GT-R. Probably my favorite performance car brand ever. Capable of spanking a Porsche 911 Turbo around the famed Nurburgring. The new version of the GT-R is here, which means it is time to start saving up my quarters. Yowsa.
Sorry for the recent radio silence here at metacool. Everything is a-okay. Been busy at conferences, endurance car races, taking care of the family, and work. The good news is, I'm now swamped with interesting ideas. It'll all brew up in to some good blog fodder, I reckon.
(I love this quote because it acknowledges the unique role which talents plays in the realm of visceral design. If you have talented, highly-trained and educated designers, why would you second-guess their aesthetic judgment based on the input of folks off the street? Yes, test the hell out of the behavioral elements of your offerings -- fit, function, ergonomics -- but leave the visceral, and to some extent the reflective meaning, up to the people who get it)
My brother Carlos is quoted in today's New York Times in an article about making quiet computers:
Some customers are paying attention. When Carlos Rodriguez, a
community manager for a Web start-up, built out the PC for his home
theater, he turned to a Zalman CNPS9500, a $49 cooler for the C.P.U.
that comes with hundreds of thin copper fins and weighs almost a
quarter of a pound.
“It’s got huge heat-sink fins,” Mr.
Rodriguez said. “It’s got a 92-millimeter fan. I just can’t hear it at
all. It’s big, but it’s also kind of beautiful.”
Right on, bro!
Having designed the thermal system for the original Intel Xeon processor, I'm really in to cooling fins. They are beautiful.
You may not like this ad, but I do. Not just because I'm a fan (and owner) of Toyota cars, but because it's a great example of designing a message to spread.
In this case, it is about tapping in to the seven million plus folks who play the online game World of Warcraft. That's a lot of potential truck buyers. If you don't play World of Warcraft, the ad is entertaining, but if you do play, the ad is just amazing. And, it seems perfectly designed to spread around the place where World of Warcraft players hang out the most, that thing called the internet. This is about designing for YouTube.
My only question is, I'm level 66, so can I get a Tundra instead?
Help me out here. Last night I was putting together my argument for an upcoming speech about marketing when I realized that I don't know what marketing is about. Or, to be precise, I do know what marketing is about (I have a very strong point of view on it, actually), but I don't have a good definition.
What is marketing?
Can you help me? If you have a definition you'd like to share, please shoot me an email. Or, better yet, please leave a comment below. That way we can all riff off each other.