A public policy wonk, I’m interested in the intersection between commerce and individual behaviour, and sources that can turn multi-disciplinary observations into fundamental insight.
// April 30th, 2009 // No Comments » // Advertising
original pointer from Dino’s tumblr.
// April 25th, 2009 // No Comments » // In the Media
Wow. It may be the shot selection from the French television crew, but it sure looks like Mickey Rourke thinks he might just go ahead and hit on Lily Allen.
// April 24th, 2009 // 1 Comment » // Creativity, Design
From the Society for Environmental Graphic Design blog … the best machine in the world.
// April 23rd, 2009 // No Comments » // In the Media
Adam West, the original Batman, likes living in Ketchum, Idaho:
“… “I hike, and I ski, and I fish, and I work around a lot at our place up here. I love my tractor. I drive my tractor to town on the bike path, and nobody likes it. Late at night, down to the casino to have a drink. Just a lonely guy on a tractor.” …”
// April 22nd, 2009 // No Comments » // Design
” … Less than a year ago this friend of mine was in line at a KFC on East 14th Street, and at the front was this skinny little guy who ordered three 20-piece buckets of Original Recipe. So the woman at the counter rings him up, and says, straight-faced, “Is that for here or to go?”
Now, this man was obviously there alone and would be taking all of it to some sort of party or whatever, and he said: “Are you fucking kidding me? How would I eat all of this here, now, by myself?” To which, the woman replied, sharply, “BITCH, I DON’T KNOW YOUR LIFE!”…”
- Chip Kidd, interviewed by Sean Adams in Step Inside Design Magazine
// April 20th, 2009 // No Comments » // Marketing
“… remodelers who specialize in eco-friendly projects say many homeowners still tend to focus on green stuff rather than green performance. It’s easier to imagine friends being impressed by the virtue of your recycled-glass bathroom tiles than by properly sealed air-conditioning ducts, even though more systemic projects have “orders of magnitude” more impact, says Paul Eldrenkamp, president of Byggmeister Inc., a builder in Newton, Mass. …”
- Rob Walker, in the NYT Magazine
// April 20th, 2009 // No Comments » // Creativity
Spotted on a late night walk. Chalked out on the driveway are the words “STOP STOP (FAIL)” and a chalk body is sketched out on the sidewalk.
EDIT: I seem to have missed a nuance there:the second word is actually spelt “SOTP” – which makes the (FAIL) grammatically appropriate. And is probably a sign that this person hangs out on Slashdot (or Twitter) way too much.
Either that house has a morbidly imaginative child with poor chalk skills, or her dad was forced emerge from his gaming room to spend “Quality Time” with her over the weekend.
// April 18th, 2009 // No Comments » // Design
That’s right. It’s a murse. A man purse I found fetching. It reminded me of a similar bag from Mountain Equipment Co-op – one that I used to carry until I began hauling around dockets and other oversized papers.
In this application, the new Bell Canada logo makes sense – both in application as a design element, and as a distinctive brand identity.
(Yes, I did have a thought or two when this new logo came out in August 2008)
Its rough canvas exterior reminded me of a Freitag custom messenger bag – which is cut from old tarpaulins taken from trans-European transport trucks.
// April 17th, 2009 // No Comments » // politics
” … intoned the Hillsdale professor, the kind of stiffly formal young man whose cheeks are simply waiting to become jowls … “
-Charles Homans writes in the Washington Monthly about Culture11, a now-shuttered online attempt to broaden the conservative voice in the U.S.
// April 17th, 2009 // No Comments » // Consumer, Management
“The Option You Selected Is Not Available”
Yeah. That’s right. The option I would like to select, as soon as my call is thrown into your damnable IVR phone system, isn’t available. At least not until you make me listen to four other options – in English AND French!
Why? Because that organization – usually a utility, a bank or the phone company – values their cents more than my minutes.
I would like to blame a mindless 22 year-old business analyst, fixated only on identifying tweaks in the business process that will result in incremental efficiency boosts at the call centre. A 22 year-old oblivious of the dozens, then hundreds and eventually thousands of seconds I waste listening to an irritatingly familiar list of menu options – none of which are relevant to my particular question.
But I know the rot goes much farther. Somewhere, a manager decided receptionists were too expensive. Someone more senior decided that the call centre that replaced the receptionists needed to be pared down. Someone even more senior spent an hour or so reviewing activity reports from the call centre, noticed that these folks seemed to be answering the same questions over and over, and wondered out loud whether there was a way to automate this process and save even more money.
But no-one deserve more scorn than the IVR salesman who, pointing to his statistical analysis of dropped calls, abandoned queries and resolved questions, observed that most customers were simply hitting the “0″ button as soon as they heard a robotic and disembodied voice.
Because HE IS THE DOUCHE that set the system up so “o” only became an option AFTER the system forced you to listen to the first four menu options.
“Oh yeah. I can do that.”
That bastard should have to go through a seven option decision tree just to get into his car – or his fridge.
It is even more galling that many of these unwanted menu options simply lead you to branch hours and location. I don’t want to sound like an old man, but I used to have a good system for figuring out whether the business was open: I would call them, a human would/would not answer, and I would know. People younger than me KNOW just to f*cking Google it. Who’s left? The elderly. I’m apparently being forced to work my way through a phone tree because Mrs. McGillicudy can’t hold onto numbers anymore. And she’s the one with the most time to spare.
Integrated voice recognition systems and phone menus are cost-saving measures dressed up as features. They rob your interaction with the business of any sign of character or humanity. And they’re an organization’s passive-aggressive way of flipping you the bird.
Bastards.
// April 17th, 2009 // No Comments » // Graphic
This is the awning over the front entrance to the new Syrian Embassy in Ottawa. They took possession of a stately old home that, until recently, had been a spa and B&B.
While I could hope that this rough and ready flag treatment is an indication of an interior design scheme that emphasizes self-expression and rebellion against traditional forms, I suspect it’s just a quick fix to cover up the old B&B’s name.
Still, it would make a good entrance for a skate shop.
// April 16th, 2009 // 1 Comment » // Advertising, Creativity
Oh sweetness. I WANT to dislike the latest CP&B ad produced for Burger King, but I can’t!
Here’s a full length video for the remake of “Baby Got Back,” this time featuring the Burger King and … Spongebob Squarepants.
// April 14th, 2009 // 1 Comment » // community, Retail
“All I know is if my pupusas aren’t back this year, I’m going to have to cut a bitch.”
- By poshspice on 04/14/2009 at 2:56 pm
Comment on a New York Magazine blog post about the food vendors at the Brooklyn Flea Market.
// April 14th, 2009 // 3 Comments » // politics
You HAVE watch this until the end – the close is fantastic!
// April 13th, 2009 // No Comments » // Promotion
Despite the heroic example of Claus von Stauffenberg and his co-conspirators, a new history by Fabrice d’Almeida tells us that the German nobility generally supported the Nazi regime – in part due to a concerted effort by Nazi leaders to coddle them.
” … Hitler was constantly giving presents: vases, tea sets, sweets, lamps, books, cigars, his own watercolours. In 1935, Goebbels got a stereophonic record player (at that time the acme of German sound technology) and Göring received a painting by Adolf Ziegler, lampooned as the Reich Painter of Pubic Hair for his ghastly depictions of eugenic nudes.
Himmler, too, became an assiduous trafficker in gifts. His office kept a file on 80 senior members of the SS whose birthday and Christmas presents were all meticulously logged. On Christmas Day 1933, Obergruppenführer Prützmann received a portrait of Himmler: one can only imagine the expressions of pleasure on his family’s faces as the countenance of the Reichsführer-SS emerged from the wrapping paper …”
- Christopher Clark, in the London Review of Books
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