Orinity

The World Wide Web has been deeply integrated into our lives, opening our eyes to many things thought not possible. Cell phones and laptops are amongst the digital gadgets that allowed us to access the internet as an when we like. There was sometime, not too long ago, that the click-and-mortar concept was the way to go in the retail sector.

 I am sure that many of you are familiar with online sprees and auctions, which some I have mentioned about a few entries back. ASOS is another online store, with a BIG difference. From what I learnt from Sue in the seminar last week, when ASOS first started their online business, they actually have a monthly online magazine which showcases their items, like an advertorial. Being able to mix and match with such a variety of products definately enabled ASOS to create different styles to capture the general audience’s attention. Once people’s attention are captured, they are more prone to view and buy your items.

There is also a Japanese online store, but this website unfortunately, is all in japanese, so there might be some difficulty in navigating the site. This is how you place your order – View the item selection online and place your orders via phone. Although one might think that since this is an online store, why not make the shopping experience a pure online one? Well, we know alot of shopping sites where we can place our orders at, but how many websites do we know that allows us to interact with a human voice and get more involved in this shopping experience? This also brings in an important factor – Time. By placing your orders to another person, doubts and queries can be settled faster, probably by that one phone call.

Other than having unique display props like the THEO FENNELL exhibition that I mentioned in my previous entry, there are some stores that actually sell products that probably are wacky and attention-grabbing enough on their own. I chance upon this site that sells, let’s put it nicely, novelties, which would probably make us feel like we were walking into one of Ripley’s Believe It Or Not! museums. 

Archie McPhee‘s products listing includes rubber chickens, glow in the dark aliens, plastic ants, gummy lips, etc. For a complete product listing, please see here. If that’s not wacky enough, there is a list of the weirdest items that they have.

While the range of items at their stores might be overwhelming to absorb in a single sight, their website is easy to navigate and there detailed descriptions for each item. Interested to buy from them? Do note that international orders cannot be placed online. For more enquiries, you may wish to visit their FAQs page. There are two Archie McPhee stores, which are:

Address: 2428 NW Market Street, Seattle, WA 98107
and 2436 NW Market Street, Seattle, WA 98107

Last Tuesday, I went to a WGSN SINGAPORE Seminar held at Furama Riverfront Singapore. The speaker was Sue Evans, Senior Fashion Editor from WGSN London. I must admit that the first half of the seminar had me almost dozing off not once or twice, but many times. I blame it on a hearty breakfast of MacDonald’s. 

However, as Sue started on the second half of her presentation, I was intrigued by the case studies that she showed us while we were on the topic of the importance of visual merchandising. There were a few shops that captured my interest immediately. After I went back to office, I went online and did a search for some of the shops that Sue had mentioned. The follow are the shortlisted stores and the information I found so far. THEO FENNELL is a celebrity jeweller and his celebrity fans include Victoria Beckham, Liz Hurley, Elton John, etc. The store that was mentioned in my seminar was actually his Show Off! jewellery exhibition, which showcases his jewellery creations in a a dramatic setting. The main structure would have to be a full-sized guillotine with the severed head of Marie Antoinette, whose earlobes were adorned with a 55-carat Burma ruby and diamond earrings worth 395,000 pounds. Sue showed us a picture of the guillotine with the severed head, and thinking that this picture could be found easily online, I searched for it. Alas, I couldn’t find it.

The other displays were as bizzare as the guillotine. A woman in an electric chair, a corpse on a gurney and a tableau of heaven in which an angel’s wings have been chucked into a dustbin in favour of a far greater temptation — a ruby horned heart. Mythological figures such as cherubs, murderers, snakes, scorpions, bats and skeletons were all used as props to showcase the magnificant gemstones and diamonds.

However, one interesting fact that Sue divulged was that this exhibition was only opened for four days, but took 11 months to prepare.

I was about to log out to my Yahoo email account when I caught sight of a banner of something interesting.

Ocean of Fear: Worst Shark Attack Ever is one of the television shows that the Discovery Channel has for its Shark Week programs. This show is based on the sinking of the USS Indianapolis (which was torpedoed by the Japanese submarine I-58) in 1945 after the ship has safely transported components of the atomic bomb known as “Little Boy”. Approximately 900 men abandoned ship and those that were wounded by the blast soon died. Despite having an initial 900 odd surviors, only 316 of them survived the five-day ordeal in the shark-infested waters.

This program chronicles how the survivors fought ths sharks, and the reasons why the sharks attacked the way they did.

P/S: I just found out that Shark Week took place from July 29 through August 4. Anyone knows where I can find it?

I was checking out John Chow‘s posts from the past few days that I missed due to me being at a holiday resort with my friends. It is hard to believe the power of airbrushing using PhotoShop. I always know that PhotoShop is an awesome piece of software but the video threw my beliefs even wilder. It is not just awesome, it is ‘god-like’ like how some of my friends will describe it. Thanks to John Chow for that entry, it was really entertaining and definitely an eye-opener.

Lose Weight In Photoshop (makeover) – video powered by Metacafe

Behold! The power of airbrushing!