Yesterday I had the pleasure of taking the Acela train from Washington DC to New York City for the first time. Approaching my gate to board the train in Union station I was greeted with a fantastic poster campaign depicting my future venture from our Nations Capital to the Big Apple. I had seen Michael Shwab’s Amtrak Acela poster series featured in Commarts, but up close and in person they caused me to take immediate notice.

Even with me being pretty rough at 7 am in the morning, The giant banners hanging from the tall ceiling of Union station grabbed my attention. The sharp graphic shapes referenced the retro feeling of the posters printed in the 20s and 30s. A time when taking the train was a luxury, something to put on your pearls for. With simple iconography Swab overwhelmed a gate full of early morning travelers with the sense of sophistication. Suddenly I wasn’t just taking a hurried commuter train into the city, I was riding in style.

This is a great example of how Design can improve quality of life. Sometimes just a simple reminder can help the average person mentally separate themselves from the daily grind and be whisked back to a more glamorous time. Yesterday morning the work of Michael Swab helped me to remove myself from reality and view my state of being a little bit more optimistically.

You can purchase posters online for a steal at just $5 a piece. I just ordered the whole set of 4 for $15. What a deal!

Read about the future of Amtrak’s campaign with Michael Shwab’s designs here.

[tags]Michael Shwab, Amtrak Acela Poster series[/tags]

One of the top Stories on CNN yesterday was about a giant hunk of cheese in England selling itself via a web cam to people all over the world. This story quietly nestled between other newsworthy topics such as ” Paris Hilton Living the Really Simple Life” and “Shreck slims down for McDonald’s Happy Meal” instantly grabbed my attention. Cheese worthy of the front page of CNN? This has to be good.

A little family of farmers in England were looking for a way to turn people on to the traditional cheese making process and in turn sell more of their aged cheese. In the era of YouTube the obvious answer to them was to put a web cam on it and broadcast it to the world. Millions of college girls do it via their dorms everyday, there has to be cheese fans out there who would be just as intrigued by a 50 lb block of molding cheese.

I’m not what you would call a “turophile” but i do enjoy a slice on my burger, and love some with tomatoes and basil. SO when I went to cheddarvision.tv i was interested to find out if it would be enough to make me a fan. After watching the cheese a few moments, my interest grew and I went to the West Country Farmhouse cheese-makers website to click around. The site garnished with rich imagery of farmland and various types of cheese was easy on the eyes. Was I hooked? Certainly. Within a matter of moments mouth was watering and I could smell the luxurious aroma of sharp cheddar melted on a crispy cracker.

I have not bought my sample kit yet, but by the end of this week I most likely will put in an order. Some may think i am a sucker falling for an internet publicity stunt. West Country Farmhouse Cheesmakers aren’t creating cheese fans, they are using the power of the internet to reach those who already established all over the world. I feel that this family is an inspiration, if they can market their cheese to the front page of CNN with as little as a desk-lamp, and a web cam anyone can find their niche for what they love in this world. Once again the web provides a blank canvas for anything anyone wants to achieve with just a little hard work and ambition.

[tags]cheddarvision, turophile, web marketing, creative web marketing[/tags]