So i'm in San Diego ~ wandering the gaslamp district, and for the first time i'm actually STAYING in the gaslamp (i've lived in sd for years in so many different places, but never really stayed downtown much)... and as soon as i was cruising towards the convention center white picket fences caught my eye ~ then i saw the big Cafe Diem sign! (Yes! the fictitious Eureka cafe) And cardboard cutouts of the Eureka cast! And huge Syfy logos.... and had to swing back over. (Unfortunately the Cafe Diem main sign had JUST fallen over when i got back with a camera, so perhaps an update with that later!)

So as far as marketing/sponsorship opportunities go ~ i'm impressed! Last year there was a Eureka ice cream truck ~ and this year they really stepped up the food serving idea and took over a cafe across from the convention center. The branding is impeccable as expected... from the picket fence, to the signage, to the purple gumballs, to the backs of all the counter seats, coasters, and more... and brilliant idea as far as fun places to have Syfy meetings? Or meet for drinks? or have parties? And talk about a captive audience, it's still a fully functioning cafe... Love the versatility of branding a full service space. Take a peek at more pics on the next page!

p.s.
What's next? Will we get to explore a life sized S.A.R.A.H?

TO PAGE 2 of "SDCC 09: Syfy's Cafe Diem"! ----->

Tags: advertising - eureka - food - SDCC09 - syfy - tv

I interviewed a fictitious house! Ok, well that's the one liner i've used for people who either don't know Twitter, Sci-Fi's Eureka, or both. For those who know ~ I twitterviewed a self actuated residential automated habitat! (aka S.A.R.A.H.)... and perhaps the most unexpected and exciting part of the whole experience was getting a sneak peek at the creative background for this television wonderhouse ~ while twitterviewing, S.A.R.A.H. shared some blueprints, set photos, and early sketches of what the house was planned to look like. Definitely some fun creative food for thought...

So first, here's a little background ~ Eureka has been one of my tv indulgences for some time now... there's something so playful and creatively inspiring about how they've managed to mix some very smart, sciencey ideas with some very pretty, glossy, innovative gadgetry in their magically hidden town of geniuses (you can watch full episodes on the Eureka site now if you want to see what i mean). Much of what shows up, often reminds me of crazy designer concepts and prototypes we dream up and read about constantly... So when i found out they decided to go all web 2.0 and have both a twitter (written by the house AI) and a tumblr (Eureka Unscripted - the behind the scenes blog), i couldn't resist reaching out to see if they were willing to take it one step further and let me interview the AI over twitter! Afterall, we seldom do interviews here, and definitely focus more on design than people, so how perfect is it to interview the design versus the designer? So as you can see, the idea quickly blossomed, and last night turned into a fun hour long ramble between us over twitter, which even exposed some visually inspiring behind the scenes sneak peeks (including one of my messy desk)!

See the full transcript as well as some of the reactionary tweets on the next page ~ and if you need some catching up first - jump to the background of S.A.R.A.H. and a quick visual overview!

TO PAGE 2 of "Twitterview with S.A.R.A.H. of Eureka"! ----->

Tags: architecture - art - eureka - interview - tv - twitter