OK, designers. Next time you ponder that great visual identity, forget the “visual mark looks good on a fax machine, too” requirement. If Flogos, an Alabama-based special effects company gets their way we’ll all be putting our logo comps through the “looks great chopped out of helium soap bubbles and floating through the sky” test.

They claim to be ready to custom “float” your logo in size increments (diameter?) of 24, 36, and 48 inches. They already have contracts in place with Disney and Universal Studios and pro sports teams are raising eyebrows. In addition to assumed stress relieving benefits of this device to a skeet-shooting logo critic such as myself, the inventors also say they can vary the height of these “cloud advertisements” and the soap/helium mixtures are safe for the environment and airplanes.

There does, however seem to be a number of Flogos skeptics out there with cynical chatter appearing on LiveScience and Brand New over the conquest of pristine “blue sky” space for the purposes of marketing. While I see their point, daytime sky marketing isn’t a new medium (and we don’t even need to discuss “night time signage” using roaming search lights, fireworks, and other darkness shattering media). Airplane banners, sky writing, tethered helium markers and hot air balloons have been around for decades — and arguably do their work in a more visually obtrusive fashion than a few dainty bubbles. Colorado based GoFast, a sports energy drink has even sought to conquest the skys by sponsoring a jet pack team (didn’t know there was such a thing, but it looks like they’re having a “pilot search” if you feel like getting in line as a guinea pig ala flambe’. Boss, consider this my formal request for time off — yee haw!).

So whether you’re a Flogos cynic or a Flogos seeker watching for the first appearance of this thing in your neighborhood (I predict a used car lot), you have to admit there’s something captivating about a free floating logo drifting skyward, with only the wind to guide it. Just try and tell me you’ve never stood there in that crowd — stiff necked and squinting up at that tiny disappearing spec that used to be some kid’s helium balloon while everyone takes turns whispering, “I can still see it!” and “Where’d it go?”. So with that type of captivation, maybe this company has stumbled upon the advertising specialties industry’s lightning in a bottle — or in a bubble? But let’s not even bother asking if there’s a money back guarantee for those unexpected wind gusts.

What can I say about this? Sketching your own furniture into reality seems cool, but I’m looking forward to a day when I can rapid prototype my own full-scale house.

I was so excited to read about the upcoming full-length independent film, Helvetica, that I almost forgot to be depressed at what a geek that makes me.

Take one of these items backpacking. Impress your friends at the campfire.

Wendy MacNaughton recalls her design adventure in a national civic sensitization campaign for the first democratic local elections in Rwanda in late 2000. Sure, mixing your own spray mount from flower and water is tough — a MacGyverism to be admired. But what must it be like to be handed the task of conceptualizing a visual vernacular in a developing nation that has endured unimaginable hardship — as well as ethnic and political tension? This requires a return to an axiom of all good visual communication: “In order to create effective, relevant work, visual communicators need to learn to work cooperatively with members of the communities they are communicating to.”

Wendy’s closing remarks leave some ambiguity as to whether or not her efforts performed as intended. Nevertheless, this is a fascinating case study of an important, gutsy project.

And, let’s just ignore that little blurb about the Mac being “useless”.