Here’s this week’s edition of #ManyCoolThings, a Social Media Group culture jam. These are the many cool things that recently caught our attention or inspired us:
25 years of cell phone innovation in a single image
Japanese communications company NTT docomo celebrates its 20th anniversary with an exhibition showcasing the evolution of mobile phone culture starting from 1987 to the present day. The extensive chronological display of cell phones on view at tokyo designers’ week, offered a visual documentation of the progress made in terms of size, shape, form, color and materials used in the design of today’s mobile devices.
Image: designboom.comOld Spice Save the World Advergame
With December 21st the Mayan calendar’s end of the world deadline, Old Spice recently revealed the latest installment in the digital portion of its “Believe in Your Smellf” campaign: a video game called Dikembe Mutombo’s 4 1/2 Weeks to Save the World, which features the retired NBA star and a sub machine gun with pickle laser.
35 Million Directors
Canadian Tourism Commission asked Canadians to submit home videos of their first-hand experiences in their country, in an initiative dubbed “35 Million Directors”, the citizenry responded with 65 hours of video. The result is a two-minute film from DDB Canada that’s made of user-generated clips that were voted on by Canadians called “Canada Shared by Canadians.”
100,000 Stars: An interactive visualization of our galaxy
Brought to you by the Chrome Experiments team, this interactive visualization of the stellar neighborhood created for the Google Chrome web browser shows the real location of more than 100,000 nearby stars. Zooming in reveals 87 major named stars and our solar system. The galaxy view is an artist’s rendition.
The Internet of Things
Through RFID, SMS, QR codes and other technology, connecting objects to each other via the Internet is happening more and more. Basically, everyday items become nodes in the net connected by wireless technology. This raises the question: where does the Internet stop, if anywhere?
Modernist Cuisine: The Art and Science of Cooking
This six-volume, 2,438-page set is destined to reinvent cooking. The lavishly illustrated books use thousands of original images to make the science and technology clear and engaging. The Wall Street Journal calls it “The cookbook to end all cookbooks.”
Using customer data to reward customers daily
The STM–Montreal’s transit provider–has a goal to increase ridership by 40% by 2020 and plans to do so through a revolutionary new loyalty program.
Mr. Div
Matthew DiVito (Mr. Div) is a motion graphics designer. Check out some of his transforming designs.
Image: Mr. DivBelmont
One of our team members (@brandonXoliver) managed to sneak a picture of his kitten, Belmont, into this post. How could we not leave her in?
