EFFEN VODKA Presents The Art of Design. March 16th In Santa Monica.

If It's Hip It's Here, along with other Los Angeles area bloggers and companies, has the honor of being one of the co-hosts of The Art of Design event with EFFEN Vodka that takes place tomorrow night. The event, open to anyone over 21 years of age, will feature local mixologists competing to design the most Provocatively Premium™ EFFEN® Vodka martini.




Sample cocktails, vote on your favorites and watch a local artist and fashion designer reveal pieces inspired by EFFEN Vodka. Complimentary Happy Hour, too.

I hope to see you there!

When:
March 16, 2011 8:00 PM - 10:30 PM

Where:
William Turner Gallery at Bergamot Station Arts Center
2525 Michigan Ave
Santa Monica CA 90404

How:
Only those 21 years of age and older can attend.
Please click here to get on the guest list


RSVP

Like Your Facebook Friends Enough To Hang Them On Your Wall?

Like your FB friends enough to immortalize them on a large printed poster? That's the idea behind grad student Benjamin Lotan's 'Printing Facebook', a custom printed Friend Poster. For $20, you can choose from your own friends, your favorite groups or fan pages and have each of the profile pics ganged on one photographic print.





Paper stock: Benjamin uses Fuji Crystal Archive photo paper, a high-quality professional grade paper with real weight that will not rip or fold easily. Your poster is exposed onto this paper and developed with traditional photo chemicals so it will have a richer image quality than any ink-jet printer process.


above left: the 5,000 pic poster is the largest Benjamin has printed to date and just about reaches the limit.

How many friends? The size of your friends' photos are optimized to fill out the full space, so the dimensions will depend upoon the total number of friends. The code is optimized such that your poster will look fantastic whether you have 200 friends, or up to 2,200 friends.

Custom options: You can decide how much space you want between your friends' pictures. If you want to maximize on the size of your friends photos you can even decide to print a poster with no margins at all.

For the background color, there are 4 options: black, white, and two shades of facebook blue. You can preview each color as you go through the ordering process.
*please note that your poster may print a few inches shorter than 40"

• Large 20"x40" print
• Customizable Options
• High Resolution Print
• Quality Photo Paper
• Print Groups & Fan Pages
• $20
Order yours here.

Levi's Integrates Facebook's Like Button On Their Own Site

Levi's is betting on the fact that you care what other people think. More specifically, what they 'like'. One of the first brands to utilize the social networking concept of the thumbs up "like" button found on Facebook, they've integrated Facebook's new social plug-ins into their online shopping site.



the press release:
The Levi’s® brand today announced at Facebook’s f8 conference the introduction of an innovative new way to shop for jeans online. With the launch, the Levi’s® brand is among the first companies to integrate with Facebook’s new Social Plugins. The Levi’s® brand will provide shoppers with an interactive, customized shopping experience on levi.com (based on consumers’ “Likes”), information about “Top-Liked” products across consumers’ networks, and an easy way to find and share relevant Levi’s® products.



“We’re creating a new social shopping experience that will change the way people shop online and, frankly, make buying jeans more fun. We’re excited to pioneer this new technology and help our loyal fans connect with our brand and share their favorite Levi’s® products with friends.”

Jodi Bricker, Vice President of Digital for Levi’s® Americas said, “We’re creating a new social shopping experience that will change the way people shop online and, frankly, make buying jeans more fun. We’re excited to pioneer this new technology and help our loyal fans connect with our brand and share their favorite Levi’s® products with friends.”



As part of today’s announcement, Facebook introduced a new set of Social Plugins that can be easily integrated into a website to make the user experience more personalized and social. Powered by the Open Graph, these new plugins include a “Like” functionality, Activity Feed, and Recommendation widget that bring friends, social activity and relevant interactions to any site off of Facebook.com.

The Levi’s® brand is integrating the “Like” functionality on its e-commerce site – levi.com. In addition, the Levi’s® brand is building a Friend Store in which consumers who are logged into Facebook can see a list of their friends’ favorite Levi’s® products and seamlessly shop with their friends.

The Levi’s® brand is innovating with social and digital media on its Facebook page, in advertising and on its e-commerce website. Last month the brand leveraged its Levi’s® Facebook Page to amplify their ninth annual Levi’s®/FADER Fort event – a music festival in Austin, Texas. This initiative grew the fan base by 60 percent and garnered more than 780,000 live streams of the event.


test it out here:


You can explore how other sites integrate Facebook here.

New Social Site, Cougars & Co., Capitalizes On Growing Trend

Yes, it's for real.
My first reaction was "eeeeuuuuwww", then "hmmmmm", followed by "naaaah." But others may claw their way to this new social networking site that capitalizes on the growing trend of older women dating (seducing?) younger men.



The brains behind the concept, Shelli Netko, the founder and president of Cougars & Co. says:

"My main goal in starting Cougars & Co. was to create an environment where women could learn to love the life they live and live the life the love. After all, age is just a number. Recent surveys show 34% of women in their 40s date men who are younger and 17% of women in their 50s do the same. This isn't just a trend, it's a new social norm that both women and men are obviously embracing. Women are gravitating to younger men because they seem to have more of an energetic spirit that matches theirs. Women are taking better care of themselves, as a result, 40 is the new 30; 50 is the new 40. So the age difference becomes a non-issue. You don't have to be a Hollywood star to go out with someone 10 or 15 years your junior, but God Bless Demi Moore for bringing it into the spot light!"


above: the world's most well-known Cougar and Cub; stunning actress Demi Moore and her hottie husband, Ashton Kutcher.


The press release:
The dating jungle just became that much wilder with the recently launched social networking company Cougars & Co. The brainchild of Arizona entrepreneur Shelli Netko, Cougars & Co. is a members-only online community where older women and younger men have the opportunity to meet, mix and mingle, shop and travel all in the name of fun. Cougars & Co. getaways are for the cougar or cub in you who needs a little “me” time – think R&R with a little bit of “BAM!”



“The cougar and cub culture is a growing trend that is less concerned with age and focused on reinventing yourself at any age,” Netko said. “While we plan to go nationwide with our charity bachelor auctions, we thought Scottsdale was the perfect place to introduce the Cougars & Co. concept and begin our social network.”

The site, which is now live, is offering an introductory $1 membership to those that join during the first month. After April 30, the monthly membership fee is $9.95.

Members can join the hunt by creating a profile, joining groups, creating their own groups and initiating online connections. For members looking to get out, monthly happy hour events will be held and year-round getaway vacations for cougars and cubs will be organized.

The Charity Bachelor Auction


As part of the company kick-off, Cougars & Co. is holding a charity bachelor auction on Thursday, April 1st in Scottsdale, AZ. Valley cougars will be pleased to see there's much more on the men-u than chips and dip when as many as 10 cubs (including a past contender for The Bachelorette) strut their stuff all in the name of charity. Proceeds from the event will benefit the Women's Wellness Center at St. Joseph's Hospital and Medical Care.


above: Greg Bilbro, (previously on "The Bachelorette") will be a bachelor in the Cougars & Co. charity auction in Scottsdale

Cougars & Co. also offers clothing you can purchase from their site, such as the two examples below. And they will be adding more merchandise soon!



Interested? Curious? Perversely Fascinated?

Buy some merchandise, learn more or Sign up here.

note: This is an updated version of the original post.
all images and information courtesy of Cougars & Co.