Architectural Fashion

The Moment Blog from the New York Times recently posted about Architectural Fashion in light of the Fashion Weeks taking place around the world currently.

What is Architectural Fashion?

Old-school masters

The New Guard

Posted in Fashion, Architecture | No Comments »

Designs on the Oval Office

With a new president residing in the White House, America and the rest of the world are ready for a fresh start.   Iraq, the financial meltdown, and healthcare are among the top issues that are pressing the new administration but before President Obama gets too deep into his work, his new Oval Office will need to be retrofitted to suit his operational and aesthetic needs.  To offer their takes on potential directions for the new President London´s Guardian newspaper enlisted the expert advice from several professional designers.

Barack Obama with be the 18th president to occupy the Oval Office since it was built in 1909. The presidential Gunlocke chair was designed for John F Kennedy, who suffered from back pain. The central panel was requested by Franklin D Roosevelt to hide his leg braces, but he died before it was added. Every president since William Howard Taft has commissioned his own bespoke rug; this £40,000 sunbeam design was chosen by Laura Bush.  The following are three of the suggested designs:

Posted in Design & Art | No Comments »

New York Restaurant Week

NYC Restaurant Week,^™ New York City’s original celebration of dining, dates back to 1992, when it was developed as a one-time culinary program to welcome the Democratic National Convention (DNC) to the City. Though created with an eye toward delegates and other DNC attendees, the program also found a strong following with residents eager for the chance to eat at some of the City’s top restaurants for a fraction of the usual cost—$19.92 for three courses—and who didn’t want NYC Restaurant Week to be a one-time-only event.

Since 1992, the success of NYC Restaurant Week has only grown. It has expanded to include both lunch and dinner offerings—three-course, prix-fixe meals for $24.07 and $35 respectively—and extended to two weeks each in the summer and winter. And this year, for the first time ever, many of the participating restaurants are adding Sundays to the program, which has historically been weekdays only.

Today, NYC Restaurant Week stands apart as one of the City’s most exciting and anticipated events. More than 250 restaurants participate—a cross section of the NYC culinary scene that encompasses a diverse range of cuisines and includes some of its most time-honored restaurants and buzz-worthy newcomers. Through its evolution, however, the driving force behind the program remains the same: to give visitors and residents the opportunity to experience the quality, variety and hospitality that embody the NYC dining experience.

Click here for more details

Posted in Hospitality & Travel, Food & Beverage | No Comments »

Virtual Gifts: What are they and what do they do?

I saw this explanation of virtual gifts in Wired today. As an avid Facebooker I often see these “gifts” and wonder what they really mean in terms of revenues, cost, and the actual process of selling. Apparently, as dumb as I imagined them to be, there is a significant business behind them and large brands are catching on…

According to Wired,,, “Virtual gifts are sort of a head scratcher. They aren’t a very risky or costly investment for social networks and yet it’s difficult to imagine users paying any amount of money for something that doesn’t really exist, especially in a recession and when it won’t raise your street cred.

Hi5 is the latest to join Facebook in the virtual gift-giving business, where users can purchases tiny images for around a dollar that appear on a friend’s profile. MySpace has also annouced that it will be opening up its own shop very soon. While everyone jumping on board seems natural enough to maintain a competitive edge, is there really a future in this additional pay-for-pixel source of revenue for social networks?

Facebook, one of the first to launch and popularize virtual gifts back in February of 2007, says it doesn’t matter. They aren’t really focused on a bottom line.“Yes some revenue is obviously generated by these but I think it would be wrong to consider virtual gifts as a huge part of our revenue goal here at the company,” said Facebook spokesman Matt Hicks.

Unconfirmed estimates of sales from third parties are generally very positive (anywhere from $35 million to upwards of $50 million), but the accuracy of these numbers is complicated by lack of public data on the types of gifts offered (free, $1, and those sponsored by advertisers).

One thing is for sure: over 60 million of these “gifts” have been given. “The pixels themselves don’t cost anything, but I think the reason they’ve been effective is that it ties into a deep psychological value,” said Mike Trigg, VP of marketing for hi5, who says he thinks paying a dollar makes the sentiment all the more meaningful.

“The fact that there’s a price associated with these new gifts that we’re launching sort of just amplifies that message,” he said. He thinks less expensive forms of entertainment are compelling during an economic downturn.

Facebook currently has 391 gifts in its shop, a mix of those that cost $1 (equivalent to about 100 credits under a new pricing model) and free items, many of which are sponsored by advertisers so they are paid for in advance. Sponsored gifts have been pretty popular: around Cyber Monday there was a Dell laptop and a Sephora bag. Sierra Mist is offering free gifts that it encourages you to “re-gift” as part of its latest ad campaign. After the election, The New York Times sponsored a free virtual newspaper with the headline ”Obama Wins,” which in the first day was given more than 220,000 times.

“The main goal is to provide something of value,” said Hicks. “It’s not just a message to your friend.”

Do you really see any value in these “virtual gifts”? Feel free to comment…

Posted in Technology | No Comments »

How can the Motorola Sparrow help you?

Fast Company had a great product showcase about the new Motorola Sparrow recently. It is a product that should definitely be on every retailers wish list for year!

Think of the Motorola Sparrow as an iPhone for retailers. Equipped with a touch-sensitive back panel that keeps the screen free for viewing, the wireless prototype device integrates myriad existing technologies and features into a single palm-held powerhouse. Need to check inventory? A built-in bar-code scanner can retrieve that information. Want to see a customer’s profile? The Sparrow can pull one up after detecting a loyalty card or other relevant RFID tag. Want to win brownie points with a shopper by helping her jump the checkout line? The device can process credit cards from the sales floor. This being a Motorola product, there’s also a phone function, of course, just in case you need to call a supplier.

The Sparrow — so named because it’s meant to be small, fast, and simple, like the bird — is a neat metaphor for the corporate mind meld that went into its production. In 2006, Motorola bought Symbol Technologies, a maker of bar-code scanners, and asked the New York — based design consultancy Aruliden to help envision what the firms’ combined expertise could do for retail. Its answer was this sleek little concept. “The technology was already there,” says Aruliden cofounder Rinat Aruh. “That’s the beauty of this device. It’s not as if we dreamed up one of those pie-in-the-sky concepts.”

Shane MacGregor, director of advanced industrial design in Motorola’s enterprise mobility division, says the company has been presenting the Sparrow concept to clients and gathering feedback about what they’d want in a production model. He doesn’t think it will be long before Sparrows will be as ubiquitous around town as, well, sparrows. He says Motorola already has “a couple of projects in the pipeline that will be either evolutions of this or some derivative.”

The possibilities of this piece of equipment are limitless. For retail the benefits are obvious, but I imagine that innovative hoteliers would be able to develop equally fantastic uses for the Sparrow as well.

Posted in Technology, Retail, Design & Art | No Comments »

Sustainable Ticket Machines in Japan

Kit Brown from Fast Company examined a great new sustainable addition to thousands of Japanese peoples´ commutes. Browd describes the thousands of stamping feet that will be doing the environment a little good starting this December, as a Japanese experiment that harnesses footfalls for generating power gets underway.

The system consists of rubber mats and (presumably) piezo-electric materials, and can technically generate enough power to run the ticket machines, gates and electronic signage of the Tokyo railway station it’s being tested in. Up to 80,000 passengers go through the station every day, and the system borrows a little of the kinetic energy each passenger imparts as they walk. Each passenger will technically have a little of their food-supplied energy reserves sapped, but it’ll be microscopic.

It’s an experiment by a joint venture formed by a goverment-supported body and Japan East Railways, and it’s exactly the kind of innovative green-thinking system Japan needs if it’s to come closer to meeting its Kyoto protocol pollution cuts.

This innovation is greatly needed around the world, and it is great to see the travel and transportation industry doing its role to bring responsible innovation to the masses.

Posted in Technology, Hospitality & Travel | No Comments »

The Rise of Viral Internet Ads

Esquire included a short bio online recently about Benjamin Palmer. You may ask who that is… He is the man behind some of the most innovative, interesting, and successful internet viral ads floating around this great big thing we call the information superhighway. They say, “Palmer, thirty-four, is the hipster geek large companies like Nike, HP, Mars, and Volkswagen call when they need to figure out how to talk to the kids. And the reason is that the Internet is Palmer’s bitch. He knows how it works — both technically and upon us. And he grasps why some sites and videos go viral and others flatline. So companies come to him and ask a simple question: How can you use the Internet to transform us?”

Sometimes that means making an amazing application or Web site, like Burger King’s subservientchicken.com, where you can command a man dressed up in a chicken suit to do whatever you want. Do a handstand. Do the running man. It’s simple, idiotic, and was an immediate success in 2004, garnering more than a billion hits. A few years later, Palmer’s growing company, the Barbarian Group, rented a special high-speed camera, built a cannon, and shot videos of a contractor blowing stuff up with cans of Milwaukee’s Best Light, Miller’s economy beer.

The demographic the brand was looking to impress — poor, drunk college kids — loved it. Another brand made cool. Barbarian did the same thing this spring for CNN.com by adding an application to the news site that allows users to buy T-shirts of the non sequitur headlines at the bottom of its video screens: MAN LOSES 550 LBS., GAINS BRIDE.

The key, according to Palmer, is that on the Web, advertising can’t be just about yelling your message louder and clearer with more pixels and colors. “You’re a brand, make yourself fucking useful,” he says. The ad, if not the brand, should at least appear to make someone’s life richer or better. That means making people laugh or play, making people like a brand and want to share a brand experience.

We have seen a few attempts at hotels making viral ads, but none that we are aware of have included Benjamin Palmer… yet!

Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »

Detroit Design Motor City

The world is well aware by now about the woes of the current situation in the Detroit. The big three automakers, GM, Ford, and Chrysler have submitted proposals for a collective $34 billion loan. This marks a pivitol point for the automotive industry in the US, but not one unlike a similar situation years ago. Fast Company highlighted the saviour for Ford last time this happened…

A few years ago, I had the pleasure of interviewing Jack Telnack, the former global vice president of design at Ford.

Telnack was the guy behind the ‘79 Mustang and the 83 Thunderbird, among other signature models. But the subject of our call was the car that saved Ford the last time around - the incredible true story of how a radical change in both design and workflow revived an automaker who seemed doomed to go belly up.

It was the utterly charming Ford Taurus, the three billion dollar jellybean on wheels, that both surprised and delighted a public that was used to the big box cars that their daddies drove. The wind-cheating Ford Taurus was instantly more fuel efficient, and its dramatic curves, flush glass, and wide stance set off a buying frenzy shortly after it rolled off the manufacturing line in 1986.

It came just in time. Ford was sputtering the early 1980s - high fuel prices, foreign competition and internal bickering had driven their U.S. market share down to 20%, a near all time low. Ford senior management bet the farm that a dramatic new design would keep Ford alive. (Cue menacing music.) But to reinvent the wheel, Ford would have to reinvent itself. “Ford was in the serious trouble in Detroit,” the now retired Telnack told me. “We were looking for a new approach, a new direction. We needed a breakthrough design.”

Enter the Taurus.

“The idea started in Europe, under Lew Veraldi. We started exploring the new, aerodyamic look – everyone was doing very boxy, square, angular. It was a very unique strong statement, very contemporary. Aero was on its way, but we were convinced that we could do it in a next step. It was a real risk. I think others were nervous. Even those in the company – the design was that far out there.”

But not only was the design a breakthrough for Ford, the way they built the car was equally revolutionary.

“We’d heard of teams before,” said Telnack, without a trace of irony. “We’d seen them work in Europe. We decided to try it because we really had to move fast if we were going to pull off this design.” Telnack created an utterly cross-functional group, bringing together for the first time disparate flavors of professionals who typically worked on a single project in a design vacuum – passing their work product “over the wall” to the next group.

Telnack’s brought engineers, designers, stylists, modelers, sculptors, technicians and marketing people, often in the same room, and set them free to debate, reiterate and create. Ford has sold nearly 7 million Tauruses worldwide, making it the fifth best seller in Ford history; between 1992 and 1996, the Taurus was the best-selling car in the United States. After a brief (boneheaded) attempt to retire the car in 2007, the company seems to be planning some sort of design comeback for the car in 2010.

Let this be a lesson to Detroit… when in doubt, look for design!

Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »

Bienvenue chez Le Web

LeWeb is considered one of, if not the top Internet events in Europe. It started in 2005 with only 250 attendees, second edition still in 2005 gathered 500 people, 1000 in 2006… and on December 2007 1800 participants from 40 countries met in Paris. This year even more hopefuls, pundits, and investors showed up for the “big dance.”

According to the site, LeWeb is about:

…people
Extending the success of last year’s networking venue, this year’s LeWeb expands the space with several spaces adjacent to the plenary stage. We want attendees to get the opportunity to meet the speakers, entrepreneurs to meet investors to share ideas, open new opportunities.

…entrepreneurs
The StarUp Competition is an event in the event. We dedicate a space for this competition which is a great opportunity for rising stars to get more visibility in front of business leaders, investors and technology influencers.

Last year the speaker and guest list included a veritable who´s who of the internet including: Janus Friis (founder of Kazaa, Skype, Joost), Evan Williams (Twitter), Kevin Rose (digg), Patrick Chanezon (Google Open Social) and Dan Rose ( Facebook). LeWeb also expanded perspective with the voices of world-renowned voices like designer Philippe Starck.

Reports also say that Le Web’s start-up competition, held in a side room, was packed with investors interested in hearing pitches from companies like fotonauts. And, on Dec. 10 French Finance Minister Christine Lagarde is scheduled to give out the award to the winner at this year’s event.

One issue that was discuss was the government´s role in entrepreneurship both on and offline. Business Weed argues that they need to reward entrepreneurs for taking risks. The consensus at the conference was that the only way to turn around economies is to innovate out of this mess. But despite the success stories and the optimism at the conference there’s a major risk that the pipeline of new ideas and projects could get cut off due to lack of funding. Investors, such as serial entrepreneur Martin Varsavsky, made that clear during panel discussions at Le Web.

Posted in Technology, Design & Art | No Comments »

The hottest trend in… sandwiches?

Jaunted reported on a delicious new trend in the sandwich business… the baoguette.  They report, “

While it hasn’t yet completed the full mainstream crossover of, say, Pad Thai, the bahn mi sandwich has been a hit on the foodie scene and now seems poised for a breakout. This French-influenced Vietnamese staple does a delicious job of turning the basic sandwich staples–crusty bread, spiced meat and crunchy vegetables–into an exotic specialty.

Baoguette, which opened this week in Murray Hill, might be just the place to bring bahn mi to the masses. The new “gourmet sandwich café”  from the husband-and-wife team behind popular eateries Bu’n and Bao Noodles, offers made-to-order bahn mi sandwiches in a tiny, ten-seat Murray Hill shop formerly home to a Blimpie’s.

Baoguette’s signature sandwich is a baguette loaded with pork terrine, pate, pulled pork and fresh herbs, and there are also BBQ chicken, corned beef and catfish takes on the bahn mi. The best part is the decidedly mainstream-friendly pricing–$5 to $7 each.”

Posted in Hospitality & Travel, Food & Beverage | No Comments »