10 Steps for Planning the Perfect Valentine’s Day Online.  A one-stop-shop for all you folks who haven’t locked down your Valentine’s Day Plans yet. These ten steps will help you plan a romantic night out without ever having to leave your desk.  RedStamp, featured above, lets you create, customize and send real world cards.  High-res

10 Steps for Planning the Perfect Valentine’s Day Online. 

A one-stop-shop for all you folks who haven’t locked down your Valentine’s Day Plans yet. These ten steps will help you plan a romantic night out without ever having to leave your desk. 

RedStamp, featured above, lets you create, customize and send real world cards. 

BLOKK font, for people that don’t understand Latin.   

In publishing and graphic design, Lorem Ipsum is the standard for filler text. (We need to be able to show clients what something would look like if it were to be filled with text.) However, even though it’s been a standard for years, it still confuses people.

BLOKK font is a filler “text” (a font made up of blocks) that helps you get a feel for what a chunk of text might look like when something wonderful is written. Say goodbye to confusion, hello to, uh, blocks to replace words. (I can’t decide if this is a good thing.)

Lacquerous: “Netflix for Nails” polish-sharing service.     [tools / beauty / creativity / inspiration]For all those gents out there, nail polish isn’t exactly cheap. And it’s one of those things where we usually go through phases, but rarely use the entire bottle. Instead of spending ~$14 bottle, Lacquerous lets ladies subscribe for $18/month for three different colors that can be returned and swapped for new colors at any point in time. If you’re looking for a gift for a lady in your life, this is a good one. High-res

Lacquerous: “Netflix for Nails” polish-sharing service.     
[tools / beauty / creativity / inspiration]

For all those gents out there, nail polish isn’t exactly cheap. And it’s one of those things where we usually go through phases, but rarely use the entire bottle. Instead of spending ~$14 bottle, Lacquerous lets ladies subscribe for $18/month for three different colors that can be returned and swapped for new colors at any point in time. If you’re looking for a gift for a lady in your life, this is a good one.

When the nerds go marching in.     [technology / inspiration / creativity]The tech team behind Obama’s campaign is incredible - and inspiring. As The Atlantic points out: They created the most sophisticated email fundraising program ever. They put Obama on Reddit. They built an analytical tool, which helped them buy TV more effectively. (On average, Obama’s campaign’s cost per ad was $594 and Romney’s was $666. Multiply that by ~550,000 ads and the difference is over $39MM.) And they seem like legit dudes ;) High-res

When the nerds go marching in.     
[technology / inspiration / creativity]

The tech team behind Obama’s campaign is incredible - and inspiring. As The Atlantic points out: They created the most sophisticated email fundraising program ever. They put Obama on Reddit. They built an analytical tool, which helped them buy TV more effectively. (On average, Obama’s campaign’s cost per ad was $594 and Romney’s was $666. Multiply that by ~550,000 ads and the difference is over $39MM.) And they seem like legit dudes ;)

Source The Atlantic

Everything you need to know about content marketing.     [tools / whitepapers / content / marketing]It’s true. Content marketing is a thing. You’re gonna keep hearing “stock & flow” in the marketing world. According to an Econsultancy survey in October of this year, 90% of marketers think that content marketing will become even more important over the next year, but only 38% said they have a content strategy in place. So what to do about it? That’s where I come in. I’ve put together a whitepaper on Content Marketing which dissects some of the trends behind the rise of content marketing, what makes a good content strategy and how to get things going for your brand. Go on & give it a read - I’d love to know what you think! High-res

Everything you need to know about content marketing.     
[tools / whitepapers / content / marketing]

It’s true. Content marketing is a thing. You’re gonna keep hearing “stock & flow” in the marketing world. According to an Econsultancy survey in October of this year, 90% of marketers think that content marketing will become even more important over the next year, but only 38% said they have a content strategy in place. So what to do about it? That’s where I come in. I’ve put together a whitepaper on Content Marketing which dissects some of the trends behind the rise of content marketing, what makes a good content strategy and how to get things going for your brand. Go on & give it a read - I’d love to know what you think!

Hero button makes life more awesome.     [mobile / culture / tools]It’s kinda like a slightly worse designed IFTTT for your mobile phone. You can set shopping reminders (“Alert me when an iPhone 4S is on sale below $300”), entertainment pings (“Notify me when Ryan Gosling releases a new film”) even set stock alerts. The founders are billing it as “the world’s greatest digital assistant.” Awesome. Thanks to Orli for sharing this one!  High-res

Hero button makes life more awesome.     
[mobile / culture / tools]

It’s kinda like a slightly worse designed IFTTT for your mobile phone. You can set shopping reminders (“Alert me when an iPhone 4S is on sale below $300”), entertainment pings (“Notify me when Ryan Gosling releases a new film”) even set stock alerts. The founders are billing it as “the world’s greatest digital assistant.” Awesome. Thanks to Orli for sharing this one! 

Uncover the truth about hotels with Oyster.com     [tools / technology / travel]Oyster.com has a team of “special investigators” who “visit, photograph, review and rate each hotel.” Why? Because, like people, hotels choose to put their best foot forward when it comes to selling their services. They share the most flattering pictures - even if they’re old or from an angle that doesn’t tell the whole story. (I’m looking at all you with Facebook profile pictures from more than a year ago!) Oyster calls them out and makes sure you aren’t stuck with a bad vacation. Hopefully, TripAdvisor buys them so we won’t have yet another site to visit before booking travel ;)  Side note: I still don’t understand why their website is Oyster.com. Can someone explain?? High-res

Uncover the truth about hotels with Oyster.com     
[tools / technology / travel]

Oyster.com has a team of “special investigators” who “visit, photograph, review and rate each hotel.” Why? Because, like people, hotels choose to put their best foot forward when it comes to selling their services. They share the most flattering pictures - even if they’re old or from an angle that doesn’t tell the whole story. (I’m looking at all you with Facebook profile pictures from more than a year ago!) Oyster calls them out and makes sure you aren’t stuck with a bad vacation. Hopefully, TripAdvisor buys them so we won’t have yet another site to visit before booking travel ;) 

Side note: I still don’t understand why their website is Oyster.com. Can someone explain??

An app that turns any surface into a keyboard… No projectors required!     
[tools / technology / mobile / creativity / inspiration]

Florian Krautli, a Cognitive Computing student at the University of London, has developed an app which transforms any surface into a keyboard. My first thought was that it must use technology like XBox’s Kinect to turn a surface into something interactive, but it actually uses vibrations from you typing on the surface. You’ve gotta see it to believe it. Very cool stuff.

POP: Prototyping on paper.     [tools / app / creativity / mobile]Loving this iPhone app which makes prototyping apps a cinch. You can sketch something out on paper, say a wireframe for that new app you were thinking of making, take some pictures (you know how to do this), and then create a storyboard that allows you to simulate how the app would actually come to life. Thanks to Mark Avnet for sharing this one! High-res

POP: Prototyping on paper.     
[tools / app / creativity / mobile]

Loving this iPhone app which makes prototyping apps a cinch. You can sketch something out on paper, say a wireframe for that new app you were thinking of making, take some pictures (you know how to do this), and then create a storyboard that allows you to simulate how the app would actually come to life. Thanks to Mark Avnet for sharing this one!

Venngage helps you make reporting prettier.      [tools / technology / analytics / reporting]When data analysis tools first became available, it seems we tried to report on everything. But numbers without context are often meaningless. And reporting structured around providing the most possible data points often jeopardizes time that the team could be spending thinking creatively about your business problem. Pretty reports structured around storytelling often get passed around, helping you showcase your work within the organization. Venngage helps you do this, even if you don’t have access to a designer. (Did I mention they were the ones behind Vizualize.me, the site that turns your resume into an infographic?) High-res

Venngage helps you make reporting prettier.      
[tools / technology / analytics / reporting]

When data analysis tools first became available, it seems we tried to report on everything. But numbers without context are often meaningless. And reporting structured around providing the most possible data points often jeopardizes time that the team could be spending thinking creatively about your business problem. Pretty reports structured around storytelling often get passed around, helping you showcase your work within the organization. Venngage helps you do this, even if you don’t have access to a designer. (Did I mention they were the ones behind Vizualize.me, the site that turns your resume into an infographic?)

Stay.com: Create your personalized city guide.      
[tools / technology / travel / culture]

If you’re like me, you crowd-source restaurant recommendations whenever you’re traveling. It’s the best way to see cities you aren’t familiar with because you’re essentially guaranteed to have at least one amazing experience. (It’s how I ended up at Tickets in Barcelona over the weekend.) Stay.com lets you curate suggestions (from strangers or travel mates) into a customized guide book. Which is accessible, even without an internet connection. Awesome.

Stabilize the Debt: You have a goal and a budget simulator.      [culture /economics / gaming / finance]This “online exercise,” released by  The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget released this online tool that lets you see how much certain things cost - and let’s you simulate how much that would help stabilize the debt. It’s interesting and actually kinda fun. But it’s hard. High-res

Stabilize the Debt: You have a goal and a budget simulator.      
[culture /economics / gaming / finance]

This “online exercise,” released by  The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget released this online tool that lets you see how much certain things cost - and let’s you simulate how much that would help stabilize the debt. It’s interesting and actually kinda fun. But it’s hard.

Source bit.ly