Saddened to hear the news about Steve Jobs today, but inspired all over again by his wise words. Rather than a load of overblown sentimentality or sub-par FastCompany-esque analysis, here are three of my favourite clips of Steve’s amazing thoughtful clarity.

What an inspiration. Rest in peace Steve…

Title image via Jonathan Mak, clever bugger.

It’s nice when you get the feeling a company is full of people who really like what they do. In this case it’s those Dyson boffins having fun with their new fan, a balloon and some blu-tack. As you do.

I’ve been saving this for Friday, so apologies of you’ve already seen it. When graphics and retro videogames collide you can be sure I’ll be there to post the video. It’s by Patrick Jean and onemoreproduction.

Amazing. Thanks to Afonso for the link.

I don’t get very excited about the Oscars I’m afraid. It’s all a bit GMTV for me, but this year there’s been an interesting winner in the short films category. Logorama is a 15 minute film by H5 including a mind-boggling array of (mainly American) logos used in some really clever ways. Watch the trailer above to get the idea.

Apparently it took 6 years to create, I wonder how many of the companies they were using rebranded during that time…

There’s been a bit of a row online about it, as the entire film (which I’ve chosen not to show here) was leaked and – wait for it – the film makers did not have legal permission from all the companies whose logos they’ve used, to, er, use them. People hosting the entire film, or uploading it to youTube etc are getting slapped on the wrists as we speak, but that seems a bit hypocritical – If the film makers didn’t respect the rights of the logo owners, then they can hardly complain if people don’t respect their own intellectual property in turn.

Anyway, let’s all just be friends. If you want to watch the whole thing, it’s available on iTunes, or through some tactical Googling.

I was asked to talk about significant brand this week at work. I chose Apple.

Yes, I know, I know, it’s all painfully predictable. But it’s only a predictable choice because it’s an obvious example, and it’s only obvious because it’s true. I showed the above clip which I stumbled across online. It’s Steve Jobs explaining what Apple is about. And in just over one minute, he renders flip charts and cryptic diagrams useless. Get ready to squirm if ‘dynamic’ is one of your brand values.

A little bit of me dies inside every time I see Apple used on a mood board or held up in a branding meeting, not because I don’t love it, but because it’s become a lazy cop out for people who aren’t thinking hard enough. I actually think a lot of people have entirely forgotten what really makes Apple different. It isn’t just because they have sold a lot of iPods, made computers transparent or managed to get people to spend twice as much on a laptop, it’s smaller and more straightforward than that.

Apple isn’t perfect, but a lot of what I admire about them comes down to clarity, and Steve Jobs is clearly behind that. He reinvented the company since rejoining it in 1997. He’s an inspirational guy. If you’re curious about what makes him tick, watch the speech below. He starts talking about 7 and a half minutes in.

Not every brand has a Steve Jobs, but that’s no excuse for not having vision, appetite and clarity.

Google has designs on your entire computer now with their upcoming Chrome OS. This video explains it in a straightforward way. Perhaps a little too straightforward…

It’s really exciting stuff, but I mean come on, there are TWO letter Ts in the word ‘inTerneT’ guys. Innernet just makes me think of Dennis Quaid floating around the inner ear in his teeny submarine.

Still, people are increasingly making this sort of video now to explain their products or services. Perhaps because online things tend to be technical and scary to some people and are more palatable in felt tip pen and a soft Californian accent. Apple’s iPhone ads are almost painfully patronising.

Here’s a video which should help the Daily Mail get it’s head around Twitter.

As technology becomes more intuitive and reaches out to every generation during their everyday lives, then it’s only right that explaining things like this gets more natural, with companies’ official marketing starting to imitate the traditional word of mouth explanation in the pub. After all, previously technical terminology like ‘blog’, ‘ping’ ‘tweet’ etc are becoming more everyday language every, er… day. We’re finally getting comfortable with the future.

I’m holding out for Branding in Plain English, or something about the offside rule. A new video meme? Just wait for the parodies…