Twitter's "Golden Ratio"

Twitter's new homepage design creates a Golden Ratio. This is really cool. If you click the link from the Alltop page to Answers.com, you can read an explanation of what the Golden Ratio is and why it is considered an aesthetic ideal in art, architecture and even nature (like a nautilus).

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Blog, PostsMichael
Nine Dots to Design Thinking

Last week I was introduced to a simple mind-game that involves nine dots arranged on a grid-like layout. The goal is to connect all nine dots using only four connected lines. The game demonstrate how our habituation to prior ways of being too often obscures us from approaching problems with a fresh perspective. There is an analogy to design thinking.

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A Decade of Innovation in Product Packaging

Brand packaging plays a very crucial role in influencing consumer preference for products, which, of course, drives sales. In an article entitled “Decade of Design”, BrandPackaging.com examines the 10 product packages that made the biggest consumer impact over the past decade.

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Blog, PostsMichael
"Think sweet": Shana tova!

As a Rosh Hashanah e-card sent to family & friends this week, I created a spoof of the very famous Volkswagen "Thin small" ad by Doyle Dane Bernbach (DDB) from 1962. Widely considered to be the most influential ad campaign of the 20th century, "Think small" forever changed the advertising industry.

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Blog, PostsMichael
Exhibition of L.A. Billboards-as-Art

Billboards-as-Art at the MAK Center for Art and Architecture at the Schindler House: "Commercial messaging tells you to buy; artistic messaging encourages you to look and to think." Billboards have played such a significant role in the history & culture of LA. It seems fitting to look upon them, finally, as Art over Ad.

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Blog, PostsMichael
The Beauty of Data Visualization

Journalist, author and data visualization specialist David McCandless recently gave a fantastic TED Talk about the beauty of data visualizations. His conclusion: "Design is about solving problems and providing elegant solutions."

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Blog, PostsMichael
Simplexity

Siegel+Gale has a great post about simple complexity, known as "simplexity". The post argues that the need to simplify user interfaces takes on added importance in an age when technology is rapidly subsuming our lives with its complexity. They profile 4 organizations (Google, Apple, MIT and Microsoft) that have mastered the art of making exceedingly complex products and interfaces really, really simple and usable.

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Blog, PostsMichael
Old Spice Goes to Town with New Media

Procter & Gamble's social media brand campaign for "Old Spice" has gone powerfully viral. Their message: "Smell good. It's not unmanly." Among other things, this campaign is challenging the notion that shower gel and body wash are "unmanly" to men. So far they have posted 185 videos directly based upon fan interaction ...on Twitter & Facebook.

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Blog, PostsMichael