I have recently come across a story that really blew me away: “Taiwan has broken 2 world records: a whopping 49 marathons races were held in 2012 (42.195 kilometers in total). falling in 4th place only behind the United States, the United States, and Japan. Taiwan hold the highest density of runners in an area based on the ratio of population and land. Wow! That is really something. Many friends around me have participated in some kind of marathon race. Some even already signed up for the 2013 Tokyo Marathon and are undergoing intensive training as we speak! The

When we were young, we all had the experience of looking into a kaleidoscope with one eye-- Remember how it felt like to be fascinated by the different patterns that almost never repeated themselves? Indian designer Nishant Jethi integrates the idea of the kaleidoscope with garbage and prompts the world to take a closer look at the “dazzling fashion” of garbage pollution from a new perspective.     In India, littering in public streets is the norm. Everyone does it, no matter in rural or urban areas. When local charity organizations decided to bring this issue to serious attention,

What kind of image would a liquor merchandise want to give its consumers? Heineken puts down its competitors by visualizing its slogan: “Refreshes the parts other beers cannot reach”; while Hennessy plays on being the favorite among hip and elegant yuppies. My encounter with Johnnie Walker, though, goes back to almost a decade ago...   It was the time when Harvey Keitel was the face of Johnnie Walker, the whole world recognized it as the famous drink from the “Keep Walking” campaign. In Taiwan it’s the same story. From the “KEEP WALKING Fund” project to the inspirational Tommy Chen

    G-Voice Recommendation:    This is a film by Darren Aronofsky who directed the critically acclaimed Black Swan (2000). If you consider Trainspotting as a brilliant film on drugs, addiction and the critique on modernity, Requiem for a Dream would be ever more appealing to your taste. Although the film is full of images of using drugs, and considered banned for such reason, the atmosphere created in Dream is a sound warning rather than an appraisal of any kind.    One of the films technique is using rapid cuts to parallel the emotion drug addicts are going through.

Legendary Performances: The White Lie   Why is it that those who appear in commercials are always compelled to exaggerate their reactions? Why do food products always look much more tastier on television? ? ? Is this a dishonesty scam, or just an artistic portrayal that allows imagination? We must start from the story of production assistants. . . . . .    When I was working as an film producer’s assistant, the director had looked at me with hope and excitement and exclaimed: “Bruce, that chicken patty needs to burst with juice and flavor the moment it is

  When was the last time you came across an online ad?  Yesterday? Last week? Last month? Or maybe never?    It is an proved fact that consumers are even less convinced by the advertisements they see. According to the following research: Only 14% view commercials as trustworthy, yet 78% take in a friend’s or any online reviewer’s opinion as a reliable source. Consumers are now smart enough to look past the fancy packaging of a product, hence the birth of “embedded marketing” and other promoting strategies as such. On the web, a new form of media is also

  Christmas is coming, and everyone is wondering what special gifts are in store for them! Christmas presents can be ever more special if you can create one yourself! The user-experience center hosted an “X’mas Design Thinking” event in December 2011 that allowed its participants to design a Christmas-themed APP on their on accord. The following demonstrates how we play with the concept of “Design Thinking”.      1. Let’s role play! The Designer & The Recipient Role playing is a good way to create interaction and detect problems in an efficient manner. 2 two are paired together with

These few days (May 5) there have been a advertisement being widely shared on Facebook. The content is a picture of a whole family. The dad looks handsome and the mom pretty, however, the kids didn’t seem to get the ‘good’ genes and look quite ‘plain’. These three kids look like they’re ‘produced’ from the same ‘models’ and the same ‘factory’  and you wonder how on earth happened? Then you saw the tagline reads “The only thing you need to worry about is how to explain to your kids”, you had a sudden realization.  This is an advertisement from

Mother’s day is around the corner, as the official partner of 2012 London Olympics, P&G (Procter & Gamble) released a commercial about mothers. The commercial begins with mothers’ gently wake up their children in bed in early morning, prepare breakfasts, send their kids off to school and accompany them through every stage of learning. These children eventually become the rising athlete stars in the Olympic Games. The commercial tells the public that these athletes have great mothers to support them and their successes are the pride of their mothers. Lastly, P&G comes up with the line, “The hardest job

  Here is a brand that stands for the everyman, generated from the notion of being “cooperative”. The chain store The People’s Supermarket (TPS) in the UK opened in 2012 with the slogan, “For the people, by the people”. Their aim is to provide the local community with good quality food that comes from local producers sold “back” at a fair price to local residents. Sticking to the principle of “For the people, by the people”, TPS also allows the entire staff to participate in the management of the supermarket as a collective community. Members that contribute 4 hours

In the fierce competition in the capital market nowadays, business owners could only wish their shops are filled with customers and their products pre-sold way before official launch. Shrewd sales personnel wish they could see through customers’ minds and know what they are thinking so they could earn handsome amount of commission fees. In this day and age, everyone wants to know what the customers think, what they want and how to get them to pay. In this article, I’ll introduce a research method that could have an insight into consumers’ real demands—context inquiry.   Context inquiry is a

▲Lego master, Nathan Sawaya pieced up many seemingly petty Lego bricks into artworks full of life force! In 2008, Lego, a brand originated from Denmark had gone through half a century but still standing tall. It is the common interest and memory of many children and adults alike. Why is its charm so pervasive that still influences people even after 50+ years? Such charismatic toy possesses the features of numerous combination and diversity so that people could use their imagination and creativity and create many precious pieces and stories! Creative Lego: Intricate to the Ts Lego’s slogan has changed

Summer is the peak season for game industry, Gamania will not be absent from the mobile game market. Presenting branding new mobile content, Gamania officially launched SubCat with enhanced visual quality. In addition, two new quests were added: East Sea Dragon Palace and Honey Strait. The new game targets cat-lovers, recreational players and iPad owners and seeks to attract spotlight with the hottest ‘screen-wipe’ method.   This time we did an unannounced interview with potential player, Grace from operator, to test the game effect of SubCat HD.   We installed SubCat HD to iPad and placed it on Grace’s

▲The map of U.S presented through inforgraphics: the features of each state was presented through different colors and illustrations, elevating the visual enjoyment.      What is Infographics？   Infographics is a compound word comprises of information and graphic. Basically it is a graphic, visual representation of specific information, message or knowledge. Examples of infographics range from maps, metro or bus maps, data graphs on the newspapers to various diagrams on Excel.    Originally infographics were used mostly on newspapers or magazins to illustrate the storyline or the plot of an incident. During 1970-90, the art editor of The

WOWOW is a private satellite broadcasting and pay TV station. Its channels provide movies, TV series and sports. They recently launched a commercial for promoting their online TV service. In the commercial, an eagle was resting on top of the tree. You could see from someone’s window that the TV was playing some intense drama. In the drama, a mother failed to grab the baby stroller and it dashed down the long stairs. The eagle, which was also watching the TV from the tree outside the window, soared and flew to the filming scene. The crew thought the eagle

ALSOK is a company that provides various security and insurance services. Since early last year, they hired the well known Japanese figure, Saori Yoshida, a female wrestler who won World Championship of Women’s Wrestling for 10 consecutive years (as well as winning two consecutive Olympic Gold Medals), ALSOK became a product that imprints in everyone’s mind, a household name. The commercial adopted the form of a song and signal that average consumers are familiar with. They looked for the perfect endorsement person with ‘security guarantee’ as product feature. The commercial was made into a music video to ‘brainwash’ the

Coffee has become a staple for many white collar workers. Whether you like to make it yourself, buy a fresh one in Starbucks or grab a canned one from the convenience store, everyone could easily get one to ease their caffeine addiction or as quick fix to refresh their minds.   It is precisely because drinking coffee has become a common demand in our daily lives that more and more brands throw themselves in the market for a piece of share. If you want to stand out in this fiercely competitive market, you need to have big idea to

Ernest Hemingway sitting alone at a café in Paris in 1920, he wrote this down on his notebook, “You belong to me, the whole Paris belongs to me, but I belong to the pencil I’m holding and the notebook.” That notebook Hemingway referred to was Moleskine. Moleskine (pronounced mol-a-skeen’-a) originally meant ‘mole’s skin’ in French was a legendary notebook in the 20th century, notable for being owned by European artists and intellectuals. Famous painter, Vincent Van Gogh had used 7 Moleskine notebooks to draw and sketch numerous drafts and is now collection of Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam. This