Walmart has changed the look of it’s website and more presumably their logo. Gone is the star that separated the “Wal” and “mart.” They are going for a hipper new look. Unfortunately, it looks like they’re trying a bit too hard to be Target. 

Let’s analyze the logo:
First off, what’s with the new symbol? It looks like a dingbat from Zaph Dingbats. (To be fair, the spacing has been adjusted and color added but come on, do they think it’s clever and nobody will notice?) The symbol looks sadly out of place. Removing the star was a good idea. (I never quite understood why it was there in the first place) Blue.. not a bad choice for the type. I really like the color blue they chose. Yellow for the dingbat just doesn’t work. It’s probably not the color as much as it is the logo.

Now for the tag line:
They ditched the old line “Always Low Prices.” I guess by this point most people know pretty much that Walmart is a deep discount/bargain store. So what do the brain trust over at Walmart come up with? “Save money. Live better. WHAT! Okay, I get the save money part. I think the whole world gets that. LIVE BETTER?? We’re supposed to live better if we shop at Walmart? Is that what they’re getting at? I don’t get it.

It no mystery that Walmart’s market share is declining. It’s not a bad idea to reinvent and reshape the brand. In this case it’s a total miscue. It’s obviously a decision made by a bunch of suits at Walmart.

Target:
Target is an ever evolving brand name. They have great products at reasonable prices. And many cool designers to boot. Also, when a new Target comes to town, the community is actually happy about it. You don’t see anyone protesting or showing up at city board meetings attempting to block a new Target. The same cannot be said of Walmart.

Target has since dropped the “Target” name from the logo. Anyone can easily recognize the brand sans the actual name beside it. Now that’s clever. 

Brooklyn based hotographer Tom Kirsch - better know by his nickname Motts – has assembled some amazing photos of abandoned hospitals, hotels, and prisons over on his site opacity.us. In many cases his photos are the last images taken before the buildings were demolished which makes them all the more interesting.

The two shots featured above are of the Sterling Hotel in Wilkes-Barre PA. The first photo was photographed in August of 2005. The black and white photo is from a 1908 postcard. The hotel was eventualy demolished in February 2007. 

To find out more about Motts, check out his about page.

Billionaire oilman, philanthropist T. Bone Pickens has a plan to wean us our dependence on energy imports. He plans on building the worlds largest wind farm. It’s a far more detailed plan than either presidential candidate has laid out. But then again, the best plans always rise from the private sector.

From Forbes:

At 80 the oilman and financier is healthy and having some of his best years in business. “Of all the taxes I’ve paid, 90% of them were after I was 70,” says Pickens, who forwarded $200 million of his capital gains to the U.S. Treasury last year. Worth $3 billion at last count, he’s still drilling for oil and buying water rights. His Mesa Energy in May bought 667 wind turbines from GE and has spent $2 billion so far developing a 4-gigawatt wind farm, the world’s biggest, in the Texas panhandle.

From Cleantechnica:

When one of Texas’s richest oil men bets big on wind energy, it gets attention. Yesterday NPR’s Living on Earth broadcast an interview with Mr. Pickens, who shared the salient facts about his planned wind project:

• It will be the largest in the world, he reckons, at 4,000 megawatts
• It will provide enough power for 1,300,000 homes
• It’s a $10 billion dollar project from which he plans a 15%-25% profit

Asked why he is investing in wind now, Pickens replied:

“For a number of years I’ve watched the wind turbines develop — and I feel like it’s time for it. I think that oil has peaked at 85 million barrels in the world. We’ve got to develop other forms of energy — wind, I think solar will be next, and I hope I’m still around to be in the solar deal.” (Pickens is 80 years old.

So Pickens has a plan. Sounds like a good one. I applaud this man for stepping up and doing something with his brain and his money.

You’ll be the envy of your colleagues with this handy-dandy invisi-bookshelf. The only downside is choosing which large book to destroy. I’m sure if you look hard, you can find one laying around the house. Of course you could always visit a second-hand bookstore for the base book.