Haft2Know

Dream of the Blue Trees

The Blue Trees, by Konstantin Dimopoulos

If this spring, you should find yourself in a park beneath a canopy of blue trees, don’t worry. You’ve merely stepped into an art installation by American artist, Konstantin Dimopoulos. The Seattle native has been travelling the world painting trees this truly awesome colour as a way of drawing attention to the loss of the native forests we cut down every year, equivalent to an area the size of Belgium.

Dimopoulos chose blue because it’s not normally associated with trees, which he calls “the lungs of the planet.” I like that. The fact, he says, that these trees are blue means something very out of the ordinary has happened. Nature uses colour as a defence mechanism, as well as to attract. The artist does both here.

Dimopoulos has bluifed trees in Melbourne, Vancouver Virginia and Seattle, and continues to travel doing so. He uses a vegetable based dye, meaning no trees were harmed in the making of this Haft2Know.

His site is here.

Jason Allen

By Jason Allen 19/04/2012 – 9:35 PM | Posted in Art, Colour, Environment | Comments (1)

Haft2RADIO: Hope Springs

DJ Brandi Whytas knows that April showers are a necessity, so she’s crafted this month’s sweet playlist as a soundtrack for skipping through puddles. You’ll probably want a yellow slicker for your number. I’m just sayin’…

Anyway, grab your earbuds, turn it up and skip to your rainy lou.

Happy April to you.

A new playlist also means a new digital desktop calendar to download from the Haft2COLOUR Calendar Project. April’s gorgeous visual (which of course inspired our radio graphic and playlist) was born from the mind of Jennifer Mercer, a lovely and talented designer (and singer) in our network. As with all of our monthly downloads, it’s available for your desktop, iPad and iPhone and will serve as a misty reminder that May flowers are upon us. Click on the image below to download.

Haft2COLOUR Calendar Project: Hope Springs

Hope Springs, April monthly download from the Haft2COLOUR Calendar Project

For iPad: here.
For iPhone: here.

DJ Brandi Whytas
Jennifer Mercer
Jason Allen

By Jason Allen 19/04/2012 – 9:30 PM | Posted in Playlists | Comments (0)

The business of Easter

Photo credit: Molly-Made.blogspot.com

The National Retail Federation reports that Americans will spend an average of $145 in preparation for this Easter, be it on chocolate, home decorations or clothing. The NRF states that while families are continually looking for ways to cut costs these days, Easter is one of the few holidays they give in to indulgences for their kids, and for themselves. Further, more than half of all American tablet owners will use their tablet to purchase or research Easter-related products – another sign, the NRF says, of how online shopping is changing the retail landscape.

Photo credit: WhiteHouse.gov

This year, the President and First Lady of the United States will host 35,000 Americans on the south lawn of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue for the Annual White House Easter Egg Roll – a tradition established in 1878. Participants are selected by lottery so if your name isn’t drawn, you might just have to settle for the event’s official souvenir set of wooden easter eggs (pictured above) for mail order. That’s First Dog, Bo on the red one.

Photo credit: ConradsCandy.com

Ok that is one good looking bunny, courtesy of Conrad’s Candy in New Jersey. No wonder those girls look so happy. Since 1928, Conrad’s has been feeding the chocolate habits of American kids big and small. This featured bunny of theirs weighs seven pounds, is 26 inches tall and will cost you $192. Dental work extra.

Photo credit: abici-italia.it

Perhaps this year your spring ride will be one of these delightful Pantone branded bikes by Italian bicycle aficionadi, Abici. Available for international order and delivery, you’ll be a hit riding through your neighbourhood on one of these. Thanks to our friend Catherine Massaro for news of these sweet wheels.

And introducing Mr. Dapperworth, our ‘first day of spring’ COLOURlovers palette, inspired by a spring stroll through Central Park in 1910.

Happy Easter to you, from all of us at Haft2.

Jason Allen

By Jason Allen 26/03/2012 – 10:28 AM | Posted in Business, Culture, Leisure, Lifestyle, Retail | Comments (0)

Olly and Molly

Photo credit: OllyFactory.com

When I was a kid, the mother of one of my friends was hearing impaired, and when the phone rang at their house, a very regular looking table lamp in their living would flash on and off, alerting my friend’s mother that someone was calling. This little white box pictured above works a bit like that table lamp.

Photo credit: OllyFactory.com

Introducing Olly, a cute little bot that notifies you when you’ve received a mention on Twitter or an email, or any other type of notification, by emitting a gentle scent into the room. Fill him with any scented oil you prefer. You can even stack a few Ollys together and fill each with a different scent to correspond with a kind of message. I’d pick cinnamon, myself. Or maybe cut grass.

Photo credit: OllyFactory.com

And this little cutie here is Molly, who notifies you to your messages and tweets by dispensing a candy of your choosing. If you’re inclined to receive multiple notifications, you may wish to opt for something low-calorie. And perhaps you’d fill it with Aspirin for the missives that cause you strife.

I love this idea of something virtual being translated into something very tangible and human. Olly and Molly are still in production, but the folks at OllyFactory have presented a detailed set of instructions on how to make your own, provided you own a 3D printer and the interest to do so. No definitive word yet on when our tasty and smelly friends will be available for purchase.

OllyFactory.com

Jason Allen

By Jason Allen 26/03/2012 – 10:28 AM | Posted in Culture, Technology | Comments (0)

Ensuring your heart goes on and on

Photo credit: Gnews.com

This coming April 14 marks the 100th anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic and people are scrambling to cash in on the ominous date. $20 will buy you a ‘Heart of the Ocean’ necklace with an embedded crumb of coal from the wreck; $118 will gain you admission to London’s Royal Philharmonic debut of Robin Gibb’s ‘Titanic Requiem’; and $60,000 will buy you a very rare, exploratory deep dive to the site of the wreck, provided by Deep Ocean Expeditions.

Photo credit: Fromoldbooks.org, Public domain

Dine Titanic is an event happening in New York the night of Saturday, April 14, where guests will gather to experience the last meal that passengers ate on the ship before – well, you know. The multi-course dinner includes oysters, roast squab, duck and chocolate eclairs, and guests are encouraged to dress in period costume. Think of it as Comic-Con for the Edwardianophile set.

Tickets range from $300 to $450. Sign up here to be invited. (On a side note, Dine Titanic will donate a portion of all proceeds from the evening to the Urban Assembly New York Harbor School, a small public high school on Governors’ Island in New York that teaches a curriculum centred around working in New York’s waterways. Sounds pretty cool.)

Photo credit: TitanicAnniversaryCruise.com

For those not interested in diving too deep, the Titanic 100th Anniversary Memorial Cruise, will take you from New York to Halifax, and then to the exact place in the Atlantic where the ship went down, for a 2:20am memorial at sea to remember the lives lost. No word on the iceberg forecast yet. Book tickets here.

The RMS Titanic cost $7.5 million to build in 1911, which translates to $171 million in today’s money.

Jason Allen

By Jason Allen 26/03/2012 – 10:27 AM | Posted in Culture, Travel | Comments (0)

Happy birthday, Barbie

Photo credit: Pantone Inc., Mattel Inc. 2011

Introducing Pantone Barbie, a limited release doll to commemorate Mattel’s successful copyrighting of Pantone No. 219C, now called – yes, Barbie Pink. It’s a feat a few companies have tried over the years – UK’s Cadbury was unsuccessful at attempting to own their purple in 2006 – and it’s something we’re bound to see more of in the years to come.

Photo credit: Copyright Mattel Inc., 2012

If you don’t know, Barbie was born out of the mind of a woman named Ruth Handler, who in the late 1950s used to observe her daughter, Barbara playing with paper dolls and always attributing adult roles and personalities to them. American dolls at the time were made in the form of children or infants. Mrs. Handler saw a gap in the marketplace and appealed to her husband, who was one of the founders of Mattel. (Aha!)

Photo credit: Copyright Mattel Inc. 2012

Since her debut on March 9, 1959 (officially considered her birthday), Barbie (full name Barbara Millicent Roberts) has become a cultural icon, teaching girls (boys too) that they can be anything they want to be. Barbie’s been a US Air Force pilot, a dentist, a NASCAR driver, an astronaut, a nurse, a firefighter, a model, a news anchor, a candy store cashier, a chef, an ambassador for world peace, a ballerina, a veterinarian, a Sea World trainer, a business executive, a bus driver, a cheerleader, a palaeontologist, a cowgirl, an architect and a police officer. She’s taught sign language, Spanish, dance, swimming, art, aerobics and special education. Barbie has also been elected US president, and was recently reinterpreted as a sexy cat burglar, by Christian Louboutin.

Photo credit: OOAK, ebay.com, Mattel Inc., 2012

If you’re looking for ways to celebrate Barbie’s birthday this Friday, you might consider bidding on this $1,350 Japanese Restaurant with rooftop sushi bar, currently listed on eBay. Domo arigato indeed.

Happy birthday Barbie.

Barbie Coco, by French artist Jocelyne Grivaud

Photo credit: Jocelyne Grivaud, Chanel, Mattel Inc. 2012

This great image is part of a series entitled ‘Barbie, ma muse’ by French artist Jocelyne Grivaud.

By the way, as much as you may love keeping Haft2Know to yourself, we’re always happy to introduce ourselves to new readers. So please, forward this and tell the world. They’ll thank you for it. And so will we. Thank you.

Jason Allen

By Jason Allen 06/03/2012 – 2:22 PM | Posted in Branding, Colour, Culture, Leisure | Comments (0)

Robobees to the rescue!

Photo credit: Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences

The National Science Foundation recently awarded a group of scientists at Harvard’s School of Engineering and Applied Sciences $10 million for their continued research and development of miniature robotic bees, called Robobees. (What else would they be called?)

The group professes that swarms of these little machines could offer a wide range of practical uses, some of them lifesaving. They could pollinate crops, perform military surveillance, monitor traffic patterns and even patrol unsafe areas after a tragedy to aid search and rescue efforts.

Photo credit: Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences

Robot bees. Sure feels like the future to me.

Jason Allen

By Jason Allen 06/03/2012 – 2:21 PM | Posted in Science, Technology | Comments (0)

Haft2RADIO: Derby Trellis

March means spring is coming, yes it does, and DJ Brandi Whytas is going to help usher it in with a sweet set of vintage country tunes for March that we’re calling Derby Trellis. They’re meant to evoke sipping coffee on the veranda on a Kentucky morning. Sounds like sweet music to me. Happy March everyone.

A new month also means a new digital desktop calendar to download from the Haft2COLOUR Calendar Project. This month’s image comes to us from the mind of Haft2 Designer and Studio Manager, Rachel Pratt. It’s available for your desktop, iPad and iPhone and it’ll remind you that spring is upon us. Click on the image below to download.

For iPad: here.
For iPhone: here.

DJ Brandi Whytas
Jason Allen

By Jason Allen 06/03/2012 – 2:20 PM | Posted in Colour, Playlists | Comments (0)

Great apps: Cartolina Postale

Photo credit: Jason Allen, Cartolina Postale, Model: Lucy

Who doesn’t love receiving something in the mail? (The real mail, that is.) Cartolina Postale is a great app that allows you to write a postcard on the go. Take a pic with your iPhone, customize with a message and some sweet vintage-y graphics and for between $2 and $3, it’ll be mailed as a 4×6 postcard to the loved / admired / lucky one of your choice.

Photo credit: Jason Allen, Cartolina Postale, Models: The Flamingo Family

The app is free to download and some of the graphics are so sweet. A totally free option is to email the image instead.

Cartolina Postale

Jason Allen

By Jason Allen 06/03/2012 – 2:20 PM | Posted in Design, Technology | Comments (0)

The Color Run

Photo credit: thecolorrun.com

Well this is outstanding. Imagine running in a 5k, but getting covered in colour from head to toe. The Color Run is a new phenomenon that promises to be like nothing you’ve tried – well, probably anyway. Register online for the run near you and then show up that day in white. As you run through the kilometres on your run, you’ll get covered in more and more colour.

Photo credit: thecolorrun.com

For each city the run comes to, a donation will be made by run organizers to a local charity, meaning you’ll be doing good, while running the spectrum. It sounds almost perfect. Locations are popping up all over the United States throughout 2012. Look for one coming near you.

Photo credit: thecolorrun.com

Interesting, the Color Run isn’t unlike Holi, India’s Festival of Colour, pictured below.

Photo credit: escapenormal.com, Poras Chaudhary

Jason Allen

Photo credit: thecolorrun.com

By Jason Allen 08/02/2012 – 5:32 PM | Posted in Colour, Philanthropy | Comments (0)

Visit Haft2

Dream of the Blue Trees

Haft2RADIO: Hope Springs

The business of Easter

Olly and Molly

Ensuring your heart goes on and on

Happy birthday, Barbie

Robobees to the rescue!

Haft2RADIO: Derby Trellis

Great apps: Cartolina Postale

The Color Run

Search

Categories

Recent Posts

Archives