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Cool Hunting

  • BioLogic iPhone Bike Mount

    Cyclists sick of juggling an iPhone while trying to ride will appreciate this waterproof iPhone case that easily attaches to any set of handlebars. Made by the sustainability-driven bike company Dahon, the BioLogic bike mount allows for tracking of speed, GPS, and distance, using apps like EveryTrail (free) or...

  • Moscot Mangito

    Adding a Brigitte Bardot touch to their Moscot Originals collection, the new Mangito frames seize on the cat-eye craze for spring. Moscot's take interprets the style more subtly than other current versions, like Alexander Wang's recent kitschy-slash-punk collaboration with Linda Farrow. Fit for ladies, the brand named the frames...

  • The Great Western Alpaca Show

    Photographer Ross Evertson's 2007 trip to The Great Western Alpaca Show highlights the strangely fuzzy annual springtime exhibition, recently featured by Good Magazine. From shearing contests to best in show, the livestock-friendly fair finds a little something for every Alpaca lover. Featuring their famous long hair, the Alpaca photo...

  • Figs Ties

    For every hand-tailored tie sold, Figs gives a school uniform to a child in East Africa through their Threads for Threads program. The L.A.-based label offers standard and bow ties in a variety of dapper fabrics, ranging from woolen Ivy League plaids to Italian silk bicycle patterns. They also...

  • Letterheady

    Before email signatures and customized Twitter themes, people wanting to make an impression with correspondence turned to the gloriously idiosyncratic and oft-outrageous personal insignia stamped onto letters. Letterheady, a new website from writer Shaun Usher, celebrates this lost art of communication with interesting letterheads from iconic figures and corporations...

AdPulp

  • Rethinking What Work Is And How Best To Get It Don…

    Tug McTighe of American Copywriter likes the new book, Rework, from 37Signals. He says it's "absolutely the best book on making your business/creativity thrive (that) I've read since Seth Godin's Purple Cow."

  • The AdPulp Interview: Doug Lowell

    Doug Lowell of ID Branding was one of the first people to see my book fledgling book back in the spring of 1995, when he was an ACD at AKA Advertising and Saas. He was also one of a handful of people in the business that made an impression on my developing ad mind. So I had to look the man up when I returned to Stumptown. Doug and I recently had lunch at a Chinese restaurant in downtown Portland. We picked up the conversation after 15 years as naturally as can be--I guess that's what happens when two guys who write poetry and ads sit down mid-day over spicy food. What follows is not the transcript from that luncheon. But it touches on some of the things we talked about that day and expands from there. Enjoy... Q. I understand Andrew Keller of CP+B once worked for you? Did you see greatness in his future? A. Yes, I actually did see Andrew's brilliance and leadership early on. I was fortunate to hire him straight out of Portfolio Center and coax him to Portland - he and his lovely wife Helen. I think I told Andrew six months into working with him that he was going to be a creative director one day. I haven't said that to many juniors that I can remember. It wasn't just his gift at concepting and executing ads that I saw. It was his willingness to be a leader and his amazingly positive attitude. The man just saw the world as a good place, and saw every assignment as an opportunity for awesomeness, no matter how lowly it was. And he was unselfish in urging others to achieve awesomeness. He also was crystal clear about his objectives, which were to do as much good work as possible and to go to places where he could do even better work. He actually left working with me to go straight to Crispin, and found his home. But he leveraged every opportunity I could give him to build his book to get him there. Q. Is it harder, or easier, to find great talent today than it was back when we first met in 1995? A. It's actually just as easy as it's ever been. In fact, I am amazed at the quality of juniors (creative, account, strategy) that we're finding. The University of Oregon is doing an incredible job under Deb Morrison of cultivating a new breed of creatives - people who are comfortable playing multiple roles. We have one young man from that program, Michael, who is a copywriter who knows CS4 and is becoming a master Flash developer under the guidance of Erik Falat, our Interactive Creative Director. I am blown away by the range of his creative capabilities. So I believe brilliant people are all around us today. It's a very exciting time for our business. Q. You've been a principal at several agencies in your career and are today at ID Branding. What's the hardest thing about owning and managing an agency? A. What isn't hard about it? It's all the stuff we creatives never wanted to deal with, like paying the bills, laying people off, negotiating leases and worrying about payroll. But someone has to do it, or there would be no agencies. On the other hand, it's a chance to shape a place to fit your own vision - if you have the right business partners. It's a chance to try out all your own theories about how things should be done. That's the big attraction. Both at Paris France and now at ID Branding I feel the opportunity to be on the front of the wave, rather than watching the wave from behind as it rushes toward shore without me (to use a surfing metaphor). One thing I've learned is that growing a successful business is an art unto itself. And it must be approached with all the humility and dedication of any other art. It's not easy. My hat's off to those who've done it well. Q. Obviously, you've been witness to the rise of digital, as we all have. And you've had to adapt as we all have. What's been the most interesting thing about this evolutionary process to you? A. Digital has been one of the greatest gifts given to our business. The whole concept of "interactive" is, in one word, where we've been going for quite a long time. Because people want to interact with brands, not just consume messages from them. I'm so happy I was part of Paris France, and was able to learn the intricate world of interactive. It's such a different game. It's like moving from chess to three-dimensional chess. I had such amazing people around me that it was an incredible experience, a great education. And it has absolutely transformed my whole approach to brand building. I don't think I'd be nearly as useful in this business if I hadn't added had that experience. Q. You're a writer and a photographer. Writing's not a visual art, but it does rely on mental images. Is that what good writing is to you? A visual narrative? A. I came to advertising after having been seriously immersed in writing poetry for 13 years. Advertising forced me to become a much more visual thinker. I had to learn to not just think in words anymore. What a gift that has been. It has deeply affected my photography. Whether writing is narrative or lyric, it has always been about casting images upon the reader's mind. Good writing is so much about finding an appropriate voice to meld with those images and to shape them as well. I think a good copywriter always needs to be a visual thinker, but the actual writing itself is so much more about conjuring a presence - the presence of the brand. It's not really about narrative as much as it is about the presence. Q. Let's talk about Portland. It's known as a creative class city, but it's also an industrial port city and a city with a lot of poor people. Is this a good place to do business? A. All cities have a lot of poor people. That's part of what makes them cities. And they all have some remnants of industry, which is often what makes them visually interesting. Portland is a great place to have a business, but it's not always a great place to do business, mostly because an agency depends upon proximity to corporate headquarters, and we've got darned few of those. The biggest challenge in doing business in Portland is how removed it is from the real financial and business centers of our country. Sure, our new virtual world is supposed to change all that, but the fact remains people want face time with their agencies and like the idea that they could jump in a cab or on the subway or walk a handful of blocks and be there. That's why there's only one Wieden & Kennedy when so many other agencies here have tried to be the next Wieden. Dan told me a long time ago, and I'm sure he's told others, that their model is completely unreproducible. No good creative agency has ever broken through the ceiling of, say, growing to more than fifty people. And once they do, they slide back. Most are quite small. It's the cost doing business in this gorgeous, wonderful city. Q. How has the agency business in Portland changed over the years? A. I have seen so many agencies come and go. Really good ones, too. I quickly become an old fogy when I reminisce about Cole and Weber, Moffatt Rosenthal, AKA Advertising and Sass, Nerve. What I'm seeing now is the sprouting of really interesting interactive agencies. And I'm hoping to see some really successful multi-disciplinary agencies that draw people from design, advertising, strategy and interactive. That's what we're trying to build. But again, the challenge of doing it in Portland is very real. Q. Are awards shows important for the advancement of one's career and the agency's cause? Or are they a waste of time, money and attention? A. Awards are still important. As long as big agencies look for a long string of awards on a resume, they will continue to be important. And as long as clients have their hearts set aflutter by thrilling creative, they will thrive. Award shows are morphing to keep up with the times, so we're seeing a lot more emphasis on brilliant thinking no matter the medium. And they're important in helping to set the bar for all of us. Q. What do you look for in a client? Or put another way, what makes a client great? A. Wow. I have thought so much about this. I can boil it down to one word: confidence. What goes into making a confident client is complex, really. It's some combination of knowledge and experience plus innate leadership plus courage plus trust. The best clients I've ever had have the same qualities: they listen and they're decisive. They also know they need an agency to be successful. So many clients just aren't so sure about that. And, ultimately, the good ones have the C-suite backing them up and supporting their decisions, which is the only way to have confidence. That's about as common as a bear that can sing opera. Q. What responsibility do we have as agents for our clients' messages? Is it all about doing their bidding, or do we owe the public something (more than a pitch) when we ask for their undivided attention? A. We owe our audiences and our clients the same thing, in my mind. The absolutely truest embodiment of a brand's values conveyed through a system of meaning. We owe our clients the best possible counsel in how their brand should live and operate in the world. And we owe our audiences substance. It's so much more than messages. It's so much more than an ad or campaign. I believe we are meaning makers. We make meaning on behalf of the brand and on behalf of the audience that brand serves. We owe both client and audience absolute honesty and sincerity and significant, useful meaning. At ID Branding, we talk about growing brands that operate like a culture, in the anthropological sense of that word. And cultures are "a system of meaning embodied in symbols," says Geertz. That's what people want today, at least according to the anthropologists. They want meaning they can use in the shaping of their own identities. Brands have become part of the symbolic landscape. Q. Is the concept of "undivided attention" even real in today's over-saturated media environment? A. No attention is undivided. I don't think such a thing has ever been possible. But if what we do is meaningful, people will recognize it and embrace it. We remember what matters to us. We embrace the brands that are in sync with our values. We love what we love. It's all about creating presence where people are looking for it. It's all about being where they want us to be and delivering meaning. Q. What's the last great book you read? A. All the way through? I have so many books started but unfinished, books I might return to a year or two later. Right now I'm reading Grant McCracken's Chief Culture Officer, The Book of Questions by Edmond Jabès (poetry), The Zohar (Jewish mysticism), Michael Palmer's The Promises of Glass (poetry), and Doug DuBois' All the Days and Nights (photography). That might be a better picture of my silly reality than talking about the last book because I'm not good at going in order or finishing. Q. How do you feel about this increasingly loud call for metrics? Is it good for creativity or mindless misdirection? A. Metrics are going to be more and more important, and I think that's good. Measuring the impact our work is having is crucial in understanding reality. Now, that's different from concept testing, which is merely cowardice. And it's different from quantitative-only measurement, which is a foolishly rational approach to an emotionally-driven business. But I think agencies should be proposing new and inventive metrics to our clients, which hopefully will help us earn a piece of the benefits we help to create. Metrics need to be a sincere search for understanding, not just some formula that makes the linear thinkers happy or turns this business into a science. It's not a science. As my friend Thom Walters always says, people make decisions based on emotion and then justify those decisions rationally. So let's not oversimplify the complex relationship between humans and brands, but instead let's find a way to comprehensively understand how what we're doing is being received and the consequences it might be generating.

  • Too Much Nerd Power Not A Good Thing For Brands

    Writing in Ad Age, Tom Hinkes, former marketing director and current principal consultant at OutBranding, says "our biggest consumer brands are now managed by nerds." It's not a compliment. Great brand marketers are comfortable with ambiguity. They realize marketing is a balancing act -- it's numbers and detail, but it's also flair and vision. It's qualitative and quantitative; analysis and intuition; perspiration and inspiration. Great marketing requires the balance of both sides of the brain. But the balance has been lost. Great marketers are visionaries, not bean counters. They succeed by defying conventional wisdom. They see over the near horizon, envisioning products and ideas long before the average consumer even senses a need for them. Nothing captures this principle better than the adage, "If Edison had done market research, he would have invented bigger candles." Of course, to defy conventional wisdom is to take risks. And risks are scary to take, even in the bets of times. This is not the best of times.

  • Iain Tait, Free-Range Idea Farmer

    You may have heard, Iain Tait is leaving Poke/London for Wieden+Kennedy/Portland. In his new position Tait will be top digital dog at an agency reared on TV, and one that's been slow to pick up the digital ball. If this article by Tait in New Media Age is any indication, he wants to bring new ways of working on ideas to the global super shop. If we want to create provocative, challenging and culturally relevant digital work, we need to smash the hen-house and go free-range. We need to embrace the un-team and the un-process. We need to borrow from the places where real innovation is occurring: the world of hack-days, collaboration, open-sourcing, ring-fenced R&D time and incubators. Clinging to outdated idea-farming methods just because they're reliable and predictable is a surefire route to extinction. The "hen house" is Tait's metaphor for the place where copywriters and art directors lay their golden eggs. His argument is that you can't just bring technologists into this sacrosanct area without a dust up. Instead, you need to draw the hens out from the comforts of their coop and show them the expansiveness of the entire farm. It'll be interesting to see how far Tait gets with some of the most entrenched "hens" in the business.

  • Engage: A Deep Dive Into The Social Media World Of…

    I'll readily admit I'd never heard of Brian Solis when I received a copy of his new book, Engage: The Complete Guide for Brands and Businesses to Build, Cultivate, and Measure Success in the New Web. But I suppose when Ashton Kutcher writes the foreword to your book, like he did here, you can do what Solis does and describe yourself as "one of the most prominent thought leaders in social media" as well as a "digital analyst and visionary." I've read enough marketing and new media books to know that when something is considered a "complete guide," it won't be considered complete in, say, a year or two from now. But Engage is an impressive book; it's a deep dive into all the ways that social media is being used by brands, companies and organizations right now. There's an extensive "toolbox" of categories, instruments, and sites that serve the major components of social media. There are discussions of how to find influencers, the "rules of engagement," ways to measure effectiveness, and the promises and perils of the whole thing. Quite a number of topics are addressed in the book and that's no easy feat. Be warned: if you're looking for how social media integrates into a more traditional marketing plan, this isn't your best bet. And Solis is a passionate advocate of social media, so you're also not going to get a pros-and-cons debate about to what degree brands should use social media (which is still something many clients are still wondering). But if you have a client who's very left-brained and analytical, or if you're looking for a very methodical trip through the world of social media as it stands in 2010, Engage is a great place to start. Special thanks to John Wiley & Sons who provided me a copy for review.

AdFreak

....HOW ADVERTISING SPOILED ME....

  • Volkswagen Coupé Cabriolet Eos: Air collection

    Advertising Agency: Agence V, Paris, FranceCreative Director: Christian VinceArt Director: Frédéric DurandCopywriter: Arnaud LabillePhotographer: Jean-Noel Leblanc-bontemps

  • NATURAL HAIR CARE - HENNA POWDER

    Henna Powder is used in India largely for mehendi designs - a traditional art that uses a woman's hands and feet as its canvas on special occasions, mostly weddings. Henna Powder is also used for hair conditioning and nourishment, making the hair shiny, smooth and beautiful.Agency: Mudra DDB, Chennai, IndiaClient: Natural Hair Care - Henna PowderAssociate Creative Director: Arvind RamalingamArt Director: Krishnamurthy IyyappanIllustrator: MuraliPhotographer: Ramesh Kumar

  • Wonderbra!

    An interesting viral ad for Wonderbra!

  • Pepsi - Dare for more!

    Titles: "Surfer", "Climber" and "Boarder"Creative Directors: Veikko Hille, Sebastian Hardieck, Toygar BazarkayaArt Director: Michael PlückhahnCopywriter: Dietmar Neumann Beratung: Heike Flottmann, Annika LauhöferArt Buying: Birgit PaulatProduction: Stefan Kranefeld Imaging, DüsseldorfAgency: BBDO GermanyThey´ve just won the Grand Prix at the Epica Awards. The motifs are inspired by the famous Pepsi-Logo in red, white and blue and show adventurous pictures. Thanks Markus for sending me the ads.

  • Jump higher!

    Advertising Agency: Advico Young & Rubicam, Zurich, SwitzerlandExecutive Creative Director: Urs SchrepferArt Director: Marietta AlbinusCopywriter: Martin StulzPhotographer: Markus WeberVia: I believe in adv

Design Observer: Main Posts

Authentic Boredom

  • Malware Attack: Update

    This site was hacked pretty severely sometime (or multiple times) in the last few weeks. I’m still ridding the server of the affected files, and still finding new ones. I'm working hard to fix it. Thanks for the patience.

  • My (revised) video setup: Canon EOS 7D

    After just a couple weeks of testing, I gave up on the Canon HG10 w/35mm for shooting HD video. Not only was the quality not stellar, but it's a hack that's cumbersome and really difficult to work with. Following an enormous amount of deliberation and questioning if so many dollar signs were really worth it, I bit the bullet and sprung for a Canon EOS 7D and some quality lenses. No mistaking, this thing shoots incredible photos and equally impressive 1080p HD video. I still have plenty to learn about the camera and photography in general, but so far I'm really pleased with it. I took it with me to film the Colosseo being printed earlier this week, and the footage looks fantastic. (Video coming soon.) I bought the 7D body only and skipped the lens it comes bundled with. Taking cues from Eyepatch Production's 7D tutorials and comments on forums around the web, I picked up a Sigma 30mm f/1.4 EX DC HSM prime lens and Canon EF-S 17-55mm f/2.8 IS USM zoom lens. Suzanne already had a Canon EF-S 60mm f/2.8 Macro USM lens with her Canon 40D, and that seems to do fine with the 7D for shooting macro stuff. When filming the Colosseo, I kept the Sigma 30mm on most of the time. What's crazy is just two weeks ago I didn't even know the difference between prime and zoom lenses. The mics I'm using right now are the RODE VideoMic, a great little shotgun-style mic, and a wired Audio Technica ATR-3350 Lavalier Condenser Mic. The ATR-3350 lavalier mic can be pretty noisy, but for $30 it's a decent start for now. Additional links and notes about the equipment shown in these photos are available on Flickr.

  • My video setup: Canon HG10 with 35mm adapter

    Update: I've switched to a Canon 7D. I've had a penchant for filmmaking ever since I was a little kid. I've never had the right equipment, though. I'm trying to finally change that, while still trying to stay within budget. The photo above shows the setup I've been piecing together over the last few weeks. I haven't shot anything with it yet, but I'll give it a good run in a couple weeks when I film the Colosseo letterpress poster being printed. We'll see how it goes. Two years ago this would have been a killer setup--it's similar to the setup Benjamin Reece used to shoot "Fifty People, One Question". Nowadays, a Canon 7D or similar is probably the way to go for those of us doing indie-style film stuff. Check out this fantastic video shot with a Canon 7D: I've had my HG10 for a while now, and I've been able to do some decent shooting with it (see "Roma Italia"). I'm not ready to make the step-up investment to a 7D just yet. So I'm doing what I can with the HG10, while making sure much of what I'm purchasing will also work with the 7D at a later date. It's taken quite a bit of research to piece all of this together, so I'm documenting my equipment here for those of you searching for something similar: Canon HG10 HD hard-drive camcorder (you can get these for under $400 on eBay nowadays, though I'd recommend something more recent like the Canon HF S100 if purchasing your first non-tape camcorder) Greg Tay's GT35pro 35mm depth of field (DOF) adapter Nikon NIKKOR 50mm f/1.4 AI manual focus lens (this one is from the late 70s, snatched on eBay) Opteka X-Grip RODE VideoMic Sima LED video light Check back in a few weeks to see some of the video I'll shoot with it. Fingers crossed it turns out okay.

  • Michael Bierut on clients

    Michael Bierut is such a down-to-earth, practical designer (and speaker) who works hard to do amazing work without the typical stigma associated with graphic designers. This practicality is clearly evident in the video above, a presentation given at CreativeMornings in New York City. And if you haven't seen Helvetica, you need to see how his commentary really helps the movie shine. Michael's presentation on clients is one of those "should be required viewing" kind of presentations. It's fantastic. Clients are the difference between design and art. I would go insane trying to work ... without clients.... I really need clients to provoke me as a designer to do work. Thanks to Tina Roth Eisenberg for making this happen.

  • Colosseo: Available March 2010

    Watch the full resolution video on Vimeo. This project began 12 months ago when Suzanne and I purchased tickets to Rome. It's consumed a good portion of my working life since then. This is a sneak preview. Sign up to be notified by email when it's available:

Typographica

  • Making Geometric Type Work

    For graphic designers beginning to experiment in type design, a geometric or modular typeface is a natural starting point. Illustrator and other programs offer a simple collection of elements such as circles, squares, and triangles which can be combined to create a passable alphabet. This is the same route I took when dissatisfied with the [...]

  • Fraktur Mon Amour, 2nd Edition

    Fraktur Mon Amour is the work of Judith Schalansky, written while she was a student of the Communication Design program in Potsdam. She developed a serious passion for blackletter and was disappointed to find all the reference books about this fascinating genre are very dated and often quite staid, and in many cases not easily [...]

  • Bonesana

    Special thanks to Gestalten for sponsoring the Typographica nameplate for October, 2009 with Bonesana. Gestalten is known for very contemporary designs — the modular and the post-mod — so this tribute to the 18th century is quite a departure. Designed by Matthieu Cortat of Switzerland, Bonesana was initially developed for the new edition of the book [...]

  • Audio from the Web Fonts Panel at TypeCon2009

    Yesterday at TypeCon2009 in Atlanta, 11 representatives from the type community packed a stage to discuss the controversial and convoluted issue of licensing fonts for the web. The full two hours of audio is now online.

  • Marlene

    Marlene is an elegant, high contrast Egyptian face with a distinctive and contemporary calligraphic flourish. When I first saw it I was impressed at how incredibly crisp it was, as if drawn with a pen so sharp it could just as easily cut the paper as leave ink there. The italic expresses this sharpness with [...]

Jeffrey Zeldman Presents The Daily Report

  • Hate and Love

    Left, Mike Monteiro. Right, yours sincerely. Captured at SXSW by Scott Beale. (My SXSW photos. Scott’s SXSW photos.)

  • Ed Bott’s Lament

    In “IE9: Microsoft’s new browser gets no respect at all,” ZDNet’s Ed Bott sees seething contempt where I intended even-handed calm, and asks why my discussion yesterday of the tone of a months-old IE announcement failed to discuss yesterday’s keynote at MIX10, which I didn’t see. Ed, for the record: I didn’t see the MIX10 [...]

  • A SXSW Story

    One of the things about SXSW Interactive is that you are constantly meeting new people. One day at breakfast, I was introduced to a friend of a friend, who said: “Your book is dangerous.” “That’s kind of you to say,” I replied, “but exactly how is Designing With Web Standards dangerous?” “Oh,” he said. “You didn’t write Rework?”

  • IE9 preview

    Is it getting hot in here? Or is it just the flames? In An Early Look At IE9 for Developers, Dean Hachamovitch, General Manager for Internet Explorer, reports on performance progress, web standards progress (border-radius, bits of CSS3, Acid 3 performance), and “bringing the power of PC hardware and Windows to web developers in the [...]

  • Photos from SXSW

    SXSW 2010: A photo set on Flickr (in progress). The festival began this afternoon at 2:00 PM Central. Lots more photos will appear over the next few days.

Hicksdesign - The Hickensian

  • Why the big rush Mr Mandelson?

    The worrying news came today that the House of Lords have passed the draconian Digital Economy Bill. The bill is being hurried through without democratic process, and that’s just not how we should be doing things in this country. It’s clear that the bill is to appease the befuddled music industry, who are still living in a world before the home cassette recorder was invented. If you’re worried by the speed and heavy handedness of this process, please consider getting behind the campaign on 38 degrees. They’ve set up forms to allow you to easily lobby your local MP by email. It’ll take only a minute (a little longer if you wish to construct the email in your own words).

  • A new global visual language for the BBC's digital…

    A fascinating post detailing the creation of a consistent visual identity of the BBC’s online presence. Also, worth reading is the response from Paul Robert Lloyd. The use of big clunky Verdana for headings seems to have been phased out – hurrah!

  • Moving on

    This just in: I’m leaving Opera. Before I go any further, I need to make this very clear. I’m not leaving because I unhappy working for them, or any such rubbish. Neither did we come to blows over 42 different shades of red. Opera as company, and as individuals, have bent backwards to accommodate my remote working ways, and it’s been nothing but a fruitful and joyous time. I’ve made many friends, and it’s been everything I hoped it would be and more. I could very easily carry on for as long as they would have me. But, I’ve got that itch. I’m sure a lot of designers feel the same way when they work on long term projects, and that itch is the desire simply to ‘do something different’. That is the sole reason. In fact, I’m hoping that we will still be working together in the future, it’s just that my work for Opera won’t be full-time as it is now. I ‘finish’ full-time at Opera in late April. The reason for publishing this post now, rather than then, is that I need to get word around. I’ve been ‘off the market’ for a rather long time (looong before I started at Opera), and I’m now looking at an empty diary for the rest of the year. I have a few ideas, but very few plans at this stage, other than speaking at Future of Web Design London in May. So if you’re looking for a icon/interface/logo/website designer or even character illustrator (the Mailchimp mascot has become the new ‘animal on fire round a globe’ request!) from May onwards, then please drop me an email. Thanks!

  • Zootool

    The last thing I needed was more choice in apps for keeping a ‘Design Scrapbook’, but that’s what’s happened with Zootool. At first glance, it looked like just another FFFFound, Ember or Img Spark, but it turns out it’s much more than that. The developer, Bastian, told me to think of it as more of a visual Delicious. Once I got into that mindset it made more sense. Zootool ‘lassos’ not only images, but documents (like PDFs), videos, and pages (not complete pages yet) and stores them in your ‘zoo’. Content can be organised into ‘packs’ (folders) and as you would expect, it stores the original URL, and offers fields to change the title, and add tags or a description. It also provides integration with services like Twitter, Tumblr and Facebook, along with short urls, for sharing what you’ve found. So, rather than having favourites being stored on different sites like Delicious, Vimeo, YouTube etc, they’re all in one place. In some ways I think of it as a huffduffer for anything that isn’t audio. What’s particularly interesting is how well it’s been engineered to act like a Mac desktop app. Double clicking or pressing space bar on the thumbnails, takes you to the detail view, just as you would expect. Multiple thumbnails can be shift-selected, and to put content into a pack, you can drag and drop it. I’ve been using it for a couple of weeks now, and I think it’s rather spiffing! It works so well it feels like it’s been a part of my workflow for long time. I do have a couple of concerns however. With any system that has tags, I never feel it’s worth the effort of tagging unless I can be sure that the tags are portable in some way. I can download a bookmark file from Zootool (with delicious tags), but should the service ever go down, all that data and effort is lost. This is where desktop apps like Leap that support OpenMeta win. I feel this especially in tools like Evernote and Littlesnapper – is it really worth tagging if I then change system in a few months? The answer is no – I’m tagging less and less for this very reason. It also exists online only. Part of what I love about Evernote (which isn’t really a comparable service BTW), is that it’s everywhere, even when I don’t have a connection. However, Zootool still has a place in my life, even if it isn’t used as a design scrapbook. If you haven’t tried Zootool yet, I recommend you give it at least a few minutes of your life. While you’re there, here’s my zoo

  • The Handbag has been raised!

    How often have you read a snide, bumptious or haughty comment where you feel the only reaction could be a raised handbag, accompanied by the high-pitched mocking call of “oooOOOooooh!”? If you’re not familiar with the work of Vic and Bob, the chances are that it’s never. Well, hopefully that will soon change, as Hicksdesign has launched a site to fulfill that need you never knew you had to “oooOOooooh!”: Now whenever you see such a comment, you point them in the right direction: oo00.eu (2 oh’s, 2 zeros and a european union). Obviously, feel free to use it on me if say some deserving! ;) If you’re still confused, this video might help explain the origins of the raised handbag as a retort, (before going on to become a surreal contest): Playing catch-up This little side-project was the perfect opportunity to play with new CSS3 toys and HTML5 tags that I haven’t had time to experiment with yet: CSS Animations: In any webkit browser (Safari, Omniweb, Chrome), the handbag will actually be raised, waved at you, and then lowered. There is a separate animation for the shadow underneath the bag. It’s a little clunky, but that suits the context. CSS Media Queries: Just as this blog does, the layout changes when the viewport is reduced smaller than 700px. These style rules also govern layout on mobiles (only tested on iPhone so far though). Not currently supported in Camino or IE, but work in everything else. HTML5 structural tags: Added footer, header and section, with simple javascript to allow their use in IE. Not forgetting to add display:block to each to compensate for lack of browser default styles. HTML5 audio: In Opera 10.5 (Win), Chrome and Firefox, you should get the .ogg file, and in Safari, the mp3. It won’t be in time with the animation sadly, but I’m hoping that’s something that will be possible in the future. Thanks to the Webble Millers for providing their oooohs. Web Fonts: Type goodness is supplied via Typekit, namely the gorgeous slab-serif Adelle. Currently a no-show in Opera, but hopefully once 10.5 final is out, Typekit will update their sniffing. So depending on which browser you use, you’ll get a slightly different experience, but the same content.

mezzoblue

Signal vs. Noise

  • Getting Real with travel

    From the “Planning is guessing” essay in REWORK: Make decisions right before you do something, not far in advance. It’s OK to wing it. Just get on the plane and go. You can pick up a nicer shirt, shaving cream, and a toothbrush once you get there. It’s something travel backpackers have long known. That’s why they pack light, avoid rigid itineraries, stay frugal, and follow a mindset similar in many ways to Getting Real/REWORK. Marcel Uekermann noted that similarity and recently wrote about how he’s been applying Getting Real guidelines to his traveling habits for years. He breaks it down into three points. The first: Planning is Poison. There is no need for pre-planned routes or pre-booked hotels. Get on the road and figure your way from there. I find the idea of not knowing where to stay overnight exhilarating. Next up: The Less Principle & Avoid Preferences. How many hours have you spent preparing your bag for every eventuality, packing too much stuff you did never touch while on the road. I once lived through 10 days just with just my hand baggage (My main baggage didn’t make it). Sure, I stocked up on underwear, a toothbrush and t-shirts but I imagined it far worse. I perfectly understand this doesn’t work for long trips or hikes, but you can believe me, I do no longer feel like I forgot something at home. Read the full piece. Along the same lines, “How To Think Like A Lightweight Backpacker” [The Ultralight Backpacking Site] lists some basic questions you should ask when planning a backpacking trip or looking at gear. Examples: How can I make this lighter? What lighter version can I carry? Can I leave this behind? What multiple-use items can I use to cut weight? Etc. Ask of each item, “do I really need to bring this?” A small kettle can be used to fry things, in, so leave the frying pan home. Another question to clarify this is, “will I use it?” I carried a small chess set on more than one backpacking trip, but never found another player. Simple, fast, light = freedom and agility.

  • [Podcast] Episode #10: More rapid fire Q&A

    Time: 17:08 | 03/18/2010 | Download MP3 Like this episode? Please share it with your friends:   Jason and David answer more of your questions We pick up where we left off in episode #8. Related links and previous episodes available at 37signals.com/podcast. Subscribe to the podcast via iTunes or RSS.

  • PHOTO: Bennu Coffee in Austin has power strips han…

    Bennu Coffee in Austin has power strips hanging from the ceiling.

  • Turn off that dock unread count

    At David’s talk in Austin, he talked about increasing productivity. One thing he mentioned that kills flow: that little unread email count notification in your dock (shown at left). The solution: In mail.app’s preferences, you can turn it off. Switch it to None and your dock will stop “knocking.” Now it’s on you to go check email instead of having that count pushed upon you. A subtle shift, but one that can make a powerful difference.

  • iPhone apps seeking attention at SxSW

    Got pitched on a couple of iPhone apps while down in Austin. One pitched me with a “Got an iPhone? Come inside and get a $15 iTunes gift card” spiel as I walked to the convention center. I had 20 minutes to kill so I said sure. I entered their venue (which probably cost a ton to rent) and downloaded the iPhone app. Then I had to use it once in front of ‘em. Then they gave me the gift card. Then I exited the building. Then I walked three steps and deleted the app from my phone. The other one was an app at the trade show portion of the event that included some sort of location/geo/something-or-other. The woman demoing the app showed me how, using this app, she could pinpoint the location of Andrew, one of the app’s developers. (Andrew was standing right next to her.) Then she started using the iPhone to figure out his location. When it worked, she proudly showed me that her iPhone had spotted Andrew. I commented that this certainly was a great way to determine the location of someone who is standing right next to you.

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