What are your favorite works of inspiration? I love creating illustrations and sifiting through works by other artists. Here are a few of my favs:

• Joe Sorren
• Nicoletta Ceccoli
• Adriane Johnson
• Mattiasa
• Jamsan Project
• StartDrawing.org
• The Daily Monster
• Yoshinoya Singapore
• James Ulmer

Also, check out this month’s [July] issue of Communication Arts. For those of you in this office, swing by the creative room to see our copy.

Cleverly designed childrens [ecologically friendly] website.

What do you think?

Aardman Studios, whom I ardently love and admire, along with Animal Planet, is working to educate youth about eco-friendly life.

In addition to the clever, informational animation shorts (11), there are several other interesting features on the site, including:

• Calendar Wallpaper

• Fun Farting Informational Widget

• Links to Educational Sites

And to top it off - the site is hosted using 100% pure solar energy!

An agency out of Vancouver, BC designed a beautiful website - DesignCanChange.org - aimed at educating and uniting the design community to use their influence and purchasing power to combat climate change.

Straight from the website: “Design Can Change works with the notion that we can collectively encourage substantial change. By utilizing our ability to effectively communicate and build interest, we can generate awareness and further the cause to end global warming.”

The site is successful in portraying dismal facts in such a beautiful manner (with a little help from their sponsor, Getty Images), with the underlying hope that we can all make a difference and that we are all responsible for change.

While the site has great tools and resources on what kind of steps to take to “greenify” your ways, it seems to have fallen short in generating conversation and action within their site - there is a blog that seems to have gone unnoticed.

On the positive side, you can “Take the Pledge” which garners you a spot within their worldwide directory that is accessible to any visitor. Hopefully being featured in Time Magazine’s 2008 “Design 100″ issue helped to direct more attention to the site and make use of the seemingly under-utilized tools.

On Friday, I received an email from the Membership Director of MarketingProfs, Sharon Hudson. The title of the email was simply “3-Question Survey.” Out of pure curiosity, I decided to open it and see what insight they were trying to glean from such a brief, 60 second questionnaire. To my surprise, the email simply stated that MarketingProfs was considering adding a new feature to their website that would allow “members” to upload their own creative and to comment on the creative of other members. A so-to-speak “social-networking/peer review board” for marketers.

I quickly completed the survey and started thinking about the pros and cons of such a site. As a marketer in my past-life, I recall countless instances where we debated the effectiveness of our email creative and tried to prophesize whether or not our user-base would find the creative (and message) compelling enough to take action.

Also, having the ability to screen your creative prior to a campaign-launch is a comforting thought, especially if the success of your campaign is tied to your boss’ expectation of a strong ROI.

And on a total side note, it’s a purely ingenious way to increase the MarketingProfs membership subscriptions and drive revenue (props to you, Sharon!).

But on the other hand, what restrictions are put in place to prevent a competitor from “borrowing” your creative ideas and implementing them as their own? Surely this concern has been brought up and debated at MarketingProfs (perhaps the reason for their survey?). A few other questions:

• Is your creative archived for future review?
• Are comments made public?
• Can you really trust your peers?

Overall, I’m intrigued by this potential offering and am curious to find out what direction MarketingProfs decides to take. I’m also interested to hear what other marketers think about this new form of peer review. Does it unite marketers or pull them apart? Would you consider purchasing a membership to receive “free” feedback?  How much faith are you willing to put in the opinions of others?

Somewhere (I can’t remember where) pointed me to a marketing campaign posted on Ads of the World that is insanely brilliant. It was done in Germany - which should be no surprise, this would never be passable in the US - to promote an action and suspense channel called “13th Street.”

I get the impression you either love or hate this idea. Obviously I think it’s awesome, and so does Jeff Hilimire. But, one of my friends/coworkers pointed out that she would likely have a panic attack if she was exposed to this campaign unknowingly.

They placed a substance that would luminesce in black light on the walls, sink and mirror in a nightclub bathroom in Hamburg. The manner it was applied mimicked that of a crime scene.

Then they timed the traditional lighting in the room to replace with blacklight after a subject entered the room; exposing the “bloodbath” as well as the logo, tagline - See What Others Don’t See - and the web address of the television station.

Check out more pictures here. Talk about thinking outside the box; this is experiential marketing at its best. Maybe not passable in the US, but it definitely makes you think about what’s possible.

What better motivation to divulge some personal information than a promise of a little custom tailored Starbucks in your cup? That’s right, visit starbuckscoffeeathome.com, answer a few questions to figure out what sort of coffee best suits your tastes, fill out a form, and get some free coffee.

Genius.

With the workflow improvements that Adobe continues to bring to Photoshop, and the high level of experience required to master and efficiently use the tool, it is no wonder that there is such a high demand for training on this prolific and highly revered digital editing software.

Unfortunately, nothing is more frustrating for a novice than confronting a tool that has hidden secrets (keyboard shortcuts/layers shortcuts, new slim interface), a pool of icons (only labeled on still rollover) and 1 million capabilities.

For those of you who attended the recent Spunlogic Lunch and Learn [Photoshop Basics & Essentials], I challenge you to continue playing with Photoshop – bring in your personal photographs, play with filters, explore the keyboard shortcuts (hold down the control, alt and shift keys with various other keys), cut out objects and make collages. The rewards of advancing in Photoshop are not restricted to designers.

With the influx of affordable high resolution personal cameras and widespread blogging, the invitation of digital manipulation is open to anyone who would like to put a mustache on their uncle Fred or share last night’s breakdancing photo session with their buddies.

And for those of you who are well-rounded in Photoshop, don’t get stuck in the last version of Photoshop – that is so CS2! Continue to seek knowledge from your peers and share the love as well.

As promised, the Photoshop Seminar notes & Training files are available (to Spunlogic Employees), just ask me for them!

Why would you want to spend a lot of $$$ to build a site to permeate your brand into the mind of the public, and then never really show the brand itself? In the case of the Sound of Color, The GAP has a great concept, beautifully presented and meticulously executed, to support their “Color Redefined” campaign, yet the site never refers to the campaign, the logo, or Gap products. Not a stitch of denim anywhere! It does leaves the viewer with a strong and, more importantly, a new impression of the Gap brand. While still perceived as youthful, The GAP is seen as an idea generator, a patron of the arts, a catalyst for creativity, and in tune with technology and communication.

The message is delivered through the language of music and video, which the target audience speaks fluently. To their credit, The GAP has focused on the viral possibilities of the site and music downloads, rather than the more traditional use of media placement. The site will live for only a month, but the music will be woven into the fabric of daily life as its passed from friend to friend. The strong response elicited in their audience is one that will persist. That’s $$$ well spent.

I recently came across an interesting article featuring portfolio samples and an interview with Dan Wheaton, one of the matte artists from the films Babel, Stranger Than Fiction, and The Number 23.

The amount of imagination and attention to detail associated with matte painting never ceases to amaze me. View his website & portfolio here.