Colourful Festivities

Photos _ Caroll Taveras

Yes Spring has sprung but on the Gold Coast there are only small patches of colour scattered along our coastline. However, on the other end of the scale, Colombia is currently thanking flowers for being one of their biggest exporting commodities, accounting for 70% of all cut flowers sold in the USA. Every year the community praises the weather and environment that allows them to grow so many flowers by holding a flower parade in Medillin (second biggest city in Colombia). The parade which was established in 1957 was also designed to attract tourism back to the city after a number of years of drug cartel violence and domination, which scared off punters. The annual festivities consist of flower sellers showing off elaborate designs, traditional dressed festival contributors, farm visits, vintage car shows, food, dancing, month long activities and most of all tradition at it’s finest. 

Ze Frog & Toad

Ze Frog & Toad Episode 1 from Ze Frog And Toad on Vimeo.

We met Nick while working with Brothers Neilsen a few years ago. He is about to embark on an East Coast road trip exhibiting his arts and surfing along the way... Dont we all wish we were him right now...have fun Nick!

KANON VODKA

Most vodka brands are usually positioned in a similar fashion and its hard to distinguish a true innovator in the segment besides maybe Absolut, who have gained strong market share on the back of frequent and clever marketing & advertising strategies. Yet now a brand has come along which has one strong value proposition for its target market, drinking our vodka is cooler then yours, and the people behind the brand have ensured this is ideal is reinforced when they recently launched the Kanon brand of vodka in the US and in Sweden. Kanon was launched with a massive mid-summer pool party in the Hamptons with alot of people in the know attending. The Kanon website has also featured blog articles and features by people including Yvan Rodic/Facehunter, Connie Wang/Refinery 29, Jessica Hart and many more to get the buzz rolling. It’d be great if Kanon was here for the Gold Coast summer which is getting ever closer. ayyyeewwwww!

Full Moon No More

There will be no need to wait for a full moon to go for a night surf anymore. The Night Stalker is the brain child of Bill Stewart from Stewart’s Surfboards. The new concept is specifically designed for night surfing and features LED lighting in the crafts tail fins and spotlights on the nose.

The Night Stalker is having it’s worldwide debut tonight at the San Clemente Pier in California. Then the board will be promoted at various trade shows and then auctioned off with the 2010 SIMA Humanitarian Fund. Since the invention of the thruster, nothing has really taken the surf market by storm, some have gained momentum like the fish and the stand up paddle board, but with proper marketing and branding strategy, this product could take off as a solution for surfers who are time poor or trying to dodge the daily crowds.  

Welcome to Flipboard

Words of Wisdom

 I came across a blog post that I felt would be great to share. Unfortunately there was no tweet this or share button so I couldnt just forward it on so I hope he doesnt mind me quoting him here.

It from Simon Reynolds and his fantastic SIICOACH blog which I would highly recommend.

The Power Of Slow
By Siimon - 26. May 2010 11:20

Every day we are hit with articles about people who have built huge businesses almost instantly.
Facebook. Red Bull. Amazon. Google. The entrepreneur is the new rock star.
The examples seem so plentiful they give the impression that these rags to riches scenarios are the norm.
The stats, however, show they are anything but.
Almost every great business started slowly.
Walmart had only 2 stores for its first 7 years. Now it's the third biggest company in the world.
Marriott has thousands of hotels worldwide. But it started with just one root beer stand.
Merck is valued at over $50 billion. But it struggled initially with just a single small pharmacy.
Starbucks has over 16,000 stores, but for the first 13 years it only had 5.
Nike took years before it exceeded $1m in revenue.
So please remember this as you try to build something great.
If you're doing it slow and tough, you just may be doing it right.
Keep persisting. Keep refining. Keep visioning. But most of all keep moving forward.
For almost everyone, the road to greatness is long.
Despite what the media may say.  

Random Round Up

A random bunch of captivating signage ads from around the world compiled by Dave who is one of our talented programmers. Some are old and some are recent. The ads featured are for Wella hair products, Something Special Whisky, The Biggest Loser and The Peter Macallum Cancer Centre. 

The Power of Colour

Bold and striking. Why?

Colour!

The coordinated red and white colours featured in this image simply scream at you. It's undeniable that colours play a large role in shaping the brands around us. Colours are well known as signifiers for many of the worlds most reputable brands, for example;

What brands come to mind when I say 'red'?....

Perhaps:

  • Coke
  • Marlboro
  • Triple J
  • Red Bull

Not only can colour signify or spark brand associations, but they can also be representative of industries, for example;

What industries come to mind when I say?... 

  • BLUE - Finance
  • GREEN - New Technology & Environment
  • PINK - Children's & Cosmetics
  • BROWN - Food & Beverage

The simple use of colour can make or break a brand and it can significantly impact upon the consumer and their perception of your brand offering. At Tusk we look at branding on all levels and colour use plays a large role in our branding process. To find out more about how we can improve, review or execute strong branding for your business, contact Sam Martin to arrange a meeting today. 

If you would like to check out some more interesting photography, head to JAK & JIL!

The Future Laboratory

Browsing through the cleans lines and simple layout of The Future Laboratory’s website, it would be easy to fool them for a small company of some sort. However, this couldn’t be further from the truth. The Future Laboratory is a large scale, global, multi-faceted organization who specialize in trend forecasting, consumer insight and brand strategy. The companies primary focus is in creating successful future outcomes for businesses using tools such as: quant analyses, PR reports, insight reports, consumer typologies, brand strategy, insight programs and presentations. The future Laboratory's clients include Vogue, American Express, Woolworths, Nokia, Gap, Olay, kodak and many more. Their biannual magazine ‘Viewpoint’ is also definitely worth having a look at.

Amatoya - The Future of Fire Fighting



Amatoya is a concept vehicle design which was created to revolutionise the way in which fire-fighting is conducted. Amatoya is the brain child of Liam Ferguson, who has witnessed the devastation of bush fires firsthand in Victoria. He recognised the need for a more agile and flexible reconnaissance and suppression vehicle for fire fighting purposes. Presently, four wheel drives such as Toyota Landcruisers are bring utilised, which can only carry a limited amount of water and will not withstand a burnover. Fergusons vehicle concept has addressed these issues by employing the most innovative of materials and construction styles including a 1800 litre water supply, 400 litre auxiliary tank for in cabin cooling, lear aerogel insulation in the windows and bodywork, military-grade fire-resistant paint and army-issue run-flat tyres to ensure maximum efficiency and vehicle survivability. Amatoya is perfectly suited for fire disasters, the concept is a blend of design, functional, practical, and construction excellence. 

Street Art Culture



I was looking through Yvan Rodic's personal blog of Facehunter fame when I came across these examples of street art which are really cool. Artistic street art of this kind adds a positive culture to cities and if compnies were given the opportunity to advertise their products and services in this creative manner, it would more then likely lead to increased sales and brand equity. 

Rolling Stones Creative Brief

I found this the other day and just loved it especially when Mick writes "..and please write back saying how much money you would like."

 

 

Piano Stairs

Google Honours Barcodes 60th Birthday!

Happy 60th Birthday Barcode!

Colourpicker Pen

I love this pen concept...so cool! It lets you scan any color from the real world and automatically detect the color. Using RGB ink cartridges in the pen, you can immediately draw with the selected color.

 

Wallstickers by Hu2

This is some of my favourite. Check out the others at Hu2

Did you Know?

A Pilot's Life

My best mate got a job in Perth flying Government lackeys around. He took this shot on the way to Broome from Karratha about 50nm out to see. It's cool how the slow shutter speed has caught so many propellers although it's not cool how crap the iPhone picture quality is. Boo!

 

Bing Homepage Photography



The homepage of bing.com features a new background image everyday - you can use the arrow buttons in the lower right corner to view images of the last 7 days or check this archive that includes every single image that has been showcased on Bing since its launch on June 1.

Now there is an opportunity to get one of your images featured on the official Bing homepage for a 24 hour period. How? Upload a photograph to this Facebook page - make sure you check out the guidelines first. The winning photo will be selected on August 3rd by a combination of user ratings on Facebook and evaluation by the Bing homepage editorial team. So upload now and you never know....GOOD LUCK!

WikiPedia Printed

The English edition of Wikipedia Encyclopedia contains around 3 million articles as of now and if someone were to print the entire Wikipedia encyclopedia into a book, the size of that book would roughly be equivalent to 952 volumes of the Encyclopedia Britannica. Not sure if anyone is willing to go that far but a student in the UK has actually converted 0.01% of the Wikipedia encyclopedia into a printed book.This Wikipedia book has some 5,000 pages and it’s a compilation of 400+ featured articles all picked from Wikipedia. The book is huge - about 1ft 7in. The guy who came up with this idea (Rob Matthews) apparently plans to sell this book!

Xbox Project Natal

Did anyone ever think that Microsoft wouldnt come out and blow all the others out of the water. Steven Spielberg is quoted on the Xbox site as saying "This is a pivotal moment that will carry with it a wave of change, the ripples of which will reach far beyond video games". Take a look at the video below and Im sure you will be as impressed as I was. I cant wait to try it!

Oh Joy!

 

 

A friend of mine directed me to this blog years ago, and it's still one I regularly visit. In Joy's own words its about "inspiration, design, style and other cool things". Definitely worth taking a look at. www.ohjoy.blogs.com

Tusk Cloud

Wordle is a toy for generating “word clouds” from text that you provide. I placed the Tusk website URL into the program and this is what was produced.Its Cool!

Painted With an iPhone

Some people send text with their iPhones, and some play games. The artist Jorge Colombo created this week’s cover for The New Yorker with his.

Mr. Colombo drew the June 1 cover scene, of a late-night gathering around a 42nd Street hot dog stand, entirely with the iPhone application Brushes. Because of the smears and washes of color required by the inexact medium, it comes off as dreamy, not sharp and technological.

How amazing...check out the full article here

I also came across a flickr gallery of images created using the Brushes application. Some of the paintings are incredible...I have downloaded the application so if I can work it out Ill post some of Tusk's creations using it!

 

Magic Helvetica Pen

Could it really be??

Credit Crisis Explanation

Pantone Cappuccino

The Museum of Modern Art has introduced a range of pantone espresso cups. Perhaps targeted directly toward design enthusiasts, the mugs feature colours from the pantone colour chart. Mugs can be purchased for around $60, if your into that kind of thing, follow the link to purchase.

Things to do with business cards when you're bored

Here's some really cool things to do with business cards when have some down time. I especially like the speakers. http://boards.core77.com/viewtopic.php?t=18392



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