innerspaeth

Sad UP. Confident Jawbone.

I was more excited for that Jawbone UP then I really should have been. Now, don’t get me wrong. I didn’t really think it was going to be the answer to a more active lifestyle, but I was excited to track my progress, patterns and use it to my fitness advantage.

A mere three days after my upbeat and optimistic blog post, my UP vibrated and died. No more tracking. No more patters. No more movement alerts. Seriously? Yep. I should have just gotten the FITBIT. Maybe I still will.

Then, after tweeting about my broken and sad-faced UP, a friend of mine sent me this link. Too ironic right? That never happens to me. The article states:

Jawbone has released an announcement that it will offer a no-questions-asked refund policy on the UP in order to win back customer confidence.

I submitted my information and yesterday I got my refund in the mail. Nope, they weren’t kidding.

I’m not sure if this has really changed my opinion of the UP. After all, I did buy it from the Apple store and I’m sure they would have taken it back.

Overall thoughts: The data it collected was interesting, but not ground breaking. Again, the sleep data was by far the most interesting but not necessary. It didn’t help me sleep better, in fact I probably slept worse knowing it was tracking me ALL NIGHT LONG. The feature that allows you to compete against other people was motivating. I was waiting for my sister to get one and the day she did mine stopped working. Hilarious.

Overall great idea — I’m anxious to see what they come out with as an adaption to the UP. Will I buy it? Maybe. I haven’t lost my confidence in Jawbone.

Finding your truth and the F word.

I was surfing my TED subscription on YouTube and came across Gabrielle Bernstein‘s TEDxFiDiWomen Talk. I can’t recall how I heard of Bernstein, but she’s a motivational speaker and author of Add More Ing to Your Life: A Hip Guide to Happiness . She also has a YouTube channel that I subscribe to and quite enjoy. She posts short vlogs on recent thoughts or just general words of motivation.

Her TED Talk below put me in a good mood yesterday and convinced me that I need to start living beyond my wildest dreams, every day.

26 Days of UP by Jawbone

Yeah so Hi. It’s been a while since my last post on my favorite smoothies. I’ve started and stopped several posts until NOW.

Yesterday I purchased the UP by Jawbone and I am officially IN LOVE. UP is a new device created to track daily activities, specifically: eating, sleeping and movement to inspire healthier lifestyles. The device itself is a bracelet that you wear 24 hours a day. It collects data on steps, workouts and food intake during the day and sleep patterns at night. I really like the bracelet because it’s both stylish (IMO) and comfortable. I forget I’m wearing it!

So far the most interesting data collected is while I’m sleeping. It tracks how often I wake up and whether I’m getting light or deep sleep. IT’S CRAZY! The first night I slept horribly — probably because I was anxious to get the reading as soon as I woke. This is what the reading looked like on my first day:

The other really cool feature is that you can set it as an alarm clock – a silent alarm clock that vibrates to gently wake you. The technology is designed to intelligently wake you at the ideal moment in your natural sleep cycle just before your desired wake time. This might be the best feature.

The active data is interesting – not sure how accurate it is though. I wore it to the gym today where I did cardio for over an hour – a mix of running, step and latter work. It couldn’t accurately calculate my steps on a machine, but it did calculate my time on the treadmill.

Another very cool feature is the movement reminder. Set an interval of time (I set mine at an hour) and your UP wristband will vibrate on your wrist to remind you to move when you’ve been inactive for too long. This could also be my favorite feature.

The food log is, eh OK. It tracks food with images you take with your phone, which is a great reminder but it can’t accurately tabulate calories through those images (that would be cool!). I wouldn’t suggest getting the UP solely to track food intake since the data collected isn’t giving a reading of anything useful if you are trying to count calories.

I’m anxious to use UP steadily for the remainder of the month of December. I’ll report back in January with a more accurate review once I’ve used it daily for 26 more days.

I met Gabrielle Bonheur tonight.

Breathtakingly gorgeous, Coco Before Chanel was an amazing look at the life of Gabrielle Bonheur “Coco” Chanel, the pioneering French fashion designer who’s menswear-inspired fashions with expensive simplicity make her one of the most important figures in the fashion industry, ever.

The film began as the quiet young Coco, at the age of 12 years, was dropped at the orphanage of Aubazine where she learned the trade of a seamstress. After six years in the orphanage she left and continued her work as a seamstress by day and a cabaret singer by night. She performed in clubs where the regulars called her “coco” after the songs she used to sing: Vous n’auriez pas vu Coco?

Chanel was a determined young woman. She was tough, hard working, dedicated to her craft and terribly ambitious. While living as a mistress with Étienne Balsan, a French textile heir, she continued her work in the tailoring shop then began designing hats as a hobby. She designed many hats for Balsan’s friend — the theater actress Gabrielle Dorziat which helped her gain recognition as a designer. Her hobby soon turned into a deep interest, a passion that took her to Paris and opened her eyes to the world of fashion.

After becoming a licensed hat maker (modiste) in 1910, Chanel opened a boutique at 21 rue Cambon, Paris named Chanel Modes. She continued to design luxurious hats for Gabrielle Dorziat until the love of her life, Captain Arthur Edward ‘Boy’ Capel, whom she met through Balsan, died it a tragic car accident. The film portrayed Chanel’s devastation as life changing, fully propelling her fashion design. She spent her days and all hours of the night developing her ideas into a career as a fashion designer.

The film’s cinematography was sensational. Each frame was gracefully articulate in color, composition, lighting. Here are a few frames in sequential order.

Watch the trailer and submerse yourself in Coco.

Get INSPIRED!

This weekend we’re holding the AIGA DC retreat for board members. In a nutshell, this is what the weekend is all about:

“Wired” to the iPad

I wasn’t sure I really cared about the iPad. I mean, how much more technology do I really need (I totally feel like my grandma saying that).

Here’s the thing: technology is changing the way we engage with each other and with content. The iPad is going to enable magazines to thrive again, using multidimensional experiences to re-engage with their audience. This is so cool! Check out this video by Wired on their new iPad App:

Love the Sienna Family

The first time I saw this commercial I think I made Mr. M rewind and play it again more than once (thank goodness for DVR). I know many people aren’t big fans of Toyota right now, so it’s funny how this ad helps me forget all that’s happening in Toyota land.

Yogurt & the 14-day Activia Challenge

I’m not sure if it was the money back guarantee or the fact that I was sick and tired of an upset belly on a daily basis, I tried the Activia 14 day Challenge. What did I have to lose ya know, especially since a 4-pack was on sale for $1.99 at Wegmans at the time.

As most of you know, I just started writing professionally for Weight Lost Plans and as part of this week’s news assignment I decided to do a little research on probiotics and all their hype. First it’s important to understand that yogurt is made by introducing non-harmful bacteria into milk. All yogurts contain the starter cultures Lactobacillus bulgaricus and Streptococcus thermophilus. It’s significant to also note that between these two bacterial, there are a number of strains, and studies show that all of these strains are associated with reducing diarrhea, which means yogurt on it’s own is naturally good for your digestive system. Recently though, several manufacturers of yogurt — and other products — are beginning to add extra probiotic strains to their products in the hopes of providing extra health benefits and improved marketability.

According to a Johns Hopkins health Alert, Dannon Activia was the first yogurt to market itself as “probiotic,” meaning that it has added live bacterial cultures. The added bacterial that it contains is called Bifidobacterium animalis DN-173 010, otherwise known as Bifidus Regularis, a proprietary strain trademarked by Dannon. The interesting thing about this strain is that it has been shown to survive the trip through the digestive tract and reach the colon intact.

And so it began for me – almost a month ago I began the challenge. At first I didn’t really notice much, but about 3 days in I realized that I ended the day with no cramps or bloating as I normally have. By the weekend I totally forgot my mid morning yogurt snack and by Sunday my belly was noticeably rumble-ly. HUH! Back to focus on Monday and through the next weekend, I was hooked. This yogurt was really doing the trick and to this day I’m still eating it. Marketing ploy or not, the 14-day Activia Challege worked for me!

The Man With a Heart Made of Gold.

I’m fairly certain that Michael Osborne has a heart made of pure gold. He has an obsession with design, a true-love for it that keeps him designing round-the-clock for some amazing charitable organizations.

Photo by: Joe Carabeo, Astray Productions

This is a picture of Michael Osborne and I moments after I met him for the first time. It was a unseasonably warm and sunny Sunday evening on November 15, 2009, at a special meet-and-greet gathering held by AIGA DC for the AIGA DC Design Continuum Scholarship Fund Circle donors. Michael was invited to join our social gathering and share some of his work from 1 Heart Press. Among Michael’s many passions is the fine art of letterpress printing. His love for finely set typography and skillful printing required more and more dedication and strict diligence, so in 1991 he decided to open his own letterpress printing shop in San Francisco. Since then he’s been letterpress printing anything from fine books to wedding invitations.

By day Michael is President and Creative Director of the San Francisco-based graphic design firm, MOD/Michael Osborne Design, Inc. Established in 1981, the firm’s work in corporate/brand identity, package design, and print collateral has been recognized by many organizations, and publications and is on display in the permanent collections of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum in New York, and the National Postal Museum in Washington, D.C.

With Michael there’s always love, or a heart, something he’s become well-known for in his design work. There are many different kinds of hearts in his body of work, but the majority have been created for projects at Joey’s Corner.

In 2004, Michael Osborne created a non-profit 501(c)3 organization called Joey’s Corner, a studio dedicated to providing pro-bono strategic creative services to non-profit groups focusing on healthcare, children’s and social well-being issues. The studio was founded to honor the life of Michael’s deceased son, Joseph Michael Osborne, 1980-2004. Joey’s Corner operates on donations, fund-raising events, and whenever possible, projects may be underwritten by a sponsor or by the non-profit client itself.

Joey’s Corner is the first heart in a series of Michael’s many hearts:

Next he created Valentines Day cards for sale with the proceeds going to Joey’s Corner.

Then Ethel Kessler, Art Director for Stamps, called up Michael and asked him to design Love Stamps for the USPS.

All of a sudden, there were Hearts in San Francisco. Hearts were all over the city, actually and most were designed and constructed by Michael himself.

Then there is Heart to Heart, an orgainzation founded to save babies by teaching doctors abroad the art and science of open-heart surgery for children.

There’s a heart in yoga, The Art of Yoga Project. This organization’s mission is to lead teen girls in the California juvenile justice system toward accountability to self, others and community by providing practical tools to effect behavioral change.

I’ll conclude with one final heart, his work for the Alzheimer’s Association’s Memory Walk.

Michael Osborne came to Washington, DC to give a presentation to the local AIGA Chapter on the work he’s produced at Joey’s Corner. His presentation moved the audience. A dozen plus people came up to me after the presentation to thank me for inviting Michael to our chapter. A few even marked this as one of their top 3 AIGA DC events, ever. I just couldn’t be happier.

Thank you Michael for coming to DC, but mostly for your boundless ability to inspire and delight designers and change organizations so their messages are finally heard.

Recommended Reading

While on my way to my hometown of Coopersburg, Pennsylvania to visit my parents and my girlfriends this weekend, I’m taking a minor detour to Lancaster (which isn’t exactly Amish Country, but it’s the same county). I’m visiting an AIGA student group of graphic designers at PCAD, whom I worked with while at the National AIGA Design Conference in Memphis.

As I began to consider what I’d speak to the students about, I kept going back to books. I love books and I’ve always loved books. While working towards my undergraduate degree from RIT in Graphic Design I was always in the library. Not only did I continually have the maximum number of books out (25) I worked there too, at the RIT Archives and Special Collections. This is where I developed my love for gorgeous books. These books were my extended education. They became my bible for design inspiration, encouraging me to think beyond the project.

So, I prepared my top 10 list of all-time favorite books. Some are current, some are historical and some are pure inspiration. Enjoy!

1. History of Graphic Design by Philip Meggs

2. The Cheese Monkeys: A Novel in Two Semesters by Chip Kidd

3. Elements of Typographic Style by Robert Bringhurst

4. Lester Beall: Trailblazer of American Graphic Design by my former RIT professor, R. Roger Remington

5. How To Think Like a Great Graphic Designer by my mentor, Debbie Millman

6. The Brand Gap by Marty Neumeier

7. The Elements of Dynamic Symmetry by Jay Hambidge

8. Inside the Business of Graphic Design by Catharine Fishel

9. Design Literacy: Understanding Graphic Design by Steven Heller

10. Obey the Giant: Life in the Image World by Rick Poynor

Here are two more books that are really important for anyone to read (designer or non-designer):

1. The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen R. Covey

2. How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie