A domino is a small rectangular wood or plastic block with one face that’s blank and the other marked by an arrangement of dots resembling those on dice. Dominoes are used in a variety of games, most often as positional play, where each player places a domino edge to edge against another so that adjacent faces are either identical or form some specified total. The first person to reach that total wins the game. Like playing cards, of which they are a variant, dominoes can also be used in other types of games, including solitaire and trick-taking ones.
Hevesh has worked on projects involving up to 300,000 dominoes and has set a Guinness World Record for the most dominoes in a circular arrangement. Her largest installations can take several nail-biting minutes to fall, but once they do, they’re awe-inspiring. Creating her intricate designs involves careful planning and an understanding of the laws of physics, especially gravity.
The word domino comes from the Latin for “flood,” but it may have an earlier sense that links it to a long hooded robe worn together with a mask at a masquerade. In English, the term is most closely associated with the game of domino, which was developed in France after 1750.
Domino’s has built its business around the idea of listening to its customers, and CEO Dominick Doyle has encouraged his team to think creatively in order to improve the company’s products and marketing. He has pushed back the dress code and made it acceptable to wear jeans, and he’s emphasized that Domino’s employees should be able to speak openly about any issues.
This line of communication extends to the company’s consumers, and Doyle has a knack for using his platform as CEO to spice up Domino’s image. The chain’s marketing campaigns have included pizza-shaped SUVs, a Domino’s delivery car that was crowd-sourced through the crowd-sourced design website Innovate Detroit, and a series of television ads featuring an unemployed guy who finds a new job thanks to a Domino’s coupon.
The Domino’s delivery car was a bold move, but the company has also put its money where its mouth is with ecommerce. In late 2015, Domino’s launched an app that lets customers purchase pizza online and have it delivered to their home or office for free. The Domino’s app has been a huge success, and the company has been able to leverage it into more sales.
Domino’s ecommerce strategy is just one way that the company has been able to keep up with its competitors and stay relevant to its core demographic of millennials. The company has a number of other creative and successful initiatives that have contributed to its recent growth, including a new recipe for pizza and the development of a new delivery truck that’s optimized for efficiency.