Weiden & Kennedy's Magic Christmas Window : Combining Out Of Home With Internet Fun

Weiden & Kennedy of London have created an interesting way to combine user generated content with online Christmas cards. Nope, not an Elf Yourself ripoff... but with a visit to an actual storefront window (their "Magic Window", if you will) where your image is placed upon one of 12 Christmas characters, only to be immortalized online and then emailed to friends a plenty!!



Created with a Dickensian bent (a fun silent style film on their site explains the process), the Christmas Card Making Machine combines the OOH (out of home) experience with the communicative advantages of the internet.



People can walk by the window located at 16 Hanbury Street in London, see their faces superimposed upon one of 12 holiday icons (I'm a personal fan of being immortilized as a plum pudding), save it and then, once at a computer, retrieve it, personalize your message and with the hit of a button, send it off through cyberspace.




Once you get online, you visit the site , disclose the date at which you visited the window (a smart way to keep people from having to search through hundreds of faces) then scroll through the characters and faces of folks (yourself included... if you live in the area and visited the "Magic Window") who've captured their image:


Above: forgive me.. I have no idea who this guy is, but you can see how one finds, online, who visited the Magic Window and when




Choose your favorite-- and you can choose more than one character as in the above image--, personalize the text and email it off as a holiday card (yes, I chose the plum pudding):



Why care if you don't live in London?

Well, because the promotion of the idea is equally as fun. W&K's Dickensian film explaining the process is worth a look and the well designed site has all 12 characters making fun noises when you rollover each of them. Okay, so maybe my giggling at 'gobble gobble' is juvenile, but you try it!


Above: people outside the Christmas Card Making Machine at 16 Hanbury St., London

One final note: I do wish that I could capture my own face with my computer and upload it to the site, place it in one of the beautifully illustrated characters and download it, share it or print it, but then it'd be another sort of Elf Yourself. Living further away than across the pond, I think they should have implemented that in addition to having to visit the actual window, to let us 'foreigners' experience the fun.
Maybe next year.

Until then... check it out, learn about it, appreciate it and have fun here!

The RIOT Lamp From Freedom Of Creation

“Riot” is the first light in Freedom Of Creation's Collection which benefits not only from several waste-reduction initiatives, but is the first FOC product which only works with Megaman CFL energy saving bulbs. A statement against global warming, the lamp serves to remind us of the waste all around us - all while saving energy.



Designed by Janne Kyttänen (above), the finnish designer who is the founder of Freedom Of Creation, the shade is made from laser sintered polyamide (dirt protected) and other parts from the light also originate from recycled items, such as metal parts, switches and cables.


above: close-up of wall lamp

“Riot” is sold as a limited edition in three styles (table, floor and wall lamps) until the global warming problem has been solved- so they say.

The Table Lamp:



The Floor Lamp:



The Wall Lamp:




Buy it as a table lamp, floor lamp or wall lamp here.

Funky Find Of The Week: NEWD Adhesive Jewelry

NEWD of Italy is a company who designs and sells 'skin jewels' or 'wireless jewelry'. Gems and crystals set in precious and non-precious metals you can apply directly to the skin via an adhesive backing. They carry five collections and the prices vary depending upon the collection.

The 5 collections consist of The GOLDEN and SILVER Collections (some solid, some plated) , The MY STONES collection (with real gemstones or colored Swarovski crystals), the FASHION collection (wings embellished with Swarovski crystals, buffalo heads with real horse fur, and skulls with cubic zircons) and finally the exoskeletal My BONES collection (rhodium plated silver with your choice of colored Swarovski crystals in a vertebrae-like shape).





While the simple silver and gold flat iconographic pieces look like interesting shiny tattoos on the skin, the 'My Stones' and 'My Bones' collection designed by Italian journalist, politician and tv personality, Irene Pivetti, are certainly far creepier.

The 'My Stones' collection looks eerily as if one has broken out in bejeweled lesions and the 'My Bones' collection makes the wearer look like a Borg.

However, I commend them for a unique approach to the long hardly unchanged tradition of jewelry. See what you think.


Various Skin jewels from the Golden and Silver Collections:







Irene Pivetti's 'My Stones':






Irene Pivetti's 'My Bones':




The Fashion Collection:





The innovative adhesive film, Skin Touch was developed by the company’s internal research center. The results are a non-toxic-anallergic-waterproof film.

SKIN TOUCH is naturally an exclusive patented invention of Newd which guarantees maximum versatility for every type of jewel designed and created by the company.

How to apply Skin Touch:



•Clean your skin with soap or methylated spirits, and dry well.
•Detach the Skin Touch from its transparent film.
•Attach the Skin Touch to the back of the jewel, pressing well.
•Remove the protective film trying to avoid touching the adhesive part that will come in contact •with your skin.



•Apply the jewel to the clean part of your skin.
•A new Skin Touch must be applied every time the jewel is detached and then re-attached to your skin.


Visit the site and shop for the items here.