After the launch of Squareflair.com a few months back, I've been so busy with Squarespace development I could puke jump for joy. Seriously, if there's any question about my love for this platform, then you don't follow me on Twitter, so do that now.
Here's what was just released into the wild, and there's more that are wrapping-up very soon.
]]>If you're a web designer, then you already know about the insanely-awesome site called dribbble over at dribbble.com.
"I liked it so much, I bought the shirt!" -- A. Houser
in their words
Dribbble is show and tell for designers, developers and other creatives. Share sneak peeks of your work as “shots” — small screenshots of the designs and applications you’re working on.
Designers are "drafted" to play, and by "play", I mean post images of what we're working on. It's an extremely-social atmosphere, and you can actually get some great feedback through the process of posting design iterations.
I was drafted by my good friend Eric about 5 months ago, when it was still considered a private beta. Even with thousands of players, the public couldn't view player's shots.
"Behold, the Ampersand" by Alan Houser (my fave), courtesy dribbble.com
Then the ads came. Today they appear on the right-side of the site, typical to site banner advertising, the ads are outside the context of what people are there to do. One of these early advertisers was MailChimp, one of the leaders in newsletter software.
... months and months go by ... (segway music here) ... dribbble is now a public site, meaning that the world can go view activity. They still can't participate unless they're a drafted player. While that part adds a bit of tension for outsiders, it seems to keep the quality at the highest level possible.
A few weeks back, I noticed that Dan Rubin, designer to the stars, posted a few MailChimp images, and this week, I see Veerle Pieters is now posting some. (all posted below)
Between these four images, there were 2,816 eyeballs that clicked-in to view the images. These eyeballs were mostly designers who are potential MailChimp customers, decision-makers or at the very-least, influencers.
It's this designer's opinion that MailChimp targeted these top designers, knowing (possibly encouraging) them to post shots on dribbble. Maybe it's far-fetched to assume that MailChimp recognized this awesome opportunity, but these dribbble shots posted by the web's top designers are ads themselves, and the very essence of social marketing. And that's why I say IT'S GENIUS.
"Mmm, Paper." by Dan Rubin, courtesy dribbble.com
"Finishing touches" by Dan Rubin, courtesy dribbble.com
"Where's Freddy Looking?" by Dan Rubin, courtesy dribbble.com
"Bricks X Dots" by Veerle Pieters, courtesy dribbble.com
When working on Adam's website, we had the discussion towards the end about his brand.
I was in the process of changing the site's title text, and added the little orange dot in-palce of "just a period". I then emailed Adam and joked how just this orange dot should be his logo.
Then it hit me:
What if the front of a business card is all black, like the site, and only says ".director"? (An incredibly simple, yet bold stroke, or so I thought)
To begin working on the card concept, I asked Adam "what would you like on the card?" and he responded "Name, Phone and Email... there isn't much more we need is there?" I agreed. Appreciating his grasp of simplicity, I gladly made the backside of the card as basic as possible.
After the second iteration, I realized that we didn't even list the website on the card! I designed the site, and forgot that all-important part!? It's funny how something so obvious can stare you right in the face.
For the third, and final design (below) I kept the full website heading on the front, then for the back I just swapped the .director with a .com, and — BOOM! Nailed it! — Back-away from the computer, this thing is done!
From front-to-back, the client/card-holder knows that Adam is a director, and appreciates a simple statement.
In this case, the identity wasn't forced at all.
It just sort-of arrived.
Enjoy AdamRichardJones.com
The Godfather of Web Design, and my Web Design mentor, made my month brighter with one Tweet. I love this guy.
]]>As you can imagine, I have several original film ideas, but sometimes with the unkown, the starting is the hardest part. I quickly realized that without a team to work with, my dreams of becoming a filmmaker would never be a reality.
Taking the plunge.
I decided the easiest project out of the gate would be a short film. I called-upon co-writer and close friend, Terry Coffey, and after a few weeks of passionate chewing, I have a great concept for a short art film that we're going to write together. I will also be Producing/Directing.
This is going to be awesome!
Follow the project behind-the-scenes, over at SOCKETCREEP.COM
]]>Soundcloud keeps it simple for humans. Nice job!
The product is designed to be used between design and development teams, if your end product is Flash. I don't work in Flash, and know very few Flash developers to try, so why would I bother using Catalyst?
As a UI Designer, I work with many front-end and back-end developers. I will often create wireframes depicting page interactions, and will move-on to specify a higher-fidelity design. I've found that one of the more-difficult things to communicate are interactions or animations with moving parts. It's sometimes too late after a component is built to say "no, it should move like this".
After a few hours of playing with Adobe Flash Catalyst, I can say that it’s not as fast for rapid prototyping (as Fireworks or iPlotz) but once you learn the basics, it is fast for showing page interactions, and even animations within those interactions.
Here's a teeny, quick example I built. (on a parked domain)
To Summarize, I'm trying to use Catalyst to better-communicate to developers and clients, by showing advanced interactions on a wireframe.
Exporting
I thought I would use the exported SWF file within a Confluence wiki, but considering there are so many linked files, it looks like the exported files should be installed on a traditional hosted environment. I may even consider running interaction demos locally, while connecting to clients via WebEx/Skype.
You can also export a complete, installable AIR application, which is way-more portable.
Try it out!
]]>There were some incredible entries, but I'm particularly-fond of this one:
I cannot agree more. Design is not art or necessarily making something pretty. While art is partly made from design, Design should be though of as SOLVING PROBLEMS. And when solving those problems, I get a high from it as well.
I don't consider myself a "blogger" or a writer, so I'll point you to a great article on the topic. Joshua Porter is known for his controversial "Design is (sort-of) not Art" stance. Design is Not Art, Redux (bokardo.com)
So congrats Dani Kelley! @accidentalArt | accidental-artist.com
Subscribe to this journal's RSS and friend me on Twitter so you won't miss the next contest!
]]>43 Kristina Halvorson {43} Content Strategy by CreativeXpert Design Interviews
This week on the show, we had the great opportunity to talk about Web Content Strategy with Brain Traffic's founder, Kristina Halvorson, one of the leading practitioners in the web content world.
]]>
