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Deutsche Telekom AG, mother company to T-Mobile in Holland, is (allegedly) attempting to register the colour Magenta at the European brand office. This would effectively block other companies from using this primary printing colour for their own brands.

Reaction in the Netherlands has been quite negative toward T-Mobile and Deutsche Telekom AG, but it has created some great design ideas. What happens to CMYK without the M? FreeMagenta.nl has is posting some possibilities, and is tracking reactions.

COLOURlovers was warning us about this pinkish hostile takeover back in November of 2007, citing some of Deutsche Telekom AG’s claims. It’s not exactly clear:

…the colour magenta [and other designs and logos] are registered and/or unregistered trademarks of Deutsche Telekom AG in the US and/or other countries.

link via Trendhunter

Popularity: 52% [?]

Lithoglyph software has created a very cool plugin for Macintosh Leopard (OS X 10.5) users called Mondrianum which pulls in swatches from Adobes colour community Kuler and displays them in the system-wide colour picker. Now you have access to a richer colour palette from inside your favourite Apple applications. Very kule.

Popularity: 25% [?]

Looking for a piece of art for your home, office or car? Simple! Select the colour you’d like. How much you’d prefer to spend. The dimensions of the space you have. And Ta Dah! Boundless will spit out a list of objet d’art that match your green curtains or lilac bed sheets.

It sounds like a good thing right? It gives minor artists exposure to a public that prefers to be told what to like. You can get a painting that matches your curtain pattern. It’s as easy and painless as only Web 2.0 can be.

Then why do I find this service quite horrible? Perhaps it’s too many years of liking art.

Link

Popularity: 26% [?]

I’m always on the looking for talented people who make ad guys appear to know what they’re doing (I need all the help I can get). Bite Animation are one of those crews. They’re a small motion graphics & design studio in Johannesburg who’ve done some impressive work for some very picky creatives. They’ve just relaunched their website so go visit them.  If you’re a fan of heavily layered illustration you’ll enjoy the experience.

Bite Animation 

Popularity: 13% [?]

Jill Calder is a Scottish illustrator who has an amazing line style that she applies to type on occasion. I’d love to see some of this sensibility applied to standard corporate brand work. People might actually pay attention. Her illustration work is beautiful as well.

Link

ps. There are some more images at Friend & Johnson, just look in the Illustrators section.

Popularity: 8% [?]

Now this is a cup I could wake up to every morning. Beautiful typography. Simple, clever, and functional design. A great gift for any graphics freak, whether they drink coffee or tea. (via information aesthetics)

Popularity: 7% [?]