I have a love/hate relationship with Caribou Coffee. Followers of my Foursquare activity will find this surprising since I check into their locations frequently. While not my favorite corporate cup of joe, I often fall prey to the convenience of tripping over their stores throughout my day (most of their 500 locations are in Minnesota).
Don’t get me wrong, there are some things I really enjoy about the Caribou experience: the fireplaces, their Monday Happens campaign ($1 coffee on Mondays), and the company’s line of reusable knitted and fabric cup sleeves to name a few. So I was naturally quite interested when they announced their new logo and branding direction on March 1.
The world’s second-largest coffee retailer (a very distant second to Starbucks, but still impressive) is based here in the Twin Cities and stayed close to home for guidance on their new branding effort. Minneapolis ad agency Colle+McVoy is responsible for the makeover which ironically aims to make the chain feel less regional. Brandweek describes it as an attempt to “bolster its appeal as a branded coffee company by playing down the ski lodge imagery and, yes, the caribou, with a sweeping rebranding.” Continue reading →
I finished my 365 Project on January 1, 2010. I took a photo a day for a year. It was probably one of most frustrating yet rewarding things I’ve ever done. Some of my favorites are featured in the video (made with Animoto) below.
My original plan was to take a few weeks off from blogging in January to get a jump on some plans I had in place for the new year. I guess I lost momentum after that because as the subsequent weeks went by I had less and less motivation to get back to it. So before I drift even farther away, I thought I’d drop anchor.
I’ll be getting caught up over the next few weeks, restarting Typography Thursday, as well as launching a number of new projects and site enhancements. Please stay tuned.
As the last Typography Thursday of 2009, I thought I’d alternate between looking back and looking forward. There are lots of exciting things in store for TyTh in 2010. I can’t wait to share them with you. Until then, here’s hoping your New Year is happy, healthy and properly kerned.
Over the years my Christmas mixtapes have made the transition from CD to virtual creations. They fall into two distinct themes in honor of the contradictory states many folks fall into during the holidays. One captures the warm and fuzzy sounds of the season while the other vacillates from despair to bewilderment.
No matter where you landed on the emotional scale this year, I hope you enjoy them both. Continue reading →
What would the holidays be without cheesy holiday specials? Thankfully, we don’t have to find out. The December Social Media Breakfast – Minneapolis/St. Paul (SMBMSP) podcast is both special and cheesy with an added dose of holiday cheer.
This month, Rick Mahn, Brad Bellaver and myself are joined by special guest Lindsi Gish (Communications Manager at Second Harvest Heartland). Second Harvest Heartland operates the fourth largest Feeding America member food bank in the United States. Lindsi discusses some of the ways the organization uses social media.
We also touched on details about the next event, how SMBMSP gear makes great gifts (SMBMSP store), and were visited by some surprise guests (including one from the North Pole).
Mitchell Library Alphabet – To celebrate their 100th anniversary the Mitchell Library (the State Library of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia) unveils this beautiful and education alphabet. Each letter is made up of bits and pieces from their eclectic collection. Some of the letters are accompanied by videos explaining the origins of their constituent parts all wrapped in a lovely interactive web interface. (via I love Typography) Continue reading →
Hi there. I'm Mykl Roventine. I design things like web sites, WordPress blogs and social media strategies. This is my personal blog (not affiliated with any employer or client) where I write about design, the social web, typography and coffee. More →
What would the holidays be without cheesy holiday specials? Thankfully, we don’t have to find out. The December Social Media Breakfast – Minneapolis/St. Paul (SMBMSP) podcast is both special and cheesy with an added dose of holiday cheer.
Hi there. I'm Mykl Roventine. I design things like web sites, WordPress blogs and social media strategies. This is my personal blog (not affiliated with any employer or client) where I write about design, the social web, typography and coffee.
