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Mickey Goes Open Source
Walt Disney Animation Studios recently launched an open technology site where for the first time they are giving the general public access to some of the innovative technologies, talks and white papers developed in their studio. All of the information is based around advanced 3D animation with topics like Geodesic Curve-Based Mesh Fairing and Geometric Fracture Modeling in BOLT which may be too much for most people but I find interesting as a former 3D animator. It will be interesting to see if this new openness is going to extend to any other areas of their creative teams and process.
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typekit.com – finally real online typography?
Any and every digital designer has had to do the same dance with their clients for years. You have to either make the whole site in Flash or graphics to get the right type face and throw content SEO out the window or try to broker an understanding that on their Web site there are so very few fonts that they could actually use. CSS has been able to take some of the pain out of the process but it still isn’t as easy to implement and deploy the fonts as we wish it could be. Enter typekit.com as the first service I ‘ve seen that looks to try and solve this long standing problem by giving you access to a wide variety type foundries from around the world that they host and you access through CSS classes, IDs, or HTML tags. The service ranges from a free trial that limits you to a small type library where you can use just 2 fonts for one site up to $250 a year service that gives you access to their entire library for 40 sites. It is an intriguing and very appealing idea to be able to access and quickly deploy quality type face. I just found this today and so far have just had time to set up a trial account and browse through the font libraries which are well laid out. I am plan to spend the next few days testing in on my blog to see how it performs and will be abel soon with a verdict.
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Graph the fold with Google Labs Browser Tool
One of the incredibly talented front end developers I have the pleasure to work with sent me a heads up to an interesting tool from Google Labs I hadn’t seen before called Browser Size. It is an interesting new take on the ‘above the fold’ tools we have seen and used to check the initial visible area on common browsers. The tool lets you input a URL and the site in then pulled up under a colored graph that shows what percentage of your audience will be able to see your content can be seen without scrolling. Depending on the contrast of your site it is a good idea to adjust the opacity of the overlay so you can really see where the lines fall across your site. I ran a few different sites I have designed through it and the only problem I found was that it was built for left justified sites. With some tinkering you can get some idea of percentages of a center justified site but is isn’t the same. It is an interesting alternative to a programs I have used in the past like xScope and it would be great to have the next version move it into an application so it could be used with off line sites still in development or design comps since that is the stage where this type of information is the most critical.
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Periodic Table of Typefaces
As a type hound I thought this table of popular, influential and notorious type faces was pretty cool. You can get your own printed or digital copy here.
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sex drugs helvetica bold
So if you are in the market for a good typography / design based t-shirt and have already bought one of mine then I suggest you head over the Collapse Design because they have some great ones. My person favorite is the ’sex drugs helvetica bold’ shirt.
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the99percent.com – fewer ideas, more follow-through
I have been a fan of the work that Scott Belsky and Behance has been doing since I was asked to be part of the beta group that launched the site. Scott is always fascinating speaker who has a team that creates interesting content and tools for creatives as well as holding one of the two conferences I actually look forward to every year. They have just launched 99% and the99percent.com which serve as the research arm of Behance. The name comes from Thomas Edison’s quote that “Genius is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration” and they want to focus on what happens after inspiration and research the forces that truly push ideas to fruition. There is already some great content on the site like an interview with Ze Frank creator of one of the best podcasts ever – The Show with Ze Frank and the complete version of the Scott Thomas lecture from the 99% conference on designing the Obama campaign. It is worth checking out on a regular basis.
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New search tools – AppBoy & Addict-o-matic
I came across two interesting new web search portals today for mobile applications and traditional search I thought I would share to see what you think of them.
AppBoy
Appboy is a new online platform that was created with two purposes. FIrst it is a search engine or sorts that will help you weed through the thousands os applications to find the best iPhone, Android and Blackberry apps out there. You can also post application ideas that the community can vote on in order to get a develop to create it. I can’t find any real examples that this has actaully happened but if it does you get $250 which does really small given the potential upside and profit a great application could generate. I am curious to see if we will starting seeing more and more sites like this to help you get to the quality application out because when it is left to popularity we are left with fart generators and moron tests.
Addict-o-matic
Addict-o-matic starts out looking like your average search engine that happens to have a large Dyson-esque mascot. You plug in what you are searching for and the site returns the results in 19 separate content boxes that show you results from sources like Twitter, YouTube, Digg, Yahoo Web Search, Flickr and 13 more. You can dig into any one data source if you want to but I found it interesting to try different terms to see the data grouped and displayed in this new way because it gives you a different feel for the results.
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Advertising goes to the movies
With shows like Mad Men and Lie to Me the general public’s interesting in the advertising industry continues to grow and two new documentaries look to capitalize on that new found interest.
Lemonade
Lemonade is a documentary that takes a look at some of the 70,000 advertising professionals who have lost their jobs since the economy went south and what happens when these people are forced to be creative with their own lives.
Art & Copy
Art & Copy looks to me be to an interesting look at some of the most influential advertising and advertising creatives like George Lois, Mary Wells, Dan Wieden, Lee Clow, Hal Riney and others who were responsible for “Just Do It,” “I Love NY,” “Where’s the Beef?,” “Got Milk,” “Think Different,” and more iconic campaigns.
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GE Smart Grid goes web 4.0 with augmented reality
During the Superbowl GE launched their new ‘Plug into the smart grid’ campaign and also launched a supporting web site. The site is very well done with simple but very rich and detailed 3D animations to illustrate the content. But far and away the coolest part of the site is called ‘Augmented Reality’ where you print out a solar panel marker, hold it up in front of your web cam and it generates a digital 3D hologram you can manipulate my moving the paper around. I have seen technology like this in video games like Eye of Judgement for the PS3 which used card to spawn the digital holograms but this is the first time I have seen it in a branded form. I like it because it is a very cool technology but it is done with a purpose and it is done for a brand where it’s use makes sense. GE and this campaign are about innovation and imagination, here the use of this technology supports both of those brand attributes. If anyone has any links to other uses of this technology post them in the comments because I would be interested to see how it is done, who is doing it and if there are any better examples.
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Spy on the social media conversation
Everyone wants to create buzz and get their brand as part of the conversation going on in social media. What if you could listen in on what people are saying about your brand in real time? A new site simply called Spy will let you listen in on the social media conversations going on in Twitter, FriendFeed, Flickr, Blog Comments via BackType, Yahoo News, Blogs (RSS) via FriendFeed and Google Reader. You type a phrase or brand into the search field and then watch 10 to 100 comments as they animate down the page. It is a really interesting tool to play around with different phrases and brands to see what people are say and be able to monitor it in real time.
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