Wang Bang and Bose? Watch out for these!

Watch out Bose, the sound reducing headphone market is exploding with savvy cool brands and design. This weekend, I noticed at leave four different hot brands on a flight, and I wanted them all. Do they sound as great as Bose? If not, they look better, but looks aren't everything, right?

 Hmmm.... I'm now not so sure. Like bikes, sneakers, homegoods and jewelry, headphones are making huge design leaps, and, best of all, they are layering in a huge does of lifestyle to boot. These folks know their target, and their market. 

Thanks to Thrillist, check these latest ones out...Named after a Chinese factory worker with really awesome parents, FW's a new high-end headphone-maker CEO'd by a former Netscape dude and developed by a sound engineer from Monster, offering Bose-quality sound at half the price of an N.W.A+ brand like Beats by Dr. Dre. Available as crisp black, red, or white over-ears, these sound-enhancers feature an aluminum-hinged duo-fold structure that lets you fold them into a more-compact Nerf football shape, plus a four-way noise canceling solution and custom-paired titanium-plated drivers to guarantee the sound is of the highest caliber, just like Omar's piece. Oh, indeed. Coolest of all, every pair comes with a built-in duo jack that uses an in-line cable splitter so you can plug in a second pair of headphones and share crystal clear highs and mids with your bros, which'll come in handy the next time there's a dispute over who gets to watch Fried Green Tomatoes first.

Expect to see FW's noise canceling headphones drop in the US sometime in July with expertly crafted, technology-backed over-ear sound delivery, which was no doubt a painful process for Mrs. Mutombo Mpolondo Mukamba Jean-Jacques Wamutombo.

Read more: http://www.thrillist.com/node/222120#ixzz1Nw6sjjQy

Millennials, Gen X want more from the retail experience

Considering re-inventing your retail space? You're not alone. read here about how JWTIntelligence writes about the trend.

Data point: Millennials, Gen X want more from the retail experience

Discovering David Klein

While searching for some period influence for art posters, I can across a site for artist David Klein ( 1918 -2005), and I realized that I am more familiar with his work that I had thought. Since my father was also ( is also) an illustrator and graphic artist from the same era in New York ( 1914- ), I recognized the style and many of the pieces from his studio. If you are looking to design vintage looking type, posters or advertising inspired by the mid twentieth Century, you must review the work of David Klein.

The original 1960's travel poster that inspired the Orbitz poster.

David Klein is more will known for his Broadway window cards since his first job was for the theatrical advertising agency Clifford Strohl Associates in New York City. His illustrations for Broadway' dbrdy knoen shows of the era remains on of the most enduring hallmarks of the golden age of Broadway and graphic design.

Hi book illustration ranged from children's books to text book medical illustrations.

A New Generation Pushes the Big Brands Hip

LAB Partners design and Illustration's work for a new HP Retail Publishing group, who will appeal to a younger, hip consumer who expects more ( or less) from advertising. Thanks to the suaveness of Goodby, Silvertein and Partners, this idea grows into something completely new and fresh and very far away from the 1990's model of Neville Brody design that we still see so much of today in big business.

Happy Bottledays - Evian's Paul Smith Bottle

Evian launches a bottle designed by British fashion designer, Paul Smith. An icon gets madeover for the Holidays.

ADC Young Guns - Julien Vallée and pecha kuchaism

ADC Young Gun winner, Julien Valée may have presented a body of work at an Apple Store, but this could be a Window dislay equally, effective. It's high and low, tech, and could still sell the most sophisticated of electronics. Yeah, paper sculpture can sell technology today as well as a slick, perfectly shiny photo with a reflection, can. Maybe,even better. Take note, Apple.

Connecting with culture today takes much more than simply believing that modernity is the the answer. For, after all, what is modernity today, anyway? Recently, a number of factors are moving me, personally, to challenge conventional thinking when it comes to crafting creative design solutions. Mostly, I am exploring the curious trend of technology becoming more organic, and natural rather than the cliche expressions we see over and over again from the tech companies. Take Apple, for instance.

It's funny, and quite clear, to see brands beyond Apple, design packaging which is sold within the Apple stores. "Make it look like Apple" and suddenly, it's quaintly not new, not modern, not original, and definitely, not Apple. Sometimes, the answer can be found in the solution rather than the challenge. Creative people, who are brilliantly good at it, are discovering some amazingly elegant and yet, provocative ways to capture our attention. After all, marketing today should be more about engaging us ( even if it means, entertaining us) than boring us with the expected. The message, if presented effectively, can be said more in the experience, than in words.


Take Montreal ADC Young Gun Julien Vallée's work. Brilliantly new, a voice of today, if not tomorrow, and certainly worth noting.



Congrat's also, to ALSO, chicago design firm, and friends, who've I've been using for years for their creative collective minds. You go, Guys!

I can see the Future, and it's moving. Look out Harry Potter.

The idea that motion in print, in our magazine, newspapers, or whatever we end up calling our devices it going to become a reality, seems unavoidable given the progress that technology is making. According to Mashable last week, it's really going to happen, and I can't wait. "Two still mythical tablet devices, the Microsoft Courier and the Apple Tablet, are probably the hottest and most coveted devices that do not yet officially exist.

OLED TEchnology allows for bendable screens.

With print on paper magazines failing left and right, (good bye Gourmet), and with everyone freaking out about books, magazines, journals and print going away for ever, and even with libraries closing, books and newspapers leaving our shelves and doorsteps, there comes along a disruption - thank you Harry Potter, and your world of moving images in Newspapers...maybe this fantasy will become reality sooner than we think ( Thanks Gizmodo) (Via Designdust).

I have always believed that even though many things which are creatively produced in our life are now repeating, that in reality, we are just in a time of tremendous change, a time of transition, a cultural florescence may be about to happen. Print may not be going away, only the medium. In our world where magazines seem old fashioned and quaint, we still love our printed medium, but we want it free, or at least in high def. Think about it////this Holiday season, many of us want an Amazon Kindle, next year, we may want a 4 color version, or a Microsoft Courier, even an Apple Tablet. Print isn't leaving us, it's only getting better. Much better. It's becoming motion-print, and not unlike those black and white newspaper photos in the Harry Potter films, we may actually be entering a whole new era of design and creativity that can, indeed, change everything.


OLED Technology allows for flexible, video

Sure, it may take a few years, but I can't help but to imagine that these digital devices are only a stepping stone to newer mediums, and with the introduction of flexible video by Sony and Samsung, the idea of 'Living Magazines" may not be that far off. The future of flexible video may be pricey now, at least to be disposable, but maybe it isn't disposable? And, come to think of it, the idea of me finding a $10,000 plasma screen TV seemed unimaginable 5 years ago, now, they are at discount stores for less than 300 bucks. As an avid reader and a fan of scientific and botanical journals, this concept may change how plant societies and main line magazines, if not certainly advertising, will consider print in the not too distant future.