Give me some Japanese phones, please.

Let me tell you about one of my favorite people. His name is Fumio, he lives in Kyoto, and he found me on Flickr at around the time I was starting to learn Japanese. Over time we became friends, communicating only through Flickr comments. It was a pretty cool dynamic, because our conversations were always sparked by something visual.

Anyway. You probably pretty much know that I am into Japan. Or if you are new to this blog, guess what: I am into Japan. Now, here is a wonderful thing. If it is:

a) Japanese
b) cute
c) flat

Fumio will send it. Case in point: a couple of weeks ago, an exciting package came in the mail.


That is a preview; I will write about the issue of Brutus in a couple of days. When I wrote this post, I saw two pretty different thoughts happening, so I split them. Stay tuned.

The rest of the package made me a combination of wistful (I miss working on Nokia); jealous (of living in a place with mobile infrastructure about 5 years behind Japan and parts of Europe); and delighted (with everything). Behold a pretty comprehensive collection of carrier catalogues:


Here is a section that struck out at me from the iida one:


There were a couple of pages with phones in this red /white /dots theme, and that woman was in them also. Fumio let me know that it was Yayoi Kusama. I must a complete twit, because Wikipedia informed me that something of hers recently went for over $5 million at Christie's.

Anyway, the spread displays a line of Yayoi Kusama-designed phones, brought to you by iida. This a really good idea – are you listening, U.S. carriers? Commission a big artist to design a line of phones with a handset manufacturer, and make them only available through you. Do you know how collect-y art fans are? If KAWS were to design a line of handsets, do.you.have.any.idea how many kids would sleep outside of your store in the pouring rain, attracting camera crews, to buy every single one in the collection? Do you know how much eBay would blow up? Please stop releasing skinny phones that play 20 MP3s and do something that people can't get somewhere else.

Back to phones, and back to my jealousy. This design (hardware) and presentation makes me feel like I slept in on a Saturday,


While this one makes me feel like I'm in an MRI (which Noah described once as feeling like you're in a German techno club):


This blurb (?) makes me want to play with Tinker Toys,


And this one:


makes me want to... I don't know, go to a big box retailer or something.

I don't really have a point here, other than to share the delight with you and wish for a bigger culture of cute here. We wouldn't lose our credibility, guys, promise. We don't need Times New Roman on a navy background for credibility. And we certainly don't need stock photography for it, either :B

The thrill of the location-based chase

I don't really have to write a lot about the fact that people continue to have fun by taking advantage of their cities with the help of technology. The return of the annual Come Out & Play Festival this past weekend (rats, I missed it!) and Newmindspace's ongoing popularity prove it pretty well.

Brands are doing a good job lately of releasing location-based services (click on that, it's awesome, more later this week) that manage to fit who they are and what they offer to people. To take it up a notch, I've been noticing a few that have been doing cool stuff with an already-existing service – yes,Twitter, bear with me – combining the nature of their product with our appreciation of location-based fun.

The first I noticed was Cupcake Stop, a truck that travels all over NYC to sell – yup – cupcakes.


[photo: roboppy]
Cupcake Stop's Twitter feed had hundreds reading before it even officially launched. During their "beta," they tweeted to test out routes, give previews of what flavors would be available (including an "invent our new flavor" contest), and let people know when and where they were baking. It was like a Krispy Kreme "Hot Now" neon sign on steroids.


Another food truck that did something like this is NYC Cravings, which sells Taiwanese meat and rice dishes. They park in a different spot every day, post their schedule online and use their Twitter feed for spur of the moment changes in plans and location prompts & reminders. Both Cupcake Stop and NYC Cravings leveraged the fact that they are mobile with a tool to help bring more people to them in a fun way.


Brands-who-move-around aren't the only ones who can do things like this, either. Handbag designer Rachel Nasvik created quite a stir over the past couple of weeks, when she hid 90 of her designs in secret spots all over the city and tweeted clues about their whereabouts.



Those clues are so awesome; reminds me of my Carmen Sandiego-playing days. Anyway, followers of this bag scavenger hunt feed (which has over 1,000 followers at this point) ran all over New York, from ATMs to public bathrooms and even our neighbors Van Leeuwen, to try to get their hands on one of the bags (which were also filled with goodies like cosmetics and key chains).


[photo: thrill of the chase]
The fun and inviting "come and get it" attitude is a great way to leverage the craziness that "time sensitive + limited availability" does to people. And the thrill of finding whatever it is you're chasing (be it cupcakes or a handbag) is SO HUGE. You turn the corner and go, "WOW, it's there! It's really there!" (Or at least that's how I reacted when I saw NYC Cravings, after planning my week around it and walking out of the way to get to the nearest location). Rachel definitely got more press than she would have with a more traditional giveaway; the event was covered by Daily Candy, NBC New York, Creativity Online, and Beyond Madison Avenue.

It may seem counter intuitive these days to think that it's good for a brand to make its consumers come to them, instead of the other way around. But the creative use of a nimble platform and a bit of fun changes the game completely.

EDIT | My friend Satish just sent me another cool example of a big brand doing this – Eminem. There was a Twitter feed sending people all over Detroit to find hidden concert tickets. Very cool.

EDIT 2 | My friend Anjeli commented on my cross-posting over at House of Naked... check out this wedding! It "incorporated [the couple's] favorite food carts for their reception by following Twitter." I agree on the photography too – beautiful. Wonder if they used the Leica Noctilux? ;)

Polaroid mobile

Thanks to two of my favorite people, I have a new mobile.


Dylan Trees saw the mobile in California and mailed it to me. I had mentioned that I wanted to try to make one; this took care of the skeleton and left the rest up to me: it just has little clips on it, from which one can attach anything.

My pen pal, Julie, has been sending me beautiful Polaroids every now and then, for the past two years. I chose ten from my now-sizable stack and clipped them on. The whole thing is so light that even the tiniest draft from opening my door can make them flutter around like silent wind chimes.

Heartfelt thanks to both of you* for making the first thing I see when I wake up not a white ceiling and wall.

* And thank you to one Very Tall Boy for helping me with the ceiling hook and hanging it up there for me!