Random Things

 

Shift Partners designed special edition condom packaging to celebrate opening of the 2010 Asian Games.

"Athletes at major sporting competitions are always under a lot of pressure. Thankfully, at The 16th Asian Games Guangzhou 2010, they will get a set of special edition condoms. We partnered with Jissbon, China’s largest condom brand, to create a memorable and unique set of products donated to the games. From the Super Moist Pleasure variant that ensures “FLAWLESS ENTRY” to the Super Firm Feel variant that helps our heroes “NOT PEAK TOO EARLY”, all of us at Shift. hope the entire range will help set some new world records."

People will look at hot chicks just because they are hot.

In this case, these hot chicks - two French students, one Muslim - had a very specific purpose for donning short shorts, high heels...and mini-burqas. The two were out to protest a new law in France that makes wearing a burqa in public worthy of a fine.

So the girls, who refer to themselves as Niqabitches, got all sexed up and took a stroll down the sidewalk and over to the Ministry of Immigration and National Identity. Whiplash ensued as gawkers couldn't get enough of the pair.

Explaining the stunt, the pair said, "We were not looking to attack or degrade the image of Muslim fundamentalists - each to their own - but rather to question politicians who voted for this law that we consider clearly unconstitutional,"

Live and Uncensored reports the video was uploaded to YouTube October 2 and has seen 28,274 views. And on Vimeo, the video, uploaded on September 17, has seen upwards of 249,000. Chicks in short shorts and heels. It works every time.

How many times have you seen a creative brief or brand tenets that offer you little to work with in making the experience of the brand more meaningful and genuine? When the personality traits are verbally defined as authentic (or optimistic or premium or contemporary) it’s time to ask, “what do you really mean?”

Neutrality

In the age of social networking, brands like Facebook and Flickr simply appear to be civic in their intent. Credibility comes from creating public portals providing access to shared content and enabling community. Jones Soda is a perfect package design anolog. The label is like a bulletin board—a public space to share interests. The style of typography is perhaps as commonplace and utilitarian as Helvetica. It’s legible, rational and intelligible and appears to be the property of the public.A brand may be considered true and trustworthy when it takes a position of neutrality. Successful design masks a brand strategically crafted to be persuasive. In fact, at its best, the brand is perceived as one without any self-image at all. There appears to be no interest in creating atmosphere or making an emotional connection. The intent is to be clear in the delivery of information. The expression of the brand simply becomes a window into the world as it actually is. It appears to be neutral and democratic—untouched by the manufacturer.

A group of early 50 carrot farmers, headed by Bolthouse Farms, have teamed up with Crispin Porter + Bogusky to rebrand baby carrots and advertise them in a way that mimics snack brands like Doritos. The campaign is designed to encourage kids to choose carrots over other unhealthy snack foods, and is currently being tested in cooled vending machines at schools

The amazing disappearing concrete block Markus Kison/Flickr

Clever augmented reality applications are becoming the natural byproducts of our modern computers--computers that are tiny, have eyes and other location-aware sensors, and are able to place a synthetic layer of information on our view of the world around us.

The latest is this "invisible" block of solid concrete dreamed up by artists Daniel Franke and Markus Kison. So how does it work?

When a viewer approaches the fixed concrete block mounted at an angle on a pedestal in the middle of a gallery, a rotating cameras on top picks up his/her face and calculates the viewer's exact line of sight. Custom software (written with the visually-oriented openFrameworks platform) then computes the exact angle and composition of the scene being blocked by the cube and projects it onto the face of the concrete. So, if you're aligned properly, you see right "through" the block at the uninterrupted forms of the chair and bench on the other side.

Key Pete will connect to any metal surface and let him hold your keys! (He has extra-strong magnets that can carry the weight of 30 keys…)