Discoveries and farewell

I was worried last night. I had cooked, dined and fallen asleep on a friday evening. 2 Hours later I lay wandering why I felt deprived of energy on holidays/weekends. because I’m breaking my biorhythm? Because I’m slowly getting depressed as job-offers are not thrown at my head in bundles of five? (not to myself: send out CV’s in order to get work). And then it hit me. I don’t drink coffee on holidays like I do on workdays. I just made a strong pot and these words are being hammered at 163 per minute. Fool!

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Farewell my blue shirt, we’ve walked this road of life together for a long time. I hate to say good-bye and I’ll miss you. But man, let’s face it, there’s barely any tissue left on your sleeves. Let’s not cry. I’ll pass you along to those fine folk who clutter my mailbox with used-clothes-bags every week or so. Farewell, I’m gonna miss you.

Aaaah, the fun of applying for a job while sipping from a glass of white wine on a terrace: one of the few advantages of working with fellow crazy folk in the graphic industry. That and the instant sex-appeal from admitting to girls you’re kindof an artist. You think I actually draw in that sketchbook?

Fellow Mac designers, here’s a word of good advice. When you consider the purchase of a new G5, iBook or just about any Mac: don’t consider getting it at Comit. Here’s a short list of why not.

Mac gets delivered, 512Mb of extra ram not working. I mail COMIT.

Tech support guy #1 comes with replacements he installs without unplugging power of the machine. After replacing, he boots the Mac without fans or convection unit inside. System freezes.

Tech support guy #1 comes back with fresh ram. Manages to install right after installing in wrong order. System freezes. Man confesses he’s a PC guy with zero Mac knowledge. I take a 800 euro service contract

Tech support guy #2 drops off a spiffy G5 replacement machine. Turns out to be a mono 1.6 Mhz (fine) with only 256 Mb ram. Some apps like FCP don’t even run with 256Mb.

Tech support guy #1 comes back with 1Gb more ram, as a temporarily solution. System freezes, so we have to remove the ram again.

Tech support guy #1 is in my office as I return from coffee break. He has unplugged the power of the running Mac without logging me out, since I “wasn’t there”. He places my G5 back. He has no idea what they did with it. System profiler shows that they installed 512Mb too much this time.

See my point?

Total ‘pod flood

Up untill last month, I think I saw 4 iPods in total in Belgium, including Spudio’s. Last month, I saw at least 15 pairs of white earbuds on trains, streets and in cars. Something tells me Apple has a major hit in this continent as well.

Apple seems to realize it’s quite expensive paying Akamai to host movie trailers so PC users could watch them in their free Quicktime player. Try watching the new trailer from The Incredibles.

iTunes required.

Sure, that one’s free too. But the trailers are just next to the soundtracks, for only 9.99 a piece. Clever move.

Took some advice from Jeroen today and removed that irritating duck from the projects interface. It’s still there, but just once. It’s a bad thing to start hating your own creation, thanks for the tip friend.

The MiniCity has grown a little and the buildings are boxes with insides now. Perhaps a new navigation will even be on-line end of the month…

What a delicious party, this Hot-Couture thing at Brussels airport. A touch expensive perhaps, but hey, wouldn’t you spend 70 euro’s to drink and dance among the crème de la crème in a gigantic airport hanger, while 40 models serve drinks and a live photo shoot with an entire crew is a gimmick in a corner?

By the way: I will work on dancing while facing the croud, Black Mamba. You’re my favorite dancing snake.

Fascinating world of brand identities

Beiersdorf‘s brand family of healthcare products Nivea made a weird turn. As far as I could tell, their crèmes were about white tenderness, health happy mums and dads shampooing giggling little David

My supermarket had a new Nivea shower gel: a red fluid the bottle assured to be revitalizing. Stop the presses! Soft blue Nivea is trying to conquer territory from Unilever‘s young and cool Axe brand? That’s kind of tricky. I believe in a strong brand consumers can identify with. Sure: a flexible brand can evolve or retarget to grow with along customers. But if Duracell ran a campaign promoting it’s batteries Green Power, I’d get a heart attack. Duracell is not green: it lasts longer!

Stick with mum and dad shampooing little David, Beiersdorf.

As promised, kids, a preview of the MiniCity. Imagine 26 of these real buildings (shot in Antwerpen and Leuven) as an interface for the New Site…