One of my favorite websites, Flavorpill always brings talented featured artists for their cover art. Not to mention about the rich contents on the website. Heimir Bjorgulfsson is the featured artist of June 2008. His arts are spectacular especially when he uses a various type of coloring tools like spray, color pencil, marker, acrylic and etc. Here are a couple of my favorites.
Hello (Online) World!
I ran across the forum in AdGabber about "Top reasons to go into Advertising." I found one guy's (his name is Lane Casteix) comment interesting and inspiring. He said, "As I said on another thread, I was being "groomed" for architecture but ended up majoring in fine arts with a beer minor. I kept hearing terms thrown around like "working the fence", which was a reference to the fence around Jackson Square in New Orleans where the artists gather to do tourist "art", and "starving artist", which sounded an awful lot like being beerless, so I decided this may not be for me.
Then I hear about an advertising design program at another university, and it strikes me that one probably actually gets paid for doing this advertising design thing - in other words not beerless - and maybe even bourbonful, which indeed it was (this was 1964, folks!). So I changed schools and majors. I liked the program, and I love the job that came out of it. Now I get to manage a small agency and some creatives who are just as easily upset by client changes as I was (I am over that now - jaded, I suppose), and I am having fun designing bourbon packages. Is that amazing or what?!"
I really do agree with him because I was almost ended up in Med school and I think I would never wanted to work in the hospital or medical center. I think I am lucky although this path is not so beautiful. But It's fun and worth. What are your reasons?
Finally, the magazine that I am looking forward to is launched. It's Sixty magazine from VCU Brandcenter. Take a look at it.
Since I got so much time on my hand, I ran across the Fuerzabruta website. According to the definition of Fuerzabruta (f'where-zah-broo-tah), it's brute force or the show from the creators of DE LA GUARDA or 360 heart-pounding theatrical experience. I may be quite late about this event coz it's named top10 of 2007 in Time magazine. By the way, I am really astonished by its trailer because it's not so-called stage performance show at all. I would love to fly to New York and buy a ticket instantly but I couldn't. I will do it after returning from Bangkok, I promise...Fuerzabruta.
See the trailer below
Three to four years ago I had a chance to fly to the North of Thailand. I went to Pai, a tiny town near the Myanmar border. It's very well-know town among backpackers. The atmosphere is very relaxing and laid-back. Pai is completely a great hideaway for me. It almost has no electricity and pollution. That place has no shopping malls, subways, fast food, and etc.
I stopped by one of the most well-known coffee shop and had a hot chocolate with my friends. I love the way that cool breeze touched my skin and my tongue was soaked into warm drinks. Even it's cold outside but I felt so warm because people there are kind and laid-back. Last week I had a chance to scan postcards I bought from Pai. I am trying to find the way to use them. They are very cute and authentic. My concern is how can we sustain Pai? I don't want Pai to be too commercialized and Pai has attracted more people to the town. So people start to make money and shun away from the authenticity.
After reading this article, It left me in silent wonderment. The Japan tourism named Hello Kitty as its choice to represent the country in China and Hong Kong where Hello Kitty is widely popular among kids and women. Officials expect that Hello Kitty will attract a ton of tourists into Japan. This is the first time that the tourism ministry has endorsed a fictional character as a country ambassador.
I would like to applause them for being bold and taking risk. Although Hello Kitty has been in this world for a long time and found herself in everyone's heart, being cute is actually enough to lure people to come to Japan or not. Hello Kitty is such a wonderful character but I don't think she will be the key driven in people's mind to visit Japan. It's a cute execution but an ill-judged strategy.
I promise this is very fun. The interactive stuff from Uniqlo. I created my own UTLoop so you will watch my fun sounds and video. Here you go...
Here is a conversation on Gchat with one of my communications strategy classmates,Schmidt.
Oakie : www.cityshrinker.com
Schmidt : Cool...but why are you obsessed?
Oakie : I dunno..I think it's so awesome.
I re-think about his question why I am so obsessed with Tilt Shift photography. I mean I can't produce it but I strongly love looking at it. I guess the reasons are...
1. I love traveling - I love to see the world. I enjoy viewing this world in many perspectives such as sitting at the Cafe in Hong Kong, sightseeing the New York city on the tallest building in NY. The tilt shift technique is mostly used in taking photo of cities, streets, landscapes, and etc and this would probably be the reason why I like it so much.
2. I wanna be a good photographer - When I see the Tilt-Shift photos, they make me feel aspiring. I wish I could take many cool photos like that. I still hope and will push myself to that goal.
Below images are the example of Tilt-Shift photos that I like. 
I came across the Springwise website and found this cool innovative product called Activate Drinks. What caught my attention was they keep vitamin powder in the cap and when you twist the cap, the vitamin powder will be released into water. They claim that vitamins and other healthy ingredients lose their potency sitting in water. I really like the caption, "It's hid in the lid."
The product initially launched in California and will be rolled out nationwide during this year. I think they should expand their business by selling the vitamin powder in a small package. It will create more usage and occasion for the consumer to mix it in water by themselves.
They also have demonstration video on Youtube. See the video below.
What is a Cougar anyway?...this question stuck in my head now. I always look for Cougar women whenever I have a chance to go out. Sometimes I say "She got a Cougar look" and "Do you think she is a Cougar?" That's not because I sexually love Cougars but I soaked myself into the Cougar world. My friends (Brittany and Mimi) and I were assigned a final project of this semester and we selected "Cougars" as a topic. After spending a couple of months thinking, talking, observing, musing, researching, joking about Cougars, I have a positive attitude towards Cougar women. Although we finished the final project on Thursday but I feel like I know and understand them really well.
The image below is one of many slides in my presentation. I really love it because it's such a great juxtaposition between the lace and cougar animal. For those who don't know what is Cougar, I won't tell you coz I am sick of talking about it now.
It's the first time I had Peeps marshmallow. We got 3 in the packages and I ate 2 of them. Mollie and Merf put the other one in the microwave. See the result below.
I know I have been a terrible blogger. Nothing much to say about what kept me busy. It's obvious that the school continuously gives me assignments. Although we got new building, new name, grand opening party and etc., I am still busy as hell.
Last 2 weeks, I was interviewed by a stranger while i was doing my hectic assignment. Apparently, I didn't say much because i was so nervous and not familiar with talking to a stranger. Well, I was in the news (Commonwealth Times) - click here to read. Is it a big deal? I dunno i had never been in the news before. But I feel so good that media and some people pay attention to our school as we are the future of the advertising industry. Mmm...I should go back and do some good works.
Fortunately, I found this website and it is very interesting. It's called the nextwall by Jung von Matt/Next. Jung von Matt/Next is the Jung von Matt agency for interactive and innovative communication. There are 2 projects which blew my mind.
1. The 30 meter-long graffiti - It's not just the same old graffiti wall but it's embedded the mobile phone technology and RFID technology so the people can interact with the wall. Many German graffiti artists were invited to join the project. They did really a good job. See some images from the website below.
2. Free Graffiti - I think this project crumbles the fact that Graffiti need to be sprayed or created on a wall or solid material only. People who came up with this idea is really smart. They use three cameras and motion capturing technology to create a 3D free-form graffiti. See the video below how it looks like.
Jim Mahfood! Who is Jim Mahfood? Jim Mahfood is an American comic book creator. He has been making a living off his drawings and scribblings since 1997. He worked for Marvel Comics for a while. He got many clients more than i expected such as Playboy, Armani, Disney, DC Comics, and much more.
The reason i mentioned him because i really like his works see the samples below...
Check out his website for a full detail and content. Recently, He is the person who did all arts in Colt45 campaign which is really edgy and catchy.
I am totally looking forward to this - The Great Outdoors Photo Contest. I always enjoy the photos in National Geographic magazine and think there will be many awesome photos in this contest. And the fact that i love taking photos and traveling makes me excited about this contest. Can't wait.
Tomorrow I will go back to the school with something new. We changed the school's name from VCU Adcenter to VCU Brandcenter coz we are not just an advertising student. We learn about art, culture, consumer, and commerce that lead to the better branding. We also have new website (www.brandcenter.vcu.edu) which is better than the old one. The new website is quite simple and i love the transition of the webpage. 
My school also have video series from the leading advertising folks in our industry talking about "CHANGE." There are...
Paul Lavoie, Taxi
Nancy Vonk and Janet Kestin, Ogilvy Toronto
Jeff Steinhour, CP+B
Joe McCarthy, J&J
Bob Scarpelli, DDB
Mike Hughes, The Martin Agency
and 4 more. See the videos here
Lastly, we moved to the new building (which is a couple blocks away from my place..yay!) I am quite excited about the new building because Clive Wilkinson is in charge of this project. I can't wait to see my new lime-green floor. And my second semester is about to begin tomorrow. I am ready for this.
I was wondering when the term "Hi-Definition" or "HD" is applied to the cable TV business. It seems like people are more easily to pay more and adapt to this new technology with better picture quality. Even I saw a movie commercial trying to sell both DVD and HD-DVD format. This reminds me about Sony's Blu-ray too and makes me think of the battle between Blu-ray and HD-DVD.
I expect Blu-ray's gonna be the next generation after DVD format. When the time pass people will start to adopt the new technology as we did from cassette tape to CD. But it's not easy for Blu-ray since the HD-DVD was introduced. It becomes the battle of format.
For me, I really give my heart to the Blu-ray format because of its better performance. Unfortunately, HD-DVD was launched with cheaper price so some consumers are distracted to try the HD-DVD format. Until i read this article and it gives hope to Blu-ray's winning. We will see how this is gonna be between HD-DVD and Blu-ray. I am waiting to burn a Blu-ray disc in the near future and eager to know how Blu-ray will be used as a medium in consumer's world.
Will we see the Youtube video greatest hits in the Blu-ray format?
Can we keep all song from 1980s in a Blu-ray disc?
