I’m happy to announce the launch of a new site: creative-cohort.com. Creative Cohort started life as a LinkedIn Group. The group quickly attracted a lot of smart folks who sparked a lot of great discussions and it didn’t seem fair to keep those discussions confined to the closed walls of LinkedIn, so Creative Cohort was born.

All the articles are written by creative directors with the goal of helping fellow CDs and aspiring CDs grow and learn more about the in and outs of the biz. Seven other creative directors with a diverse set of backgrounds and experiences have volunteered to contribute to the site (and I’m always looking for more contributors). Be sure to check it out and bookmark it or add it to your favorite feedreader. That name again? Creative Cohort.

And thanks to Sebastian Lopez for supplying the cool illustration.

The Price is Right (Isn’t It?) Why shouldn’t made-for-web productions should have budget as big as their televised counterparts? This article aims to lay the groundwork putting a fair price on your digital blood, sweat and tears.

Springwise – This is a recent addition to the Review category in my RSS feed. Basically, it’s a steady stream of new business ideas—some new interesting, some stuff that’s been in the market for a while. Kind of a Trend Hunter with a business focus. Worth a look.

dev.mobi recently relaunched as mobiForge. I hadn’t really spent a lot of time exploring this site before the refresh; there’s a ton of content available. They have resources for developers, designers, marketers and more. It looks like a great resource for anyone who’s involved in the mobile space.

And if your mindset is more design thinking/trend hunting/cool data, mobiForge has a sister site, mobiThinking. The content’s not as deep as the main site, but it’s worth an add to the ‘ol feedreader.

Wecome to the social (media) revolt – the gist: by its very nature, the web is in a constant state of change and its always been about making connections, so why is social media seen as a new, groundbreaking idea?

I have to agree with Joshua’s angle; the fundamentals haven’t changed, but the tools we all use to connect/socialize/etc. are getting easier and easier for non-geeks to use, which allows more people to participate and brings the “social” bit of social media to the fore.

A simple idea that provided hours of entertainment this summer is popping up again: John McCain Is Your Jalopy and Sarah Palin Is Your New Bicycle’s Flat Tire. I think the web will be a little less entertaining once the elections are over.

(i)Phone as human to digital interface. — a (relatively) old-y but goodie from the gang at Zeus Jones posing the idea that connected devices like the iPhone a well positioned to become true extensions of yourself — with the ability to document virtually everywhere you travel and everything you see, hear and do.

Last but not least, a classic video from Charles and Ray Eames. I was explaining this video to someone recently — if you’ve never seen it, it’s worth your time to watch the whole thing.

powers of ten :: charles and ray eames from bacteriasleep on Vimeo.

In the meantime, enjoy the random internet awesomeness that’s caught my attention as of late:

The 960 Grid System; similar to my favorite CSS framework, Blueprint CSS. I haven’t tried it yet, so I can’t say how it’s any better or worse.

A while back, Microsoft signed up with CP+B to the tune of $300 million; it seems the fruits of CP+B’s creative efforts are beginning to bloom. Part warm-and-fuzzy, part jackass (although not necessarily at the same time.)

Noted for (mostly for my) future CSS reference: using Opacity vs RGBA.

Every episode of South Park, ever. Nice. Similar to The Daily Show’s extensive archive.

Squirrels network like Facebook friends – not that they’ve mastered computers or anything, but it’s probably just a matter of time.

The Orange Underground – an interesting campaign for Cheetos by Goodby Silverstein. There are a lot of nice little touches, like the pattern overlaying the video and the cheap “paper” and felt-tip pen drawings in the cookbook.

Exiled!, a new show from MTV. Take the Super Sweet 16 kids and send them to live with tribes in Africa and Antartica. It sounds like a joke, but the Fallon Planning Blog has the skinny.

Guinness, Life of a Dot, a nice progression of their award-winning Evolution spot. I think these pieces complement each other nicely without trying to rehash the exact same idea.

CP+B’s Holiday Card – made for a select group of their clients, this card features a nice little customizable video and some surprising interaction at the end. (Use this code: 547WERT)

More on the CP+B tip, they’re doing some nice work for Domino’s now; taking them back to their “30 minutes or it’s free” guarantee.

Cool Flash-based website for Soïa & Kyo, a fashion outerwear maker. Love the 3D space mixed with the hand-drawn elements.

Chyrp

Pentagram – A short film by Hillman Curtis

Milton Glaser

Crusher ~ Send invites for free

Joshua Davis’s Adobe CS3 prints