“Daddy, I want you to make me a machine.”

“What kind of machine?”

“Daddy, this machine can make ears, feet, heads and put them all together. You see. When the machine finishes it makes a kid. Daddy, I want to call it the Kid Maker 3000. Can you do that for me?”

Laughing, his father sent him back to bed. Fast forward and after developing our first app focusing on giving parents and teachers a tool to use when teaching their kids how to recognize words the Kid Maker 3000 was born.

Check it out here.

Let us know what you think!

You can order pre-designed cakes or get in touch with Anja to have it custom designed. Hint-hint for those who like chocolate-peanutbutter, tell her I sent you…

Enjoy.

cakeworthy.com

What makes people want to follow a brand?

Digital shop Razorfish and company came up with an interesting info-graphic on the subject after their findings reveal consumers social brand awareness habits. Seems Joe public is still in it for a steal or deal when pushing that holy grail “Like” or “Follow” button. What no brand can deny is the importance of finding a captive audience in the social spaces as they evolve to deliver on the promise of giving you “what you want – when you want it”.  Click on graphic to enlarge.

Check out the video here: Shadow Works

If you are feeling inspired you can print out the recipes here…

Braised Short Ribs

Panini (for the how to on the Balsamic Onion Marmalade)

First you need to get out of the house and go get the following.

2 medium carrots, cut into 1-inch pieces (about 1 cup)

2 stalks celery, cut into 1-inch pieces (about 1 1/2 cups)

2 bay leaves

2 sprigs fresh thyme leaves

1 teaspoon black peppercorns, crushed

1/4 cup all-purpose flour

1/4 cup vegetable oil

6 sprigs fresh Italian (flat-leaf) parsley

2 tablespoons tomato paste

10 cloves garlic, peeled

1 large onion, cut into 1-inch pieces (about 1 cup)

2 cups Cabernet Sauvignon or other dry red wine

4 cups beef stock

6 serving-sized pieces beef short ribs (about 4 pounds)

Once you have all of this together get your dutch oven and follow these directions:

Season the beef with the peppercorns. Coat the beef with the flour. Heat 3 tablespoons oil in an oven-safe 8-quart saucepot over medium- high heat. Add the beef and cook for 10 minutes or until it’s well browned on both sides. Remove the beef from the saucepot. Pour off any fat.

Heat the remaining oil in the saucepot over medium heat. Add the garlic, onion, carrots, celery, parsley, thyme and bay leaves and cook for 5 minutes or until the vegetables are lightly browned, stirring often. Stir in the tomato paste and cook for 1 minute. Stir in the wine and stock and heat to a boil. Return the beef to the saucepot. Cover the saucepot. Bake at 350°F for 2 1/2 hours or until the beef is fork-tender. Skim the fat from the surface of the stock mixture.

Now while that is doing its thing in the oven we move on the the Balsamic Onion Marmalade.

4 medium onions, thinly sliced (about 8 cups)

1/3 cup sugar

2/3 cup balsamic vinegar

Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium heat until it slides easily across the pan. Add the onions, salt and pepper and cook, stirring occasionally, for about 20 minutes, until the onions are soft. Add the sugar and reduce the heat to medium-low. Cook, stirring frequently, for about 10 minutes, until the onions appear dry. Add the vinegar and reduce the heat to low. Continue cooking, stirring occasionally, for about 1 hour, until the onions are soft and dry.

Serve warm or at room temperature. Store the marmalade in the refrigerator. It will keep for several weeks.

Now for putting all together.

Take the short ribs out of the oven and let them rest a little.

Get a fork and pull off the good stuff.

Get your slices of sourdough bread.

12 ounces, shredded aged cheddar

The trifecta! Be generous and pile it high. (I didn’t tell my Nutritionist wife this part.)

Get some melted butter on both sides of the bread and toast it up in the panini press.

Cut in half and serve right away. We “garnished” with a garden salad. It was worth the 4 hours of effort too.

And the machine knows who you are…

a range of demographic data reveals surprising purchasing trends,
such as the fact that the most frequent users of the devices
are men in their 30s, and that a disproportionately large number of juices were sold to men at night, as compared to other drinks throughout the day. based on their findings,
JR east water has already made changes in the stock of the machines.

MORE HERE

A study on brand and logo simplification.

Unevolving a logo to just a series of coloured circles, how many can still be recognised? This study shows how the most simplest of logo and brand designs are often the most recognisable when shed of all detail.

In most cases, each circle represents one letter or one container. So in the case of Orange, a self contained logo, one circle for the orange container and one circle for the wording. Typebased logos like Twitter, FedEx and eBay just have one circle per letter.

It’s an ongoing study, so new logos and brands will be added.

Check ‘em out here: Unevolved Brands

AutoStitch for iPhone

Really good use of gps data available in photo’s on Flickr.

Eric Fischer compiled this data for some popular cities and the results are really compelling works of art. The resulting overlay which you see indicates where the most photos are taken. Below is NYC. There are lots more on Eric’s page below.

Check out Eric’s Flickr page here.

 Well this will put you in a trance on this fine Monday morning.

Not sure how exactly they did this. But it’s a art installation. It could also be some motion capture/after effects trickery. Seems like something for Acatel Lucent’s mobile division. Very nice. Anyone know French? Check the Vimeo link and report back.

Envision