Athletics Weblog

Lubalin Now

Matt Owens — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 22:19:57 GMT

The inaugural exhibition in the newly re-located Herb Lubalin Study Center of Design and Typography.

Herb Lubalin (1918–1981) is best known for his wildly illustrative typography and his groundbreaking work for the magazines Avant Garde, Eros, and Fact.

On view in Cooper Union’s new gallery, the installation includes recent posters, publications, and motion graphics by internationally recognized graphic designers that spotlight an emerging trend toward expressive lettering and typography.

Original sketches, magazines, logotypes, and posters selected from the Lubalin Center Archive will illuminate Lubalin’s influence on contemporary graphic design.

Opening Reception

Thursday, November 5, 2009, 6 – 8pm
The Cooper Union
41 Cooper Square Gallery [ MAP ]

This event is free and open to the public.

Exhibition On View

November 5, 2009 – December 8, 2009

Gallery Hours:
Monday–Thursdays 12–7 pm, Saturday 12–5 pm
Closed Fridays and Sundays
Closed November 26, 2009–November 29, 2009

The Road Less Traveled

Matt Owens — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 21:37:52 GMT

I just put the finishing touches on a new Volumeone Season called
The Road Less Traveled. It was the first time that I had a song written especially for the project before any design was started. The process was a very unique one for me and I wanted to share it.

Making the Song

The Road Less Traveled takes its inspiration from American folks tune from the likes of Pete Seeger and Bob Dylan. I worked with Fletcher C. Johnson to write the song. Fletcher and I sat down and I gave him some general direction. I knew I wanted the song to be about an ophan/misfit kid from Appalachia that travels around playing songs and leaves his hometown to explore the world. I also liked the Seeger/Guthrie idea of the banjo/guitar as a weapon for social change to bring about a new way of thinking. I gave Fletcher a list of terms and ideas and sketched out a few ideas.

A few weeks later Fletcher played me a cassette tape of a rough of the song in his apartment and we agreed on a sparse arrangement that was upbeat but not too silly. I really like the tune and think Fletcher expanded on some of our original ideas to create a great song. With a little spit and polish The Road Less Traveled was done. Now it was up to me to make it into something.

Generating the type

I sat down with the finished song and wrote out all of the key words and phases. I did not want to simply illustrate the song visually because I felt that it could become too cartoony. I drew a bunch of radios and clocks and things until I realized the illustrated approach was the wrong direction.

I have been really into the typographic work of Ed Ruscha and inspired by the typography that appears on old fruit crate labels. Both have a very “American” feel to me just like the song. I decided that I wanted the actual words of the song to be the hero of the piece and set about sketching out different words.

I decided to draw all of the type in Illustrator so that I could more easily it break the type apart and animate it later. Needless to say it’s not easy to make dimensional type in Illustrator and even harder to make all of them look good. After a few months of work I had drawn about half of the words and started to design the overall look of the piece.

Designing the idea

The key to making all the type cohesive was to define a more limited color palette. The palette allowed me to develop a set visual vocabulary so that when I had to create other words or visual elements I had a well-defined approach to start from. In addition, the use of the cork pin board helps ground the visuals in an overall idea. Basically the cork pin board is the final resting place for the memories from the Road Less Traveled story. Like a postcard on your refrigerator, the cork pin board holds postcards containing the words from the song as well as other mementos from the misfits’ travels.

I created two static pin board walls to get a general layout and also created 9 postcards of the most interesting words from the song. With the pin boards and postcards complete it was time to start animating.

Creating the motion piece

I used the static pin boards to create a general flow for the animation and also added in two new landscapes for the chorus of the song to break up the action. All of the scenes for the animation were blocked out using static images of the type and other elements to speed up the process. There was no sense in animating any type until I knew how long the type needed to animate for.

After the animation was blocked in, I set about animating all of the type. To animate each piece of type, every stroke of each letter had to be separated out in Illustrator so that each part could be masked one at a time. Once separated, the letters’ parts were brought into After Effects and masked on one-by-one. This process took several weeks.

After the type was animated, I set about building all of the postcards and other scene components. During this time I basically “filled in” the static rough cut one scene at a time. To save rendering time, I left out all moving footage. After all of the major elements were animated I made adjustments to timing and pacing to lock down a final edit.

After the bulk of the animation was completed, I called up Fletcher and had him come by the studio so we could shoot him on green screen. Up until this point all of the images of Fletcher in the animation were static images of Jason in our studio used for placement only. Now that I had a fairly finished edit I could shoot Fletcher playing and slot him in.

Putting it all together

The final piece took a long time to render because it was built at HD resolution. Before the animation was complete I picked up the postcards from the printer. To give folks online a closer look at the type, I created a scrollable corkboard wall in Flash using the vector files my original static designs.

For me, creating the typography and working to translate it into print, motion and an effective online presentation allowed me to show the piece in different ways and hopefully show others how a design idea can be translated into different mediums. I also feel the postcards reinforce the idea of the motion piece while reminding people of the physical world and the need to go out there and explore.

Overall I am happy with the end product. I wish it had not taken me so long but I hope the time and effort I put into The Road Less Traveled shows and I hope that people enjoy it.

Good Magazine. State of the Planet

Matt Owens — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 17:07:35 GMT

Welcome to 2009. We just finished up a new video piece for Good Magazine. As we head into the last year of the two thousand aughts, we take a look at some of the numbers that shaped our lives this past year. Thanks for the memories, 2008!

Living in the Limelight: Art, Design and the Search for Authenticity

Matt Owens — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 23:39:23 GMT

Art Making and Authenticity

Originality and Authenticity are central components to the creative endeavor. As an artist or designer, one is confronted with the larger challenge of establishing your own creative voice and by extension, cultivating this voice over an entire lifetime. This is a tall order of course and there are many possible approaches. Looking at artwork in general, two primary approaches come to light.

The one path that most artists embrace is the cultivation of a singular stylistic approach. The artist initially explores many different avenues and ultimately arrives at a stylistic “tool kit” that they refine and modulate through time. Examples of contemporary artists that fit this description are the likes of Ed Rusha, Chuck Close, Jim Houser, Barry McGee. All of these artists have a defined “style” in the sense that if you have seen 8 – 10 examples of their artwork you would be able to readily identify other pieces.

An alternative approach is the cultivation of an “evolutionary” approach whereby the artist cultivates a conceptual sensibility as well as broader stylistic toolkit. The artist Damien Hirst is a good example of such an artist. Hirst has several modes within which he works. From animals perserved in formaldehyde, butterflies in stained glass to a human skull covered in diamonds, Hirst does not have a singular artistic “style.” That said, Hirst does have a larger creative vision that is reflected in his work as a whole. An example of a designer that fits this paradigm is Peter Saville.

The singular stylistic and evolutionary approaches to art making are of course both equally valid. Both approaches share an impulse to find a unique voice that one can call their own. As an artist or designer finds their voice, we see how their creativity impacts the outside world. The key ingredient to understanding the power of authenticity and art making is when we place one’s creative output in the context of the larger culture.

Its all about Context

From the ivory tower of the Chelsea gallery to the disposable pulp of an advertising magazine insert, it is the context in which we experience a creative artifact that influences its perceived value. For example, if we look at a piece like Bruce Nauman’s 1987 video installation “Clown Torture” we see four color video monitors and two video projectors with a clown yelling. Without the context of a gallery setting, the average person on the street would find this piece both ridiculous and unwatchable. It is the symbiotic relationship between the perceived “authenticity” of Nauman’s work combined with the legitimizing context of the gallery that makes the work successful and valuable.

Conversely, we see commercial brands that are attempting to provide a similar context for art making. A recent example is the launch of the Scion Easy Ten Filmmaker Series. Scion gathered 10 budding filmmakers who created shorts (about 15-20 minutes each) that are screened together in a multi-room venue. In this context, the video installations are not given the care and attention of fine art but are treated more like window dressing for a marketing initiative. As a result, we see otherwise legitimate artwork as an excuse to a down few free drinks.

The labor required to create Nauman’s torturous clown piece may pale in comparison to time and energy required to create one of the Scion short films. Nonetheless, it is the labor, authenticity and context of the artwork itself that provides a framework for others to understand the artwork and, by extension, give it value as “art” or jettison it into the cultural landfill of advertising.

The Artist as Brand

In the last 10 years or so, we have seen artists and designers working very closely with brands to cross-promote each other. One of the first instances I recall was in 1999 when artists such as Damien Hirst and Nan Goldin used their artwork on boxes of Camel cigarettes. More recently, we have seen the explosion of the “designer shoe” phenomenon where an artist or designer lends their creativity to decorate a limited edition shoe.

Brands like Nike, Adidas and Reebok have all developed limited edition artist shoes. Through these “collaborations” the shoe brands gain artistic legitimacy through the artist’s artwork and the artist gains commercial legitimacy through the shoe brand. The question that arises is what is the authenticity of these artifacts? Are these genuine art objects or merely marketing gimmicks that go no further than being eBay collectibles?

Artist/Brand collaborations have thoroughly permeated our culture. Artists have “decorated” everything from Smart Cars, Coca-Cola cans, bicycles and even My Little Pony. One of the most extreme extensions of the “artist as brand” is exemplified by the licensing of Don Ed Hardy’s tattoo artwork by Christian Audigier.

Within Tattoo culture, Don Ed Hardy is considered a truly “authentic” figure. Ed Hardy was friends with Sailor Jerry Collins, one of America’s tattoo pioneers and to many, Hardy’s artwork is an extension of the classic tattoo style that Sailor Jerry created. With Hardy’s name and “authentic” tattoo pedigree, Audigier has been able to build the Hardy “brand” into a multi-million dollar venture.

From hats, shoes, apparel, perfume, and even an energy drink, the Hardy brand has grown by pornographic proportions into a worldwide phenomenon. As a result the authentic origin of Don Ed Hardy’s artwork has been completely lost to the general consumer. In addition, the artwork itself has become fodder for economic consumption and as a result has become disposable. For Hardy himself, his artwork now has a life of its own and as a result he must accept that his creative life’s work is no longer special and in many ways is no longer his own.

The parasitic relationship between the artist and brand is not new. The “authenticity” of an artist is a very powerful and valuable commodity. Some artist and designers have embraced the notion of the artist as brand. Other artists see the co-opting of their creative energies to merely sell a shoe or a can of soda as antithetical to everything the creative endeavor stands for.

Most artists and designers fall between these two extremes. To many the short term value of an artist/brand collaboration, be it creative or monetary, is worth the exposure it provides. For creative individuals that have a vested interest in their body of work over the long term, the authenticity of one’s own creative perspective must be regarded as their single most powerful commodity.

Art and its parasitic relationship to celebrity

Many artists have used imagery of celebrities and other authentic cultural figures to prop up their own artwork. One of the most common examples is the celebrity photographer. Photographers such as Annie Leibovitz and Dana Lixenberg have made their livings off of the images of celebrities. As an artifact, the photograph is made “legitimate” or “authentic” by the celebrity image. Conversely, the artifact captures a moment in time that can reveal a sensibility or a perspective that the person may not be aware of. Without the celebrity, the photograph is devoid of the power/authenticity of the celebrity and is merely a photograph of a person we do not know.

Within the sphere of art making, artists have also used celebrity imagery to similar effect. Andy Warhol’s work has featured portraits of Marilyn Monroe, Elizabeth Taylor, Elvis Presley and many others. Warhol’s celebrity portraits create a kind of mirror, reflecting back our own popular culture obsessions while in many instances revealing the tragic nature of fame itself.

In contrast, other artists utilize celebrity imagery to build their own myth. An example of this phenomenon can be seen in the use of imagery of celebrities and popular culture icons in the work of Shepard Fairey. Unlike Warhol, Fairey utilizes celebrity imagery in a more transparent manner.

Taking cues from Alexander Rodchenko’s Russian constructivism and Chinese Communist propaganda poster art, Fairey “re-draws” celebrity photographs in an effort bring out the “heroic” or “iconic” nature of the person. The most recently successful example of this is Shepard Fairey’s illustration of president-elect Barack Obama. Like the pervasive commercialization of Don Ed Hardy’s artwork, Fairey’s illustration found its way onto everything from “Vintage Obama T-Shirts” to knock off versions for your pet terrier. I have been told retailer Urban Outfitters has made millions in sales on Obama apparel using Fairey’s illustration.

As the authenticity of the Obama brand works in tandem with Shepard’s Obey brand we see a symbiotic relationship that serves an immediate commercial need. The end result may be the creation of a “Nostalgia for the Present” that sells shirts in the short term but may produce a hollow cultural caricature of the “authentic” person whereby popular culture will dismiss the image like we do so many other brand images that – now that the election is over – fall away after the sales cycle.

Establishing your own model of Cultural Production

In this era of “post-integrity” the former polarizing forces of “selling out” versus “keeping it real” have been replaced by many shades of legitimacy and authenticity. As a cultural producer, whether you consider yourself an artist or designer, the challenge is to take advantage of the variety of contexts that help frame your work.

In this day and age, a graphic on a skateboard that hangs on a gallery wall has a far different meaning and value than the skateboard for sale at the local skate shop. The beauty of our current cultural circumstance is that one has the ability to place one’s work in a variety of contexts and as a result our work grows in meaning and value. Cultural production is no longer mutually exclusive to one setting and as a consequence the artist/designer has a responsibility to forge their own path and to flex the power of their own creative voice in responsible and meaningful ways.

As we move forward, we can not prevent the co-oping of the value of a celebrity image or the gross commercialization of an otherwise authentic creative impulse. All we can do as creative individuals is support the contexts we believe in and actively point out the contexts we feel devalue one’s creative efforts. In the end, creativity and commerce are a balancing act with no real right and wrong.

Questions? Comments? Contact Matt via email - .

Music Television

James Ellis — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 16:25:09 GMT

As a kid – in second grade as I recall – I remember wondering why our television skipped from channel 10 to 12. I’d ask my folks why this was, only to be told that “we don’t get that channel.” This seemed odd to me.

At my buddy’s house I investigated the issue further to discover that channel eleven was this thing called MTV, and they broadcasted a lot of interesting content. Like guitar solos. I realized this was the sort of television for me.

I began to suspect the reason why our television skipped eleven. Shortly thereafter I figured out how to operate the clunky switches in the back of our TV to enable the channel. I’d watch all I wanted while my folks weren’t around, and simply re-disable when I was finished. At the same time, all of my pre-adolescent income (from lawn-mowing, yard-raking, log-splitting, etc.) was diverted from collecting baseball cards to purchasing cassette tapes at the local record store. My folks figured out what had happened, and after a short period of resistance (mostly related to the PMRC’s push for parental advisory stickers on essentially all of the records I wanted to buy) the battle fizzled out: MTV remained unlocked, and my personal identity took a permanent turn.

I loved watching music videos, and for a period of time, I enjoyed some of the additional programming as well. But, as we all know, MTV eventually stopped showing videos in favor of all sorts of weird shows. They had MTV2 for a while there, but I’m not even sure if this still exists.

—

So this week I’m excited to see the introduction of MTV Music, a new video site with a large collection of music videos that date back to the early 80s.

It looks like they’re still building the library, but already it’s quite robust. Check Bowie’s page — there are some deep cuts in there. Also, you can search by director. For instance, Athletics’ David Ahuja.

I’m glad this new site exists. It’s a more focused, and less chaotic version of YouTube.

But in a way this signals the end of the MTV I grew up with. MTV was how I kept up with music: I took MTV News seriously; I watched 120 Minutes with pen & paper in hand, taking note of the videos I liked. MTV Music, however, isn’t a tool for keeping your finger on the pulse. It’s more of a nostalgia machine for revisiting moments from 10-20 years go.

By the looks of the MTV Music home page, it appears MTV understands and embraces this new dynamic.

"A Night For Vets" on MTV 10/24

David Ahuja — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 16:37:18 GMT

Don’t say Athletics never did anything to support the troops.

Tonight (10/24 8pm) MTV will air “A Night for Vets” a concert in NYC as as an event to mobilize support for the Bill of Rights for American Veterans (BRAVE), a petition organized by MTV and several veterans’ organizations.

Athletics’ David Ahuja and Matt Owens completed all of the branding and show packaging for the broadcast. The taping was last night at Nokia Theatre:

A bunch of people that the kids listen to nowadays are performing. You can find out more here:

http://www.mtv.com/ontv/dyn/brave/series.jhtml#bio

Tune in if you get a chance.

Emitt Rhodes

James Ellis — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 06:43:12 GMT

Lately we have been obsessed with Emitt Rhodes, an American singer/songwriter active in the early seventies. It all started when we discovered Dylan Gaughan’s fantastic write-up on Rhodes’ career, which includes a rip of Rhodes’ 1970 self-titled solo debut. Since then this lost pop gem has been in heavy rotation here in the studio.

The record is a total pleasure. Perfect, really. 12 tracks in 32 minutes. No rambling, no filler.

What makes Emitt Rhodes such an interesting record is its derivative nature, as Rhodes’ Beatles/McCartney influence cannot be overstated. Rhodes nails every detail: the voice, songwriting, production, guitar lines, even the lyrical content. Each track is an exercise in what-would-Paul-do, and Beatles fans could easily confuse Emitt Rhodes for an actual Paul McCartney record.

There is a serious Faul dimension to the record.

With the Beatles/McCartney influence being so strong, it’s difficult for Rhodes to establish his own voice, or a strong sense of authorship. However, there is something endearing about Rhodes’ clear obsession with Beatles pop. And upon close observation one does find a lot of honesty in the tunes; it’s almost as if Rhodes wrote the songs without quite realizing he was directly channeling Paul McCartney.

Rhodes vs. McCartney:

In 1970, both Paul McCartney and Emitt Rhodes released their solo debuts: McCartney and Emitt Rhodes, respectively. Both records were one-man-band affairs recorded in home studios. Being Paul’s first post-Beatles release, McCartney was highly anticipated. Rhodes, on the other hand, was a relatively unknown 20-year-old Californian recording out of his parents’ garage.

Thus, it’s fascinating to A/B the two records and hear Rhodes out-McCartney McCartney. While McCartney has its merits – “Maybe I’m Amazed” is a bonafide classic – the record is, for the most part, a rambling collection of musical doodles. I don’t think it’s worth debate: Emitt Rhodes is the record Beatles fans wished Paul had delivered.

Top tracks: With My Face On The Floor, Fresh As A Daisy, Live Till You Die, You Should Be Ashamed.

Summer 2008 Roundup

James Ellis — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 08:35:19 GMT

Summer 2008 was busy. At this point it’s all a bit of a blur. Between work, travel and an obsession with political punditry, it’s slightly difficult to remember what all happened. So, before we forget, a roundup of projects completed this summer…

U.N. Icons Suite

We worked with OCHA, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, to develop a standard symbol set for all OCHA maps. We created roughly 120 icons communicating a wide variety of subjects: security, relief materials, infrastructure, sanitation, etc. The symbol set was made into a typeface that OCHA cartographers will use worldwide.

The project was a serious graphic challenge. Some concepts are extremely difficult to represent using simple graphics. Consider a subject like security. How does one design distinct graphics for things like arrest, detention, abduction, assault, attack, forced entry, harassment/intimidation and hijacking?

Fortunately we were given enough time to get the set right. We’re pretty happy with the results. And attending meetings at the U.N. was a bit of an adventure.

Design by Matt Owens with significant assistance from Dylan Mulvaney, one of our summer interns.

Good

We worked with Good on The Hidden Cost of War, a 2-minute video feature examining the hidden costs of the Iraq war for the Transparency section of the new Good website. The research behind the piece comes from Joseph E. Stiglitz and Linda J. Bilme’s book, The Three Trillion Dollar War: The True Cost of the Iraq Conflict.

Design and animation by Matt Owens and Jason Bishop. Opening intro sequence by Mark Owens.

The piece has been getting some attention, and we were psyched to see it discussed, among other new Good video pieces, on Brian Lehrer Live:

(Skip to the 3:50 mark)

If you’re not familiar with Brian Lehrer, you should check out his regular 10am program on 93.9FM WNYC here in New York. You can listen on the web. He has the best opening theme music.

After the video piece turned out well, Good asked us to design the Transparency section of the November/December Good Magazine, now on newsstands. The Transparency section covered 5 topics: the hidden cost of war; the amount of energy burned by the average car vs. the average human; a glance at refugees worldwide; smokers by state; and taxi queues in the United States.

Some spreads:

You can see more from this project here.

Sesame Street

David’s spent the summer regressing back to his childhood. He was asked to direct four short spots for newest season of Sesame Street, season 39.

Drum Machine:

Forward and Backward:

A Boy and his Robot: Lunchtime:

Cowboy Patterns:

King Tuff, The Weight

In addition to Wes’ summer as The Rambler, he created two LP packages, one of which features a staggering coupling of complimentary spot colors, the second is more photo-driven, but equally ridiculous.

King Tuff Was Dead:

The Weight Are Men:

Nevikov

Athletics’ Jason Gnewikow has been busy with his fashion line under his phonetically spelled name: Jason Nevikov. Spring/Summer 2009 is currently in production, with some pieces already available via Oak:

http://www.oaknyc.com/product/jason-nevikov-1984
http://www.oaknyc.com/product/jason-nevikov-outdoor-min
http://www.oaknyc.com/product/jason-nevkov-brooklyn-har

—

And that’s only half the summer. More coming…

Link: Thoughts on Context Switching

James Ellis — Fri, 17 Oct 2008 00:47:12 GMT

Athletics contributed a new article to Thinking for a Living:

Thoughts on Context Switching

It’s about being busy.

Words: James Ellis, Illustration: Matt Owens

DustUp Strikes Again

James Ellis — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 21:22:52 GMT

Matt’s DustUp typeface strikes again:

(on Pete, not LL)

New T now available from Clandestine.

Link: A Brief Career In Printing

James Ellis — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 18:43:04 GMT

Just FYI, before all this, I was running a printing press:
A Brief Career In Printing.

Thanks to Duane King for scouring his graphical deep freeze for the overprinted Italian postcards he picked up in the 80s. Perfect. Reminds of the trash stock we used to prep press runs with.

News of the day

James Ellis — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 21:19:28 GMT

Our pals at Oak were on the front page of today’s NYTimes Fashion & Style section. Article here. Critical shopper indeed.

—

And, it’s that time again:

Calling all designers, developers, information architects, project managers, writers, editors, marketers, and everyone else who makes websites. It is time once again to pool our information so as to begin sketching a true picture of the way our profession is practiced worldwide.

If you’re in the business, I recommend you carve out 5 minutes and take The Survey For People Who Make Websites, 2008. I thoroughly enjoyed it last year.

Link: Stephen Fritz

James Ellis — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 22:36:16 GMT

Our buddy Stephen Fritz just updated his portfolio. Fritz is an old-school type of guy, a bona-fide design vet, and serious Bowie-phile.

When I first moved to New York, my first job was with Olive, a small interactive agency that Steve co-founded in 97. The true story is that I only got the job after physically sneaking into the building and knocking on the door. Fast friends ever since.

During my time at Olive, I worked with Steve on a variety of projects, and generally learned a lot.

Later Steve sold his share of Olive (they’re still around, btw) and these days he’s a CD over at IconNicholson doing real power-broker type stuff.

I’m glad Fritz decided to get comprehensive with his portfolio — I enjoyed the memory lane.

NY77 Nominated for an Emmy

James Ellis — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 17:25:28 GMT

We are all excited to learn that NY77: The Coolest Year In Hell has been nominated in the 29th Annual News and Documentary Emmy Awards for the Outstanding Arts & Culture Programming and Outstanding Individual Achievement in a Craft: Graphic Design and Art Direction categories.

In the summer of 2007 Athletics’ David Ahuja worked with Wyeth Hansen and Todd Neale to design and animate this two-part, two-hour documentary for VH1’s Rock Docs series.

You can read the news on AWN here:
http://news.awn.com/index.php?ltype=top&newsitem_no=23969

You can check out a montage on David’s site:
http://www.amoebalabs.com/work_NY77.php

As well as a clip here from the show about the July 1977 Blackout:
http://www.spike.com/video/2881108

Link: VLU interviews Pinball Publishing

James Ellis — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 14:22:22 GMT

Yesterday Viewers Like You published an interview with the folks from Pinball Publishing, a small, sustainable/eco-friendly printing operation in Portland, Oregon. The interview takes a look at Pinball’s work and process, and comments on the benefits of having a good relationship with a printer.

Made me miss running a printing press.

Delicious API Integration

James Ellis — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 04:17:33 GMT

Last week we announced the relaunch of the Thinking for a Living website. Today a bit about how it works.

Earlier this year Duane King (of BBDK) and I started discussing possibilities for a new TFAL website. What had started out as a brief booklet was evolving into a larger concept: an open-source design education resource. Duane wanted to grow a database of print and online resources, and find a way to publish this information effectively online. I recommended using Delicious, the Yahoo-owned online bookmarking service, as a back-end.

Delicious allows you to maintain a single repository of bookmarks, with all data hosted on Delicious servers instead of your local machine. The obvious benefit to this system is that your bookmarks are accessible from any computer on the web.

It’s easy to push new bookmarks to the system: You can use the Delicious Firefox extension or browser bookmarklets to quickly bookmark items as you browse. Each bookmark may include information such as title and description. And rather than organize bookmarks by placing them in specific folders, each Delicious bookmark can be associated with any number of tags.

Most important for our purposes, and where things get interesting: Delicious offers an API that allows external applications to communicate with the service. By tapping into the API, we can access the TFAL Delicious account bookmarks, and (re)publish this data/content on the TFAL website in whatever fashion we like.

This is interesting as most people view Delicious as a personal internet utility, not a content management system. It’s also interesting that we can take our bookmark data/content out of the highly normalized Delicious environment and integrate it within something of our own design.

It could be said that we’re simply reformatting information, however, I think there is more to do it than that. The important point is that we’re able to involve our content in a larger context and give it greater meaning. And by presenting it in a format of our own design, we can make the content that much more uniquely ours. Given the standardization of the modern web, we think a little specialness goes a long way.

Working with the API

Athletics has been working with the Zend Framework for some time now. Given the investment we’ve made in our existing systems/infrastructure, ZF’s plug-n-play approach to framework integration suits us well. ZF should be accessible to anyone with a decent grasp of PHP.

ZF provides dozens of modules designed to address a variety of different tasks. For this project we made use of Zend_Service_Delicious, a module designed specifically for interfacing with the Delicious API.

An example of the code required to connect to the Delicious API and query for all posts:

<?php
// Connect to the Delicious service
$delicious = new Zend_Service_Delicious('username', 'password');
 
// Query for all posts
$all_posts = $delicious->getAllPosts();
 
// Loop through all posts
foreach ($all_posts as $post) {
    echo "Title: $post->getTitle()";
    echo "Url: $post->getUrl()";
}
?>

It doesn’t get much easier than that. ZF abstracts all the complicated stuff; you never have to bother about XML/JSON/etc.

Caching

Delicious is strict about how often you hit the API, as they can’t have external apps slamming the service and draining bandwidth. From their API help page:

Please wait AT LEAST ONE SECOND between queries, or you are likely to get automatically throttled.
Please watch for 503 errors and back-off appropriately.

This means you must implement some sort server-side caching to prevent your site from making too many calls to the Delicious API. With TFAL, we store the result of $delicious->getAllPosts() for about two hours. We do this using another handy ZF module: Zend_Cache.

In the following example we combine Zend_Service_Delicious with Zend_Cache to store the Delicious data for two hours:

<?php
$frontendOptions = array(
  'lifetime' => 7200, // cache lifetime (60 * 60 * 2 = 2 hrs)
  'automatic_serialization' => true
);
 
$backendOptions = array(
   'cache_dir' => 'path_to_cache_dir' // Directory where we put the cache files
);
 
// Instantiate a Zend_Cache_Core object
$cache = Zend_Cache::factory('Core', 'File', $frontendOptions, $backendOptions);
 
// Can we load the cache?
if( !$delicious_data = $cache->load('AllPosts' ) ) {
 
  try {
    // Connect to the Delicious service 
    $delicious = new Zend_Service_Delicious( 'username', 'password' );
 
    $delicious_data = $delicious->getAllPosts($tag=null);
 
    // Save the results to the Cache
    $cache->save( $delicious_data, 'AllPosts');
 
  } catch ( Zend_Service_Delicious_Exception $e ) {
    // If connection to Delicious failed, load old cache regardless of expiration
    $delicious_data = $cache->load('AllPosts', $doNotTestCacheValidity=true );
  }
}
?>

In the code above we initialize a Zend_Cache object on lines 1-12. On line 15 we attempt to load the cached version of the Delicious data. If the cache has expired we continue to lines 17-29 where we first try to connect to the Delicious API and request all posts (lines 19-24). If this fails (the server couldn’t connect to the Delicious service for any reason), we catch the exception (line 26) and force load the last cached version of the Delicious data, regardless of whether it has passed its 2-hour expiration date.

We found this sort of caching essential as Delicious doesn’t hesitate to block your requests if you get too greedy. (We were blocked a couple times during development.)

Additional caching

Storing $delicious->getAllPosts() is great and will definitely keep you from being booted off the Delicious API, but once you start dealing with large data sets (with over 1200+ items, TFAL certainly qualifies) additional page-level caching can speed things up significantly. For a high-traffic page like the Home page, we store the system-rendered HTML page output for 10 minutes instead of repeatedly asking the system to spider all 1200+ items just to determine what constitutes the latest 3 resources. This makes a lot of sense given that the $delicious->getAllPosts() data-set only updates every 2 hours.

We have page-level caching functionality built into our general purpose web framework. The implementation is very similar to that of WP-Cache. However, I should mention that Zend_Cache can also be used for page-level output caching.

The numbers:

Rendering the Home without page caching requires 0.2 seconds and 6.24MB of memory. (This is, of course, using the cached result of $delicious->getAllPosts(). Making the full trip to the Delicious API takes much longer — usually a second or two.)

0.2 seconds might seem fast, but it’s actually a bit excessive. By using a full page-cache we can get this down to .01 seconds and 1.83MB of memory. Big improvement. This additional caching is particularly important the day your site gets linked up on a heavily trafficked website and an avalanche of traffic rolls in.

Additional notes:

The odd del.icio.us name/web address has always bothered me a bit. I’m all for waving the nerd flag, but I’ve never found domain hacks to be all that clever. Inevitably in conversation someone ends up saying “dell dot ick-eo dot you-ess”, which is ridiculous. After being acquired by Yahoo they picked up delicious.com, which bounces you to del.icio.us. I understand Yahoo intends to rebrand the service simply “Delicious” at some point. I’m looking forward to that.

Also, this post was an excuse to play with GeSHi, the PHP-based generic syntax highlighter class. It’s really quite handy and supports fifty-eleven languages. We’ll be using this for code highlighting from now on.

Questions/Comments: Contact James via email - .

Thinking for a Living

James Ellis — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 11:27:31 GMT

As designers we celebrate meaningful libraries of information. We love the information, but it’s not our only concern. We also take the design of the library itself – the system that organizes the information – very seriously.

Designers have a long history of library-making. Pre-internet, we compiled books (reference books, monographs, retrospectives, magazines, etc.) Now we find ourselves reinventing our libraries for an online world. We develop new systems to better manage and deliver our information, and to accommodate the scale and scope of the internet.

Unlike the finality of books, online libraries constantly change, and this dynamic nature makes modern library-making a unique challenge. To do it right, you need more than the designer and archivist; you need the information architect – the online system builder – as well.

Today we’re happy to announce the significant relaunch of a modern online resource. We partnered with our friend and colleague Duane King (the DK of BBDK) to develop a system that extends his immense library of online resources to the web. Please enjoy Thinking for a Living™:

http://thinkingforaliving.org/

Two introductions. One new desk.

James Ellis — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 21:21:11 GMT

This summer we have two new faces in the studio.

Jason Bishop – fellow Brooklynite and one of our long-time buddies via Richmond, VA punk rock (think Avail, Action Patrol era) – will be spending the summer with us. Jason is currently an MFA Designer as Author candidate at the School of Visual Arts. Prior to going back to school, Jason was working in NYC doing primarily web design/development for clients such as nytimes.com and Cornell University. Now he’s expanding his skill sets to include to motion and traditional print design.

Jason’s work:
http://jasonbishop.net

Dylan Mulvaney is entering his fourth and final year of study earning a BFA in graphic design in Iowa State University’s College of Design. Dylan is interested in the intersection of digital and traditional tools of production within graphic design; meaning, he likes to get his hands dirty. This summer he’ll be bouncing back and forth between here and our friends at Rad Mountain. In the fall he will be studying in Rome’s Piazza delle Cinque Scole, getting knee deep in contemporary European design culture. After graduating in May 2009, Dylan plans to locate to NYC proper.

Dylan’s work:
http://dmulvaney.com

The addition of Jason and Dylan required an Athletics expansion: birch-top desk #10.

We like building our own desks. And it’s always nice to visit “the nicest guys in the world” at Meserole Lumber.

Wood cut to size, Jason sanding:

Built, ready to poly:

Poly’d, drying:

The Wiggle Puppy, observing:

Final product in context. 3-desk superstation:

Creativity and the Collective

James Ellis — Tue, 20 May 2008 04:52:10 GMT

This past Saturday Jason, Matt and I had the pleasure of speaking at AIGA/NY’s Smart/Models one-day business conference here in New York. Our presentation, “Creativity and the Collective”, focused on our studio-as-collective business model.

The bulk of our presentation examined the differences between a traditional business structure and our collective model. As we’re so often questioned about the nature of our organization, we wanted to provide examples of how members of the collective form teams on a per-project basis to tackle work involving a variety of a creative disciplines — from graphic design, illustration, print and motion/broadcast/directorial, to web design and development.

To illustrate various points, we prepared a series of infographics designed to be part informative, part humorous, and part inside jokes for both designers and fellow aging hardcore kids/former edgers.

For the design nerds, we reinterpreted the classic 1969 Eames diagram.

(Click to enlarge)

And we were so pleased with the following graphics that we opted to include them in our presentation, despite the risk of having our cleverness lost on portions of the audience.

(Click to enlarge)

(Didn’t catch these? See here and here.)

Some thoughts

45 minutes goes fast; we had to blaze through the last five minutes.

Speaking early in the day is the way to go. With our talk out of the way we were able to relax and enjoy the other speakers.

Apple’s Keynote is a breeze. Give it a look if you’re putting a presentation together. Copy/paste vectors no problem, drag-n-drop Quicktimes, export to PDF, whatever you want. Near-zero learning curve.

TheTimesCenter is an amazing event space. Totally pro-form. The building’s interior nature/garden zone: blockbuster.

Michael Surtees of DesignNotes posted a review of the event, including some photos:

Update: Armin from Under Consideration published a very nice review as well.

Unanswered questions

We did a 45-minute presentation with no Q&A, as the organizers asked that we save questions for the end of day panel discussion. We were able to address some audience questions during the panel, and it was certainly interesting, but given the number of questions we received during the reception, and later via email, it appears that a few attendees left with questions unanswered.

The most common point of confusion regarded distribution of revenue. It seems some misinterpret the term “collective” to indicate a form of communism. Others simply wanted to know how we structured proposals, paid taxes, or formed LLCs.

We're happy to pull back the curtain for those with questions. Just get in touch:

Thanks

We’d like to extend a big thank you to the Smart/Models event committee – Tina Chang, Liz Danzico, Kent Hunter, Bobby C. Martin Jr., and Sam Potts – for the hard work of organizing the event, and for making us a part of it. And, of course, thanks to everyone for coming out on a Saturday.

The Body is the Subject

James Ellis — Fri, 09 May 2008 22:24:26 GMT

Last week we launched a new project. We’ll get around to writing more about it, but for now, the teen-machine that is the Nylon Summer Music Tour is still getting going. Designers should find the zine-maker entertaining, particularly the ExtraJamz ZIP.

• • •

Stopped by last night’s Riviera opening, Fellow Traveler. I particularly enjoyed Funderburgh’s work. Show will be running through May 31st.

• • •

Cut/Copy In Ghost Colours is the new summer record. Theirspace.

• • •

After consistently releasing records for years and years, career musicians sometimes go for legendary status. Tom Petty appears to have made the jump. You could certainly argue that he had already achieved this status; the Wilburys were, after all, a super-group. But with the recent release of Highway Companion, the Runnin’ Down a Dream documentary, the Heartbreakers’ Superbowl halftime show, and now the surprising resurrection of the Mudcrutch band and brand, it seems pretty well wrapped up. In case you missed that last one, check out the heartwarming NYTimes scoop. The record is good.

• • •

Speaking of NYT, be sure to catch this week’s piece on the McKibbin lofts. This photo in particular made me laugh. Takes me back to when I first arrived in Williamsburg at 19, and living just down the street from the McKibbin lofts. I don’t miss being mugged at 8pm.

• • •

Our pals at Empowering Media launched a new blog. Make no mistake, this is nerd biz. If you’re building websites, you need friends like Larry Ludwig.

• • •

Lately we’ve been working on an internal re-brand exercise dubbed “Adobe CS4: Spirit-Breaker”. Still working out the details, might work better as a Flash-specific campaign.

• • •

Not sure if this is real, but it doesn’t matter. Jealous of my famousness. Update: Defs not real, but again, doesn’t matter.

Athletics looking for talented illustrator

James Ellis — Wed, 07 May 2008 17:27:23 GMT

We are looking to fill a very specific position. We are in the process of generating a significant number of graphic assets, primarily vector. And we need some help. We’re looking for someone with serious illustration and Adobe Illustrator skills.

We may, for example, call on this person to render a crackpot JFK genie head. We would expect a detailed vector rendering on the level of:

Or, if we asked for a heavy line-art style rendering of a rockabilly hotrod, we would expect:

That’s just the tip of the iceberg. We’ve got a long list of needs: a juicy cheeseburger, scary wolf-man, 80’s keytar, gun-toting toddler, laser-tag-inspired weaponry (reference), etc.

We’re looking for someone comfortable moving between styles. Also, given the volume of assets we need generated, we’re looking for an illustrator capable of moving quickly. Each of the above graphics should require no more than a day or so to complete.

We’re flexible on location. This isn’t the type of work where we necessarily need someone here in Brooklyn, but it wouldn’t hurt.

If this is you or someone you know, please get in touch. We’ll give you the full scoop, talk turkey, etc.

Email us here:
illustrationwork@athleticsnyc.com

Tell us about yourself and include links to examples of work. No attachments please. And to weed out those unable to pay attention, please provide mention of David Bowie’s 1976 release, Station to Station.

Athletics at AIGA/NY's Smart/Models

James Ellis — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 14:07:33 GMT

Matt, Jason and I will be speaking at Smart/Models, a one-day AIGA/NY conference, on Saturday May 17th. In our presentation, Creativity and the Collective, we will be discussing the Athletics business model.

We will be joined by principals from four other unconventional organizations: Jason Fried from 37signals, Joe Duffy and Eric Block from Duffy & Partners, Sylvia Harris from Sylvia Harris, LLC, and Douglas Riccardi from Memo Productions.

For more details:
http://smartmodels.aigany.org

Stats tracking using Mint and Google Analytics

James Ellis — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 01:29:55 GMT

Most every web project we push out the door uses both Mint and Google Analytics (GA) for site stats/tracking/analytics.

Analytics software has come a long way since the days of server log file analysis programs such as Webalizer. Modern jobs like Mint and GA take a different approach, using client-side Javascript to grab more in-depth user data. The client-side approach better differentiates between humans and robots, and captures the return visits of users browsing pages from their browser’s cache. And though it was once a concern, nowadays only weirdos are browsing without Javascript support. They don’t count.

Mint
http://www.haveamint.com

Unless you’re juggling metrics at an ad agency, Mint will generally get the job done, delivering a well organized and easy to digest overview of site activity. A single page/interface reveals your latest visits, referrers, pages, searches and more.

The user experience is very different from GA. Mint doesn’t dig particularly deep, but it’s fast and fun. The interface is chock full of Javascript/AJAX flippity-do’s.

Mint is a self-hosted app and requires a server running both PHP and MySQL — basic gear. Mint collects data via Javascript, then drops it into a MySQL database using a bit of PHP. Mint runs quick, provides real-time stats, and is easy to install.

Cost: $30 per site license (per domain). Cheap.

The Visits module:

The User Agents module displaying Screen Resolutions. Notice how many users are still at 1024×768, even on a site generally trafficked by design/tech folks.

The User Agents module displaying Browsers. Sadly, 10% are still using IE6.

The User Agents module displaying Flash Player installs. 94% on 9, amazing. Thanks Youtube…

Favorite feature: Mint provides an RSS feed of your site’s newest unique referrers. Plug this into Google Reader (or whatever you like) and you can keep up every new website, blog, link-list, etc. that directs traffic to your site. Beyond the obvious utility, this tool can also reveal web theft in progress.

Mint Demo:
http://www.haveamint.com/about/demo

Mint Feature Highlights:
http://www.haveamint.com/about/feature_highlights

Google Analytics
http://www.google.com/analytics

Upon acquiring Urchin’s tracking software in 2005, Google re-released the software as Google Analytics, free of charge. Given Urchin’s popularity and the new non-price, GA was everywhere seemingly overnight.

GA does fifty-eleven things; it certainly out-features Mint. You’ll find charts, graphs, tables and maps everywhere, for every possible metric. It’s great for analyzing very specific trends. You could spend hours digging through it all.

You can manage any number (or at least a whole bunch) of domains within a single GA/Google account. Not everyone manages a pile of domains, but for those that do, this is a big deal.

If you’re prepping a stats report for a client, check out the export-to-PDF or XML feature. GA produces very attractive PDFs which you can then take into Illustrator and chop up as needed. This includes charts, and it’s all vector.

Unlike Mint, GA allows for the tracking of Flash events, and of file downloads (PDFs, mp3s, etc.) See here and here.

GA even offers a Content Overlay view, allowing you to browse your site with GA sprinkling stats all over the page. You can see which links are getting the most clicks. Check it:

(If you’re into this sort of data visualization, check out Crazy Egg. That’s their whole deal.)

Another interesting feature is the Map Overlay. By analyzing user IP addresses, GA is able to map which countries visitors are coming from.

Why run both?

The biggest difference between Mint and GA is that GA is always a day behind. GA only updates account data once every 24 hours. (Real-time analytics would introduce massive data-processing overhead for Google.) Mint, however, always displays up to the minute data.

Analyzing trends is great, but there are many instances where you want real-time stats. If you can’t ride the refresh button the day you get linked up on Digg, NYTimes, etc., you’ll have missed the fun.

Questions? Comments? Contact James via email - .

Web Theft

James Ellis — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 16:06:33 GMT

The web is pretty well open. You can view-source your way through most HTML, CSS and Javascript. That’s how most web workers learned their way around — by studying other websites. It’s one of the things we like about the web.

We certainly have no issue with anyone viewing our HTML, CSS, etc. But please don’t steal our design. And certainly don’t copy/paste our entire site HTML+CSS, change out the logo, post it behind your own domain and call it your own. Unfortunately, this happens on a somewhat regular basis.

Thanks to Mint’s newest unique referrers RSS feed, we can keep up with the latest URLs linking to the Athletics site. This feed lists the latest sites, blogs, link-lists, etc. directing traffic to our site.

And yesterday, upon clicking through to some of the latest referrers, we found this:

(Click for enlarged)

Web theft, in progress. Here we have someone in the process of customizing our site to make it their own. They have changed out the logo, changed some copy, but otherwise you can see they are still using our graphics and copy.

We couldn’t find an email address on the site, but after doing a whois on the domain we found that it’s registered to someone in Ankara, Turkey. We did find an email address registered with the domain, but it bounced back our kindly worded please-remove-our-property-from-your-site email.

Then, after taking a closer look, we noticed that they were still linking directly to our images. We realized we had the ability to send the folks at Yenioyun (and other web-offenders that we may not be aware of) a message.

Using a bit of mod_rewrite code, we were able to reroute all external requests for images on our server to an altogether different image.

Click through to http://yenioyun.org/ to see the result. And as I’m sure they will be changing their site shortly, here’s a screenshot for posterity. For the full effect, see the ani-gif we are using.

Of course this is nothing new. Web admins have long employed this sort of tactic for dealing with users leeching bandwidth (hotlinking images within their MySpace pages, message boards, porn sites, etc.) Most recently, I particularly enjoyed the John McCain MySpace incident.

Please, have the code:

With the help of this article and the mod_rewrite manual, we put the following mod_rewrite rule into an .htaccess file and placed it in our images directory.

<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
  RewriteEngine on
  RewriteCond  %{REQUEST_FILENAME}  .(gif|jpe?g|png)$  [NC]
  RewriteCond  %{HTTP_REFERER}  !^$
  RewriteCond  %{HTTP_REFERER}  !athleticsnyc.com   [NC]
  RewriteCond  %{HTTP_REFERER}  !bloglines.com   [NC]
  RewriteCond  %{HTTP_REFERER}  !google.   [NC]
  RewriteCond  %{HTTP_REFERER}  !search?q=cache   [NC]
  RewriteCond  %{REQUEST_URI} !^/images/stop_stealing.gif
  RewriteRule  (.*)   http://athleticsnyc.com/images/stop_stealing.gif?id=$1   [R,NC,L]
</IfModule>

The first line looks looks for all gif, jpeg and png files. The next few lines define the domains allowed to serve up our images (we want Google Reader and Bloglines users to be able to view our images). The next to last line disregards the rules if you’re requesting the replacement image (to keep from causing an infinite loop of redirects).

Questions? Comments? Contact James via email - .

SxSW, Marked Men

James Ellis — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 23:15:54 GMT

Brief commentary on the music portion of this year’s SxSW, my first contact.

SxSW is a bit like visiting Six Flags for five days straight, but instead of waiting in line for rollercoasters, rock bands. Fifty-eleven bands are playing at any given moment. At all times everyone is consumed by a sense of anxiety about which bands they want to catch, if they can get into the shows, and where the after-hours hipster pool party is. We played a few shows as well.

Perhaps I would better enjoy the event if I had a personal concierge to make all decisions for me, secure my place on various guest lists and physically escort me from location to location. Without such services I found the experience a bit exhausting.

I did enjoy catching one of The Marked Men sets: four guys from Denton, TX blazing through power-pop tunes.

I’m a bit late to the punch on this one, but I’ve been repeat-listening their latest full-length, Fix My Brain, released on Swami. If you have the exact same musical taste as me, you’ll enjoy it.

Top track: Sully My Name (2MB, mp3). I’m a sucker for anything with double-tracked drums.

Comments? Use email: .

Future-stuff: Ubiquitous Internet

James Ellis — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 04:46:28 GMT

I’m sure road-warrior PC folks are quite familiar with the latest mobile internet gadgets, but until recently, I was not.

I had the opportunity to spend a chunk of March on the road, eventually making my way down to Austin, TX for SxSW. Being a busy guy, it was necessary that I get work done while bumbling around.

I had heard tale of the little data cards that provide internet access over 3G cell networks, but I’d never seen one in action. After a bit of research I discovered that they now offer little PC/Mac-compatible USB sticks that get the job done, no card required. All of the big providers – AT&T, Verizon, Sprint, etc. – offer these things. I had read a nice thing or two about Sprint so I gave them a shot.

Here’s what the gadget looks like:
(I found some better photos here)

Setup was easy. The gadget actually comes with the OS X drivers built in (it has an internal flash drive), so the initial install went quickly. Once set up, getting online is easy: you plug in the stick, wait for it to power up, then click Connect using the standard OS X Internet Connect app.

They market these things as running at broadband speeds, but I figured this was likely a generous description. Thus, I was surprised to find that this thing was fast, especially in metropolitan areas. I was uploading/downloading big files, watching YouTube videos, downloading iTunes episodes of Lost, etc. It wasn’t cable/fiber fast, but fast nonetheless.

One thing I noticed: each time you made a web request after a period of inactivity, there would be a 1-2 second lag before data started moving. But once it got going, it was fast again.

Reception was great. Speed was good even in many remote areas. The only black-out spot that I experienced was in a remote stretch between Little Rock and Baton Rouge.

My only complaint: I didn’t like having a little USB stick dangling off the side of my computer. I was always worried about accidentally putting pressure on it and having it break. Sprint did a great job jamming a 3G cell phone into a little USB stick, but I couldn’t help but wish that it was already built into the machine, as WiFi is.

The Sprint deal

You pay $200 for the gadget and $60/month for unlimited access. Not a bad deal, but then they ruin it by requiring a 2-year contract, just as they do with cell phones. It’s not just Sprint – all of the major providers do this.

Fortunately, Sprint offers a 30-day trial period: sign up for the 2-year contract, use the service all you want for up to 30 days, and if for any reason you wish to discontinue the service, you can return the gadget for a full refund and cancel your contract, no questions asked, no penalty fee. You are only charged a prorated portion of the $60/month service fee.

Thus, I had Sprint mobile internet for the duration of my trip, and upon return, promptly cancelled the service. Total cost: $55.

Thoughts (or, what the MacBook Air is missing)

Having ubiquitous, wireless, broadband internet feels like the future. It just works. It makes bothering with (and often paying for) WiFi hotspots seem very lame.

Now that I know ubiquitous internet is possible, it’s turning into an expectation. John Gruber’s comment comes to mind:

After using my iPhone for a few months, it started feeling weird that my PowerBook doesn’t have ubiquitous wireless networking: Wi-Fi when available, and seamless, instant switchover to something else when it isn’t.

I’ve seen the MacBook Air up close. It’s rad. But not quite to-the-max, I’m afraid. I’m just not sweating it. My MacBook Pro gets the job done. I can deal with the two extra pounds.

I think a lot of the tech world feels the same way: the Air’s form is very impressive, but that’s where the innovation sorta putters out.

My feeling is that if you’re going to introduce a breakthrough ultra-portable, and call it Air, it should deliver on the wireless promise.

I would have liked to have seen Apple extend their partnership with AT&T to include built-in support for AT&T’s 3G data service. (Sony does this with their VAIO laptops. Most of them come with built-in support for Sprint’s high-speed service.) Given the Apple/AT&T iPhone relationship, Apple likely could have persuaded AT&T to offer an Air data plan without requiring a 2-year contract — perhaps a pay-as-you-go plan, or an optional add-on to your iPhone bill. Whatever. Just give me a fair plan. I’d pay for it.

Until Air incorporates some sort of mobile broadband, I’m not seduced. If I’m a mobile computer person, and I need an ultra-portable device, I want wireless. I don’t care about DVD/CD drives, a bunch of ports, or face-melting performance. I just want to be on the internet everywhere. And I definitely don’t want some USB modem-stick dangling off the side of my otherwise flawless machine.

Free Code: Simple-Auth by Athletics

James Ellis — Sun, 30 Mar 2008 02:57:55 GMT

Today, a free snippet of PHP code. Simple-Auth by Athletics makes password-protecting web documents easy, and looks pro at the same time. After being asked about it a few times, we figured we’d share.

We regularly use this code to password-protect client work — design comps, wireframes, prototypes, dev sites, etc. Clients love password-protecting things, and for good reason: you never know what’s going to end up on some blog, message board, Digg, whatever. This is certainly a concern with some high profile clients, but even if no one in the world (other than you and your client) cares about what you’re up to, everyone enjoys a little professionalism and peace of mind.

For most, password-protecting a document or directory involves entering your web host’s control panel, clicking into the password-protect tool, navigating to the directory in question, and creating a new username:password combo. The control panel software will then generate an invisible .htaccess file and drop it into the directory. This whole process is somewhat cumbersome, isn’t very portable, and most people have no idea how .htaccess files work.

Simple-Auth makes it relatively easy to password protect any PHP file. It’s a snap to drop in once you get a sense of how it works. It’s easily configured and modified. You don’t need to mess with a hosting control panel. No hidden .htaccess files. And it’s more attractive than the standard http authentication dialogue box.

Demo

In the demo below we password-protected a very simple HTML document. Instead of using the .html file extension, we use .php. We do this because we need to add one line of PHP code at the start of the file in order to activate the Simple-Auth PHP brain. Now when visitors attempt to access this document, they will be required to provide an authenticating passcode before viewing.

View the demo here. The passcode is “passcode”.

Simple, right?

Download

Download the code along with a sample document. (ZIP, 5k)

Customizing

The simple-auth-by-athletics.php file is organized relatively well. Take a look around and you’ll see where you can set the passcode, modify commonly used bits of HTML, and dig into the HTML/CSS. A basic familiarity with code-noodlery required.

Enjoy.

Comments? Contact James via email - .

Testing & debugging Flash apps in the browser

James Ellis — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 18:01:35 GMT

I’ve always found debugging Flash applications to be somewhat challenging. The Flash IDE offers a decent debugger complete with download simulation, bandwidth profiling, etc., but this is only available when you build and preview a SWF directly in the Flash IDE. If you want to do any debugging outside this environment, you’re going to need to look beyond the tools Adobe provides.

Given that web users generally consume Flash apps within the browser via the Flash Player plugin, it only makes sense to test in this environment.

Many Flash apps are totally dependent on dynamically generated XML (i.e. Flash apps tied to content management systems). In such scenarios – which the majority of our Flash projects fall into – you really need the ability test & debug in the browser. By running Flash in the browser, we get to test on top of our full local development stack (Apache, MySQL and PHP on OS X).

Also, many Flash apps require some sort of javascript integration. This might just be having Flash content rendered using swfobject, or using SWF Address for deep-linking, or doing some more complicated communication between Flash and HTML page elements. Obviously, you’ll need a browser around to test this sort of gear.

There are a couple of tools we use to get under the hood while running Flash in a browser.

FlashTracer

This free Firefox extension created by Alessandro Crugnola allows you to view all output generated by Flash’s trace() function in a sidebar window.

An example screenshot:

(Click for enlargement)

FlashTracer does require the use of the Flash Debug Player, which you can download here:
http://www.adobe.com/support/flashplayer/downloads.html

FlashTracer works by displaying the Debug Player’s log. This log consists of trace() command output from any running Flash app. This means that FlashTracer will display output from Flash running in any browser, not just Firefox.

Strangely, on OS X the Debug Player seems to be overwritten by other applications from time to time. Perhaps application installers overwrite the Debug Player with the regular player — I’m not sure. For this reason, it’s a good idea to keep the Debug Player installer handy.

Also, keep in mind that the Debug Player does introduce some performance issues, especially when you’re tracing off fifty-eleven things per frame.

Charles Web Debugging Proxy

Charles does all sorts of things, but for me, it’s most useful as a bandwidth throttling tool. Charles acts as a man-in-the-middle and simulates various bandwidth situations by introducing network latency even when accessing content on local machines.

If you’ve ever developed a Flash application, you know that Flash behaves differently when (pre)loading content from a local machine vs. a real internet connection. It’s important to test how Flash behaves in real-world scenarios, including slower connections. Charles makes it easy to do so.

Of course, Charles does fifty-eleven other things as well. A more complete (and complicated-sounding) description from the Charles website:

Charles is an HTTP proxy / HTTP monitor / Reverse Proxy that enables a developer to view all of the HTTP traffic between their machine and the Internet. This includes requests, responses and the HTTP headers (which contain the cookies and caching information).

Charles simulates modem speeds by effectively throttling your bandwidth and introducing latency, so that you can experience an entire website as a modem user might (bandwidth simulator).

Charles is especially useful for Adobe Flash developers as you can view the contents of LoadVariables, LoadMovie and XML loads.

Charles is shareware. You can test it out for free. $50 for a single user license.

Other options

There are alternative approaches. Most hardcore AS folks will tell you to stay away from trace() altogether and use something like the LuminicBox.Log API (english translation). However, for quite a few developers, trace() gets the job done, especially since it’s possible to view its output within the browser.

Comments? Contact James via email - .

New Work

James Ellis — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 16:58:33 GMT

We posted some new work today.

Cover photo illustration for this week’s NY Mag:

House & Parish One, One-Thousand CD package:

Shout It Out Loud Music CD Sampler:

Thoughts on Kindle

James Ellis — Sun, 24 Feb 2008 07:05:39 GMT

Back in November of 2007, Amazon released Kindle, a new portable reading gadget. It’s about the size of a book, with a high-res black & white “e-ink” display.

We used to call these things e-books, but Amazon is trying to get away from that term, and for good reason. First, “e-book” sounds sorta boring – like it’s just a book on a screen. Rather, Kindle is a new sort of information consumption device.

Unlike the iPod approach where the device needs to be synced to a computer, the Kindle doesn’t need a computer at all. Instead, it wirelessly communicates with Amazon via the same 3G cell networks used by modern cell phones. This connectivity allows users to instantly purchase and read books, newspapers, magazines and many blog feeds. There are no service plans or monthly fees. Amazon delivers this connectivity free of charge.

Unlike the first e-book devices, Kindle makes it easy to both acquire and consume information. Kindle combines basic e-book functionality with dead-simple wireless access to the Amazon library of content.

I have been following Kindle since its release in November. It has been interesting to observe the reaction. Some are excited by the new gadget and the way it works. Others are openly hostile toward a technology designed to replace the production and consumption of dead-tree-books.

Chip Kidd on the Kindle:

What no one seems to get through their thick skulls, even after untold millions of dollars have been wasted on the concept: PEOPLE DON’T WANT TO READ BOOKS ON A SCREEN.

and:

The reason the iPod took off is that music was never meant to be a “thing” in the first place. It was born as pure sound, and pure sound is what it has returned to.

Jon Stokes for Ars Technica:

In short, electronic “books” are nothing of the sort, and if Kindle aims to be an electronic substitute (replacement?) for the “book,” then it has missed the mark by a mile. The basic problem with the current e-book + reader combination is twofold: the single-page format, and the lack of ready markup and annotation features.

Both make good points about Kindle being unable to replicate or replace the book experience, but I don’t think that’s the point. Rather, I think the Kindle is significant in that it offers a new way of acquiring and delivering information. In the same way that the iPod squeezes an entire record collection into your pocket, the Kindle turns a single book-sized object into potentially all books by wirelessly tapping into Amazon’s staggering library of content.

Sure, the initial Kindle is sorta gross looking. It has only one typeface. It’s black & white. The interface is clunky. It’s relatively expensive ($399). But the thing is beaming libraries of content through the air into your hands. To me, that is what seems the point, and something I find interesting.

Jon Gruber on Kindle:

After chewing it over all day, I’ve concluded that Amazon’s Kindle is going to flop.

Gruber makes great points about Kindle. It has a lot of things working against it: content DRM, device lock-in, etc.

I’m not sure if Kindle will be a success or not, but I don’t think it matters much. Eventually a device + service will come along that gets people psyched. It will be high-res, full-color, look rad, sport some hot-doggin multi-touch interface, and it will all be coupled with a content delivery service that makes it so easy to acquire content that visiting a physical bookstore will seem cumbersome.

This doesn’t seem so far off to me. Consider how quickly the iTunes store made traditional brick & mortar record stores obsolete, or how an individual’s iTunes library has replaced the physical CD collection.

Steve Jobs’ comments on Kindle from this NYTimes article:

“It doesn’t matter how good or bad the product is, the fact is that people don’t read anymore. Forty percent of the people in the U.S. read one book or less last year. The whole conception is flawed at the top because people don’t read anymore.”

Perhaps it’s not the sort of business Apple wants to get knee deep in, but people still read. While we’re reading less traditional books, we are reading more and more websites, blogs, etc. Again, the Kindle isn’t simply an e-book — it can push the NYTimes and blogs just as easily as Harry Potter. By offering the various types of content that people are interested in reading in a single device, Kindle can appeal to a significant audience.

It seems many people are interested in the new reading device — just take a look at the demand for the product. Since its release, Amazon has struggled to manufacture Kindles fast enough. They are currently sold out.

Books won’t be replaced anytime soon

Unlike relatively short-lived audio technologies like vinyl, cassette tapes and CDs, books have been around a while — we’re talking about a few hundred years of established specialness to destroy. It will be a very long time before any technology replaces books. Though, with that said, I think it’s only a matter of time before devices+services like Kindle+Amazon begin capturing the attention of readers and reducing the consumption of dead-tree-books.

Thoughts on bandwidth and Amazon S3

James Ellis — Tue, 19 Feb 2008 06:58:52 GMT

This past September we relaunched the Dangerbird Records website. Since then the site has experienced a massive increase in traffic, with the new videos section being particularly popular. In addition to regular web traffic, we’re noticing a significant number of users embedding Dangerbird videos on MySpace/blogs/etc. As a result, site bandwidth has been growing exponentially — a good problem, but a problem nonetheless.

Here’s an example video:

That’s a 27MB video file. If ten thousand people check it out, that’s roughly 270GB of bandwidth.

Here’s another example:

At 17 minutes in length, this video is a whopping 124MB. If 10k visitors consume it, we’re way up to 1.2TB of bandwidth. With high-performance bandwidth costing about $1/GB, you can see how costs can quickly get out of control for a popular website.

Fortunately, we can move this high-demand content elsewhere. The services meeting this type of demand are generally referred to as content delivery networks.

Traditionally, CDN’s were designed for performance and marketed to the enterprise crowd. For example, Apple uses Akamai to serve up images and videos for apple.com. Akamai hosts copies of Apple’s assets on high-performance servers all around the globe. When a user requests a file, they receive the file from whatever server is closest to their geographic location. Akamai helps Apple maintain global performance at web-scale demand, but it’s not exactly cheap.

There haven’t always been a lot of options in economy content delivery. (You might try to exploit Dreamhost’s ridiculous 5TB/month @ $6/month plan, but Dreamhost isn’t exactly performance hosting.) However, in the last few years we’ve seen a lot of activity in the economy content delivery space as web sites/hosts have struggled to keep pace with increasing demand for content such as videos/images. Surprisingly, what appears to be the best offering in this market comes from Amazon — best known as the world’s largest online retailer, not web infrastructure provider.

In March 2006, Amazon launched S3, or Simple Storage Service. S3 is a web service providing websites with unlimited storage and unlimited bandwidth. You simply pay for you what you use and at minimal cost (Storage: $0.15/GB/month, Bandwidth/transfer: $0.10/GB).

S3 is both an online storage service and ~~content delivery network~~ economy hosting/bandwidth provider. You could use S3 to backup your entire computer, or you could use S3 to deliver fifty-eleven-gazillion copies of a single animated GIF. Both tasks fall outside the scope of capability of a normal web host. Meaning, you can generally only host so much data, and any single server will eventually choke upon receiving too many concurrent requests.

Update: Our colleague Larry Ludwig of Empowering Media & HostCube – our primary hosting/IT provider – emailed to comment that Amazon isn’t currently set up as a proper content delivery network (See Wikipedia’s definition here), as S3 content is delivered from one of two locations – either out of Amazon’s D.C. data center, or from Europe – rather than being replicated across various nodes and serving users by geographic location. It’s important to make this distinction between CDN’s and S3’s economy storage/bandwidth/hosting.

A few example use-cases for you:

An individual might use S3 to maintain a private, off-site backup of important documents, using minimal storage, and near-zero bandwidth, costing pennies per month.
Dangerbird Records can use S3 to deliver an infinite amount of video content at minimal cost.

A gigantic site like SmugMug (a photo site similar to Flickr) could use S3 to store a staggering amount user image data (in fact, SmugMug does use S3, saving them roughly $1M/year, crazy!)

It’s all a very interesting application of the distributed, on-demand, grid/cloud-computing, redundant, failure-tolerant, scalable (and many other words) systems architecture that we’ve arrived at in the post-Google world. Amazon sorted out the fundamentals of S3 in developing their own infrastructure for amazon.com. Now in true software-culture form, they have opened up their otherwise proprietary infrastructure to the world at minimal cost.

Since moving all video content to S3, we’ve seen Dangerbird’s normal bandwidth stabilize. Also, requests and transfer of video content will no longer being tying up server resources; now the server can focus on rendering page requests. And Dangerbird will save money.

Getting started with S3

If you can use FTP software, you can handle S3. It’s quite simple. First, set up an account. Then connect to S3 using some sort of client. The latest version of Transmit now provides support for S3, and there’s even a Firefox plug-in interface. Also, you might want to look into JungleDisk if you’re interested in off-site backup.

A visit to Cranbrook Academy of Art design department

Matt Owens — Sun, 27 Jan 2008 20:09:37 GMT

I was fortunate enough to speak at the Cranbrook Academy of Art design department at the end of January. Having graduated from Cranbrook in 1995, I was really excited to see what students were up to, and to catch up with Elliott Earls, the head of the department. Back in ’93, Elliott interviewed me as a perspective student and was instrumental in getting me into the program.

Elliott has been carrying on the Cranbrook tradition of an open studio environment that centers around self-initiated projects and weekly group critiques. I gave an hour long lecture to the students touching on my personal and professional work as well as talking about the collective nature of the Athletics studio. One of the main themes of my lecture was the notion that, as a designer, it’s not only the actual work you create, but also your own unique perspective on the design discipline that informs the creative process.

Cranbrook, like other design programs at Cal Arts, RISD and Yale, has amazing design resources: large-format digital output, laser cutters, wood shop, audio/video facilities and an impressive library. All of the available tools and raw materials offer Cranbrook students the opportunity to pursue and produce nearly any design idea. I think the big challenge, and the same challenge presented to me 13 years ago, is how to focus your own ideas and efforts to further one’s development as a designer.

During my visit, I spent about 30-45 minutes with each student learning their background and speaking with them about their work. The range of skill, ideas, energy and focus were pretty vast. I also found that students had decided to enter the Cranbrook graduate program for a variety of reasons. Some students had already worked in the professional sphere and were looking to either teach or shift their ability. Some students had very little design training but were selected for their creative ability in another discipline such as painting. Overall I felt the students had a firm grasp of what they wanted to do and were actively working together to move forward as designers.

I also found the group critiques to very informative. Group critiques begin with 2-3 students that hang their work in the crit room the day before critique. Another student is then selected to review the work and write up a 1-2 page evaluation. Reviews consist of an interpretation of the project as well as an assessment of the work of other artist or designers (contemporary and historical) that may help frame the project. The day of critique, the review is read aloud and all of the students have an opportunity to give their assessment. Comments range from issues regarding clarity of purpose, craft, meaning, technology, context, concept and aesthetics. After everyone comments, the person that created the work then reads a statement of purpose that articulates their ideas and goals for the project.

All of the students then have a chance to realign their comments to inform the statement of purpose and provide comments on how to move the project forward. It was my feeling that if every student were to take the critique format seriously and truly digest, evaluate and then act on the comments, the resulting work would be extremely strong. But as we all know, this is easier said than done. Just because the group provides the designer with the ammunition to push the work forward, it does not mean that a clear path emerges. The real opportunity for students is in learning to absorb feedback, and then work from it.

The Cranbrook experience is part academic, part self-help, part teamwork and part personal soul searching, and in the end provides a creative/critical format that is unique within the design discipline. It’s sort of the design equivalent to tv shows like Survivor or Project Runway, but it takes two years, there is no prize money and you have to read a lot more. Like any academic setting, I think Cranbrook provides the basic framework and facilities to push an individual designer to another level, but it is up to the individual to take advantage of the people, resources and environment.

Talking with students I stressed a need for a high level of sophistication in projects. Just because you have great resources does not mean that a big digital print of a Photoshop file represents “finished work.” Notions of craft, materiality and format help distinguish between a design “sketch” and a fully realized idea. For example, I would rather see tight story boards that clearly articulate a motion project than a 5-minute video “sketch” of an undercooked idea. It was the conceptual artist Sol Lewitt that said, “The idea behind the work supersedes the work itself” and that, “The idea becomes the machine that makes the art.” I truly believe that if a designer has an idea they believe in then articulating that idea can become an amazing journey where the sky is the limit.

As a designer, I think it is important to live in the “now.” I feel more urgency and enthusiasm for the design discipline than I ever have. I also feel that Elliott, as the head of the program, continually expresses a level of energy and commitment to design discourse that is genuinely inspiring. For students, I feel it is their personal responsibility to realize that their time at Cranbrook is very special, and as a creative person, you must push yourself and your fellow students. If you have the opportunity to do whatever you want, why half-step it?

On the last day of our visit we had a chance to see the Eero Saarinen exhibition at the Cranbrook museum. The exhibition was incredibly inspiring. From his 1948 womb chair design for Knoll, to the 1962 TWA Terminal 5 at JFK, Eero’s creative output was staggering. I felt the exhibition was a great reflection of the true potential of the design discipline, and part of what makes the Cranbrook legacy so special. From Eero and Eliel Saarinen, Charles and Ray Eames, Michael and Kathy McCoy, P. Scott Makela, Andrew Blauvelt, Elliott Earls, Martin Venezky and more recently the likes of Jason Jones, Camm Rowland, Chris Williams and many many more, I think there is something very unique about the Cranbrook experience that brings really talented people together and provides them with the right creative and critical tools to bring out their best. Ultimately Cranbrook grads have an oppurtunity to impact the larger world of graphic design in amazing ways.

View pics of my visit on Flickr

On the value of secret-keeping

James Ellis — Wed, 23 Jan 2008 04:56:32 GMT

Many small, idiosyncratic organizations make an effort to remain shrouded in mystery in some myth-building effort. Large, publicly-held companies rarely do. But there is one major exception: Apple.

At Apple, nothing is revealed until the last moment possible. Then, once every six months, Steve Jobs strolls out on stage in front of a packed house and delivers a keynote speech revealing various new gadgets. Every time around the tech world is obsessed with what might happen, and then post-event, obsessed with discussions regarding whatever was actually revealed. It makes for fantastic punditry. (I do love that John Gruber.) All consumer electronics companies release new products, but Apple is the only one turning product launches into media events by refusing to discuss, or even hint at what lies ahead.

What I find staggering is how much effort Apple puts into secret-keeping. Apple products require massive numbers of humans — designers, software and hardware engineers, advertising partners, overseas manufacturing partners, documentation-writers, web designers, etc. So many humans and no one is leaking. iPhone, the most highly anticipated product of recent memory, didn’t leak. Clearly the entire company has been organized around this secret-keeping principle, and it’s an integral part of the Apple brand strategy.

I mention Apple because we are fascinated by specialness in brands, particularly the myth-building qualities. Apple’s secret-keeping is a perfect example.

Months ago we considered penning an article for the blog detailing the inner-workings of a functioning design collective, specifically the business model. After all, we are operating outside the bounds of a traditional corporate entity; it might be an interesting read. Ultimately, we decided, No, we don’t need to share such information, at least not on the blog. Once distilled down to words on a screen, it didn’t seem so interesting. If anyone really wanted to know, we figured they could get in touch and we could have a conversation.

Turns out this is exactly what happened. This past Thursday we were treated to lunch by our new friends Renda Morton, Andy Pressman and Holly Gressley. All three are talented designers and currently sharing studio space in Dumbo. They wanted to chat with us as they are considering forming a collective. They stopped by and we shared our thoughts on the subject.

The take-away here is less is more, and sometimes lunch.

Volumeone refresh.

James Ellis — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 20:19:16 GMT

Matt Owens launches redesigned volumeone.com.

AisleOne interview with Duane King

James Ellis — Thu, 10 Jan 2008 22:23:33 GMT

AisleOne has a great interview with designer Duane King.

Duane is one of our good buddies and creative director of BBDK, our partners out in Sante Fe.

Various thoughts on Flash, past and present.

James Ellis — Fri, 04 Jan 2008 19:00:36 GMT

I’m not sure you can be a Flash designer/developer here in 2008 and not have mixed feelings about Flash websites. Understand: I have been working with Flash for ten years. I like Flash a lot. It does one million things. But I think everyone has realized that all-Flash, all-the-time, makes no sense. Specifically, I’m talking about “Flash-world” websites, or websites that load all site content into a single Flash shell.

Before web browsers were any good, before CSS worked well, before AJAX Javascript noodlery, before blogs and RSS hit, before Google ruled the earth, a lot of people thought Flash might be the answer to everything. During this time (1999-2005ish) the Flash-world approach dominated among designers and ad agencies. Unlike HTML, Flash offered designers exacting control over the visual experience. In particular, designers were lured by Flash’s ability to render fonts. Ad agencies were seduced simply by Flash’s ability to render the Photoshop “boner-boards” they sell to clients. (This is why ad agencies are still obsessed with Flash.)

However, even as early as 2000, Flash-world sites were receiving a lot of criticism, particularly regarding usability (See: Flash: 99% Bad). By giving designers total control, Flash-world sites broke nearly every rule of the web; each Flash-world site introduced new, idiosyncratic conventions for navigation, scrolling, etc. The mess of the whole slowed the emergence of many of today’s established web design conventions. Now, many realize that Flash is best used to solve specific problems, not provide complete site architecture.

Consider YouTube. The entire site is predicated on the delivery of video using Flash, yet the site itself is HTML/CSS. At this point, the silliness of rolling all of YouTube into one giant Flash-world should be obvious to all.

MTV.com is another example. In 2006 mtv.com went Flash-world. As a designer and developer, I found the site interesting and certainly an impressive technical achievement. However, the user experience was frustrating. MTV realized their error and within nine months ditched the Flash-world and returned to an HTML/CSS architecture. Flash is still used to deliver video content, but the site browsing experience is no longer hijacked by a Flash-world.

Flash Development

Beyond the issue of appropriateness, Flash applications (especially Flash-worlds) are challenging development projects. It’s not that Actionscript is complicated. (It’s pretty easy to pick up for those familiar with Java, Javascript or any OO language.) Flash development is challenging because it is ridiculously tedious. By providing designers and developers with a blank canvas and complete control, Flash development becomes an exercise in reinventing wheels. Want to go to another “page” in your Flash-world? You’re going to need to write Model, View and Controller classes. Want a form in Flash? You’ll need to instantiate a bunch of objects, add event listening, and tie the whole form to a bunch of logic for error checking, data handling, etc. Even the basic task of loading an image (a no-brainer with HTML in a browser) is a challenge in Flash — you’ll need instantiate an image loading class, set up some logic, and bother with event handling. It’s all a lot of work.

Flash-world development is essentially the reinvention of the browser, inside a plugin, running in a browser. It’s silly. Browsers already do such a good job of managing state, rendering content and working with forms. Why start over?

To be profitable in the Flash-world business, you have to develop and maintain a library of frameworks and classes to deal with all the wheels you need to reinvent. Historically, Flash development had a closed, proprietary, arms-race quality to it, with studios maintaining proprietary arsenals of frameworks and classes. The closed nature of Flash development was due to a number of factors:

Unlike plain-text HTML and CSS, SWF files are compiled runtimes and there is no way to “View Source” or otherwise look under the hood of Flash apps. This keeps the code mysterious, prevents the development community (from beginner to pro) from examining and learning from the work of others, and generally excludes Flash from the web’s traditional culture of knowledge-sharing. Two notes: Flash decompilers do exist, but such tools have only been used by the extremely motivated, and again, one doesn’t need a decompiler to view HTML or CSS source. Second, View Source functionality is now possible in Flash, but this still remains a developer-elected option rather than a default.
Flash started as a designer’s tool. Designers, being a bit more guarded with their intellectual property, do not have the same culture of sharing that you find in the software world.
Actionscript did not become (in the eyes of developers) a real programming language until the introduction of Actionscript 2 with Flash 7 (2004). AS2, being styled directly from Java, was designed to appeal to Java developers. Having AS embraced by the software world injected a lot of software culture in Flash, and helped pull Flash out of its designer-centric origins.

There is now a growing open source Flash community, but you still don’t find near the scope of community as you do around big-timers like PHP or (relatively) new technologies like Ruby on Rails.

Flex

Adobe has tried to remedy Flash’s customization-over-convention problem with the introduction of Flex, a development framework for creating Flash apps, or what Adobe refers to as Rich Internet Applications (RIAs). Summary: it’s like HTML for Flash. There are certainly some very interesting things about Flex, but again, it all seems like a very complicated way of doing things that are already possible with HTML/CSS/Javascript in browsers.

Flex doesn’t seem to have much of a future, and it’s difficult to find anyone excited about it. These days the web is full of rich internet apps (i.e., Gmail, Basecamp, Flickr), but I couldn’t name a single app built using Flex. I went to Adobe’s Flex Showcase but didn’t find any particularly rich internet experiences — mostly the same confusing, idiosyncratic Flash interfaces quick to hijack the browser’s scrollbar and disable the scroll wheel (in OS X anyway).

More coming

Over the years we have certainly built our share of Flash-world sites, though we have been moving away from this type of work. Rather, we try and only use Flash when appropriate – video/audio players, widgets, games, slideshows, etc. But now, for the first time in nearly a year, we are tackling a proper Flash-world project — an experience-oriented site with a few particular demands that only a Flash-world can accommodate.

Flash-worlds have come a long way since our last contact. Developers have been working to bring Flash apps in line with standard web conventions, most notably deep-linking and browser back/forward-button support.

We are using Asual’s open-source library, SWFAddress, to provide our Flash-world with state management and deep-linking. SWFAddress plugs in nicely in front of our otherwise proprietary MVC architecture. It has been great to find a solid open-source, cross-browser solution that solves one of the most glaring Flash-world usability issues. We first discovered SWFAddress after visiting Burst Labs, a wholly appropriate Flash-world site designed by Gridplane and developed by David Knape. (Note: Knape has also released Bumpslide, an open-source library of useful AS2 classes.)

Given our thoughts on the Flash-world practice, this return to form has been an interesting challenge. In some ways frustrating, others rewarding. We are pleased to be using Flash for its intended purpose: constructing interactive applications combining both visual and technical challenges. Despite our criticism and reservations, the Flash-world architecture can still make for smart solutions given the appropriate context.

Look for more Flash-related thoughts over the next months as this current project progresses.

Living Up to Web Expectations.

Matt Owens — Sat, 15 Dec 2007 05:17:17 GMT

I had the good fortune of playing Layer Tennis a few days ago courtesy of Coudal Partners. The basics of the game: two designers spar back and forth over 15 minute intervals, adding to or modifying a graphic composition of their choosing. With each “volley”, files are passed back and forth and a commentator (Joshua Allen) writes about each post. Throughout the match viewers can vote on their favorite and give their opinion of the work.

My partner was Jason Gnewikow, a colleague in the studio and long time friend. Jason had just returned from tour with his band House & Parish. The Layer Tennis invitation came to us a bit last minute, with the match taking place the day after Jason’s return to New York. We didn’t have much time to plan, but we were eager to come up with an idea that we thought would be fun to do.

Looking through the previous matches Jason and I noticed that the majority of the work consisted of layered Photoshop files that were assembled using pre-existing assets. Jason and I chatted at length about an unconventional approach that would be more “graphic” as opposed to assembling “graphics.” We felt that this approach might not gain the approval of all of the viewers, but by embracing the idea of a graphic feel as opposed to the standard photo-montage approach, we could come up with a match that was entertaining for us and also a departure from previous matches.

We all know Layer Tennis is sponsored by Abode, and as a participant, we relinquish our rights to the work created and Adobe can utilize it in whatever manner they desire. As a committed user of Adobe products, it was my desire to utilize their products in an unconventional manner and to do something using functionality that designers may not use on a day to day basis.

When I considered the term “Layer Tennis” the first thing that came to mind was the old school video game Pong. Indeed Pong is the first tennis of the digital era. What better way to make a nod to Pong as well as the “vintage” internet than to make all of our pieces animated gifs. ImageReady rules! Jason and I suspected that the tennis = pong = old school = animate gif logic would be lost on the majority of kids that wanted us to create “sick visuals” based on our already existing tool kit of graphics, illustrations and client work we have developed over the years. This was an exercise to be executed in 15 minute intervals. It was not a client project, nor has there ever been a client project that followed such a process. Layer tennis is supposed to be fun for the people doing the work and in the end it should reflect our perspective.

The question I asked myself the moment I heard of Layer Tennis was if I thought that it was my role to show the world that one can create a sophisticated design composition in 15 minutes. I determined that that was not something I thought wise to communicate. Secondly, my impulse was to ask, what does this say about our discipline? our profession? What does a potential client assume if they see great design composed in minutes for an undisclosed sum? I determined that given the quick and dirty nature of Layer Tennis, the pieces should not be about creating perfect things at the drop of a hat (lord knows it takes me forever to come up with something cool) but to come up with a process that talked about the tools we use everyday, and at the same time have fun with them in a manner that client work rarely allows. In the end Jason and I thought that Layer Tennis was an opportunity to lighten up, try not to sweat the small stuff, have fun and maybe just maybe make people think. A few minutes before we started, a cold chill came over me and I asked myself – “Would Herb Lubalin be comfortable with the idea of Layer Tennis? Paul Rand? Neville Brody even.” In the end, I threw care to the wind and let the pixels fly.

After the match was completed I felt both elated and a little uneasy. Would we be confronted with a deluge of haters? Would folks get the joke? I spoke to a few friends and colleagues. Those that know Jason and I and are familiar with our work gave us a pat on the back and a little chuckle. It was not so much a “job well done” moment as much as it was a “good luck explaining this one” kind of comforting. I think we were both prepared for the aftermath and were prepared to have some explaining to do. For me, I took the high road. I love making things. I love the opportunity to explore and share visual ideas. If through a strange stroke of events I find myself convincing one of my studio mates to stand perfectly still and slowly apply a pair of 80’s sunglasses while I photograph each step, all so that I might compose an animated GIF, isn’t that more fun that just moving around something you already made in Photoshop, or giving away something you know everyone already wants?

Don’t get me wrong, if someone were to give me a decent amount of money, a coherent brief and a clear articulation of the needs of a project, you can be sure I would unleash my personal arsenal of visual, motion and interactive skills to develop the best idea possible. This is what is done for client projects and is something I enjoy. On the other hand, the challenge of making multiple large scale animated gifs is not something that is terribly easy or fun to do on a daily basis…unless you have a Layer Tennis game to bust out! In the end, if Adobe starts a “Project Runway” style contest called “Designer Warfare” and gives us the budget and time to pitch killer ideas to be judged by our peers, you can rest assured I would be on board and would come out with guns blazing.

I would like to give shouts out to Steven Harrington, Chuck Anderson, Aaron Draplin, Jason Koxvold, James Hutchinson and everyone else that kicked out the jams on Layer Tennis. I totally appreciate the work and their approach to the project. Thanks again to Coudal and Adobe for giving us the opportunity.

President's Cup Design Face-Off

James Ellis — Fri, 14 Dec 2007 00:09:43 GMT

Athletics’ Jason Gnewikow and Matt Owens to compete in tomorrow’s Layer Tennis challenge. Commentary will be provided by Joshua Allen.

For those unfamiliar, Layer Tennis is a series of live design events held on Friday afternoons. Two designers face-off, swapping a file back and forth, riffing off one another, sorta like dueling solos at a Guitar Center drum clinic, except on the internet. A new “volley” is posted every 15 minutes.

The folks at Coudal are behind it all.

Politics As Usual '08

James Ellis — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 22:26:40 GMT

Frustrated by a lack of vector illustrations of current political figures, and inspired by campaign fever, Matt whipped up ten speed-illo vector-heads.

Matt is offering this vector set, dubbed “Politics As Usual 08”, to the world free-of-charge.

Download ZIP

Depending on the reference, Matt Owens can render a vector illustration of any head in under 5 minutes. Want a vector rendering of your family/dog/child? He’s your man.

Faul McCartney

James Ellis — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 18:27:14 GMT

We’re big fans of Faul’s work.

After Paul’s death in 1966, Faul (aka Geoffrey “Billy” Shepherd, aka Neil Aspinall) really stepped into the character and helped produce what many consider to be the group’s finest work (Sgt. Pepper’s, Magical Mystery Tour, The White Album, Abbey Road).

Faul also went on to enjoy a very successful solo career. From AllMusic:

Out of all the former Beatles, Paul McCartney by far had the most successful solo career, maintaining a constant presence in the British and American charts during the ’70s and ’80s. In America alone, he had nine number one singles and seven number one albums during the first 12 years of his solo career.

It’s surprising that someone as talented as Paul McCartney could be replaced with another equally talented individual with strikingly similar features.

While Paul deserves a lot of credit for his ’63-66 years, there’s really no contest: Faul is the real talent. His sweeping body of work over the past forty years firmly establishes Faul as one of the great career musicians.

Wes in Village Voice

James Ellis — Fri, 16 Nov 2007 04:43:10 GMT

If you’re in NYC, check out this week’s Village Voice. Wes illustrated the cover story, and the cover:

That’s Wes about to be run over by a bus. It’s not the first time he’s worked himself into a cover.

Adobe CS3 Install: Punishing Experience

James Ellis — Fri, 16 Nov 2007 04:12:47 GMT

If you’re doing commercial design work, you’re likely running Adobe software. If you don’t want to be left behind, you’re always upgrading to the latest gear. Even if you don’t care about new features, an entire industry is working against you: Apple keeps releasing machines and operating systems that ditch one thing for another (OS 9 for X, PowerPC for Intel), and the commercial design world is always graduating to whatever Adobe’s latest offering may be. It’s a never-ender.

The CS3 Experience

Last week I purchased Creative Suite 3 Production Premium. That’s a bunch of stuff. Being a model citizen is expensive: $1,841.00 with tax from Adobe.com.

During checkout I elected to download the massive 16GB package (the equivalent of ~24 CDs of data).

After completing transaction, I was ready to start downloading my 16 gigs immediately. Instead I received the following email confirmation:

You will receive an email within the next business day confirming the status of your order.

Really? One of the biggest software companies in the world can’t figure out how to automate my order? Fortunately, a human emailed me a few hours later providing me with my serial number and instructions for downloading. I navigated the complex Adobe html-flash-hybrid-web-world and started downloading.

Activation

Adobe introduced activation with CS2. Activation forces CS owners to verify the product’s serial number within 30 days. By verify, I mean Adobe collects identifying information about your computer (the physical computer, not you personally), which it sends, along with your Adobe serial number, to the Adobe activation database super-brain. With this data, the super-brain enforces the term’s of Adobe’s license agreement, which states that the product can only be installed on two machines.

Two machines – that’s it. If I want to install the software on another machine, I need to deactivate one of my other machines first.

Considering that it’s still not very difficult to acquire a cracked copy of CS3, Adobe’s strict enforcement of a strict software license is just sorta gross.

Trial software odyssey

A few months ago I had downloaded the Flash CS3 Trial to test it out. I was impressed, and it was definitely one of the reasons why I moved to CS3. The important point is that I still had the trial software installed on my machine.

While installing the full CS3 package, the installer detected that I already had Flash CS3 installed on the machine and informed me that, as a result, the installer would skip Flash. This seemed smart to me. I had already tweaked out the trial a bit, and I didn’t want to have to reconfig all my palettes and such.

The installation went smoothly, and after activating the software, I was back to work. I was pleased with Photoshop — much faster on my Intel-Mac than the non-universal CS1 I had been running.

Then I tried to open Flash…

Upon launching Flash, I was required to provide my serial number. Unfortunately, my serial number didn’t work. I discovered that my CS3 serial number is incompatible with the Flash CS3 Trial software. I googled around and confirmed that this was the case.

Next, I tried to uninstall the trial software using the uninstall tool provided with CS3. Amazingly, the uninstall tool was unable to uninstall the Flash CS3 Trial.

Getting frustrated, I started trashing anything Flash CS3 related — the application, preferences, anything I could find. Yet, over and over again the CS3 installer refused to install Flash because it kept detecting that it had been installed already.

I started Googling harder and began finding others with the same issue. Apparently, only the Flash CS3 Trial Uninstaller is capable of removing the trial software. I had to go back to the Adobe site and re-download the Flash CS3 Trial software (another 800 MB). I ran the trial’s installer to re-install the trial just so I could uninstall the trial. So ridiculous. This actually worked, and the CS3 installer finally gave me the green light to install Flash CS3 proper.

Unfortunately, I still couldn’t install Flash CS3. The installer would repeatedly stop responding while “repairing support files.” All I can figure is that something got corrupted with all the trial deletion/installation/uninstallation that was going on. Finally, I uninstalled CS3 in its entirety. Only then was I able to re-install everything, including Flash.

A massive waste of time.

Software is hard, DRM is harder

Globo-chem-level software is bound have issues — it’s spectacularly complicated. And all software is hard. From Scott Rosenberg’s Dreaming in Code:

Our civilization runs on software. Yet the art of creating it continues to be a dark mystery, even to the experts, and the greater our ambitions, the more spectacularly we seem to fail.

Yet, punishing experiences like mine are totally unnecessary, and when you’re paying big cash, unacceptable.

Most frustrating is that my trial-software-odyssey is likely due to the limitations of Adobe’s activation and serial-numbering system. If the software wasn’t rolled into a complex activation system, Adobe probably wouldn’t require different installations of the same software, or different types of serial numbers for blanket CS3 packages versus stand-alone products.

Adobe’s activation system is like other anti-piracy technologies — iTunes DRM, Microsoft’s Windows Genuine Advantage, etc. – in that it always finds a way to punish the paying consumers, while piracy always finds a way around it. I can’t recall a single anti-piracy scheme that actually made both vendor and customer happy. If software is hard, DRM is harder.

I’m happy to see DRM nonexistent at the new Amazon MP3 store, and slowly being phased out of iTunes. But, with regard to Adobe, there is minimal competition and minimal incentive for them to do anything differently. After Adobe’s 2005 acquisition of Macromedia, their only significant competitor is Apple with Final Cut and Aperture. If Adobe releases a junk installer, or chooses to enforce a strict software license through activation, few design professionals have the option of taking their business elsewhere.

Sleevage on Alternative to Love

James Ellis — Mon, 12 Nov 2007 15:18:48 GMT

Recently discovered Sleevage, a blog on record packaging design. Sleevage is still relatively new, and it seems like they’re still working to find their voice. I find many of the reviews to be a little too easy — too brief, minimal commentary, or stories I already knew.

However, today’s interview with David Calderley of Graphic Therapy on the Brendan Benson – Alternative to Love packaging was great.

I enjoyed David’s words on how he eventually arrived at the final product. It’s always nice to learn the back story, see early concepts, and final art for the album and singles in one place.

For those unfamiliar with Brendan Benson, I recommend all three of his records, and that one he did with Jack White as well.

Link:
http://sleevage.com/brendan-benson-the-alternative-to-love/

Vasava Bring Inspiration to OFFF Conference in New York.

Matt Owens — Mon, 05 Nov 2007 16:55:15 GMT

I had the fortune of seeing the design studio Vasava present their work at the OFFF festival here in New York last week. I have followed Vasava for many years now and was very excited to see them speak. Vasava www.vasava.es is a design studio based in Barcelona. They are primarily dedicated to communication campaigns, interactive, editorial design, motion graphics, events and exhibitions as well as personal projects and products.

Totaling 15 people, the work of Vasava has a wide variety of styles and mediums. Seeing the work presented together, the notion of design authorship came to mind. The way Vasava present their work, it is impossible to tell who did what project. However, you do see specific styles where it is apparent that the same person did one project and then another.

Of particular interest to me were the following pieces:

Diesel Fifty book. 5 Steps to creativity

The Room Flyers

Fotogramas

HP Hamburger

Overall, the type and illustration work as really impressive. Whoever did the type for the 5 steps to creativity in the Diesel Fifty book deserves a pat on the back. Vasava have been working with Diesel for many years and a large portion of the work they presented was Diesel related.

I was taken by how varied the work was. There seems to be an anything goes freedom to a lot of the work which was really interesting. I think in the US, we tend to focus on the accomplishments of individual designers and are generally overly critical.

For Vasava, I think as a studio they work hard but are open to anything and do not take things too seriously. I think this allows them to move seamless between different kinds of projects and different styles without getting too caught up in the details.
The quantity and variety of projects was totally inspirational. I really appreciate the impulse of most of the work and I think Vasava are a very unique example of what is possible in the commercial illustration/design world when really talented people put their egos aside and decide to work together.

Lastly, Vasava run a gallery/store in Barcelona called Vallery. Located in the Barcelona’s city center, It features exhibition by outstanding artists, graphic designers and illustrators.

VALLERY

I think the combination of the studio, great work with tons of variety and a store/space to share their passion for design is a real inspiration.

Recently of note

James Ellis — Tue, 30 Oct 2007 20:10:19 GMT

A few items of interest, in no particular order…

Casual Aesthetics

Our pal Wyeth Hansen recently launched the Casual Aesthetics blog. The first three posts are great.

I figure Wyeth’s writing will appeal to all sorts, as you have some of this:

Now anyways, to make the animation feel ‘vintage’, I developed a layering system which basically involved lowering the frame rate, desaturating certain colors and bumping others up, adding a looped ‘wash’ texture over the piece and adding fake film grain to give it a gritty texture.

and this:

Casual Aesthetics embraces a sort of sliding-scale approach to problem solving by identifying both the merits and shortcomings of various solutions. What emerges is a gradation of values linked to formal attributes, which ultimately becomes an expanded matrix as more and more elements and ideas are analyzed and added. This is achieved by organizing and analyzing existing objects and media that exemplify various characterstics and extruding their latent meaning.

Thinking for a Living

Duane King recently sent us copies of Thinking for a Living, the newsprint companion to Duane’s session at the Dallas Society of Visual Communications 3rd Annual National Student Show & Conference. Duane also launched http://www.thinkingforaliving.org.

Both the website and print peice serve as a collection of ideas & resources for young designers — lots of recommended reading.

Bob Borden and Duane King run BBDK, a multidisciplinary studio based in Sante Fe, New Mexico. We’ve collaborated with BBDK in the past, and expect more in the future. Total sweethearts.

Web design process, client-perspective

I’ve been reading Joel on Software for some time. Joel Spolsky is a software veteran, and founder of Fog Creek Software in NYC. One might describe Joel’s writing as popular fiction for software nerds.

Today he posted an article on the recent web redesigns for Fog Creek Software and their product, FogBugz. Designers, developers, freelancers, project managers, proposal-writers, & those that run studios should enjoy.

Results from ALA's 2007 Web Design Survey

James Ellis — Thu, 18 Oct 2007 00:36:18 GMT

Yesterday A List Apart released the results from 2007’s Web Design Survey, conducted in the spring of 2007. 33,000 web professionals participated, myself included. ALA’s 81-page report is a fascinating read.

In the spring of 2007, I distinctly remember being excited by the prospect of the survey. I was surprised to discover that this marked the first meaningful public research of the profession.

In answering each of the 37 questions, I was amazed that we (the web industry/community/whatever) didn’t know this stuff already — Who’s doing the work? For what sort of companies? Where do people live? Age, sex, ethnicity? How much money do people make? Education? Do people enjoy the work?

That’s just the tip of the iceberg. The questions dig pretty deep: prevalence of blogging/personal publishing, tracking career history/future, perceptions of bias, interest/methods of continued education.

The results are extensive. Tons of graphs and charts. ALA did well to commission statisticians Alan Brickman and Larry Yu to make sense of it all. The report is a beautifully crafted document. ALA intends to conduct the survey annually.

Thoughts

It’s interesting to consider the number of participants. The 33,000 figure can seem both big and small. I’m impressed that ALA managed to get that many people to carve out the time necessary to complete the survey. It’s more than you can fit into Madison Square Garden (19,763), but 33k isn’t blowing my mind. The world is sort of big, with a lot of humans. Microsoft alone employs 78,000 people. Over a million people live in Rhode Island. The human head weighs eight pounds.

I realize the industry is bigger than 33k, and that the survey only represents the dedicated core — those down for the cause, blog-readers and general-purpose nerds — but, it reveals that this whole dot com thing is propelled forward by a relatively small group of people.

Quadiliacha @ Drunken Unicorn

James Ellis — Tue, 16 Oct 2007 23:18:55 GMT

A mystery to most, but Atlanta knows what I’m talking about. At the very least, one should appreciate the flyer.

Some tunes: Think about it. Ben Burton Park.

Gavin might still have some records (Update: he does).

See you Thursday.

Update:
Was fun. Time-warp to age 16.

Opening tunes Nasty Moves & Ben Burton Park:

RSS for the unwashed masses

James Ellis — Mon, 15 Oct 2007 18:39:37 GMT

Many websites offer RSS feeds. If you have no idea why, this article is for you.

RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication. Any given feed is just a summary of content from an associated web site. Websites offer feeds for all sorts of content — blog posts, podcasts, news articles, or any sort of timely content.

An RSS feed is content wrapped in a generic data format called XML. Humans have no business reading this stuff. It’s for computers.

All that matters is that you can plug feeds into a feed reader. A feed reader like Google Reader allows you to keep track of hundreds of feeds in one place. Rather than discover new content by navigating to websites individually, a feed reader can instantly inform you of new content across hundreds of sources. For information junkies, feed readers offer increased consumption across countless content sources, at near real-time speed.

Process

I wake up in the morning and open Google Reader, where I plow through a river of news. 154 subscriptions and growing, I’m following major media, design, politics, and all varieties of nerdstuff. I repeat at various points during the day. I can’t say the same for newspapers, magazines, television, etc.

Here’s a snapshot from today:

River of news

I have a bunch of feeds in one big pool called “favorites.” Here I step through a big pile of latest posts from the various feeds I designate as favorites. With this method of browsing, I’m able to move through an amazing amount of content very quickly.

New feeds

As I browse the greater web, I find other sites of interest and plug them into the Google Reader super-brain.

Firefox makes this easy with the little subscription icon:

Upon clicking “Subscribe to this page…”, Firefox will add the feed to whatever feed-feader you like (Google Reader, Bloglines, My Yahoo, NewsGator, etc.)

Or, you can paste the feed directly into Google Reader:

The comprehensive sell

If you’re not excited by new forms of information consumption/aggregation, you might be reeled in by content. Here’s some favorites.

Designerly

Brand New
Opinions on corporate and brand identity work. Feed Link
Design Observer
Writings about design & culture. Feed Link
Viewers Like You
Contemporary art, design, music, culture. Feed Link
YouWorkForThem
Books, stock art, typefaces, DVDs, posters, etc. Feed Link
A Brief Message
Short-form design opinions. Feed Link
Fecal Face
Interviews, features, forums, etc. Feed Link
Monoscope
Design inspiration. Feed Link
Pentagram
New from Pentagram. Feed Link
Motionographer
A bunch of motion graphics stuff. Feed Link
The Nonist
Unwilling to bind to any particular ideology. Feed Link
Princeton Architectural Press
papressblog. Feed Link
Rinzen
Latest from Rinzen. Feed Link

(Note: Interestingly Newstoday.com doesn’t offer a feed.)

Nerd-stuff

Scott Rosenberg
Technology, politics, culture from writer Scott Rosenberg, author of Dreaming in code. Feed Link
Kaourantin.net
Tinic Uro, Adobe Flash engineer. Feed Link
Photo Matt
Matt Mullenweg, founder of Wordpress. Feed Link
Daring Fireball
John Gruber on Mac. Feed Link
Particletree
Web stuff from makers of Wufoo. Feed Link
Mezzoblue
Dave Shea, web designer from Vancouver, Canada. Feed Link
Joel on Software
Joel Spolsky, NYC software developer. Feed Link
Call Me Fishmeal
Wil Shipley’s blog. Mac programmer, runs Delicious Monster, makers of Delicious Library. Feed Link
Coding Horror
Programming and human factors by Jeff Atwood. Feed Link
A List Apart
For people who make websites. Feed Link
Fake Steve Jobs
Secret diary. Feed Link

Other stuff

The Morning News
Online publication. Variety of articles, features, links, etc.
Pitchfork
Indie-rock arbiters. Feed Link
The Conscience of a Liberal
Paul Krugman, op-ed columnist for the NY Times. Feed Link
Free Williamsburg
Local Williamsburg, Brooklyn blog. Feed Link
Kottke.org
About the liberal web arts. Feed Link
TapeOp Forum
Forum for TapeOp magazine. Feed Link

Other interesting cases

You can subscribe to any Flickr user’s public feed (Here’s ours).
Or subscribe to any del.icio.us user’s bookmark feed.
You can find fifty-eleven different feeds for every major media outlet (BBC, CNN, NY Times, AJC, etc.)
You can keep up with the latest on social news sites like Digg and Reddit.
Most web services (hosting providers, things like that) offer customer support feeds keeping customers informed of service issues.
Most message boards offer feeds.
Weather.com offers feeds for national and local weather.
If you run a website, the web analytics software Mint offers a feed for your website’s latest referrers.

Higher education doesn’t guarrantee awareness

This new form of information consumption remains a mystery to many — even those with one or more master’s degrees. The insertion of a content aggregator (Google Reader) between users (you, me) and content creators (websites, blogs, etc.) is a level of abstraction that requires some explanation. Perhaps this article will help connect the dots for those interested in increasing their daily information throughput.

Questions? Comments? Contact James via email - .

Color management for web designers and developers

James Ellis — Sun, 30 Sep 2007 20:48:15 GMT

If you’re reading this, you likely arrived via a link posted somewhere out there in this great big internet. This article is no longer available because it needs some revision. You could say it expired. Adobe has changed the behavior of Photoshop a bit since Adobe CS1 and some of the issues that inspired this piece in the first place are no longer applicable.

On using dummy domains

James Ellis — Fri, 28 Sep 2007 21:51:45 GMT

Moving a website from one web hosting provider to another can be frustrating. Domains take a long time to propagate. How do you keep email from getting lost? How do you properly test a site before moving? A dummy domain can help.

Let’s say you have a new client. They have an existing website that your firm is going to redesign. Not only will you be redesigning the site, but you’ll be starting over with a new CMS and fancy front-end framework. Chances are that the client is currently hosting their site with some lame provider (i.e. out of date software, no Subversion support, no server-side spam software, etc.). You need to move the site to a provider you trust, and come launch time, the transition needs to be as smooth as possible.

After a bit of trial and error, we’ve come up with a system of using dummy domains to test projects in development, and ease the transition during domain name propagation.

The basics, step by step

Go buy a dummy domain. We use a variety of dummy domains — athletics-transfer.com is a good example. You’ll notice that this was the dummy domain we used for the recently launched Dangerbird Records website. In a few weeks we’ll disable this and use it for some other project.
Set up the new hosting environment. There are many great hosting providers out there. We like Empowering Media, but you can use whoever you like.
Point your dummy domain to the new host. Set the dummy domain’s nameservers to point to your new hosting provider.
Develop and test the new site. Develop and test the entire project on the new server using the dummy domain. To keep folks from peeping the unreleased site, we always lock things down behind a password, which we provide to the client.
Set up email addresses. The client is already using a number of email addresses. You’ll need to set up these addresses on the new server. It doesn’t matter that the addresses are behind the dummy domain. So, for address@clients-domain.com, you’ll create address@dummy-domain.com.

Launch time

Once the site has been fully developed, tested, and the client is ready to go live, there are few steps to ensure a smooth transition.

Add a domain alias. In the new hosting environment, add the client’s live domain as an alias of the dummy domain — meaning, visiting either domain in your web browser should resolve to the same site.
(Of course, nothing will happen until you point the live domain’s DNS to the new hosting provider, but we still have a few things to do before we get to that…)
Wait two hours. Give the hosting provider a bit of time to add the client’s live domain to their internal nameservers.
Forward all email. On the client’s old server (that you’re about to abandon), set up forwards on each email account forwarding all email to the corresponding address at the dummy domain. So, example@clients-domain.com should forward all email to example@dummy-domain.com.
Test email forwards. Send a few tests to make sure that email is being forwarded correctly.
Change DNS. Now you can finally change the client’s domain’s nameservers to point to the new hosting provider. A domain’s nameserver information gets cached and stored all over the internet — thousands of servers cache this information to keep the internet moving fast. It can take up to 72 hours for all of these servers to switch over and begin using the new nameservers.

So what just happened?

By forwarding email on the old server to corresponding addresses at the dummy domain, we made sure that email didn’t get lost during the domain name propagation period (again, this can last up to 72 hours). Any email that made its way to the old server was forwarded along to the new one.

Post-launch

Once the client’s domain has had time to propagate (7 days is pretty safe), you can remove the dummy domain.

Was all the fuss about email?

Pretty much. For most of our clients, losing email is a deal breaker. However, with an $8 dummy domain and a bit of jiggery-pokery, we can ensure that nothing gets lost.

Also, we like the professional touch. To clients, dummy domains feel more real than something like http://dev.athleticsnyc.com/client-name/. We explain to the client that the dummy domain is running directly on their new server. The client gets a sense of comfort knowing the dummy domain is their website, just behind a different name.

Why don’t you just set up an MX record to send email somewhere else?

True, that’s another solution. We love that Google Apps now offers the ability to pipe your domain’s email over to Google’s servers and use Gmail to manage your email at @your-domain.com instead of @gmail.com. It’s easy to set up, and free.

A major benefit of using an MX record to bounce all email along to a hosted service is that you don’t have to worry about losing email when switching web hosts. You’re cool as long as both the old and new hosting providers’ DNS include an MX record routing all email to the third party email service.

There are a number of professional solutions for managing email in this way. Just google “hosted email” and you’ll find a bunch of them. However, I find most of these services to be geared for the corporate crowd. Further, a third-party pro email service just isn’t necessary for most of our clients. Running email and web services on the same server works fine for most.

Worth the $8

I try to enjoy peace of mind whenever possible. The dummy-domain-email-bouncery trick helps with that.

Questions? Comments? Contact James via email - .

Athletics Weblog

Lubalin Now

The Road Less Traveled

Making the Song

Generating the type

Designing the idea

Creating the motion piece

Putting it all together

Good Magazine. State of the Planet

Living in the Limelight: Art, Design and the Search for Authenticity

Music Television

"A Night For Vets" on MTV 10/24

Emitt Rhodes

Summer 2008 Roundup

U.N. Icons Suite

Good

Sesame Street

King Tuff, The Weight

Nevikov

Link: Thoughts on Context Switching

DustUp Strikes Again

Link: A Brief Career In Printing

News of the day

Link: Stephen Fritz

NY77 Nominated for an Emmy

Link: VLU interviews Pinball Publishing

Delicious API Integration

Working with the API

Caching

Additional caching

Additional notes:

Thinking for a Living

Two introductions. One new desk.

Creativity and the Collective

Some thoughts

Unanswered questions

Thanks

The Body is the Subject

Athletics looking for talented illustrator

Athletics at AIGA/NY's Smart/Models

Stats tracking using Mint and Google Analytics

Mint http://www.haveamint.com

Google Analytics http://www.google.com/analytics

Why run both?

Web Theft

Please, have the code:

SxSW, Marked Men

Future-stuff: Ubiquitous Internet

The Sprint deal

Thoughts (or, what the MacBook Air is missing)

Free Code: Simple-Auth by Athletics

Demo

Download

Customizing

Testing & debugging Flash apps in the browser

FlashTracer

Charles Web Debugging Proxy

Other options

New Work

Thoughts on Kindle

Books won’t be replaced anytime soon

Thoughts on bandwidth and Amazon S3

Getting started with S3

A visit to Cranbrook Academy of Art design department

On the value of secret-keeping

Volumeone refresh.

AisleOne interview with Duane King

Various thoughts on Flash, past and present.

Flash Development

Flex

More coming

Living Up to Web Expectations.

President's Cup Design Face-Off

Politics As Usual '08

Faul McCartney

Wes in Village Voice

Adobe CS3 Install: Punishing Experience

The CS3 Experience

Activation

Trial software odyssey

Mint
http://www.haveamint.com

Google Analytics
http://www.google.com/analytics