January 2012
2 posts
David Ogilvy on Copywriting →
youmightfindyourself:
April 19, 1955 Dear Mr. Calt: On March 22nd you wrote to me asking for some notes on my work habits as a copywriter. They are appalling, as you are about to see: 1. I have never written an advertisement in the office. Too many interruptions. I do all my writing at home. 2. I spend a long time studying the precedents. I look at every advertisement which has appeared for...
November 2011
1 post
Reblogging because: awesome.
October 2011
3 posts
Partial rant about the verb “to be”
I was thinking recently about how I talk in text. (Wait, back up: I’m one of those people who likes to send text messages instead of talk. My “phone” is really a wireless telegraph. Okay? Okay.) Anyway. When I text, I drop the verb “to be.” Viz.:
“I here”
“You pretty”
“That crazy”
Now: I am not one to be sloppy or slangy with my text messaging. I don’t say “LOL” or “OMG.” I typically correct...
Sunday morning
Perfect time for some Nam June Paik.
More high-contrast serifs, please
(This movie is the jam, btw.)
September 2011
1 post
May 2011
1 post
January 2011
1 post
Art & copy
Ladies and gentlemen, the future of advertising.
December 2010
1 post
Another textual nit-pick, this time with...
Seen recently on Design Observer:
Presented at a recent edition of ArtVerona in Italy, their installation proposes a form of floating and vertical bio-desalination machine. “The object proposes a kind of neo-nature” says Studiomobile, in which “an autonomous living organism is put to practical daily use.”
But to be clear: we’re talking about a...
October 2010
1 post
Corporate record store in shopping mall vs. Apple...
Corporate record store
Me: “Do you have E2-E4 by Manuel Göttsching?”
Corporate record store employee: “What? Um… let me look. Huh. Um. No. But we do have the new LCD Soundsystem record.”
Apple iTunes Store
Me: “Do you have E2-E4 by Manuel Göttsching?”
Apple iTunes Store: “Your search had no results.”
April 2010
1 post
Music
(This is what music would be like on television if you were deaf. So maybe stop complaining all the time.)
March 2010
0 posts
February 2010
7 posts
3 tags
The best interface copy I've seen in a while
There’s a new (I think) website/service/whatever called Fav4 (which by the way you should check out).
Their “About” section has this killer interface copy:
Which I totally love.
Because: it’s clever and unexpected. Also because: despite the persistent myth of Digital Youth, Old People* are actually really good at using the Internet now. And your Mom and Dad might...
My current Top 5 (Mid-February 2010)
Been a while, but whatevs.
No particular order, subject to change, &c.
Slates, The Fall 1981, Rough Trade
“The Wehrmacht never got in here” has to be the most defiant Britpunk line ev-uh.
Taro Tarot, These Are Powers 2008, Hoss Records
Everything you love about Sonic Youth and Jane’s Addiction, without the stuff you don’t love.
Comfort Eagle, Cake 2001, Columbia Records
This record...
Fun facts about United States Politicians (#5)
Fun fact: Senator Evan Bayh (Democrat, Indiana) is a total pussy.
Fun facts about United States Politicians (#4)
Fun fact: Senator Mike Crapo (Republican, Idaho) secretly thinks that sometimes you have to forego heritage and just change your name so that your kids won’t get picked on at school.
Bonus fun fact: he also knows the macron used over the a in his campaign signs isn’t fooling anyone.
January 2010
3 posts
Graphics I am totally done with (#1)
I'm pretty sure these guys are spammers
Myths and facts about corporate web design (#1)
Myth: no one reads copy. Fact: no one reads copy. Also: no one cares about drop shadows, gradients, and whether or not the space you allocated for the product description is a perfect square.
December 2009
4 posts
“If I were asked to choose between doing things like this to earn money and...”
– Slavoj Žižek, on why he wrote copy for an Abercrombie & Fitch catalog.
The sometimes-politicized subtleties of language
Recently seen in The New York Times:
“The Treasury Department’s approval is a grim reminder of the political power of the banks, even as the economy they did so much to damage continues to struggle.”
At issue: the placement of a two-letter word: “to”.
Also at issue: intentionality vs. the results of actions. Did the banks set out to do “so much to damage” the...
The ugliest thing I've seen a while.
Seriously? Big Stupid Button? Seriously?
Yeah, you have a web browser. We know. No one cares. Kindly don’t spam up the interface.
November 2009
7 posts
Fun facts about United States Politicians (#3)
Fun fact: if Lindsey Graham (Republican, South Carolina) were from the United Kingdom, he wouldn’t have a girl’s name.
Reasons I love Chicago (#1)
Condos.
Image via Flickr, courtesy of mindfrieze.
And suddenly, I like Apple again*
Typically, the “Terms and Conditions”** of a web service are an excuse to leverage some legalese in order to trick you into agreeing to a bunch of bullshit.***
And while the iTunes Store Terms may not be ideal, at least they have the decency to call out and make plain changes to their legalese:
* I say “again” because I got my start with OS 8, then rocked OS 9. I even...
October 2009
13 posts
Quoted, or something:
— Quoting me, and dropping an in-joke.
(If you get it, say a word for Jimmy Brown, okay?)
HTML 5 = Oh, crap... Really?
Seriously?
ITEMs? ITEMNAMEs? ITEMPROPs?
Jesus crap. This is just like when I finally learned how to nest TABLEs, only to find out that all the cool kids had moved on to floated DIVs.
Am I going to have to re-code my website again?
I hope not. I am so bored with coding.
It's come to this
Was a time when $2.50 bought you like 10 packs of Camels.
Then the government stepped in and regulated.
Because Camels* kill you.
(Hereby daring you “small government” people to talk trash. But you don’t want to step to this.)
* All cigarettes kill you, actually. Not just Camels. You need proof? You’re a stupid dick. And you don’t want to step to this.
My grammar
…is so freaking terrible.
It’s (got that one right — ha!) really embarrassing, actually. This is supposed to be what I do for a living.
Regrets (#2)
I’ll never get to play The Fall: Rock Band.
Because they’ll never make it. Because they’d sell like one copy.
Someone tell the lawyers and the MBAs to sit the...
And while you’re at it, tell them to shut the fuck up.
Here’s the thing:
Last night, I embedded a YouTube video on my blog. The video was of a band, playing a song I liked.
Since I liked the song, I wanted to share it. I also wrote a short comment to go with the video. The comment was sincere. It was also, let’s say, positively glowing. That is, it was exactly what someone who is selling...
“Have good articles to sell, deal honestly and honorably, be courteous to all;...”
– Deacon Bross, Daily Democratic Press, 1852.
Worst iTunes Store Download Ever
“I very quickly became my own intern.”
– Stefan Sagmeister, on the perils of taking a sabbatical.
September 2009
7 posts
Regrets (#1)
I’ll never fly an SR-71 Blackbird.
Because: Complete lack of pilot experience. Complete lack of military experience. Bad eyesight. Plus, they retired the sumbitch in 1998.
Mozilla makes the best landing pages
A long time ago, I made some presentation slides that attempted to show my then-coworkers some of the finer points that added up to making the Mozilla Firefox campaign’s landing pages among the best in the business.
And they just won’t quit. Here’s what greeted me tonight, when I launched my browser:
I’ll leave it to you to figure out and debate what the “finer points” are. But this looks...
