Bin it.

Last year I attended an inter-agency conference on CSR and sustainability. Andy Hobsbawm, one of the founders of Do the Green Thing and European Chairman of Agency.com, gave a presentation on the origins and thinking behind Do the Green Thing. He postulated that great creativity is needed to motivate people to behave differently, "to tempt us to act differently with delightful creative scraps", and that creativity can inspire people to be greener. I remember being intrigued by his approach to influencing behavior and his application of lessons from adland to a greater cause (I also remember enjoying his simple, elegant, clean and highly visual presentation).

See Andy speaking at Ted here.

This memory was stirred recently when I came across Volkswagen's The Fun Theory site, and its experimental use of creativity to influence behavior (incidentally, one of The Fun Theory videos (number 3 below) racked up more than 1.3 million views last week).







It seems that the fun strategy is also being considered as motivating force for the hybrid market. At a three-day conference on the future of plug-in hybrids, one lingering question kept coming up: Who's going to buy these things? The answer, according to outsiders and industry leaders here: no one, if they're not fun to drive. Fun to play with. And fun to look at. More here.

Let the change begin.

Dripping with sticky sweetness

Is it just me or is Morgan Freeman inspiring loads of adverts? I feel like what may have once been emotive and moving has become the standard narration. There is only so long something good can last, be remixed and 'reinvented', before it simply becomes lazy and repetitive, completely losing its potency and power. Scripts that attempt to sell phones or paint have become a rallying cry, a call to arms and action, with a background soundtrack replete with clear piano notes. It's all just a bit too much. Where can we go from here? How long will this last?

I've come to really appreciate the witty and ridiculous...

Biblical Blocks

Bringing the bible to life with, er, Lego.






From the Brick Testament.

Iconic Language (tweet)

Simon Oxley, a British Illustrator and designer living in Japan, created the now iconic Twitter bird. He runs his own design and illustration studio, Idokungfoo (super name), produces illustrated imagery for iStockphoto and designed the iStockphoto logo. Some of Simon's elegant and sweet designs below (interesting interview found here).

We're all star dust (not Ziggy).

Explosion of Type Ia Supernovae From Multiple Ignition Points