A little update on the webby awards...
This has been a wonderful and crazy week and I sincerely thank everyone for the well wishes.

It looks as if about 200,000 folks vote for the people's voice - so we'll need at least 70,000 to beat Amazon.
I know, I know - fat chance. A girl can dream.

Anyway - if you've not done so already, please get out there and vote!

Great news. Outstanding news. Can't stop smiling news!

Art.com has been nominated for the 2003 Webby Awards as Best Commerce Site!!
Sharing the nomination spotlight are heavyweights Amazon.com and RedEnvelope.com - two sites I have admired and learned from!

Today I am basking in the glow of the nomination.
I am jumping up and down screaming yippee, hooray, yeeeeeeeeeessss!!

Tomorrow I'm going to call everyone I know and say...

"GO PLACE YOUR PEOPLES CHOICE AWARD FOR ART.COM!!!"
http://www.webbyawards.com/peoplesvoice/

Pantone - long known and loved by designers for creating a color language we could all share is now reaching for the consumer market.
Shopping Color Guide

The idea is interesting - encourage online merchants to display standard color tags on their items so the shopper can do a quick @ home lookup on their pantone swatch book and see if that shade of pink is just the shade they were looking for. It would certainly make both company and customer happier and more confident about their online purchases. Fewer returns, less anxiety - a minimal amount of investment on the company's part. Good basic ingredients for adoption.

But take a look at the marketing copy below. Calling it a "portable color memory" is on par with calling my wallet a "cash management system". Pantone manages to undermine a strong idea with terrible, irrelevant fluff. (learn from their mistake)

"Consumers of home and fashion products have a long acquaintance with paint chips, magazine clippings, catalogs, and rug and fabric swatches for coordinating the colors of their prospective purchases. Now with the PANTONE SHOPPING COLOR GUIDE, the customer is able to bring a Portable Color Memory™ to their point of purchase." ---extracted from Pantone's site 04.07.2003

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