inpholust :: a creative journey ::

The legal copy in Apple's ‘Legal Copy’ ad

2009-04-20T20:56:00.001-07:00

The legal copy in Apple's ‘Legal Copy’ ad

Posted using ShareThis

The legal copy in Apple's ‘Legal Copy’ ad

2009-04-20T20:55:00.001-07:00

The legal copy in Apple's ‘Legal Copy’ ad

Posted using ShareThis

hibernating

2007-10-20T22:58:00.000-07:00

I am hibernating and will be back in 2008.

Switched

2006-12-29T10:00:00.000-08:00

After months of debating of switching to Blogger Beta or not, I took the plunge. They are finally out of "beta" and hopefully it shall be a smoother ride and I shall be back with a customized version.

I did venture out and played around with wordpress,typepad, iWeb and VOX. I like them all and use them for different things but Blogger has become my central blog.

Find Love

2006-12-28T22:38:00.000-08:00

Summer of 2005 I wrote about Steve Job's commencement speech at Stanford and tonight I watched it in its entirety on Youtube. Hope you enjoy it too.

Merry Christmas

2006-12-25T10:17:00.000-08:00

Happy Holidays: Photos on Flickr

web 2.0 Poster

2006-12-17T09:55:00.000-08:00

Via: Vincentabry
and Room 116

Web 2.0 Logos

2006-12-15T09:00:00.000-08:00

Via: Stabilo Boss

interesting

2006-12-01T13:57:00.000-08:00

Mime Artist: Jerome Murat

jerome murat
Uploaded by segalier

Musicovery

2006-11-29T16:58:00.000-08:00

This post was going to about iLike which I have been using for about a month off and on. Its a social networking music service from Garageband. Walt Mossberg gave it a thumbs up last. iLike is free add on for iTunes and you can easliy download free mp3's and share musical tastes with likeminded.

But along came Musicovery via Russell's blog and now I am torn and hooked. Its visually more intriguing than Blogmusik. Musicovery is a webRadio and lets you choose a genre, and a mood within that genre. It then shows you a path of music it plans to take you on, and you can choose to skip ahead or back or make more connections between paths. Pretty fun way to present it. Musicovery does remind me of liveplasma and my other favorite online music player pandora.

Closed for Thanksgiving

2006-11-22T09:00:00.000-08:00

Will be back shortly after the Thanksgiving holidays.

Brainstorm

2006-11-09T15:23:00.000-08:00

A great tool for searching through Flickr images related tag browser for brainstorming ideas, visuals and quickly scanning through Flickr tags.

Via Brand New

Ed Bradley

2006-11-09T11:50:00.000-08:00

“I hired Ed Bradley because he's a member of a minority. He's a great gentleman and a great reporter -- and if that ain't a minority, I don't know one.”

Don Hewitt, introducing Ed Bradley to a racially mixed crowd at an awards ceremony

Via NPR: Bradley was one of the few African-American journalists in such a high-profile position at the time he was hired to work for 60 Minutes. In a speech Hewitt gave to a racially mixed crowd, introducing Ed Bradley for a journalism award, the producer toyed with the crowd's sensitivities about Bradley's race.

Shocked to hear that Ed Bradley of CBS's 60 minutes is no more. A savvy journalist with a distinct talent that gave 60 minutes a voice compelling viewers to tune in every Sunday. He shall be missed.

Smart Car

2006-11-08T15:02:00.000-08:00

Nobody is a fan of instilling fear into automobile or insurance commercials both Volkswagen and Allstate have done so in the past. Yet this Smart commercial from UK resorts to scaring us into buying a car not just for size but an unexpected benefit. Well positioned since "small" is owned by Mini and thus this is a smart move.

Whole Brained

2006-11-06T19:30:00.000-08:00

Russell Davies on building creative generalists.

"If I were preparing myself for my job right now I’d do classes in film editing, poetry, statistics, anthropology, business administration, copyright law, psychology, drama, the history of art, design, coffee appreciation and a thousand other things. Colleges don’t want you doing that, that destroys all their efficiencies, but it’s what they’re going to have to work out."

Problem Solving

2006-10-28T07:00:00.000-07:00

Flipping through the October Creativity magazine (subscription required) I came across James Dyson: Anatomy of a creative brand builder. Not just synonymous with the Dyson brand but also holds true for all creative problem solvers ... you have to have the balls, heart, head and vision in tandem. Click on image for larger view.

"I just want things to work properly"

That's the quote made famous by James Dyson and heard on all the commercials which used to feature the creator.

The prominent daredevil yellow "bagless" Dyson vacuum cleaner evolved 5172 prototypes later. That is a remarkable story of the resilient James Dyson who disdained bags and went to solve the dusty clogged problem. His perseverance and love for design has now made him the 37th riches man in UK with a commanding 38% of the British vacuum cleaner market.

I was asked back in 2004 what I thought of the Dyson ad campaign; me being a design lover acclaimed they were good, the designer's presence reaffirms its a fabulous creation but it appears to be for a niche, affluent audience and not the mass household market who will base their choice over price. Yet, I loved the brand, the story and some day when I have the extra $500 for a vacuum cleaner, I will probably buy it. I recall being at Target during the debut of Dyson but my budget allowed an average Eureka to bring home and settled for walking at the low end of the aisle - nothing fancy just another cleaning product but left lusting for the marigold yellow Dyson.

Today, you can find a Dyson exhibited at museums like, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Grand Central Station, New York (UK in NY Exhibition), Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (A Century of Design Exhibition),Science Museum, London, Victoria and Albert Museum, London, Pompidou Centre, Paris and the Design Museum, Zurich.

Copycat or Borrowed Inspiration

2006-10-27T07:09:00.000-07:00

Saw the following, new XBox 360 commercial on the G4tv network. Iview it as a blatant copy of the iPod coomercial which obviously got me into an argument with a cohort and he remarked that their (Microsoft's)audience doesn't know about it (the iPod 1000 songs commercial).

Okay, fine agreed but its again a case of Microsoft borrowing an idea from another and making it theirs. No wonder the new Apple campaign is a tongue in cheek. As for the two commercials apparently separated at birth, you be the judge which is the copy and which is the inspiration.

Creativity

2006-10-20T10:42:00.000-07:00

Last night I attended a lecture presented by Mark Williams of Mortar on "Emotional branding". He opened with Apple's Think Different television commercial. A perfect example of a brand that instills admiration for a machine not for what it can do but the possibilities it offers.

This 1998 ad campaign from TBWA\Chait Day for Apple symbolized the emotional celebration of creativity. Apple was on a verge of collapse in 1997, this campaign reinstated that the computer is a tool for what you can do. The Apple brand resonated with the like minded and reinforced the faith that it was not a follower.

So remarkable and profound was this statement that unknown to the masses Apple was on the threshold of leading us into a world never dared by another. It is a brand synonymous with innovation, revolution, struggle and strife.

Think Different

Here's to the crazy ones.
The misfits.
The rebels.
The troublemakers.
The round pegs in the square holes.
The ones who see things differently.
They're not fond of rules
And they have no respect for the status quo.
You can praise them, disagree with them, quote them,
disbelieve them, glorify or vilify them.
About the only thing that you can't do is ignore them.
Because they change things.
They invent. They imagine. They heal.
They explore. They create. They inspire.
They push the human race forward.
Maybe they have to be crazy.
How else can you stare at an empty canvas and see a work of art?
Or sit in silence and hear a song that's never been written?
Or gaze at a red planet and see a laboratory on wheels?
We make tools for these kinds of people.
While some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius.
Because the ones who are crazy enough to think that they can
change the world, are the ones who do.

What I learnt at M-Squared

2006-10-12T13:48:00.000-07:00

Last week, I had the opportunity to attend the third, M-squared conference hosted by Influx Insights a division of Butler, Shine Stern & Partners. The speakers were Josh Quittner,editor of Business 2.0, Jim McDowell the VP of BMW/MINI, Michela O'Connor Abrams the president and publisher Dwell, Jennifer Leonard, the co-author of massive Change from IDEO, Chip Conley from Joie de Vivre Hospitality,Jim Riswold, a former Creative Director from Weiden Kennedy and John Battelle of Federated Media.

Josh Quittner: Editor, Business 2.0 emphasized the power of blogs and journalism. We've all seen how GigaOm went from a solo blogger to a funded venture with a team of editorial contributors. He know persuades his team to maintain personal blogs and retrieves feeds for the main B2day blog. In essence he makes sure that the the content (which at times is tweaked) reflects the essence of the brand.

While Jim McDowell, pointed out that getting to know the customer was more important than market research and how Mini built an engaging, emotional and accessible brand.

Michela O'Connor Abrams shared how the idea of Dwell magazine was born and grown in the past 5 years by connecting, resonating with its readers, the design seekers.

Jennifer Leonard, the co-author of Massive Change and works at IDEO spoke about how design is changing the world. I especially enjoyed her presentation as it touched upon the promise and power of design in improving the welfare of humanity. I grew up in one of the worlds poorest nations, India (not the one you think is getting wealthy with outsourcing) and studied at a design institute which ensures its graduates are compassionate and responsible in their methodology utilizing sustainable resources, that too me is design and not what the Western world at time thinks they can purchase at Target.

Chip Conley of Joie De Vivre, explained that its not about selling predictability at his chain of boutique hotels but about creating experiences. He uses magazines to describe every hotel, for example the Phoenix Hotel in San Francisco is in essence the Rolling Stone magazine. He also introduced me to the world of Maslow and Yvette their hotel matchmaker.

Jim Riswold's presentation was funny, emotional, heart breaking, courageous, daring and shall I say he is a brave fine artist. I loved his presentation, no matter what the world thinks.

And lastly, John Battelle of Federated Media talked about permission marketing and how much he disliked those dinosaur ads from Microsoft on Wired.com that he asked his writers to create copy for the banner ads, which fared 60% better than the agency created ones. He also emphasized that employing the customer to build your product by engaging them and allowing them to interact creatively.

XBox needs Bollywood

2006-10-11T22:12:00.000-07:00

Awesome-ly bad commercial for the Xbox. Stereotypes at galore and ofcourse Bollywood comes to the rescue. This is a perfect example of stereotyping and making all ads in India look alike.

I am sure all game buffs in india will be doling out their hard earned Rupees after watching this brilliant piece of work. Clients underestimate and undermine the Indian consumer and presume they will buy anything with a Bollywood face touting their product.

Reminds me of Lost in Translation.

Birth of GooTube

2006-10-08T17:00:00.000-07:00

YouTube built a brand in 18 months by allowing users to share, blog, link, subscribe or create channels on its video networking site making it a clear winner.

People flock here for entertaining originality and of course you can find all that copyrighted stuff. What becomes of Google Video remains to be seen.

The Wall Street Journal has traffic percentages based on market share on other competitor sites. YouTube is undeniably ahead in the game.

InfluxInsights points out succinctly why YouTube and Flickr are successful.

GooTube Image Via: riddle

Sound Advice

2006-10-08T15:58:00.000-07:00

Radio has become an afterthought as I spend most of my time divided between the internet, tv, podcasts and the little devil that changed how I listen to audio now, the iPod. Stumbled upon this on the radio sung by Baz Luhrmann based on the Chicago Tribue columnist, Mary Schmich's article she wrote for a commencement speech. I think its brilliant and a must listen.

Call of the Mall

2006-09-29T13:05:00.000-07:00

Photo Via: Oldividhead

A couple of days ago, San Francisco celebarted the opening of a new million square foot mega mall and the largest Bloomingdales, west of Manhattan. It took ten years to build and is loctaed at the restored Emporium, which was destroyed in the 1906 Earthquake. It boasts a grandiose rotunda and plenty of attrations for shopaholics.

BusinessWeek has compiled the top ten retail wonders of the world.

Lies and focus groups

2006-09-29T11:54:00.000-07:00

Via The New Yorker:
People just want to tell you stuff that they think you want to hear. So are focus groups nothing but an indicator of lies or a psychological fulfillment of the clients needs? Perusing online I stumbed on an interesting article from the Slate here.

While Malcolm Gladwell brilliantly explains this theory at TEDtalks (watch) or listen here:

powered by ODEO

Flicr-itis

2006-09-20T14:18:00.000-07:00

If you are perusing here you know you have Flickr-itis. My friends sent me e-mails and the blogs were abuzz with MOO. Great idea for conversation starters. I missed the free promotion ... oh well maybe Flickr should do something about it for pro members.

Phot via: richardmoross