360 DEGREES Weblog

Creating an offline presence for a popular online destination, Etsy is setting up shop, er lab, in Brooklyn. Etsy, the online marketplace for handmade goods that we mentioned last year, features over 26,000 sellers from across the world.

The website has been growing at a very healthy pace since it launched in June 2005, as consumers from around the globe increasingly value the originality of handmade items and enjoy buying from individuals instead of mass retailers. Etsy brings it all together with a great user interface and sophisticated search tools that let buyers find everything from scented soy candles (USD 5) to a tennis ball chair (USD 275). 307,076 items were sold from June 2005 – December 2006.

And now the company has a brick-and-mortar space at 325 Gold Street in Brooklyn. The new studio will serve as Etsy’s headquarters, and allow members to meet up and use communal equipment like a silkscreen press and a letterpress. The Labs will host parties, trunk shows, seminars, workshops, a lending library and more.

In their own words: “We intend to use the Brooklyn Etsy Labs as, well, a laboratory, to see if we can build it into a self sustaining entity. If so, we one day hope to recreate the Labs in cities across the world and give all makers of things a place to gather, learn, share, and create.”

For more examples of companies that are helping consumers beef up their status skills, check out trendwatching.com’s briefing on the subject. And if you own an online venture, 2007 may be a good year to create some offline buzz as well.

Until now, the trend for themed hotel rooms has been limited to boutique and art hotels that are strictly for grown-ups. The recently opened Ramada Resort Karon Beach in Phuket is one of the few that are taking the trend and making it family friendly simply by creating fun and magical themed rooms just for kids.

The resort features 14 rooms in three different adventure themes such as the Outer Space Room, the Underwater Room and the Castle Room. These themed rooms are all connected to adult rooms so that the entire family can stay close together and enjoy the amenities of those special rooms.

Click on the logo above for Contagious Magazine report . (AGENDA INC.)

For consumers who want gadget personalization that’s more permanent than vinyl decals, Adafruit offers custom laser etching of laptops, iPods, phones, cameras and more. It isn’t the first company to offer laser etching (see Etchamac, Powerbook Laser Engraving and others), but it is the first to freely share its business model with other entrepreneurs interested in setting up a customization shop.

Adafruit Laser Services was launched by Phillip Torrone (senior editor of Make magazine) and Limor Fried (aka Lady Ada). The duo will freely share information on how to use a high powered laser system, etching techniques, business practices and templates. Adafruit currently operates in New York and is planning to set up a location in San Francisco early this year. Customers can have a small gadget etched for USD 30, and a laptop for USD 100. Bulk rates and services are available to businesses.

The laser etching machine used by Adafruit is an Epilog, priced at around USD 20,000 and capable of doing highly detailed etching (1200 dpi). If a group of interested etchers use their crowd clout by organizing a group buy, they should be able to make a head start by getting the machine’s price down. If you’re interested in setting up your own laser etching business / gadget tattoo parlor and would like to receive more info, contact Adafruit at laser@adafruit.com.

Website: www.adafruit.com/laser

With so many dining and nightlife concepts appearing in the world’s most prestigious cities, it can be difficult separating the ‘flash in the pans’ from the genuinely unique establishments that are here to stay. Singapore’s, The Clinic, makes its distinction in a most stylized manner.

Spanning over 15,000 sq ft of space, The Clinic resembles an organized maze with pill shaped rooms interlocking into one another for easy access. The Clinic has two floors. The first fulfills your entertainment requirements, with a number of bars, a dance club, and merchandise store. The entire floor is clinic inspired, that is to say ‘hospital chic’ adorned. That’s where artist Damien Hirst comes in. His pop art graces the walls of The Clinic, whilst his vision goes even further. Syringes, drips, pills and hospital whites are the order of the day in The Clinics decor. This satirical look at medical chic is both stunning and entertaining.

Upstairs, The Clinic offers a dining experience like no other. Dine from kidney shaped surgical pans, and drink through test tubes. The avant- guard menu is second to none and oddly enough well suited to the surroundings.

The Clinic is ER-CASE, that is a drop of E.R meets a touch of Paul Smith. Think Damien Hirst on Prozac turned gourmet, and you get the idea.. From wheelchair dining, through to hospital drip beverages, The Clinic is a must see and perhaps one of the most unique concepts we have seen lately.

Muhammad Ali left the boxing ring for the last time 26 years ago, before most of today’s college students were born. These days, Ali is lending his name, image and reputation as the “Greatest Of All Time” to a snack food brand aimed at 18- to 24-year-olds. It’s the first foray into marketing the former heavyweight champion’s image since he sold most of the rights to his name and likeness for $50 million last year. (ASSOCIATED PRESS)

Kitchen-maker Alno has created some Cooking Tables that combine “the hearth and kitchen table as the focal point of home life once again.”. The table-cooking collection includes the Liberty Island, a mobile cooking element with a glass cover and mobile container that can be positioned against a dining table, either indoors or out. When opened, the glass cover protects against splattering while cooking and closed, it covers a dual-zone induction cook-top. LongIsland can be positioned anywhere in the room and combines a fixed ‘cooking block’ with a sliding tabletop that’s supported by a base frame (it can be moved to the right or left). A four-zone electric cook-top is flush-fit in the stainless steel cooking block. All the Cooking Tables were originally created by design students at the Muthesius College of Art in Kiel, Germany.

Add this to the endangered list: blank spaces. American advertisers seem determined to fill every last one of them. Supermarket eggs have been stamped with the name of a new CBS television show. Subway turnstiles bear messages from Geico auto insurance. Chinese food cartons promote Continental Airways. US Airways is selling ads on motion sickness bags. And the trays used in airport security lines have been hawking Rolodexes. (INTERNATIONAL HERALD TRIBUNE)

Last December singer George Michael was hired to play at a New Year’s party in Russia for $3 million. What we didn’t mention is that he was at the party for just over an hour. This is a classic example of the luxury party trend of renting rockstars (or other celebrities) to show up at parties. Christina Aguilera, Bette Midler and Robin Williams have done over the top birthday parties. 50 Cent and Aerosmith have done multimillion-dollar bat mitsvahs. “It’s common knowledge that Bruce Springsteen and U2 won’t do it,” said the head of the corporate and private events division for Creative Artists Agency, but just about everyone else will.
The artists may be doing it for the money (at thousands of dollars per minute, who wouldn’t?), but they’re also making some people really happy by appearing at their special event. Is it worth the payout on the part of the consumer? That’s for you to decide the next time you’re throwing a million dollar birthday party.

After encountering a great wine in a restaurant or at a friend’s house, instead of vowing to remember the name and vintage, Dutch consumers can now dash off an sms to BuyYourWine.com. The online wine seller will then get back to them with a price and delivery details.

In the US, WineZap offers a similar service. If someone emails or texts them the vintage and wine name, WineZap will email or text them the current low, high and average prices for that wine. If a user adds their zipcode, WineZap includes a list of the nearest retailers that stock the wine, as well as their prices.

Both companies are currently offering the service at no charge. Another example of catering to people’s insatiable desire for relevant information, when and where they want it. Wine-by-text is a great little add-on both for merchants like BuyYourWine, and for intermediaries like WineZap, and it could of course be expanded with such obvious options as letting customers send in cameraphone pictures of wine labels or barcodes.