This:

Dear companies: want me as a customer for life? Have awesome customer service.

I know, I probably speak for a LOT of people when I say this. But think about all the times you have had a total crap customer service experience that made you say, I'm never going back there again. Now think about when you have an exceptionally great customer service experience; don't you want to have that awesomeness ALL THE TIME??

Case in point: Last October, I bought the 8 year old a winter coat from Lands End. It was a little big on her last year, so I know we'd get multiple years out of it. It was also one of the coldest winters ever last year, so she wore it just about every day (never mind that it was also her ski jacket). Well something must have happened to the zipper at the end of last winter, because she put the coat on for the first time this year just the other night, and the zipper was 100% stuck. Like, it wasn't going anywhere. I know that Lands End has awesome customer service, and that their products are guaranteed, so naturally I called them with my zipper issue. Know what happened?

They're sending us a new coat.

Granted, I have to send the old one back (which is fine, because hello? zipper), and because I had gotten the old one WAY on sale, and the new coat wasn't WAY on sale, I do have to pay the difference (which is about $25). But come on. How many stores will take back a 1-year old USED coat, and give you a brand new one in exchange for it?

After such a positive experience, I tweeted about it, I'm blogging about it, and I'm generally just going to become a walking billboard for how awesome Lands End is for the next few days. And what did it cost them? Practically nothing. 

Cool:

When your friends who make music announce they are getting married, of course you are going to want to make them a wedding invitation that doubles as a paper record player:

Paper Record Player from kellianderson on Vimeo.

There is WAY too much to love here; starting with the fact that it would have been really easy for this designer to burn the song onto a CD, and package it with the invitation. Instead, she did a TON of research, and made a record. And since few people have turntables these days, she also made a paper record player to play said record on.

So much thought, so much care (so much science! And math!) went into this, it's awesome, adorable, and, well, awesome, all rolled into one. Plus, imagine the bragging rights the bride and groom have: "Oh, your wedding invitations were made out of paper, too? Yeah, but could they PLAY RECORDS???"

(via twitter)

Night & day

Last week I came across this pretty awesome photography challenge from Gizmodo: Using long exposures, users were asked to submit photos taken at night, that look like they were taken during the day.









In some of these shots, you can see the rotation of the earth in the stars... which I think adds to the cool factor. Sometimes, things aren't always what they seem.

The designer behind the awesomeness

A while back, I posted about these clothbound classics from Penguin (seriously, how much do you love them??).



This time, let's talk about the designer behind the awesomeness: Coralie Bickford-Smith.

The inspiration blog the 99% interviewed her, talking about a typical workday, inspirations, and the like. First of all, I totally want to hang with this woman. She sounds awesome!

The best days are when final books come in. If it's one that I've put my heart into I can't wait for them to reach our floor so I rush up to production to get my hands on them and make sure everything is as it should be. It can be a bit scary, opening those boxes of books, but when it has all worked, it's ace.

And totally want her job!

Working in central London, I can go to some wonderful places to get ideas – museums, galleries, shops. And right at my desk of course – sometimes I just get sucked into the Internet and binge visually for hours. If this is the way my day has gone I go running for half an hour at lunchtime to escape and reset my brain.

Read the entire interview at the 99%, gush over Coralie's work on her website, and--as an added bonus--check out these adorable T(ea) towels. Want.

Eat it (or not)

Except for the whole bacon part, agreed:



(seen on Buzzfeed via Jezebel)

I heart you, Internet

OK, first let me say that the Internet? It's pretty awesome.

Why, you ask? Because ladies and gentlemen, I am stressed. Stressed to the max. Construction, work, lack of sleep... it's not a good combination. It's not a productive combination. It just downright sucks.

But the internet cheers me up almost instantly. OK, well maybe not the internet--but stuff on the internet. Take Ben Folds (who I think is awesome) and add ChatRoulette (which I think is kind of creepy) and you get 5 minutes of pure wait-what-just-happened-here? Then you watch it again, because, hello? Dude is on ChatRoulette while performing a concert (in Charlotte). Then you realize that the title of the video is Ode to Merton, and you're all who-the-heck-is-Merton? And come to find out it's a dude on his piano, who logs onto ChatRoulette and sings to people.

The Ben Folds version, for your viewing pleasure:



And that totally whacked-out scenario made me forget my stress for about 15 minutes. So thank you Ben Folds. Thank you Merton. And most of all, thank you Internet, for making this all possible.

Want.

365 Typefaces, from 180 designers and foundries, in 30 countries, for 2010.

Yes, I need to order the Typodarium font calendar before it gets any later in the year.

Carbon Copies

I am loving Cardon Copy. The premise is simple:

Designer "hijacks" ugly homemade fliers posted around neighborhoods.

Redesigns them.

And hangs them back up.

Awesome.

(via Twitter/mtlb)