Graphics

On the lighter side...

Maniacal Rage has some pretty funny crash reports allegedly submitted to Adobe for Photoshop CS4.
Sample here:

Article at Maniacal Rage

Thanks to BoingBoing for the tip!

The excellent MIT Advertising Lab blog has this example of Photochromic ink used in a DM piece:

Another example of the message being built into the medium -- a print ad for Sundown sunblock, one half of which changes color when exposed to the sun (see full creative here). If you know how they might have achieved the effect, could you please leave a comment?

Why, don't mind if I do:

Photochromic ink is a technology that I saw paraded around once a year or so when I was in Print Production. The related Thermochromic (heat-sensitive) inks are a little better known, being used in things from kids' snow boots to coffee mugs and beer cans, but photochromic has never really gotten going.
It's not cheap, especially for a DM piece that I imagine had a budget of under $1 a piece (just a WAG, but you know...).

Nice to see someone got a project out the door with this, anyway.

Adverlab article

Here's a manufacturer's page.

Last month Esquire dropped the first magazine cover to incorporate e-ink technology. While the creative was underwhelming, the execution sure generated a lot of buzz.

Looks like in-store POP is next, followed one presumes by packaging (I'm betting on cereal boxes, but we'll see).

Quote:

Henkel's Right Guard is testing use of printed electronics to power flashing lights in corrugated in-store displays at Walgreens stores in the Chicago area, a first step for a technology from Arizona start-up company Nth Degree that could eventually bring low-cost streaming video to printed displays, packaging, direct mail or magazine inserts.

Link