Archive for December, 2008
Branding The Obama Identity
Two short interviews with Sol Sender, the Design Strategist behind the excellent adaptable and strong brand identity of the US President-Elect Barack Obama, wherein he shares the history, strategic branding process and key take-aways thereof.
As stipulated by Karl Long in the original referring post over at FUTURELAB.net, this could become the most iconic brand identity of our time -even more so when we consider the various ways in which it was deployed: the ultimate contemporary case of product quality (the candidate AND his message) first and marketing perfection second in a sweet marriage with The Crowds if we ever saw one.
Bonus: For the nitpickers out there: In part 1, pause at 06:46 to see a screenshot of an Outdoor Dummy on a Dutch Public Transport Company bus stop , taken in the city of Amsterdam! [hometown of yours truly ;) ]
Sol Sender – Obama Logo Design Part 1 of 2
Sol Sender – Obama Logo Design Part 2 of 2
Here’s the teams blog post
Original Post: http://experiencecurve.com/archives/new-rules-implied-for-developing-brand-identity-for-social-media
Data Preservation & Storage: How Much is Enough?
“According to a 2008 IDC white paper, 2007 marked the “crossover” year, when there was more digital data created than data storage to host it. The IDC report also projected that by 2011 the amount of digital data created will be more than twice the amount of available storage.
Bottom line?
We don’t produce storage capacity at the same rate we produce digital information.”
Presuming that the scenario sketched above (taken from ReadWriteWeb.com) is true, in what ways can we tackle this dilemma? We already know that the use of streaming online video (mainly spurred by YouTube, Hulu and Tudou) will massively outstrip broadband uptake and network capacity in the coming years if no action is undertaken swiftly. So… Who’s responsible and what to do?
“…While most people agree that certain digital information is preservation worthy or of historical value to society, what about the digital pictures you took on your last holiday? Who is in charge of preserving them so that the next generation can access them?
In a nutshell, you are…”
The article also has some recommendations;
“…here are three things you can do right now:
1. Make a plan: Determine who is going to be in charge of your digital data once you are no longer capable of looking after it.
2. Make multiple copies: When it comes to valuable data, store it in different formats at different locations.
3. Migrate to new technologies: Don’t wait for storage media to become obsolete, migrate to new technologies and formats as they become available.
Finally, with some cloud services offering free data storage, it’s worth considering moving some of your data online…”
Read the full article on ReadWriteWeb.com.
The New Definition Of Usability (WordPress 2.7 Unleashed)
Lost for words… This has to be the single-most intuitive design overhaul that I’ve had the pleasure of experiencing on a screen, EVER. Period.
And what boggles the mind even more, is that this wasn’t a solo effort by the development team, but a joint-Crowd Sourced process with an astounding product-upgrade as a result.
Check out the short video below, outlining the latest improvements to WordPress, or download it here.
Upon stumbling on this screencast on ReadWriteWeb 5 minutes ago, immediately upgraded to WordPress 2.7, updated the database and… was plainly and simply blown away by not just the changes and tweaks in navigation & look-and-feel, but even more so by the plain flexibility of the dashboard; from this day onwards, I -the user- am in FULL control of each and every aspect of my own navigation/experience…
More often than not, we digerati/Tech pro’s tend to complain and outline major and minor faults with web-apps/IT environments (much to the chagrin of the development team behind it, alas that’s part of the job, innit…) so I really believe it’s only fair to take a deep bow when something comes along that does manage to tick every box and give credit to a team whom wouldn’t just settle for following every rule in the UDX rulebook, but decided to move those goalposts, in one fell swoop, to the level above and beyond the next level all together and set a new industry-wide benchmark…
So, again, hat tip to the WordPress Community/developers, for I can’t remember the last time that I’ve been as deeply impressed with a web-app or upgrade as not only a web professional but as an end-user as well (and judging by the techmeme/resonating echoes in the blogosphere this approval seems to be universal!)
“Code Is Poetry”
and all hope is not lost yet indeed ;)
