begging you to go back out with him. To me, a more personalized piece would to have had Sarah call you and thank you for buying her perfume. Now don't jump all over me. I know that's slightly unreasonable but that's what they should be striving for, not a Flash-based flip book or a mass produced letter that was scented by an army of marketeers. With all this said, I would go again (with a free ticket) because it was a very stimulating experience. I'd actually love to be more inolved-maybe a guest speaker on a panel or something. Just because the Cody guy wasn't my cup of tea doesn't mean that there isn't a great synergy and forum to get the creative juices flowing. Thank you Forrester!
On a closing note, the phone call idea is not that far off. This week, according to Pitchfork Media, if you dontate $100 to Katrina via the Brian Wilson web site, Brian himself will personally call you and answer a question of just say thanks. Also, check out the most incredible "experience" Flash-based marketing piece for Volvo. Just be sure not to spend all day watching it.
posted at 9:05 AM
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