the color psychology behind your favorite brands

Ever think about the subtleties on a subconscious level that attract you to some of your favorite brands? Perhaps it’s the colors associated with the brand. Psychology plays an important role in brand marketing, but check out the color meanings behind some of your favorite brands! 

Green is associated mainly with growth and vitality; it also signifies freshness, calm, balance, and nurturing.

Blue is affiliated to trust, confidence, dependability, reliability, and wisdom. It encourages productivity and logical thinking.

Red is very good for catching the attention, and is the color of excitement, power, energy, passion, desire, strength, drive, and confidence.

interactive mirror art

Check out this cool video of interactive art created by Daniel Rozin. If you like what you see, then you can see his 2 new mechanical mirrors: “Angles Mirror” and “Fan Mirror” on display Bitforms NYC till April 6th. 

bacon condoms

Can’t get enough bacon… well now you can enjoy the flavor of bacon in bed! Bacon-flavored experts at J & D’s Foods, have introduced Bacon Condoms, a box of Baconlube-lubricated prophylactics said to “make your meat, look like meat.” The bacon condoms sell for about $10 for a three-pack - bon appétit!

nyc history narrated through pay phones

Remember what NYC was like in 1993? Well take a stroll down memory lane – by stepping into a NYC phone booth, you’re taking a step back in history. To promote the New Museum’s “NYC 1993” exhibit, Droga5 arranged for 5,000 pay phones in Manhattan to be equipped with location-specific history. By dialing 1-855-FOR-1993 from city pay phones, you can relive personal accounts of that block during 1993.  

stats of the world as 100 people

Reducing global stats to 100 people is a pretty cool perspective. Check out “The World as 100 People,” an infographic by Jack Hagley to illustrate the stats from 100 People. View the full infographic here.

coffee braille menu

What better way to create awareness around Starbucks Braille menus in Brazil then with coffee beans? Here’s a strategically clever campaign from Rai agency, where they introduced this new communication by unveiling the messaging with coffee beans.

old skool games...new skool console

If you’re still hanging on to your orginal Super Mario Brothers game for Nintendo hoping that one day there weill be a single system that allows you to play all your retro games, then you’re in luck! Hyperskin is releasing a new gaming console that will let you play all your old games from a single console. The RetroN 5 has five cartidges that accept games from NES, SNES, Genesis, Famicom and Game Boy Advance. The console is set to release for July. Anyone up for a game of Duck Hunt? Via

a vips-only blend

Did you know that Johnnie Walker doles out a special Director Blend? No? Well that’s because this blend ain’t for sale. This blend is given out as a “personal gift to esteemed friends” of Jonnie Walker. Diageo will gift 504 individually numbered bottles of its 2012 edition throughout the year. One of Diageo’s design partners gets to create the design – how cool is that!? (the above design was created by creative agency LOVE) Via

honey bear art

Check out these awesome designs inspired by the honey bear package. That’s right – the squeezable, friendly bear package takes on new life acting as inspiration for artists, sculptors and more to create interpretations of the honey bear that serve as fine art, home décor, jewelry and more. See them all here.

that check-ins so hot right now

This video, created by Foursquare, is kind of fascinating and maps check-ins in New York vs. Tokyo over the course of 4 days.

The different colored dots, representing different categories of check-ins, light up and intensify during different points of the day, tracking people's daily routines and highlighting more popular areas for certain categories - more notable in New York, with areas like the LES lighting up from 12 to 2 am (with the check-ins then staggering home around 3 or 4 am and not lighting up until noon the next day).

Nerdiliciously interesting and almost a social media study in sociology.

soggy bottom beer, anyone?

Have you ever craved a nice glass of 41 degree, 200 year old salty beer from the bottom of the ocean on a hot summer's day? Yeah? Get in the nonexistent line. 

In 2014, a Finnish brewing company Stallhagen will be making a beer created based on composition lab results from 200 year old champagne and beer found in a shipwreck in the Baltic Sea. Mmm. Aged and hoppy.

But might be worth to buy a bottle and be a part of history.

people caught in headlights

With advertising, a lot of times it's all about placement. To drive home the notion of driving responsibly, and not drinking and driving, the Thai Health Promotion Foundation put stickers on headlights of cars that created shadow outlines of people in front of the cars when the lights were turned on. 

the mashup to end all mashups

Game Theory by Ithaca Audio is an epic mashup of 19 classic tracks from ranging from Tetris, Doctor Who, and other video game titles, television shows, films, and music videos. Some how the mashup was performed live on specially-configured NES controllers.

According to the creators...

2013 marks 35 years of video game music (Space Invaders, released in 1978 was the first game to feature a continuous soundtrack). So we took the opportunity to take a look back at some of our favorite examples of video game music and build a 19 track mashup, combining them with some other tracks we love.

Via.

flipping out

How cool is this? The new Finnish passport is actually a flip book. Flip away and you see a moose walking. (If you're not from Finland please see the video below.)

mohawk ads

Have a huge mohawk? Need to make a few extra bucks? Well it's as easy as turning yourself into an unmissable billboard of hair. Check out Mohawk Gaz who turned his head into a walking advertising masterpiece...







Yes that's really an lcd display embedded in his hair.



View lots more over at Mohawkads.

take that DVR

So no one watches TV commercials anymore because of DVR, right? Sure! So as a brand, you could whine about it, throw in the towel, or keep doing the same thing hoping for scraps of people that are still actually paying attention to your multi-million dollar spot.

Ooooor, you could be brilliant like DDB Brussels and create an ad (for VW) in slow motion so that when someone is fast forwarding their DVR, they actually see the commercial in regular speed.

Agency/brand 1, DVR 0

are you my daddy?

It's Friday and you know you're begging for a distraction. Well, here's a fun one...

Take this quick little brand paternity test from AdWeek and see if you know who's the daddy of each of these brands. I scored a 73%. You?

a power company with attitude

When you hear "power company", you don't automatically think edgy, break through advertising. But Powershop in New Zealand is definitely breaking the mold with their "Same Power, Different Attitude" ad campaign featuring dictators doing unlikely "good" things.

Definitely edgy, definitely break-through, and already causing flaming internet arguments... which is a sure sign of an effective campaign. What do you think?

via

chew on this, fashionistas!

Ever think you’d hear about putting fashion and food together? Well, think again. There’s a luxury brand for just about everything, and now there’s one for chewing gum. Paul Stiven created the Luxury Chewing Gum, known for it’s trendy and unusual luxury brand packaging.  

mascot bracket methodology

The mascot methodology for selecting sports brackets! Here’s an organized way to randomly select your winning teams. You may not win, but at least it was cleverly thought out with these 7 rules. Check it!

creative word art

Letter positioning and font modifications create a clever ensemble of art-displayed words. Nice!

Via.

boxed wine getting hipster cred

So we know hipsters love their small label craft beers and artisan goods, but boxed wine? Could it be BOXED wine is making its was on to the stuff hipsters love list?! Looks like it could be, according to this article. Craft wineries are now popping up and boxing - instead of bottling - their small batch wines. So what do you think - will you be bringing a box of wine to your next gathering?

bubble wrap art

Check out these cool pieces of art made with bubble wrap and ink! Artist Bradley Hart injects paint into bubble wrap to create realistic pictures that start from a photo. Hart treats each bubble like a pixel - which explains the pixleated look to his art. It's like a giant pop-able mosaic! Not sure how anyone can resist popping these masterpieces!  Via

couture takeover

What happens when a couture fashion house and iconic British department store team up? A couture takeover of fashion fancy aweseomness that’s what! Christian Dior has taken over the iconic British department store Harrods windows and store with interactive in-store installations. Included in the takeover – fancy fashions in the windows, mini Dior headquarters and a pop-up cafe offers cupcakes with iced with Dior fashion illustrations, black truffle omelets (fancy! and yum!) and other recipes borrowed from a cookbook published in 1972 by the designer, who by no surprise, was a self-professed gourmand. Check out some cool images here.

killing cool ideas

Are you a disgruntled creative with too many good ideas that have been killed? Then meet Killing Cool - the community of creatives where you can vent about the awesome ideas you've had that never make it beyond a brainstorm, account team or client. All valid reasons to get mad.

Then once you stop fuming about all those instances, take a minute (or 18 minutes) to watch this video of Jonathon Adler talking about how his success was partially built on rejecting others' feedback.

oh, you a fancy baby, huh?

As if parents weren't fanatical enough about their dogs and babies - here comes the Aston Martin of strollers...literally.

Aston Martin is now officially in the stroller game, partnering with Silver Cross, and select newborns around the world now will have a mode of transport that is nicer than yours...brand-wise and comfort-dont-have-to-do-anything-wise.

reverse scratch-off campaign

When insurance gets clever, it's great. And strategically clever is best. Like this ad for Liberty Mutual to advertise its services for car repair services via a reverse scratch-off post card where a nice, unscathed car is revealed when you scratch off the imperfection. The visual and physical interaction with this ad is very compelling.

street art meets conservation

Louis “Masai” Michel spent the last few weeks in South Africa painting his way around the streets of Cape Town. The London-based painter delivers a series of new pieces depicting various critically endangered animal species. Though street art and social commentary are bedfellows it's rare that it's as literal or targeted. Could this be a new kind of PSA? More photos here.

serif – sans serf, the final battle

Have you ever wondered why you rarely see beautiful serif fonts on the internet? Well wonder no more. The website UrbanFonts.com has created this handy infographic that explains the differences between serif and sans serif fonts and why you should choose one over the other.



Via.

ipad vs. paper

Ah the iPad so helpful in so may different ways, but it does have it's limitations as seen in this French ad for toilet paper.

how good a best friend are you?

A couple years ago we told you about a stunt Carlsberg beer played on innocent movie goers, well, they're back at it this year with an even more elaborate and impressive stunt.

To see just how good a guy's best friend really is, Carlsberg set up a fake, super seedy, super shady underground club with street fighting, prostitutes and poker games to name a few. Then they invited real guys to call their best friends in the middle of the night and pretend they lost a lot of money in a game of poker and needed them to hand deliver some cash. What happens from there? Definitely worth the watch.

your life's a sham

Sick of looking at everyone else's Instagram feed and feel like they're all having more fun than you? Well, now you can shove their fabulous lifestyles in their faces and go get your own life... even if it is a sham.

Some agency folks at Mother in NY pulled together this fun little website called Instasham that gives you awesome instagram-eque stock photos from various facets of a killer lifestyle to use for your own Instagram feed. So now you can party with that hot model you've always fantasized about, take that trip to Paris, or even drive that Lamborghini.

what happened to manliness?

Manliness has taken on new meaning over the last few years. It now seems to be measured by how creatively his beard is groomed, or how skinny his jeans can get before they're considered "meggings," or the quality of his instagram feed.

Realizing this, agency Made, wondered where that left old-school manly chores like fixing broken appliances? Well, naturally, those should be left up to professionals... specifically the ones you can find on Repair.com

Here's more on the story behind their spot.

envelope x-ray vision

Ok, so you’re extremely nosy, or super “efficient” (call it what you'd like), but either way you don’t want to be bothered by opening mail. No worries, no one here is judging! You can either hold the envelope up to the light and see nothing or, you can use “Envelope X-Ray Spray.” This temporarily renders paper translucent so you can see underneath it for 30-60 seconds before it evaporates.