Oxxford Clothes, based in Chicago, is the last company in the United States which makes all their tailored suits by hand. This short promotional video, one of the best I’ve seen, plays to this primary benefit perfectly. Incredible well done at  every level.

Trader Joe’s is a privately owned and highly successfully company with close to $8 billion in revenue. However they maybe more secretive then they are successful. The owners have never conducted a single interview. Well Fortune Magazine did some digging to see what makes the retail chain such a success. There are many, many detail examples but I really liked this:

A ringing bell instead of an intercom signals that more help is needed at the registers. Registers don’t have conveyor belts or scales, and perishables are sold by unit instead of weight, speeding up checkout. Crew members aren’t told the margins on products, so placement decisions are made based not on profits but on what’s best for the shopper. Every employee works all aspects of the store, and if you ask where the roasted chestnuts are he’ll walk you over instead of just saying “aisle five.” Want to know what they taste like? He can probably tell you, and he might even open the bag on the spot for you to try.

That and along with valuing stellar customer service, paying people well, and trusting them to do good work seem to be at the core of their success. Oh and be very clever about what you sell and to whom.

You can read more about his here and here.

Borrell Associates is forecasting:

A moderate increase in overall ad spending for 2011, but continued strong growth for online advertising, including mobile. Overall, advertisers will increase their spending next year by less than 5% above this year’s projected level, bringing U.S. ad spending totals to $238.6 billion. We’re expecting total online ad spending to grow almost 14%, from $45.6 billion, in 2010, to $51.9 billion, in 2011. The fastest-growing segments of online advertising are the local sector, anything targeted, and everything involving social media. By next year, local online advertising should grow by almost 18%, from $13.7 billion, in 2010, to $16.1 billion, in 2011.

It is about time. It seems most folks, even designers use LinkedIn cause as imperfect as it is, it is kind of the defacto site for professional networking with 70+ million registered users.

The problem has always been that along with your resume there has never been an easy way to showcase your portfolio. Well that has changed with the addition of the new Portfolio Display application that allows anyone to create a free portfolio. Heck you can even create unlimited projects (with unlimited images, videos, multimedia) and upload them. Almost no restrictions.

If you are a creative professional it is stupid simple. Just install the Creative Portfolio Display application on your LinkedIn Profile.

It has happened to all of us. We’re using Wi-Fi in a hotel, airport, or coffee shop that prides itself on customer service, but you are presented with a crappy looking log-in portal where you need to put in some password or verify something before you can access the Internet. Well, if you’re Zach Klein you take a hour while sitting in the Delta Key Club and redesigned their portal.

Now this is something I’d like to attend. The Brand New Conference will be hosted in New York City on November 5.

The Brand New Conference is a one-day event organized by UnderConsideration, focusing on the practice of corporate and brand identity—a direct extension of the popular blog, Brand New. The conference consists of eight sessions offering a broad range of points of view with speakers from around the world practicing in different environments, from global consultancies, to in-house groups, to small firms.

Speakers include folks like Michael Bierut, Paula Scher, and Erik Spiekermann.