Adventures in Candyland

Since this is my first post, let me start by introducing myself…consider me the “client concierge” at Sweet Talk, handling lots of details for our clients’ projects. 

I’ve been thinking about some of the tools we’re always using for our projects, and of course the first one I thought of was our Pantone book.  We can’t be without it when working on branding, websites, collateral, etc.  But not everyone has a Pantone book, so then I remembered that I thought we should share one of our fave sites with you - Colour Lovers.  This is a great site for a little inspiration, and a good place to find color combos and palettes you’ve never even thought of before!

On the same note, last week was Fashion Week in NYC and WWD directed us to Pantone’s Fashion Color Report Fall 2008.   Sweet Talk is lovin’ the Ochre!

Always fun to play with colors and brighten up the day.

Today I worked with Soul’s Calling at the Los Angeles Gift Show. And here’ s my observation — very few companies think anything or even understand what a brand is and how portraying it with thought is meaningful to buyers, writers and consumers. When you are thoughtful about creating a pleasing poignant environment that aligns with the messages and products you are pushing out - the result is something so strong that people react and respond to it even if they’re not conscious of it. But, it should be very consciously developed by the company. Some brands do, and for me, I am automatically attracted to those brands. But, overwhelmingly and shockingly (though maybe it shouldn’t be), only about 10 percent of the company’s exhibiting made their brand a focus. For the rest, they just throw a bunch of stuff together in a booth. Here’s a shot of the Soul’s Calling booth - it’s an example of how someone puts a lot of effort into creating a booth that spreads her message and makes you feel a certain way when you step across the boundry into the brand’s world. She even had a booth scent….It’s time for every company to be thoughtful and take it up a whole bunch of notches.

How many of you have imbibed with the obligitory watermelon loaded with vodka? I sure have and though not the classiest way to get inebriated, it was always a little more fun then the plain old swallowing of alcohol (yes, this took place in college).

As I get older, it’s a goal to bring a little bit more class and sophistication into my life, hence the edible martini. If you couldn’t tell from this blog, we’re fans of innovation and creativity. This is just another case of taking the common and twisting it into something unique and beautiful. And I want one of those vacuum things!

Yesterday we toured a very cool house in Brentwood. Wired Home by Living Homes (obviously, Chris Anderson didn’t completely turn me off). The house used state-of-the-art technology and environmentally conscious steel, glass and reclaimed redwood-encased Prefab for Living Homes by celebrated architect, Ray Kappe. The home is completely wrapped in windows - allowing the outside to be brought it - a concept that is throughly appealing to me. It was 4,000 sq. feet of design and technology exquisitness and absolutely the kind of house I see in my future. There was so much coolness in this house (forget the house keys, how about an iris reader instead) and we’re real suckers for it. Here are a few shots(sorry about the crappy camera phone) that really don’t do it justice.

The interior was also pretty spot on - modern yet not cold. The art was interesting, particularly from this artist -Andy Diaz Hope. Here’s something kinda trippy that I took - reminded Danielle of the show, “Flight of the Concords”. This was the mirror in the upstair bathroom.

But, there was only one issue - the price tag. The house is on the market for 4.3 mill. I don’t know if I will be able to afford this in the near future. And that begs the question, how many people really can? I understand that this home was for touring and sets the standard, but when will the masses, or even the upper middle class, be able to afford a sustainable PREFAB home. The definition of Prefab has definitely changed and so has the price. I don’t know the exact price of putting one of these homes up, but I’m assuming it’s quite costly even when they aren’t customized.

For me, the home symbolizes the green movement. Lots of new ways to be environmentally conscious, yet ironically, the majority of products are typically more expensive than their non-green counterparts. Of course, there are exceptions to the rule so you don’t need to list off all the ways or products I’m wrong about, but if we are to move in this direction, I hope that this kind of lifestyle can become more cost-effective and easily accessible for more people in the near future. I, for one, am waiting for the day.

Tick Tock, Tick Tock…being more creative is sometimes all about timing. For years, I worked in the advertising industry as a creative person. Having to be creative on deadline and “on demand” taught me a few things about the magic our minds can produce. Sitting there and thinking “ok, fabulous idea, shine forth your brilliance NOW!” is not likely to produce good (if any) results. The utter panic that can come from a deadline does inspire one to pull something glorious from his/her ass once in awhile, but for the most consistent results – try this: When you feel inspiration brewing, DROP other tasks and ride the wave. When the wave moves through – go back to other things and wait for the next wave. Creativity has its own rhythm, and all you need to do is make the hay while the sun is shining, and get other stuff done on the cloudy days.

Luckily, now that I have my own gift/accessory line, Soul’s Calling, the deadlines are mostly of my own making. But as a designer and business owner the number of different tasks I have to accomplish has increased 10-fold - I definitely have to be in the right space to do anything involving Quickbooks. So, next time your list involves coming up with a brilliant idea, don’t panic – just listen to your own little creative clock and catch the wave.

Last week I attended the National Business Aviation Association (NBAA) Convention. It’s basically wall to wall (and there were so many walls at this place) aviation. In fact, there were 1,152 exhibitors - meaning no lack of men wearing navy suits. Aviation is an odd industry. Though it would make the most sense that this industry would be technology forward and filled with early adopters, in actuality ,it’s the opposite. To illustrate my point, just look at the dated air traffic control industry who still use a 50 year old system of radar and radio beacons. The the lack of female representation is also paltry. At NBAA there are 10 men for every one woman, and many of those women are “booth babes,” strutting the floor in miniscule red numbers. With the way the men reacted to them, I felt like watching a scene straight out of Mad Men(fabulous show BTW). I’ve attended this show before, so none of this was too surprising, but again it represents the antiquated world of aviation. Thankfully, it seems change is in the air.

I know I’ve mentioned Very Light Jets(VLJs) and Eclipse Aviation which are probably the biggest advancement aviation has taken in a long time. In any case, these new mini-jets may very well change the way we all travel in the future. Take a look at Day Jet, a new airline carrier flying Eclipse planes. DayJet is the world’s first per-seat, on-demand jet service, an entirely new approach to short-haul (under 600 mile) regional business travel. And it’s supposed to be semi-affordable probably right now around $600-$700 a flight, but hopefully if it works, closer to the $300-$400 range -even I can afford that! Right now, Day Jet is trying the concept out in Florida - so we shall see how this new niche progresses. Day Jet believes time is at a premium, especially for their target, the business traveller. Time is also at a premium for the wealthy, which is a nice segway into why I attended the show.

Wouldn’t it be nice to fly from NY to Paris in four hours and 14 minutes? Doesn’t seem possible does it? Well, if you have 80 mill and can wait a few years, you’ll be sipping plus de cafe au laits sur l’avenue Montaigne(finally using my French minor). Aerion Corporation has designed a Super Sonic Business Jet which will fly above and just below mach speed to get 10-12 lucky passengers from NY to Asia in nine and a half hours… and in comfort and class to boot! And all made possible by the jet’s unique wing structure. Check out what this sweet machine will look like. It is a quite an interesting company with superlative leadership. Anyway - I was working the booth to handle the media who attended and wanted to speak to executives. Check out this picture I took of the wind tunnel model. Pretty slick hah? Just about seven more years till take-off! Now this would be an advancement in aviation.

We just need a few more clients so Sweet Talk can put the company name on a reservation list! Thankfully, we have a few more years.

This article in Marketing Week struck me as bizarre. Coke is creating a new Sprite that will launch in the UK next year called “Sprite Super Chilled” that includes a mechanism, that when opened forms ice in the drink. And how is the ice created and what is it made of? None of those questions were answered in the article. But even stranger is the fact it’s being developed for urban youth who prefer super cold alcholic drinks, particularly beer. What’s the difference between super cold and cold? Obviously I’m not an urban youth, but pray tell, who is it that likes their beer or their soda warm? What do you guys think? Wierd or cool? I think both.

Innovation never stops and never ceases to amaze. Last Sunday, Danielle and I ventured downtown to the LA Convention Center to experience Wired Nextfest, one of the coolest “tradeshows” I’ve ever attended. As we browsed the booths, we were continously awed by the creativity and cool factor of the products and technologies shaping the future of our world. We were reminded that we’re living during an amazing period of time, where interactivity is the sign of the times as well as the proliferation of communities continually being by reshaped by the technology and inspiration featured at this show. The shape of things to come is about customization, collaboration and innovation tied into entertainment and culture tied into creating a more sustainable and empathetic world.

Honestly, I could write chapters on the innovations we saw Sunday, but instead, I’ll just hightlight a few of of my favorites.

Light Harp
This is the first interactive art you experience upon entering the show. The sound coming from this thing was really beautiful.

Brainball
Are you calm enough to win a game of brain ball. I know I’m not, but it might be a good challenge for me. Brainball is a game where you compete by relaxing your brain and move a little ball across a table into a little circle using your brainwaves. The person who is calmer will get the ball in first. Seriously, who needs mediation when you can just play this game. Everyone was circled around these two players sitting their with their eyes closed while their brain waves were being charted on screen behing them. It was fascinating!

Desktop Factory 3D Printer
This is so cool and so inexpensive when you compare it to the past cost of creating some kind of prototype. The machine looks like a microwave oven and basically layers what sort of looks like sand to create a 3D model of the digital data you feed it and only for $4995.

Jukebots
People DJs may soon be extinct with the introduction of Jukebots, industrial robots who scratch, spin and mix records. They kind of dance as the decise which record they’re going to pick. Ridiculously cool!

LifeStraw
It’s difficult to imagine living somewhere without access to a clean water source. It’s painful to realize children still die from contaminated water — soooo these LifeStraws, which are shockingly inexpensive and simple( $3 )will save many, many lives.

Obviously I could chronicle every experience that seemed significant or fabulous, but I don’t want to bore you. So I’m going end this entry by illustrating the use of technology and art.

Today, text messaging is taking the place of calling, emailing and yes, talking. So I think we can all expect to see many iterations of this technology in the future. Here are two we learned about and took advantage of many times that day. So many times in fact, the guy from Nanikawa who was running the Wind and Swimming Messagesystem was either thinking we were really crazy or really annoying. The other is TXTual Healing, SMS Enabled Interactive Street Performance. Both very cool and the wave of the future. Below are a few samples of what I’m talking about, but please don’t judge me for my camera work, which is absolutely painful and pretty much unbearable - I truly apologize, but I want to illustrate what I’m talking about. Today, we actually bought a really cool handheld video camera by PURE DIGITAL, that we learned about at a PSFK conference. We’ll blog on how that benefits my awful filming ability later.

Both of the below technologies allow you to call a number they provide, enter your message which is immediately rendered into these two artistic forms.

TXTual Healing - Text Message Customizable Graffiti Art

Wind and Swimming MessageSystem - The wind blows your text from screen to screen in front of a beautiful background

Which unique technologies and products do you think will make an impact in the future?

In my last blog, I wrote about a couple of brands that BusinessWeek gave design awards to.  The first brand I wrote about was Pangea Organics, and the other brand I noticed was Eclipse Aviation, who offers a very, very cool product – one of the first very light jets or VLJ’s as aviation people call them. 

Before starting Sweet Talk, I worked at an agency where I was responsible for getting publicity on number of aviation accounts, so I learned my fair share about planes and flying, topics completely foreign to me.  One of the newer ideas in aviation (believe me these don’t happen very often) were these VLJs, which only cost around 1 mill and seat about 8.  The idea is that these planes fly out of smaller airports, acting as air taxis for short flights and you’re in and out – no long lines, no million people and very light security – really ideal for the business traveler.  My agency did work with one of these companies, called Adam Aircraft, a competitor to Eclipse and I placed this article in the Dallas Morning News which actually gives a pretty good summary of what makes these VLJs cool.

In any case, what I did want to talk about was image here.  Eclipse Aviation is not only recognized for its performance, but for the design of its planes and being a well-branded company.  When I first saw the Eclipse 500 in person at NBAA,  I was struck by the look of it compared to all the big and little planes alike.  It just seemed there had been so much more thought put into its internal and external design (specifically the dashboard) and people were flocking to it. And if you go to the site, you will see the difference there, when comparing them to probably most any other aviation company.  Eclipse is definitely a stand-out in an industry that evolves very slowly – some are still stuck in another era.  And it makes sense the company would be more forward, as the president formerly worked for Microsoft and understands the importance of image and how it creates an emotional attachment to whatever your offering. 

I’m not saying business owners need to sink tons of money into branding for their companies, but it should be something fully-thought through.  Over and over again, it is apparent that the companies that are really making an impact in consumer’s minds and converting that into sales, are the ones thinking it through.

I know I am always harping on the importance of good branding and design, but it’s only because I know it makes such an important, though sometimes subconscious, impression in people’s minds when they are choosing which product or service to use.  They don’t say “it’s all in the marketing” for no reason.

Case in point: Pangea Organics – body care products sold at stores such as Whole Foods.  Pangea Organics was a winner of the Business Week’s Annual Design, Catalyst Award, which measures commercial market success for well-designed products.  I go to Whole Foods (yes, very expensive but in my opinion, no better marketing experience exists – and I mean that in marketing and in buying food) probably twice a week.  I often make it into the vitamin and grooming area, and only recently did I notice these Pangea Organics products – they don’t look as though they belong in a health food store.  Every time I walk by, I come closer to buying them, primarily because they look cool and designey (is that a word?) and they are organic (obviously) – the products meet my standards in a number of ways.  I know that may sound ridiculous to some, but it is true.  Fortunately for Pangea Organics, I’m not the only one who feels that way.  Business Week states that once the company redesigned the product packaging, revenues tripled.  Though some of the other organic products I see are ok, and some are so not (still packaging for the granola bunch), this brand keeps bringing me back and I know I will buy something one of these days.

Does your brand and the design that surrounds it draw customers in like this one does?

In part two, I’m going to talk about another Business Week Design Award winner, Eclipse Aviation.  Check it out….