unsolicited opinions on random things
And it’s Honeysuckle Pink. And if Pantone says it’s gonna be hot, then you can bet it’s gonna be hot. Kind of like a chicken-and-the-egg scenario, Pantone knows what’s hot, announces the colour, then it becomes more hot, etc. Take last year’s pick of Turquoise as an example. Or 2009’s Mimosa.
I’m sure I’ll have at least one client in the coming year who wants to use Honeysuckle in their design…
I’m sure you’ve heard about Black Friday – the largest retail shopping day of the year in the States, on the Friday following Thanksgiving Thursday. But did you know about Cyber Monday? It’s the Monday following the Thanksgiving weekend, and there are many deals to be had online. Cyber Monday is mostly an American thing, but many American online retailers will ship to Canada, so we can enjoy the deals too.
Apparently Cyber Monday is catching on – according to the Huffington Post, “Cyber Monday was the second highest spending day of 2009, with buyers charging nearly $890 million during the special shopping event.”
So, you ask, where are the deals? I’ve seen a few good ones this morning:
Amazon.ca (yep, the Canadian dot ca website, not just the American dot com) has deals across their entire site – books, DVDs, electronics… check it out.
Moo.com: Buy a pack of Holiday cards, and then receive 25% off your entire order (including the Holiday cards and anything else you want, like business cards, postcards, stickers, etc).
TigerDirect.com has some insane deals on laptops, external memory, and other electronic goodies, including $60 off an 8gig Flip Video Camera.
If you want insider tips on the best Cyber Monday deals, head over to Twitter and follow @CyberMonday, @bestCyberMonday, and @CyberMondayNews.
Good luck and happy shopping!
[image via Daily Word Buzz]
My favourite online printer, Moo.com, is offering 30% off all printed products until Sunday at noon. You don’t need a promo code – the discount is available right now on their site. Need business cards, mini cards, holiday cards, stickers, or postcards? They’re all on sale. And you DON’T have to be a designer to use Moo – it’s really user friendly and they have a bunch of ready-made products to choose from. I had two business meetings this past week where my clients gushed about my Moo cards – they really are great.
I will fully admit, I’m a print nerd. In a lot of ways – I love paper, I love typography, I love letterpress… I even spent a lovely evening with Kinnon watching a documentary about printing processes. And back in June, we did a letterpress workshop at a local indie print shop.
So I was easily able to waste some time exploring Graphics Atlas, a website that’s part online printing archive, part printing education lesson. Do you know the distinguishing characteristics between relief and intaglio? Or, more relevant to today’s designers – the difference between offset litho and direct thermal? If you’re a print nerd or a designer, this is pretty essential knowledge. Check out Graphics Atlas and learn something!
A new website is launching today amongst a lot of hype – TripAlertz. You have to sign up for a free account, which gives you access to a limited number of hotel travel packages at seriously reduced rates. And unlike Off and Away, more than one person gets the deal (although there are limited quantities). And the more people that take advantage of the deal, the more everyone saves (the price drops after a certain number of packages have been purchased, and everyone that already bought gets the extra discount).
This is the “daily deal” group buying concept taken to a new level. I’m excited to see what happens on this site, and to see what hotels come up. For now, it’s mostly places in Florida and California, but the site promises more to come.
I just heard about Stay.com and wish I knew about this site years ago! As you’ve probably noticed by now, I really like to travel. I seem to always be planning my next trip, and I think research is one of the best parts of traveling (I get really excited reading about new places).
Sign up for a free account on Stay.com, and start compiling information about a trip you’re planning. Read about a cool attraction or restaurant? Add it all to your Stay.com account to keep track of it. Then, at the end (and this is the best part), Stay.com will compile it all for you into a map and a guidebook (like the screen shots above). Download a PDF for free, print it out, share with friends, etc. All for FREE! Amazing.
My iPhone is updating itself to iOS 4.0.2 as I type this. It’s not a big update, and I probably won’t even notice the differences, but I’m updating anyway. While I’m poking around in iTunes, I’m going to download the Cartolina iPhone app, which takes text and email messaging to the next level. Instead of those boring text message bubbles, send a text to a friend with a beautiful background. Gorgeous.
Update: The Cartolina app isn’t available until September 17. Oh well, I’ll just have to wait.
[via Design*Sponge]
Do you have trouble remembering where the fork goes when you set the table? What about the dessert spoon? These cheet sheet placemats should help…
[via ReadyMade]
I’ve been reading a lot of about Raveable lately. Supposedly, it’s a good alternative to TripAdvisor. I use TripAdvisor all the time, but I’m a bit baffled sometimes by the seemingly polarized reviews of a hotel – some people seem to love it, and some people seem to outright hate it. So what will I think?
Raveable indexes hotel reviews from TripAdvisor, Expedia, Travelocity, and MyTravelGuide, plus some other “lesser known sites such as individual travel bloggers”. They immediately state the pros and cons, so you don’t have to sift through paragraphs and paragraphs of some wacko complaining about every little thing.
Compare the two screen shots above – they’re both for the Casa Laguna Inn in Laguna Beach, California (where I’m thinking about visiting on our trip to Cali next month). The top screen shot is from TripAdvisor. Not bad, but a bit cluttered. The bottom screenshot is from Raveable. Clear and easy to read. I think I just found my new favourite hotel review website.
There’s a great article over on Budget Travel’s website, covering 24 great travel apps for your smartphone. I’ve been using TripIt and Yelp for a while now – they’re both great. I was happy to learn about a few more apps though, including GateGuru, which is like an insider’s guide to airports. I think that will come in handy when we’re roaming LAX in September. The Undercover Tourist sounds like a must for anyone visiting Disney World. And the toilet finder SitOrSquat is a genius idea.
[Illustration by Nicole Wilkinson taken from the Budget Travel article]
