One of my favorite things about Christmas is the increased quality and frequency of ads in the end of the year. I don’t always mind how much more frequent the message is hammered home if the ads doing so are of a higher quality. GAP has just released a slew of new commercials that fit right into this description. Combining various celebrities you might not know that well/have thought of in awhile and updated versions of classic Christmas songs these ads are right in my wheelhouse. I’m a sucker for Christmas music.

This is a very NSFW video, but it’s one I also find to be quite awesome.
My favorites:

Sarah Chalke (in German)
Judy Reyes (sounding saucy)
Zach Braff (sounding completely unthreatening)
Rachel Bilson (sounding adorable, even when swearing, as per usual)
Jamie Oliver (the British people don’t sound as taboo when swearing. why?)
Derren Brown (in a laundromat?)
Peter Krause (sounding awesome, as always)

This music was created using only sounds from Windows XP and Windows 98. It’s a lot better than you’d think. I’ve listened to it a few times.
via Larissa Meek

Way back when, Andy Samberg and Justin Timberlake created an Internet phenomenon with their Dick in a Box song. If you’ve been in a cave, or want a refresher, check it out here. There’s been a lot of imitators and posers, most of them exactly as bad as you’d expect. “Step 1…cut a hole in the box” was the “I’m Rick James bitch” of 2007. That is until now. Leah Kauffman has created a parody …

This is a commencement speech Steve Jobs gave to the graduating class of Stanford (full context here). He tells three stories from his life. It’s long, but I think it’s moving, and worth it.

Typography. Turns out that after Jobs dropped out of college he audited a few classes. On of these was calligraphy. This class taught him an appreciation for typography’s history, art, and value. He used this info later when he designed the Apple …

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I saw this at FitC last year and it’s still mindblowingly awesome.
Brendan has more annoyingly creative stuff on his blog like bouncing pixels for popular posts.

Some people really go all out.
This is a good video, and it is a great Christmas special. I know I’ve been rocking out to this Charlie Brown Christmas Mashup for the last few weeks. Dig it!

This is great. I wish I’d had this video to refer people to when they ask me what being a designer means. That it’s more than graphic design or industrial design. You don’t need a beret or a drafting table; a compass or a set of paint brushes. It’s just telling a story. Also, this is an important video to refer to those egotistical designers, the ones who think people need to learn to use …