Archive for August, 2009

Friday Links: Bold statements, N00bs, and another advertising documentary

• 20 Killer iPhone Game Designs: I can vouch for the beauty of Sheep Abduction.
• In case you need some tips, How to effectively communicate with developers.
• 100 Artworks From the Top Digital Artists in the USA & Canada
• If this comic comparing Aldous Huxley and George Orwell doesn’t kind make you a little sad and afraid, it might already be too late for you.
• I like bold statements, especially ones like this: The most creative & skillful corporate web designs of all time (also, is it just me or does Silverback’s gorilla mascot look kinda busty for a gorilla?).
• Every 1337 parent fears the day their daughter brings home a n00b, this is a good one lifted from @the_nerdery’s twitter stream.
• And one more before the weekend begins, another trailer for an advertising documentary. This one’s called Lemonade and it’s about what people did after they got laid off.

Great Moments in Nerdery: The Nerd is the Word

Seuss said it first.

Historians and archeologists largely agree that Theodor Seuss Geisel penned the first recorded use of the word “nerd.” To readers without the right kind of eyes, it was not entirely clear what he meant.

In his 1950 book “If I Ran the Zoo,” the young protagonist Gerald McGrew is bored with all the typical animals that he’s seen before – so  his imagination conjures new ones, and they get weirder and more exotic as Gerald’s mind travels further.

Shshshsh, let’s listen in: “”And then, just to show them, I’ll sail to Ka-Troo/And Bring Back an It-Kutch a Preep and a Proo/A Nerkle a Nerd and a Seersucker, too!”

The literary world resoundingly agrees that if Dr. Seuss ever wrote a throwaway line, this was not it. Within this context, linguists of every tongue share the conclusion that “nerd” was first loosely defined as …. hmm  … huh? What the …. What kind of doctor…

And what if “nerkle” had caught on instead of ”nerd” as a word? Would you instead be reading Inside the Nerklery?

Who are we?

We’re #1346

Surely you’d agree that getting named to the Inc. 5000 list of fastest-growing companies requires us to toot or own horn a bit.

Toot. Toot.

We don’t have much else to say besides, SWEET! If you want more information, you’re more than welcome to go read the Press Release about this auspicious occasion.

The Blogger Oath requires mentioning the FriendFeed/Facebook thing

If I don’t mention that Facebook bought FriendFeed yesterday, I think I get my official Blogger Badge revoked. I like my Blogger Badge, so in case you haven’t been on the Internet at all in the past 24 hours, here’s the news:

I kind of like how @the_nerdery presented the news:

If, like probably 90% of the Internet you don’t care or are already sick of the story, you should go read something that really matters. Go read the obituary of Eunice Kennedy Shriver, who more than being a Kennedy, or the mother-in-law of Arnold Schwarzenegger, single-handedly changed the world by inventing the Special Olympics and becoming an advocate for people with mental retardation. It will remind you of the difference a single individual can make in the world.

How big do you want the logo sir? Art & Copy is a documentary about advertising

Holy crap do I want to see this. Sadly, it’s not playing in Minnesota anytime soon but eventually it will have to come out on DVD, right?

Friday Links: Tips for raising a geek girl & can graphic design make you cry?

• Did you know the late John Hughes started his career in advertising? Me neither. (also, this is the sweetest, most heartfelt tribute to the director)
• Humans prefer cockiness to expertise.
• Can Graphic design make you cry?
• The Do’s and Don’t's of Modern Web Design
• A Timeline of the Pepsi and Coke logos
• 5 Tips for Raising Your Geek Girl

The Design Management App

From Lunchbreath’s Flickr photostream, originally drawn for Core77.com.

Say so long to the splat & other logo news

It’s nice to see that I’m not the only one who was a little stunned by the news that Nickelodeon, the kid’s TV network, is ditching the iconic splat logo in favor of some boring, round, sans-serif logo. Coming on the heels of the news of Les Lye’s death, the man who played the male grown-up characters on “You Can’t Do That on Televison,” the new logo made me think, “Gosh, Nickelodeon, I don’t even know who you are anymore.” (We’ll just ignore the fact that I haven’t been an avid Nick watcher in a few decades).

But more than my self-pitying whine about the death of childhood icons, I wanted to point you in the direction of the discussion and breakdown of the new logo over at idsgn. It’s absolutely fascinating if you’re a brand/design/logo nerd (make sure you read the comments).

In other logo news, yes, believe it or not there is more logo news!

The logo for the planned Microsoft retail stores has been revealed. And if you guessed it would be sort of boring and confusing, you’re right!

Power to the People: UM’s Wave 4 Study on Global Social Media Use

Universal McCann’s Wave 4 research on global social media use is an eye-opening read for both social media users and the people who try to make money off of social media.

What I found most surprising is that while sharing photos, videos, and thoughts has not slacked off at all, the way people are sharing is changing. Where blogs, sharing sites like Flickr once dominated, people are now turning to social networks like Facebook to share.

Other surprising finds? With only 70% Internet penetration, the US falls behind the Nordics, Korea, Australia, Canada, and Japan. And, just because numbers like this are fascinating, of the 96 million active Internet users,

• 63.7 million are blog readers
• 31.9 million are bloggers
• 57.8 million actively manage a social network profile
• 79.9 million are video watchers

You can take a look at the slides below, or download a pdf of the study.

Top 20 Minnesota Social Media Innovators

Over at Communications Conversations, Arik Hanson took nominees and came up with a list of the Top 20 Minnesota Social Media Innovators. It’s a great list filled with some of our favorites, who I was going to name but thought better of it.

Anyway, we would like to say and, really mean it not in some sort of schmoozy just lost an Oscar kind of way, it really was an honor that @the_nerdery was nominated.

Speaking of Twitter and all that good stuff, you should check out The Guardian’s story about being inside Twitter HQ.