1:50 pm | 0 recommendations | 0 comments

Japan's Quirky Vending Machines

Put some change in, thrust your face out and prepare for… a quick nicotine fix and an estimate of your wrinkles.

The Japanese have always had the world's quirkiest vending machines – actually I'd go so far as to say the world's quirkiest products in general. I did a slideshow on quirky vending machines for Fast Company last year; commonly dispensed products include toilet paper, beetles, porn and sex toys, umbrellas, fortunes, rice, and of course cigarettes and beer.

8:07 am | 2 recommendations | 4 comments

Are You Perpetually Exhausted?

Are you ignoring that exhaustion, telling yourself you’ll take some time off in a month or so?  In the meantime how are you able to effectively lead if you’re too tired to process everything that’s going on around you?

11:57 pm | 0 recommendations | 0 comments

Work/Life: Dennis Hopper Hawking Financial Planning...A Sign Of The Coming Apocalypse Now?

4:36 pm | 1 recommendation | 0 comments

Mad Ave's Latest Fetish: Intellectual Property

"Gentleman Callers" candles. "Fat Pig" chocolates. "Dogmatic" gourmet
hot dogs. It's no surprise this slew of new tongue-in-cheek brands come
straight from the front lines of manufactured hipness: ad agencies. In
today's Advertising Age, Rupal Parekh
writes about a trend I highlighted in Fast Company's Annual Fast 50

4:04 pm | 1 recommendation | 0 comments

Grand Theft Auto IV Rage

It's been a historic week for gamers: Marvel Comics' "Iron Man" had stellar box office performance, clocking in an estimated $100.8 million in tickets in North America, while Take-Two Interactive's Grand Theft Auto IV sold six million copies during its first week of sales, raking in an astounding $500 million.

3:58 pm | 0 recommendations | 0 comments

Project Parse It Up: Bravo vs. Lifetime

Tim Gunn, our favorite sartorial critic, is in the eye of the storm--again. As I chronicled in Fast Company's April issue profile "Project Rehab," the former head of Parsons' Fashion program has had a dizzying career trajectory since turning 50 (take note AARP!): landing his own TV show on Bravo, recruited to rewire Liz Claiborne Inc's $5 billion design culture, and of course, breakout stardom on Bravo's Project Runway.

3:52 pm | 0 recommendations | 0 comments

Brand America: Europe Hearts Obama

A friend of mine who happens to be a political journalist just returned from a 10 day holiday jaunt through Europe last week. His most startling discovering, he told me: Europeans are gaga over Obama.

12:46 pm | 0 recommendations | 0 comments

$10 Gas! The National Work+Life Flex Strategy

Some experts are beginning to predict that gas prices could climb as high as $10 a gallon in the next two to three years.  However, all of the solutions under consideration, such as developing alternative sources of energy, will take years to have a meaningful impact and hold no guarantees. 

1:00 am | 1 recommendation | 0 comments

Microsoft Live Mesh...the future???

Microsoft Live Mesh is out in Beta. I have had a few weeks to play with it. What is Live Mesh and why should you care?

Live Mesh is a service that lets you synchronize your settings, files, feeds and applications on several computers. Live Mesh allows you to achieve the following:

8:42 pm | 0 recommendations | 0 comments

Is a “Sustainable Industrial Designer” an Oxymoron?

Recently, I was invited to speak at a conference celebrating “Earth Day.” My presentation consisted of “Everyone Considered,” a talk concerning our design process, which considers everyone that comes into contact with a product throughout its life: from the assembly worker to the individual recycling the product. Many consider this design process to be environmentally friendly.