So, hi. Hello, and welcome back.

I pre-ordered a book a long time ago, and completely forgot that it was even being shipped. It’s called, “Da Vinci’s Ghost – Genius, obsession, and how Leonardo Created the World in His Own Image.”

Lo and behold, it was a pleasent surprise when I got the email saying it shipped 2 weeks ago. It finally appeared on my doorstop, and I’ve been obsessed with reading it ever since; you know a book is going to be good when it has you asking questions from page 1. It pretty much becomes a complete mind and brain suck by that point in time… in a good way.

The Vitruvian Man, for those who may not know it by its correct name, is Da Vinci’s famous drawing of the symetrical man with 4 legs and 4 arms…. oh yeah, and he’s naked too. There’s more of a back history to this piece but I’ll spare you the details. I wanted this to be a short post… (I’m silently telling myself ‘good luck with that’…)

It’s amazing how one person’s name can make a drawing or piece of artwork into something that’s viewed as magnificent and mysterious. ONE NAME.

Would Vitruvian Man really be that exquisite or mesmerizing of a drawing, as the book describes it, if it wasn’t attached to Da Vinci’s name? What if your friend drew it? Your (freakishly talented) kid?

How can ONE symmetrical drawing of a man completely embody “the beauty of the human body, the creative potential of the human mind, the universality of the human spirit, the power of geometry and mathematics, the grandeur of art and the ideals of the Renaissance”?

Artwork is so subjective; you view a piece, and it speaks to you. I’ve seen tons of fantastic artists create things that could silently slip into the portfolio of a famous artist within the blink of an eye. But because it came from “them” and not “THE famous artist” it struggles in being something that evokes grandeur and beauty in the hearts of the masses.

Just something to think about, is all. Now, by no means am I down-talking this work of art, but I can’t help but think… if I saw this piece at an amateur art show, would I think it was a diamond in the rough? Would I feel my soul being swept away and consumed by all of the elements this piece apparently embodies according to the book? Is a piece of art really JUST a name in tangible form?

It steals your soul in a good way. Usually.

Note: Really long ramble about psychology and advertising and random crap that spurned from the “1984″ commercial for the Mac. Only read it if you feel like absorbing my thoughts.

I had a great conversation with someone the other day about what’s missing with the new generation of marketing that’s evolved from traditional marketing/advertising. Many people view the new-ish marketing mediums as a quick way to engage users online, but they don’t really look behind the actual psyche and fundamentals of the company that’s being marketed or the people that are being marketed to. While the allure of “quick, flashy and fun” can be appealing and work to some extent, marketing and advertising will always come down to one key component- Psychology.

Enter… the rambling.

I’ll admit, I’ll always have a soft spot for great advertising or design that leverages emotions. It’s a bitch of an industry to work in, but the effect a strong advertisement or design has when executed correctly and ingeniously created is unbelievable. Great advertising campaigns- along with artwork, design, music, whatever it is- makes you feel.  The ability to evoke raw emotion is something that is severely overlooked in our 2.0 generation and it’s hard to effectively generate that in 140 characters or less or with Facebook status updates. The message changes in microbites that feed to our attention span deprived generation. I mean sure, humor is the direction most people try to go because there’s really-funny, stupid-funny, and dumb-funny. There’s smart-funny and over-your-head-funny. There’s completely-off-topic-so-its-supposed-to-be-funny-and-cute-but-really-just-sucks funny. A funny for everyone. But funny doesn’t always do it.

Note: I won’t ever appreciate the jerks who made the ASPCA commercials with Sarah McLachlan. I don’t like the feeling of looking at sad little puppies who need homes and wanting to steal them all. It’s effective at mind f’ing you though.

It’s true that any “good” product can sell itself. Hell, just take a look at TV after midnight with all those damn infomercials. The sales person that’s selling the product and foaming at the mouth can certainly make us believe that at 2:30 in the morning there really is only 30 minutes left to call and get the 1/2 off special on a Snuggie, but I bet you 50 dollars they’re not the reason you’re going to actually buy that product. Even though infomercials are annoying, some of the products on there are kind of cool, and people do buy them. (Note: I have never purchased something from an infomercial.)

But let’s be real here. Who could resist the charm of the Billy Mays?

So yes, there is that kind of marketing (unfortunately) in this world. And it works and serves its purpose. Sort of. What really made you buy that product? Did it touch any kind of emotion inside of you? Or was it just one of our compulsive tendencies of human nature to buy something because it looks neat, and is cheap enough where if it sucks or breaks it wouldn’t really matter? I’m guessing the latter. Just because that method works, it doesn’t mean we should do it.

Late night advertisers aren’t reaching consumers who give a damn about the company behind the product, because the company behind the product really just cares about selling obscure objects late at night and making a cheap buck. Knowing who your current, and future consumers are and reaching them with a strong message is something that old school, traditional advertising and marketing agencies were good at before the whole social media thing and users with no attention spans were thrown into the mix. That kind of advertising is still around, don’t get me wrong, but some companies aren’t really harnessing the whole psychological thing.

Take Apple’s 1984 Macintosh ad. Yeah, I’m talking about the one with the lady who is dressed in the Hooter’s colors and running rampant with a sledgehammer.

One of the great things about Apple’s advertising is that they’ve always marketed to an audience who didn’t know they needed the product yet.

The late 1970′s to 1980′s was a time when the ‘hippie’ (for lack of a better word) sub-culture was still going strong and lots of people wanted to stick it to the man. The creation of personal computers had many people shying away from it’s uses- for whatever reason they considered the use of technology a betrayal of the lifestyle they fundamentally believed in. They felt like it was pushing them towards a Big Brother-esque environment where creativity and freedom was completely oppressed and suits were the normal.

While this may not send the same message to us now, because we’re a lot different as a society, this resonated strong in the era that it was launched. What I love about this ad is the fact that it’s weird and really off-beat. It’s not directly selling a product. It’s not pointing out features and telling you why you need it. Hell, it’s not even outwardly pitching the product that’s being sold until you get to the end. The Board for Apple hated the story board for this ad so much so, that they told the agency to sell back its to SuperBowl time slots because it was shitty. Steve Jobs thought the advertisement was genius, and the agency only ended up selling one time slot back because they believed the ad was going to be a killer. It’s a good thing they kept that one spot, because the whole audience watched in silence as the captivating atmosphere of 1984 blanketed the stadium.

This ad appealed to the raw emotions deep within the people and culture they were targeting. The steely metal and grays. The dim lights. The deep, ominous tones. The images of individuals marching in white, stuck in conformity with unblinking stares.

Drones.

Representing what they were trying so hard not to become on the outside. Angry, raging sledgehammer-girl representing their inner screams for freedom and fighting to keep all that was creative and different in this world around.

They played off the concept and paranoia of “Big Brother”, with  David Graham’s booming voice chanting in the background, suppressing all individual thought. Pretty cult-esque. Side note: I need to stop using ‘esque…’

What this ad managed to do was speak to an audience that was blinded by the overtones of society and sold them on something they didn’t know they wanted by appealing to their emotions. They had no interest whatsoever in using this devil-machine but suddenly they felt as if this company was on their side. This company was a rebel just like them. They felt like the company understood them. And while die hard Apple fans can make me fear my life, you can’t deny that Apple did a good job of building a loyal following by fostering that feeling of wanting to be different, creative and free. Which is kind of ironic because everyone who is trying to be different is really the same. But I digress.

Their iPod advertising was so effective that legendary bands who had slow downs in sales over the years begged to be in them without getting paid. When they were featured, their sales skyrocketed because Apple was so effective at appealing to its audience that those same emotions were able to be projected onto the artist. They suddenly recaptured the hearts of old fans, and gained new fans that weren’t even born when they were around. That’s the power of marketing and advertising.

So back to my point. Because we’re so focused on the fun and flashy on the surface, we’re neglecting getting down into the nitty gritty of what makes people tick. Really evoking that raw emotion (whether that be happiness, loss, fear, comfort, uncertainty, love, hate… whatever) is something that is being slowly lost in translation. And I like that raw emotion.

I unsuscribed myself from Groupon’s emails (stop it. Don’t judge me) so I went to the bottom of the email and hit the handy dandy ‘unsubscribe’ feature.

I must say, I’m a sucker for little fun pages or advertising you find within a website (Just ask me about Pickles the Panda) so it amused me greatly when I got sent to this page for attempting to be unsubscribed:

Naturally, I wanted to punish Derrick. Call it the New Yorker in my but I suspected it could be fun. How dare he assume I’d want to receive daily emails?! (Just kidding. I’m not dumb enough to ignore the fact that I WANTED these emails, originally).

I suggest you all unsubscribe immediately to see what happens to him.

You gotta love their little guilt trip, too. Bravo Groupon- I know this isn’t what you want to hear, but I was actually glad I unsubscribed because I got to see this fun madness! :)

Have you ever come across any fun pages like this? If so, what brands do it? I love checking them out- even if it means adding and then removing myself on purpose.

I’m on Lifehacker currently (which, by the way, I’m completely lost in. There are SO many things in the Mac OSX section that I’m downloading right now. Wunderlist being one of them) and I wanted to point out their little happy, unobstrusive opt-in box that allows you to both follow Lifehacker on Facebook, AND get your email updates if you feel so inclined.

Nice, Lifehacker. Me likey lots.

And here we go again. Pickles the Panda. Grooveshark isn’t telling me that it loves me anymore, but it’s mocking my terribly timed “that’s what she said” attempts.

GROOVESHARK. I <3 YOU.

You may remember my Pickles the Panda post a few weeks ago- and my excitement that GrooveShark professed its love for me after all my dedicated hours of listening. Clearly, I’m a sucker for all kinds of cute advertising and error messages.

Lately, I’ve been having problems with Seesmic on my mac. It doesn’t seem to be bringing up my lists, for either of my names… and is just being an all around pain in the ass. I made the move from TweetDeck because I had thought Seesmic was prettier looking (oh, and it is!) and had more options. I was sorely disappointed when I started experiencing problems after my first week of using it.

Seesmic made up for it though, with this really awesomely cute Raccoon. All is well in the world. Enjoy this cute error message.

When I was taking a college HTML/CSS class way back in 2003, I remember one thing. I was writing code for a site I was ‘designing’ in class (and I use that term loosely). I really, REALLY wanted to have a pretty font. That’s all I was asking for. But due to web safe fonts, it was a bitch to do that. So what did I do? I put my font in as an image and wrote the image into my code. Simple solution at the time right? Teacher was amazed, ended up getting asked to tutor… all for one stupid revelation that we weren’t taught in class.

Google has now officially fixed (or at least helped) that pain in the ass situation. What they have been working on is a Google Font Directory, where developers and designers can submit their fonts for us to use, so that developers, designers and coders can use the Google Font API to enhance their websites with more web-safe fonts.

With each font, there’s the html code that you’ll insert into your site so that it can read, accept and display it. The html will look something to this effect to link it to the external style sheet:

<link href=’http://fonts.googleapis.com/css?family=Cantarell‘ rel=’stylesheet’ type=’text/css’>

and the CSS will look like:

h1 { font-family: ‘Cantarell‘, arial, serif; }

…doesn’t seem too complicated at all.It said it works in “most browsers”, so I’m assuming Chrome for sure, but I’m questioning Firefox (because it’s touchy about a lot of things) as well as IE. Safari will most likely easily support it.

I was looking around the interwebs today, looking for new social networking platforms etc, when I came across something called “Dribbble“… yes, with three B’s.

Dribbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbble is pretty much a “Twitter” for designers- you can show what you’re working on in 120,000 pixels or less; it’s called a “shot”. I think the concept is actually really cool- why should people who write get all the fun? I love looking at what other people are designing… mainly because I can’t design anything that looks better than a stick figure. Sometimes I get all Picasso though. Don’t ask.

Dribbble plays off of other ideas from Twitter, not just changing the 140 characters to 120,000 px but also:

• You can follow fellow Dribbblers.
• ‘Rebound’ and follow up with your own designs so they are linked as references.
• Comment….constructively of course.
• You can “like” the shots (they also took some elements of Facebook. THE HORROR!)
• You can also search through Dribbble by tags. I smell trending designs in the making.

Follow fellow Dribbblers. Say that 10 times fast.

The only catch for this neat website is that it’s invitation only. Another Dribbbler has to send you an invite so you can join and start participating in the community. It’s completely member driven.

You are allowed to post 24 shots each month- you get more when the month starts. For instance, if you have 15 left at the end of the month, you’ll receive 9 more shots on the 1st to make it 24 again.

I find websites like this interesting, because when they launch you’re like “oh DUH! Why didn’t I think of that? Of course we should have made a visual twitter for designers.” But often the obvious escapes us and we just don’t think about things like that. Maybe we should all start analyzing social networking sites. There’s bound to be something we’re missing.

I actually have a list of features I feel that certain websites are missing and I would like to incorporate it into a new site to launch The problem is, in true life fashion, every time I think of a website, application or cool idea… it gets released. THE WORLD IS READING MY MIND!

Of course there’s ALSO the little problem of me always wanting to start 80 billion projects and burning myself out. One day I’ll stop being so typical and actually finish something astounding. Something good has to be coming out of this brain of mine, with all the ideas I churn around!

So I’ll leave you with this… what else do you feel social networking websites are missing or moving towards?

Time for bed.

It’s Sunday! The glorious day which was created specifically for relaxation, being lazy and indulging in guilty pleasures. Therefore I don’t have any kind of interesting news I want to write about, but a few thoughts floating around here and there that I figured I would jot in here.

I spend a lot of my time stalking websites that can benefit my technology and science addiction creativity in some way… whether it be design tutorials for color inspiration, websites geared towards free lance writing, technology blogs (to hone in on various people’s writing styles and skills) and personal websites. Doing this everyday keeps my brain in focus for writing. In order to writer better, you have to read more. How else are you going to get inspired? Where else will you find your aspirations, if not from the desire within yourself to be as good as the writers that you enjoy reading? What is it EXACTLY that makes me want to keep going back to certain websites, excited to read new articles? What can I pick apart that draws me to it? Usually it’s their writing style. There is something so distinct and catchy that I just can’t get enough.

There are two main things that exist to someone in the creative field, aside from their own talent. Inspiration and aspiration. I’m a writer, clearly, and I know what it’s like to aspire to be a “Houdini with words”, mimicking great writers of old and new literature. I write, edit, change wording around, write more, drink a cup of coffee, rip my hair out edit more, then begrudgingly complete it. I read so many amazing pieces and wonder if my writing can ever hold up to those standards or even be of the same caliber. Design, writing, art, music… it’s all so subjective. What is phenomenal to one person may be “ehhhh…” to another. Of course, it’s hard to not want to smack the “ehhhh…” person upside the head and ask what wonderful things they’ve written/designed/composed lately, but we don’t do that. We are supposed to be calm, cool, artsy creatives. I personally don’t fit that category, seeing as I’m a sarcastic hot-head, so maintaining my composure is generally harder than the typical “artsy creative” person.

When we see something that inspires us it rings a bell in our head. Shines a light in our eyes, if you will. That little something activates a trigger that makes us think “I aspire to do that”.  Then we set our aspirations high and vow to ourselves that we will reach that level of utopia. However, with all good, comes the bad. Shane is like me. He spends time playing scrabble with me always seeking inspiration, so that he can integrate new things into his design work to achieve a clean well thought out look. Sometimes I email him websites or work I come across during MY inspiration-hunt that I KNOW he’ll love, and that will inspire him. Now, like I said, there is always a bad side. I know he is reading this (Hi Shane!) but he has already heard me say this, and actually suggested I write on a topic like this and inspired me to do so, for everyone else who feels this way that is a creative field. [NOTE:incredibly long run on sentence. Bad thing to do.]  Shane is amazing at what he does- he is an extremely talented designer. His advantage is that he can both design AND code- something that most people can only do one or the other of. He gets blindsided by other people’s work, but fails to see how great his own work truly is. The problem is that we aspire so hard to be as “great” as the ones who inspire us, that we overlook our own budding talent. We also feel like we should “be as good as this person” or “write as well as this person” when… well, while they are great and talented, we may be as great and talented as them- we just aren’t on the same level of exposure as them. Who knows how many tries or mistakes, and how much time it takes to actually get their final result, that we so badly crave to achieve.

Creativity comes from within. Some people have it, and some people seriously lack it (you can spot them a mile away). So if you have it, use your ability to be inspired, take that, and manipulate it into something beautiful. Use this to spark inspiration in others. Creativity is a blessing, not a given right.

If you are looking for a great designer/coder, I have one for you. Please visit his website: http://www.shanewaite.com

You can also contact him via email- contact@shanewaite.com

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Let me start this off with a personal declaration; stating something that most of you who know me [or read my website] already know. I LOVE POST IT NOTES! I have all different colors, use them haphazardly, as well as include them in anything I can in and around my desk. There may or may not be blank ones hanging around as well just for the sole joy of peeling them. If I could materialize 3M into a human, I would probably hug and squeeze them tightly… and make them my personal office slave helper.

[note: slight exaggeration there in case a genius or two couldn't pick up on that]

browsing the interwebs, I stumbled across this amazing stop-motion post it note video. This probably took hours upon hours and is really impressive. Impressive as in I wish I thought of it first. BEHOLD! With a great “thanks for the awesomeness” to Bang-Yao, I bring you, the sneaky post-its caught on video. Someone needs to squash that smiley bomb. Continue reading for the Mona Lisa coffee cup art.

Deadline by Bang-yao Liu. from Umberto Cigognini on Vimeo.

Here’s another great example of art through a different median. This Mona Lisa, on display at the Rocks Aroma Festival in Sydney, Australia, was created using 3,604 cups of coffee with various amounts of coffee and creamer contained in them for her shading. Whoever was behind this put in A LOT of hard work to make this work of art. It’s a modern day take on an old masterpiece.

You can follow me on Twitter, as well as join my Facebook fan page.