newspapers and magazines ain’t dead yet…

Mag+ from Bonnier on Vimeo.

This conceptual video is a corporate collaborative research project
initiated by Bonnier R&D into the experience of reading magazines on
handheld digital devices. It illustrates one possible vision for
digital magazines in the near future. The concept uses the power of digital media to create a rich and meaningful experience, while maintaining the relaxed and curated
features of printed magazines.

Type Thursday

Here is a veritable cornucopia of type and font resources, courtesy of Lifehacker.com

It's a whole whack of some very excellent tools that will allow you to manage and better utilize your type library. It's got something for everyone and best of all, most of it is free.

Samsung Viral

Non-sense viral video for Samsung with the goal to communicate the series of LCD TVs with ultraslim LEDs. For that they "created" a performance with sheeps "dressed" with LEDs guided by a sheperd dog, creating shapes like the Pong game or the Mona Lisa...

No two paper stocks are alike

Fingerprinting blank paper - not for your fingerprints, but for the unique texture and composition of the paper itself. This, when combined with the hidden data from printers makes for a rather Orwellian scenario.

Your Loyalty Program Is A Force For Good

Loyalty programs in supermarkets allow merchants to track a lot of different datum. It also allows for a very interesting public service - product recalls.

As the Salmonella outbreak in the U.S. is growing, some stores and chains are using their databases to connect with consumers and alert them of the contaminated products. It's a great complement to print - call them first and warn them, follow up with a letter outlining next steps...

From Consumer Reports:

Robo recalls: Grocery chains big and small alert shoppers to recalls

The ongoing peanut salmonella outbreak is actually bringing out the best in many retailers, particularly when it comes to going the extra mile for their customers.

At Dorothy Lane Markets in Dayton, OH, workers were combing through the latest product recall notices from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Any recalled products were quickly pulled off the shelves, but the Dorothy Lane workers didn’t stop there. They also combed through the records of the customer loyalty program run by the three-store chain. Customers who had recently purchased any of the recalled items got a phone call from Dorothy Lane’s consumer affairs department. Those without a phone number on file were mailed a letter warning them about the recalled items they had purchased from the store.

“We are working on it right now,” said Kathy Neufarth, consumer affairs director for Dorothy Lane, when we got in touch with her recently. “We just got the notice on some Kashi bars being recalled and that looks like it will be a big one for us. We sell a lot of those.”

Neufarth said Dorothy Lane is able to move quickly because it's a small chain, but it still requires a lot of work. She said the company has been calling in employees to work extra shifts making the necessary phone calls and sending out the letters.

Neufarth estimated the company will need to phone some 300 customers who recently bought the recalled Kashi bars.

She said nearly all of the customers contacted appreciate the company’s efforts. “Some of them tell us they have already eaten the product, but even then they appreciate the phone call,” she said.

Some big national retail chains are conducting similar programs using their customer loyalty databases, but on a much larger scale.

Seattle-based Costco has been making robo calls to customers who have recently purchased more than 25 different recalled products stocked by the warehouse retailer.

“This will probably be the biggest effort of this kind for us ever before it is over,” said Christine Summers, director of food safety/quality assurance at Costco, when we contacted her. “The challenge is just keeping up with all the recalls.”

Summers estimated the company had made more than a million calls to its customers so far and that number is continuing to grow each day. She said the company writes a script and then pays an outside contractor to make the automated phone calls.

Some other retailers are also reaching out to their customers proactively, but some are not.

An important consumer watchdog group, the Center for Science in the Public Interest, has called on all retailers to use the contact information they collect from customers to notify them of recalled products.

“Supermarkets enjoy using purchasing data for marketing purposes,” said CSPI staff attorney Sarah Klein. “We're calling on supermarkets to also use that information to protect their customers' health by alerting them to identify and return tainted foods. Several major chains are already doing that, and every other chain should do the same.”

Meanwhile back at the Dorothy Lane chain in Dayton, there is a bit of gastronomical good news for customers concerning peanuts—none of the recalled products are used in the store’s popular Peanut Butter Killer Brownies.

Mini "Augmented Reality Advertising a Reality"

Mini has produced a spectacular advertisement, that’s one of the first of it’s kind. The car company created a print ad that when viewed though a web cam produces a virtual 3D model of their Mini Cabrio convertible on screen. The ad was featured in German automotive magazines: Auto, Motor and Sport, Werben & Verkaufen and Autobild.

Blade Runner was predicting the future - who knew?

The advertising technology in Blade Runner has come to reality. Life imitating art?

I think it's called 'convergence'...

Print versus digital. Good versus evil. Online versus offline. Why can't we all just get along?

Seems like the good people of Chicago are trying just that. And hey, they did give the world Obama so...

Content is content, regardless of where it comes from or how it's delivered. And content doesn't always need to be confined to one channel only.

Magic Crystal Display - Outdoor Poster

Here's a EL display. EL = Electro-Luminescent. Basically individual lighted panels... kind of like the indigo watch. Using print and bright LED lighting - this product creates a animation sequence that continous flashes. Very much like "the Esquire magazine" cover recently.

The environmental cost of E-ink

By now many of us have heard about the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) whose mandate is to promote and certify sustainable forestry, harvest and management. But what about non-traditional paper products? E-ink for instance.

Esquire magazine recently tried to get ahead of the pack and become first to market with an e-ink cover. And while they were first to market, the general reaction to the cover and the attendant publicity has been quite underwhelming. There's still a ways to go before we're designing for e-ink paper and speccing out jobs on a dynamic format. There was also an environmental cost to this stunt, which has been very well researched and makes for some interesting reading...

http://www.fastcompany.com/blog/anya-kamenetz/green-friday/real-cost-e-ink

E-ink - too big for the mailbox.

Here's a link to some images of the current issue of Esquire, you know, the one with the e-ink cover. Someone has taken it apart and given us a good look at what makes e-ink run. Have a look behind the curtain - it would seem that e-ink is going to be a while in approaching practical applications...or mailboxes are going to have to start getting a lot bigger.

http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2008/09/esquire_eink_cover_hackin.html

links about e-ink

A couple of links about electronic ink for your reading pleasure. Is it the wave of the future? Not quite yet. Will it one day supersede ink on pulverized vegetation? Possibly - in fact probably - but we've got a while to wait, so sit yourself down and get a good paperback...

Hmmm. Wonder what those will be called in a paperless future?

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/08/technology/08ink.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

http://gadgets.boingboing.net/2008/09/08/esquire-eink-cover-a.html

Interactive Advertising

This interactive platform is the ultimate experience for digital signage and advertising. The Interactive Media System combines intuitive human body motion with our interactive surfaces, including interactive walls, interactive tables, interactive windows and interactive floors!
The result is a highly effective interactive marketing tool that captivates your target audience in Retail enviroment, Events or Outdoor media. It not only exists in real time, but in a unique way can create and send powerful messages by way of advertising, brand re-enforcement and establishing corporate identity.

3D Print Simulation Software

A 3D print simulation package designed to speed up initial design and approval stages has been launched by FFEI. RealVue 3D is a print approval tool that creates 3D visual simulations of print jobs, which let users turn pages, rotate viewing angles and zoom in on detail. It can also alter job characteristics on screen such as stock weight, finish and texture. The software is a plug-in for Adobe Acrobat and is available in two versions: RealVue 3D Standard and Professional. RealVue 3D Standard provides traditional viewing capabilities. However, Professional has a host of features that include varnish, binding, paper thickness and branding options.The system works by converting received PDF documents into 3D files, which are aimed to provide an accurate representation of the finished job. The PDF is converted quickly and the firm claims it can be sent back to clients within minutes of receiving the original file.“RealVue 3D takes the idea of page turning software to a new level. Agencies’ clients can almost feel the finished job, which will encourage them to commit to print. In a printing environment where added value is the current buzz term, this software may help to create a competitive edge.In addition to 3D print simulation, the pro­gramme allows users to view multiple 3D jobs at once. This means that a whole campaign, which may include brochures, letters and direct mail, can be viewed in 3D simultaneously helping clients to better visualise how a job will work. For more information please go to http://www.newtecsystems.ca/index1.html