Flowers Can Say What You Can't

By Florian Jackson

Dating back to historical times, flowers have been a profession of kindness. We usually gift them to those we care for. We send flowers to show them how special they are, to show admiration, to celebrate occasions, or even to sympathize. What we don't know is that giving certain kinds of flowers, and even their colors, actually have definitions of their own.

The Language Of Flowers

During medieval & Renaissance times, flowers were often given moral meanings. This is evident in artwork where saints are often shown with flowers that symbolize the saints' virtues. In an edition of Sixteenth Century Journal, Liana DeGirolami Cheney stated that "some of the Christian symbols for Virginity or Chastity are the white rose, the myrtle, a vessel or vase, the lily, and the unicorn."

During the Victorian era, flowers began to create or add emotion. The language of flowers, often called floriography, began being used as a discreet form of communication. In the 18th century, sending messages in code using flowers became popular. Based on a Turkish secret language of flowers, known as Persian Salaam, a coded flower arrangement could be sent to profess feelings of attraction or even love.

Back in 1819, a book entirely about interpretations of flowers called "Le Language des Fleurs," was written by Madame Charlotte de la Tour. A similar book, "Language of Flowers" by Kate Greenaway, was written in 1884 and is still being used today.

Japan also has a language of flowers, which they call "Hanakotoba." Greeting cards printed in Japan use the Hanakotoba code, and still apply the flower-language in popular culture such as in films and cartoons, like the anime program "Wei Kreuz."

Well-Known Meanings Of Flowers

Buy or borrow a dictionary of flowers to see the various interpretations and meanings of flowers. Some very popular flowers and their corresponding meanings are written below:

Buttercup - riches Pink carnations - a woman's love Chrysanthemum - love in general Forget-me-not - true love Lavender - devotion, distrust Purple lilac - first emotion of love White lily - purity Peach blossom- long-life Red rose - true love Sunflower - pure and noble thoughts Yellow tulip - hopeless love

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Industrial Design - A Short Guide

By Leticia Bernabe

Industrial design is often defined as the practical use of streams of art and science to improve the utility and aesthetics of an item and make it more desirable for customers. Such designing can be done before a product is officially launched or later for enhancing the quality of the product.

The goal of industrial design is building a favourable perception of the product. It means the customers should consider the products as something desirable and worth spending their money on. The value of a product can be enhanced by making significant additions to the utility or the looks of the product, which helps the product to entice the customers to purchase it.

The first thing to do for coming up with more desirable products is to undertake a detailed market survey on the buying habits of customers. This should be followed by other aspects like drawing, sampling, and a round of testing before the product is ready for promotion. Nowadays, 3D software is employed to accomplish a lot of these jobs, and CAD applications are of excellent help to designers.

The basic purpose of industrial design is to enhance the whole feel of the product. Designers have to concentrate upon a lot of factors other than the appearance of the product. These include durability, functionality, ergonomics as well as the user friendliness of the product. In addition, it is also possible for the designer to decrease the expenditure on production by introducing more efficient designs.

Industrial design also includes other aspects such as packaging a product, study of a consumer's psychological response to a product, and his or her level of sentimental attachment to the product. Hence industrial designers undergo years of extensive training prior to working on a real product.

Some of the renowned industrial designers of the present age are Jonathan Ive, who is credited with designing the iMac; Brooks Stevens, the well known designer of the Harley-Davidson motorcycle, and Raymond Loewy, who designed the Coca-Cola bottle.

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Trademark And The Internet

By Alex Finn

Any talk on the requirement of trademark laws for the internet always leads to the requirement of trademarks for domain names. This is quite crucial because of the fact that your domain name communicates your identity and also highlights your services to the customers.

A registered domain name helps you in taking legal action against any person, who infringes your trademark and attempts to induce people into thinking that their goods and services actually originate from you and that you are the patron of their website.

However, you need to do a thorough search for identical domain names in existence before registering your trademark, in order to avoid any infringements. The research should investigate the existence of similar marks that have a strong resemblance in looks, pronunciation or meaning to the domain name you have chosen. Get your trademark registered only after confirming that it will not lead to any potential trademark infringement claims.

For this aim, it is better to hire an attorney, preferably a cyber law specialist, who also has a thorough knowledge of trademark regulations. This can greatly help in avoiding future disputes related to possible violation.

It is essential to note in this regard that a domain name can serve as a trademark only if it serves as an identifier of the goods or services of your business, and not just as an address that brings web users to your site.

Besides domain names and their possible violation, infringement of keywords is a new menace in cyberspace, wherein genuine trademarks are infringed and used as keywords in ads put up through Yahoo, Google, and MSN, with the deliberate intention of creating confusion in the minds of consumers.

However, it should be remembered that such use by advertisers is not considered an act of infringement if by using the trademark the person or company contributes to the sale of the products or services of the owner of the genuine trademark, and not act as his rival.

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