Happy Valentine’s Day
Pantone Color of the Year – Radiant Orchid
Pantone’s color of 2014 – Radiant Orchid (PANTONE 18-3224) blends both cool and warm tones and makes for distinctive combinations.
“An enchanting harmony of fuchsia, purple and pink undertones, Radiant Orchid inspires confidence and emanates great joy, love and health. It is a captivating purple, one that draws you in with its beguiling charm.”
– Leatrice Eiseman, Executive Director, Pantone Color Institute®
Winter Games
This week marked the beginning of the 22nd Winter Olympics, officially the XXII Olympics Winter Games, in Sochi, Russia.
Ninety-eight events in fifteen winter sports are scheduled to take place at two new venues constructed specifically for the event – an Olympic Park in the Imeretin Valley on the coast of the Black Sea and in the Krasnaya Polyana Mountains.
The Olympics have been surrounded by all sorts of controversy and the logo was one of the objects of discussion when it was released. Russia opted for an all typrographic treatment and sochi2014.ru is the first olympic emblem that also forms a web address.
Dmitry Chernyshenko, president of the International Olympic Committee, was quoted: “To prove our commitment to innovation, Sochi 2014 will have a clearly digital Games emblem. Today, we welcome tomorrow. We are offering invitation, an icon and an inspiration to people from across the world to celebrate the thrill of Russia’s first Olympic Winter Games. …”
Its (semi-)mirrored typography is intended to represent Sochi’s location on the Black Sea, “at the meeting point of the sea and the mountains.”
XXII Olympics Winter Games also inspired supporting graphics, which are intended to express the character of modern Russia, while alluding to traditional Russian arts and crafts. The “patchwork quilt” concept appears on the official website, as well as signage, infrastructure and many souvenirs.
Some people around the web were inspired to take the diamond shape and create related graphics.
Superbowl Round-Up
Last nights Super Bowl ads covered the gamut from plain to just plain strange. Most advertisers stayed within the safer realm of promoting their products, going for cute rather controversial, with some retro for good measures.
Here are some of the more notable ads from last night:
- John Colbert turns into a (creepy) Pistachio
- Ellen Degeneres dances happily ever after to Beats Music as Goldilocks with the Three Bears
- Hyundai Genesis & Dads have a sixth sense
- Gracie the little Cheerios girl is good at negotiations
- RadioShack didn’t take itself too serious
- Tim Tebow is happy without a contract and T-Mobile
- Dannon Oikos Greek Yogurt was a bit tongue in cheek
- Turbo Tax compared your taxes to the Super Bowl
- Funny Doritos Time Machine
Watch them ALL here. Which one was your favorite?
Happy Groundhog Day!
“Today is tomorrow! It happened!”
Groundhog Day 1993
Football & Foodies
This Sunday is not only Groundhog Day, it’s also the celebration of one of America’s favorite pastimes, watching football (and extra hyped commercials), plus a good portion of eating. While there is always a debate about spending and ROI for Super Bowl ads, it’s the one time a year that people are actually looking forward to watching the commercials. … and enjoying lots of food.
Pizza parlors across the country are gearing up for Sunday’s big game, because the Super Bowl doesn’t only inspire some great ads, but also some serious eating.
Check out this infographic by FoodyDirect:
National Handwriting Day
January 23 is a day to celebrated the birth of John Hancock. National Handwriting Day was chosen as he was the first man to sign the Declaration of Independence with a flourish!
I have to admit, I have a passion for all types of papers especially handcrafted paper. A freshly sharpened No. 2 pencil beats writing on a keyboard any day. I even carry a sketch pad around with me at all times to jot down or doodle those inspired ideas when I’m suddenly struck.
A love letter or letter of appreciation is not quite the same when sent from an email address, now is it? So why don’t you celebrate this handwriting day with a written note to someone special.
Nesting
Nest, the company founded by former Apple engineers Tony Fadell and Matt Rogers, made some big waves last week when news surfaced that the Palo Alto, California based manufacturer of new smart technology was bought by search giant Google for 3.2 billion dollars.
Then again it should not have been surprising at all. Since its launch in 2010 Nest has reinvented the thermostat and just recently debuted an ultra smart smoke & carbon-monoxite detector. Those are fairly boring pieces of technology, but Nest took them, made them smarter and had some fun along the way.
Back in November when the company launched the new smoke & carbon-monoxide detector they purchased an old fire engine from Craig’s list, pimped it all out and went around California promoting their latest product – pretty genius marketing on top of great product innovation.
In a blog entry from January 13, 2014 Tony Fadell, Nest’s founder and CEO states: “Nest will continue to be Nest, with its own distinct brand identity. We will continue to reimagine and reinvent the unloved products that proliferate in our homes, just as we have since we started. We are simply going to get our products into the hands of people around the world – faster.”
We have both products in our house and my technology-loving husband couldn’t wait to get his hands on them. The Thermostat has been saving us a bunch of “leaves” since we got it almost two years ago, but our smoke-/carbon-monoxide detector went off a few days ago for the first time, while I was making some toast, which got just a bit too crispy – aka burnt. I had left the room for a minute and not only did I get alerted by the other devices talking to each other across the house, that there was smoke in the kitchen, my husband got an in-app alert on his smart phone, complete with suggestions what to do in case of a fire.
After waving at the smoke alarm, like it instructed us to do in case of a false alarm, the device went off. Once the smoke settled we were informed once again via an in-app message, that the smoke was clearing. Pretty cool stuff.
Wig Out…
Long before we were all “tickled” by Elmo there were the Cabbage Patch Kids. The first toy to create a holiday shopping frenzy is a viral sensation once again. A child of the 80’s and mom-to-be from Georgia, created these super cute hats resembling Cabbage Patch Kids hair styles, changing real babies into doll faces.
We’re sure they will put a smile on your face too!