word. daily. (august 31, 2010)

House of Dots: Some key words and images that come to mind when we think of Detroit: 8 Mile Road, past auto industry hot spot and Tim Taylor’s hoodless Lions sweatshirt. Well now, we can add “The Heidelberg Project” to that list. Tyree Guyton, an artistic director, has been breathing new life into the abandoned houses in the city. He paints large polka dots all over, affixes stuffed animals to the facade, etc. Take a look here.

Baby Carrots: Carrot growers have united to fund the first-ever marketing campaign for the tiny orange veggie. The industry is releasing baby carrots packaged in junk food-esque bags to rivals other orange snacks like Doritos, Fritos and Cheetos. Chris Kuechenmeister at Frito Lay says they “are happy to serve as an inspiration,” adding, “We know people don’t eat enough fruits and vegetables, we applaud any effort to provide consumers with a wider range of snacking options.” 

Tape Art: We love this tape art outside the Opera House in Bordeaux, France. Paper tape artist Aakash Nihalani created a neon green tape 3-D rectangle on the steps of the building.

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—Lauren M.

Dinevore: Therapy for the Restauholic

Do you eat out so often that sometimes, you forget the names of restaurants you’ve tried? Are you the go-to person for friends and family members who want restaurant recommendations? Do you keep a running personal “wish list” of restaurants you want to try? Is said list becoming out of control?

If you answered “yes” to any of the above questions, Dinevore might be right for you.

The new online community/web application is like Foursquare sans check-in, meets Yelp, meets NYMag.com’s restaurant directory-on-steroids, meets every food blog you love. Its purpose is to help you, oh epicurious one, keep track of where you’ve eaten and where you’re dying to eat. You’ll even discover new restaurants you may not have known you were dying to try until you saw it on Sam Sifton’s “Sifty Fifty.”

Have a hankering for a food crawl? Dinevore founder Jeremy Fisher’s “Doubles” list will take you through Queens for some of the yummiest Indo-Trinidadian street food you’ll find in New York. Or, perhaps the “25 Brooklyn Favorites” list from Bon Appétit Magazine’s Andrew Knowlton is more your taste. Either way, the user-friendliness of this tool is fantastic. Hopefully there’s a Dinevore mobile app in the works!

-Andréa S.

word. daily. (july 28, 2010)

Sweet Dreams: Adele is on maternity leave from her job as a advertising copywriter and as her “maternity leave hobby,” she started a blog – while her baby is napping, she creates a scene of what baby Mila could be dreaming about and snaps some pictures.

The Country’s Best: TCBY has rebranded itself (looks like their people took some inspiration from Pinkberry, if you ask us…) but thank sweet sassy molassey that they’ve updated their look. Their new concept store (including a self-serve station!) had a soft opening recently in Salt Lake City.  Check it out – it actually has us excited about froyo again.

Shady Grilled Cheese: Long known as a family-friendly food, grilled cheese gets an underworld makeover thanks to the East Village’s Bread.Butter.Cheese, which adopts the business and delivery model of a drug dealer.

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—Lauren

word. daily. (july 26, 2010)

+ Pool: Designers and architects are coming together to support the + pool - a pool floating in the rivers of NYC. The pool, which will use filtered water from the rivers, will be shaped like a plus sign to accommodate multiple activities simultaneously.

Cupcake Tree: To encourage children and parents to bake, UK-based agri-processor Tate & Lyle held The Mad Artist Tea Party - kids got to pick cupcakes from trees (our dream come true!)

Oatmeal: It’s What’s For Breakfast: Swedish designer Niklas Hessman created concept packaging for a Swedish line of oatmeal. Hessman takes “breakfast” literally, having the eater break the package in half.

Food Wins!: To promote the launch of Man v. Food in London, 10 chefs took a week to prepare a huge picnic. In Kensington Gardens, sausage the size of a cricket bat and eggs bigger than footballs sat atop a larger-than-life plate. Food: 1, Man: 0. 

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—Lauren

word. daily. (july 22, 2010)

Don’t Send the Wrong Message: Have you ever asked your cubemate to read over an email to make sure it “sounds okay”? Has there been a time when you’ve reread an email and realize you came off like a total B? In a world of text-based communication, words and phrases commonly get misinterpreted. So, here to save the day is ToneCheck - an interface for Outlook that checks the tone of your email.

Ah, Push It: Amid all the mosquitoes in Florida, cake shop Sprinkles Custom Cakes was able to pump out a top-notch idea bug-free. They recently introduced a cake shooter – three layers of cake and icing in a push-up pop.

Butter-Fy Yourself: Yesterday, The Midwest Dairy Association launched a new Facebook app that allows you to – of all things – create a butter statue of yourself. Who knew churners could have such a sense of humor? (Seriously, did anyone know this?)

Anthroposts: Digital artist Noah Pedrini started a web project involving my one true love, Post-Its. He feels in a digital age, the beauty of handwriting is often lost, so Pedrini collected notes he found on the street, scanned them, and put them online for us to see.

Click here to let us know that you’d like to be added to the mailing list for the monthly edition of “word.”

—Lauren

word. daily. (july 13, 2010)

Show Us Your Pizza: Domino’s is unhappy with current pizza marketing – they think pizza doesn’t need to be retouched in advertisements to look good – and as a result of these anti-Photoshopping feelings, Domino’s is launching a “real beauty” campaign this week. As a part of this, all TV, print and online ads won’t be Photoshopped and consumers are encouraged to upload their own pizza pictures with the chance of winning ca$hmoney if their shot is featured in an ad.

Old Mr. Zuckerberg Had a Farm: Farmville, Facebook’s online social game, is running a promotion where its items are being sold physically in stores. In 7-Elevens, you’ll find the branded goods and earn codes to use online to get special items.

30 Dates, 30 Nights: Brian is new to the Big Apple and an inexperienced dater – so how should he meet people in a city of 8 million? Well, he’s going the crowdsourcing route. Brian launched a site, Dating Brian, as a social experiment where he will attempt to go on 30 dates in 30 days with the sole help of users via his site, Twitter and Facebook.

Click here to let us know that you’d like to be added to the mailing list for the monthly edition of “word.”

—Lauren

Return to NYTM

Last night, I attended my first NY Tech Meetup since February — I can’t believe it’s been that long, but things have been crazy. I brought along our new FWD member, Rob, who had never been to NYTM before! This was the first one I’d been to at NYU’s Skirball Center, which brought back college flashbacks for me, even though I don’t think I’d been in there since freshman orientation, when I watched a very entertaining hypnotist turn people into chickens.

This month’s shindig was hosted by Dina Kaplan, who did a great job of engaging the audience and keeping things running smoothly. I was also pleasantly surprised by all the girl power on stage tonight. I was especially excited that the event featured a brief keynote by Clay Shirky (who wore his Three Wolf Moon T-shirt again!), because I really enjoyed the interview with him in the June issue of Wired and I’m looking forward to reading his new book. It was a great presentation and I only wish it could have been a bit longer!

In terms of the app demos, I was most intrigued by Foodspotting, which is sort of like FourSquare, but allows you to share photos of the food at the restaurants. I love the idea, since my family always makes fun of me for taking pictures of my food, but I don’t have an iPhone, so I hope they develop a BlackBerry app, too. I also wonder how they’ll deal with chefs who prohibit photography in their restaurants.

I feel like this month’s demos were less exciting than usual, probably because I had heard of most of them before — Jetsetter, HowAboutWe and Hot Potato have already been around for a while and gotten a ton of buzz. The audience seemed most blown away by ComiXology, where you can download online versions of comic books. They even have Archies!

—Alyssa

word. daily. (june 25, 2010)

Beer Me: Dutch beer brand Grolsch knows that brew-ha-ha (word play!) is a vital part of watching the World Cup, and they are stepping in to lend a hand to those fans who find themselves in a pickle. If your fridge breaks down during World Cup season, people can call the “Koelkast Julplijn” (fridge hotline) and Grolsch will deliver a loaner fridge to hold you over.

Streetwalk: Reminiscent of the cows that took over NYC a decade ago (yes, it has been that long), here come the mannequins. Organized by the Fashion Center Business Improvement District, designers (who include DVF, Victor Alfaro, and Tommy Hilfiger) customized mannequins in their signature style with a touch of weatherproof to line the streets of the Garment District, in an attempt to get back its identity as a place where fashion is born.

Reverse Inspiration: In recent years, we’ve seen quite a few fast food chains introduce more high-end offerings (croissan’wich, anyone?) – Eric Ripert turns that trend by introducing a McDonald’s-inspired burger at his DC outpost.

Lighting Strikes…Thrice: In case you missed it, lighting strikes the three tallest buildings in Chicago. At the same time. 

Click here to let us know that you’d like to be added to the mailing list for the monthly edition of “word.”

—Lauren

Better4You Speaks on Panel at TechMunch

From time to time, our Better4You team speaks on panels and participates in the discussion of how social media impacts the food, nutrition and consumer health communities. 

Check out Frani Lieberman’s post about her experience as a panelist at TechMunch here, and stay tuned for additional updates on FWD Thinking from our Better4You team!

- Rob