There’s fair-trade, and cause-driven philanthropic brands that give a portion of their profits toward charity, but aside from consciously buying products from locally-sourced small business owners, I feel overwhelmed when it comes to tackling my Target shopping list. Am I contributing to a greater good when I buy brand-name Scotch tape, or is my patronage somehow supporting child labor in Vietnamese sweatshops?
This holiday season, I’m encouraging my friends and family to think about where their dollars are going when they buy sparkly gift-sets from the mall or marked-down festive fleece from the local chain retailer. But let’s be honest…
We’ve had our crafty mitts on 4th Gen Apple TV developer’s kit for almost two months, and we’re just about ready to participate in the #FutureOfTelevision when it comes to building stuff for it. The reviews are in, and we think it’s cool that Siri now lives on our flat screen and not just on in our pockets. It’s cool that we can use the remote control to play games. But, as the resident skeptic, I have to ask, “Future of TV? Really?”
The answer is, probably not. But “dumb phones” are making a comeback.
It has less to do with the new Adele video than you think. (Here’s the director’s answer for why Adele has a flip phone in her latest video, “Hello” versus a smartphone. )
‘Steve and I spend a lot of time on the packaging […] I love the process of unpacking something. You design a ritual of unpacking to make the product feel special. Packaging can be theater, it can create a story.’
– Jonathan Ives, Apple lead designer
We all know the fleeting satisfaction that comes with tearing a tag off a new garment, ripping the wrapper off a never-been-opened DVD case, or–wait for it — peeling off the clear plastic screen protector off a fresh iPhone. It brings us inexplicable good feelings and joy. And apparently, watching other people “unbox”…
I’m no expert on what makes a genius idea. I only know what works and what doesn’t. And I guess I don’t even know that much, all the time. That’s why we play and experiment with new technologies and app prototypes, and we discover that the strongest ideas come from places of actual human stories, which is what you’ll read in any beginner’s book to advertising, art, or engineering, you name it. Most of the time the ideas are so simple, you’ll wonder why it hadn’t been thought of sooner. Many times we’ll hit an obstacle in the user flow…
Get off your phone and out of my face.
Before I was a copywriter, I worked as an office manager for a production company. When we would hire new people, I often got sucked into the role of “interviewer” because of how unassuming and/or intimidating I was or wasn’t. I really looked forward to it, not because it put me in a position of power, but because I could pretend to make notes on the applicant’s resume while really all I was doing was tally-marking every time they used the word, “like.” Do you realize how much more attractive, intelligent…
It’s been the Age of Unicorns for a hot minute now, with some of our everyday go-to services coming from the minds of creative unicorns that saw an opportunity to fulfill a need, and deliver immediately. They’re disrupting conventional industries as we once knew them, riding the momentum of new technology, smartphones, and users like me who wouldn’t be able to hail a cab if their life depended on it. They have us meeting strangers off the Internet and getting into cars them and sleeping in their treehouses all over the world. When I asked around the office, some of…
Over the centuries, the self-portrait has lived in the world as a clear portrayal of self-expression. From Frida Kahlo, who painted endless portraits of herself, to Chuck Close, who used photography of his visage, to now Kim Kardashian, who has published a rather large photo book of only Selfies — people have created their own narratives and sense-of-self through this form of visual representation. Even cave men drew pictures on their walls of themselves in action, expressing their daily life.
Since the camera came into existence, many started taking photographs of themselves using cameras in mirrors, or with extended cables…
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