A Source Of Inspiration

Support No!Spec. Or at least, think about it.

We, the undersigned, are against speculative work and presentations for the following reasons:

Spec work does not guarantee compensation for the designer or an appropriate solution for the client. It is an unprofessional practice because it takes away from a designer’s time and billable projects.

The very nature of spec work virtually ensures that clients will not get well-researched or executed solutions.

Spec work does not contribute to the overall image or branding of a client because it is often sought out for one-off pieces - it actually serves to dilute the brand, which can be extremely harmful to the client.

In addition, spec work devalues the communication design profession. It reduces communication design to a commodity, rather than to a specialized service.

Just in case you haven’t heard, Microsoft is taking a swing at the free and open source software movement. I hope they step on their own shit.

• Topic via: Software Livre
• Buzz heard at asterisco.paradigma.pt
• Image credits: Mandolux, hacked by me

Google is proud of the innovative products it regularly releases to the public, from the ever-more-targeted Internet search results to an automatic Web-based airport-ride finder.But the coolest stuff is often reserved for Google employees. And they’re about to get access to a killer tool, otherwise known as the “supersecret Google is about to buy Yahoo” alert.Technically, this is an e-mail that informs all 12,230-plus Googlers that the in-house market for transferable stock options has been shut down.In reality, it means something really, really big is about to happen to the company that could affect the stock price.

“For example, if Google decides it wants to buy Yahoo, that’s a really big deal,” said David Sobota, Google’s senior corporate counsel. “We wouldn’t want to disclose that to the world the first time Eric Schmidt comes to a handshake agreement with Terry Semel about it, because that could disrupt the negotiation process.

Source: John Battelle’s SearchBlog

Just a quick post on the business side of agencies.

But first, the disclaimer: for those who don’t know, i work at DraftFCB Portugal. That said, it’s now public (no privileged disclosure by me, then) that DraftFCB has just won two major accounts: Kraft’s $40 million Lunchables account and the $200 million Kmart account.

It’s about time that the media stops winning about the whole Walmart/Roehm thing. We have a new kind of agency being built, where ROI does mean “Return On Ideas”. As every pioneer, our model might seem different, but that’s precisely what makes us so interesting: a marketing-communications company, “turning insights about the consumer, the client and the competition into ideas that incite consumer behavior”, with accountability and creativity as cornerstones.

Come and meet us at draftfcb.com.

[Read more …]

Doesn’t it look all so “iFuture” ?

Link to YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G_FS2TiK3AI

Source: Adverlab

The circle is now complete, with Google closing the gap and acquiring the only thing that was missing in their digital marketing services portfolio. With the strong reputation of asset management that DoubleClick technologies offer, and mainly through their ability to integrate third party assets, Google has given the final stab in Microsoft aspiration at online advertising.

DoubleClick did some buzz lately, with their intention to create a online ad marketplace, and perhaps that spurred the interest at Mountain View, that had some changes ($3.1 billion) to spend. One of the question that remains to be answered is wheter the platform will be provided to Google users for free, much in the same way that Urchin became Analytics. If this happens, it will represent a enormous boost in online advertising, as publishers could finally benefit of a widespread technology and standards, with equivalent metrics and centralized asset management.

Press release: Google, DoubleClick 

The newspapers were already under a terminal disease, but now the undertaker has just arrived and began digging.

Advertising spending online overtook national newspapers’ share of the pie for the first time in 2006 as companies continued to chase a growing web audience.According to data from the Internet Advertising Bureau out today, online spending smashed through the £2bn barrier in 2006 while television revenues fell and press barely budged.

A 41% leap put 2006 UK online spending at £2.016bn, representing 11.4% of total advertising revenues. IAB said that helped offset declines in traditional media and meant the overall advertising industry was able to clock up modest growth of 1.1% over the year.

Source: The Guardian, IAB U.k.

The software package has just launched, with several editions available, and thanks to some early leaks we had a sneak peak on pricing and packaging details:

Source: MacRumors

Source: Apple Insider

The editions scheme seems a bit confusing, as if Adobe is borrowing ideas from Vista. But be warned: if you want to be a designer these days, it will cost you at least of $999 USD.

Update: this morning (GMT 0) , there was a product special on Adobe homepage, and there will be a webcast of the launch event.

My favorite features (as a flash developer):

• Flash integration with Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator and After Effects
• Flash IDE now supports Actionscript 3, with improved debugger
• 3D compositing in Photoshop
• Improved vanishiog points in Photoshop, exportable to After Efffects

The big winner in CS3 seems to be Flash, although Photoshop has some impressive features on specialized areas.