Famous brands are not built in a day. They take years of hard-line marketing and promotional efforts to build. The cost of branding famous brands reflects the amount of work included in establishing a corporate name. There is always a certain history attached to prominent brands.

A few months back, I did a post on interesting facts about graphic design, where I shared 15 fun facts related to the world of graphic design. As my readers enjoyed learning about those unknown facts, I decided to come up with something similar today.
It is always fascinating to discover what your favorite brands were in the past. For example, how would you feel knowing that Coca Cola, the beverage you consume the most, was once a wine?

Following are 10 fascinating brand stories that are attached to famous brands.

1. Apple – The inspiration:

In 1976 Steve Jobs was working in a community type farm in Oregon which inspired him to name the company Apple Computers. Co-founder Wozniak believes Steve might have got this name idea either from the farm or because of his music tastes in Apple Records which was quiet popular with Beatles.

2. Adobe – The River:

Adobe Systems was incorporated in 1982 by John Warnock and Charles Geschke. The name evolved from Adobe Creek in Los Altos, California, a river that ran behind the house of one of the company’s founders.

3. CISCO – The confused acronym:

CISCO is popularly confused as the acronym for ‘Computer Information System Company’. The name "Cisco" was actually derived from the city name, San Francisco, which is why the company’s engineers insisted on using the lower case "cisco" in the early days.

4. Google – The Back Rub:

Did you know that the search engine you use frequently was once named ‘backrub’? Google was created in 1996 under the name "BackRub". Moreover, the Google name change in 1998 came as a spelling mistake of the word “googol”.

5. Hewlett Packard – The coin toss:

We’ve seen coin toss at the start of sports games. But deciding the name of a company through a coin flip? That is how HP got its name. Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard tossed a coin to decide whether the company would be called Hewlett-Packard or Packard-Hewlett.

6. Mercedes – The fair lady:

The famous car brand Mercedes was originally named after Emil Jellineks’ daughter, Mercédès Jellinek. Emil Jellineks was the man who specified an engine designed by Wilhelm Maybach and Gottlieb Daimler that formally bore his daughter’s name.

7. Pepsi Cola – The wine

Pepsi originated in 1893 under the name of “Brad’s Drink”. It was named after the pharmacist Celeb Bradham. In 1898, Brad’s Drink was renamed "Pepsi-Cola". The name change was apparently due to digestive enzyme pepsin and kola nuts used in the formula.

8. Intel – The hard to get trademark:

Did you know that the company we know as Intel, could have been ‘Moore Noyce’? Founders Bob Noyce and Gordon Moore sought this name for their new company but circumstantially that name was already trademarked by a hotel chain. Hence the acronym of INTegrated Electronics was adopted.

9. Sony – The slang terminology:

This giant brand was established under the name of Tokyo Tsushin Kogyo K.K (Tokyo Telecommunications Engineering Corporation) in 1946. But the firm changed its name to “Sony” in 1958, an amalgamation of two words “sonus” and “sonny”. The English slang word "sonny" means smart, young and presentable.

10. Yahoo!

One of the most prominent search engines we know as Yahoo! was initially named "Jerry and David’s Guide to the World Wide Web". This was named after the founders Jerry Yang and David Filo. The term Yahoo! is an abbreviation for "Yet Another Hierarchical Officious Oracle".

The advertising world is packed with creative ideas and imaginative advertisement messages. The job of an advertiser is to effectively persuade the target audience into buying a certain product or service. Creative ads are the ones that have the power to sell. But there is a vast difference between generating a TV ad and producing a print ad.

Print ads are hardest to execute because of the lack of space and freedom. Within a limited domain, you need to effectively place your message to the target audience. Hence, minimalist and conceptual print ads are helpful in serving the cause perfectly. In a print ad, less use of graphic design can yield more substance to the copy. This is where the services of a talented graphic designer come in handy.

Following are 30 of the most stunning minimalist print ads that say more with less.

ATM (Azienda Trasporti Milanesi)

McDonalds – Wi-Fries

National Environment Agency Singapore

Alka Seltzer: Chicklhouette

MTV Networks: Black Ribbon Michael Jackson

CNN: Net

CARE Austria: Earthquake

Columbia: shades

Albert Dali Naming Consultants: Corn-net-toe

FedEx: Statue of Sugarloaf

Financial Times: Paratrooper

The Green Ant: Minimalism

MasterCard Canada: Darkness

Hut Weber: Hitler vs. Chaplin

Jeep

Kapiti

Kit Kat: Bench

Nestlé Kit Kat: Vuvuzela

Lego: Tank

Levis Slim jeans:

McDonald’s road

McDonald’s: Medium size

Nando’s

Pepperoni Coke

Pilot pen: Mummy

Profilo XXL Refrigerator: Lost Vegetables, Tomato

Wite-Out spec:

The support centers union for victims of assault

Tzomet Sfarim Bookstore: Faceabook

Volkswagen Snow Tires: Crystal

Many of you might be quite familiar with crowdsourcing and its revolutionary impact on the graphic design world. Albeit controversial, it has proved to be an enormous success for both clients and graphic designers who are unable to transact on an individual basis. Crowdsourcing serves as a perfect intermediary between clients and graphic designers who need to transact in a simple and affordable manner.
Lately, Logo Design Guru, one of the leading names in logo design world has radically shifted from the custom-made logo designing to logo design contest. This firmly proves that the crowdsourcing trend is gaining immense popularity over conventional logo designing.

Below are few productive features which will help graphic designers progress with their creativity

1. Hundreds of projects launched:

Most graphic designers complain that most of the famous crowdsourcing websites are crowded with designers and the chance of winning the prize money is microscopic. This doesn’t get them the right exposure, leaving minimum chances of earning. Over at Logo Design Guru, there are more than 120 design projects awaiting talented graphic designers.

2. Earn up to $2500 on a Project:

The biggest prospect for graphic designers is that Logo Design Guru has a low designer:project ratio so there is a guaranteed surety that you can earn between $179 to $2,500. The more contests you participate in will multiply your earnings.

3. Guaranteed Projects:

The most exciting part of crowdsourcing with Logo Design Guru is that it provides guaranteed projects. This secures a graphic designer’s hard work and the client cannot steal a designer’s ideas or designs.

4. The field is wide open:

As I mentioned earlier, there is ample opportunities to vie for at Logo Design Guru. Since there are more projects than designers, your chance of winning is manifold. The field is wide open folks! So go ahead and pounce on this lucrative opportunity to earn yourself a name in the graphic design world.

How much to charge clients is every graphic designers concern. You charge excessively, they might not hire you. You bill them under-par, they might consider you as a cheap designer. For this reason, the perfect fee range should be determined beforehand.

There comes in every graphic designer’s mind a question…Are we truly valued and paid? This query ensue a series of questions like ‘How much a graphic designer should be paid?’ and ’On what criteria should he be paid?’ Although I have always advocated that the graphic design field is for the sheer pleasure and obsession of it. But then again, an individual has to make ends meet as well.

Factors that determine a graphic designer’s fee:

1) Experience and Creativity:

2) Size of the Project:

3) Area and location you work in:

4) Fixed or Flexible charges:

5)Miscellaneous expenditures incurred:

GeForce 3D Vision game demo

NVIDIA® 3D Vision™ technology is a combination of Graphics Processor Units (GPU), specialized 3D glasses, graphic design software, and certified displays and projectors that deliver an absorbing 3D experience on the computer. Here is an outclass example of how the GeForce 3D Vision glasses transforms virtual graphics into realism.    

Fascinating Gameplays and Clips of 3D TV Technology:

While browsing YouTube for more videos on 3D technology experience, I found a whole range of high definition games and movies specially converted into 3D Mode courtesy Tru3D. I would like to share some of the most fascinating videos of the lot.

How to View In 3D Mode:

Before you start watching the videos, you might want to learn how to actually “view in 3D mode” with and without the aid of 3D glasses.

• Click on the "3D View Style" menu in the video and select how you’d like to view.
• If you have 3D glasses, Red/Cyan is pretty common but do check what works best for you.
• If you’re using glasses and the image seems to be inside out then use your glasses the other way around.
• If you don’t have glasses, then select "cross eyed" and just cross your eyes slightly to make the 2 videos overlap into 1.
• Remember, Disney’s fancy RealD polarized glasses don’t work on these videos.
• Cross-eyed can be difficult if you don’t have control over your eye muscles. Try sitting away from the screen a bit or just get some practice in and have fun! J
  

Need for Speed NFS Shift 3D

Shrek Forever After 3D

Prince of Persia 3D

3D TV Street Fighter IV 3D

Disneys BOLT 3D

Need for Speed NFS Pro Street 3D

Battlefield 2 3D

3D TV FIFA 3D World Cup 2010