826 Valencia is a non-profit, writing-focused tutoring center. Boring stuff really. Tutoring do-gooders. Talk about a snooze-athon. Unless, that is, you’re walking down the street and happen upon their store front, which is an actual, honest-to-goodness pirate store. San Francisco-based Office (which is apparently their name, and not a grammar mistake on my part) recently did some branding work for 826 and it’s basically amazing.
See more via Brand New.
This is what happens when you are a huge dork and your iPod dies:
Life does not happen according to plan, and too often, loved ones are taken from us before their time. On October 7th, at approximately 11:15AM at the Genius Bar in the Apple Store in the South Park Mall, MyPod-loving friend, music player and soul-mate was pronounced dead. Through MyPod had been sick for sometime, its death came as a shock to those who knew it best. Says Katie Fisher, owner of the iPod, “I knew it was inevitable, I just thought it would hold out for at least another year. I’m just numb. This is not the way I expected things to end.”
The love affair between Fisher and MyPod began on Christmas morning in December of 2005. It was a meeting that would mark the end of an era fraught with tedious plane rides and boring workouts. “I remember the joy I felt,” said Fisher “it was everything I was looking for, and yet it introduced me to a new world I had no idea existed.” Fisher spent that morning loading MyPod and creating playlists that would last until MyPod’s tragic demise. In the years that followed, Fisher brought MyPod everywhere: on airplanes, to work, to the park, to Starbucks and to the auto repair place. Able to drown out the passing world and provide an endless soundtrack of lovingly chosen songs, MyPod was always the perfect companion.
Now, Fisher says, there are only cruel reminders. “The case I made, the table for the charger, the tattered headphones…there’s just a void now.” In this period of sadness Fisher is comforted by the belief that her iPod is in a better place. “I gave it to the Apple recycling program, so hopefully MyPod will play on and give up its parts so that others might live.”
MyPod is survived by its owner Katie Fisher, a digital camera, cell phone, computer and dvr. For the living, moving on is inevitable and a necessity. Fisher has welcomed, albeit with a heavy heart, a new iPod into the technological fold with an 80G player that she hopes will live much longer than its predecessor. “I bought the Apple Care plan, so as long as I don’t drop it into the toilet, I hope it’ll be ok.” In lieu of flowers, Fisher asks that people spend a few moments of reflection to think about how their iPod has changed their lives.
Lo, these many years ago, there was some grumbling about the half cent sales tax that was being levied to pay for Charlotte’s light rail. Much drama ensued and there was a ballot measure in place to strike it down. Well, we weren’t about to let our dreams of being the coolest hipsters on public transportation die. Being the lazy activists we were, my team and I created some election-themed posters to show our support using our favorite modus operandi: sarcasm. Of course, we never actually got around to printing them out or putting them around town. But that’s neither here nor there.
Imaginary Vote Against Repeal poster
The complete line of imaginary Vote Against Repeal posters
Inspiration comes from many places. Like baked goods, for instance, and their exciting adventures. This delightful stop-motion movie is SFW, but does contain some brief cupcake nudity. It’s also nine minutes long, and worth every second. You have been warned.
Picture it: October 2007. A young copywriter and her compatriots slave over a massive project on a short deadline. They sleep very little and eat a whole lot of junk food. At long last the project is complete and then, the sad reality hits. There’s yet another deadline and it just happens to be tomorrow. It’s all good though, they’ve got a secret weapon. Words. All-type campaign to the rescue!
During a recent trip deep into the vault of projects passed I stumbled upon this oldie but goodie for The Silos, a mixed-use condo development in South End. Perhaps it was the sleep deprivation or the sugar overload, but somehow I had forgotten it even existed. Not bad for a zombie.
Behold: A small, shiny oasis in the otherwise desolate desert that is Hulu.com’s Web advertisements. Seriously, these spots have magical powers. Not only did I actually watch them, I spent quality time tracking them down on the interwebs. A fine product from Goodby, Silverstein and Partners in San Francisco with excellent musical accompaniment.
Check out The Inspiration Room for more…um, inspiration, and for info about who did the music.
First things first. Credit where credit is due, and lots of it! Many thanks and big ups (as the Brits say) to 1310 Studios for creating my Web site and blog with limited instructions (“Make it cool”). The illustrious 1310 Studios is Jon and Sam Aron, two amazingly talented graphic designers whose work is equaled in quality only by the chicken cilantro noodle dish they often bring to dinner parties. Unfortunately, you cannot eat their graphic designs. I hear they’re working on that. In any event, check ‘em out. They do all kinds of branding, identity design, interactive design, Web development, advertising and marketing collateral, and are what the young kids like to call “awesome” or “the bomb diggity.”
