Archive of Miscellaneous

Logo designers must have been willing to give up pretty much everything for this job. To do Obama’s logo design for the 2008 campaign. Obama signs, buttons (Julia - an American friend who recently visited - got really cool comments on it running around with it in Vienna) and his homepage were a huge attraction in this year’s campaign. Generally you can say that his campaign did a good job in encouraging people to get involved.

O’s success was build on a firmly structured design and was his basement whenever he appeared. He burned the O into all our retinas successfully. The O will be remembered. For sure.

Here a good read: The New York Times interview withSol Sender, the graphic designer behind Obama’s campaign.

Update (Dec 13th): If with that great interview you’d like some more visuals served. Check out this walk-thru of logo ideas that were offered in the final stage of finding the perfect brand for a moving candidate.

Note to myself: I turned into this huge Obama blog. This was one of the last posts. Hold your fingers crossed.

I thought this was hilarious, so I couldn’t restrain from posting and sending it out to my Republican friends, who are outnumbered by Democrats…

Washed your hands, my friends? · by stevegarfield on flickr

Long long before Saturday meant “Let’s Go Out And Have A Shot Or Two” Day I used to spend the entire Saturday at my favorite auntie’s place. She had cable. She was the coolest. Saturday mornings the Power Rangers were on, so there was no way around it and around 4 or so, it was Star Trek with Shattner and Co. So when I found out they were planning a movie starting next year (2009), I was more than stoked to accidently slip over on this trailer on Star Trek. Are you as excited? The cast is very similar looking to the series’ cast from the point of appearance.

And yes, I used to watch Power Rangers and Star Trek Enterprise (I didn’t care too much about all the newer versions).

Also a final note: I need to tell my English teacher at university, he outed himself as a Trekkie in our very first lesson. We were discussing the different meanings of enterprise and he was giving us hints of what not all enterprise means, and so he clearly was hinting the TV series and - probably tooembarrassedto admit you knew “The USS Enterprise”, somebody was saying something like “Oh yeah, Star Wars” and then he immediately went with a really fierce, passionate tone: Know the difference between Star Wars and Star Trek there, Mister! In case you are one of them mixing up these entirely opposing legendary movie themes, you might want to check this comparison (and in case you are well aware of how to translate this article into Klingon, then, you also need to read this)…

Know Your Star Wars and Star Trek!

My two favorite difference is that Spock puts his toilet paper on so it rolls over the top, whereas Vader puts it the other way around. Also a main characteristic of Star Trek is that some Trekkies (the fanboys even call themselves like that) are now said to be old enough to move straight from their parents’ basement to the retirement home.

As Americans gather around family tables tomorrow, they will have to make a decision what they are going to be grateful and thankful for. AC 360 has an interesting take on things and puts it in a very “downbeat” way…

Gratitude despite thecrisis?This thanksgiving an abundance of families are going to be thinking, “What exactly do I have to be thankful for?” Thankful I still have my home, though it’s worth less than ever? Thankful I have the holiday off from my job, though I may not have a job shortly? Thankful I planned and saved for my future, though I am watching those savings dwindle on a daily basis? It certainly can seem difficult to mount a feeling of appreciation in the midst of evolving disaster. (AC 360° Blog)

After confronting the readers with the sad reality of world economy being in or heading towards a recession, psychiatristDr. Gail Saltz explains how to get gratitude (and joy?) out of the little things in life. Maybe this could be a lesson for each and everyone of us, not just Americans who are to celebrate Thanksgiving tomorrow.

Don’t you have these moments where you stop really shortly and think, “Wow XYZ is really cool. Look at it, it’s just amazing!”

Oh my goodness, yet another critical view of Thanksgiving. The Joy Of Tech’s “Thanksgiving… Pray for us” comic.

We have been heavily discussing brands and their recognition and perception on this blog. Also I put up some Obama mania entries dealing with recent events. So why not mix it up a bit and look thru this great survey I found (before the election).

Tadaaa: A brand analysis of the presidential candidates’ brand association that was concluded using a survey by conducted Landor Associates and Penn, Schoen & Berland in the beginning of October.

Look through it, now it’s clear why people went for the Obama-Biden ticket, right?

Starbucks, BMW, Mac, Target, Google, Marriot, iPhone, iPod - I could identify with it. · Picture by Landor Associates and Penn, Schoen & Berland

If you spin this a little further and move from brands to everyday products, what would this survey be like? Animal associated with Obama: puppy. Animal associated with Palin: a moose. Now, isn’t this funny?

Accidentally I changed my wallpaper to Tina Fey vs Sarah Palin the other day when reading some news page. After panicking (at least over 50% of my screen), I decided to keep it for a while to get into a christmas election mood.

It happened. Accident. Emergency. A la Patrick Wolf

Recent events made me pick up the topic as described below. Here is a history of these events:

• Event A) Just before the Wiener Linien (Viennese public transport operator) redesign of line 1 and 2 (they used to go in circles clockwise and counterclockwise around the Ring) came into effect, the trams driver made anannouncementhe thought would be a brilliant joke to tell on the last ride of the line 2. I am not going to recite every bit he said; that, you can watch on youtube.He basically shouted in a mocking Hitler voice that the place, that they were going to circle one last time, was a historical place where historical moments happened. Then he ended the announcement with “Sieg Heil” (Hail Victory), a common pro-Nazi greeting, similar to “Heil Hitler.” After being confronted by someone (thank you very much, Mister) he said he was “sorry” and claimed it was a “joke” and asked the passengers for confirmation. Confirmation he did not get to an entire degree (and that fact disgusted me as well). — Well, Wiener Linien fired the Nazi tram driver the day after. Good to know, isn’t it?
• Event B) Austrian’s third national council’s president has been voted Martin Graf. Not only he openly supports a right-extremest fraternity, called Olympia but also does not deny the connection of the fraternity activities to violence promotingideology.

Event A and B made me come to a conclusion C: Austria has a funny (funny as in weird) understanding of its past.

Found in Flickr Commons range of free-to-use photos (not just space photos, but also vintage-ish old-school pictures) I was struck by this mesmerizing picture. Look at it? Doesn’t it make you and your daily troubles feel small? Are you complaining about the weather or having caught up a cold (just like I did)?

Guess what compared to the size of the average daily “problem,” this nebula somehow gets to blow things out of proportions (citing The Joker from Batman The Dark Knight)….

So if the Eagle Nebula doesn’t humble you, maybe you really are in a pickle. A pickle larger than this whole star-creating massive aggregation of matter, that is.

The Eagle Nebula (M16): Peering Into the Pillars of Creation (A nearby star-forming region about 7,000 light years from Earth.) · photo by Smithsonian Institution on flickr.com