What to do about Vista

Microsoft's latest version of Windows, Vista, has been taking flak from the tech community for years. Even while in development, journalists and geeks were moaning about the incompatibility, the performance, the multiple versions, and pretty much every other attribute …

Kentucky Grilled Chicken?

I purposefully didn't post on April Fool's Day because I don't want to deceive you, my dear readers. But the following tale appears to be for serious.

Kentucky Fried Chicken has decided to add the word "grilled" to their name, thus making them Kentucky Fried & Grilled …

March: MIA

As often happens, I find myself saying "what happened to March!" A quick look at the calendar on this site shows that I didn't spend as much time blogging as usual, although the reason escapes me.

March was a slow month. Slow news, few observations, few working days, …

Services as Products

Insurance doesn't come in a box. That's just ridiculous! A policy is written down on a few sheets of paper, but there's no need for a box. I mean, it's not a product ... Or is it!?

According to a few new ads from Progressive, insurance is not only a product, but it's …

Gordon Ramsay, master of branding

Gordon Ramsay has made a name for himself in the kitchen. As a chef and restauranteur, he's at the height of his craft. His television success only punctuates his culinary career. But he's not just a chef, he's a master of re-branding, as we've seen on Fox's Kitchen …

Advertising=Pwned

My prayers have been answered! I have finally found a way to block ads in Safari! The program is called SafariBlock from FSB Software. Go download and install it right now!

Designing a Design School

Here's a question for you design-savvy readers: What would you do if you could create a design school from scratch? What would you look for in prospective students? What courses would they take? How much professional influence would there be? How much academic …

Nothing On: Thoughts on Television

Law & Order: Always On

"There's nothing on!" is the now-classic complaint uttered by Americans over the last 60 or so years. We love watching that thing -- it makes us laugh, cry, think, and even has the power to make us angry, inspired or otherwise moody. The rest of …

New Thinking on R

As a freelancer [and perpetual job-hunter], I'm never too far from a fresh copy of my r

Go Forth and Blog

The other night I went to a networking event during which a fella asked me, in not so many words, "how can I boost my online presence?" My answer: start a blog.

I have been writing this crazy little blog for over two years, and ever since my Google rating has been on …

Follow Me

By now, the geek community is in love in Twitter. For about a year, folks have been keeping in touch using the tool to answer the preemptive questions "What are you doing right now?".

I was resistant to Twitter for a long time, mainly because my life isn't that …

Is eBay over?

The other day, I was shopping for a laptop stand and I did my usual price comparison on sites like Amazon, TigerDirect, and NewEgg. For the first time in a long time, I checked eBay, and remembered why I don't use the site anymore.

eBay is without a doubt one of the …

How Photoshop Stole an Election

This isn't a political blog, per se, but lately the US elections have been intruding upon the design profession. The latest drama surrounds a TV spot from the Hillary Clinton campaign in which the image of Barack Obama was altered to exaggerate his ethnic features.

The …

WTF Wednesday: Barista Donates Kidney to Customer

The customer service industry has been on a downward spiral for several years. But amid the noise and haste of minimum wage dummies working the tills at coffee chains across the globe, we have seen Starbucks as a notable standout. Still, I don't think any corporate …

Pepsi Raw: A Natural Approach

To say that a soda is all-natural sounds like an oxymoron. I mean, point me to the soda fruit. And while you might argue that flavours like orange, grape, and even kola are from the earth, I think we can all agree that carbonated beverages are the creation of man, not …

The Softer Side of Branding

Branding is big these days. Obviously. I have observed that in recent years everyone in the design business is also claiming to be a branding expert. But what are the true branding experts observing?

An article from DesignWeek in the UK illustrates how brands are …

Obama: Branding a Candidate

I've posted about it a number of times before, but Barack Obama's logo is awesome. And I'm clearly not the only one who thinks so.

Michael Bierut, partner at Pentagram and overall design impresario, has been interviewed about how and why the Obama logo is so …

Starbucks Closes! (Temporarily)

Yesterday evening, Starbuckses all over the City and I think the Country closed their doors for 3 hours. While most accountants are no doubt pulling their hair over the lost latte sales, from a branding point of view I raise my hands and applaud.

The reason for the …

The Sad Final Days of CompUSA

Late last year, I remarked about the death of retail computer chain CompUSA. It died a fiery death in some parts, but other locations took months to finally shutter. Oddly enough, their website is still up and appears as if nothing ever happened.

From Gizmodo comes

Top Beauty Cream for

It's no secret that there is a market for high-priced facial creams --