as a means to bring innovation + improvement to your organization … do this :]

completely erase all that you know about your company and its online presence ( real world presence as well … any of it, just wipe that slate clean ) … take a quick look at what your company’s site is doing from a generalist’s perspective …

then

more importantly

look at the 3 top competitors ‘out there’

right?

and THEN

here’s the kicker

pretend you are a brand new, bleeding edge, low finance, start-up … maybe get together with a small group and all pretend with this scenario in mind, because this sh!t, this is what is actually happening ‘out there’ on a daily basis now that the technology is SO readily available + easy to use … so …

pretend you’re a brand new start up, no funding or anything yet, right? but pretend your objective as this new start up is to completely topple the company you’re @ … basically, think like the enemy ( because, believe me, they’re out there + ready to strike ) … and don’t put any limits on what you’re actively brainstorming about … pretend like you’ll just fnckin’ figure it all out as you go … there are no technical limitations, no preconceived notions, none of the typical hang-ups or politics that typically come along with any established organization

and so, then … like use big paper, crayons, markers, scissors, tape, glue, pencils, pens, paint, wood, clay, cement, shoelaces, coffecans, spare computer parts, trash, whatever it takes to make those ideas come flyin’ out at you and your team to stay loose + creative

big words

big ideas

picture, lots of drawings + pictures … sketches … simple sketches … rough sketches

get all that sh!t out … really be devious, like you’re going to tear down the walls of the building you’re probably ‘ideating’ in ( boy, i fr!kken HATE that word ), but just be destructive … be disruptive … own some innovation, aight?

after like 3 or more hours of this … take digital photos of everything you did … its just amazing stuff, ain’t it? i mean, some of it is crap, i’m sure … but you have a LOT of ideas up there + now its going to be a matter of documenting, basically translating what you have up there in analog format to something more virtual and easily manipulated

photos, more photos please

if at all possible, take photos of the actual sessions to capture the spirit and energy of the active idea outletting

take all the big paper, all the big ideas to a place to examine, interpret, document, organize, refine, etcetera

do this every 4 months

i bet you’ll come up with some pretty interesting, innovative concepts … @ least half a dozen that will add amazing value to the scope of what your company can do …

that is, if they let you ;]

But seriously folks, Marc Amos of Boston Web Studio out of Beverly, Massachusetts put together and presented this amazing walkthrough of all the latest CSS 2.1 & CSS 3.0 coolness ‘out there’ … the take-away, make sure you check cross-browser compatibility for the property or class you’re implementing … not all a these things are exactly playing nicely just yet, but it looks like we’re gettin’ there … many amazing new concepts to explore ( some of which almost seem like they would have logically been ready half a decade or so already ).

Thanks to Marc, Sharon, Refresh Boston and the many, many sponsors and affiliate organizations for another amazing networking + industry-specific, knowledge-sharing event … nice!

Syfy.com

Back in March Sci Fi announced they are re-branding and changing its name to SyFy. Landor Associates was the branding firm hired by Sc Fi. They can’t take credit for the whole project though…

Yes, we worked with the SciFi Channel, and it hired us to consult on the project. However, Syfy was a name generated internally and pre-tested at the channel before our involvement, 

 Yes Sci Fi paid a large sum of money for the name SyFy to Michael Hinman. Was it was worth it? Um, Nope!

 My question to Landor is…

 Can you guys at least take credit for designing a god awful looking web site?

Come on now are you joking me? This has to be one of the worst re-branding site designs I’ve seen in a long time. I thought re-branding brings out better and more creative designs not the other way around. Maybe you didn’t do it or maybe you will try to pass blame for this as well.

SyFy Imagine Greater? No I cannot for the life of me imagine the re branding being great!

Earlier today I was on FFFFound and stumbled across an illustration DeadArtsPublishing by Aaron Horkey. Who’s Aaron Horkey? Aaron Horkey is well known in the gig-poster world, however for those of us who don’t constantly check OMG Posters , or has seen his killer skate board graphics or even his sneaker design he is by far inspirational to all. Horkey is known for his highly detailed illustrations and hand lettering. The attention to detail is incredible. Where can you find his work? His silk screens are highly sought after, which seems to only be available on ebay.

So check out some of his illustrations and let me know if he inspires you.

Have you heard of Flash Catalyst yet? aka Thermo. I wanted to put a list together of some demos to give you an idea of how cool this is.  I’ve been using FC for a little while now and love it. Yes I have some minor issues that I raised during the beta pre-release. The main one is for us Fireworks users we have an extra step to do. We need to export as FXG format. Other than that it’s a pretty smooth transition into FC.

I would take a look at some of the demos below and download the public beta that’s out. GET IT RIGHT HERE!

Adobe® Flash® Catalyst™ is a new professional interaction design tool for rapidly creating user interfaces without coding.

• Transform artwork created in Adobe Photoshop® and Adobe Illustrator® into functional user interfaces.

• Create interactive prototypes with the ability to leverage them in the final product

• Publish a finished project as a SWF file ready for distribution

• Work more efficiently with developers who use Adobe Flash Builder™ 4 to create rich Internet applications (RIAs). Designers use Flash Catalyst to create the functional user experience then provide the project file to developers who use Flash Builder to add functionality and integrate with servers and services

Some links to get to know FC a little more.

Adobe Flash Catalyst Thermo Team

Mark Anders’ FITC Session on Flash Catalyst

InsideRIA – Flash Catalyst Beta 1 Demo

Lynda.com-FC Beta Review

Flash Catalyst Beta 1 demo in 4 minutes

I hope you find this interesting enough to download it and give it a try.

-Tom

Jun 12th in Inspiration by Emil

Interview with Psdtuts+ and Vectortuts+ Editor Sean Hodge – Psdtuts+.

I’m originally from Oregon. I went to college and spent quite a few years in Connecticut. During that time I traveled a bit as well, mostly Northern Europe, and I’ve made it over the border to Canada. I have a degree in History, though I took a slew of graphic design classes, and some at the graduate level. I lived in Venezuela for a couple years recently, which is where my wife is from. I visited some Caribbean islands off Venezuela’s coast as well, Aruba for example. I only recently moved to Florida in January of this year. I’m still filling my apartment with new furniture from Ikea.

Great interview brought to you by PsdTuts

I thought this was a pretty interesting.

-Tom

Throw Yo Dishes in the air and clean em like you just don’t care. Kitchen Ka-Ka-Karma.

Thanks AdFreak

Teo Skaffa’s art is mainly based around cat bitches with pointy tits. Always stick thin and ugly these cat women often smoke like bandits and show too much skin. People love Skaffa’s work because it appeals to the deviant art demographic of 16 year old girls who want to be ugly cat bitches. Skaffa thinks 90% of the world’s human population is barely sentient.

Skaffa should be big in japan, but isn’t. –Teo Skaffa. “pulled from his Behance About Us”

Check his work!!!

TeoSkaffa

MySpace

FlickR

Behance

Fred Showker, Editor and Publisher of DTG, recently posted the following question in the Designers’ Talk Discussions section of LinkedIn:

My question: WHAT is DESIGN?

So many readers often write to ask about becoming a design professional. Many ask “What is Design” or “What is Graphic Design?”

Among the established definitions you’ll find that just about anyone you ask — you’ll get a different answer. So, in the May issue of DTG we’ll be asking …

WHAT IS DESIGN?

My studies at The Dynamic Media Institute at MassArt bring up many questions about design, media, communication and creativity. The question What is design? seemed to perfectly resonate with recent thoughts and discourse with the fantastic community engaged in these discussions at DMI.

Here is my response:

WHAT is DESIGN? What an excellent question. And what an important question to ask ourselves on a daily basis.

Here is my quick interpretation of design …

First of all, I think of the word design as more of a verb than a noun. An active process. A process that can contain elements of expression, research, planning, thinking, doing, conversing … but design is best when there is a lot of active exploration, research and process behind the end result.

As a second notion to consider … here is a layman’s linguistic deconstruction of the word as interpreted by someone personally and professionally involved with design for a decade or more. So here is my breakdown by syllable …

The ‘de’ part of DESIGN … ‘de’ reminds me of the word ‘di’ in Italian, both in phonetic | aural similarity and in direct translation of meaning … ‘de’ = ‘of’ in English.

The ’sign’ part of DESIGN … ’sign’ is the root of the word ’significance’.

Literally translated DESIGN means ‘of significance’. More importantly, the interpretation I come away with is something more like the infinitive ‘to bring significance’. I think of it as a process where the designer brings meaning … actually brings something significant to the world. Or at the very least to a certain targeted audience.

So … in the end, we not only need to ask from day to day the all-important question ‘WHAT is DESIGN?’, but we also need to continually update and define ‘WHAT is the role of a DESIGNER?’ … the answers to both of these questions are shifting and changing more and more often in these times, due in part to the speedy development of new technologies and also immensely influenced by a confluence of so many eclectic fields coming together to define and design new significance, new meaning, new thought, and new methods of communication.

View the original LinkedIn Answers question and responses here: http://www.linkedin.com/groupAnswers?viewQuestionAndAnswers=&gid=92232&discussionID=2742196&commentID=3023128&goback=.hom.anh_92232#commentID_3023128

On April 30 they launched the first Playground competition “How to imagine time in the future”. Request an invitation to join us, upload your “realisation” of time and you could win either $20,000 towards tuition fees or project funding if you’re a student, or an inspirational trip to the likes of Freeze London or Art Basel Miami if you’re a seasoned creative pro.

You can enter work in the field of any of the following creative disciplines:

• Music
• Film
• Print design
• 2D animation
• 3D animation
• Motion design
• Illustration
• Fashion

For more information, take a look at the competition terms & conditions