What’s a Mood Board?

 

One of the first steps to a style update or room remodel is to gather your thoughts so they can translate to actual stuff. When you find a color scheme you love or are moved by a certain design palate, you need a place to put these insights.

One way to collect all your inspirations is to keep the magazine you found the image in, dog-ear the page, and stack it on top of the ever-growing pile of other magazines with dog-eared pages.

Or, you could just create a mood board.

This is a simple and effective way of keeping what inspires you in one easy-to-view place. Your mood board is designed to combine images of products, colors, and text so that you can keep coming back to one place whether you’re ready to add something or just want to see the progress of your project.

There’s no wrong way to start your mood board, but there are a few basic steps to follow. As the mood board creator, you have total creative control over what goes on the board.

You can do things the “old fashioned” way: Grab a cork board, and when you see a paint sample, an image of a kitchen faucet, or motif from a design magazine you’d like to keep, get it.

After a while, your collection will start to grow and take shape. Group it all together on the board in a way that will keep the creativity flowing and help you get closer to completing your project.

Or if you’d prefer, you can create a digital mood board. The entire process is simplified, and a wealth of potential online inspiration is waiting right at your fingertips. Save, copy, paste, save. What could be easier?

Of course, some people prefer the tactile sensation of a mood board they can touch and feel (especially if it includes swatches of color or fabric). Regardless, visit Oliboard.com for a great example of a digital mood board.

And, yes, if you were wondering, there’s an app for that, for iPad users.

So, when you’re ready to start collecting all of your thoughts (and others’ ideas) together in one place, simplify things, streamline the process, and remove the clutter. A mood board can help with any new design project.

 

Brand Republic Announces Relaunch: The Best just Got even Better

(PRWEB) March 3, 2007

Brand Republic, the market-leading online portal for the advertising, media, marketing and PR industries, is relaunching as a next generation web site with personalized content, an emphasis on community and a new look and feel, created by OgilvyOne Worldwide London.

OgilvyOne, a leading DM and digital agency, has created a completely new page design, new navigation and a set of new features and functionality. The revamped site went live on Monday.

As well as its acclaimed breaking news service, the new Brand Republic (http://www.brandrepublic.com/ ), which already has a monthly audience of over 215,000 users*, offers its members the chance to have their say via forums and blogs written by opinion formers working in the worlds of advertising, media, PR and marketing. Users also get access to the UK’s leading marcomms job site.

Personalization plays an important role too – through My Brand Republic (http://www.brandrepublic.com/MyBR/ ), users can build their own home page, with BR’s specialist news feeds as well as their own selected search engine and content from any area they chose, from sports news to weather forecasts, or current affairs.

A tailor-made profile allows them to make connections with their peers and colleagues. My Brand Republic allows marcomms professionals to build their own archive for future reference.

Other highlights of the new-look site include:


A relaunched Jobs (http://jobs.brandrepublic.com/ ) section containing over 3,000 current vacancies, comprehensive job and industry guides, company profiles and CVs, as well as an improved recruiter services suite.

Mediaweek.tv, a regular series of web chats with leading media figures such as C4’s chief executive Andy Duncan. The current show features a far-ranging interview with WPP’s chief executive Sir Martin Sorrell.

A revamped breaking news (http://www.brandrepublic.com/News/ ) service.

A fully searchable archive, dating back to 1995, of more than 300,000 articles.

A global, constantly updated, events diary.

Access to the latest research from third parties such as the IAB, Nielsen//NetRatings and Thomson Intermedia as well as sister Haymarket publications including Campaign and Revolution.

The opportunity to subscribe to 17 different email bulletins, covering everything from data and DM through to broadcasting;

“The new Brand Republic really makes the most of the unique properties of the internet,” said Rufus Olins, managing director of Brand Republic. “The popularity of BR continues to grow. More than ever, we’ll be able to keep all our users informed, educated and connected with each other as they help us evolve the site further. Brand Republic is becoming an indispensable tool for marcomms professionals who need to stay ahead of the game.”

BR’s latest ABCe figure shows a growth in unique users to 215,261 unique users a month. The new site will also give advertisers a large and expanding volume of active users whom they could target with appropriate messages at the right time and in the right place.

John Baker, head of Interactive at OgilvyOne, commented: “The focus has been to make it easier to get to the depth of content and tools on Brand Republic, and emphasise the community (http://www.brandrepublic.com/Community/ ) and networking features of the site. Additionally, we’ve created new ‘bespoke’ magazine sites for Campaign, Marketing, Media Week and six more key trade titles to allow editorial teams to publish news and content daily, meaning that the brand values of the individual titles will come across much more strongly.”

“For us as an agency, this has been a fascinating and challenging brief, and we are delighted to have had the opportunity to revamp such a prestigious and, to the marcomms industry, important, site.”

Published exclusively online since 2001, Brand Republic is well-known for its breaking news service and jobs board, and is also the home to web sites for publisher Haymarket’s leading B2B print titles Campaign, Marketing, Media Week, Revolution, Marketing Direct, Promotions & Incentives and Direct Response.

Access to Brand Republic is completely free, and only requires a quick and simple registration process. To register now, go to: http://www.brandrepublic.com/

according to ABCe, 215,261 unique users visited the site during October 2006

For more details, please contact:

Rufus Olins, Managing Director, (0208 267 4956) or Philip Smith, head of content, (0208 2678038) at Haymarket.

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Interactive Whiteboards: The SmartBoard

Smart today’s classrooms equipped with various digital technologies, including interactive whiteboards, viewers, the document cameras, interactive panels, digital power Desks, Podiums, projectors and room assistants, etc. Also called interactive whiteboard as smart cards can turns your computer and projector into a powerful tool for teaching, collaboration, learning and presentation. With an image projected on the board, you can simply press on its large, touch-sensitive surface to access and control any application. Whiteboards as interactive whiteboards transform into dynamic classrooms, welcoming environments where students are given the freedom to learn as they think and express their own innovative ideas in this age of modern technology.

Whiteboards can be connected directly to a computer / laptop and projection system acts as an interactive digital whiteboard where one does not need any marker to write or highlight information. With the finger, it is of course work in the Council to take notes and highlight important and desired information. Whenever you meet, teach, train or present, the Council allows your group to save your valuable time, increase interactivity in your group and improve communication leading to the emergence of the modern world.

You can also control all the functions of the computer from the Commission itself and therefore no need to stand beside your computer while presenting, d education or work something students. Besides this one can choose a number of colors to present information and there is no limitation on the color markers have.

The Smart Board is an interactive whiteboard that make use of the touch detection for user input. This includes scrolling, right-click the mouse in the same natural features of the one-way PC input, such as a mouse or keyboard, detect input. The Smart Board interactive whiteboard usually comes with four pens, which use digital ink and replace traditional whiteboard markers. Most of the Smart Board interactive whiteboards register only one contact at a time. Some dual-touch SMART Board interactive whiteboard supports two simultaneous touches.

A Smart Board interactive whiteboard can also be used in non-projected mode (without using a projector), but their use with the projector’s what by SMART Classroom and interactive. We can use a whiteboard in projected mode with three main components:

informatiqueUn projector numériqueUn interactive whiteboard system SMART Board

. All three components work together to make a SMART Classroom Interactive

The Smart Board uses DViT (Digital Vision Touch) to detect and respond to touch interactions on the surface interactive whiteboard. This touch technology based on a camera for interactive whiteboards and interactive displays using digital cameras and proprietary firmware and software to detect finger or the stylus in contact with the screen.

With this new generation digital SmartBoard users can easily and interactively engage in the development of plans, opening images and videos, explore the Internet or illustrate their points by writing directly on it and express them in an interactive way that will also facilitate the viewers.

Today, SMART Board is used to teach over 18 million students and participants in over 600,000 classrooms in more than 100 countries around the world. The interactive nature of SMART boards has many practical uses for learning and education class. Now, we may be able to demonstrate the high quality presentation and the desired dimensions that will increase the level of communication and education as standard. Smart Board allows users to work with large amounts of information. It gives you a flexible collaboration tool that turns each session lesson or brainstorming a dynamic learning experience.


We are a unique solution for smart classrooms. Contact us to convert your class one.
SMART ClassroomÉquipe Infovision Private Limited
team Infovision

Inspirational Reading In Message To Garcia, An Essay On Motivation

A Message to Garcia is an extremely inspirational reading with woven leadership qualities throughout his text.

Ever wondered what it takes to make someone working? Ever wondered what motivates a person to do something? Each requested by the lack of staff expertise to do the job? Well, I too, and until I read Message To Garcia, I wondered what it was about others and myself that I was hitting against.

Here is a test that has captured considerable attention. It was published in 1899 by the American philosopher Elbert Hubbard. Over the years 40 million copies were printed. As soon as I read this text, I got my own game in life. Instantly, I became more productive. It seems that we may be educated in the production and leadership by creative pieces. I refer to this time of text to another. He still lifts me.

The test is performed during the Spanish-American War. This is a man who was given the sole task by President McKinley in 1898 to provide a letter to Garcia, the leader of the rebels in Cuba. The person to deliver the letter was named Rowan. The fact that he simply took the letter, crossed the sea and went through the jungle to find Garcia distinguished hand, is truly inspiring. He did not ask how he could find Garcia. He did not ask that Garcia, or it would not be better if the letter was delivered at another time. He took the job, worked on what was needed and delivered the letter, and came to the other side of Cuba, returned home.

We wondered what kind of person was Rowan. How is it that it does not weaken, stopping on the way? How many people are there in this world that could actually deliver a message to Garcia? How Much? Not much.

How many people you know that when you give them a course of action, they will not divert their attention? Call the union? Put it in the future? How many times have you made someone a job, only to ask you if you are sure this is necessary? Or, perhaps it might be better if someone else has done the job instead?

This short literary work is a masterpiece of inspiration of the pen. It does not matter who wrote or even who was Elbert Hubbard. This short-creation strikes a chord in most of us. It encourages us to ignore the shroud of apathy, and the associated reasoning, which we bogs to wallow in the uncertainty of life. It allows us to have the right to aspire to develop this quality we call spine.

Green Elbert Hubbard became rich and famous as a result of this one piece. I included on my site Scientology because I like his prose.

I hope you get a chance to enjoy reading.

Nick Broadhurst is the Executive Director of the Church of Scientology of Canberra. He has been in Scientology for 20 years.Message For Garcia, Church of Scientology of Canberra

See How You Can Preview Message Attachments in Outlook 2007

The ability to ‘take a peek’ at a file attached to a message is one of the simple and convenient benefits of upgrading to Outlook 2007. When I say you can take a peek at an attachment, I mean that you have the ability to preview attachments inside of the Outlook Reading Pane, without having to use the program the attached file is normally used with.

For example, send me a Word document as an attachment, and I can preview the contents of the document right inside Outlook without having to start Word. Compare this to the process with older versions of Outlook, where you couldn’t see the contents of an attached Word document without starting Word and viewing it there. The same attachment previewing capability is there for Excel spreadsheets and several other kinds of files that people often email back and forth.

Why is this new approach a big improvement? There are two reasons. First, you can preview attachments much faster and more conveniently than finding and launching the native program for the attachment file type, then opening the attachment in that program. Second, it is just a more intuitive way to do your work.

If you’re wondering how it is possible to preview attachments without using the programs the attachments work with, there’s a simple explanation. Outlook 2007 comes with a set of attachment previewers, little programs that give a basic view of the contents of a file. They don’t have the ability to edit the file, and won’t necessarily show the contents exactly the way they’ll appear in the full application that normally opens the file.

Outlook 2007 comes with attachment previewers for major Microsoft Office files, plus previewers for common image and text file types. And some other companies have also created attachment previewers for their own file types that you can download. In other words, for most of the attachments you’re likely to receive, you should already have, or be able to get, an attachment previewer that will let you preview it without leaving Outlook.

Once the attachment previewer you need is installed, using it is simple. When you have a message containing an attachment visible in the Reading Pane, Outlook displays a set of buttons at the top of the pane. The Message button shows you the body of the message when you click it. In addition to the Message button, each attachment gets its own button. These buttons are labeled with the name of the attached file.

The button you click determines what appears in the Reading Pane. Click Message to see the body of the email message. Click an attachment’s button to get a preview of the attachment. It’s all nice and easy, but you need to know that the attachment preview isn’t guaranteed to look exactly the same as the file would look if you opened it with the program it works with (a Word document in Word, for example). Even so, you’ll likely find attachment previewers to be quite useful if people email you a lot of files.

 

For more information on using attachment previewers, including a number of additional previewer oddities and gotchas, visit http://www.living-with-outlook.com/preview-attachments.html. If you need to preview attached PDF files, you should also check out: http://www.living-with-outlook.com/preview-pdf.html

Digital Signage and the Advantages of Outdoor

Digital signage is fast becoming one of the most popular advertising medium; it is certainly one of the fastest growing. It’s effective, low cost and can reach large audiences for a fraction of the investment of comparable advertising systems such as TV or radio.

It is being deployed in retail units, transport hubs, concourses and in surgeries and waiting rooms. And one area where it is beginning to permeate and is becoming increasingly successful is outdoors.

Outdoor digital signage is growing in popularity and its rise is due to the many advantages an outdoor screen can offer for promotion and marketing compared to an indoor device.

Outdoor screens have one key advantage over indoor digital signage in that the audience figures for an outdoor display are usually far greater.

Just think about an digital sign inside a retail store, nearly everybody that will see the sign is already in the store (and presumably already a potential customer) but far more people will walk past outside and of there is a display there, then greater numbers will see it and if the content and promotion is appealing enough – it will drive people into the store.

Outdoor displays are now replacing many of the static signs and advertisements that have long adorned our high streets providing many advantages over these traditional signs and adverts.

The ability to provide multiple content on a single screen; to upload content centrally, without the need of a visiting technician; having an advertising medium that stands out and is more engaging than the static competition,  provides advertisers with all the advantages they need to justify the initial expense of an outdoor digital signage system.

And there is an expense. Ensuring the outdoor screen is going to be able to cope outdoors means either investing in a rugged outdoor or waterproof TV or using a commercial grade screen in a protective outdoor LCD enclosure but with the advantages outdoor digital signage offers advertisers and promoters it is a price many regard as worth paying.

Richard N Williams is a technical author and a specialist in the digital signage industry helping to develop outdoor digital signage and protection for plasmas. Please visit us for more information about LCD Enclosures or other digital signage solutions.

GSBC Global – Digicurve LOI Agreement

Bangkok, Thailand (PRWEB) March 20, 2007

Digital Signage specialist GSBC Global today has successfully negotiated an LOI to become listed on the NASDAQ’s Over-the-Counter Bulletin Board. The founder of GSBC Global, Mr Ronald Flynn, worked with Digicurve Inc. to enter into the letter of intent to complete an asset purchase of GSBC Global Inc.

GSBC Global announced that it has been acquiring key technologies and assets for the past 6 months and the company now has a stable of digital signage products including software, hardware and content specialists.

Mr Flynn added “Our acquisitions have world class products that will be the springboard of our initial growth, particularly because we have brought along highly experienced teams of senior executives and staff, many of whom have been world leaders in the digital signage sector, enhancing the existing business of Digicurve”.

It is intended that upon closing that Ron Flynn would step down from the operational side of GSBC Global and from the interim Board. It is anticipated that the management team of Digicurve – including Mr. Greg Brown – will be joining the GSBC Global executive team.

Joining GSBC Global as Group Chief Operating Officer is Peter Smith – founder of the m-cast, Info-Onscreen and Digital Streams companies and one of the most experienced people in multimedia management systems and digital signage systems today.

Upon closing, included in the transaction would be the highly advanced m-cast digital signage software. The m-cast system is designed for the targeted scheduling of advertising messages. It can interact with point-of-sale systems using an advanced Xpert system to target screen and coupon based offers to customers. In the European market, m-cast is being integrated into the brands of point of sale systems installed by retailers, fast food chains and high street retailers.

As part of GSBC Global’s assets is the New Zealand based Wallflower Global, the largest digital signage software developer in Australasia. The Wallflower product has been successfully deployed by Telstra, Vodafone, Mazda and in universities, casinos, airports and in many retail display systems.

Other acquisitions GSBC Global has recently completed include content and distribution companies including:

o    London based Xn Digital Streams specializing in value added consulting and the distribution of the m-cast product into major IT reseller channels;

o    Vancouver based Digital Signage FX group which specializes in creative digital signage content and has links with audio visual distribution channels in Canada and the US;

o    IDST which is an SMS based gaming solution based in London;

o    Public Leisure, a UK company specializing in interactive screen entertainment in pubs using SMS technology; and

o    CiticSmart, a Japanese sourced technology for managing currency in casinos and sporting venues.

Once the transaction is concluded, the GSBC Global business will be divided into four divisions, each with its own business model and technology solutions.

Advertising Networks

GSBC Global will be established using a franchising model to ensure rapid rollout and skilled management of the screen networks.

Digital Signage Systems

These are digital signage products used to establish Branded Content channels. “Branded content is about engaging the consumer and gaining their permission to advertise to them”, commented Ms Keane-Dawson.

Content Provision

GSBC Global is establishing links with third-party content providers internationally and nationally. GSBC Global will also be producing its own innovative programming content to create its own branded content channels.

Consulting and Analysis

The consulting and analysis division will gather consumer data for use to underpin our on-screen advertising pricing and to demonstrate the benefits of using low-cost, high frequency advertising that reaches consumers out of home.

Ms. Mary Keane-Dawson, GSBC Global’s CEO of Europe and the Americas commented on the GSBC Global products and services. “We believe that GSBC Global’s Digital signage has unique features. It is powerful – measurable advertising and promotions that give FMCG companies (fast moving consumer goods) access to qualified customers when they are in-store, wallets open and in a mindset to buy”.

Contact:

GSBC Global

peter.smith @ gscb-group.com

http://www.gsbc-group.com

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