Smartphones bringing Print to Life with Augmented Reality

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20 Most Famous Fonts (And How to Get Them)

Now that we all live in a world where we’re surrounded at all times by marketing logos and people trying to sell us something, sooner or later you’ll start to recognize the fonts used in those logos and to get a feel for what you like and don’t like if you want to create a logo of your own.

It’s a good idea to create your logo before you create your webpage and to make sure it matches your business service or product in style, character and appearance. Part of your design process should be studying well-known logos to try to understand why they stand out and why the designers used the font they did.



It’s undeniable that the font called Helvetica, invented in Sweden in 1957, is the all time most-used font for brand recognition. Some of our best known products use Helvetica in their logo, including Microsoft, American Airlines, Staples, Jeep, Motorola, Dole, and Mattel – to name just a few.
There are hundreds – maybe even thousands – of fonts out there and each one often has several variations.




To save time, check out these additional 19 now-famous fonts; they worked for the company involved and they might work for you. Each font is linked to the site where you can download it for your own use.

1. Twitter: Pico Alphabet (Modified)
2. Digg: FFF Forward
3. Flickr: Fruitiger Black
4. YouTube: Alternate Gothic No.2
5. Facebook: Klavika (Modified)
6. Google: Catull BQ
7. Yahoo: Yahoo Font
8. Hulu: Futura MDd BT (Modified)
9. Mapquest: Cheap Motel
10. Linkedin: Myriad Pro Bold
11. Skype: Helvetica Rounded Bold
12. Myspace: Arial Rounded Bold
13. Wikipedia: Hoefler Text
14. Ebay: Univers (Modified)
15. MsnBC: Gothan Medium
16. IMDb: Impact T
17. Adobe: Myriad Condensed Bold
18. Paypal: Verdana Bold Italic
19. Netflix: Graphique Pro

If you find a logo that you like but don’t know the name of the font used, there is a handy online tool that might help. What The Font is a service provided by MyFonts.com, one of the biggest font suppliers on the Internet. Besides the catchy name, the tool is very helpful in identifying an unknown font used in a logo. Just upload an image of the font and you’ll get a list of possible font name matches that you can compare to known fonts online.There’s no guarantee that just because you choose to use a font from a famous logo yours is going to become instantly recognizable too. After all, a great service or product backs up each and every one of these well-known logos and they wouldn’t have endured if the business wasn’t what it promoted itself to be.


@ Blue Crayon we use crayon as our font, but I'm sure you might already have guessed that.


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The above post is written by Guest Authors on Orphicpixel Sonia Mansfield

Amazing Street Art: Joshua Allen Harris' Inflatable Bag Monsters

Call us boring and simple-minded, but before we saw the work of street artist Joshua Allen Harris we never once considered the artistic possibilities of subway exhaust. Using only tape and garbage bags, Harris creates giant inflatable animals that become animated when fastened to a sidewalk grate. Steven Psyllos caught up with Harris recently to discuss his older works (including a bear and a giraffe) and unveil a new beast that looks not unlike the Cloverfield monster. Video by Jonah Green

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Why Ads In Mobile Apps Have A Promising Future

They Outperform Browser-Based Ads Because They Have User Attention..

A few weeks ago, while waiting for my next flight at the Copenhagen airport, I started giggling insanely by myself as I was staring at an app on my iPhone. When I looked up from my screen, I noticed some curious faces staring back at me. "Facebook!" I explained and the friendly smiles in return assured me that I was among fellow peers.
Sound familiar?
As social media continues to infiltrate our daily lives, many more advertisers are beginning to understand the merits of advertising within these channels. Yet, the irony is that the majority of my updates from my Twitter stream and Facebook wall feed are through mobile devices, like my smart phone. The social media ads that we discuss that are both PC and browser based are not truly representative of today's audience. Advertisers are missing out on a greater opportunity to achieve better engagements with today's consumers.

It is estimated that 35% of our time spent online involves some sort of communication. Yet interestingly, right from day one when I had my very first 14.4 modem, I was installing 'apps' to connect with friends: from CompuServe, AOL and ICQ – to Live Messenger, Outlook and beyond. The majority of social interaction that I've had in the past 15 years has not been based in a web browser, but instead with an app on my desktop. Initially, it was through my PC followed by my laptop and now more with my mobile device. The methods may have changed, but the behaviour has not.
According to recent MediaMind research, desktop ads such as those in instant messenger apps far outperform browser-based ads across all metrics, from the number of people engaging to time spent interacting to the resulting CTR. All metrics are at least double in favor of app-based ads. This is especially true in rich media ads where size may matter in browser-based ads, but when it comes to desktop-based ads, it's all about location, location and location! Think about it! If a consumer is spending a greater amount of quality time within a certain environment, potentially with a more concentrated focus, it naturally shows in favor towards the ad engagement. A communicative environment can naturally lead to users wanting to share what they are looking at with their friends, i.e. 'tear-and-share'. If you are in doubt, look how many ads appear on your Facebook wall feed. Advertising is the new virtual graffiti! It's an exciting insight into how today's users value brand message targeting and shows their likelihood to respond to more to ads in apps across all devices.
There are now a plethora of new desktop-based apps offering integration for social media; such as Tweetdeck for Twitter, FaceTop for Facebook, or LinkedIn connector for Outlook. Even something like YouTube access is becoming split between a laptop browser and phone/pad app, and increasingly more so via TV or gaming consoles. Yet despite the entire buzz around Fan Pages and 'likes' in ads that are driving advertisers to take social media marketing seriously, there hasn't been a big discussion around consumer usage vs advertising to date. Nor has there been a shift in favor of mobile advertising across the same social media networks. It's hard to believe, considering that 50% of Facebook, 80% of Twitter and 100% of FourSquare is mobile based. It's probably safe to say that Social Media now equals mobile, and vice versa. The two are intrinsically woven together.

We are already seeing more mobile-based strategies created for social media apps that focus on highly targeted ads that correspond with a consumer's activity. Following the likes of FourSquare and ShopKick, Facebook launched Places and Deals to offer targeted ads against consumer loyalty, even offering coupons. AT&T has also jumped on board with their new ShopAlerts program to reward their customers by notifying anyone with special deals and offers if they happen to be near an AT&T store. It's an important two-way value proposition for both consumer and advertiser alike. The only kicker is that these are all a DR message and requires clicks, as opposed to an engaging brand interaction that we have benefitted from online or forthcoming NFC capabilities of next-generation mobiles.
Even media publications have begun offering beautiful interactive ads within iPad magazines, something where offline ads account for 60% of those pages and where we pay daily or monthly to obtain. The shift and demand for digital magazines shows a huge potential for targeted, timely and creative brand executions that are housed within apps. If current trends are any indication of browser vs limited app-based on a desktop, there may well be something very important not only for publishers, but also for the software industry and the mobile industry at large. That is app-based ads may well outshine their browser-based counterparts in both the amount of advertising that can be delivered, and the value to the end consumer, shown by the depth of engagement metrics.
Maybe in time we will see consumers opting for a full version of Adobe Photoshop or Microsoft Office for the home that is ad-funded with relevant targeted messages as opposed to the existing reduced feature approach. When we consider the possibilities of digital ads in apps vs browsers we may just witness an unparalleled explosion of new marketing techniques and measurements for advertisers and their agencies on a scale that may dwarf online to date. I guess only time will tell, but what an exciting proposition that lays before us all!

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Dean Donaldson is director of digital experience at Eyeblaster

 

Six Tips on How To Maximize Your Social Media Efforts.

Beyond the Buzz, Social Media Is a Business Decision..

Social media, in all of its forms, impacts our lives as consumers from the things we buy, to where we go, to what we like, and overall how we share this information with one another. Today, this influence is moving from the consumer realm into the workplace where almost 90 percent of B2B organizations are either maintaining or increasing their social media spending, according to HubSpot's 2010 "The State of Inbound Marketing." That's an indication that more and more businesses are making their social media efforts a priority. So what is the key to success in social media? The answer lies in how social media is implemented and strategically integrated into the business.
For organizations large and small, the choice to engage in social media is not a casual activity. Innovation and the ability to master social media technologies to be proactive are the keys to success in today's business landscape. A 2009 McKinsey survey found that 69 percent of surveyed companies gained measurable business benefits – including product innovation, more effective marketing spend, better access to knowledge, lower cost, and higher revenues - from social media initiatives. Furthermore, B2B companies that spend half or more of their marketing and communications budget on social media activities experience a 60 percent lower cost-per-lead than those that focus on traditional activities, according to HubSpot's report.
Social media is about creating a sense of intimacy, satisfaction, and loyalty among employees and customers. It's a tool linked to the growth, perception, and the overall health of a business, but takes a conscious effort and knowledge of key social media fundamentals for business leaders to implement most effectively. The choice to engage in social media is now a business decision and is being recognized as such by more and more business leaders. In fact, among the world's 100 largest companies, two-thirds are using Twitter, 54 percent have a Facebook page, 50 percent manage at least one corporate YouTube channel, and 33 percent have created company blogs. In addition, 79 percent of Fortune 100 companies are using at least one social media channel, with the highest use in European (88 percent) and U.S.-based (86 percent) companies, according to the 2010 Social Media Marketing Industry Report.
There are significant things we have learned at Dell from starting in the social media trenches and making real-time decisions through trial and error that are worth sharing with companies so that they can maximize social media efforts.

1. Start with your goal: it will define your strategy.

As you define a social media strategy, start with your business goals. Ask yourself, "What do I want to drive from these social media initiatives?" Is the goal to drive awareness? Consideration? Conversion? Innovation? ROI? Customer satisfaction? Brand perception? Cost savings? This initial line of thinking is essential to establishing the appropriate direction and scope of a campaign.

2. Identify and listen to existing conversations.

Listening is a crucial foundation for any relationship. Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, and other technologies allow anyone to make information and opinions publically available at any time. Therefore, the ability to monitor and respond to these conversations becomes paramount to affecting appropriate changes and tweaks needed by your business and helping your customers succeed in solving their business problems.
As it stands now, only 50 percent of B2B companies formally analyze metrics to judge ROI, but those that do find online communications strategies more effective than traditional marketing and communications, alone, according to AMR International's 2010 report on B2B marketing in the U.S. At Dell, we have a Social Media Ground Control Center – a global operational hub that monitors some 22,000 online mentions – both posts and tweets – about Dell every day. This information is based on topics, sentiment, share of voice, geography, and trends. The goal is to track and understand the largest possible number of conversations, good and bad, across the web. Using this information, we are able to quickly answer customer questions, address their concerns, build better products, and improve the overall customer experience.

3. Empower and encourage your internal organizations to participate.

Having a strong internal foundation is important to the stability of any structure. It is important to encourage internal organizations to participate in social media through training and policy implementation/changes. Empowerment is key! With the right organizational design, employees can feel empowered, leading to increased contribution to social media efforts. For example, through a robust training program, Dell has made an investment in turning Dell employees at every level into frontline social marketers who engage in Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, blogs, and more on the company's behalf.

4. Create and cultivate conversations and communities where your customers (and employees!) are.

When looking at where to start in social media, consider creating and cultivating conversations and communities where your customers and employees already are. Customers are already communicating about your products with each other and with online experts who aren't your employees. In fact, on the social web, 66 percent of the brand touchpoints are generated by customers, with 34 percent of bloggers posting opinions about products. You can encourage increased participation and content creation by setting up a ratings and review system on your site. In addition, brands can reward customers and influencers who provide valuable content through reputation management systems and badging. Lastly, through content sites like Twitter, LinkedIn, SlideShare, Facebook, YouTube, blogs, and bookmarking sites, you can amplify your content through linkbacks, tagging, and republications. When you identify the most influential amplifiers, remember to nurture and recognize them.

5. Measure your success and adjust your strategy.

The whole point of your social media efforts, of course, is to address pragmatically fundamental business goals. You need quantifiable insight into how online engagement with customers can improve the key value drivers of your business. You should look at the links between customer behavior in social media and revenue both off and online. Critical factors like revenue, costs, loyalty, product innovation, and brand reputation are also important to measure. Soft factors matter as well, such as customer feedback and comments on your social media interactions. As you analyze your metrics, it will become clear as to whether your social media campaign is effectively helping your business. If it is not, your strategy may require some adjustments, which is ok. Trial and error is part of the process.

6. Engage IT as an enabler of social media.

The CIO's role in facilitating a successful social media program starts with engaging IT. It is crucial to include the IT department as they are paramount in the success of enabling social media innovation. There is no point in IT enacting overly restrictive policies around devices, website access, and content, as it hinders growth rather than create an environment that supports and fuels innovative thinking. Try taking a pragmatic approach for supporting and securing your organization's flow of information.
Conversations on the social web affect every aspect of a business, offering new opportunities to gain invaluable insight into your customers' needs, perceptions, and wants. B2B companies that spend half or more of their marketing and communications budget on social media activities experience a 60 percent lower cost-per-lead than those that focus on traditional activities. However, the proper tools must be in place to maximize the impact that this flood of information can have on a business. The business impact of social media is real and tangible, and translates into a positive impact on a company's bottom line.


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Author Rishi Dave  |  April 12, 2011
from http://www.clickz.com/clickz/column/2042278/buzz-social-media-business-decision

 

The Effect of Social Networks and the Mobile Web on Website Traffic and the Inevitable Rise of Facebook Commerce

Has your business web site seen a down turn in unique visits and traffic? Do you think Facebook could be to blame?

Adgregate Markets and Webtrends have partnered to publish the industry's first statistically significant data on the recent growth in social commerce on Facebook.  

Download the pdf White Paper here

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
An interesting dilemma that companies have been facing of late is what level of promotion is necessary for their website vs. their Facebook page. Recent campaigns show evidence that a few companies have broken traditional norms in directing traffic directly to their fanpage, surpassing their websites.

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Blue Crayon In Support Of WaterAid

@Blue_Crayon Director Barrett Veldsman will be running the London 10k in a WaterAid Toilet Costume to raise money for @WaterAid please show your support by donating here:
http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/BarrettVeldsman

WaterAid is an international non governmental organisation focused exclusively on improving poor people’s access to safe water, improved hygiene and sanitation. WaterAid works in Africa, Asia and the Pacific region and campaigns
globally to realise a vision of a world where everyone has access to these basic human needs.



Please help me to work towards a world where everyone can have access to clean, safe water

Just £15 can give the life changing gift of clean water to one person.
See what else your donation could provide:

· £12 can buy two taps for a village waterpoint
· £15 can give the gift of water to one whole person
· £20 can buy 25 metres of pipe
· £46 can buy a family toilet
· £50 can buy a handpump
· £60 can buy a rainwater collection jar
· £100 can buy a soap making business for two people

So please, dig deep and help me change a life!

If you feel like joining me in my challenge for WaterAid, email
events@wateraid.org for more information.

Virgin Money Giving is a not for profit organisation and will claim gift aid on a charity's behalf where the donor is eligible for this.

I really appreciate all your support and thank you for any donations.

What Digital Adopters Want & How to Reach Them

What Digital Adopters Want, How to Reach Them, and Why Every Marketer Should Pay Attention

















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The Like Log Study: What can we learn from Facebook reactions to online news?

The Like Log Study from Yury Lifshits on Vimeo.


[Single Infographics]

The Rankings

New York Times is the leader of social engagement with 2.3M likes/month, 400 likes for a median story and 13 articles in top 40. Wall Street Journal story "Why Chinese Moms Are Superior" is the greatest hit with 340,000 likes.

The Numbers

There are around 10 likes per 1000 pageviews (across several websites with public PV numbers). Decay of engagement is extremely sharp, with less than 20% likes happening after the first 24 hours.

The Trends

Stories about Facebook, Apple, Verizon, Groupon, future and infographics are universally popular across technology blogs. Articles about Microsoft, Amazon, Samsung, cloud computing, TV and search see much less engagement.

Recommendations

1. Big effort for big stories
2. Improve promotion of your best content
3. Improve your median story
4. Invest in demand analytics
5. Invest in social media optimization

The Rankings

Facebook allows anyone to get the total number of likes for any URL. For this study we collected like counts for 45 popular news sites over the period of three months. You can sort our collection by any parameter.

Site	Total likes	Top story	Top 13 stories	Top 90 stories	Median story	# of 3+ liked stories
New York Times	6815796	105289	12%	36%	398	3955
BBC	4331367	140012	13%	38%	225	3867
NPR	2549613	119351	18%	48%	98	2576
The Guardian	1883161	78066	21%	47%	122	2408
Yahoo! Sports	1774183	40490	16%	47%	32	3325
Fox News	1730704	33281	13%	38%	71	3644
Yahoo! News	1693928	42995	26%	60%	95	2476
BuzzFeed	1479737	112289	28%	57%	60	3251
TechCrunch	1441201	7475	3%	12%	484	2595
Yahoo! Shine	1385644	58843	29%	78%	0	751
CNN	1263924	238596	42%	78%	0	690
Wall Street Journal	1205701	342294	58%	81%	1	1353
Mashable!	1041076	69290	23%	44%	190	2035
AOL News	1010507	48115	25%	54%	43	1940
Yahoo! Music	1002684	55338	24%	62%	28	1371
TIME Magazine	890017	328192	51%	72%	28	2709
Yahoo! Movies	758456	42002	34%	80%	45	667
Huffington Post	710561	42005	35%	71%	25	1281
Reuters	655062	152780	42%	67%	15	3281
Engadget	600962	26858	16%	40%	60	2961
The Economist	593271	63317	25%	49%	97	1679
Vanity Fair	592001	44998	46%	80%	35	1027
Forbes	538588	56695	47%	70%	19	2305
Wired	469834	29806	25%	57%	107	1220
Change.org	400062	42310	42%	64%	42	1601
The Daily Beast	370000	14752	22%	49%	17	2140
Bloomberg	352700	15092	29%	57%	11	2906
Yahoo! OMG	317684	23268	38%	73%	6	1929
CNET	305803	11273	23%	54%	31	2028
Gawker	251199	48976	53%	85%	0	563
Yahoo! Finance	220971	30228	52%	97%	0	317
Fast Company	199552	19395	29%	59%	30	1470
Business Insider	199545	13630	46%	76%	3	1239
Good Magazine	197445	7301	22%	51%	25	1706
ReadWriteWeb	144279	13763	39%	60%	15	1676
BNET	136556	13481	44%	70%	5	1540
Business Week	89036	10515	33%	58%	1	1418
eHow	87843	9665	44%	72%	0	945
Inc Magazine	87540	5553	29%	58%	17	953
GigaOm	64357	4284	32%	54%	6	1686
VentureBeat	51021	1804	18%	42%	10	1722
Associated Content	49383	12398	77%	93%	0	405
All Things D	21502	1872	43%	80%	0	401
paidContent.org	9955	942	36%	68%	1	441
Poynter	8660	1207	42%	79%	0	294

We use 13 top stories as a model for "one story per week" strategy and 90 stories as a model for "one story per day" strategy.

[Single Infographics]


Reference: Yury Lifshits. Ediscope: Social Analytics for Online News. Yahoo! Labs, Tech. Report No. YL-2010-008.

Short URL: http://bit.ly/likelog
Contact: lifshits@yahoo-inc.com
Released under CC BY 3.0 license

The Like Log

45 sites, 100K+ articles, 40M+ reactions
Three months from 10/2010 to 01/2011
"Total" facebook counts:
likes + shares + facebook comments

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