The Succulent Wife's Favorite Things

The Designer Behind the Google Logo and How She Approached it...

Ever wonder who designed that Google logo? I have.  It hardly looks designed at all. Ends up that there’s lots of reasoning and planning behind those six little letters in primary colors.

Here’s an excerpt of Ruth Kendar’s (yes, she’s the one, the Google logo designer) interviewed by Phillipp Lenssen.

“I was teaching design at Stanford University in 1999 when I was introduced to Larry Page and Sergei Brin by a mutual friend at Stanford. They were looking at designers to design their logo and website and I was asked to present them with some preliminary design ideas. They liked my approach and design style and I was hired to design both.

Google wanted to convey that it was as a search provider first and foremost. It offered fast, comprehensive, and above all trustworthy search results. It was innovative, algorithmically complex yet incredibly simple to use. Furthermore, Google as a brand should repudiate all things corporate, conventional or complacent.

In the end this particular logo was selected because it reached its goal in many levels:
-    It was playful and deceptively simple. The design subtle as to look almost non-designed, the reading effortless. The colors evoke memories of child play…"

You can read the whole article here.

Ah, I do love learning something new every day.

Designboom Winners: Din-Ink Pen Cap Cutlery - and Biodegradable Too!

From the latest Designboom competition winners. The theme of this particular competition was Dining in 2015 and it got 4843 entries from 98 countries. Din-ink was one of three winners out of 4843 entries from 98 countries. Din-ink is a design team from Italy. In their own words:

"Turn your favourite office tool from your desk in a common cutlery...this is din-ink. A set of pen caps, including a fork-cap, a knife-cap and a spoon-cap, that replaces the normal pen cap during lunch time! All caps are made by annually renewable resources, like natural starch and fibres, to be 100% biodegradable and atoxic, warranting the best alimentary use. Dispensing each set in a compostable packaging the whole set is designed to respect the environment. Now give your office ballpoint pen a good excuse to be gnawed by your teeth: use them for din-ink".

I  wonder when these might be available. These "emergency" utensils would be wonderful to stash in an office drawer, the car's glove compartment, another in my handbag, my kid's lunch box...

See all the competition's results here

Back in Stock - Our Best Selling Favorites

Finally, back in stock at The Succulent Wife's Gift Shop and just in time - and oh so perfect - for Valentine's Day!

• The Bodhi Leaf Flower Lights, available in Natural, Wine or Multicolored
• The Pin Up Girl Hand Etched Glasses available in pint or double-old-fashioned (DOF) glass sizes
• The Retro Eclectro Funky Hostess Aprons available in all sorts of prints just perfect for Valentine's day. Choose from Sweethearts, Bike Chicks, Hot Cowgirls and more. See the whole fun collection here.

Get your favorites here: www.TheSucculentWife.com

Sand Animation Artist Ilana Yahav - Fun to watch

If you turn down the music, this is actually really amazing to watch. No room for error or even hesitation.

Read more about Ilana's art on her website and see more of her performances on YouTube.com, bien sur.

Lululemon athetica Grand Opening at the Fashion Show Mall – Las Vegas

The long awaited lululemon store finally opened its first Las Vegas location last month and had its Grand Opening celebrations yesterday. Most of the activities were orchestrated by majordomo par excellence, Sue Kupka, the fab, fab, fab lululemon Community Coordinator.

It was one of the most engaging openings that I have ever attended, the whole celebration beginning with a session of Yoga Under the Cloud (the Cloud being the extravagant outdoor sun shading contraption that covers a plaza and faces The Strip, aka Las Vegas Blvd. (see it here). The whole event was totally in keeping with the lululemon’s manifesto, which besides promoting the benefits of yoga, also treated its guests to scrumptious food, networking opportunities, entertainment and glorious gift bags (more on that later…).

The absolutely delish food came from one of my favorite local spots Go Raw Café while the entertainment came in the form of the obligatory but always amusing Elvis & Marilyn impersonators. At least this Elvis could sing.  All the local yoga glitterati was there, including my very good friend, Ki Kosut and her son, Olivier David, both lululemon ambassadors. That would be them in the background photo.

But, for me, the most thrilling part of this event was that The Succulent Wife  got to source the goodies that went into the gift bags. A few lucky people got bags filled with custom items designed for the occasion by The Succulent Wife’s artists. Among other things, Bread and Badger’s custom drinking glasses reflected yogic silhouettes, Lucky Accessories Little Reminder pendants displayed the lululemon logo and select words from the Manifesto, and Lady Guru’s affirmation greeting cards were a perfect tie-in. It was fun to see the delight of those who opened their bags on the spot.

In a future post, I will share with you what extraordinary “marketing” I am witnessing from lululemon. They have managed to engage their own staff & management team and customers beyond any that I have seen. Stay tuned for that commentary.

In the meanwhile, bravo lululemon for another fun experience!

Oilily Biggest Sale of the Season - up to 65% off

For you Oilily addicts out there... Hurry!!! If you don't have an Oilily nearby, take a look at the website and call any store to speak with one of their lovely salespeople. If they don't have the item on hand, they will look to source it for you. You can always return it if it doesn't fit.

Free Air Guitar Campaign

Humor at work to create a memorable and effective campaign. We immediately understand that this radio station - which will most likely be remembered in the viewer's mind - is one that will inspire you to groove and rock.  Too clever.

via longtail.com

The Bad Gifts Emporium

See? You should have shopped with The Succulent Wife and you would have never needed this site. Oh well, live and learn.

Nobody wants their gifts, either given or received to end up here at the Bad Gift Emporium, but these tragic events happen. One can display or sell their "giftrocities" simply by posting the offending item(s) on the Web site. It appears that a private transaction can ensue when buyer and seller contact each other.  Humm, good luck.

This collection could very well launch a kitsch museum all by itself.