fool proof.

via jessica hische. (not-so-secretly would love to have her talents.)

"So culture might feel like a soft idea, but it's the stuff that formulates how you get things done. Thus it's a key driver of results and its importance should never be underestimated."
- BusinessWeek on Apple's Startup Culture

“I really believe that the lens of your friends is fast becoming the most powerful way to discover things on the Internet.” 
- NYT

"[The] new saying is: 'An idea that doesn't generate more content isn't a very good idea.'" 
-Edward Boches, CCO and chief social media officer at Mullen

in 'x' number of years...

On a lovely Sunday afternoon shopping rendezvous, I mentioned to my friend Josie that if I ever started my own business I would call it 'Ampersand.' I love the idea of having a brand that stand for infinite possibilities. She shared with me her desire to open her own shop one day. And the following series of connections unraveled...

The ever-informative Wikipedia filled me in on my favorite word and symbol:

An ampersand (&) is a logogram representing the conjunction 'and.' The symbol is a ligature of the letters in et, Latin for 'and.'

And that's just the beginning of it. I'm a history junkie, so the origination of this twisty wonder in the first century A.D. is an intriguing quality.

As such a recognizable symbol, there are endless possibilities for design innovation. Designers often get bored with their own identity (visual identity - not themselves) so the convenience to morph a standard form any way you want is great. My mom is celebrating her graphic design company's (Ruzow Graphics) 25th year in business and it's been so entertaining to see her refresh her logo based on a season or holiday – whatever moves her. Note to mom: you should archive these on your website like Google does with their logos. Bottom line: the ease of refreshing a business's logo while maintaining it's core identity is incredible. Hence, the attractiveness of Ampersand as a company name.

The idea of creating your own brand to establish and grow is incredibly exciting. Having seen the growth of Ruzow Graphics, I've seen the perks of creating on your own terms. Anything that pops into my head could be considered 'on-brand' because it would be my brand! Ah, to dream...

Josie and I discussed this as we browsed Crate & Barrel for the umpteenth time, admiring the endless colors and cool way everything is set up in the store (which Josie informed me is called merchandising design). This led to the idea of how perfect a name Ampersand is for a home decor store. Think about the mental to-do lists of things you want to do in/to your home. 'I want to re-do the bathroom and decorate my bedroom and  revamp the kitchen table.' See the trend? And, and, ampersand. 

So in 'x' number of years, Josie hopes to open her own store. I hope to have a business called Ampersand. Maybe we'll merge these ambitions with a store named Ampersand! Something to ponder about the future. 

decorative arm art.

Shantell Martin was one of the more captivating and engaging speakers at the PSFK 2010 Conference yesterday (more to come on that). Shantell 'creates delicate, intricate, other-worldly landscapes' and 'expands conventional definitions of drawing.' The global attraction to her work is incredible, having shared her art in her native England, Japan, US and more. After her chat about 'Rediscovering the Creative Seed' she demonstrated her approach of just creating what your body feels by drawing on conference-goers in the lunch room. Clearly I had to get in on the action and spread a little Gawker Artists hype at the same time. Enjoy the final masterpiece below and check out Shantell's work (@shantell_martin).

daily drop cap meets cake.

Jessica Hische's Daily Drop Cap is already addicting enough. Now she has a cake for links service?! This girl is smart. And talented. I kind of want to get this S framed for my wall – it matches my room so well!

love affair with cb2.

First of all, love their navigation. It's so on-brand without being confusing. Some websites over do it with the insidery lingo resulting in pure WTFness. CB2 accomplishes clever simplicity with their lifestyle-themed navigation headers.

Second... such innovative design. Check out this eye-catching lime green table. Functionality is an art form. CB2 has mastered it. I've been looking for a small, collapsable table to eat dinner on since my apartment is too small to have a dining room table. The ones at Bed Bath and Beyond were way too boring. I know TV-dinner-table isn't this product's intended purpose, but I think it'll do the trick!

it has to be said.

Excited for this season to start. Hopefully I'll go to a game (or two!) with my dad.

Dontchya know, Robinson Cano.

GO YANKEES!

typographic sex appeal.

My friend, Sam (TOS - not me!) and I watched the Science of Sex Appeal on the Discovery Channel this weekend and inevitably, a dorky question about font choice popped into my head. I know, bizarre that 'font' and 'sex appeal' should occupy the same thought... Anyway!

There was a segment of the show focusing on how men and women react to different voices. Two women could say the same exact sentence, but the unique tone and rhythm of one woman's voice could attract a man more than the other.

Sometimes I think font- and typography-obsessed culture could form a whole different species based on the physical reactions people have to fonts. Far-fetched, yes. Illogical? I don't think so. Weird and probably shouldn't be shared with the public? Definitely. Whatever. Maybe a woman can have a stronger attraction to one man over another based on their typographic representation of a word. Fonts do have personalities! And maybe font choice is a facet of sex appeal for some people.

I don't think I'm that bad, though. I can safely say I've been attracted to people who think it's ok to use Comic Sans and Papyrus for... anything.

With that dose of weirdness, I leave you with the a font lover favorite from College Humor:

See more funny videos and funny pictures at CollegeHumor.

disclosure (r)evolution.

I recently started looking into the developing regulations for sponsored social media and the blogosphere. FCC and FTC regulations have always been a societal point of contention, but creating disclosure rules must have been more clear cut in the post-computer world when publishing a message to the masses was a privilege of access, money and/or skill. Access to journalists and reporters; money to pay for coverage, ad space, etc.; skill to convey the message effectively and eloquently. Then the blogosphere exploded, diminishing the degree to which the aforementioned access, money and skill were needed to reach a sizable group of eyes. Access comes with a computer or smartphone and an Internet hookup; money doesn't need to be a factor if your writing isn't directly tied to your income; skill is debatable, but certainly not required for publishing.

Guidelines and rules seem to be developing too slowly for the influx of voices present on the Internet. Bloggers are required to clearly inform their readers of a paid message, but does that apply to John Doe with one follower – his mom? How many readers, followers, etc. does a person need to be held accountable by the FTC and FCC for disclosing if a message has been paid for? The girl who Conan O'Brien decided to follow saw her influential reach exponentially expand to 17k+ people with the blink of an eye. Does this formerly private citizen with no press credibility or industry clout need to say if Apple paid her to tweet about how great her new MacBook Pro is? Maybe it comes down to whether someone is a public figure or a private person.

Then there's the issue of private versus professional online identities of the journalists who did, or could have, written in the pre-computer era. Magazine, newspaper and broadcast journalists have developed their own online personas not tied to their employers – with sometimes unduplicated followers. If a NYT writer is approached as a private citizen to tweet on their private account about an upcoming event or product launch in exchange for some form of payment, will they be held liable if the paid nature of their message isn't disclosed.

Oy, that was a whole lot of rambling. Questions and scenarios are still mentally racking up, but at this point I think the most interesting approach would be to observe how disclosure surfaces naturally, before regulations are solidified. ReadWriteWeb recently reported a FTC supported WOMMA regulation that sponsored tweets have to include #spon #paid or #samp depending on the nature of the message. I haven't really seen this yet, but the presumably clear cut indications are already being dubbed unfit for clarity.

I'm sure the answers to my questions are somewhere on the interweb of knowledge already. Why? Because someone had access – even though their skill might be questionable. I would love to retake my Communications Law class after nearly a year working for an online publisher and seeing these questions come up in the real world.

taking identity to a whole new level.

As usual, WLT serves up another thought-provoking typographic piece. I decided to follow the digital breadcrumbs out to Type for you onto the designer's portfolio, I AM LOWMAN.

Initially the image conjured a frequently expressed design belief of mine: font choice is paramount in the identification of a brand, no matter what derivative of a noun (person/place/thing) it applies to.

The design has a unique explanatory blurb delving into her motive for this particular creation. A compelling excerpt:

"The result of showing your identity is that you are showing a certain type of honesty and humanness in this age of impersonal systems and technologies. I think that with the developing of computer technologies and design automation the only real unique selling point a designer will have in the future is his or her vision/design philosophy and identity."

The challenge? Not succumbing to the ease of the search engine, stock illustration and photo sites. Taking inspirational cues from past creativity successes in age-old publications like Communication Arts and expanding digital archives like Adoftheworld.com – without becoming a copycat.

google, google, everywhere.

"Basically, in the Information Economy, Google pretty much feels entitled to eat just about anyone's lunch."
• AdAge's Simon Dumenco sums up Google's quest to become obese with power.

Have you ever wished you could be in a million places at once to accomplish everything on your lifelong to-do list? Google's mastered this task. Damn. No point in extended commentary on the subject. Dumenco says it all.

Google needs to borrow the Energizer Bunny's tagline. It just keeps on going, and going, and going...

cheeky chiquita!

Chiquita Banana's branding recently got a facelift – ok, it just got a face – from Art Director, DJ Neff. In an interview with design:related, he tells the story of nailing the universal insight for the whole Chiquita campaign: "Further thinking led us to giving bananas personalities and how all bananas start out good but eventually go bad (and for consumers not to let that happen). "Don't Let Another Good Banana Go Bad" was the through line of our campaign and it was incorporated into all of our work."

I diverted from my intended career path (making ads in an ad agency) due to a loss of tolerance for the exhaustive creative process to nail that perfect idea (majored in Creative Advertising; all my friends are at portfolio school to be part of an art director/copywriter team). Neff's fresh perspective reminded me while I love innovative thinking and why advertising strategies fascinate me.

Great read.

I discovered this via Under Construction's Brand New – Opinions on Corporate and Brand Identity Work.

the politics of pitching.

Juxtaposed above are a tweet from JetBlue marketing VP, Marty St. George, and the introduction to an agency pitch-strike in Belgium.

AdAdge reported that St. George employed some #sneaky tactics to test agency awareness and publicize JetBlue's search for a new Agency of Record. Hey Twitter-haters, bet you're bashful now! Bite your tongue the next time you doubt the impact of social media on business. Agencies smart enough to include company execs among their tweet-roll, as opposed to solely corporate Twitter identities, got the inside scoop on the new opportunity to creatively dazzle JetBlue. The whole digitally covert ordeal just goes to show the lengths to which agencies have to stretch their innovations in pitching for new business. 

Meanwhile, Belgian ad agencies simultaneously flicked twenty metaphoric middle fingers at the not-so-innovative pitching process in the land of advertising and waffles. Last week I learned from PSFK that a group of ad agencies went on a digital strike to change the pitching process in Belgium. They stretched a letter across the twenty agency websites explaining their disgust for the disregard of new business competition rules.

Apparently US advertising is exploding with innovation while Belgium wants... more rules?? Too much syrup on those waffles.

no time for tick tock.

"2010 will be the year that social media-fueled technology and behavior is responsible for more content consumption choices than ever before. As the media landscape becomes increasingly fragmented, marketers will need to become more nimble than ever, and start getting on the leading edge of trends, as opposed to waiting for them to emerge."

• Ian Schafer of Deep Focus speaking at the SoDA 2010 Digital Marketing Outlook

There should be a designated 'social media hour' everyday where the world becomes a library-esque arena for uninterrupted concentration on the never ending stream of tweets, diggs, Facebook alerts, etc. How will we all keep up? Although I'm new to the game, I would say that now, more than ever, the lines between work and play are blurred. Social media has to be a life passion – not just a function of your job.

how'd that brand get there?

PSFK explored an Australian-based strategy agency's analysis of brand perception used to gain consumer insights. Storm Brand DNA's Brand Mapping is an alarming reality check about the diverse products and services individuals use on a daily basis just to get through the day.

Backtracking into the actionable past, the copious amount of brands makes you wonder how far a marketing or advertising scheme went to infiltrate your everyday routine without your conscious awareness. Even the most rudimentary functions, like splashing water on your face, put you in contact with a brand. What kind of faucet and countertop hardware are your bathroom sink made of? Where did you buy the bath mat you're standing on? Who are you paying for the water that's refreshing your face?

Yes, an hourly brand map is immensely interesting to dissect a person's identity. What would be even more intriguing is a strategy map behind all the brands that slipped into your routine without you even realizing it.

Take a look at that brand map to the left, again. I would venture to say at least three brands are missing from each hour. What say you?

the epitome of musical emotion.

If only it were all as "easy" as Ross & Rachel... when they weren't on a break. This scene is like sensory comfort food; you love it and feel all gushy but immediately regret watching after your relationship craving kicks in and you run the gamut of human emotion.

Oops. Where'd that come from?

Maybe the title of the blog should just be "etcetera."

obsolete home.

Do you still go to google.com? Google Chrome's uber-intuitive URL turned search bar has made the tech-giant's calming and simplistic landing page a distant memory for me. Even before Chrome's (beta for Mac) debut, Safari's Inquisitor and Firefox's Google search fields let me skip the google.com step.

Luckily my boss still goes to google.com so I caught a glimpse of the Olympic-celebratory art. I tweeted about the Google logos eons ago (in the Twitterverse, anyway) and people seem to love keeping track of history with this creative little blips on the internet's radar.

oompa loompas are pantones, too.

"If I had a child, I would force them to be an Oompa Loompa for Halloween. They would complain about the orange skin make-up. But they would photograph wonderfully."

Some color palettes are impossible to escape. Combinations that resonate with you can have unexpected influences. Fast Company's Sean Adams was bit by the Oompa Loompa retro-tones and infused it into his career color choices. Adams says the colors pumpkin, gold and chocolate colors "shouldn't" coordinate.

I think that's the beauty of taking color cues from pop-culture history. It inspires use of Pantones from the past! It carries the sensory experience of then into the visual now.

Or it's just oompa loompa doopa doopa de do.

never ending.

In any other color, I would say this is a plus sign. The red means Red Cross for me. Relief, aid, helping others, and most recently – Haiti. The plethora of ampersands (a favorite piece of punctuation) in this red cross automatically made me think of the endless to-do lists that will be made over the years to reinvigorate and rebuild Haiti and it's residents.

To be (shamefully) honest, I didn't follow the coverage as much as I would have liked to. I look forward to the positive coverage of progress in the future.

Yet another instance of subtle design elements being paramount to the meaning of an image.

thought-provoking type.

Just how flexible? This is why I love an author's backstory almost as much as their book story. Plot sensibility can be enhanced or terribly distorted. Take F. Scott Fitzgerald.

Image courtesy of welovetypography.com.

Don't you love when fonts make you think?

quality over quantity.

As a person constantly comparing media entities as brands and content aggregators, this comment on Forbes was surprisingly compelling to me.

Metaphor conversion: McDonald's are broadly-focused media outlets and cheeseburgers are their stories.

Plenty of online publishers function as powerhouses to pump out news stories in an almost mechanic way, but a plethora of headlines doesn't necessarily correlate to quality coverage. I've learned to appreciate niche blogs and media outlets for serving up a certain degree of expertise and savvy for specific subjects, resulting in more unique perspectives.

Bottom line: I don't want flimsy cheeseburgers from mechanic media when I can get a Kobe beef burger with the works from a niche news publisher.

Make sense? It does in my head.

revitalized pov.

I initially created Snarkentary to keep up my writing skills post-grad and stay on top of the new media game during my job hunt. After landing a spot on the marketing team at Gawker Media, my focus on all things internet shifted and the purpose of Snarkentary became partially irrelevant.

With a newfound interest in media trends and information aesthetics, and an increased passion for all things verbal and visual, I'm ready to dive back into the blogosphere. I'm still tweeting away, but sometimes 140 characters just doesn't cut it! So my returned to Snarkentary comes with a new approach: an overdose on design & media. Possibly with a dash of details on NYC shenanigans.

Let the overdose begin.