Joia Magazine 2009

Around 3 months ago the good peeps at JOIA Magazine decided to recruit me as part of their staff to take charge of their new website’s design and programming.

Today, at last, after a lot of work and problems, the website’s finally online.

So the invitation’s open for you to check the site out and give me your input. Any crticism, opinions or comments of course are always welcome.

Link: JOIA Magazine.

New Media Implementation–Lead, Follow, or Fail

 There has been a lot of chatter regarding emerging media, new media, and how Web 2.0/Web 3.0 will change the world, let alone the practice of advertising as we know it. I am certain that the world, and conventional advertising, will definitely be affected…once effective methods to monetize these new media platforms are determined. If you keep up at all with the trades, you are certainly aware that Google’s purchase of YouTube has been terribly unprofitable, to say the least. And it remains to be seen if YouTube will ever provide profits for Google. There is also the constant buzz regarding Twitter: Is Twitter for sale? Are they working on a new business model? Or, is Twitter but a passing fancy? 

One thing abundantly clear is that Social Media networks have become the new, untapped vein of gold for advertisers in the digital age. Social Media users freely provide relevant information about themselves which is then used by advertisers to segment them into convenient, targetable groups. Paired with Social Media’s meteoric rise in usage, advertisers are often left scrambling to hastily build strategies to reach this audience unobtrusively.

While all of this action (or perceived action) is exciting, the current trend seems to be more about making a buzz than making a buck, with a few exceptions:

In December 2008, Internet News reported that Dell produced over a million dollars in sales by offering discounts to consumers that followed Dell on Twitter. And while these sales accounted for but a drop in the bucket compared to their overall revenue ($61 Billion in 2008), it is evident that while Twitter’s not able to monetize their service, Dell had no problem doing so.

So, while most are playing catch-up, there are shining examples of advertisers and agencies that are ahead of the curve, positioning themselves to lead by example rather than yammering on about what they plan to do. Take, for instance, Lisa P. Maxwell (LPM) in Chicago. Visible, LPM’s web development arm, created LPM’s new Flash site, and fitted it with webcams at each employee’s desk. Anytime during the day, a client, prospective client, or curious web-surfer can click on one of the employee “cam profiles” and chat in real time with the employee. The site lets you know which person is available to chat via the use of two buttons that highlight the web cam images (green=available). Depending on the time of day, you might find yourself talking to the Creative Director, New Business Manager, or even a copywriting intern. It is actually quite fun to talk to this captive audience…they seem to be an intelligent bunch willing to answer most questions. I spoke to one of the Account Managers this morning about working at LPM and being on camera, and she said that they’ve had fantastic reviews. She also said that the best thing about LPM was “the people.”lpmaxwellpicThe point of this viral “experiment” is to increase traffic to LPM’s site via non-traditional methods, and in this sense, it has been a qualified success, adding 1500+ visits during the first month of operation. It’s not clear if any new business leads have been generated virally, but as with many viral endeavors, it may take some time. However, if I was marketing director looking for an agency to lead my business into the intricacies of social/emerging media marketing, I would certainly add Lisa P. Maxwell to the top of the list.

Some agencies lead. Others talk. And the rest just don’t get it.

 

 

 

Playboy UK

playboyuk

If you’ve ever been to a hard porn, soft porn, or even erotic website you’ve noticed that 3/4 of your screen fill up with naked babes, and the other 1/4 is just catchy colors and a whole bunch of become a member buttons (or so I’ve heard).

But Playboy, at least in its printed version has always been different. You really gotta give it to Hefner, if his empire is what it is it’s not just because of breasts and blond babes, it’s because he made it a glamorous serious magazine that just happened to show a few gorgeous naked ladies (ok, a bit more than a few).

Actually I’m a big Playboy magazine fan. I love the women, but I also love the magazine’s style. It’s actually a well built magazine, not only some cheesy booby shots with badly written articles in between.

Anyways, the point of this post is that Playboy UK has recently dropped a new version of their website and I simply love the new layout. Take out the fact that it is a Playboy website even. It’s a beautiful site, period. Bold serif titles, black and white, a very dynamic grid and… gorgeous babes!. Can’t be mad at that.

Big up to the whole website management crew behind it.

Can Intec Drive Market Growth?

During these times of recession, you can expect the so-called experts to be on the hot seat. For one, their actual efficiency on business analytics will be put to the test and Intec is certainly one global company that is caught in this mix, being looked up by the mobile industry to improve the market saturation today.

“Given current economic uncertainties around the globe, operators are looking for high-performing solutions that will deliver rapid ROI and enhanced customer satisfaction,” commented Andrew Taylor, CEO of Intec. “Intec’s OSS and BSS solutions have proven track records in more than 70 of the globe’s top 100 network operators, and we’re delighted that both established operators and new market entrants continue to see the value in our highly relevant, cutting-edge technologies.”

With Intec’s mediation solution, Exatel, Novotel and Celcom will gain full convergent mediation capabilities thereby enabling the rapid deployment of new services and their respective ability to secure market growth.

With proven ability to handle the highest levels of traffic and multi-party settlement with a variety of third party providers, Intec’s InterconnecT addresses the needs of dynamic operators dealing with both traditional and next generation products and services.

As well as preventing revenue leakage and securing increased revenue streams, InterconnecT delivers rapid ROI, within a minimal time-frame, on one fully flexible and scalable platform.

(Source) Press

Dropular

dropular

There are a lot of people I admire around the world. But Andreas Pihlström and the Suprb crew must be one of my top 5 for sure.

Their graphic and programming talent is always amazing and they’ve got a real eye for what the market needs at a given moment.

Now, if you’re into image bookmarking sites like ffffound, Dropular has come to save the day.

Registrations open for a short period of time, so go get yours!.

Firefox 3

Firefox 3 has just been released. Tons of improvements, specially in the performance department.

Get your copy now!.

Diseño Emergente 2.0

Diseño Emergente 2.0

First off I’d like to apologize for the size of the image, but I think in this case it’s worth it.

A little over two years ago, a small group of chilean design students decided to generate an online space that allowed design students from all its branches and schools to share their projects and create contact and collaboration networks that led to improve and enhance the national design scene. That website was Diseño Emergente (Emerging Design).

Now, with an insanely powerful base of monthly visitors and projects, Diseño Emergente is, without a doubt, the space where chilean (and slowly more latinamerican) design students converge and share, debate and display their ideas.

By chance of life, I had the pleasure of being one of the first few members of this community and for a while I was part of their staff, with whom to this day I keep a very close relationship.

This is why seeing progress like the one I’ll refer to is trully a reason for pride and satisfaction, knowing that in Chile there are people who dare to take the plunge, to go against the odds, and do it right, with love for what they do and the seriousness and responsability it deserves.

The reason for this slightly long post is to tell you about the release of Diseño Emergente 2.0,. A total review of the website’s interface and functions was made directly from the input of its own users and not just what the staff thought was right.

Even if you’re not a spanish-speaking person, I encourgae you to take a look at the portfolios section, I’m sure you’ll find a few things that’ll blow your mind.

For someone like me, who’s passionate about design, programming and interaction, this website really is a luxury. A whole bunch of new features that speed up your reading time, enhance relationships between users and also enhance the participation of 3rd party users from chilean student design.

So I’m just leaving the invitation open for you to check out the all new Diseño Emergente, ’cause even with its many haters, it’s impossible to deny its real cultural and design weight in chilean society.

My biggest congratulations, and deepest respect to the staff that daily tries to take chilean design to the next level. People like these are the ones that count.

Rickrolling the NY Mets

As if Rick Astley wasn’t getting enough inexplicable renewed popularity, here’s a bit more. A brilliant digg user decided to solicit the help of fellow dig users on a level of epic proportion when he discovered that the New York Mets are holding a contest to vote for the 8th inning sing-a-long song. Potential to be quite possibly the largest Rickrolling of all time.

And for those not too familiar with the concept of Rick Rolling, here’s an excerpt from Wikipedia:

Around the year 2003, an Internet prank known as “rickrolling” appeared involving misleading links redirecting to the music video. It increased in popularity as a 2008 April Fool’s Day joke through various media, including YouTube rickrolling all of its featured videos on that day, and a website allowing people to Rickroll their friends phones.

In ‘a couple of weeks’, about 13 million people had been ‘rickrolled’ into watching Astley’s video, the BBC reported on 1 April, 2008.”I think it’s just one of those odd things where something gets picked up and people run with it,” Astley told the Los Angeles Times in late March 2008, adding: “That’s what’s brilliant about the internet.”

So now the link has been dugg over 8000 times, and it’s spreading on fark and 4chan as well. Tomorrow is the final day to vote. It’s certainly a very real possibility that the NY Mets (and fans) may have just been Rickrolled like never before. Which says a good deal for internet memes and the significance of internet users (like those on digg) in swaying public polls – and who knows what else. Just something to think about while you try to imagine a packed Shae Stadium sinning “never gonna give you up…”

How many feeds do you read?


 

Good ol’ Barbón from NiceFuckingGraphics has kindly asked me to answer this small meme on how many feeds I read.
 
Truth is I’ve never really counted them, plus as far as I know Netvibes doesn’t have any kind of usage statistics as Google Reader has.
 
After counting them all one by one (thanks a lot Barbón ¬¬), they’re 156 feeds, ungrouped, all in one single tab, in an unorderly uncategorized fashion.
 
Traditionally you’re suposed to continue a meme like a chain; but to tell you the truth I don’t know that many bloggers that haven’t previously been mentioned in this meme in other websites. So I’m leaving the topic open for anyone who feels like it to answer.
 
So, How many feeds do you read?.

Yahoo!7 Mail: Loosing Lincoln

Yahoo!7 Mail: Loosing Lincoln

Advertising Agency: Three Drunk Monkeys, Sydney, Australia
Creative Directors: Scott Nowell, Justin Drape
Art Directors: Justin Drape, Scott Nowell
Copywriters: Justin Drape, Scott Nowell
Director: Three Drunk Monkeys
Agency Producer: Thea Carone
Production Company: Radical
Production Company Producer: Johnny Greally

Yahoo!7 Mail: Ladyboy

Yahoo!7 Mail: Ladyboy

Advertising Agency: Three Drunk Monkeys, Sydney, Australia
Creative Directors: Scott Nowell, Justin Drape
Art Directors: Justin Drape, Scott Nowell
Copywriters: Justin Drape, Scott Nowell
Director: Three Drunk Monkeys
Agency Producer: Thea Carone
Production Company: Radical
Production Company Producer: Johnny Greally

Treuce with my server


 

If you were around my website in the last 4 or 5 days, you might have noticed that sometimes it appeared full, other times some posts were missing, then some comments and so on. I even think one or two posts were lost for good.
 
The thing is after some conversations with my hosting provider and their really good attention, en theroy my website is now fully functional as it should be. No missing contents, no bugs, no nothing. Or at least it should.
 
So to all of you who saw my website pop up differently every time you went into it, my appologies, and if you have a comment, complaint, advice, etc. Don’t hesitate to leave a comment to this entry.
 
Much love everyone and thanks for visiting my website.

Jackson Pollock + Webcomics.fr + Logos vectoriels

  • Oui, je sais, les posts se font rares…
  • Il faut que je me rode entre les sorties, le travail, le chat, les dessins et le blog… Tout change beaucoup en ce moment pour moi.
  • Voilà, pour l’intro ;)

Jackson Pollock by Miltos Manetas

Webcomics.fr

  • Webcomics.fr est la nouvelle solution pour les créateurs de BD en ligne. Beaucoup plus pratique qu’un simple blog, cet outil a été développé tout spécialement pour la publication de BD comme le font déjà les américains ou les coréens par exemple, mais en mieux parait il ;) .
  • Dommage, je ne peux pas faire un comic strip qui se suit (avec une histoire quoi) par manque de temps et d’imagination (le travail, ça me lobotomise, je suis trop concentré)

All free logos

  • Vous connaissez sans doute tous la logothèque, qui propose beaucoup de logo en vectoriel qu’on retrouve en France, et bien allfreelogo, se la joue à l’international (beaucoup US…)

Little Deviant + Tun3r + Wim Van Eesbeek + Lalo Gonzalez

Little Deviant

  • Little Deviant est un petit site en flash qui vous invite à changer les « moutons » (les personnes qui font trop ce qu’on leur dit)
  • Terriblement bien réalisé et amusant, son interêt est, lui, moyen… Dommage. :)
  • A la fin y a quand même des bonus (vidéo, montage en carton à fabriquer, etc…)

Tun3r

  • Tun3r est un site vraiment trop bien pensé :)
  • En gros, vous changez de web radio comme la radio classique, avec un changement sonore presque similaire.
  • Toujours intéressant de pouvoir écouter pas mal de radio venant de partout sur le globe pendant qu’on travaille par exemple.

Wim Van Eesbeek

  • Wim Van Eesbeek est un photographe belge.
  • Les photos me rappellent celles de gettyimage… Propre, nette, faite pour la pub ou le design chic.
  • Mais ce qui m’intéresse le plus chez lui, c’est son site ^_^ (chacun son truc hein)
  • Cela me rappelle un peu Tiltviewer (pour Flickr)

Lalo Gonzalez

  • Lalo Gonzalez est aussi un photographe belge, plutot orienté mannequin mais d’ « art ».
  • j’aime bien les photos ET le site ;) La mise en page est moins bien mais j’aime beaucoup les transitions. :)

Alberto Cerriteño + Bill Dunlap + Ultra-book

Alberto Cerriteño

Bill Dunlap

  • Bill Dunlap est un peintre/illustrateur américain.
  • C’est personnellement le style que je n’aime pas ( et oui, il faut bien que je montre ce qui ne me plait pas aussi, ça peut faire plaisir à certain…)

Ultra-Book

  • Ultra-book est un site qui peut être utile pour ceux qui ne veulent pas se prendre la tête à faire un site pour montrer leur portfolio. Service rapide et gratuit.
  • Ce n’est pas le seul site à offrir ce genre de service mais c’est, pour moi, le seul en français qui vaut le coup :)