When it comes to leveraging the web for Investor Relations, no one is a bigger advocate than Big (see our post here, for instance). And given the efficiency with which the web can handle the communications and regulatory requirements of annual reporting, we certainly appreciate the trend toward minimizing the scope of the printed version. But, we have to admit, we’d hate to see it go altogether. And not only for nostalgic reasons. As a tangible, hold-in-your-hands artifact of communication and creativity, as a vehicle that makes message and meaning tactile, the printed annual report offers an engagement between a company and its shareholders that even the most bleeding edge of websites can’t quite match.

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Here at Big, we are unabashedly, unreservedly Mac partisans, in the War of the Roses that is Mac vs. PC. Of course, that’s par for the course in the ad and design biz—layout and image processing applications have for years been developed with a Mac-centric focus, regardless of eventual cross-platform availability. Then there’s the simple and powerful appeal that Macs have for we artistic types as standard-bearers for good design. Whatever else you may think of Apple, their innovations in industrial design are indisputable.

But really, who cares about the substance of the Mac vs. PC debate, when the surface of Apple’s self-promotion is so crazy entertaining? Give me a company that manages to consistently put out genuinely funny, wickedly smart TV spots, and I’m putty in their hands. Witness this week’s new Apple ads, unleashed to dampen the debut of Microsoft’s new operating system, Windows 7. Go see them here. Seriously, guys, you had me at “Hi, I’m a Mac.”

“Sorry about the slashes.” That’s the gist of an apology from Tim Berners-Lee, inventor of the World Wide Web (and we mean actual inventor; unlike Al Gore in regard to the internet, Berners-Lee’s status is largely undisputed and not the subject of SNL skits).

Speaking at a recent symposium on the future of technology, Berners-Lee said he regretted all the paper, trees, and human labor that had been spent by forcing people to type out the double-slash that comes after the “http:” in web addresses. Apparently, the slashes were not strictly needed, and could have been left out had he thought ahead. Honestly, given the astounding amount of thinking ahead which Sir Berners-Lee otherwise accomplished, I believe we can give him a pass. So, please, apology appreciated, but no worries. (Photograph licensed by Uldis Bojārs under Creative Commons.)

“Brand” is the word at Big these days. Of course, you could argue that, since Big is a marketing firm, “brand” is always the word. Or should be. That’s certainly the position that many agencies would take, based on their brand-ad-nauseum self-promotion. Still, regardless of the central and ongoing importance of branding in everything we do, I’m referring here not to our company philosophy or business approach, but instead to the current trend of our projects. Things seem to come and go in cycles, and here lately what is cycling through our shop are lots of branding jobs, for clients both new and existing.

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Quickly, let me rush to make this clear: we’re not, for the most part, celeb-hounds here at Big. And even if we were, Mr. Timberlake, talented though he is, would not likely be the target of any fannish obsession we might display. (Our sensibility runs more lo-fi indy than mainstream dance-pop.) Neither are we suggesting with our importuning headline that JT would find any of our content here especially relevant, or even entertaining.

No, our objective, and the purpose of this post, is to aid a brother in arms, whose plight we discovered during his visit to our offices just two days ago. This fellow traveler is none other than Mr. D.J. Edgerton, CEO and co-founder of the entirely impressive Zemoga, a digital innovation company with offices in New York and Bogotá.

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