Back To School 2014 – A roundup of this fall’s interesting news, reads and notes under the umbrella of design and experiences for our collective radar screen.

In this week’s news, the team took note of some smart marketing partnerships, great finds for business travelers, the pitfalls of “pay-it-forward”, and exciting new design techniques.

This week’s sweet top stories – including dispatches from Architectural Digest, GrubStreet, The Wall Street Journal, AdAge, and Forbes – touch on sugary treats, marketing mishaps, corporate competition + classic cars.

Just a few blocks from our SoHo office, growing San Francisco brand Everlane created a charmingly unique pop-up shop. Their inspired basics are underscored by radical transparency in which they outline their manufacturing cycle to bring you high quality at a low cost. Sounds good to me! They brought this concept to life by creating an exhibition where they sold their wares, called out pricing on everything (including the build out of the pop-up itself) and held a variety of events to engage foodies, fashionistas and more. The design was a minimal, San Francisco modern vibe with wood shelving units, pegs, neutral tones,…

We did. And, we’re not talking the typical Meghan and Michelle paint-the-town-red kind of evening. Rather, we’re speaking of bull balls–yes, you read that correctly–which we treated our taste buds to while recently dining at Plan B, a tapas restaurant in NOLITA. Michelle and I fancy ourselves adventurous types; I’ve gone skydiving and started mixing patterns, and Michelle has cliff jumped and still wears bows in her hair. So, we’re really game for anything. Add Prossecco to the mix and, well, balls-to-the wall is seemingly always the only and best way to go. After immaturely yet confidently ordering/receiving the dish…

With the holiday coming up, we thought you’d enjoy a few light, inspirational stories to read at the shore or on the beach.

Here is the latest roundup of marketing, design, public relations and other stories of note, as curated by the VP+C team.

Meghan wants a piece of pie this week…particularly a slice of Philippe Starck. Here’s the dish.

We, at VP+C, are a multi-talented bunch that never drop the ball, especially at Bowlmor…  

There are certain ads, activations or partnerships that make us stop and think: Wow, this brand really gets it! It’s culturally relevant, visually fresh and intellectually inspiring. Sony earned such a reaction with their recent Sony 4K TV video in which they enlisted McCANN and photographer Nick Meek to create an unusually beautiful series of exotic installations. The video that resulted illustrates the awesomeness of their new technology (four times the detail of full HD) via a surreal, technicolor dream. Set against the beauty of Costa Rica’s volcanos, rivers and urban streets, millions of petals and leaves were arranged and manipulated…