I have always been a fan of “Sailor Jerry” Collins and his famous traditional style of tattooing. With that in mind, I decided to pay my respects to one of his favorite subjects, the classic pirate ship, with a painting of my own. Like most of my work, this was done on a brilliant white painted canvas with strong contrasting color and several layers of gloss finish. I just hope the good Sailor Jerry would have liked it. Enjoy!

Funny story,  at least for me. My wife was talking with someone who kept refering to this hot new thing on the Internet – Twizzle. She immediately recognized this reference was really about Twitter. There was a third person in the conversation that agreed they had heard of Twizzle as well and they all should get involved. My wife did not correct them. It’s a shame to spoil good humor.

I suggested Twizzle is a hot new social-media site founded by Snoop Dogg.

A while back Scott posted about free music. My favorite resource is the Live Music Archive. 63,651 recordings; 3,504 bands. Now that’s a lot of free music.

It has been stated by many a consumer psychologist that when times are tough, the one thing that people don’t want to give up is their image. However, when money is tight, the ability to splurge on those $600 Manolo Blahniks or that “to die for” Gucci purse comes into serious question.

Enter Hollywhirl: http://www.hollywhirl.com, the brainchild of a highly successful woman entrepreneur who had built a powerhouse of high-end fashion resale in the brick and mortar world, but recognized the potential of an online marketplace for web-savvy shoppers to access couture pieces at bargain pricing.

Big Wheel was commissioned to build this virtual boutique from the ground up: The name, the logo/persona, and the ecommerce platform that has allowed this business to flourish. While we were at it, we also built a small photo studio for the client, as well as provided training in the use and customization of the site and commerce engine.

Now hailed as one of the best sites on the net for those with champagne appetites and sparkling wine pocketbooks, Hollywhirl is proof positive that you can have your cake and eat it too.

If you’re fond of Classic American Muscle Cars, you have to agree that the Dodge Challenger SRT8 is a refreshing sight to the auto industry. With classic lines and details like the retro styled front grill, it takes you back to the 60’s and 70’s where these type of cars reigned supreme. Brains meets brawn in this rendition of the Challenger. The 6.1-liter Hemi engine gives you 425 horse power with 420 foot pounds of torque all the while reducing overall emissions. With all this performance and size, you still manage to pull 22 mpg highway. The Electronic Vehicle Information Center gives you all the stats like average mpg, miles to empty, maintenance intervals, digital speedometer, braking distance, 1/4 mile and 1/8 mile timers to name a few.

It’s not going to get any environmentalists cheering but still gives you cleaner emissions and better gas mileage than those of yesteryear, without sacrificing the extreme power and performance for which most enthusiasts yearn.

You definitely can’t fault the design department for the financial problems the auto companies are having. With all the style of classic lines and the latest technology, the Dodge Challenger SRT8 is one great looking car.

Effective communication is vital to the success of any project. Effective communication makes your, and the others around you, job easier. Here are a few tips I’d like to share with you to help improve communication in your organization and improve the outcomes of your projects.

Small Teams Rock
Companies often mitigate risk by getting more people involved in a project. There’s a “the more, the better” philosophy, when nothing further could be the truth. Here’s a simple formula that measures communication channels to prove my point.

C = ( N ( N – 1 ) ) / 2   [From the Project Management Institute]

N = number of people involved in a project
C = number of communication channels

If there are 4 people in a project, there are 6 communication channels. 6 people = 15 communication channels. 10 people = 45 channels.

The number of communication channels increases dramatically. This number means more work to manage communication and an increased risk of miscommunication. If you want to be efficient, keep your teams as small as possible.

Make Sure You are Understood
Communication has not occurred until the receiving party understands the meaning of the message. Just because an e-mail was sent, you have no way of knowing it was read, or understood. Require a suitable reply so you are confident your message was effective. Whether it’s e-mail, a phone conversation or a person-to-person meeting, it is your responsibility to make sure you are understood, not the other person’s to figure out what you meant.

E-mail Peeves: CC, Reply To, Reply To All & Subjects
CC-ing people on e-mails is THE biggest cause of over-filled Inboxes in corporate America today. CC-ing leads to the Reply To All, exaggerating the problem. Only send e-mails to those who absolutely need to receive them. This is a lazy habit fueled by the need to cover one’s ass. Please stop the madness.

Another lazy habit is using an old e-mail for a reply instead of starting a fresh message. This creates an issue with having a subject that does not relate to the contents of the message. This equates to lost information. Help your fellow co-workers by writing relevant subjects and sending e-mails on topic.

E-mail is Not Always the Correct Method
Everyone gets tons of e-mail every day. There’s a lot of noise and clutter in one’s Inbox. If you need something, call the person. Make sure to actually talk to them -  not just leave a message.  If the issue is important, talk to the person(s) in person. Seventy percent of human communication is visual. This is totally lost over the phone.

Meetings Suck
There is not a greater consumer of work hours than meetings. Little work gets done and most attendees sit idly by while others discuss issues irrelevant to them. If you really want to communicate more effectively and get a lot more work accomplished. Don’t have as many meetings, keep the meetings short and with only key people. I recommend standing meetings. These are short, to-the-point meetings where no one sits down and only people close to the topics discussed are present. No food. No vacation discussion. All business. They are very effective.

I’m sure you have seen the font Comic Sans. The playful typeface was created to look like the same font used in comic books. Currently, in the design underworld, there is a relatively big feud between font enthusiasts as to whether or not it should be banned. Certainly there couldn’t be an official ban, but with its increasing popularity, font purist seem to be rebelling at its lack of beauty. Check out the Wall Street Journals recent article for the full story on Comic Sans.

Unbeknownst to many of our clients, Big Wheel does more than put together Web sites for Marketing/Communications – much more, in fact.

Last year, we were commissioned to begin development on a Web application aimed at providing property owners & leasers a way to protect their physical assets against the threats of natural disaster, fire, theft, etc…

The challenge inherent in this task was to build a piece of software that provides flexibility, scalability and simplicity of use: all while housing it in a contemporary interface that would appeal to “2.0” users, who will no doubt be it largest base of customers.

Introducing MyVault: A revolutionary system that allows you to record, upload and store information and images of possessions and documentation in a “cloud” environment, eliminating the potential of you losing that critical data at thetime when you need it most.

Check it: http://www.myvaulthome.com

1000 Acres Vodka packaging, posted on lovelypackage.com

Lovely Package® is yet another design loving site to add to your inspiration arsenal. Above is a post from their blog, featuring 1000 Acres Vodka. Wouldn’t you just love to drink this vodka? The packaging suggests to me that it would taste like delicious ice cold spring water and smell like Icelandic alpine tundra. Of course it probably just tastes like vodka and i would still like to mix it with something to mask the taste, but it demonstrates to me the power of good package design.

My love affair with two-wheeled motors has been rekindled. After a 10 year hiatus from riding – back then, mostly on large, chromed-out cruisers – I decided to wade back in: at the deep end of the pool.

I have always admired the lines and engineering of European bikes. Late last fall, I acquired a stock 1050 TRIUMPH Speed Triple. My father used to race for TRIUMPH in the 60’s, so i guess this was also a way to reconnect with my ace. (I miss you, buddy.)

As customization and/or personalization has become a given in the modern world, I decided I would bring a bit of the “me, me, me” flavor to my scoot. Let me tell you – wrenching on a machine and getting one’s hands dirty is far more satisfying than pecking at the keyboard or pushing a mouse.

I have restyled the S3 by powder coating the shiny bits a glorious flat black (all the way down to the kickstand) and modding the exhaust  with a polish and port followed by a ceramic coat at JET-HOT in Cali. Added to this list are a set of carbon fiber racing cans and a new mid-pipe from across the pond at TRIDENT. Now this pony is ready to rumble – literally.

Long live the liter bike…