Center of the Universe, YO!

Pretty clever, get in and out, very simple and it’s not boring.

The social network site is getting a facelift. I thought it was getting cluttered.
Click here to read article.

Bjork’s latest music video is an amazing 3D video, I have posted the 2D version for your viewing pleasure. You can go on her site and find out how and where to get the glasses to view. Her site also has a link on how to do it yourself (probably better).

In a time when record company execs are scrambling to make a penny I think they got the right buzzz going, but an artist like Bjork has a strong fan base that she needs no gimics, this video is truly amazing.

You better hop on that Q train to Brooklyn, Murakami comes to the Brooklyn Museum of Art. Takashi Murakami is often compared to Andy Warhol, he first became famous in the 1990s for a theory he called Superflat. Derived from traditional Japanese painting, it was adopted by the contemporary art world to indicate a mix of high and low art.

To read article from the New York time click here.
Or enjoy “Super Flat Monogram” an anime he did for Louis Vuitton.

New York Magazine just posted why and why you should not view the Grammy Awards this Sunday, it’s hilarious. click here

I like many New Yorkers watched the Superbowl and saw one of the best superbowl games in Superbowl history. The younger Manning took control and helped his team to victory (I can’t wait to see the NFL film on this game). The ads were not so great, in fact I think the ads reached an even lower point this year (I never thought it possible).

The audience in the East Village apartment I was watching the game consisted of your average New Yorkers (i.e., attorneys, fashion girl, a Wall Streeter, slum lord, and me). Now granted we don’t write copy or art direct but we do have a point of view and most importantly we are consumers and the general consensus was that the commericals were bad. Three stood out and were memorable, E*TRADE showed you how easy investing can be, and our favorite was Coca Cola’s “It’s Mine.”

Enjoy.

Less is more.

What is a good co-branding partnership… what is the difference? Recently my colleague Ben worked on a project where he identified the different levels of co-branding and pointed out a good partnership. The document turned out be thirty something pages BUT for the sake of this blog entry I will explain it in two paragraphs.

There are four levels of co-branding, I am going to focus on the top level (the other levels I’ll focus on another day) which is Complementary Competence. Complementary competence is when each co-branding collaborator (i.e., the brands) commits skills and resources to create greater value than could be achieved individually, think 1+1=3.

Now, obviously by the image below you know what I think is a good co-branding partnership. Nike and Apple came together to create the Nike+iPod Sport kit. This partnership created something new, 1 + 1 = 3. The core competencies of both are utilized to raise value perceptions for each brand. The result of this… I’ll leave that for you to decide, I’m just a brand knave.