Yes, another airline is doing it. Using fun, personality, design to differentiate themselves from others.

Image from . The inflight safety demo is worth watching too; also from One Large Prawn.

Thanks to Martin for the initial heads up!

As with Virgin, consistency and integrity (to the stated brand values) are key. And some people won’t like it; but those who do will love it!

When was the last time you actually used one of these (for its intended purpose)?

Mass production systems, like habits, once entrenched, can take a long time to slow down and stop (or change course).

Original image from funcage.com

Thanks to Joyce for this.

Microsoft doesn’t want their new Xbox 360 to show the dreaded red ring of death (when a “catastrophic system error” occurs) any more, so they removed the red LEDs from the ring!

Hey I don’t want the building I am living in to burn down, so let’s remove all the fire alarms. Or maybe change them to a gentle calming prayer bell sound instead.

Ha ha.

http://gizmodo.com/5566600/the-new-xbox-360-wont-red-ring

So this fast food bonanza at the Shanghai World Expo is the American contribution to a better life writ large(!) writ global? Is this rather telling of the power and profit-myopia of conventional business practice?

Despite the mandate not being to make money (at least not right there and then), but rather social diplomacy, international relations, and the imagination of a “better city, better life.” The …

This is a large printed ad attached to a refrigerator with odour control features. It can be seen in all good whitegoods shops all over Singapore.

Is this a sign of some failure in awareness? Of an inability to even peek slightly outside the box?

Or is it a deliberate act of social mischief on the part of the designer? If so, what …

There are specific conventions used in the design of packaging for the different things we can buy at the supermarket. We learn to read these conventions and become part of our automated parsing of our environment.

I think this is why the packaging visuals of the Bio-X range of insecticides caught me completely by surprise. My immediate reaction was “Ooo this one is for getting rid …

This excellent Rob Cottingham cartoon reminded me of a similar personal experience a few years ago.

Someone I had a … let’s say disagreement … with years ago used to send me pompous letters printed up using Comic Sans. The laughably absurd, self righteous content of those letters, tripped up in pseudo-legalese, was matched perfectly with the frivolous irreverence of Comic Sans. …

Is VISA and MasterCard as internationally accepted as they both claim?

In Japan last week, neither of these cards were what I would call widely accepted. Cash was still the only usable currency.

In Denmark today, none of my three cards (two VISA, one MasterCard, from three different banks in two different countries) worked at the industrial design museum; an institution that presumably entertained the odd international traveller. And one …

This is one half of a two-page spread Nokia ad in the November issue of Monocle magazine.

What an odd choice of image given the strap-line shown on the phone screen.

Why is the technology actively getting in the way of me making a connection with (I cannot see his face or his eyes) the person?

Is this a deliberate use of reverse-psychology to emphasise the …