We Are Happy To Serve You

April 30th, 2010  |  Janice Carter

Today, Leslie Buck, designer of the iconic coffee cup dies at 87. If you were in New York, particularly before the advent of a certain coffee establishment with a green logo, his cup will likely look familiar to you. Even if you haven’t been to NY, you’ve likely spotted the java holder in “Law & Order”, “Sex & the City” and other NY-based TV shows and movies.

Buck, a refugee from then Czechoslovakia, introduced the cup in the 1960s. The graphics have since been slapped on t-shirts, mugs and tourist memorabilia. If imitation is a form of flattery, Buck should certainly be flattered.

Now, does this mean that the cup is well-designed? I don’t think the answer matters. I think the point is that the cup has become part of pop-culture. How many designers can say they’re leaving a legacy? The next time you’re in New York, grab a coffee in one of the old diners and remember Buck. He was happy to serve you.

Feeling a little blue?

April 23rd, 2010  |  Peter Scott

The rapid expansion of Walmart and Sam’s Club since the early 60’s has been a phenomenon. This compelling time-based info-map by Flowing Data helps explain (or perhaps mirrors?) the ongoing decline of small towns everywhere as the country gets subsumed by the big box/power centre invasion. Notice how growth starts slowly at first, and then accelerates greatly as more stores are added. Truly virus-like.

What is Apple?

April 14th, 2010  |  Karen Henricks

Smart grid tech gets a boost from Apple

January 22nd, 2010  |  Darrell Corriveau

Apple has recently moved to grab a piece of the burgeoning home energy management market – an integral part of the smart grid. According to Patently Apple, the company is working on a system using HomePlug certified adapter technology – a technology that will transform “every power outlet in your home or office into a conduit for audio, video and data,” as well as giving a boost to wireless signals. More importantly, this technology will also make it possible to control most of the electronic activity in your house with one central interface – something Apple is calling the Smart Home Energy Management Dashboard System. It could be a logical ’killer app’ for the much anticipated multi-touch Apple tablet (iSlate?) due out soon. This system, and others like it, is intended to help reduce demand and contribute to the reliability of the electricity grid.

We’ve been hearing the promise of a smart grid for some time, but so far this powerful idea has not captured the attention of the masses. Perhaps a popular consumer brand like Apple entering the market will make the smart grid concept hit home for many more people.

Why buy the cow when you can get the milk for free?

September 9th, 2009  |  Peter Scott

Speculative work (doing work for free in hopes of landing a job) and the design profession have met once again, this time with a fancy new name called “crowdsourcing” (seemingly coined by Wired Mag and now a Wikipedia entry). U.S. ad firm, Crispin, Porter + Bogusky crowdsoursed a logo for their client Brammo, a manufacturer of electric ‘powercycles’. Posting the job on crowdsourcing Web site crowdSpring they offered $1,000 to the winning logo design and received a huge number of entries from which to choose. A variety of blogs have taken up the discussion on the pros and cons of this new way to reach out to the masses for creative ideas. It is an age old dilemma and still seems to divide those of us who believe that to do the best strategic work for a client, you need thorough and thoughtful analysis and the group that believes more is better (and cheaper).

Tracking Ontario’s Wind Output

August 31st, 2009  |  Darrell Corriveau

Ontario is at the forefront of wind power generation in Canada with almost 1,100 MW of installed capacity on the transmission grid. This little widget q30 designed and built for the IESO tracks the collective electricity generated by Ontario wind farms on an hourly basis. Learn more about wind power in Ontario and also spread the word by posting the widget to your blog or Web site by visiting the IESO page on wind power.

Competition is good

June 16th, 2009  |  Justin Hope

For those of us who like to draw a line in the sand between such companies as Microsoft and Google, here is something to keep in mind: competition is good. Since Microsoft released its new search engine Bing, there has been a deluge of reviews. Most say that even though Bing is not a breakthrough in terms of technology, it is a solid product with value of its own. And that fact has Google’s attention.

I decided to try two simple searches on each to compare what I found. I searched for “Google” on Bing, and then “Bing” on Google. The results are slightly different in tone. Whereas Bing brought up news about google as the first result, Google brought up the Bing home page. The Bing result was a little more personal by showing me what news about Google is available via some quick links, followed by short descriptions of news items. The Google result just gave the nitty gritty.

Both search engines are good choices. What I find important is that competition has potentially put a small fire under Google to start adding further improvements to its own product, perhaps even further than it may have if Bing never existed.

The Power Plant revisited

April 20th, 2009  |  Darrell Corriveau

While on holiday, I found myself standing in front of The Power Plant and realized that it had been years since I visited this gallery. I walked in not knowing anything about the current exhibit and was immediately reminded of the exceptional work that this gallery continues to bring to the public. 

The current exhibits are Lawrence Weiner’s The Other Side of a Cul-De-Sac and Carey Young’s Counter Offer. These are shows well worth the price of admission, especially Young’s. 

Carey Young, through humour and wit, investigates the language of the corporate and legal world. The works are multi-disciplinary and audience participation is required for some of the pieces.

YouTube and the Domino’s effect

April 17th, 2009  |  Darrell Corriveau

A recent report in the NY Times presents an interesting dilemma for organizations and the management of their brands.

A “prank” video from two Domino’s Pizza employees shows them preparing delivery orders in various unsavoury ways. Despite the fact this is a really bad way to gain your 15 minutes of fame, the video received more than a million hits and the result is major damage to an otherwise strong and well-regarded brand. The article notes “References to the video were in five of the 12 results on the first page of Google search for Domino’s, and discussions about Domino’s had spread throughout Twitter”. Despite the two offenders being charged and admitting it was a fake, the Domino’s name was tarnished in record time. The brand will presumably rebound, but the adage that “no publicity is bad publicity” might need to be rethought.

Terrific tackiness

April 17th, 2009  |  Darrell Corriveau

The contents of Michael Jackson’s Neverland Valley Ranch were recently gathered for auction. Julien’s Auctions House calls the Collection “an array of treasures”. But that doesn’t begin to describe the terrific tackiness of Michael’s art. WOW.