Online crowd-sourcing has unraveled the molecular structure from an enzyme in an AIDS-like virus found in Rhesus monkeys.
Pretty fascinating stuff, really. The possibilities for this are amazing, using the world wide web as a sort of collective conscious to solve difficult problems. I knew there was something more than online games, celebrity gossip, and porn on the internet.
Look at the business cards Lego employees get to hand out
As most of us are just big kids at heart, I can’t imagine too many people getting rid of this “card”. Instead, I imagine most of us would keep it on our desk, maybe even bringing in a few other Legos to supplement the fun.
Lego must be a great company to work for….
Read the full article here.
Posted in advertising, branding, creativity, jobs
Tagged advertising, branding, fun, toys
Screwing around on StumbleUpon today, I came across this site.
An interactive site detailing the bio of German super DJ Tomekk and his record label F-Records, this site leads you through an interwoven story about Tomekk’s career, and the growth of the label.
I spent a good 30 minutes just playing around with this site, primarily because of the infectious beats and the presence of KRS-One. If you like hip hop and/or interactive marketing, I highly suggest you check it out.
Posted in creativity, marketing, Media, music, Web sites
Tagged interactive media, Internet, marketing, music, music industry, Web site
Scene: Chaotic flash of events, a baby crying, bills stacked high on a table, man pulling his hair out in exasperation, a couple arguing violently, image of bad fast food job, teen reading pregnancy test
(Cut to bedroom scene where two young people are getting kissing passionately)
Boy: Hold on (runs to bathroom, pulls out box from under sink)
(Black screen simply reads “Trojan”)
Last night I was taking my dog for a walk around the park by our house. I had my mp3 player on shuffle and was enjoying a broad range of songs, from hip hop to indie rock to oldies. As I was enjoying the weather, my player skipped to Miles Davis’s “Someday My Prince Will Come”. This is it…
This piece got me thinking about “Splice” a recent movie I had seen. During the movie, the main characters, a pair of scientists, were faced with a difficult problem, and couldn’t seem to find a way to overcome it. At one point Adrian Brody (one of the main characters) decides that their choice of music is the problem and replaces a heavy metal track with jazz, a more free-flowing and loose-knit form of music.
And as I was pondering the effects of particular music styles on brain waves, I started thinking about the creative process, how it works and what makes someone creative. While I don’t pretend to be one of the countless psuedo-experts on the subject you’ll find on the Web, I know how I operate.
And what works for me is this: practice. I always liken creativity to playing an instrument. Everyone has the potential to play, and while some are naturally more gifted than others, with enough practice, virtually anyone can become proficient. I find that to unleash the greatest creativity, I simply need to tap into the creative part of my brain on a regular basis, whether it be writing, music, or a visual art (though to be honest, I’m only adept at writing).
To me, creativity is simply taking your experiences and what you know, and approaching them from a new angle. For example, Van Gogh, my favorite painter (cliche, I know), wasn’t so creative because of his subject matter. He wasn’t painting Dali-esque melting clocks, but rather it was the way he approached his artwork. His brush strokes, his treatment of colors, that’s what made him the legendary artist he was. It was the fact that he was willing to turn the world he knew on its ear (perhaps due to his own mental illness), that allowed him to create such iconic pieces.
As a writer, to be successful, it seems you must follow this example, seeking new and innovative ways to tell stories that are probably very similar to others that have been told before. To me, this is the essence of creativity.
With that said, I’ve often encountered “writers” who struggle with writer’s block. I’ve never really had this problem. To me, the biggest block to my writing is finding the right way to say things, I’ve never struggled with a lack of ideas. Instead, I’ve struggled with too many ideas, wanting to say to much and getting distracted, taking my projects too far off base by following tangents.
And while these tangents may at times be distracting, even harmful to your project’s overall vision, it’s by following them, that you truly unleash your inner artist.
But that’s just my thoughts, I am by no means an expert on the matter, I just know how my own brain works.
You should check out Ana Somnia, the story of a girl’s dreams told through drawings and music. It’s super captivating and one of the most creative things I’ve seen in a while.
This site is the work of Rostlaub, which apparently is a group of German creatives (check out their other work here).
(Yes, friends, I’ve decided that now is as good a time as any to resume blogging after a long, and perhaps unnecessary hiatus.)
So recently my wife’s cousin came to visit us from Ukraine. Though she’s an accomplished world traveler, with more stamps on her passport than anyone I know, this was her first trip to the US. So far it seems she’s liking it (let’s be honest, life is easy here), but in a conversation over ridiculously large American portions, she raised an interesting point, one I’d never thought about before: You see, in Ukraine, the laws of advertising are much stricter than they are here in the States, and one thing that shocked her was how one company’s advertisements were allowed to mention a competitor.
In Ukraine comparison advertising is strictly forbidden. According to a 2004 law (remember Ukraine is a fairly young country, only achieving real independence in the collapse of the Soviet Union in the early 90s), companies are not allowed to “Imitate or copy text, image, musical or sound effects, which are used in advertisements of other goods, if otherwise provided by Ukrainian intellectual property laws. (source)” This also applies to trademarks, names, slogans, etc.
So what’s my point? My point is that this whole thing got me thinking about how different the advertising landscape would be if we had a law like this, and by proxy, how different cultures have different values when it comes to this sort of thing (genius insight, right?)
Comparison ads are old hat to us. We’re used to Burger King comparing the Whopper to the Big Mac, or Chevy telling us how much better their trucks are than Ford or Toyota, Tylenol vs Advil, etc. In fact, some products have made their entire brand on this concept (“Choosy moms choose Jiff”, Taco Bell’s “Think outside the bun campaign”, etc). It’s actually a pretty common and effective means of getting your point across.
Can you imagine our world without these type of ads?
No comment from me on the ethics of this type of advertising or their accuracy, I just find it interesting to consider how Apple would be selling their computers without highlighting their advantages over PCs. Just something to tickle your imagination…
Posted in advertising, branding, creativity, marketing
Tagged ad campaign, advertising, branding, marketing
Billboards and Cave Drawings 