“Fall 2010 carries on Dear Creatures’ panache for all things nostalgic and narrative. A collection inspired by Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys, the clothing reflects curious girls’and guys’ instinct for smart and timeless fashion, the same instincts they assign to their crime solving adventures.”
I flew Toronto based Porter Airlines recently and it was an unexpectedly wonderful experience. In no particular order, here’s why.
1. Their in-flight magazine “re:porter” looks great, isn’t filled with ads, and has relatively interesting articles. The subtitle of it is “The Journal of Porter Airlines.” That’s the type of taking themselves seriously that I can get behind.
2. Drinks are served in actual glass vessels. Pleasant. Wine and a Toronto microbrew (an entire 16oz can!) were complimentary.
3. I was served a totally decent little box of food even on the 45 minute flight between Ottawa and Toronto. Clever graphic on the box.
4. Their lounge in Toronto is probably 80% as nice as some first class lounges I’ve been in. It is open to all flyers. Free water, soft drinks, coffee, snacks and wifi.
5. A branding scheme that includes a cartoon raccoon named Mr. Porter. He appears many places but it is not overdone. Their wifi network is called “Mr. Porters Lounge.”
6. All the flight attendants were friendly and well put together. Many of the females wore pillbox hats and looked like the attendants in “2001.” Slightly surreal (in a good way).
7. All of their computers are iMacs. Okay, I don’t really care about this but hey, I’d rather look at a sleek iMac than a junky dummy terminal.
8. All employees were helpful.
9. The flights were only half full. This might not bode well for the airline’s future but it sure was nice.
10. They use new and clean Bombardier Dash 8s. Nice plane.
11. Oh, all the flights were on time.
I have no real lesson to share here. It was just neat to see so many little things done well and how they all added up to make a cohesive great experience.
It is so rare to find companies that care this much I feel compelled to share. So if you get the chance give them a try.
Looks like someone’s CMS was spitting out funny breadcrumbs. I haven’t seen this too much.
In response to my post beautiful > ugly Suzanne Chapman just shared some examples of nice looking graphic design from the University of Michigan Library.
See her post and the MLibrary Branding & Marketing Materials set on flickr for more.
This got me thinking about two other things I’ve seen recently. The first is a collection of library cards from the Edmonton Public Library (via John Blyberg’s Twitter feed).
They also have an associated sticker contest. I think I have a pretty big crush on this library.
Lastly, the District of Columbia Public Library has two new library card designs. One of them is a promotion for the forthcoming second version of the DCPL iPhone app.
I really like the idea of a library putting out collectable, limited edition library cards that people can trade in their old cards for.
From a (very entertaining) intro to a readers’ advisory service on The Morning News:
It is important to draw a distinction between Amazon’s “Customers Also Bought” feature and the Biblioracle. Amazon is primarily constituted of servers and processors and computer programs. Amazon employs only seven actual human beings plus Jeff Bezos, who is a cyborg. The Biblioracle is flesh and blood.
Three students and alumni from the Department of Art at the University of Minnesota have a project called Reading Rickshaw on Kickstarter:
The Reading Rickshaw aims to spread the word about art and books by offering patrons a ride on a 4-person bicycle fully outfitted with an art library. We seek to offer both mobile and stationary programming: Patrons can browse the permanent collection or pick a book from a temporary collection curated by artists, participate in mobile story hour, listen to artist lectures, and many more fledgling ideas. We will focus on creating a presence where a traditional library cannot go: parks, sidewalks, the lakes communities (land of 10,000=popular Minnesota activity), downtown Minneapolis/St. Paul, and high foot traffic neighborhoods. [emphasis mine]
It is interesting when non-librarians observe service gaps, brainstorm solutions and then take matters into their own hands. It sort of makes me feel like libraries aren’t living up to their potential. It is also interesting that often times they don’t consider partnering with established libraries. The IKEA ad I just posted is an example of that. So are the community book exchanges / tiny tomato gardens I see around Portland.
A related project: A group of folks involved with the Art Shanty Projects erected a library shanty on the frozen Medicine Lake:
Come hang out at the Medicine Lake Branch and create a library card, join a book clubs or enjoy the curated shelf-sized art exhibitions.
Ages ago I meant to point to this post about the the Library Initiative in New York. They’ve created some nice looking spaces.
Now there’s an entire book about the project: The Library Book: Design Collaborations in the Public Schools.
The L!brary Book takes readers behind the scenes of fifty groundbreaking library projects to show how widely varied fields and communities – corporate underwriters, children’s book publishers, architects, graphic designers, product manufacturers, library associations, teachers, and students – can join forces to make a difference in the lives of children. – Dexigner
Quite spendy at $65 a pop but couldn’t they make for a great YS program?
Just in case, you can buy them from Ferrol Studio.
