During a recent trip to Florida I took some time to check out the Disney-founded community of Celebration.

The experience was much more subtle that I had expected; perhaps the true nature emerges more through residency than driving through. Overall, it felt a lot like The Truman Show – a set that made everything a bit too perfect and while one can appreciate just how nice everything is, it lacks a certain organic naturalness.

The town theater is achingly new, yet completely retro. There’s no funk here.

The downtown area is beautiful, branding is kept to a minimum.

Starbucks, the Americanized faux-Italian experience (so faux and so Americanized that you can enjoy it without knowing where it comes from) seems to fit right in (but then Starbucks is the ultimate brand for fitting in everywhere and anywhere).

These electric vehicles were ubiquitous, some turned into rolling advertising vehicles (as has happened with the PT Cruiser, the New Beetle, the Mini, and the Smart Car). I imagine the retirement communities in Florida have a wider general adoption of those vehicles and that’s part of the reason they are seen in Celebration.

Chick-Fil-A branding at a church event.

And about 2 miles down the road, familiar sprawl returns, highlighting the contrast. I think that’s the tallest Starbucks sign I’ve ever seen.

Previously: Florida Faux, part 1

Also: Orlando pictures; Miami pictures.

I got this thing in the mail from a company called Veer. The cover slip said: “A giant hand. Angsty Cats. Rioting Models.”

How could I not open it?

It turned out to be a huge advertisement poster. It was so big that once I’d unfolded it, I had to lay it on a chair.

It looked like such a pain in the ass to fold it up again that I left it lying there and went and made coffee.

I was standing in the living room again a few minutes later deciding what to do with my Saturday morning, and I started absentmindedly reading some of the copy on the poster.

It was like I’d created a Veer billboard in my living room.

There was a picture of a sweatshirt I thought was kind of cool. Turns out it’s for sale at Veer’s website. (Veer’s primary business is selling stock photography, fonts, and other graphic design resources.) Then, a description of an animated short that sounded interesting, free to view on the site.

Next thing I know, I’m on my way to Veer’s website, looking for the sweatshirt and the film. Wow. They really got me, didn’t they!

In consideration of the web’s enormous power and ubiquitous presence as a commercial tool, I think this is a testimony to the continuing importance of things you can touch, that interpose themselves in our three-dimensional spaces.

But the story’s not over…

Veer’s website is down.

At this point, I’ve been so adroitly manipulated from being a complete bystander to actively seeking out this company that I’m sure this shutdown itself is also part of the strategy: a way to get me to come back on Monday and talk to someone at Veer, hooked in just a little deeper by thinking I’ve serendipitously ended up with this 10% discount opportunity.

Now I’m caught up in this interesting meta-story–curious about Veer’s tactical moves, wondering if they are being as deeply strategic as I’m imagining?

This whole interaction is an object lesson in the complexity of moving a potential customer back and forth between realspace and webspace, and how many interesting ways there are to go about pursuing this objective.

We’ll see if I use the 10% discount to buy a sweatshirt.

• Rotman magazine (no longer free online) interview with Harry West from Continuum
  “Creating a product for people without studying them first simply doesn’t make any sense. The products we create are meant to help and serve people, and in order to do that we need to understand what people need, what they value and what their aspirations are, and use that understanding to drive the creative process.”

• Ignore That Logo Under the Tape! – Olympic brand “protection” taken to a silly extreme
  To ensure that only the companies that pay millions of dollars to be official Olympic sponsors enjoy the benefits of exposure in Olympic venues, organizers have covered the trademarks of nonsponsors with thousands of little swatches of tape.

  In media centers, dormitories and arena bathrooms, pieces of tape cover logos of fire extinguishers, light switches, thermostats, bedroom night tables, soap dispensers and urinals. The Taiden Industrial translation headsets in a large conference room have had their logos covered, as have the American Standard faucets in the bathrooms nearby, and the ThyssenKrupp escalators down the hall.

• Design Feaster: Noticing Power
  Nate Burgos on our AIGA GAIN piece on noticing: “Proactive noticing may reveal a vision.”

• Female police officers ‘should get bulletproof bras’
  They are all emblazoned with the word “police” and made from cotton, polyester, elastic and some other synthetic materials, thickly padded and with no metal or plastic studs or fasteners.
• Padded underwear – front and back – for men
  Kerri Christman, owner of Butt For You, says the major client base for butt pads are seniors, models and HIV-positive men who’ve lost the fat in their butts from years of taking antiretroviral drugs. “We also get stunt men. And some celebrities, which I can’t name.” Silicone Body founder Pauline Rous, whose Package Booster will be included in gift bags at this year’s Latin Grammys, says she caters to another demographic. “We’re in San Diego, so we have the entire entertainment industry – models and actors. You know, if you see a perfectly shaped guy, I can tell you he’s wearing something.”

• Tattoo The Midget Has A Bigger Posse
  Tokyo, December 2007
• Meme Diffusion
  Awesome gallery – from the official site, no less – of bootleg stickers based on Andre The Giant Has A Posse. I’ve got photos, but no stickers.

I’ve developed a taste for expensive yogurt.

It started as a lark a few days ago, in a natural foods store near my home, when I saw Saint Benoit Yogurt for the first time. This single-serving yogurt comes in a miniaturized stoneware crock, colored and shaped like (what I imagine to be) a traditional European crock.

I figured I’d throw down the $3.99 for a Saint Benoit once-it seemed luxurious, and worth doing for the experience.

But lo, the Palmetto Organic Grocery has just opened directly across the street from our office, and guess what they carry?

As it turns out, Saint Benoit only costs $2.49 if you return one of the used crocks. Compared to the usual $0.99 for many other organic yogurts, this price is still awfully high, but if the reusable crock and local, sustainable production are an ecological improvement over the usual disposable plastic container and cross-country transport, that’s one inducement to pony up.

The bottom line for me is sensory, though. There’s something about the “old world-like experience” of holding that little crock and hearing the spoon clink on its side that is proving to be quite seductive.

It’s a triumph of interface design.

• The Secrets of Storytelling: Why We Love a Good Yarn (Scientific American)
  Article itself has no real point of view, but surveys some interesting research.
  To this day people spend most of their conversations telling personal stories and gossiping. A 1997 study by anthropologist/evolutionary biologist Robin Dunbar, at the University of Liverpool found that social topics accounted for 65 percent of speaking time among people in public places. Anthropologists note that storytelling could have also persisted in human culture because it promotes social cohesion among groups and serves as a valuable method to pass on knowledge to future generations. But some psychologists are starting to believe that stories have an important effect on individuals as well-the imaginary world may serve as a proving ground for vital social skills.
  …
  Preliminary research by Oatley and Mar suggests that stories may act as “flight simulators” for social life. A 2006 study hinted at a connection between the enjoyment of stories and better social abilities.
• History of the #1 foam hand
  Someday someone will produce my concept from 1998 – a foam #1 hand that you use for fun! cleaning around the house

Construction site, London, July 2008

The hook – a huge metal piece that moves through the site at all heights – is painted Day-Glo orange to increase the likelihood that people will see it, and avoid it.

Rack o’ seats, Tate Modern, London, July 2008

This is a nice touch: self-serve portable seating for your journey through an art museum.