Issue 03.10 // Nice. Random. Links. Wk9

Yummo Yogurt + Smoothies by Tad Carpenter via design work life. Why are yogurts so fun?

Issue 02.10 // Nice. Printed. Paper.

Here is Jan - Feb's collection of free printed materials I picked up. The ones that caught my eyes are the Ettusais' (jp, sg) collateral:






Nice clean, light and clear typography throughout their marketing collateral sort of reminds you what their products are suppose to do. Hallmark of a good brand identity.

Issue 02.10 // Nice. Weekly. Videos. Wk 7

New Old Spice television commercial by Wieden+Kennedy.


[Via Kitsune Noir]


Behind the scene of The New Yorker cover. [Via Drawn and Quarterly]




A series of video by Wieden+Kennedy Entertainment about creative (and facial hair) people and their love for skateboarding.

This is a Bank

This is a good example how to humanise a corporate organisation. A business doesn't need the mythical "corporate look" to project the professional and reliable look.

This project was done by Michael Wolff & Company. Michael Wolff was half of WolffOlins before he left in 1983. The following is he on branding:

1. customers create brands.

2. organisations create brand identities.

3. brand identities are designed as a shorthand to express a set of values and qualities, so that customers can more easily build brands.

4. customers build brands by attributing qualities to them, and holding their own versions in their minds.

5. brands have to be useful, attractive and substantial before they can become valuable; people can sense substance, or lack of it.

6. the role of the brand identity is to constantly nourish the growth of the brand.

7. a brand identity reaffirms the values of the brand in every detail and every point of contact.

8. god is in the details and not just in the numbers. 'you can’t fatten a pig by measuring it.'

9. the whole is greater than the sum of the parts but it’s only throughout the whole that the parts can be represented and experienced.

10. the idea behind a successful brand has to be compelling and authentic.
if an organisation doesn’t believe in it, then why should anyone else.

[Via designboom]

Issue 02.10 // Nice. Random. Links. Wk7

I was sick (feverish, headache, sore throat) at the end of the third day of Chinese New Year. I suspected it was tonsillitis but the Dr Mark Flores (who, coincidentally, happens to be my Dad's tenant) at the polyclinic diagnosed otherwise on the fourth day. At the end of the fifth, everything pretty much subsided except for the headache which reached its peak. And, on its peak, bad thoughts crept into me. But, I vow never to let it happen again. Anyway, here are the links:

1. V for Valentine [Ministry of Type]
2. World Press Photo 2010 [Via Creative Review]

Issue 02.10 // Nice. Weekly. Videos. Wk 6

Tom Gauld x W+K x Coke.
Via Ads of the World

Weekly Cool Videos Release Week 46/09

Three great videos this week. Let me start this week with the trailer of the movie based on a book by Christopher Isherwood, A Single Man. Directed by ex-Gucci CD Tom Ford and starring Colin Firth and Julianne Moore.



Immersion: Porn by Robbie Cooper. It is quite interesting to listen and watch people talking about porn and masturbation. It is amazing to see their expressions and actions while watching porn and masturbating. Especially, when you can observe the difference between how the male person and female person does it. One is focused at the porn images while the other is more focused on the masturbatory experience. NSFW. Via Wallpaper*



Something about this Leo Burnett poetic Macdonald's UK ad that is so emotionally good it is just wrong. Via AdFreak.

Links of the Day

1. La Charcuterie Business Cards and Stationary [Kitsune Noir]
2. Atheist Damien Hirst to display oil paintings in St Paul's [Times Online]
3. What Space Invaders Really Look Like (T-Shirt) [Gizmodo]
4. Denver to Singapore (and back) in 5 minutes (technically, a cool video but what the hey) [Kottke]
5. Neither Fish Nor Fowl interview [Grainedit]
6. Porter for Monocle [SLAMXHYPE]

Links of the Day

1. Urban Planning Integrated Into a Volcano. [Archdaily]
2. An Oldie But Goodie: 9 Ways to Improve An Ad. [welcome to optimism]
3. Seven Lies About Lying Part 1 & 2. [nytimes's Zoom via kottke]

Lies are effective because we are insecure about many of our beliefs and are quite vulnerable to the suggestion that those beliefs might be false.

4. Blood Powered Lamp by Mike Thompson. [Apartment Theraphy NY]
5. Hilton Trades Beverly Hills for Beveled Hills. [Brand New]

Anyone for a 8.50U$D Pork Bun?

The above pork bun are one of the six sandwiches New York's Xie Xie (as in shay shay, mandarin's "thank you") offer. Xie Xie is "an energetic fast-casual restaurant celebrating the vibrant flavors of Asia". It cost 8.50USD (12SGD). OMG. LOL. Xie Xie managed to package a relatively cheap Asia delicacy into about six times its original price. Culinary experts loved it and liked the price. We really have to kowtow to the branding power of the West.