I have been a long time customer, fan, and eventually an enthusiast for your services. You have a (much appreciated) habit of trying to make things as easy to understand as possible, yet without sacrificing features for the more technically savvy. Last but not least, your customer service is a force to be reckoned with.

That brings me to your sales process…
I have helped many clients get setup with your hosting, but the (generally confusing) two week trial, and the initial steps it takes to get hosting is intimidating for a client, at best, and a hassle for long-time users.

The usual scenario:

1. I go through the process of identifying my clients needs, and educating them on what they need to buy.
2. Generally clients want to have hosting on their credit cards so they have a sense of ownership (and in case their developer goes awol). They also rarely want to hand their credit card information over to a developer. Especially if most of the business is done remotely, and you don’t have the ability to have a face-to-face meeting. So, I point them to Dreamhost and say “well it is going to say you need to do a 2 week trial, then once you sign up it will walk you through some steps to ‘buy’. Make sure you get hosting and domain name…but I am not exactly sure what it will ask you at each step, so good luck”.
3. A day or two later I will get a series of questions about if they need VPS, dedicated, etc etc…don’t even get me started on the process of a domain transfer!
4. I end up creating a fake account so I can go step-by-step through your process and write down the options they need to click on each step.

My solution:

Implement a “My Developer” feature. Here is how it would work (two fold):

Send a Package:

1. As a developer, I can go onto Dreamhost with my current account (or create a new one for free), and I can “Create a Package”. This package will walk me through the usual steps, but will allow me to set all the options my client needs.
2. When I am done I can send the package to my client. They can review it in case they want to provide feedback, or they can just enter their billing information, and be done!

Request a Package:

1. A client can go through and set as many options as they feel comfortable with. Or none at all and just define high-level questions like “I need a name and a place to keep files”.
2. They then send this package to their developer, and their developer can confirm the package (adding in the missing details) and send it back to be paid for.

This system should also allow any account to designate a “My Developer”. This person would have “Editor” abilities within your account. Not able to change billing, or paid-features, but able to suggest features, and setup new databases etc.

How about it? You should snatch up this idea before any of your competitors do. You can have it, all I ask for is your conitnued awesomeness (with a dash of free hosting for life).

A seven-foot motion-activated interactive wall we developed for Bally Total Fitness.

This project took over 7 months from concept the completion with a relatively small team. The creative team consisted of three designers, one flash developer (myself), a motion graphics artists named Sean Wehrli, and a 3d camera integration company called Helios Interactive. As well as support from the account team and UX department.

It is best described on the Manifest blog as follows:

The wall includes four separate applications – an unprecedented variety of functions for a device of its size and complexity. The most simple is the Bally Logo Break, which helps users learn how to control the screen by shattering the familiar red Bally logo into many smaller pieces, then moving them around to reveal fitness and nutrition tips. The Nutrition Wall application helps users gain knowledge that will help them inside the gym and out. The Workout Counselor enables gym members make the most out of their experience, providing exercise recommendations to target specific muscle groups. Finally, the Future Self application is a sort of “funhouse mirror” that shows users what they might look like if they keep at their workout routines.

Technical details:

- Developed with Adobe Flash (Actionscript 3) for the whole front-end application interface
– SoftKinetic IISU SDK for communication from the Kinect to Flash
- Four 46″ LCD displays mounted vertically
– Xbox Kinect for motion sensing
– Logitec HD Pro Webcam C910 for taking high-definition captures of people

For more details check out these interviews:
Part 1:
Designing a New Experience

Part 2:
From Edison to Xbox

Part 3:
The Wave of the Future

Press Updates:

Sept 20. 2011

Chosen by Intel to be part of an exhibit of six new technologies at the World Retail Congress, taking place September 25 – 28 in Berlin.

“They see this as one of the best examples of a real-world deployment of cutting edge technology, and they would like to use it as part of a showcase” – Mike Schaiman (Helios Interactive)

Sept 25. 2011

The content director (Andrew Benedict-Nelson) of The Insight Labs has written series about the Bally wall. He did an interview with me that ended up being 1.5 hours long. Out of that came this three part series that starts off with a general look at the wall (part 1), and then dives into details about how it was made and what is next (part 2 + 3).

Part 1:
Designing a New Experience

Part 2:
From Edison to Xbox

Part 3:
The Wave of the Future

Oct 04. 2011

Featured on NotCot.org: http://www.notcot.org/post/43531/

Oct 04. 2011

Featured on Southern Fried Gamer: SoftKinetic Partners With Bally Fitness, for Interactive Walls

Oct 04. 2011

Press video by SoftKinetic: Bally Total Fitness 3D Gesture Video Wall

Oct 05. 2011

Featured on TNW (The Next Web): Gesture-based video technology arrives at your local gym

Oct 05. 2011

Featured on CBC Creativity + Innovation: Gesture-based video technology arrives at your local gym

Oct 06. 2011

Featured on PSFK: INTERACTIVE MOTION-SENSITIVE VIDEO TECHNOLOGY COMING TO GYMS

Oct 06. 2011

Featured on Howie Chang: A seven-foot motion-actived interactive wall

Oct 07. 2011

Featured on Simply Zesty: Insane Gamification Technology Shows The Future Of Fitness

Nov 02. 2011

Featured on Turnleft: Interaktive Wand Unterstutzt Trainingsprogramms

———-

It is true, today begins the first day of my temporary retirement. For anyone who has not heard the story, and is still curious; I will be taking some time off to focus on some personal projects, get insanely bored, and then eventually start mingling back in the industry looking for some exciting and rewarding work to help on.

Manifest gave me the skills I needed to be able to leave Manifest, to be able to leave all agencies for that matter, and I couldn’t be more grateful.

The past (almost) 3 years at Manifest have been some of the least predictable, most rewarding years I have had at a job. I have seen the ebs and flows run through the company, at times taking great talent and close friends with it. Despite the lower points Manifest has always had this underlying energy and purpose that just seemed undeniable, unavoidable, and extremely rare. It isn’t often that you can find a collective of employees and leadership whose general goal seems to be purpose over prosperity.

So here is to hoping we all cross paths again. Well everyone except Casey Roberts. I never want to work with that guy again.

Feel free to keep in touch even if you think you are that person I ‘might not remember’. You can always find my latest contact info on my internet websites homepage: http://www.visualadvance.com/

I will leave you with a comic strip that most likely sums up my future:

In this latest iteration of the map I was tasked with integrating “child food insecurity” into the map. This allowed people to switch between seeing overall food insecurity, to just seeing how many children were food insecure. Once I plugged in the new data it was interesting to see how dark the map got (far more food insecure). I had to ask our project manager if the data was correct, or if I had hooked up the wrong data to it.

There is an interesting writeup about the project on the Manifest Digital Blog. Read about it here:
Interactive Map Helps Users Imagine Solutions to Hunger

Or check out the actual map here:
Feeding America – Map the Meal Gap

I had actually almost talked myself out of getting one thinking “oh my Macbook Pro MUST be faster”, until I read a couple articles and started comparing the stats of my Macbook Pro 7,1 to the newest Macbook Air 4,2 stats. Of course stats can show you many different types of things and there is no doubt that the newer Macbook Pros allow you to upgrade far beyond the power of the Air’s. Either way, this was just enough for me to take the plunge.

Of course most designers favorite thing to do with a new shiny device is to accessorize. I added a SGP Wrist Rest, and then created my own Daft Punk Gelaskin design which I could not be happier with.

Throughout those years the company has gone through much growth, including the acquisition of Kerosene Creative, leadership changes, and an ever changing landscape of web technologies. The brand got many praises and jeers along the way. The choice of a Flash-based site did as well, which in my opinion is justified, but is only a part of the story.

The original intent of the site was to also have an html-based version of the site which would literally work as the data feed for Flash to read its content. This was always such an exciting concept because it removes Flash from the ‘this vs that’ arguments, and it puts it on a layer, literally above, all the other technologies. Not above in a pretentious way, but above in that it is, and should almost always be, used as a layer on top of a solid html structure, and hopefully a CMS. I am not a Flash evangelist; I am an evangelist for whichever technology can make the most impact (and is the most fun for me personally), and at the current moment in time I still can not be convinced that even the best HTML5 site can compare to the capabilities of a well developed site using Flash technologies (speaking strictly to the interactive aesthetics of the technologies).

Maybe with some more advances in WebGL, and classes to make animation easier and more fluid in HTML, things may change, and I am open to changing my opinion as soon as they do.

As with most internal projects, as soon as something is done enough, it is easy to move onto other projects and billable work. So unfortunately this HTML backbone was never created, putting more pressure on the site as devices like iPhones, iPads, and technologies like HTML5 became heated debate topics.

This, combined with some shifts in our identity and goals over the past couple years, have pushed the company to a point where it was time for a new brand, and website to follow. I was approached to see if I had interest in being a part of the rebrand/rebuild, but chose to stay out of it this time around for a couple reasons; lack of availability, and I felt like it was time to let other people have the chance. I was looking forward to being a spectator and watching what could come out of a (mostly) new group of creatives to the company.

Without further ado (i.e. rambling), here is the latest version of Manifest Digital

So far all of these are templates, but I am looking forward to the point where I feel I can create my own custom models. More to come.

Jeff Leitner of The Insight Labs asked a number of artists to do a piece based on a topic for an upcoming Insight Lab. My topic was NASA and its budget constraints so I chose to create a piece that illustrated all of the federal budgets for NASA since its formation.

Each planet is generated with code to represent NASA’s budget as a percent of the total Federal budget, with the earth representing the scale of the total federal budget. The colors are programmatically sampled, pixel by pixel, from an important NASA related symbol of that year. For example a shuttle patch from a launch that year, or a Time magazine featuring NASA on the cover.

I ended up creating two versions. One of them is more of a movie poster to give people context, and the other serves as more of an art piece for people to investigate.

To view more about this Insight Lab go to Insight Labs: Reclaiming Public Fascination

Filmed with a Canon T2i, stock Canon EFS 18-55mm and Canon EFS 10-22mm lenses.

Performed by Wenner Exius (http://wennerexius.com)
Directed by Danny Davis (http://visualadvance.com)
Written by Eden Ahbez
Arranged & Accompanied by Mike O’Mara (http://linkedin.com/in/mikeomaramusic)
Choreography by Reymond Pingul
Production Assistance by Cristina De La Fuente (http://linkedin.com/​in/​cdelafuente)
Post Production by Visual Advance (http://visualadvance.com)

Special thanks to Dance Center Chicago, Studiomedia Recording, and Dan Salazar.

My friend and talented designer Nolan Seaton and I just finished up our latest collaboration for Cambridge Nanny Group. The client challenged us with the need for a redesign and redevelopment of thier current site and brand. We were able to provide them with a playful new logo and a design that balances child-like playful colors with the high level of professional childcare that Cambridge Nanny Group provides.

Also a special thanks to the amazing designer and illustrator Matt Pennetti for the whimsical illustrations on the “Our Story” page.

The site is driven with a WordPress backend that I wrote some custom plugins to allow the client to use Custom Post Types to change just about every part of the site they wanted.

Project Link: Cambridge Nanny Group