The Glif

This story has been filling me with inspiration in all sorts of ways this past week. 

The Glif is a little iPhone 4 accessory these two guys, Tom Gerhardt and Dan Provost, developed a prototype of, and put on Kickstarter for crowd-sourced funding. Their goal was $10,000 to cover the high cost of injection molding. In just three days, they got $70,000. They are currently at $90,629 with 3575 backers to date, and they still have three weeks to go before funding ends on November 2, 2010. 

Here's the video:

Glif Montage from Glif on Vimeo.

And here's an article on The Economist about the online services they used to help them make small runs and prototypes of the Glif, and ways by which they spread the word. Useful information for future reference.
Click here to be a backer or to just learn more.

The Reluctant Father

An AMAAAAZING photo essay by photographer Phillip Toledano on the ANTHROPOLOGIST. LOVE his humor and honesty.

Envy

I've thought about this a lot.

We live in a culture of envy. Pick up a magazine, and what happens after flipping through a few pages? 'Ooh, I wish I had those shoes. I wish I lived in that house.' I do it too. It's kind of fun sometimes. (And it's not just in magazines - it happens on those Covet-This-Stuff blogs we all read. You know which ones I'm talking about.) But I think it's important to acknowledge that we do it, and more importantly that we choose to do it, and that it can lead us astray. We end up making decisions based on envy, instead of making them based on who we'd like to become, and staying true to ourselves. So this is simply my attempt at distilling a big aspect of our culture down to three words.

VIA MARC JOHNS

Your Secret

My recent brain dump and further introspection has been doing me some good, and today I came across several internet jewels that really hit close to home. This video is one of them.

Your secret from Jean-Sebastien Monzani on Vimeo.
VIA RIAZ

PS: The two other jewels were quotes from my friend at La Roo, which I posted on my quote dump on tumblr, here and here.

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. 

Here's To The Crazy Ones

TBWA\Chiat\Day's ad for Apple's "Think Different" campaign. Watch it -- it's so much more than just an ad.

Documentary: Art & Copy

I just finished watching Art & Copy on Netflix's Watch Instantly. I'm one of those people who thinks Advertising is the devil, but this film did a good job of touching on the many nuances of the practice. At the end of the day, it's not just a documentary on Advertising; it's a look into the minds and souls of our world's subversive geniuses.

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.

Information

"There are some people who come into graphic design and find it a bit ephemeral and vacuous. People who like to do useful things are attracted to information design. There is something quite useful about designing traffic signs so people don't get lost or or medicine bottles that people can understand. It's a way of making a difference. It's a public service."
- David Sless in Information Design Workbook by Kim Baer

An Awesome Book

I shared this on facebook a while back, but think my current blog readers will appreciate this awesome book. You can read it online, click the link! This is going on to my future child's bookshelf together with The Story of Stuff book.

Rebranding America

Some interesting work on the theme of "rebranding america" from Papermag. Above is my favorite; it's the most subtle, meaningful, and historical. Learned something new, too. Below is an excerpt.

In 1794, Benjamin Franklin criticized the choice of the Bald Eagle as the national symbol of the United States, claiming it was a "bird of bad moral character". It was, he suggested, "too lazy to fish for himself", surviving by robbing smaller, more vulnerable birds. Today the debate remains as to whether the Bald Eagle is the appropriate symbol to represent a nation that stands for peace, democracy, and moral leadership. In 2009, this question is more burningly poignant than ever. In its place, imagine the US greenback emblazoned with a dove instead of an eagle. What a potent message this would send when passed around every corner of the world. And what could be a more fitting emblem for the Seal of the President of the United States than the ultimate symbol of peace? 

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.

A Night with Ira Glass: Radio Stories & Other Stories

Great great show last night by Ira Glass, host of This American Life.
He spoke about his thoughts on real journalism, which he feels is lacking in our society, and how that's what they at public radio aim to do every episode. I wish I had recorded the whole show so I can paste excerpts because there is just something magical about how he says it that I will never be able to capture in my own words.

And to my close friend who bought the tickets and invited me, thanks Josh!

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).

Sugru

I love this. This product is something like play doh that you can mold to whatever and it hardens to a pliable silicone at room temperature.

But what I actually love more is the spirit behind it. The inventor, Jane, was studying product design, but she wasn't really interested in making new products for companies. She was more interested in people who liked making stuff for themselves.

Birds on Wires

Reading a newspaper, I saw a picture of birds on the electric wires. I cut out the photo and decided to make a song, using the exact location of the birds as notes (no Photoshop edit). I knew it wasn't the most original idea in the universe. I was just curious to hear what melody the birds were creating.

I sent the music to the photographer, Paulo Pinto, who I Googled on the internet. He told his editor, who told a reporter and the story ended up as an interview in the very same newspaper.

Here I've posted a short video made with the photo, the music and the score (composed by the birds).

Merlin Mann on Doing Creative Work

You all have to freaking listen to this.
I'm talking to you Alexis, Airi, Jessica, Jam, and whoever else is finding it so hard to start. And I mean really start. Listen to it on your way to work, while you're sewing come clothes, while you're going though your blogroll, while you're cooking. Whatever. But listen to it.

Merlin Mann talks about the process of doing creative work, and particularly how to abandon the quest for perfection, get off your butt and get started.

The Sound of Young America


For those who want to load it into your iPod, here's where you can get it for free on iTunes.

UPDATE: Great article by Merlin Mann following his talk.

An inspirational message from Ira Glass

I don't know about you, but these are one of those videos where I feel like they guy is talking directly to me. In this case, it's Ira Glass, the storyteller on This American Life. He talks about beginning creatives and how we all (at least a number of us) have killer taste, and because we do, we know how crappy everything we make really is, and how most people give up at that point, because they can't seem to get over that gap, they are so discouraged by it. But it's only through keeping at it that we can all hope to be as good as we want to be. Anyway, watch on, and I hope it resonates as much with you as it does with me. You're not the only one.

The Lost Tribes of New York City

Urban anthropologists Andy & Carolyn London interview some of New York City's more overlooked citizens.


Via swissmiss.

“Everybody loves you when you're six foot in the ground.”