What is the purpose of a logo?

Brian Solis continuing a conversation about logos, after it was discovered that a few modern logos look a lot like logos from a design book: 

Without purpose, a logo is merely design. If it’s borrowed or if it’s completely original, it makes no difference if it’s unrelatable. In the end, a meaningful logo is a symbol of what you stand for and what you aspire to do or be that attracts me to stand with you. It’s how you bring that purpose and meaning to life, in every moment of truth, that shapes my experience.

Now Computers Can Tell When You're Bored

Scientific American: 

Boredom manifests itself in more than yawns and glazed eyes. Subtle body cues called noninstrumental movements—squirming, scratching, shifting—also give away a person's mental state. Like teachers and other public speakers, machines can now also pick up on these telltale signs of restlessness. A new study reveals that when computer users tune in to on-screen material, their fidgeting lessens—and algorithms can use that information to discern attentiveness in real time.

To measure engagement, psychobiologist Harry Witchel of Brighton and Sussex Medical School in England and his colleagues outfitted 27 participants with motion-tracking markers that a computer's visual system could follow. The participants then read digital excerpts from a novel by Mark Haddon, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, and from the European Banking Authority's regulations. Based on motion in the head, torso and legs, the computer could tell when a person had mentally checked out. In fact, an analysis of the cumulative movements revealed that when people read from the novel, they fidgeted nearly 50 percent less than when reading the banking guidelines.

Why are we so bored?

We live in a world of constant entertainment – but is too much stimulation boring?

Although we seem to live in a varied and exciting world with a wealth of entertainment at our fingertips, this is actually the problem. Many of these amusements are obtained in remarkably similar ways – via our fingers. We spend much of our work life now tapping away at our keyboard. We then look for stimulation (watching movies, reading books, catching the news, interacting with friends) via the internet or our phone, which means more tapping. On average we spend six to seven hours in front of our phone, tablet, computer and TV screens every day.

All this is simply becoming boring. Instead of performing varied activities that engage different neural systems (sport, knitting, painting, cooking, etc) to relieve our tedium, we fall back on the same screen-tapping schema for much of our day. The irony is that while our mobile devices should allow us to fill every moment, our means of obtaining that entertainment has become so repetitive and routine that it’s a source of boredom in itself.

Graphic Design Before Computers

Graphic Means is a documentary film currently in post-production that looks to unveil the fascinating world of graphic design before desktop publishing, and undoubtedly inspire in you feelings of unconditional love for your MacBook for simplifying your life one thousandfold. Take a look at the trailer above, and admire the human ingenuity that was necessary for transforming an idea into a printed page, before heading to the project’s Kickstarter page for more information.

In the Future, We Will Photograph Everything and Look at Nothing

Om Malik in The New Yorker:

As a result, photos are less markers of memories than they are Web-browser bookmarks for our lives. And, just as with bookmarks, after a few months it becomes hard to find photos or even to navigate back to the points worth remembering. Google made hoarding bookmarks futile. Today we think of something, and then we Google it. Photos are evolving along the same path as well.