Owner: Jack Yan: the Persuader Blog URL:http://jackyan.com/blog/ Join Date: Sun, 02 Dec 2007 08:09:08 -0600 Rating:0 Site Description: One of the web's pioneers discusses design, branding, marketing, business, leadership and the media. Site statistics:Click here
Why? may be a futile question in Ruslana Korshunova suicide 2008-07-01 00:04:00 [Cross-posted] As some of you may have expected, the media are analysing why Kazakh model Ruslana Korshunova committed suicide. Part of it is because the analysis keeps the story alive. Another part is because people are fascinated by this fashion world, and why shouldn’t a newspaper, normally covering dull stories, have an excuse to put the late Miss Korshunova’s face in its pages? (New York Read more:futile
Thank-yous to Cat and Karin 2008-06-28 08:14:00 My friend and colleague Cat Morley blogged that Maomao Publications will be publishing a book called Blogs: Mad about Design. Designers Who Blog, Cat’s blog, has made it into the book, to be published in Spanish and English, and it looks like she has very generously chosen yours truly as one of the featured banners. Thank
s, Cat! Meanwhile, I was interviewed by Dr Karin Sawetz of the
Its official: you cant get Botoxed any more 2008-06-27 01:55:00 [Cross-posted] Just as Google—the company that parodies its own logo—sent out notices to the media in 2006 on how to use its name, and suffered a small backlash from some quarters, Allergan is trying to protect its Botox trade mark by doing something similar. We received a letter from Allergan’s legal associate for the Asia–Pacific, Nicole Wilson, today, informing us that Boto
Obama more exciting than McCainwhy this matters 2008-07-18 18:45:00 This is no surprise given the promotions that Sen. Obama
has been getting in the media: ‘Obama elicits more excitement than McCain
’, according to USA Today. I want to be the voice of reason but 21 years in communications tell me that this is important. If your brand, personal or organizational, elicits excitement among its constituents, then you have a greater chance of mobilizing Read more:exciting
, matters
Newspaper tries to drag down Miss New Zealand using racist agenda—and fails 2008-07-12 06:17:00 It’s quite easy to work out the agenda
of the mainstream media when it comes to an article like this, trying to harm Samantha Powell’s chances at Miss Universe tomorrow night. • Personal aggrandizement of the journalist, or, if not the journalist, then the newspaper editors or management trying to look like they can set agenda. (The part about Val Lott hanging up the phone, I und Read more:Newspaper
, tries
, Zealand
And now, presenting the twenty-first century 2008-08-02 08:50:00 Remember Xanadu? It’s become somewhat of a cult hit even though in 1980 it was considered Olivia Newton-John’s mega-turkey. Stylistically, it sits uncomfortably between the 1970s and 1980s, as though there was a vacuum in between the decades. In one scene, Michael Beck insists to Gene Kelly that ‘It’s the ’80s’, but you know that it must have been shot in 1979 and people had not rebell Read more:twenty
Keira Knightley is a good model to follow 2008-08-02 05:27:00 [Cross-posted] KeiraKnightley
says that she feels inadequate alongside better qualified actors because she didn’t go to university, according to next month’s Tatler. This is despite Miss Knightley, as Forbes revealed, being the second most highly paid actress in Hollywood. But that feeling of needing a little more is a refreshing one among the highest-profile members of the acting professio Read more:model
, Keira Knightley
Saving Detroit’s Big Three: the Portfolio letter in full 2008-07-31 00:01:00 I didn’t want to preempt the publisher of Condé Nast Portfolio
by running the full version of my letter that appeared in the August 2008 issue when it was originally written in May. Now that that issue has arrived here—which means it’s been on sale in the US for three weeks or so—I can share the full text for anyone interested. I am grateful to the magazine for allowing me the Read more:Saving
, Detroit
, Three
Five embarrassing songs 2008-07-30 07:59:00 Normally I don’t do memes but since this has come from a real-life friend of mine, as opposed to someone I only know online, I am making an exception. So, Laura, here are my songs
. (And you know me, I break all rules, which I will kind of do here!)The rules 1. Link to the person who tagged you and post the rules on your blog. 2. Share five songs you are embarrassed
I didn’t spend years at the University of Denver to be called Ms 2008-07-28 04:50:00 [Cross-posted] While the New Zealand media did not say much about the visit of US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice at the time—too much time spent on the Barack Obama world tour, perhaps—the fashion industry can at least be happy with TV One’s prime-time report that she indulged in shopping for Kiwi clothing while here, with local designer Adrienne Winkelmann. It is trivial, a Read more:University
, Denver
Evolving Jack Yan & Associates’ home page 2008-07-27 09:08:00 I’ve always wanted our corporate home page
to reflect the fact that we made it to 21 years in business since the beginning of the year—finally, here are the before and after. Before: I can’t remember when we did this but I dare say it was 2002. People didn’t want to scroll much then, so we made the page wide. All three businesses had to appear equal, so no one could Read more:Associates
Political profile, as measured by Google 2008-07-26 23:56:00 If Google
mentions are an indicator of how much impact you are having on the global dialogue, then here are how the various political leaders or candidates are doing (names entered in quotes). Notes: in the US figures, the sitting president has been added for comparison. No adjustment has been made for namesakes, different spellings, etc. (giving Australian senator Bob Brown, th
You can blog on the Wales 2008-08-16 21:23:00 I know it’s fashionable to have a blog but what if you were a banking general manager with a printed newsletter to customers? From Westpac Banking Corp. New Zealand Ltd.: I spent so long looking for the comment link, but there isn’t one. Humour aside, this is either an example of etymological evolution, the mainstreaming of blogs, an old, old industry trying desperately Read more:Wales
How Red China could get in to our retail networks 2008-08-13 06:54:00 We’ve all seen how Red China
can say, ‘The Politburo would like a stadium here, please,’ and one will appear, thanks to underpaid labour. And over the last decade, the growth of Red China has been fuelled by willing corporations all over the world wanting to take advantage of its cheap labour. It makes perfect sense from a capitalist viewpoint. I have explored the dangers before
Extra JY Aristi settings: versus its rivals 2008-08-12 05:02:00 I did a bit more work on JY Aristi last night and today. Here are some test documents for it, now with a few revised characters. Firstly, Hamburgerfonts (or, in this case, Hamburgefontsiv) is a common test word in typeface design. It shows the cap height, x-height (the height of a lowercase x), ascender height (b, f, t) and descender height (g) plus some regularly occurring letters and Read more:Extra
, versus
, rivals
Experimenting with JY Aristi, a new typeface 2008-08-11 05:57:00 I started this typeface design months ago but after chatting to a colleague today, I decided to finish some of the outstanding bits. It’s not ready for release as there are still bits to be refined. The idea was to create an aldine text typeface to complement my earlier release, JY Ætna (based on the work of Francesco Griffo). Griffo designed Bembo in the &#
August 8, 2008: post no. 888 2008-08-08 21:46:00 It’s still the 8th of the 8th of the 8th somewhere on this planet, and this, coincidentally, is the 888th post on this blog. It wasn’t fixed up to be this way—it just happened. This blog has been an interesting experiment. Branched off from the old Beyond Branding Blog—the one which Google–Blogger won’t fix despite protests that the home page won’t load—I wa Read more:August
Is Google not allowed to spider LinkedIn? 2008-08-07 07:46:00 I never heard a response from LinkedIn
over its alleged treatment of my friend Vincent Wright, but I was interested in the change to its terms and conditions effective July 31. Folks may be interested that the following are not permitted: • deep-link to the Site for any purpose, (i.e. including a link to a LinkedIn web page other than LinkedIn’s home page) unless expres Read more:Google
New Facebook is buggy 2008-08-07 07:36:00 [Cross-posted] When I was younger, software developers did this thing called testing, which doesn’t seem to happen these days. It was such a radical idea. They would test the product and when we used it, it would work! How cool! Nowadays, everything is so full of bugs and you need a computing degree to understand the manual. I was reminded of this today with t Read more:Facebook
Ew, it’s all set in Arial 2008-09-09 07:12:00 Something downloaded or installed Arial
on my computer today. Arial is one of those typeface families I never use. I think I used it once in 1992. That was the last time. I have never liked the look of it, although I am glad that Monotype resorted to creating an original design (or, rather, adapt a design it owned) when commissioned to creating a Helvetica substitute for Microsoft. Design-wise, it
Facebook ignores the PR playbook 2008-09-08 05:27:00 The new Facebook
design is getting a lot of negative feedback. Three groups dedicated to protesting the new look have grown hugely in the last few days, reaching 500,000 to 700,000 members each. The largest, Petition Against the New Facebook, was increasing its numbers by 7,000 per week at one point; it has grown by hundreds of thousands in the same period, to 671,000 at the time of writing.
Testing Google Chrome 2008-09-06 01:17:00 After hearing about GoogleChrome
on PBS today, I decided to give it a go. Ever since Netscape messed up Navigator 4·7’s successor, I had been looking for an alternative. I switched to IE5 around that time, and haven’t really switched back from the Microsoft engines. Maxthon—the browser developed by freedom-loving Chinese on the mainland—has been my browser of choice, because it loads the Read more:Testing
Second Journal of the Medinge Group released 2008-08-30 21:20:00 I have been working on The Journal
of the Medinge Group
this weekend, including doing a few nip–tucks to the press release that Stanley Moss originally authored. Here it is, and the latest Journal articles—which are very, very good this year—can be found at medinge.org/journal. They are all compelling but I enjoyed Nicholas Ind’s one on market orientation, since a lot of my own Read more:Second
They didn’t stand behind him even when he had a beard 2008-08-25 01:23:00 Poor Maurice Williamson. He’s getting attacked because of his idea announced on Agenda about charging tolls for roads that will be part-funded by private enterprise. There’s a furore in the media, nudged along by the government’s spin-doctors, about Williamson’s claim that users could fork out $50 a week for use of these roads. Unlike the secret recording of National’s deputy Read more:behind
, beard
Lucire ‘Insider’ blog back in action, with Bond girl Caterina Murino 2008-08-24 07:27:00 The PHP glitch that prevented the Lucire ‘Insider
’ blog from showing for four days last week has now been fixed. It turns out there was an extra slash added into the code, which the Rackspace support tech spotted. There’s been a bit of a flood from the backlog, including a brand-new article, featuring video, on Bond girl Caterina Murino (Casino Royale) jokingly talking about a s
Computer glitches: sorry one of our blogs is down 2008-08-23 23:08:00 My apologies to anyone trying to get on to the Lucire Insider blog since the 20th. We made some modifications to the PHP in preparation for launching Lucire’s mobile edition and, like all things technical, they did not work. We had experts do it. Maybe this is a self-fulfilling prophecy since I do not like nor use cellphones (exceptions apply when I am out of town and am Read more:Computer
, sorry
Official Red Chinese newspaper reported He Kexin is 14 2008-08-23 18:02:00 You’ve all heard the controversy over whether Red Chinese
gymnast He Kexin is 14 or 16. A hacker has found documents in the Baidu (the Red Chinese search engine) cache that indicate she is 14. Some commenters have attacked the hacker, pointing out some potential errors in the search. A few point out that it’s really strange that official documents relating to He Kexin are disappearing fr Read more:reported
Alliance logo gets Annie’s nod 2008-09-25 07:51:00 I was encouraged today to read of designer Annie
Dow’s viewpoints (courtesy of Victor Billot standing for Dunedin North) about New Zealand political party logos, putting the Alliance
and the Māori parties’ ones top of her list. As the creator of the former, I say a thank-you to my colleague. She believes the Alliance logo is ‘modern’. The Labour–National ones
Glasshouse Partnership’s Window Cleaning 2008-09-25 07:41:00 My friend Tim Kitchin (left) has an excellent video series, WindowCleaning
, on his company’s website. Tim leads the first video on social communication (a very fitting introduction), while Johnnie Moore follows up with an interview about the benefits of social media and their raison d’être and their limitations. Nicholas Ind, author of Living the Brand, has a video intervie
Caught in the middle: what an opportunity 2008-09-25 06:15:00 Some days, you get so caught up in life that you don’t get time for introspection. Other days, you discover or are reminded of something about yourself. Today’s situation was the latter. I joined the bus drivers today who were locked out of work here in Wellington. They decided to stage a peaceful protest, holding up signs criticizing Infratil management and stressing how they were Read more:Caught
, middle
Recommend Site To A Friend
