I can. I'm loving Porsche's new I Can website. It's gorgeously designed with simple and elegant graphics and animations. The best part of the site is the Picture It feature which allow you to upload a picture of your house and place a Porsche in your drive way. Love it.
If you are up for a little designer group hug, go to I'm a Designer and... There are some fantastic fill in the blank submissions.
I had a lot of fun creating my own squid care of the Colossal Squid Exhibition. They have an online tool to build a squid. You adjust all of his parts and colors, give the squid a name and then set him free. You can go back to the site later and find your squid in the big ocean. This is my squid Koshee. You can go and play with him if you want, but be careful, he's recently got in a fight with a toothfish!
So Many A Second tries to visualize statistics in a friendly way on a "human scale". It uses falling graphics to represent events on a per second basis. You can choose the type of statistic to visualize, or enter your own stats. Shown above is 27 Mobile Phones sold per second.
CNN created a Photosynth of Obama being sworn in this morning. Attendees of the event were asked to take a photo, or a series of photos, during the few moments that Barack Obama had his hand on the bible. All photos were emailed to themoment@cnn.com and synthed into a fantastic 3D exploratory image. It doesn't look like they have incorporated many of the user submitted photos yet, but I hope they add to the synth in the future. I'd love to see it zoom in or out to incorporate all the photos of people watching the TV and internet feeds. I've seen some great photos of people experiencing "the moment" today. See more inauguration synths on the Photosynth website.
The Breathing Pot uses your emotional connection to living things to help remind you to water your plants. We all know that plants are living organisms, but sometimes we forget to treat them that way (guilty). Designer Jae-Han Song visualized life in a plant by creating a pot that appears to breath. The small subtle motion of breathing reminds you that the plant is alive. When the breathing stops, it's time to water!
GOOD Magazine created this interactive info-graphic showing the number of Americans issued passports by state population. It also shows the number of passports issued nationally over the years. It would be interesting to see this information juxtaposed with how many people actually left the country.
I Love Your More Than Blank is a blog by Paperwhite studio that encourages readers to write in with something personal that ends the sentence: I love you more than ____. They are collecting suggestions via email up until Valentine's Day, when they plan to turn the entries into a surprise. It is lovely to read through the hearts. Some are sweet and others are funny. It's easy to find one that you relate to. (Found through A Cup of Jo).
ARK is a clothing line that tries to change people's lives through clothing. ARK stands for Acts of Random Kindness. The idea is that any time you are wearing a piece of ARK clothing, you are reminded/encouraged/obligated to do something nice for somebody else. Each piece of ARK clothing comes with some kindness suggestions. ARK even volunteers to provide some of its profits to you if you have an idea about how to spend it on helping somebody. ARK even states "I don't even care if you don't buy a shirt... just get involved...".
Today I am following 24 Hours at Sundance. It is an experimental live reality tv game where all of the video feeds are streaming live from mobile phones using Qik. The show is hosted by Kevin Rose and Ashton Kutcher, with 4 video bloggers as contestants. The contestants are given challenges to complete over the next 24 hours (many challenge ideas submitted via Twitter to Ashton and Kevin). You can watch, comment or participate live using Qik.
This is such a fantastic idea. So far, it is playing out like you would expect a true live internet experiment to. I'm staying glued to my mobile phone all day.
Follow the Host's Qik feed here: Ashton, Kevin
And the contestants' feeds here: CJ Peters, Irina Slutsky, Meghan Asha, Matt and Shira.
I have recently become a fan of The Moth podcast. It features true short stories told live in front of an audience. Some of them are absolutely hilarious. Check out some of my recent favorites: Sleepwalk with Me by Mike Birbiglia; My Outsourced Life by A.J. Jacobs; and The Funny One by Elna Baker. Make sure to subscribe to the podcast via Zune for ongoing enjoyment.
Oh my... an underground secret magazine, that you can only get for free, by happenstance... I love it! I Left This Here For You is a magazine created by Tim Devin. You only get to read it by luck. Tim only publishes 50 copies, no reprints, distributed in 25 countries across North America, hidden on park benches, bus stops and dentists' offices. Brilliant idea. I'm adding this to my To Do list (To Do Item 1: find copy of secret magazine. To Do Item 2: Start secret magazine).
51 Japanese Characters is a collection of characters based on archetypes within Japanese society. Designer Peter Machat, created the characters while living in Japan. Each character has a name and insightful description. Oh, and did I mention the super cute caricatures? You can purchase a poster or postcard set of all 51 characters on Peter's website. Even if you are not planning on purchasing anything, take the time to visit the website. It is done in an impressively stunning, minimalistic style. (Found through Josh Spear).
Maria, of Stickers and Donuts, has just published My Year in Outfits - photos of what she wore every day for the past year. Wow... this is making me feel very uncreative about my wardrobe.
I'm feeding my miniature obsession today with paintings. Amy Bennett does amazing oil paintings of miniatures. And like all fun miniatures, they tell interesting stories to tickle your imagination.
Can't... stop... flipping... blocks.
The Photographic Dictionary defines words using photographs to accompany words. They are not your everyday A is for Apple type of dictionary photographs. The meaning of the word is photographically described through literal, figurative or personal interpretations. The photographs manage to give some emotion to the definitions. Definitions of everyday words like "lonely" or "home" are so beautifully enhanced by a descriptive photograph. I'm inspired to start my own personal version.
I can't figure out if The Crafty Hedgehog is an artist trapped in a scientist's body, or the other way around. Her collection of knit dissected rats and frogs are just too cute. You can even unpin them from their lab trays for cuddling purposes. (Found through Street Anatomy).
Haha! Gosh... I always thought it was the other way around. Enjoy more from Marc Johns on his blog, "a treasury of mildly amusing drawings (how lovely)". (Found through Pan-Dan).
Pepsi updated their logo and product graphics a few months ago. Like any rebranding, there have been mixed reactions. Personally, I really like them. I appreciate that have given some life to the brand by allowing the logo to be slightly organic. The stripe in the Pepsi logo changes size according to the beverage type. Diet Pepsi gets a skinny stripe and Pepsi Max gets a seriously fat stripe. I am pretty sure that this goes against all traditional branding rules, but I like it. It actually gives the brand a little more personality. I hope the trend catches on. (Thanks Brett).
