The Squeaky Wheel of Twitter

Kevin Smith & Southwest Air, Dave Carroll & United Airlines, countless Comcast customers – seems like social media outlets are the go-to place to post your gripe these days, but is it really worth it?

It’s becoming more and more common for social media fans, especially those on Twitter, to carry their mobile device like a gun on their hip just waiting for something to happen. In most cases, something bad. Then, when he or she is wronged or offended, the Twitter gun is fired. Now, I will admit that I have been guilty of this on an occasion or two, but I can honestly say that all it did was get a strange look from my wife and occupy a couple minutes of my time. That’s about all.

This most recent “issue” with director Kevin Smith being removed from a Southwest Air flight because he was too overweight to “comfortably fit” into an airplane seat really got me thinking. Shouldn’t we try to focus a bit more on the positive things these days? The economy is suffering. Unemployment rates are out of control. Why should I care if Kevin Smith is overweight? I’m still going to fly Southwest because the price is right and more often than not they are on time or even early to my destination.

Here’s a suggestion, if you experience something good, post it on Twitter and shout it from the rooftops. Rather than continuing to stifle our own economy by complaining about the bad decisions made by businesses, let’s put more emphasis on promoting the good ones and help everyone feel a little better about things.

Get Your Super Bowl Tickets Here!

Okay, so maybe not actually HERE per se, but YES! Blueye Creative just completed a mobile app for Ticketmaster to be used for Super Bowl XLIV so fans can check for available tickets for the Super Bowl in Miami, FL this year. Not, you can’t actually purchase the tickets from the app. However, you have three easy options on how to snag your tix!

How does it work? You have 4 Easy options:

Go to to NFLticketexchange.mobi and search for the tickets you want and click to buy.

Then either:

1. Call the NFL Ticket Exchange 800 number

2. Enter your email address to have a sales representative email you with information

3. Enter your phone number to have a Sales Representative call you

4. Use Google Maps to get directions to The Clevelander Hotel in South Beach and pick up your tickets there. *This option is available for mobile devices with Google’s map already enabled. Otherwise, you will see a map of the location for your reference in you phone browser.

Start Your Brainstorming Now!

Today on techcrunch.com, A post was made regarding the New York based, AppFund offering seed money and mentoring for starts up developers who are planning new apps for the iPad. If you haven’t already started thinking of ideas for the iPad, you better start now! Proposals must be submitted immediately, as the plan is to launch the first set of iPad applications this Summer! Depending on the complexity of the app, the seed money can range from $5,000 to $500,000. Other tablets shouldn’t feel left out though. AppFund is also offering funding for apps for other tablets out there! Just another reason to look forward to the weather warming up!

Shannon goes to Vegas

No no, This isn’t a blog post about one of our own going on vacation. She is actually workin’ hard for that money out in Las Vegas, NV! Shannon Smith, President of Blueye, is traveling to Las Vegas, NV for the Shop America Tourism conference! Shannon will be speaking in a panel tomorrow at 1:30 along with John Peters – CEO of Tripology and Moderator of the Meetup, Rick Still- Principal of OnTrade.com and Kulin Strimbu- CEO of Trip Television. The main focus for those attending the panel tomorrow is to learn more about social media and social media Strategy for the travel and tourism community. We are really excited for Shannon as this is her first speaking engagement. If you happen to be out at the conference and you see Shannon, make sure to say hi to her! Good luck tomorrow Shannon and don’t forget to Always be Social!

10 Things You May Have Missed in ‘09

Well, another year has passed and it’s impossible to go a day without coming across a “year’s best” list in one format or another. That being said, we would like to offer you with our own list, but these are some things you may have missed. Maybe you don’t live in Chicago. Maybe you aren’t in a creative field or profession. Maybe you don’t read or don’t care ‘what the kids are doing these days’. Whatever your reason is, these ten things may have passed by you without so much as a glance. (in no particular order)

1. This January, Lisa “Left Eye” Lopes (formerly of R&B group TLC) released a new, but posthumous, album called Eye Legacy. I don’t recall ever hearing any of the tracks, but apparently it made it all the way to #44 on the Billboard R&B/Hip-Hop charts.

2. The Dirty South caught fire this summer when Red Bull came to town with their Soapbox Race. Congratulations to the Atlanta race winning driver, Christopher “Killa” Miller, and the team from The Beer Connoisseur Magazine. Um, duh, of course the guy with the nickname “Killa” is going to win.

3. Despite rumors to the contrary, Jeff Goldblum, Zach Braff, Britney Spears, and Natalie Portman are still alive. Thank you, Twitter.

4. “As Seen on TV” products hit a new low when the Snuggie craze spilled over into the dog market. I have neither a dog nor a Snuggie and my life is just fine.

5. Charles Burnett III broke a 100-year-old land speed record for a steam-powered car. He averaged 140 miles per hour in two drives at Edwards Air Force base. That’s hot!

6. In the category of Easter candy that I never eat, this year we were blessed with Chocolate Mousse Peeps. Apparently they have only 28 calories and 0g fat per Peep, but I’m afraid I won’t be expanding my love of chocolate into this realm.

7. The auto industry has been hit pretty hard over the past couple years, that we know. What you may not know, however, is that 2009 will be the last production year for the Chrysler PT Cruiser. Love ‘em or hate ‘em, don’t worry, they won’t be making any more of ‘em.

8. Blueye account manager, Heather Williams, ran her first Chicago Marathon this year. After months of training, she finished in 29,897th place, just 29,896 people behind the winner, Sammy Wanjiru. Congratulations again, Heather!

9. Ace Ventura has done it again. Okay, maybe not. Apparently there was a new addition to the Ace series this year (who knew, honestly) as Ace Ventura Jr. Pet Detective was released in March. Did anyone see it? No? We didn’t think so.

10. Swingers unite! Just this month, as the new year looms, 632 Chinese took place in a Guinness record-setting event. Get your head out of the gutter, silly. They took place in the largest ever golf lesson, taught by Zhang Lianwei of China. What a great way to spend your lunch hour.

Here’s to a healthy and happy 2010!

The Year in Photographs

With 2009 coming to an end in just a couple of weeks now, it would only seem appropriate to have a look back at what happened this year that made this year. Obviously the hit series “Jersey Shore” is on the top of our lists, along with Kanye West putting his foot in his giant mouth once again. I think I’ll save those items for another 2009 list. Time Magazine has posted their ‘The Year in Pictures 2009′ and there are some amazing, vivid shots that have been captured. My only question is how did they make the list for summarizing our year?

Yes, we have Obama standing at his desk reading a document in the Oval office, but what about that shaped our year? These photographs are certainly stunning and some are certainly effective. I just wonder if there are any other moments in this year that would be more memorable than the ones presented? You tell me folks, what are the events this year that you felt impacted our history this year?

Do you have a favorite photo that you feel truly captured something that impacted the world this year? Let us know!

In Our Opinion… Favorite Fonts

Over the course of a design project, it is often necessary to explore a wide variety of typefaces to find one that is just right. Well, just like most things in the world we develop some favorites. Today we have put together a couple of our designers’ faves, three each to be exact: one sans-serif, one random or display typeface, and one serif. Below are the results:

AMANDA:

Trade Gothic Std Condensed No. 20

Kewl Script Regular

Adobe Caslon Pro Italic

BRICE:

Helvetica Neue 45 Light

Ohrada Regular

Electra Regular

And, just for fun, some fonts we’d love to have:

Costa from Veer

Cyclone from Hoefler & Frere-Jones

Mercury from Hoefler & Frere-Jones

Adios from Veer

Have you seen a font you love? Please share it with us and add a comment below.

Thank you Troops!

As most of you know, today is Veterans Day. Blueye would like to take this time to give a special shout out and THANK YOU to all who have served in and are currently serving in our military. We are eternally grateful for everything you have done to fight for our freedom and protect us from terrorism, persecution and other life threatening situations. What you do on a daily basis is so selfless and wonderful, that none of us can ever pay you back with everything you do for our country. God Bless every veteran and their families, as it is a tough duty to have a loved one away in another country and to be there for them. From all of us at Blueye Creative, Happy Veterans’ Day!

Twitter Hunt v2.0 – Brice is 2 for 2!

Well, Tony Hawk has done it again. In his latest Twitter-based scavenger hunt, Hawk leads all 1.7 million of his Twitter followers on a worldwide hunt for prizes including complete skateboards, backpacks, t-shirts, watches and more. This time, however, several of the hidden packages included a USB drive containing video clues about the location of a free skateboard and BMX show happening on October 17th, 2009 (tomorrow) featuring Tony Hawk and several other professionals.

After 3.5 days of tracking the #THTH hash tag on TweetDeck, and a ridiculous amount of SMS updates from @tonyhawk, the Chicago clues finally came in. About 20 minutes later (including Loop lunch time traffic and a 2 block sprint), Brice met Stephanie and Zoe at the Katherine-Anne Confections tent at the farmer’s market in Daley plaza and received his prize.

Congratulations, Brice. Let’s make it 3 for 3 when the next time comes around!

(By the way, the caramels from Katherine-Anne were fabulous!)

Follow Blueye Creative on Twitter for more updates on Brice’s Twitter Hunt explorations.

Climbing (and Traveling) to the Top of the Charts

This morning I discovered via a recent Twitter follower (@ChicagoStartups) that Where I’ve Been, a friend and client of Blueye from day one, is #12 in a July listing of the Top 100 start-up companies in the Chicago area!

Recently, Where I’ve Been (whereivebeen.com) launched a revised version of their already successful travel-based social media platform and has been steadily gaining users and followers alike through use of their Twitter trending topic: #TravelTuesday. Currently, @whereivebeen has nearly 17,000 followers on Twitter and 25,000 fans on Facebook, proving once again that people love to travel and they also love to share their travel experiences with others.

Over the past several months, Blueye has been working closely with Where I’ve Been on several projects. The latest project, Stadium Stops, is a new Facebook application for those hard core fans of college football. The application allows users to create their own map to show others what stadiums they have visited and ones that they plan to visit. In addition, users can choose specific college teams to support and taunt friends supporting rival teams. The taunting doesn’t end at the stadium, parking lot, or the bar anymore!

This list of Chicago area start-ups places Where I’ve Been in some elite company, right alongside some large names in the technology field, including The Onion, 37Signals, Sittercity, crowdSPRING, and Acquity Group just to name a few. Their growth and success would be enough to make even Casey Kasem proud. Congrats to the team at Where I’ve Been and remember to “Keep your feet on the ground and keep reaching for the stars.”

Do you love Twitter and Facebook too!? Become a fan of blueye on Facebook today, or follow us on Twitter all day long.