This summer, we’re going on a serious diet. But instead of swearing off brownies to better squeeze into our swimsuits, we’re cutting out a different kind of filler: from July 1- August 31

We’re packing away our white pants and looking at what’s fresh, shiny and new for – gulp – fall. See this week’s dispatches on PR, ethics, design and collegiate style.

Art Basel 2013 through the eyes of an outsider, who experienced the show online, and an insider who traveled to Miami to experience the fairs.

A roundup of this month’s interesting news reads and notes under the umbrella of design and experiences for our collective radar screen… MUST TRACK  – Banksy We have always been fascinated by the elusive artist Banksy. We are  now wild about his NY residency this month and all the engagement and emotion his works are prompting. Exhibit A – Exclusive music festivals for super rich The latest trend in lavish home entertaining. Exhibit B – Super interesting fundraiser concept treasure hunt Exhibit C – The Architecture of Autism Emerging group homes of architecctural note for adults living with autism. Exhibit…

Traveling can open the mind reveal the silver lining… A 5 a.m. wakeup call is really just another chance to use our awesome JCPenney Home Bodum coffeemaker. Spritzer spillage on the Mohawk SmartStrand becomes a perfect demonstration opportunity for the carpet’s awesome stain-resisting power. And a late night arrival to a campsite in Iowa is apparently a great way to make new friends and get their “glamping approval” on our Flavor Paper wallpaper. We had so much fun on our RV journey in August that we wanted to recount all the places we saw, characters we met and impressions we made. Take a look at our…

We’re just a few hours away from the start of our PR RV journey, and as we unpack our snacks and organize our supplies, we can’t help but be amazed by how beautiful this vehicle is. It’s become apparent to our team that the PR RV isn’t just a celebration of our clients- it’s also an ode to the craftsmen who apply the finishing touches to every project. Without Jimmy DiResta, fabricator extraordinaire, the buildout would have been homespun and scary– nothing more than a temporary display– instead of the roaming home we’re all already feeling it will be. He’s given…

We love a good plus sign around here at VP+C, so the +POOL is right up our alley! One of the largest kickstarted civic projects in the world, the floating swimming hole is designed to filter East River water through the walls of the pool. The layered filtration system removes bacteria and contaminants to ensure clean, swimmable water for New Yorkers to enjoy. AMAZING! The +POOL team will create a floating test lab this year and we can’t wait to see more. Stay tuned for another chance to purchase a pool tile and tack your name or message onto this mind-blowing project.

The first gestural remote device we saw go mainstream was Wii, Nintendo’s revolutionary gaming system that broke the 4th wall of at-home entertainment. Of course there are other devices that paved the way (cut to passionate gamer forum) and lots of competitors vying for the top spot. Kinect, Xbox’s magical 3 camera, motion-sensing gaming system, soon followed and ditched the hand-held controller. Now Leap Motion is creating a system that works with your computer to fill the needs of 3-d modellers and designers everywhere. The upward facing unit uses 2 cameras to create a hemisphere of vision that reads small movements in all directions. However, there is a…

There’s been a lot of buzz recently about “The Internet of Things”, otherwise known as the increasing number of devices connected to, and represented within, a space on the internet. From smartphones to refrigerators, we are living increasingly plugged-in lives. By the year 2020 there will be approximately 50 billion objects that are connected to the internet. To put it in perspective, that means almost 7 objects per human being. So what does this mean for connectivity, globalization, energy consumption, and social behavior? Only time will tell, but for now, I think the silver lining is that people truly enjoy learning new things, expressing…

It’s no secret that I love Instagram. It’s a gorgeous, dreamy place that provides a much-needed break from our text-heavy world, and an artsy mom’s best tool for sharing snaps of her little one. Everything is beautiful on Instagram- and a little filtering goes a loooong way. As PR people, we’re always trying to leverage the latest and greatest in social media for our clients, and sometimes the best advice comes right from our favorite publications. Always on the cutting edge, our friends at Metropolis (rabid Instagram users and dedicated social media mavens in their own right) participated in KI’s…