Happy Turkey Day!

Crazy busy week this week for me. I hope everyone has a great Turkey Day. Don't each too much and enjoy time spent with your family and friends!

Friday Fun: Kleenex Typo

So as I ripped open my latest box of Kleenex® tissues the other day, I noticed that the strip with the tissue count said "180". I was a bit confused because I recently started buying the larger packages that I thought came 280 in a box. So I went and got another box. And sure enough, it said 280. 

So I put the boxes next to each other, and as you can see, it is a tad bit shorter, but that doesn't look 100 tissues shorter to me. 

Looks like somebody goofed. Oh well, at least they made me smile and got a mention here on Friday Fun.

Picture Perfect Target Gift Cards

I found this on Boing Boing the other day...Target now has gift cards with a built-in 1.2 megapixel digital camera. I'm not sure how practical this is, but it just sounds really cool and appears to be well-designed. 

Seen in San Diego

So I was on vacation to San Diego in mid-October. It is a beautiful city and my friend and I had a great time. And I was able to catch a coupe of signs that made me go hmm....

The first sign I encountered was at the parking garage. While the small sign says "push", the handle screams "pull!" So I pulled first. Then read. Why the hell would you put a handle vertically which is intuitively a pull handle on a door that you push? Geez, I felt like I went to Midvale...(bonus points if you get that joke... :)

The second sign was at the the Hotel Coronado. Here was the lovely outdoor dining setting...

But take a closer look....

So a) how the heck did the tables get on to the grass, and b) are the guests just going to float over to them?

Oh well, at least both of 'em gave me a laugh...hope you enjoyed 'em too!

Illuminated Wall Decor

This is one of the coolest things I've seen. It's glowing wallpaper lit with fiber optics, so the patterns actually light up on your wall. Very impressive!

Wal-Mart on Friday Fun!

I admit it, shop at Wal-Mart. I prefer Target, but sometimes what I need just isn't there. Luckily, the Wal-Mart closest to my house is one of the redesigned ones that is more pleasing to look at, at least from a graphic designer's point of view. 

I do hate the self-checkout systems, though. I've always been reluctant to use them. Maybe it was because I was a cashier for a few years back in the day. Maybe because to me it represents another erosion of service in today's "faster is better" world. But lately I have been caving in and using the self-checkouts because I've noticed that as I get older, I have less patience for waiting in line. 

So I scanned my few items through the self-checkout at my local Wal-Mart and was on my way. (Little did I know that the Marketing department had infiltrated the register system.) It wasn't until I got home that I looked at the receipt and laughed out loud (sorry for the crappy quality):

While I will admit that the self-checkouts can be fast, and possibly easy, I've never thought of them as fun! Silly me. Now when I want to have fun, I guess I'll just head to my local Wal-Mart and scan away!

Not-As-Upscale

From my friends over at HOW comes this NY Times (free registration required) article talking about upscale brands feeling the pinch of the financial "crisis". And they seem to be utilizing some low-end tactics to keep the customers coming: coupons and steep discounts. Is this a new trend until the financial storm blows over? For designers: how have your clients been reacting? 

My feelings are mixed on this one. Yes, I understand there's a lot of bad financial crap going on right now and we've all had to tighten our belts a bit. However, if you are an upscale brand and you are trying to convince people to pay more for your widget does it really behoove you to hook customers on discounts? 

I think that in the long term, upscale brands who switch gears and try to compete on price will end up hurting themselves and the perceived value of their brand. Sure, you will pick up new customers and keep current ones in the short term. But once those discounts disappear when the economy picks up again, people will feel like they've being ripped off. ("If x brand could take 50% then, why are they charging 100% more now?")  And those "cherry pickers" who come running to the sales most likely will run the other way when the prices start going up again. So the brand has not only lost current customers, they've lost "new" customers too. 

However, I do understand the need to actually stay in business. And my mother always taught me buy stuff on sale. So I really can't complain about saving some money. And maybe the folks getting these good deals will realize how great the products are and want to pay more for them when the prices do go up because of their superior quality. 

So what do you think? I'd love to hear your comments!

Lazy Cold Ohio Days

I'm sorry that I've been negligent in keeping up with this blog. I really have no excuse for not blogging. Other than it's been cold and I've been lazy. I think I was hoping to continue my vacation in warm and Sunny San Diego mentally now that fall temps have finally hit us here in Ohio.

Speaking of being lazy, I found this little bit over at Trend Hunter: the folks handling the covers over at Cosmo got caught red handed recycling an old photo of Britney Spears that ran in Esquire magazine 5 years ago! Whoopsy.