We Love... by Herraiz Soto & Co.

I used Ommwriter for a bit of brain dumping and soul searching today, which led me to dig deeper to find out who was behind this genius of an application. It turns out to be this design shop in Spain, Herraiz Soto & Co. What struck me most was the wit in their write-up on what they love...

We love Rock&Roll

and its attitude,

because that’s exactly

how brands should

connect with their consumers.

We love turning

consumers into fans.

We love Jim Morrison because

he said "I am the Lizard King,

I can do anything".

We love Camper, IKEA, Carrefour,

BMW and Casio because they

are some of our clients.

We love Ben&Jerry’s

when they’re not empty and

Moleskines when they’re full.

We love Barcelona because

its Barcelona and it’s five minutes

from the rest of the world.

We love good ideas and

draught beer although

one isn’t necessarily

connected to the other.

We love the future because

we can invent it.

We love music because

it says things that words

could never say.

We love the impossible because

it's like the bogeyman,

a lie to make people behave.

We love technology because,

right from the beginning it has

always created the coolest

tools for artists to best

express themselves.

We love ping-pong because

it’s like life itself: there is

no ping without the pong.

We love post-its because

they’re like Twitter, only on paper.

We love the word "beautiful"

because it’s impossible to say it

without getting emotional.

We love energy. The good sort.

The kind that’s created when

someone smiles.

We love badminton, levitation

and all those things that

we haven’t done yet.

We love creativity,

because, in reality,

it’s the only thing

we’d take with us to a

desert island. 

PS: I also liked this background of colored mouse cursors that represents their Accessibility work for La Caixa. 

Evolution, Droplr, and Why White People Are White

This is interesting... I was just listening to this song on NPR this morning (not one I particularly liked), but it was about how Africa was the origin of everything, all people, etc. And then I got to thinking about evolution and blacks, browns, and whites, and why whites are white if we all came from brown. And then I was trying to install Droplr this morning, and decided to see who is behind the amazing app. Anyway, looks like the UI designer/whatever is TinyCrumb, apart from Culture Zoo, and he has a "Sort of a Tumbl" on his website, one post of which is Why Are Europeans White?. What a coincidence. I just Instapapered it. I really love Droplr. I also really like TinyCrumb's style and philosophy. Edit: Apparently, it has something to do with Solar UV and Oceans. And cereal too.

Pictory: Sorry, Mom!

We’re only a family of three, and yet we all live in different countries. I moved to the States when I was sixteen, my father, a pilot, lives in Saudi Arabia half of the time, and my mother holds down the fort in our home in the Phillippines. But on this warm, breezy day we found ourselves floating down a river and enjoying a rare moment of togetherness. As we sat there, drifting in laughter, I gazed at my mother — looking cute in her straw hat, blue outfit, and painted toenails — and I felt sorry. Sorry that I didn’t call her enough, sorry that I burdened her with my moodiness, sorry that I couldn’t make her this happy more often. Mom is moving to the US soon, and I plan to make it up to her.

Here's a website to commemorate Mother's Day. And whaddayaknow, a submission from my own Manila. Click through to the website. As usual, amazing photos.

The Trouble with Flying

I don't know the band Orba Squara, but I came across them somehow this weekend through a nicely made map of their road tour from the eastern to the western tip of the United States. A closer look at their website, the images, and most especially the words, had me realizing that I had found something somewhat magical.

The Trouble with Flying is the name of their album and the site opens with the question "What is the trouble with flying?" which they answer in the literal sense with...

"The trouble with flying is that you miss out on so many little things along the way when you hop on a plane and zoom from one end of the world to the other.

So I could not think of a better way yo explore this idea and to celebrate the release of the new album than to get on a bus and drive cross country!

In our own attempt to "discover" America, we performed songs from the new album and previewed the CD for fans along the way. The Goal was to take the road less travelled to meet, interview and interact with people and learn that "The Trouble With Flying" means to them... and maybe discover a little about ourselves too."

And exploring this idea, they did! The website is designed to let the user travel from point A, to B, to C, and so on, discovering little crumbs of honesty along the way. There's a little piece called "If God had wanted us to fly, he would've given us airplanes." Also, a fog photo montage with the quote "Fog is just a cloud that had to come down for a rest." I still have a long way to go til I get to the end, but so far, so very good.

Edit: Interview with the designer, Jose Cobaco of Random Collective, here.

Thinking for a Living

Another really interesting website/experience! What is it keyboard controlled sites and pale colored backgrounds that draw me!
Thanks to my ghostwriter, Javi, who will hopefully never start his own blog and take away all my goodies! :)

The One Who Got Away

Not only is the content amazing, but so is the website itself -- the interactivity (disappearing smoke) and the navigation (keyboard controlled).

Google Maps: Traffic

I LOVE Google Maps' new surface road traffic info! Every time I think about something that would be "really nice to have", it gets implemented soon after.

Politics

I want to share 2 links with you.
First one is from Javi, which is a heartwarming coming together of both sides (48% republican, 52% democrat)
http://www.zefrank.com/from52to48withlove/
Second one is the website of the new transition (soon to be) government. I think it's really cool that they have this. I actually feel like I can take part.
http://change.gov/

Your Name On Toast

I love work like this. And people who work like this.
You buy your name on toast and your toast will appear on their homepage -- the position depends on how much you "contributed". 100% of proceeds goes to a charity of your choice.
This is an excerpt from the How It Works part of their web page.
I just love their whole attitude and philosophy about it.

Here's why we hope it'll work:
Your Name On Toast is a silly idea.
Silly ideas get talked about a lot. (You can help with this- please digg us or post us on your blog).
Lots of people come to the site.
Lots of people see your name on toast (your actual name...on actual toast)

You get lots of traffic driven to your site.
That's the idea anyway. We hope it all works out.