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.

Just a couple weeks after the FAA announced that passengers would no longer be able to carry on a spare Lithium-Ion laptop battery due to fire and explosion hazards, a company called ZPower Inc. is making a big splash at the upcoming Consumer Electronic Show in Las Vegas. ZPower is the innovator of a high-performance, environmentally friendly, and fire-proof Silver-Zinc battery technology.

This is “something cool” to share on our blog, and it’s doubly cool for Elexicon because we designed their corporate identity, web site and marketing communications for Camarillo, California-based ZPower, working with Harnett Marketing in Kettering, Ohio.

Check out www.zpowerbattery.com … you’ll see one of our latest projects and learn about what’s on the horizon for laptop and handheld “power users.”

There’s a fun new viral web site for a fictional corporation called Buy N Large at www.buynlarge.com. It’s a fairly well-veiled promotion for next summer’s Pixar motion picture release “Wall-E.” The site makes no references to the movie except that the company’s “Robotics” line of products looks suspiciously like a jazzy cast of Pixar-animated characters. You almost “buy” the site as legitimate until you read a little deeper that Buy N Large robots are designed “to perform the tasks we as humans were never really meant to do — lawn mowing. vacuuming, food preparation, surgery, and political decision making.”

I wonder if Disney/Pixar hired actual branding and web design companies to develop the site or if it was created by Pixar writers and artists. Neither would surprise me, but either way this is a dream project: Create — from the ground up — a brand and web site for a “robotics, construction, retail, consumer goods, space, science, and media company.”

Providing web-based mapping applications like Google maps has had various–mostly-positive–unintended consequences. The level of detail is such that some cities even have street level images available.

Some people feel their privacy has been violated by the prying cameras, which have caught many people in awkward situations to say the least.

However, others are using the tool to explore the earth. One person found an ancient Roman villa. Others are now combing the globe looking for evidence of man’s imprint on the landscape.

I was recently poking around Google maps and found a plane in flight which I thought was entertaining so I am posting a picture of it here before Google updates their data.

If you find anything interesting, there are sites cropping up where you can post your link or browse what others have found. One site that seems to be on the right track is MapOfStrange.com, which offers image tagging and location pins.

This is a fascinating illusion that was new to me. Amazingly, the squares labeled A and B are both the same shade of gray. Click the image to learn more.

Here are some other related fun links:

• Archimedes Laboratory
• More Demos

With the iPhone coming soon and Steve Jobs’ WWDC keynote hot off the QuickTime player, I’m reminded of a great e-mail a good friend and client of ours sent us a few months ago about her experience at MacWorld Expo in San Francisco (I should have posted this back then … but it’s still fun):

Today I woke as I usually do, with expectations about who I am and what I will do today to make a difference. Personally and professionally.

One of my goals, visit MacWorld. Get inspired. See the new iPhone. Look at all the cool Apple do-dads that will make my future life more enjoyable, more productive. Check out the booths. Look for new and cool ways to improve my employers exhibit at a future show. I had high hopes that all of my dreams would be realized for this day.

Little did I know what was to befall my sense of peace, order and self realization.

I decided that I would wear what I usually wear to a tradeshow. Over twenty years in high tech marketing has defined my sense of style and professional appearance. Dressing for success is part of my genetics. So I grabbed my Jones of New York duds and my most comfortable, yet smart, pair of shoes. I felt confident that if I ran into anyone important, I would be “looking good.”

Up the peninsula I drove, a beautiful sunny California day. Things were just perfect. I looked good, felt good and the scenery was good. LIFE is good.

Moscone Center now across the street I even found what was probably the closest parking space imaginable. Things were going my way. I would arrive without a hair out of place.

In no time I was picking up my badge, imagine no line at registration, how could I be so lucky? I descended into the exhibit area. I was here in record time. If Steve were near I would have kissed him (on the cheek).

Right inside the door, the Apple booth and the…MUSIC UP…CLOSEUP…there it was, behind a tall cylindrical display the iPhone! A quiet crowd of worshippers were standing around the cylinder, cell phones raised like lighters at a concert. I pulled out my Canon digital camera…noticing I’m the only one using a camera. This began my fall.

Within minutes I noticed something very peculiar. I found the voice in my head was speaking, “where are my people.”

Everyone was wearing denim. Few of these people have even visited a professional salon or carried personal grooming devices. I began to feel like a spy…from IBM maybe or the government. I wasn’t supposed to be there, I was out of place. No one looks like me here. I felt old and uncool. And then it hit me…

I’m a PC!

I didn’t choose to be a PC. But after 20 years of being forced to think, act and work PC – I am a PC! Where’s the door…

I got out of there faster than I got in.

- Cynthia

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.

Ah, let’s not worry about that question right now. Heck, it’s the end of the year, and you know what that means! Time to roll out Brion’s top ten iTunes downloads released in 2006 (except there are 12).

FROM NEW FRIENDS… “Get Away” by 120 Days; “1 Thing” by Amerie (killer drums — steering wheels beware); “Wicked Gil” by Band of Horses; “Just One Breath” by Devics; “All Sparks” by Editors; “Dividing Island” by Lansing-Drieden (listen 3-4 times — let it come to you); “Young Bride” by Midlake; “Enemies Like This” by Radio 4; and “Catastrophe” by Rainer Maria.

… AND FROM OLD FAITHFULS: “Map of the Problematique” by Muse; “Wet Sand” by Red Hot Chili Peppers; and “The Eraser” by Thom Yorke.

For those of you who are curious enough to wonder if I’ve made an iMix, here’s the iMix (iTunes account required). Happy new year!

For all those of you who have a passion for both graphic design and team sports (I know for a fact my peers are many), you probably already know about the Uni Watch column on ESPN.com and its parent Uni Watch blog. If not, you must, frankly, be standing on the fringe of this demographic. So dive in!!!

Lukas calls his work the “Obsessive Study of Athletics Aesthetics,” with “obsessive” being a titanic understatement. For example, did you know the British Columbia Lions of the Canadian Football League introduced an all-new helmet design just for the post-season, featuring a Clemson Tigers-style “paw” logo? I know … isn’t it great!?!?!

This information really is great fun for design-oriented sports fans. Who among us creatives didn’t cut our identity-system-design teeth as youngsters drawing our favorite sports team logos? Or better yet, inventing teams and making up our own? The logos, the colors, the nicknames … good practice.

More often than not Lukas’ columns involve more than just the latest tweaks to stripes on sleeves and socks. In mid-October two consecutive columns featured downright fascinating (to me, at least) discourses on the real cause of Bill Buckner’s botched Mookie Wilson grounder for the then-cursed Boston Red Sox in the 1986 World Series (October 17) and a little, shall we Detroit Tigers fans say, “theory” about Kenny Rogers’ equipment choices during the 2006 baseball season and postseason (October 23). (This column goes on to provide an intriguing and cool study of the greatest monogram-style logo in the history of professional sports: The “Old English D.”)

Yet another example of the power of the web to inform, engage, and entertain. Uni Watch is one of my short little slices of The Long Tail. What’s yours?

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