http://www.flickr.com/photos/bluejake/2140742518/

I’ve always been interested in street culture and how it translates into art. As a former “graffiti artist” gone legit, it’s cool to see how the art form is constantly evolving and finding its ways into mainstream marketing. Whenever I drive to work and see some new graffiti on a building, I instantly go into critique mode. Usually the graffiti is absolutely horrible and it makes me mad because it makes the neighborhood look run down, but sometimes, it can be really cool. There is a difference between vandalism and graffiti art. Check out Smashing Magazines “Tribute to Graffiti: 50 Beautiful Graffiti Artworks” and let us know what you think.

I’ve always been interested in type design, and the infinite ways that you can display even a single letter. My professor in school used to tell us how, before anyone had computers, type design was a daunting task. He had to draw each character by hand on a piece of paper, trying to achieve the perfect curves and proportions that come together to form a harmonious letter. Afterward, the characters would have to be cast for use in printing processes.

Now, I can create my own fonts through an internet application. Font Shop, an online font licensor, has offered to the public a free flash application called FontStruct, where you can fairly easily create your own fonts using modular shapes on a grid. While font design still requires truly great skill to produce anything of merit, this app certainly opens the doors for experimentation. And it’s pretty amazing what some of the users have come up with, as you can see from the gallery. You can also download user fonts for free for personal use.

My very basic attempt at the letter 'A'.

I am amazed with the complexity of how toy manufacturers use the Internet to market their wares and with the sophistication of children’s web sites. Corporate America should be forewarned. Kids are growing up with high expectations and will be acutely aware of who is communicating with them, effectively, and on their terms.

iCarly.com
iCarly is a TV show about a teenage girl who runs a popular web site and her life as a kid. There is a real web site, iCarly.com that touts the aspects of the show and has some features and content simialar to the fictitious site. If there were an actual site as the one portrayed on the show, it would be pretty darn good. The format of the site and skits produced are in line with what is successful online today: comedy, live video, social media. The show also deals with the issues of running a web site:  visitor counts, technical issues, promotion and sponsorship. They don’t sell a product other than the iCarly brand, which is enough, but they do educate kids on the Internet. Excellent show.

Lego.com
This is the granddaddy of all kids sites with full-blown sites dedicated to each product line. It has a robust online community where kids can create their own web page, have friends and post text and a gallery of pictures of their Lego creations complete with a rating system.

You can download the Lego Digital Designer application that allows you to build anything you want out of a library of Lego parts – all shown in 3-dimentional perspective. Then you can purchase the pieces used in your creation, ala cart, from Lego. In just a few weeks you can build your creation at home using the real parts and diagram downloaded from their site. Awesome!

There are Shockwave games and videos that create storylines which in turn promote the creative use of their products: Star Wars, Indiana Jones, Bionicals and Mars Mission. This content supercharges kids’ imaginations and creates want for Lego merchandise. Brilliantly done.

Webkinz.com
Purchasing one of these little cuddlies is your child’s ticket into their virtual world. Each Webkinz comes with a code that is registered on the site. Like Lego.com, Weknis.com has a strong social media presence and character developing content to immerse kids into the world of Webkins while constantly and subtly selling merchandise. This company portrays its web site as something that is exclusive, creating interest and need to buy a Webkins to belong. Powerful persuasion, don’t you think?

Nick.com
As the primary web presence for Nickelodeon TV, Nick.com contains everything that is Nickelodeon. My favorite section is the games. Nick uses games to immerse young fans into the show’s story and characters enhancing the bond between them. It’s very effective.

Toonami Jetstream
This was a super cool site designed by Japanese web geniuses to show videos for the Cartoon Network and featured many anime offerings such as Pokemon. It has been recently replaced by http://www.cartoonnetwork.com/video/, which is nothing close to Toonami’s outstanding design, but Cartoon Network is well aware of the need to have episodes of their shows online for young viewers to access and almost every cartoon has unique content just for the web.

These are a few examples. The bar is set high. Kid’s sites are cool. So come on corporate America, keep up with these companies that focus on kids, or you won’t be able to impress your future consumers online.

In this era of waste, “sustainability” is both a strategy and a buzzword.
The idea of packaging water in a plastic container has always seemed kind
of odd to me. Although convenient, the plastic bottles add up pretty quick.
Back in the day, we use to supply bottled water to our studio. It was pretty
easy to see that not only our recycling bin would fill up quickly, but it was a huge waste of effort and money.

www.justdrinkingwater.com

Well, one UK company must be thinking the same way and has decided to jump in on the Go Green bandwagon and package water like a juice box. The packaging is supposedly 70% paper made from sustainable and renewable trees. I wonder if we will see other companies soon following Aquapax lead? I guess their numbers will tell the end of the story.

www.chernerchair.com

Norman Cherner’s 1958 molded plywood chair has to be one of the most beautiful examples of mid-century furniture design utilizing the technique. If only I was as good at bending plywood as I am pushing pixels…

At Big Wheel, we like to think of ourselves not only as branding and digital media studio, but also as an ideation think tank. Bev-Wrap is one of those ideas that we took beyond idea and turned it into a nice promotional product. It is essentially a beverage cooler, but is different because its flexible design works with virtually any cup size. It also has a large imprint area for branding, themes, or promotions. To learn more, check out bev-wrap.com.

Unfortunately for all of us, people’s visions for the future are often much more exciting and interesting than what actually happens.  During the first half of the twentieth century, people’s opinions of the future were optimistic, to say the least (flying cars, robots that do your housework, rayguns). Now that we’re past the time when these things were supposed to be reality, they’ve become a sort of nostalgic vision of the future. In the 1980’s someone coined the term ‘retro futurism’ to describe this genre.

In the future, you have to lay down to drive your car.

Syd Mead, a conceptual retro-futuristic illustrator who also helped design the sets for the movies Tron, Blade Runner, and Alien, has created some of my favorite visions of the future. His illustrations are sleek, saturated neon landscapes that often feature some sweet rides that sort of reek of the 80’s. See more of his work here on Flickr.

I’m still waiting for my flying car.

I use to skateboard. We would jump down flights of stairs, slide down handrails, and do things that make my knees hurt just thinking about it today. 

But this guy takes it to a new level. Back flip on a big wheel down a huge ramp.

Check it out.