Charlie Rose' by Samuel Beckett

This is famously reclipped Charlie Rose video by Andrew Fillipone, Jr, in which Rose appears to be interviewing himself with little success about the future of the internet.
Source PSFK

12 Year Old Designs a Homeless Shelter Made Out of Trash

Max Wallack has designed an ingenious shelter for the homeless and disaster victims. The 12 year old was the winner of Design Squad’s Trash to Treasure contest, which asked kids to re-purpose trash into practical inventions. Max’s dome is constructed out of plastic, wire and packing peanuts. Check out the video of its construction below.
Source PSFK

Heineken offers first class airport lounge for all

Warm beer in airport restaurants resembling barns has, no doubt, caused many of us to wonder where air travel's glamour got to. Helping revive the notion of classy business travel, Heineken has teamed up with design agency UXUS to create an airport lounge offers a respite from the chaos of the terminal gate.

The Heineken Lounge opened in Newark Liberty International Airport in December 2008, and democratically presents all travellers with the luxuries typically reserved for first and business class passengers. Private conversation nooks, custom white leather sofas, spherical light fixtures and green aluminium tables combine to create a contemporary brand space. In addition to Heineken, a variety of beers are served on tap, alongside a fully-stocked cocktail bar.

Although Hong Kong's International Airport has had its own Heineken bar for some time, Newark's lounge is more of a 'third place', offering work necessities such as wifi, as well as movies and other entertainment. One to emulate, if branding budgets allow ;-) (Related: Being space for a microbrew — Beer cans that sleep two — Baby brand space at Schiphol Airport.)

Website: www.heineken.com — www.uxusdesign.com
Contact: www.heinekeninternational.com/contactus.aspx — europe@uxusdesign.com

Source:http://springwise.com

A slideshow on FastCompany.com highlights how far brands are going to get infused with popular entertainment. A review of eighteen “innovations” from CAA describes how the talent-turned-marketing agency goes about working with content makers and corporations to create a win-win for both parties.

In the slideshow, we see examples that include how CAA helped Neutrogenaintroduce a 22-year-old Neutrogena scientist into LonelyGirl15; and how they “wove” Cisco, Acura, Microsoft and UPS into the plot of web series Gemini Division.

All very interesting and not necessarily bad if it also means a ‘win’ for the audience too. Fast Company comments by saying:

With the media landscape changing faster than a J.J. Abrams storyline, Hollywood talent agencies can no longer rely on last century’s business model. That’s why powerhouse CAA is as interested in transforming a sports celeb into a Web 2.0 maven as it is in turning a brand into a Webisode character. Here are some of CAA’s recent innovative deals.

Sopurce CAA

The Magic by Google

The BBC reports that European telecom operator Vodafone has announced details of the second “Google phone” - a phone called The Magic from manufacturer HTC with Google’s operating system Android:

The Magic will feature new Android firmware, known as “Cupcake”, with changes based on G1 user suggestions. The Magic will go on sale to Vodafone customers in the UK, Germany, Spain and France, and non-exclusively in Italy.

Android phone users will be able to access the Android Market, a storefront for applications that already boasts 800 offerings. That number that is sure to grow with more Android handsets on the market.

The announcement was made at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona - a major event for the telecoms business - where it was expected that several phones that used the Google operating systems would be presented by companies. The Magic has been the only phone announced by a major player so far though.

Source BBC

Thats all about money

Designboom has compiled a lengthy post all about currency design and artists who use monetary imagery in their work. They showcase money from around the world and explore artists who play with these powerful symbols of wealth. It’s an interesting look at the complex relationship we have with these little pieces of paper and metal.

Designboom explains:

it is said that recession provokes artists, designers and alike to create some of their best work but for some people money is the constant source of question regardless of the economic climate.

money is many different things at the same time. it’s a work of art, a medium of exchange, a representation of value, one, which most people take for granted. everybody has their own answers when it comes to money yet we think that it is more generative and engaging to think about values and doubt. it is a balancing force.

money creates a mood of euphoria. money is one of the major constituents in determining what our lives feel like, what our typical day feels like. money also represents our society. it’s everywhere but money is just an idea - an abstract measurement.

Source PSFK

Creative Process by Hooper Galton

Click here to see more

Cannes Lions: Hooper Galton, 2008

Source Cannes Lions

Add-Art: The Entire Web as Art Gallery

Add-Art is a free FireFox add-on that transforms website advertising into a curated art show featuring rotating works by emerging artists that are selected from a submissions database. The open source project was developed by artist Steve Lambert with support from Eyebeam and Rhizome. The idea emerged from the popularity of existing “adblockers” that merely replace ads with blank space, providing clutter-free surfing. Lambert felt they could take this service a step further and offer a richer experience to users in the process, by simply converting browsers into virtual art galleries instead.

Introduction to Add-Art from Steve Lambert on Vimeo.
Read more here Source PSFK

The Economic Crisis in Song

What does a failing economy sound like? Johannes Kreidler offers his rendition with these computer-generated tunes created with Microsoft’s Songsmith program, Muzak-y compositions that follow the downward tumble of American financial institutions, as well as the unemployment rate and Iraq war statistics. Watch the video below to see how the melodies match the depressing stats they were built off of:

Source kottke

The P2P Alternative Social Economy

The Wall Street Journal reports that a peer to peer social currency based economy may be playing a large role in our future. Stan Stalnaker, founder of the Hub Culture social network is says “I don’t think anybody has any idea of how big a shift is coming in terms of our our view and perception of finance and money.” Clever social entrepreneurs are already bypassing the traditional banking world with micro lending services such as Kiva.org, and now other groups are creating their own units of exchange. Hub culture has it’s own digital currency called Ven that it’s worldwide members can use to swap for goods and services in place of local money. These alternative economic networks often value trust, transparency and reputation over any kind of physical collateral  More in the WSJ video below.

Source PSFK

GAMES TRUMP SOCIAL NETWORKS AMONG US TEENS

NEW YORK: A total of 78% of US teenagers regularly play online video games, compared with just 65% who use social networking websites likeFacebook and MySpace, according a new study by The Pew Internet & American Life Project. 
The "Generations Online in 2009" report also found that the number of 12–17 year-olds using email fell from 89% in 2005 to 73% last year, a drop attributed to the rise of social networking.
Says Sydney Jones, research assistant at Pew: "Teens really gravitate to these instant forms of communication. They're not likely to be sitting around waiting for e-mail."
Overall, 97% of teenagers play video games of some kind, but just 10% of 12–17 year-olds use "virtual worlds" like Second Life, a figure falling to 2% of older web users aged 18–32. 
Among the latter group, 50% of web users regularly play games online, and 67% are active users of social networking services. 
Members of both age ranges are more likely to use the web for entertainment than practical purposes according to the survey, which was conducted late last year among 2,253 internet users.

Data sourced from AdWeek (USA); additional content by WARC staff, 02 February 2009

Read more here IQblog: Sony запускает виртуальную вселенную Home

Open Source Urban Planning

Mark Gorton, creator of the Lime Wire file sharing software is now using his talents to improve urban transportation design. Using an open source software program he’s created along with data gathered from the collective population, Gorton aims to make urban transportation safer, more efficient and sustainable.

Wired reports:

The top-down culture of public planning stands to benefit by employing methods he’s lifting from the world of open-source software: crowdsourced development, freely-accessible data libraries, and web forums, as well as actual open-source software with which city planners can map transportation designs to people’s needs. Such modeling software and data existed in the past, but it was closed to citizens.

Gorton’s open-source model would have a positive impact on urban planning by opening up the process to a wider audience, says Thomas K. Wright, executive director of the Regional Plan Association, an organization that deals with urban planning issues in the New York metropolitan area.

“99 percent of planning in the United States is volunteer citizens on Tuesday nights in a high school gym,” Wright says. “Creating a software that can reach into that dynamic would be very profound, and open it up, and shine light on the decision-making. Right now, it becomes competing experts trying to out-credential each other in front of these citizen and volunteer boards… [Gorton] could actually change the whole playing field.”

Source WIRED

Definition of the day: ROI - Return on Ideas

Source: Idea Management

Eyebrow Dancing

The ad is by Fallon in London. I think I’m adding this to PSFK for personal reasons more than anything.

The parody is already placed in the UK.

Interactive Sharpie e-cast Billboard

Many of us have a fascination with graffiti art, and we sometimes even look over our shoulders to make sure no one’s watching when we scratch out our initials in a freshly laid slab of cement – or carve them into a wooden desk – or even scribble profanities across the stall door in a public restroom. 

The creative minds working for Sharpie, the ultimate in permanent markers, have discovered a way to satiate our desires to deface public domain. Interactive e-cast billboards have been scattered around cities, which allow people to experience the rush of creating their own graffiti. Choose some colors, write a message and Sharpie makes it possible for anyone to leave his permanent mark on the side of the bus stop or the public phone or anywhere else billboard adverting may be experienced. 

Source USA Cool Hunter

The new business isn’t the same as the old business, just with computers.

See more here

Printing. Paper. Ink. RFID. And cleverer phones will be the perfect things to interact with these clever objects.

Marketing guru Russell Davies recently wrote up his notes on his latest presentation on his blog. Russell has been looking at how RFID and similar technology can allow brands to tell stories about their brands. He says that the world is moving to Post Digital and that for any marketer that thought the internet was complicated, they’re going to get a lot more confused. Technology we associate with the web - Twitter tweets, imagery, games and further information - is going to become infused in real products and those products will become their own communication channels. See more.

Source russell davies blog and PSFK

2010: Entertainment and Communication

2010: Entertainment and Communication from Faris Yakob on Vimeo.

A short history of marketing

Scholz & Friends: "Dramatic shift in marketing reality" from Michael Reissinger on Vimeo.

A Link Between the Real and Digital Worlds

Microsoft Tag is a mobile application that offers a way for users to quickly move between the real and digital worlds. Users simply snap a picture of a tag using the camera on their internet-enabled phone and they are taken to a page that shares additional information on the particular product or service without the extra step of entering complicated web addresses or texting special codes. In our modern society where instant gratification is increasingly expected and attention spans are fractured and short, mobile tagging provides a vital tool to businesses hoping to instantly connect with their customers.

Though the idea of mobile tagging is nothing new, the color-coded Microsoft Tag includes a number of improvements over earlier version. It has been designed to work with the fixed focus of cellphone cameras and can still be scanned when blurry or partially damaged. In many cases, an actual picture doesn’t even need to be taken as the camera simply reads the tag and directs users to the appropriate page. Additionally, the smaller format makes the tags less obtrusive without sacrificing on the amount of stored information.

Tags are generated through the Microsoft site by supplying a URL to a web page or any text you want displayed when the tag is snapped (while in its Beta stage this service will be free). This information is dynamic and can be changed or updated at any time by revisiting the Microsoft site. The tags can then be printed out and placed on virtually any surface, from product packaging and displays to billboards and business cards, to create an interactive experience for consumers. As these tags become more commonplace we anticipate the varieties of experiences enabled by this technology to further obscure the lines that separate the physical from the virtual.

Source PSFK

A Link Between the Real and Digital Worlds

Microsoft Tag is a mobile application that offers a way for users to quickly move between the real and digital worlds. Users simply snap a picture of a tag using the camera on their internet-enabled phone and they are taken to a page that shares additional information on the particular product or service without the extra step of entering complicated web addresses or texting special codes. In our modern society where instant gratification is increasingly expected and attention spans are fractured and short, mobile tagging provides a vital tool to businesses hoping to instantly connect with their customers.

THE FUTURE OF ADVERTISING – HAS THE MOVING FINGER WRIT?

LONDON: The moving finger has writ, according to the UK'sInstitute of Practitioners in Advertising  – the body representing British advertising, marketing communications and media agencies. And having writ moves on … etc.   

And this is what the finger writ: 'Web 2.0 is God and Social Networking His High Priest.' 

Unless that prophesy is heeded, warns the IPA, advertisers and agencies cannot "Lure it back to cancel half a Line, / Nor all their tears wash out a word of it". See more  here
Source IPA (UK); additional content by WARC staff, 16 January 2009

Talks Success Through Failure

Honda is premiering three new short documentaries online as part of their relaunched “Power of Dreams” website. Director Derek Cianfrance filmed unscripted conversations with Honda associates talking about their approach to solving problems and finding solutions. The debut includes three films with more to follow every few months. The series can be viewed at the “Power of Dreams” website or on the company’s YouTube channel.

Worth a view is “Failure: The Secret to Success” which depicts Honda’s belief in the importance of never being afraid to try something new. The film feature Honda designers, engineers, and members of the race team talking about failures and risks taken that helped lead to new innovations.

More on "Dreaming impossible" from The Cat Empire band:

Discover The Cat Empire!

Source PSFK

Ikea Lobbying for Oval Office Decor

The tight economy has inspired Ikea to offer a fiscally responsible furniture option to incoming president Barak Obama for his oval office. The furniture retailer recently created a mock-up of the office in the main hall of the Union subway station. Along with the mock-up, a website called Embrace Change 09 has been established. For now it is counting down to move in day, but visitors can leave an email address for updates on the project.

Source PSFK

An Animated History of the Internet

We came across this eight minute animated documentary titled “The History of the Internet” by Mehil Bilgil that touches on the innovations that have made our interconnected online lives possible.  The video uses voiceover accompanied by PICOL icons, a pictorial communication language created by Bilgil for his university thesis.  The project is in the early stages of developing a simplistic and universal sign system to enable easier electronic communication that is free from the constraints of written language.  While the current library of icons available for download is small, the open source system invites more designers to get involved.  We’ll be interested to see if it will grow into the more sophisticated sibling of the emoticon or remain a niche form of discourse for a select few.

History of the Internet from PICOL on Vimeo.

Source PICOL