currently browsing the colors and patterns on colourlovers.com, and falling in love with their names. somehow “vintage mount dew”, “vampire dribble”, “Ursus horribilis”, “tomato sneaking out” or “tummy ache” all make sense as colors, at least as soon as you see them. :)

also on the subject, how cool is this collection of 500 coloring pencils?

and of course, impossibly expensive at $33/batch of 25 crayons/month. also, who would have the courage to actually use such a perfect collection? sigh.

Marketing (in all its forms) is unlike everything else an organization does, because it’s always different. There’s no manual because everyone does it differently, and what successful marketers have in common is that they are successful.

The only way your organization is going to make an impact is to market in the way only you can. Not by following some expert’s rules or following the herd, but by doing it in the way that works. For you. Don’t worry about someone else’s invented standards for new media, invent your own. Avoid obvious mistakes, don’t follow obvious successes.

Find your voice, don’t copy someone else’s.

Seth Godin, spot on as usual.

a cool project that tests the limits of postal workers’ patience, one strange object at a time.

check the interview with the artist on wired magazine for some more insight on the project. a small preview:

Wired.com: You have previously published books of letters, for example one where you sent letters with odd ideas to authorities, like asking a Swedish municipality if it could host a North American Indian tribe. Why are you so fascinated by letters?
Ericson: Sending things is a fun way to communicate, and I love the seriousness in letters. I mean, you would never receive a lawsuit by e-mail. There is something about letters, especially nowadays when they are getting more and more rare, and we’re communicating in other ways instead.

i don’t know if the rest of the world has already seen this, but i’ve just stumbled on the most brilliant website, and it’s making me rethink the way i look at food (especially sodas).

it’s called sugar stacks, and what it does is basically show you how much sugar the food portrayed has, using stacks of white sugar cubes (4g). like so:

1 serving of carrots: 4g of sugar

can of cola: 39g of sugar
small bottle: 65g of sugar
1L bottle: 108g of sugar

starbucks mocha frappuccino + cream: 47g of sugar

jell-o, 1 serving: 19g of sugar

of course, not all sugar is created equal, but still it gives you a very different perspective on the things you’re eating. i mean, i’d never put that much sugar in my tea/coffee, so i’ll definitely think twice next time i reach for a cola in the office… many more at sugarstacks.com

albert is a sweet little robot, who lives in a print made by yooniverse using a handcarved linocut :) i wasn’t going to frame him until i went back home, but in the middle of organizing things to ship we found some never used frames, et voila!

albert doesn’t know it yet, but he’s the first of what i hope will someday be a very big collection of handmade prints in a very big wall of a very big house i will have!

by the way, yooniverse is a bit of everything: lovely dreamy photography, beautiful prints, and a collection of interesting snippets, so go check it out!

another quirky/cool/cute korean invention: maum teabags, by designers wdaru. the concept is simple: teabags with themes, that hang on the border of your cup. since the designs feature people, the result looks as if there is some one chilling out in your swimming pool cup!

there is a swimming pool collection:

and a school bus collection:

and even a xmas collection, for december:

brilliant! i think these are just a concept, but wouldn’t it be cool to get some? i’m hoping more buzz about it will make someone realize they’re commercially viable and start making them! :)

all pictures (and even more!) on their website!

there’s a new shop on dongxin road that sells make-up plus a panoply of useless yet very entertaining items. while inspecting them, i stumbled upon a few samples from the body shop, and bought a couple of them: coconut and mango body butter. it’s sooo hard to resist their scents and lovely packaging… *sigh*

when i got home, i checked their reviews on amazon (geeks shall be geeks after all). very moisturizing, smells divine, blablabla and then this:

I am a huge fan of the Body Shop and I absolutely *love* coconut, so I was really excited to try their new Coconut Body Butter. I was very disappointed, however, when I actually started using it. It claims to help your skin, but I’ve eaten it every single morning on my bagel and haven’t noticed any results for the past two weeks. Furthermore, it doesn’t taste very good. It smells fantastic, which is why I gave it 2 stars, but the taste isn’t as creamy or sweet as I would expect from a coconut butter.

I’m also disappointed that there is no nutritional information. It seems very high in fat, but I can only guess. I hope it’s not clogging my arteries.

i really hope so too! :D