As some of you already know, my husband @josephspeiser & I had a baby boy a few weeks ago adding a 3rd little munchkin to our brood.

Of course the apple geeks we are, we quickly downloaded all the best baby apps out there, but we thought we’d start by training our little mac-tike the old school way… using iPhone wooden blocks of course!

Kyle Bean a Brighton-based designer created this groovy wooden toy style iPhone where the apps are represented as wooden blocks which can be repositioned in and out of the iPhone frame.

Eco friendly and free of radiation, think shape sorter for the hipster baby. Now find me a magic mouse rattle and I think we’ll be all set!

A very clever little narrative built around nonsensical captcha words comes together beautifully in this video. Mesmerizing…

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Why shop in an overcrowded supermarket when you can shop for groceries using your smartphone…

In an attempt to grow to number one grocery retailer in Korea – without increasing the number of stores – Tesco (Home Plus) created a virtual shopping experience inside busy Korean subway stations, bringing the store to the consumer.

Just watch the video and be amazed!

It’s been a while since I’ve posted something (for shame) and I hope to rectify that soon. In the interim, I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to post this classic (and oh so true)…

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Gamification, a term you’ve no doubtingly heard of by now, has found a way to break through the trend barrier and enter into our every day lives.

Through these mechanisms, companies and various product makers have found a way to engage audiences through game-like mastery (and some trickery), enticing them to interacting with their product and seamlessly immersing these “games” in our daily lives.

We’ve already noted the rise of gaming as a way to create engagement among consumers, but we didn’t expect to see it applied so soon to something as seemingly mundane as public transport. Sure enough, though, Chromaroma is a new application from UK-based Mudlark that turns Tube travel in London into a rewarding game.
~futuramb

By providing positive feedback these uniquely powerful games are not only fun, but also make the user feel good about themselves, thereby ensuring repeat visits to obtain ‘gold-star’ status.

Further Reading:
A Gamification Framework for Interaction Designers (UX Mag)
‘Gamifying’ The System To Create Better Behavior (NPR)

AT&T teamed up with Psyop‘s uber talented designer Jon Saunders, to produce this wonderfully fantastical video animation.  You can view more of Saunders work and the detailed sketches behind these amazing creatures on his portfolio.

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Ross over at 55 Hi’s claims “the quick brown fox is tired of jumping over the same lazy _ dog all the time.” So he decided to take matters into his own hands and rescue our bored little fox by creating this fantastically cute print with a clever little twist on the old pangram.

Needless to say I’m purchasing one of these. I mean who doesn’t love a fire breathing shih tzu!

I had the pleasure to be asked by Oliver Lindberg to partake in this month’s website build-off for .NET magazine (issue 212). The build-off feature has always been one of my favorite sections of the magazine and I was thrilled to get a chance to participate. The brief was to mock up a contact page that was both user-friendly, aesthetically pleasing, but also technologically sound to help provide visitors (and prospective clients) the necessary tools to get in touch.

I had a lot of fun creating this and was really pleased to be included amongst such a great group of creatives.

A-1 Scrabble, a concept created by BYU graduate, Andrew Capener, is a beautiful study of typography taking a new spin on the classic boardgame.

So while you’re spelling out words like, Vexillology (yes, it’s an accepted scrabble word – look it up), you can also test out your typographic knowledge all on a stately walnut board that comes in a beautifully minimal birch box.

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Canadian ad agency John St., put together this mock case study for one of its greatest marketing triumphs: Making Chelsea Bedano’s 8th birthday party a success in an already cluttered birthday market. What’s the takeaway?

The integrated campaign of direct mail, out-of-home and social media was important—as was the pre-party sleepover with the snacks, the movies and the Justin Bieber songs. But to keep the audience engaged, you really do need that mini pony…

/via @adfreak