"Fast Lane" is an Advertising project by Volkswagen: installing Giant playground slide into Alexanderplatz U-bahn Train Station in Berlin.

Oh, pretty please let this become a world-wide trend...

Love this kind of Ads, reminds me of Rory Sutherland's: Life lessons from an ad man talk on TED, where he suggested Advertising adds value to a product by changing our perception, rather than the product itself.

And love this great quote from the talk - "Poetry is when you make new things familiar and familiar things new." which indeed is a definition of what GOOD advertising does - Just like Sutherland mentioned in his talk: to help people appreciate what is unfamiliar, but also to gain a greater appreciation, and place a far higher value on those things which are already existing.

Another idea worth spreading. ;-)

This photo is now 5 year old!
Taken 7 May, 2005 

I've always wanted to do a post like this..

Noticed that was at 4:04 of the Pink Floyd - Another Brick in the Wall

I saw this:

Since I was a contributor to Faces in Places, thought it would be fun to have a collection of this 404 faces!

Some collection on top of my head I have come across from my friends -

Pink Floyd Bittergourd with a bit of mix of Fujiya Peko chan (see candy package below) from Barry Colman

the pink tongue just reminds me of Peko Chan so much.

Screaming Oreo from my friend Chen Chang, I'd send a pack of that if I'd ever go and pay a visit to Edvard Munch's tombstone...

The Scream by Edvard Munch

It's Easter & I'm a designer so let's try these Über Geeky / Design Nerdy Easter Eggs in Adobe Softwares!

Photoshop Easter Egg:
"Red Pill" in Adobe Photoshop CS3

Looks like the Adobe Photoshop CS3 engineers are probably fans of the movie Matrix. In Matrix, there is the computer programmer "Neo"  - a man striving for the answer to a question. After much difficulty he reaches a mysterious underground hacker (Morpheus) who can answer his question. Neo is offered two pills: a Blue Pill - the safe choice that will let life go on as before and a Red Pill - which will show him the truth and potentially change his life forever.

Taking the Red Pill has since become a metaphor for being willing to move beyond the known, the safe, and become a trailblazer.

Adobe Photoshop CS3 takes digital design to a whole new level and one presumes the red pill is the Adobe Engineers invitation to dive into this new world.
(Source: http://www.trainstation.cc/Tutorials/easter-eggs.html)

1. Launch Adobe Photoshop CS3
2. In Mac: Hold Alt (option) Key and Option (Apple) Key, in the same time Click Photoshop > About PhotoshopIn PC: Hold Ctrl Key and choose Help > About Adobe Photoshop CS3

Red Pill Reloaded

Within the Red Pill, there is a hidden freaky little cat.

1. Take a screen capture of the red pill about screen.
2. Load it into Photoshop CS3
3. Adjust the levels by choosing Images > Adjustments > Levels and drag the highlight slider to the left.
4. Aha!

InDesign Easter Egg I:
Butterfly Pins

1. Launch Adobe InDesign CS3 (should work in other CS2 or 4)

2. Mac: Click "InDesign" then click "About InDesign" ( PC: Choose Help > About InDesign )

3. a screen should come up showing version details and some legal stuff.

5. Type "butterfly" (no spaces, no return)

A mountain scene should appear with butterflies fluttering about.
-  Click on the butterflies that appear to pin them
-  Click on the butterflies again to free them.
-  Opt (Mac) or Alt (PC) click on them and they'll fall down

If you pin enough butterflies the alien swoops across, you can't pin him but you can knock him out of the sky ;)

6. Enjoy!

Photoshop Easter Egg:
The Real Photoshop Wizard

1. Launch Adobe Photo CS3 (should work in other CS1, 2 or 4)

2. Open a file or create a new file

3. Click Window > Layers to open up the Layer Palette. ( or Press F7 )

4. In the Layers Palette drop down menu
    Choose "Palette Options..." + Hold down the Option key (Mac) or Alt Key (PC)

5. Weee... Merlin window appears!

6. When you are finished admiring Merlin click the "Begone" button to close the window.

Illustrator Easter Egg:
How Many Shopping Days till Christmas & other Hidden Fun Facts

For anyone who desperately needs to know how many shopping days till Christmas and other fun facts hidden in Adobe Illustrator... Let's go!

1. Launch Adobe Illustrator 5.0+ (Yep, it applies to any CS ones)

2. Open a new file or create a new file

3. At the at the lower left of the document window, there is a Status Bar Menu; which usually displays such helpful information as the current tool, and can additionally be set to display Date and Time, Number of Undos, and Document Color Profile by clicking on the status bar and using the fly-out to select another option.

4. Now try this - Hold down the Option (Alt) Key + Shift Key then clicking on the status bar menu, some really cool things now appear:
    such as Programmers Mordy's Home Number (Yeah right..), Eyes, Moon Phase, Illustrator Units Sold and Shopping Days 'til Christmas etc... 

As I write this, I see I have 263 days till Christmas - guess I could sit down and relax...

I also like the Creepy "Eye"..

move your mouse and the animated eyes will staring at it and blink...

Have Fun!

InDesign Easter Egg II:
UFO (A.K.A Friendly Alien)

1. Launch Adobe InDesign CS3 (should work in other CS2 or 4)

2. You need have an open document containing printable things (or just create a new file - that will do!)

3. Click File > Print Presets > Define

4.  Click "New" button to create a new Print Preset

5. An new pop up window appears:
    Make sure select one of the Printer - if you have Adobe PDF or your home printer - any will do but NOT the "PostScript File" one.

6. Name it: Friendly Alien

 7. Click "OK" Save Preset

8. Now click File > Print... [For Quick Key lovers: Commond + P (Mac) or Ctrl + P (PC)]

9. Click "Print Preset" drop down menu and select "Friendy Alien"

10. Click on the thumbnail of your page in the lower left hand corner of the Print window

11. And what do you see? ;)

Ohhh Hiiii, Friendly Alien! (wave)

These are some of my personal favos.. you can always search and try some more & Happy Easter!

(Source: http://www.eeggs.com & http://www.trainstation.cc/Tutorials/easter-eggs.html )

Happy 205th Birthday Hans Christian Andersen! Thank you for your lovely fairy tales.

Below are some of my favorite Fairy Tales from Anderson which I squared them up for Squairy Tales: A graphic design project for various fairy tales, mainly useing square shapes.

Also, it is lovely to see today's google doodle commemorates Hans Christian Andersen's 250th birthday:

Google created 5 very cute doodles just for Andersen in remembrance of his birthday and contribution to the writing industry. Born on April 2, 1805, Hans Christian Andersen was known for his famous children’s stories. Among his works are "The Steadfast Tin Soldier”, “The Snow Queen”, “The Little Mermaid”, “Thumbelina”, “The Little Match Girl”, and the “The Ugly Duckling”.

If you enjoyed or perhaps love the said stories, then you owe the thanks to Mr. Andersen.

The childhood of Hans Christian Andersen begun in Odense, Denmark. His early works started in 1829. He also authored the “A Journey on Foot from Holmen’s Canal to the East Point of Amager”.

Andersen’s death was caused by a fall from his bed, where he got severely hurt and never fully recovered. He died on August 4, 1875. At his time of demise, he was already an internationally renowned and treasured artist.

Hans Christian Andersen left around 27 famous fairy tales, which are mostly in Danish.

Source: Wikipedia

On the April Fool's day, I was holding 2 cases of push pins in a typography class and realised that Milton Glaser a.k.a "Mr. I <3 NY" was also the co-art director of the 'Push Pin graphic' magazine from @clintonduncan (Thanks Clinton!) I'm a huge fan of Seymour Chwast as well.

So this is going to be a Hat's Off Post to Mr MG!

Above: The I Love New York is a tourism-campaign symbol for New York State, created by Milton Glaser in 1973, consisting of the capital letter I, followed by a red heart symbol (♥), below which are the capital letters N and Y, set in a rounded slab serif typeface called American Typewriter. The campaign was an enormous success, with no end in sight.

Above: In the aftermath of September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, Glaser updated his design by adding the words ‘more than ever’, with a smudge on the lower corner of heart symbolising the World Trade Center site. The black spot approximates the site's location on Manhattan Island.

Above: Glaser Stencil™, a font family tree displays different foundries’ versions of basically the same typeface design, 1967.

Above: Bob Dylan with the kaleidoscope hair, poster for CBS records, that was included in the singer's greatest hits album, 1966.

Above: 2 poster inspired by a brilliant headline: "Full Color Sound.", 1979. 
Sometimes words trigger the visual imagination in a powerful way. Milton said the 2nd image owes a debt to René Magritte, one of his all time favorite sources of ideas. (Yes! Magritte Rocks!)

Above: The Mask - Milton took a scrap of variegated paper and poked his hand through it to create this curious face that served as an announcement for a show of his work at the Cooper Union, 1984.

Milton Glaser draws & lectures

Above: Short documentary made by C. Coy with Milton Glaser where he muses on design while simultaneously drawing a portrait of William Shakespeare.

Seeing lots ripoffs of Milton's "I <3 whatever", have you seen anyone gives love to the man that made it possible? Yes, Israeli typographer, graphic designer Oded Ezer shows his love - Here is a wonderful "I love new york 3D Poster" by Oded in 2008!

We love you Milton Glaser!

(Photo by Sam Haskins)

Explaining sex with pens  is so primitive. Kids today need things explained to them on their terms. 

Cool idea from Conceptual Devices: One of the Just Undo It project - How to transform your hoodie into a laptop sleeve. no sewing skills required.

How to videos below:

Just Undo It project also demonstrates how to turn your hoodie into a pillow, backpack, strap bag and baby carrier, all without any cost or special tools.

I found this interesting online project called Personas created by Aaron Zinman. The project is part of an exhibition at M.I.T. Museum called Metropath(ologies).

Personas creates an animated visualization of your online persona, creating in an interesting color-coded DNA strip of traits: Visualising how does the internet sees you.

So I tried the magic of this installation - the image above is what was generated. You can try it here:

http://personas.media.mit.edu/