Finally, somebody listened

...then they listened harder. Why, god? Why?

One of my new lady friends was recently diagnosed with celiac disease (when delicious gluten eats away the lining of your intestines causing a laundry list of symptoms, some of my favorites include: bruising easily, irritability, and unexplained short stature).  Anyway, she must now follow a lifelong diet of gluten-free foods, making eating out with her nearly impossible.

No doubt has this severely strained our relationship.  We’ve tried to work around it. It’s just not the same. The dynamic has been lost. As soon as I was about to give up entirely on this chick, KFC unveiled their new “sandwich” The Double Down yesterday, a bread-less answer to all my prayers.

Problem solved.

Most likely conceived by the heavenly version of the Colonel, the Double Down is two pieces of bacon and two pieces of cheese, sandwiched neatly by two boneless chicken breasts (2 of everything!).  YES!

Then there’s the new variant: The Krispy Kreme Double Down. Because why wouldn’t you add donuts to the mix? Up next: The Camel Light Krispy Kreme Pennzoil Double Down Super Size Meal.

]]> http://internwhisperer.com/684/kfcs-double-down-your-prayers-have-been-answered/feed/ 0 http://internwhisperer.com/689/banksy-film-exit-through-the-gift-shop-opens-in-la/ http://internwhisperer.com/689/banksy-film-exit-through-the-gift-shop-opens-in-la/#comments Fri, 23 Apr 2010 19:49:23 +0000 wallace http://internwhisperer.com/?p=689

Banksy Street Art in Los Angeles

Venerable graffiti artist Banksy premiered his new and much anticipated street art “documentary” film “Exit Through the Gift Shop” Monday night in Los Angeles.

Even Minnie Driver showed up. Dear me!

Hoping to “do for street art what The Karate Kid did for martial arts,” Banksy’s film (which stars OBEY mastermind Shepard Fairey) opened in selected cities Friday, April 16th.

Two Liberian Original Six Fans

HOCKEY JERSEYS!

Hockey Night in Liberia: NHL Jerseys Everywhere in War-Torn Nation (National Post)

My brain can’t even process this right now. Lin Yu Chun and William Shatner sing a duet of “Total Eclipse of the Heart.” Chun exploded on the scene with his better-than-Whitney-live performance of Whitney Houston’s “I Will Always Love You.”

Check this out while I get back to letting my head explode:

Experimental indie staple Animal Collective premiered their new album ODDSAC at Sundance Festival this past summer. Yes – Sundance. It’s a visual album directed by Danny Perez. I saw it at a screening in Chicago a few weeks ago. I suggest you get your hands on it – especially if you liked that creepy-ass VHS from The Ring.

I’m not necessarily suggesting that this film is good, but rather just completely expected. Films of this caliber seem completely immune to genuine criticism. Instead, it’s more appropriate to simply say that this album/film was visually and audibly accurate. If it weren’t for the fact that Animal Collective wrote the film’s musical score, or what seems more like hyperbolic folly with traces of music, I wouldn’t even mention the sound at all.

With a film this experimental and visual, this audio track seemed to be par for the course. You know what I mean – when people walk through the forest, the noise that their feet make as they walk over dry leaves sounds much more like the sound of someone crushing elephant bones, not someone walking through a forest of dry leaves. Conveniently, Animal Collective’s music already sounds a little like someone crushing elephant bones.

Having said that, no matter how atrocious the music or film was or could have been, it’s refreshing – and hopefully an indication of what lies ahead for the music industry. As years go by, I find myself continually bitching about how the future that I had anticipated never seems to actually be happening. However, as I was sitting in the Chicago screening of ODDSAC, I was reminded that flying cars aren’t the only sign of the world slowly becoming a Philip K. Dick novel.

Animal Collective and Danny Perez took liberties with an increasingly tired industry (music albums), and made a beautiful project that should be appreciated as true art. I’m looking forward to more of these “visual albums” (specifically if Atom and His Package starts making music again).

Just because print media has been decaying doesn’t mean advertisers have lost their touch. Check out these awesome and clever prints ads and be sure to head over to Web Designer Depot to check out more.

KayaKing Peanuts

Listermint Mouthwash

Utopolis Cinemas in Belgium

Interns are not playthings to be toyed with, despite what Olivia Munn and the folks at Asylum think. It’s nice they could take time from slapping kittens to take a turn at poor intern Kyle, though.

What’s most impressive about this is how well Ms. Munn performed her piece, and all without a teleprompter! It was suspiciously natural looking, except the last part where she has to… ew… touch him, but we can just hide back behind the cutesy persona again for that. “I’ll just use my simultaneously soft and firm, warm, body to remedy the nationwide humiliation I just put you through, and boost ratings for my Axe ad – I mean website! – at the same time! Hee hee!”

Way to take one for the team Kyle, and we would like you to know that there is an Intern Dignity Restoration team on their way to you, hang in there. If your love for Olivia makes it too hard to hate her, take solace in the fact that it was your employers at Asylum that made her do it. What a peach of a team they have over there. Lucky you, Kyle.

And just in case Olivia actually did think you were cute and liked your bow-tie, there’s no need to go get self-assured or confident. Your bow-tie will be confiscated.

45 Rules for Creating a Logo (click picture for link to entire list)

Design is a bit like fashion, going through cycles where a particular style or ethos dominates for a time.

Check out Scott Hansen’s work as ISO50 for retro-organic, combining warmth with modernism (Hansen also records music as Tycho, which sound like the audio equivalent of his design — it’s worth a listen).

Hansen's work as ISO50.

Then there’s corporate America. Here are some logos from the 80′s and 90′s:

Notice any similarities? Do these adhere to the 45 rules?

Compare those to corporate logos of today:

Is it more important to stand out or fit in?

When it comes to rules for good design, it can helpful for guiding the process and making logo use effective and efficient (especially for the many uses of a logo in digital form). But, do rules for design kill innovation? And aren’t they fluid? 20-30 year-olds probably recognize the AT&T logo circa the 80′s and 90′s as distinct from the current one. Same goes for UPS.

AT&T and UPS: Old vs. New

Goodlogo.com is, well, a good logo site for comparing corporate design trends. Check it out. What do you think about logo design and these 45 rules (or should we say: suggestions)?

]]> http://internwhisperer.com/707/designers-45-rules-for-creating-a-logo/feed/ 0 http://internwhisperer.com/696/gizmodo-has-the-new-iphone-after-someone-left-it-in-a-bar/ http://internwhisperer.com/696/gizmodo-has-the-new-iphone-after-someone-left-it-in-a-bar/#comments Mon, 19 Apr 2010 16:29:38 +0000 michael http://internwhisperer.com/?p=696

Apple's new iPhone.

Someone’s in trouble. Picture yourself being trusted to test the new iPhone. Then you head to a bar in Redwood City, get ham-boned and forget your phone. Whoops. What’s the worst that could happen?

Gizmodo getting their hands on it would probably rank high among the worst-case scenarios for Steve Jobs. Somebody’s in trouble.

Complete with secretive X's and such.

There are several new features, mainly regarding design — it’s now squared instead of curved — and the camera, volume control, etc.

From Gizmodo (read the whole article with more pics here):

What’s new

• Front-facing video chat camera
• Improved regular back-camera (the lens is quite noticeably larger than the iPhone 3GS)
• Camera flash
• Micro-SIM instead of standard SIM (like the iPad)
• Improved display. It’s unclear if it’s the 960×460 display thrown around before—it certainly looks like it, with the “Connect to iTunes” screen displaying much higher resolution than on a 3GS.
• What looks to be a secondary mic for noise cancellation, at the top, next to the headphone jack
• Split buttons for volume
• Power, mute, and volume buttons are all metallic

What’s changed

• The back is entirely flat, made of either glass (more likely) or ceramic or shiny plastic in order for the cell signal to poke through. Tapping on the back makes a more hollow and higher pitched sound compared to tapping on the glass on the front/screen, but that could just be the orientation of components inside making for a different sound
• An aluminum border going completely around the outside
• Slightly smaller screen than the 3GS (but seemingly higher resolution)
• Everything is more squared off
• 3 grams heavier
• 16% Larger battery
• Internals components are shrunken, miniaturized and reduced to make room for the larger battery

Nubrella: Look a fool. A dry, hands-free fool.

That’s right. You too can look like a pod person thanks to Nubrella (I’ll give $10 to the first person who takes a picture of themselves with an iPod in their Nubrella…whoa, meta — submit pics to info@internwhisperer.com).

These $35 new umbrellas (nu-brella!) are apparently, like, so much better than regular umbrellas because they allow you to use two hands instead of one. That, and the nearly full-body protection Nubrella provides will leave you feeling safe, secure and isolated from your environment and people around you like some kind of urban Bubble Boy.

Check out the demo video below. Good luck navigating New York City streets with an enormous bubble on your head. Though offering shelter from the weather to a lady-friend may offer new levels of intimacy if that’s your game plan you chivalrous dog, you.

Jake Gyllenhaal extols the virtues of bubblehood.