KamauK

Asian Restaurant Identity.

Look at this stunning restaurant identity for Minna Tomei – Asian Kitchen. This nice asian restaurant identity was designed by Koniak Design in cooperation with BK architects. The design of all brand materials and the tasteful interior convey an exotic charm. The restaurant visitors are surrounded by a pleasant atmosphere while the graphic design reflects the high standard of cuisine and restaurant service.

The post Minna Tomei – Asian Kitchen – Restaurant Identity by Koniak Design appeared first on WE AND THE COLOR.

Imagine that you've just looked at a really nice hotel on your favorite online travel site, but you haven't yet booked your trip. Next, you're off browsing other websites, and an ad for your favorite travel site pops up. Would you be more likely to go back to them and book your vacation if the travel ad had a picture of the specific hotel that you just browsed? Or will you be more likely to go back if the travel ad is a general ad for their brand? This is the kind of question online retailers are asking themselves every day, and, in fact, many choose to show the ad with the picture of the hotel. After all, Marketing 101 teaches us to get personal and specific with our marketing communications. That's called "dynamic retargeting," where the seller dynamically adjusts the content of the ad to the product(s) the consumer viewed earlier on their website. But is dynamic retargeting really more effective than showing the generic ad?

We decided to look empirically at this question using data from an online travel site. However, understanding the effectiveness of marketing interventions is notoriously difficult. For this research, the site ran a randomized controlled trial, also called a "field experiment" or "A/B test", where they randomly showed consumers either a generic retargeted ad or a dynamic retargeted ad. This approach allowed us to compare which of the two types of ads was more effective.

Surprisingly, we found that on average, dynamic retargeting (ads showing the specific hotel people looked at) is less effective than showing a generic ad for the company (in this case, the travel site). This means that when firms aim to sell to customers who have been on their site before, they are, on average, better off advertising just their brand, rather than a specific product or service.

Given industry excitement about dynamic retargeting, this was a surprising result, so we then asked ourselves why this was the case and whether there were instances when a specific ad might be just as effective, or even more effective.

We started off with the insight that data on users' browsing habits can reveal a lot of information about consumers. In this instance, the travel site recorded all advertising exposures across the web, whether consumers were retargeted or not. Since the site was a heavy advertiser across the web, they had a fairly good idea which sites their potential customers visited and when. Importantly, we were able to identify when customers visited a travel review site, like Tripadvisor or HotelMe. So we checked the effectiveness of different types of retargeting before and after consumers visited a travel review site. This analysis revealed important insights: Before customers visited a travel review site, generic ads were much more effective than advertising the specific product in a dynamic ad. However, after having visited a review site, customers responded positively to both ads.

We think this happens because the way people approach their purchase evolves over time. When they have only a broad idea of what they want — for example a relaxing vacation — advertising the brand to them is a better strategy than showing them specific hotels. The rationale is that if a consumer has not yet decided whether to make a trip to Greece or to Florida, there is no point showing them a specific hotel in Greece. But once they start thinking about the specific product details and the trade-offs between attributes, then they are more open to ads that communicate such products. We then go one step further by showing that product-specific retargeting can beat generic brand advertising if it is shown not only after potential customers visited a review site, but also on days on which they are actually browsing travel-related sites. Basically, the further and more active someone gets in their purchase cycle, the more effective dynamically retargeted ads get.

This research has three main takeaways for marketers:

1. Marketers should be cautious in their approach to very personalized advertising. It may appear to be effective only because firms tend to show personalized ads only to their very best customers, possibly because of a lack of data on other potential customers.
2. Optimal advertising content varies over time and should be honed to reflect the stage the customer has reached in the purchasing process.
3. Our findings illustrate the importance of implementing randomized controlled trials, also called A/B tests or field experiments. Specifically, in online advertising, many moving parts determine a consumer's decision. Only an experiment that randomly gives a marketing intervention (e.g., shows an ad) to a subset of consumers, but not to a control group, allows researchers — or managers — to accurately isolate and measure the effect of such marketing activities.

So, the next time you think about running an online ad, be sure to do your homework first and select the right ad for the right moment to maximize your ad's effectiveness.

When it comes to interviews, Chris Mundy is better acquainted with the other side of the table. The Rolling Stone editor turned AMC showrunner sat down with everybody from Kurt Cobain to Elliott Smith during tenure at the magazine, which spanned the peak of the record industry, from 1989-2000. He got out at just the right time -- few in the grunge era would have foreseen that, by 2013, television writers would have more swagger than rock journalists, but lo and behold "Breaking Bad" creator Vince Gilligan. Mundy's forthcoming series "Low Winter Sun" is a remake of a two-hour BBC miniseries created in 2006 by Simon Donald, a "Crime and Punishment"-inspired story about two cops who kill one of their, then spend the rest of their days trying to cover up the deed. AMC's version, filmed on location in Detroit, stars Mark Strong ("Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy") and Lennie James ("The Walking Dead"). Strong played the same character in the British original, now living the nightmare all...

What's better than a really excellent engineer working on a project? Not just more engineers working on a project but more engineers who can collaborate effectively.

I've been working on an engagement focused on increasing the productive output of teams of software engineers. One part involves identifying who the most successful software engineers are, so their performance can be replicated. To supplement my own observations, I had the chance to talk with a team at IBM that was doing much the same thing — analyzing data from surveys of more than 200 software developers to determine the traits that made them successful in that role. They had expected the most successful to be the ones most technically competent, but what they found was that best were those most adept at teamwork, collaboration, and building relationships.

"Most of the time, rightly or wrongly, software engineers and developers are typically thought of as loners, preferring to work independently and not necessarily working well with others," says Bryan Hayes, a director with Kenexa (which IBM acquired last year) who was a researcher on the project. "But in fact, according to IBM's findings, the most successful software engineers buck the common stereotypes."

In particular, IBM found, the most successful technical staffers are the ones who:

• Make a contribution to others. One of the ways already expert technical leaders can further strengthen their technical and professional skills, as the article "Making Yourself Indispensable," explains, is to become better at the complementary skill of developing other people. Coaching and developing others enables technical professionals to share their knowledge and experience, broadening their impact on the organization they work for. The old saying credited to Yogi Bajhan — "If you want to learn something, read about it. 
If you want to understand something, write about it. If you want to master something, teach it" — is particularly apt for technical experts. If you've ever prepared to teach a class or even coach someone, you know that it forces you to think much more explicitly about how and why you do what you do well.
• Focus on working together in complementary ways to accomplish a common goal. The most effective technical experts develop working relationships and forge alliances with colleagues so they can effectively share both information and resources critical to the success of a project. They recognize that their expertise is only a means to an end of accomplishing common goals. On one very effective team I observed, for instance, software engineers were particularly deft at dividing up tasks in a way that would help the group reach the company's goals the fastest. They focused on who could most effectively get each task done even when that meant some people would have to give more effort and time than others.
• Display a highly collaborative spirit. I know, you don't often think about a lot of spirit when it comes to engineers, but the most successful possess it. Dan Goleman highlighted a study at Bell Labs in his seminal book Emotional Intelligence that sought to identify what set apart the top 10% of this already elite group. The critical difference, detailed interviews revealed, was not academic pedigree or IQ but the stars' interpersonal skills and how much their professional relationships contributed to their engineering work performance. When technical experts don't do a good job developing relationships, their technical competence is hidden.
• Are highly responsive to the needs of their customers. It will not surprise the less technical among you that the most effective software engineers kept a firm eye on the purpose of their efforts by keeping the customer at the center of their activities. This should go without saying, but any software engineer will tell you how easy it is to focus on the details of a job and lose sight of its ultimate purpose. Rather than just designing or building to specs, the best technical experts use questions like "How will customers ultimately use this?" and "What is the client trying to accomplish?" to spur creative solutions or anticipate unintended consequences.

So the best of the best shatter our stereotypical image of the technician working away in isolation, coding, solving, building, and fixing. They are in fact, among the most relationship focused people in an organization.

This is the End
Director(s): Evan Goldberg, Seth Rogen
Writer(s): Evan Goldberg, Seth Rogen
Cast: James Franco, Jonah Hill, Seth Rogen, Danny McBride, Craig Robinson, Michael Cera, Emma Watson
Columbia Pictures
Rated R | 106 Minutes
Release Date: June 12, 2013

Written and directed by Evan Goldberg and Seth Rogen, This is the End is an apocalyptic meta-comedy where celebrities play exaggerated versions of themselves on the eve of Judgment Day.

Jay Baruchel (Goon, Knocked Up) arrives in L.A to visit old friend and fellow Canadian Seth Rogen, who invites Jay to a housewarming party at James Franco's new million-dollar mecca.

At the bacchanalian get-together, hordes of celebrities schmooze and booze with one another. Jason Segel (Forgetting Sarah Marshall), Mindy Kaling (The Office), and David Krumholtz (Freaks and Geeks) carry on meaningless conversations while a coked-out Michael Cera slaps Rihanna's ass and starts a fight with his Superbad co-star Christopher Mintz-Plasse.

Jay feels uncomfortable around Seth's new Hollywood friends — including Jonah Hill, Craig Robinson, and Emma Watson — so Seth agrees to accompany him to a convenience store for cigarettes. While they're perusing the candy aisle, beams of blue light shoot down from the sky and abduct a handful of the store's customers. Frightened, Jay and Seth make their way back to Franco's fortress amid explosions, car crashes, and mass hysteria as people are beamed up into the clouds [...]

For those of you who are more into the smaller, more artsy (in a good way) type video games that get released from time to time, here's one to keep an eye on.

The game is called Rain, and it comes from Sony Computer Entertainment Japanese Studio, Acquire, and PlayStation C.A.M.P. In it, you play as a young boy who is transported to another world while chasing a girl, making you invisible...until it's raining, that is. When showered with rain, the boy appears. As the boy you'll make your way through the world trying to find the girl and figure out what's going on. But then there's the invisible creatures. Fouls beasts who seek you relentlessly.

Simple enough! Be sure to head below now to see the story trailer for Rain, as well as an added bonus for those who have yet to see the game in the form of a gameplay demo of the first level. [...]

Razer promised it was aiming to iterate its Blade gaming laptop on a yearly basis, and despite the company's recent focus on tablets, it appears to be keeping its word. Today, a mere eight months after releasing the second-gen Blade, Razer unveiled two new members of the Blade family: the 17-inch Blade Pro and its 14-inch sibling. As you might expect, the Pro tops its elders with new silicon and storage options. It's exchanging third-gen Intel Ivy Bridge silicon for a fourth-gen Haswell chip and upgrading from an NVIDIA GTX 660M to a GTX 765M GPU. Oh, and Razer's nixed the HDD options from the big Blade's menu -- the Pro packs a 128GB SSD standard, with optional upgrades to 256 or 512GB. That new hardware is evidently smaller than what it's replacing: though the Pro shares the same size chassis as its predecessor, it packs a 74Wh battery (the older Blade has a 60Wh cell). Other than that, the Blade Pro comes with Razer's Switchblade interface, a trio of USB 3.0 ports, 802.11 a/b/g/n WiFi, Bluetooth 4.0 and a 1920 x 1080 display, just like the prior Blade.

Meanwhile, the new 14-inch Blade will come with mostly the same hardware as the Pro, meaning it's got a Haswell chip and GTX 756M graphics along with a buffet of SSD choices. Those components are stuffed inside a chassis that measures 13.6 x 9.3 x 0.66 inches, and weighs 4.13 pounds. Naturally, given its smaller size, it lacks the Switchblade LCD and buttons, has a 1.3 megapixel webcam (as opposed to the Pro's 2 megapixel unit) and a 14-inch 1600 x 900 display. And, despite its relatively svelte dimensions (for a portable gaming rig), the baby Blade still has a 70Wh battery inside. The Pro starts at $2,299, or $200 less than prior Blades and the 14-inch model will set you back a minimum of $1,799. Each will be available in North America in Q2, with a worldwide rollout of the Pro coming sometime later this year.

Update: Good news, Indie game developers! Razer CEO Min-Liang Tan just announced that those devs with a successfully funded Kickstarter can get a new Blade Pro for just $999.

Filed under: Gaming, Laptops

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If on one night every year, you could commit any crime without facing consequences, what would you do? In THE PURGE, a speculative thriller that follows one family over the course of a single night, four people will be tested to see how far they will go to protect themselves when the vicious outside world breaks into their home.

In an America wracked by crime and overcrowded prisons, the government has sanctioned an annual 12-hour period in which any and all criminal activity—including murder—becomes legal. The police can’t be called. Hospitals suspend help. It’s one night when the citizenry regulates itself without thought of punishment. On this night plagued by violence and an epidemic of crime, one family wrestles with the decision of who they will become when a stranger comes knocking.

When an intruder breaks into James Sandin’s (Ethan Hawke) gated community during the yearly lockdown, he begins a sequence of events that threatens to tear a family apart. Now, it is up to James, his wife, Mary (Lena Headey), and their kids to make it through the night without turning into the monsters from whom they hide.

Directed by James DeMonaco (writer of Assault on Precinct 13 and The Negotiator), THE PURGE is produced by Jason Blum of Blumhouse (Paranormal Activity, Insidious, Sinister), Platinum Dunes’ partners Michael Bay, Brad Fuller and Andrew Form (The Amityville Horror, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre), as well as Sébastien Kurt Lemercier (Assault on Precinct 13).

THE PURGE will be in theaters June 7.

Universal Pictures and WAMG invite you to enter to win a pass (good for 2) to the advance screening of THE PURGE on June 4th at 7:00 PM in St. Louis.

Answer the following question:

Which of your friends could you trust during THE PURGE?

OFFICIAL RULES:

1. YOU MUST BE IN THE ST. LOUIS AREA THE DAY OF THE SCREENING.

2. SEND YOUR NAME AND ANSWERS TO: michelle@wearemoviegeeks.com

3. YOU MUST SUBMIT THE CORRECT ANSWER TO OUR TRIVIA QUESTION ABOVE TO WIN.

4. WINNERS WILL BE CHOSEN THROUGH A RANDOM DRAWING OF QUALIFYING CONTESTANTS. NO PURCHASE NECESSARY. PASSES WILL NOT BE SUBSTITUTED OR EXCHANGED. DUPLICATE TICKETS WILL NOT BE ACCEPTED.

THE PURGE has been rated R for strong disturbing violence and some language.

Universal Pictures presents a Platinum Dunes/Blumhouse/Why Not Production: Ethan Hawke, Lena Headey in THE PURGE, starring Adelaide Kane, Max Burkholder. The casting is by Lisa Fields, and the line producer is Gerard DiNardi. The film’s costume design is by Lisa Norcia. The co-producer is Jeanette Volturno-Brill. The Purge’s music is by Nathan Whitehead, and the film is edited by Peter Gvozdas. The film’s production design is by Melanie Paizis-Jones, and its director of photography is Jacques Jouffret. The speculative thriller is produced by Jason Blum, p.g.a.; Sébastien K. Lemercier, p.g.a.; Michael Bay, Andrew Form, Brad Fuller. THE PURGE is written and directed by James DeMonaco.

Visit all THE PURGE sites:

·         Visit the official website

·         Like THE PURGE on Facebook

·         Follow @UniversalHorror and @blumhouse on Twitter and tag it #SurvivetheNight

·         Watch on YouTube

·         Follow THE PURGE on Google+

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In this time of hope and decorative mortarboards, we reached out to some of our favorite writers, asking them: What do graduates really need to know about the world of work? Their answers are below.

Heidi Grant Halvorson
Associate director for the Motivation Science Center at the Columbia University Business School and author of Nine Things Successful People Do Differently.

There will be obstacles, setbacks, challenges. Many things will be more difficult than you thought they'd be. The key to success (scientifically speaking) is perseverance. You've just got to hang in there — there's no other way to win. But how do you do it? A great way to be more resilient is to stop comparing yourself to other people, and compare yourself to your own past performance — last week, last month, last year. Are you improving? That's the only question that matters.

Daniel Gulati
A tech entrepreneur based in New York, he is a coauthor of the book Passion & Purpose: Stories from the Best and Brightest Young Business Leaders.

The tough, thorny problems are the most valuable ones, but most people will shy away from the challenge. Solve these problems.

Dorie Clark
A strategy consultant who has worked with clients including Google, Yale University, and the National Park Service. She is the author of Reinventing You: Define Your Brand, Imagine Your Future.

In a world of layoffs, outsourcing, and industry disruption, the only "career insurance" you can get is through figuring out the answer to one particular question: how can you make yourself truly valuable professionally? Most recent grads assume they'll do OK if they work hard. But doing the assigned job is table stakes, and not enough to matter very much when other, cheaper options become available for your employer. You need to hone a skill no one teaches you in college, and few people in the workforce understand: the ability to identify problems no one has explicitly articulated, and then solve them.

How can you make yourself a connector in your company, and share information with those that need it? How can you lend a unique perspective to corporate discussions? What minor task or gruntwork can you take off someone's plate, thereby earning their gratitude? What leadership position — perhaps that no one else wants — can you leverage to build connections and a solid professional reputation? Answering those questions isn't easy. But if you can do it, you're miles ahead of the legions who don't even grasp they should be asking them.

Maxwell Wessel
A member of the Forum for Growth and Innovation, a Harvard Business School think tank developing and refining theory around disruptive innovation.

There are a thousand paths in front of you. The ones you know about are often safe and unobstructed: work for a big company in a narrow role, get a promotion, get a slightly bigger role, take on a mortgage, buy a house, wait for the next promotion to pay down your debt, etc. Those paths were developed by people who rely on process and rules to tame the chaos that is life. But those paths, the ones you learned about in your career offices aren't the only ones afforded to you. You can dare to be different. You can break the rules. And while some will scold you for it, others will shower you with outsized reward.

Nilofer Merchant
She's the author of 11 Rules for Creating Value in the Social Era.

As you go out into the world, ask yourself, "which network do I want to plug myself into?" Today, connected individuals can now do what once only large centralized organizations could. This means that you don't need to belong to a big firm to create value, but you do need to work alongside talented people. So don't look at the organizational name or the title you'll have. Those are relics from the industrial era. In the social era, look to the relationships you'll have because these people with which you'll work hold the keys to what you'll create and achieve.

Whitney Johnson
She's is a co-founder of Rose Park Advisors, Clayton Christensen's investment firm, and the author of Dare-Dream-Do: Remarkable Things Happen When You Dare to Dream.

Take the hardest job you can find in a city where there are lots of smart people. Statistically, you will have changed jobs in less than two years. Maybe even fields. You want your first job to open even more doors than were open upon graduation.

James Allworth
He is the co-author of How Will You Measure Your Life?. He has worked as a Fellow at the Forum for Growth and Innovation at Harvard Business School, at Apple, and Booz & Company.

Understand the way your mind works in relation to motivation. Money, a fancy title, a prestigious firm — these are what are known as extrinsic factors. Your friends and family can see them, you can put them on a resume, or discuss them in a job interview. But these visible, extrinsic factors are not a source of contentment. Rather, the research suggests they're actually a source of discontentment — when they're absent. In other words, having these extrinsic motivators in abundance won't make you happy; instead, all that abundance will result in is an absence of dissatisfaction. That's (obviously) not the same thing as being satisfied.

True motivation relies on a very different set of factors: they're intrinsic in nature, much harder to measure, and may even be unique to you. Being given the opportunity to shoulder responsibility and work independently. The ability to learn and grow. And, perhaps most important of all, doing something you think is meaningful. Understanding that our minds work in this way — that there's not a single spectrum all the way from "love it" to "hate it" — but rather, two spectrums that are at work completely independent of each other: one which will cause us to be dissatisfied (extrinsic) if absent, and another that will cause us to love what we do (intrinsic) if present... well, learning that has totally changed the way I think about my working life.

Amy Jen Su & Muriel Maignan Wilkins
They're the co-founders and managing partners of Isis Associates and authors of Own the Room: Discover Your Signature Voice to Master Your Leadership Presence.

Amy Jen Su: Recognize you have the power of choice at every moment available to you: choice in what you do for work, who your friends are, even what your attitude will be for the day. Be conscious, stay awake, and live with your eyes wide open. Own your life and career. Accept the trade-offs inherent in every decision and choice you make. For every "yes" there is an implicit set of "no's" you are saying so make your choices and commitments wisely.

Muriel Maignan Wilkins: Embrace your "good enough." Don't let others and circumstances dictate what you should be or what you should aspire to. Establish what your "good enough" looks like early on — that wondrous place between settling and perfection where you are content with what you have to offer life and what life offers you.

Gianpiero Petriglieri
An Associate Professor of Organisational Behaviour at INSEAD, where he directs the Management Acceleration Programme, the school's flagship executive programme for emerging leaders.

If your graduation speaker calls you a "future leader," cover your ears. Don't let that "future" label stick. If you aspire to lead — and have a goal, a dream, a purpose — begin now. Leadership is an activity, not a destination. Pursuing that dream will give you thrill and heartache, hope and frustration. It will give your work meaning and make you feel alive. That pursuit, however, will rarely set you free or make you happy. Those you will only get once you learn to surrender. To life and love. This is why you need to make sure that yours is a real dream and not just an obsession. How can you tell the difference? An obsession owns you. It asks you to surrender life and love to it. A dream holds you, while asking that you surrender to both.

Claudio Fernández-Aráoz
The author of Great People Decisions.

Begin with the end in mind: Who do you want to be? What legacy do you want to leave to our world, you partner, your children? Second, always do what you enjoy. Many times "success" will lead you to promotions which will become the envy of your friends, while leaving you empty and pulling you away from what you really love to do. Periodically assess what you are doing, find out what you don't like to do, and just stop doing it. Finally, surround yourself with the best by proactively and carefully choosing your partner, your friends, your boss, your colleagues. You can't do it alone, and in great company even the toughest times magically become glorious journeys.

Rafi Mohammed
He's a pricing strategy consultant and author of The 1% Windfall: How Successful Companies Use Price to Profit and Grow.

Volunteer for the garbage. Most of you won't get a prime job or high-profile assignment right out of the chute. Don't despair; instead cheerfully take on the worst assignment that no one else wants to do and super-excel on it. By making a success of a project that everyone dreaded, it'll be easier to showcase your talents. This recognition and gratitude will set the platform for you to be selected for the next high profile "we need to execute perfectly" opportunity. Trust me: I've seen a lot of people succeed (advancing within an organization or landing a better job) by following this route.

Karen Dillon
She's the former editor of Harvard Business Review and co-author of How Will You Measure Your Life?.

Be interesting. When you sit in that interview, don't assume that the lines you can write on your resume will be enough to get your foot in the door to the job of your dreams. We're going to spend long hours, five days a week working together. I don't want to work with someone who is narrow and boring. Have opinions — on politics, on pop culture, on favorite writers or thinkers. Have personal interests that may have nothing to do with the job at hand. Have something to say.

As screens get increasingly getting cheaper and more ubiquitous, are we going to keep counting them?

Not too long ago, I was asked to give a presentation on the state of digital media and how well brands are intersecting the worlds of marketing and technology. Prior to my closing keynote, there was a panel discussion about the state of media. One senior media executive was discussing the power of "a four screen world." I thought that he had made a mistake. I was familiar with the concept of three screens (television, computer and mobile), but four screens was something new. Eventually, he unveiled that the fourth screen was the tablet.

It's still somewhat shocking to think that the iPad was first introduced on April 3rd, 2010, and we now live in a world where Apple is selling more iPads than any PC manufacturer is selling of their entire PC line. This has been a steadily growing trend since 2012. And yet this is the fourth screen?

The basic dilemma for marketers is this: there are now too many screens to count. Set aside PCs, tablets, smartphones, and TVs (connected or otherwise), for a moment. Your car, your thermostat, your washer and dryer, your refrigerator are all on their way to being "smart" as well — connected to the internet and to each other, featuring screens that offer up all sorts of information, from usage data to content, like a fridge that suggests recipes based on the food stored inside.

This means the future is not about three screens or four screens or fourteen screens. It's about one screen: whichever screen is in front of me. In a world where screens are connected and everywhere, the notion of even counting them seems arbitrary, at best. If you don't believe me, speak to somebody currently sporting Google Glass.

At the same time that screens are proliferating, they're also integrating.

My niece is nineteen years old. When she was sixteen, she would come home from school, take out her laptop, plop down on the couch, lift the computer lid, turn on the TV, plug in her iPod earbuds, and set her BlackBerry down next to her. From afar, it looked like she was running NORAD. But fast-forward a mere three years, and now she comes home from school, takes out her iPad... and that's it.

All of that core content is now readily available on one screen. From content (in text, images, audio, and video) to communications (chatting with friends on Skype or via Google Hangouts), it's all there on this one device that rules them all.

This convergence is happening because, no matter how many screens you buy, you only have one pair of eyes. Yes, we are seeing a massive uptick in consumers who are using companion devices (meaning, they are watching TV but have their smartphones nearby), and while the industry does refer to it as a companion device, the truth is that you're not watching the television with one eyeball and tweeting on your iPhone with the other. You're seeing one screen at a time.

Welcome to the one-screen world.

Here we are, today, with over a billion smartphones in the world. They outnumber the PCs. Fifteen percent of online retail sales will take place this year via mobile devices, according to eMarketer, and that's a 56% increase from 2012. Within the next decade, virtually all mobile phones will be smartphone, meaning six billion people will be constantly connected. We already live in a world where more individuals have a mobile subscription than access to safe drinking water.

And yet, according to a recent survey by Adobe, 45% of marketers say their firms still don't have a mobile presence. Businesses are still splitting hairs of what is the web, what is the smartphone, what is the tablet, and what is TV. Instead of hunkering down and figuring out what the customer's new expectations are when everything from their washer and dryer to their television and smartphone are hyper-connected to one another, most marketers are just worrying about how they're going to advertise on a mobile screen. Advertising? That's not the revolution here. Now, brands don't just advertise on someone else's mobile site, they can build their own apps, tools, and programs of engagement that make mobile a different kind of media. They can create value through offering a mobile service or app that is truly useful. They can touch their consumers in ways that are both contextual and location-aware. This is the proverbial "last mile" that all marketers were hoping for: contextual, personal, and by location.

If ever there was a time to embrace the notion of the one-screen world, this would be it. Increasingly, consumers are rolling these screens up into one. They're streaming video from their tablets and laptops to their TVs. They're watching TV shows on their phones. They simply want the content they like on the device they prefer, when they want it.

The rise of mobile gives marketers a tremendous opportunity to rethink what their jobs really are. Don't send me a coupon or bombard me with ads for the latest washing machine; don't blast me with a text message while I'm in a department store's appliance center. Create an app that lets me control my washing machine, so I can start my washing on my way home from the office, so it's not sitting wet all day in the washer.

Remember, at the end of the day, your customers only have one pair of eyes, and they're only looking at one screen: the one that interests them.

Here's your daily dose of an indie film in progress; at the end of the week, you'll have the chance to vote for your favorite. In the meantime: Is this a movie you’d want to see? Tell us in the comments. "Hackers in Uganda" Tweetable Logline: Humanitarian guerrilla technologists in Uganda are hacking and teaching for charity, and empowering people.   Elevator Pitch: Rogue technologists known as Hackers for Charity set out with a mission, to bring technological access and education to the people of Uganda. Creating a computer-literate generation of Ugandans has the power to improve lives like never before, giving educational, occupational, social and medical resources to people who need it most. The new documentary, Hackers in Uganda, will tell the story of this amazing group, their work, and a chance to help this Information Age Robin Hoods like never before. In the 21st Century, access to and knowledge of technology shouldn't be...

Trained as an architect, Gabriele Basilico took an interest in architectural photography in the mid 1970’s. He gave it a new breath by questioning urban issues of this time. He photographed contemporary, urban and industrial landscape, uninhabited spaces, bright lights and deep shadows. Working primarily with black and white and a view camera, he focused on the space and graphic qualities of buildings.

The post ASX EXHIBIT: GABRIELE BASILICO – “ARCHITETTURA” appeared first on ASX | AMERICAN SUBURB X | Photography & Culture.

As American science students struggle to compete with the global competition, Oklahoma is moving forward with a law that could ban Biology teachers from failing students who argue that humans co-existed with dinosaurs. The state legislator’s committee in charge of education standards has approved a law that would forbid teachers from penalizing students who argue against widely accepted scientific theories, such as evolution and climate change.

“I proposed this bill because there are teachers and students who may be afraid of going against what they see in their textbooks,” said Republican State Representative Gus Blackwell who sponsored the Scientific Education and Academic Freedom Act, which can now go the state legislature for a vote.

Students are not exempt from being tested on textbook material, “but no student in any public school or institution shall be penalized in any way because the student may subscribe to a particular position on scientific theories,” reads the bill [PDF].

Not everyone is ecstatic about the bill, however. “An extremely high percentage of scientists will tell you that evolution doesn’t have scientific weaknesses,” said education director of the National Center for Science Education, Eric Meikle, to Mother Jones. “If every teacher, parent, and school board can decide what to teach on their own, you’re going to have chaos. You can’t deluge kids with every theory that’s ever been considered since the beginning of time.”

[Photo Credit: myfavoritedinosaur.com]

Happy 4/20

REYKJAVIK, Iceland (AP) — You meet someone, there’s chemistry, and then come the introductory questions: What’s your name? Come here often? Are you my cousin? In Iceland, a country with a population of 320,000 where most everyone is distantly related, inadvertently kissing cousins is a real risk. A new smartphone app is on hand to help Icelanders avoid accidental incest. The app lets users “bump” phones, and emits a warning alarm if they are closely related. “Bump the app before you bump in bed,” says the catchy slogan. Some are hailing it as a welcome solution to a very Icelandic form of social embarrassment. “Everyone has heard the story of going to a family event and running into a girl you hooked up with some time ago,” said Einar Magnusson, a graphic designer in Iceland’s capital, Reykjavik. “It’s not a good feeling when you realize that girl is a second cousin. People may think it’s funny, but (the app) is a necessity.” The Islendiga-App – “App of Icelanders” – is an idea that may only be possible in Iceland, where most of the population shares descent from a group of 9th-century Viking settlers, and where an online database holds genealogical details of almost the entire population. The app was created by three University of Iceland software engineering students for a contest calling for “new creative uses” of the Islendingabok, or Book of Icelanders, an online database of residents and their family trees stretching back 1,200 years. Arnar Freyr Adalsteinsson, one of the trio, said it allows any two Icelanders to see how closely related they are, simply by touching phones. “A small but much talked about feature is the loosely translated `Incest Prevention Alarm’ that users can enable through the options menu which notifies the user if the person he’s bumping with is too closely related,” Adalsteinsson said. It’s the latest twist on a long-standing passion for genealogy in Iceland, a volcanically active island in the North Atlantic that was unpopulated before Norse settlers arrived in 874 AD. Their descendants

Contributed by Georgina Milne of Moving Brands.

Moving Brands partnered with the private jet company Greenjets to create a brand identity for a radically new service poised to forever change long-entrenched perceptions of private jet travel. Co-founded by Uber founder Garrett Camp and powered by a Moving Brands-designed app, BlackJet allows a wider market of luxury travellers to book individual seats on private planes instantly, at the touch of an iPhone. The disruptive new brand presents unprecedented competition to commercial airlines by offering all of the luxury and convenience of private jet travel at a price point comparable to their first and business classes (and with the invaluable added benefit of avoiding all of the traditional hassles of the airport).

Story

“BlackJet is all about building an aspirational brand. Moving Brands got that immediately and delivered pitch perfect strategy for building Blackjet into a global brand. This is why Moving Brands has been a perfect partner.”
— SHERVIN PISHEVAR, MANAGING DIRECTOR, MENLO VENTURES

The narrative we created for the new BlackJet brand is the story of the new private jet flyer. The best commercial airlines in the world can offer any number of amenities to first class passengers once they are on board, but they have no control over the experience of getting to the gate. Passengers who spend thousands of dollars for extra legroom and complimentary champagne have become increasingly frustrated with still having to deal with parking, shuttles, fees for checked bags and long lines at security.

As a result, flying private has evolved to be less about status, exclusivity and image and more about avoiding the time-consuming inconveniences and indignities of the airport experience that all commercial travellers (including those in first class) have to endure. It’s less about excessive luxury, more about living with intention; less about living the good life at any cost, more about living the good life well; less about exclusivity, more about syncing travel with the momentum of life.

BlackJet created a brilliant and affordable private jet service that doesn’t cannibalize Greenjets’ existing charter market by selling individual seats on the bevy of empty jets returning from one-way flights. Moving Brands identified a growing market of stylish, busy and tech-savvy first and business-class travellers. We developed a UX that contradicts everything you expect from the frustrating, time-consuming chaos of commercial travel — a frictionless, ultra simple UI that enables secure high value transactions on a mobile device. Our strategy of simplicity-as-luxury informed a short form brand narrative that speaks directly to the core benefits of flying private: BlackJet — for a colorful life.

System

The visual identity Moving Brands developed for BlackJet is bold, confident and elegant. The “B” is abstracted, drawing directly from the design direction’s concept of the fast, frictionless journey. It takes the subtle shape of wings, both in the positive space created by the curves of the “B” and the negative space, which reveals the sleek nose and wings of a jet. A moody, sexy, monochromatic color palette and contrasting, geometric font further advance the personality of the brand and differentiate its identity from its competitors.

The user interface was designed after extensive research into trends and methodologies in communicating luxury on digital platforms and executing high-value mobile money payments. Our findings revealed that what high-value consumers truly want is hurdle-free instant gratification. Simply put: they want what they want when they want it. Through seamless design and a pared-down, no-frills interface, simplicity is luxury.

The resulting UI ensures reliability and purchasing safety while maintaining the elegant simplicity of iPhone functionality.

Experience

Moving Brands developed the visual identity system, UI and guidance needed to create a website and app for BlackJet that feels intuitive in its navigation, comfortable in its use and inherently sleek and luxurious. The service launched in October 2012 to an invite-only crowd of initial fliers and has garnered positive press for both its innovative offering and A-list roster of Silicon Valley and Hollywood VCs.

—

Moving Brands elsewhere on Identity Designed: Arcadia, Watermark, CX.

View more brand identity work on the Moving Brands website. Follow the team on Twitter.

Logo inspiration on Logo Design Love.

If you’re thinking of quitting your salaried job to start your own design business, here are a few designers who’ve reflected on their time in self-employment.

• Guy Moorhouse of Futurefabric shared 10 lessons learnt after one year in business.
• Nathan Barry reflected on his first year after quitting his job as a software designer.
• Tina Roth-Eisenberg published what she learned after one year of Tattly.
• Adrian Pelletier learned these lessons after 4 months in self-employment.
• Shauna Haider of Nubby Twiglet on what she learned during her first year freelancing.
• Ben Barry and Frank Chimero gave opinions on working for free when starting out.
• Cole Henley lost his job in February 2011, and reported on his two years since.
• Tim Cull is a software consultant, but his advice after three years running his own business is just as applicable.

I penned a few self-employment pros and cons over on Peachpit.com (a 2-page post excerpted from my book) as well as advice after five years of self-employment (written back in 2010).

Photo via Slim 69

Brand identity inspiration on Identity Designed.

Related posts worth a look

• Ninety percent of group discussions start off on the wrong foot (7)
• It’s not always about the money (7)
• When selling design is like selling furniture (6)
• The ideal design process? (5)
• When what you’re selling isn’t what you’re selling (9)

Photo credit: CBS Films

Kicking off the 37th edition of the Cleveland International Film Festival in early April and premiering to rave reviews at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival, here’s the new trailer for director Jordan Vogt-Roberts’ THE KINGS OF SUMMER. Chase Whale (Twitch) wrote in his Sundance review that the film “… captures what it’s like being young and dreaming big, big, big.”

This unique coming-of-age comedy is about three teenage friends — Joe (Nick Robinson), Patrick (Gabriel Basso) and the eccentric and unpredictable Biaggio (Moises Arias) – who, in the ultimate act of independence, decide to spend their summer building a house in the woods and living off the land. Free from their parents’ rules, their idyllic summer quickly becomes a test of friendship as each boy learns to appreciate the fact that family – whether it is the one you’re born into or the one you create — is something you can’t run away from.

A new STAND BY ME for this generation’s teens. Looks absolutely delightful!

CBS Films acquired the rights to the THE KINGS OF SUMMER after it’s premiere at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival. Previously titled TOY’S HOUSE, Vogt-Roberts commented, “We set out to make a comedy that was hilarious and full of heart – but most importantly we set out to make a comedy that was engaging.”

THE KINGS OF SUMMER, starring Nick Robinson, Gabriel Basso, Moises Arias, Nick Offerman, Megan Mullally, Alison Brie, Mary Lynn Rajskub, Erin Moriarty, Marc Evan Jackson, Thomas Middleditch and Tony Hale, will be in select cities May 31, 2013.

http://www.thekingsofsummermovie.com/

https://www.facebook.com/thekingsofsummer

https://twitter.com/cbsfilms

Follow Jordan Vogt-Roberts on twitter: https://twitter.com/VogtRoberts

Movie Matinée