Couch Guitar Straps Equal Cool

Jul 08, 2008 — Jonathan

Couch guitar straps are some of the coolest straps out there right now. First of all, they're handmade one at a time in Long Beach, California from vintage "dead stock" vinyl unearthed from various sordid LA warehouses. And second, the company prides themselves on these durable straps being "cruelty-free"! (So now you can have your Tofurky and eat it too.)

Couch straps are being sported by some of the rockin-est artists around, including Wilco, John Cale, The White Stripes and Beck. (Speaking of Beck, check out his new record Modern Guilt that just dropped today. I guess that should really be a separate entry, but it's almost quittin' time at 3dB and the weather is nice.)

Anyways, get a Couch strap. You'll thank us for it. 

Scott Hansen "Progress" Poster

Jun 17, 2008 — Erik

Obama gets some love on this new Hansen-designed poster, for sale on Barry's website. Also, check out Scott Hansen's site for added awesomeness.

JLab B-Flex USB Speaker

Jun 16, 2008 — Erik

Perfect for those laptop-by-the-pool afternoons. Or breakdance battles at the mall. Whatever. Get it here.

Shoe Junkie Tee

Jun 13, 2008 — Erik

Yeah yeah yeah, jack the Nike logo for the 1 millionth time. Not the most original idea.  But we can relate to the message.  And, repeat after me: brown and yellow always works. Get it here.

Long Flash Intros (aka "Splash Pages")

Jul 03, 2008 — Erik

Somewhere around the year 2004, we thought every web development agency simultaneously realized that long Flash-based intros (aka "Splash Pages") on websites were just a bad idea. 

There's lots of user interface research to support this -- namely, that websites should be all about usability, getting where you want, when you want to get there. Put simply, a long mandatory Flash intro just mucks this up. 

However, we're still seeing the Splash Page's thinly disguised younger brother, the Flash "marquee" ad, appear on far too many sites. If this marquee ad is short, it's probably fine. But when it takes forever to load, doesn't say much, or requires you to add a "Skip" button, you should probably reconsider.

This link makes the point pretty clearly.

"Executives At Work" Stock Art

Jun 16, 2008 — Justin

Don't get us wrong, there's nothing inherently evil about stock art, but have you ever seen anyone so happy to be doing business on their cell phone?

"Executives at Work" stock art is really the visual equivalent of elevator music — it's intended to offend no one, when in fact it mildly offends everyone. Or at least us.

In any case, we can't think of a better way to dilute your marketing efforts than to drop some of these creepy droids into your next ad.