The Percolator Blog :: Elliott Smith

You are triple forgiven

elliott — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 19:27:07 +0000

When a mistake is made, like say making a product suddenly unavailable and consequently infuriating your customers, most companies issue a dull and insincere apology that was written by lawyers who know culpability means liability. Not so OB Tampons. They created an entire genius video apology, which is not only brilliantly written, but brilliantly executed, right down to de rigeur tampon ad white pants on the singer. All is forgiven.

http://obtampons.ca/apology

SapientNitro Movember Video

elliott — Wed, 23 Nov 2011 16:29:58 +0000

Ugh, this moustache thing is killing me. But here’s a fun video we made for a bit of internal inspiration at SapientNitro.

Toronto Time

elliott — Mon, 24 Oct 2011 14:59:08 +0000

I’m a sucker for good time-lapse photography, and this is a wonderful example of how it can bring a subject to life. In this case, that subject is the city of Toronto, which has been accused of lacking some life — or maybe that some of the folks who live there need to get one. Anyway, my point is, it’s nice stuff.

Toronto Tempo from Ryan Emond on Vimeo.

Hipster Ipsum

elliott — Mon, 26 Sep 2011 12:24:11 +0000

Designers are all well acquainted with Lorem Ipsum, which is a bunch of nonsensical Latin text used to indicated copy placement on a layout until the real (albeit often also nonsensical) marketing copy is flowed in.

Here’s a nice variation of it, called Hipster Ipsum. This site will generate as many paragraphs as you like of random hipster (ie irritatingly trendy) words and catchphrases — either all hipster (“neat”) or for those who want to see if they can sneak it into a client presentation, which a “dash of Latin”.

I’m sure if it’s locally sourced, but it’s certainly sustainable and almost fixed geared too.

Really? This Still Happens?

elliott — Fri, 02 Sep 2011 18:36:52 +0000

I’ve been a subscriber to Dwell magazine for years. Its super cool modern homes overlooking lakes or shining like beacons of style in shabby urban settings makes for an inspiring read. Not to mention that no one in these homes seems to have a single item they don’t need or want. Like say, a garbage can. Or curtains.

But I digress. The point is, I recently got an email from them offering to renew my subscription for $39.95 a year. However, in the most recent magazine there was a card offering new subscriptions for $19.95.

Seriously, who — aside from phone and cable companies – does this? The phone and cable companies can treat us like idiots because we have so little choice. But there’s no excuse for this. No more excuse than putting doilies on an Eames chair.

We are all made of words

elliott — Wed, 31 Aug 2011 19:00:29 +0000

Here’s one of those cool things, not unlike the milkshake initiative, that is fun to do but makes me wonder what Bell’s end goal is. Brand engagement? Awareness? Social currency? An easy opportunity to serve up a few marketing messages while I wait for it to load?

In any case, it’s good fun to see my Facebook profile photo reconstructed using words found in my various social media interactions. Very nice, and smartly executed by Teehan + Lax.

That said, I have NO recollection of ever using the words “guy burger”. No really.

It is to LOL

elliott — Wed, 24 Aug 2011 18:33:26 +0000

Amazing implementation of face recognition and crazy internet videos. Also serves as a reminder of how smart people are (face recognition from your webcam) and how stupid (videos). Will it sell milkshake drinks? Does it really matter?

(Click image to try it out)

Truth, lies and… magic.

elliott — Tue, 23 Aug 2011 20:34:02 +0000

If you tell me this isn’t the best 5 minutes you spent today, I won’t believe you!

Book my trip now

elliott — Fri, 05 Aug 2011 14:34:38 +0000

What a gorgeous set of videos around the idea of travel. At first I thought it was promoting a show, but no, it’s just storytelling with imagery. Which makes it that much better.

MOVE from Rick Mereki on Vimeo.

A Typeface type

elliott — Fri, 25 Feb 2011 16:26:05 +0000

I love typography, and like guitar, wish I was better at it than I am. I like this piece about typographer Erik Spiekermann, which in the end is more about creative process than type really.

Erik Spiekermann – Putting Back the Face into Typeface from Gestalten on Vimeo.