Emily just posted a portfolio on her website. Check it out!

2010 Holiday Cards

Vespa Hartford Silk Screen Posters

Our Wedding Invitation

Copyright Chris Ferdinandi of GoMakeThings.com.

In fact, the intent was actually to promote useful art, create a rich public domain, and help drive the spread of great ideas. It was about improving the common good.

When an inventor creates something new, he or she needs to recover not just the cost making that good, but the research and development costs as well. Copycat products don’t need to recover research costs, so they can sell their product for much cheaper. This makes its difficult for original inventors to recover their investment cost, and disincentives creators.

The Copyright Act and Patent Act were created to provide inventors with a short window of exclusivity in which to recover their costs.

Over time, this notion of exclusive ownership spread. Companies like Disney lobbied for longer protection periods. The notion of intellectual property – ideas and not just products as property – was formed.

Copyright and patent law today often hinder rather than help the spread of great ideas.

Kirby Ferguson covers these topics and more in the fantastic and final installment of his Everything is a Remix series. You can watch all four videos here.

Copyright Chris Ferdinandi of GoMakeThings.com.

Protocols, held every two weeks since September in a small private penthouse in Murray Hill, is hosted by five Manhattan news media types who each invite two guests. The idea, according to a host, Michael Malice, an author and blogger, is to let invitees talk fearlessly in the present.

“We are fighting against this whole idea that everything people do has to be constantly chronicled,” Mr. Malice said. “People think that every thought they have, every experience — if it is not captured it is lost.”

This is such a cool idea!

On one hand, I love this notion of small, exclusive gatherings where people just talk and share ideas. It reminds me of coffee houses in the 1800s in a very nostalgic, I-wasn’t-there-but-it-sounds-cool kind of way.

On the other hand, I also love the idea of disconnecting and giving your undivided focus to the moment. I care less about the documentation factor – though that’s a valid insight, too. For me, the removal of outside distractions is powerful.

This reminds me a bit of a much more high-brow, exclusive version of the magazine club.

Copyright Chris Ferdinandi of GoMakeThings.com.

I love my iPhone, but even in American english Siri doesn’t know what I’m saying half the time. It’s actually gotten worse over the last month or two.

Copyright Chris Ferdinandi of GoMakeThings.com.

Copyright Chris Ferdinandi of GoMakeThings.com.

Via Frank Roche

Copyright Chris Ferdinandi of GoMakeThings.com.

What do you do to stay focused?

Cutting the Noise

1. I only follow about 50 people on Twitter. I actually tend to unfollow more people than I add in any given month, so that number has slowly been going down. On Facebook the number is higher, because it’s real life friends who generally don’t make a lot of noise (unless you consider LOL cats noise).
2. I write just one blog. I have just one Twitter account. Reading blogs is my achilles heel. When I have books to read (typically fiction) the number is lower, but I’m between novels right now, so I’m reading blogs like mad to fill the void.
3. I tend to not watch a lot of TV, so yay there!

Working Smarter

1. I admit, I’m easily distracted. Worst thing about working at a computer is that there’s always something to distract you. I’ve started doing more of my work “analog” in a Muji notebook when I can.
2. I check email every half-hour. It’s almost never anything useful. That said, on days where I’m in the zone, I’ll check it twice – once at the beginning of the day, and once at the end of the day.
3. I can’t always do this, but when I can, I like to pick one project and work on nothing but that all day. I get way more done this way.
4. I found GTD far too complex. I now use a simple system:
   - My calendar tells me when I have meetings.
   - I keep one big to-do list… project headings, with sub-items for all the action steps beneath them.
   - On most days I use a Fieldnotes notebook for a daily to-do list of 3 – 5 things that need to happen that day.
5. I also generally ignore my desk phone in the same way I ignore my email. I’ll check voicemails periodically, and pick up my cell phone right away.

The Right Fuel

1. As you know, I’ve started exercising again. It’s made a big difference.
2. I have an egg-and-cheese sandwich almost every day. As a guilty pleasure, I usually have sausage on it too. Trying to cut that out and replace it with fruit.
3. I don’t drink much coffee, that I do require a daily cup in the morning. I wish I didn’t need it.

Copyright Chris Ferdinandi of GoMakeThings.com.

Via Swiss Miss

Copyright Chris Ferdinandi of GoMakeThings.com.

Would buy it.

Here’s the catch 22 for Microsoft: Consumers want to buy a phone that has a robust app market, and unfortunately, the Windows Phone doesn’t have one yet. But developers want to write apps for platforms with a big and lucrative customer base, which the Windows Phone doesn’t have yet.

So they need apps to get customers, and customers to get apps. That’s a tough spot to be in.

Update: As Tom Warren at the Verge points out, it’s not about quantity of apps, but about quality. People want the apps their friends use, and right now, the Windows Phone is missing those.

By most measures, the Windows Phone is pretty damn impressive. At the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) a few weeks ago, Microsoft’s Ben Rudolph ran the $100 Challenge.

He challenged other conference attendees to complete common tasks on their smart phone while he did the same tasks on his Windows Phone – things like updating Twitter, posting a photo on Facebook, and so on.

The Windows Phone had 30 wins, three losses, and one draw. Not bad at all.

One well thought out user interaction that I’m jealous of is the ability to post and tag a photo to Facebook directly from the photo library, without opening up an app. You can currently do that with Twitter on the iPhone, but not Facebook, which is where I post most of my photos.

If you were Microsoft, what would you do? How would you court developers to a low-customer platform? How would you woo customers to a low-app ecosystem?

Via John Gruber and Jim Dalrymple

Copyright Chris Ferdinandi of GoMakeThings.com.

Last weekend, my wife and I took a long weekend trip to Florida. The airline we booked our flights through clearly understands the value of a good user interface. They use a soft, soothing color palette, thoughtful typography, fun yet intuitive icons, and big, easy-to-click buttons.

As you move deeper into the site, however, they start doing things that are confusing. For example, if you opt to look at flights only, after choosing your flights, they offer you the option to add a hotel. The big button says, “Continue without Hotel.”

The next screen offers you the option to book a car. The big button says, “Show me all Cars,” with small text below it to continue without booking one. In keeping with the previous pattern, the big button should be the option to skip the car booking page.

By creating a pattern and then breaking it, someone visiting the site can quite easily make a choice they didn’t intend to. At best, this is bad user interface design. At worst, it’s a deliberate attempt to mislead people who visit the site.

The site also positions up-sell options in big, bold typography with strong calls to action, while things like redeeming discounts and credits are obscured by small font sizes amid a sea of other options.

One of the more offensive aspects of the user interface, though, is this blatantly misleading piece of copy:

New government regulations require us to HIDE taxes in your fares. This is not consumer-friendly or in your best interest. It’s wrong and you shouldn’t stand for it.

Starting January 24, 2012, fares are distorted.

This is a technically true statement, but here’s the reality: This airline has a history of advertising exceptionally low fares, and then as you move deeper into the process, they add all sorts of taxes and fees. By the time you realize this, you’re already pretty well invested.

In reality, they’re the ones hiding the fees by not publishing them until the end. It’s dishonest.

I’m sure these dark patterns benefit the airline in the short term. But ultimately, they erode brand trust. We won’t be doing business with this airline again.

Copyright Chris Ferdinandi of GoMakeThings.com.