Snow

i went back to the jerz for thanksgiving and saw my first snow of the year. yes, it's beautiful, but i still don't miss it. all that cold? no thanks. SF is plenty cold for me these days, and i am comfortable with the fact that i'm officially a wuss.

anyway, i digress. get in the spirit without being cold with a snowing desktop. it's simple, and it keeps me entertained at work. i like the random windstorms that have the flakes blowing sideways.

you can get the 10-day free trial here.

Thoughtpile

Sharing ideas. Not exactly a new idea, but I kind of like the interface on this. In their own words:

"Thoughtpile is an open invitation to share your best ideas with the world."

Basically, they come up with a topic, and you come up with answers. Then people can vote on them. You know, like Yahoo! Answers...but a lot prettier. Plus you get to win stuff if your answer gets the most votes at the end of the week (specifically a Herman Miller Embody chair. yes, this is a ploy to sell stuff).

So go ahead, jump into the Thoughtpile.

Jan Feliks Kallwejt

Here's a talented designer with some really interesting vector work. All sorts of new stuff up. Check out Jan Kallwejt.

Bubblewrap

No, this isn't new. But at this time of year I think we could all use a little stress relief. I know personally I've been going crazy trying to finish my masters degree on top of my new job. So as stupid as this site is, sometimes it's nice to stop thinking for a minute. Or five.

Swedish Dance Bands from the '70s

what's not to like? Dance it up!

Viewzi

I'm really not sure how I feel about all these new search engines that bring up results in "new" and "visual" ways. yes, i think they are beautiful. yes, i'm glad people are out there trying to make changes. but are they really going to catch on? I know I see one, say "oh! neat!" and then close the browser window on it for good. perhaps that really is just me and my jaded self.

In any case, here's a new one. It doesn't seem all that different to me than the last visual search engine I posted about. But why not give it a chance, right? check out Viewzi. It's even a little more personal: they have blogs (both typed and video). How 2.0.

Word of the Day

This is Dictionary.com's word of the day today. If someone understands this, please help me to.

••••

synecdoche \si-NEK-duh-kee\, noun:

a figure of speech by which a part is put for the whole or whole for a part or general for the special or vice versa

Help Josh Decide, Palin Is President

Oh the Interweb. How did people survive elections without all these videos, games and websites? I can't even count the YouTube videos that have hit my inbox and IM while at work. Most of them so funny, and so very sad. But there's much more than video footage of our candidates making the rounds. Some real time has gone into a bunch of sites dedicated to this year's rather important election.

I'll share two.

First, a site from a guy just trying to make sense of it all. Sway his vote, and get some good sense out there. Head to Help Josh Decide and tell him who he should be voting for, and why.





Once you've gotten your serious opinions out of the way, lighten the mood at Palin Is President. Rollover and click your way through the oval office as you imagine what it might be like.

DesignFlavr: Daily Design Inspiration

Hit a design rut? It's always nice to have a few (or more) sites to peruse when you're looking for inspiration. Head over to DesignFlavr for just that purpose. One thing that's nice about this site is its organization: you can browse in several different ways, including by topic (illustration, flash websites, etc), by color, and even by tags.

There's a lot to see there, so go get lost.

Texture King

mmmmm textures. I can't help it, I like me some (uh-hem) gritty, grungy backgrounds now and then. I think that's due in part by my roots as a scenic artist. Got a wall that needs paintin'? Let's throw some texture on that bad boy first. Anyway, I digress. The Texture King is a good resource for when you need a free, high res image. They've got over three hundred at this point, plus they're organized nicely so it's easy to find what you're looking for.

YouWorkForThem

YouWorkForThem is all shiny, new and updated. You should go check it out. Don't forget they have a freebies section, too, if you like that sort of thing.

FAILblog

Seriously? I can't stop looking at this site. The other night I found myself at home alone in the wee hours, laughing hysterically. If they didn't already, my neighbors officially think I'm nuts.

One or two example pictures can't do FAILblog justice. It's the combination of images, type treatment/placement and entry titles that make my coworkers huddle around my desk. No, not every entry is amazing. But the good ones are enough to keep you coming back for more.

windshield wiper fail:

















baby fail:














toy fail:

Schtock.com

How many times have we looked through a stock site and wondered why the hell there isn't better stuff available? Well, actually, there is, we just don't know about it because we're not looking in the right places or plugging in the right search terms. How are we to know?

There are a few people out there that do know. They are, of course, the ones who work at the stock houses. One such person has started a blog to display some of the fine stock that's out there, in an unexpected way. From the "about" section:

I work at a major stock photo company cataloging images. The majority of the stuff I work with will never see the light of day for no other reason than that most people don't know it's available to them. It's a shame which I'm trying to remedy with this site. As an amateur designer, I occasionally can't help but play around with the images I see floating across my desk on a daily basis. This site contains the results."

Have a look at some Schtock.

Panos 2013: Fake Streetsigns

A friend just passed this one on, and I'm loving it. The first edition happened in 2004, and it's coming back around for our viewing pleasure in 2013. The project: taking different artists' work from around the world and creating fake street signs in Lyon, France, in effect creating a huge "gallery without walls."

The round red and white signs look enough like real European traffic signs that you might take them for granted, but weird enough if you notice them to make you stop and think. This project has a delightful sense of humor, lots playful absurdity and a wonderful scale.

Take a look at the 2004 gallery.

Coke Zero Zero 7

Is Coca-Cola Bond's new drink of choice? I doubt it. But the limited edition packaging for Coke Zero that's promoting the new Bond flick is pretty rad. The new (temporary) name: Coke Zero Zero Seven. The new look: the gun barrel wrapped on the bottle. Not bad, guys.

Oreo's Elevator Dunk

Oreo. The cookie that is most known for its dunkability, right?

Jonathan Saunders

Here's a personal site that caught my attention. Well, really just the homepage—I think there's more that he could have done with the navigation and design of individual project pages. However, I really liked his look/feel on the index page. Take a look!

return to cube life

i've been taking a break from the blog as of late, but as i step into my new position at a new agency i will also get back into the world of the interweb. i've been spending a lot of time outdoors and my keyboard calluses faded, but soon it shall be my tan that disappears. sigh.

in any case, i'm back in action. i know you've missed me dearly. hah.

AirBed & Breakfast

So, you're going on a weekend getaway and you don't know where you're staying. You could A) stay on a friend's couch, but you have to take them out to dinner (or do something nice), B) pay for an expensive (yet comfortable) hotel, or C) book a stranger's couch for real cheap.

What?

That's right, now you can pay to stay with a stranger in a strange city. Simply head to AirBed & Breakfast, plug in the city and dates you need a room for, and get a Google mash-up with different faces and prices of who you could stay with. Prices are set by the users, so they range, but most of them are about 15-75 bucks a night.

I know you're all rushing to sign up your very own couch.

Mint

It's "refreshing money management." Cute. But cuteness aside, Mint is seriously helping me get my finances in order. It's seriously easy to use, it's free, and it helps you stay on top of your budgets. I spent about 5 minutes plotting in a couple different screen names and passwords yesterday, and all of a sudden my financial life was in front of me. Since I was at work I didn't have all my account numbers in front of me, so i'll be getting to those this weekend, but let me tell you: I am completely impressed by how easy this program is to use. Plus I'm a sucker for statistics, and Mint is full of useful analytics. You can also set email and mobile alerts for when you're exceeding your personal budgets, have a low balance, need to pay a bill, etc.

The only downside: you're reminded you're spending way too much on wine.

Blue Whale

Ever want to look a life-size blue whale? no? well, you can anyway! just go here.

Flickr Blow Up

When developers get bored at work, we get some cool new applications. Blow Up is just such an example. It's a Flickr viewing tool to help you browse through albums a lot quicker, and maybe even in a more aesthetically pleasing manner. I haven't played with it that much, so I'm not necessarily endorsing it quite yet. But I'm down to give it a go. How about you?

Internet Memes

Remember that YouTube video that was going around three years ago? Me neither. Until I saw this website. Have a look around, and have a walk down interweb lane.






I can't believe I forgot about Hatt-baby.

Daily Color Scheme

Here’s a new tool to create color combos that won’t make your client cringe. Daily Color Scheme offers up new schemes each day, and a really thorough package of downloading options. The hex, rgb and hsb codes are featured on each swatch and are copied with a single click of you don’t want to download them. I love it when tools are simple to use.

Animatorio

Today is apparently inspiration day. If you're looking for some nice animation and motion graphics, have a gander at Animatorio, a rather new company based in Brazil. I also like their site design, so hell, just go look around in general.

1-UP

Just a random personal website I stumbled upon. Some nice work by Joakim Jansson.

The Process

LaunchBar - If Quick Isn't Fast Enough

I love efficiency. And keyboard shortcuts fall right into that "holy crap she's a dork, and efficient!" category. That's why I just downloaded LaunchBar. It's a productivity utility that lets you navigate pretty much anything on your computer with a few keystrokes. You get instant access to your applications, documents, contacts, bookmarks, iTunes, search engines and even a calculator. All you have to do is know what short abbreviations to type in.

I'm still working on them.

Font Conference

See more funny videos and funny pictures at CollegeHumor.

Mentos Kiss Cam

as our computers get cooler, so can our advertising. here's a great example of taking technology to the next level...in a rather amusing way, might i add. Mentos created a site called the Mentos Kiss Cam where you get to make out with a bathing suit-clad hot chick. score! it uses your webcam: when you get near it, so does she, and the two of you can go at it via your monitor. sure makes me want to go on a tropical vacation.

Spoon Graphics

I just came across another great graphic design blog called Spoon Graphics. Written by Chris Spooner, he updates with Illustrator and Photoshop tutorials, free vectors, and all sorts of graphic design tidbits. A new one I'll be checking in on.

Smirt MiniJet

Always on the lookout for some great sites, this one was passed on to me this morning. (thanks!) At first glance, the Smirt MiniJet website is really quite pretty. I love the color scheme and the user interface. It looks more like some millennial's graphic design portfolio than a product website. And then I watched the videos! So wonderfully random, complete with cowboys, a french host, and singing poodles. All of which make me want to buy the freaking torch.

Creative Urge and the 29 Day Giving Challenge

This post is a little out of the ordinary for this blog, but it's still relevant.

I recently reconnected with a friend and she shared her new work with me. I have to say, I'm really rather inspired. Her name is Cami Walker, and she's created her own business called Creative Urge where she uses her mastery of strategy to help you make your dream career a reality. In her own words:

Creative Urge is a business endeavor or creative project that begs to be manifested into reality. It's the change in career you've been yearning to make. Or that new business idea you know will set you free – if you could just launch it. It's that book you've been dreaming of publishing or that artwork you want to see hanging in someone else's house.

I can help you bring your Creative Urge to fruition so it exists in the real world – not just in your head.

That's great in its own right, but what really inspired me was her 29 Day Giving Challenge. Perhaps it sounds a little cheesy at first, but after watching Daryn Kagan's story on it, I began to appreciate it more and more.

So how is this relevant, you ask? This project has become a worldwide movement online. She's managed to create something huge out of a simple social site. Something us interactive AD's can look up to. And if we can't make it happen, we could always get her advice on our next career move.

Mixwit

This weekend I went to the Download Music Festival. Honestly, it was slightly underwhelming as far as the music and tech gadgets were concerned (too bad that was the point of the fest!), but the company was fabulous and the people watching great. Anyway, what's my point? I heard one band play that made up for the rest of the average, generic rock-like sounds that permeated the venue. And as we speak I'm using a great application for creating new playlists and sharing them with your friends: Mixwit.

This site uses Seeqpod and SkreemR to find streaming mp3's online and lets you create, save, and share playlists, No Purchase Necessary. They do have links to buy the mp3's on amazon, should you so desire. But amazon? Really? I wish it were iTunes. Eh. One fun perk is that you get to put your lists on customizable old school cassette tapes.





















By the way, the band is Cut///Copy.

Gubb

I've actually been using this website for a long time now. At least a year. And I love it! Some people that know me know I love lists. I usually have a few going at a time: to do today, songs to buy, places to go, restaurants I want to try, bars to check out, gifts I want to get for people....no really, I keep lists like these. My memory is so bad that I sometimes I even forget important things, so i gotta keep lists.

Anyway, there's one website that helps with this: Gubb. It's all about lists. I can have as many as I want and can customize them accordingly. I can cross things off or just have them disappear all together. I can email or text myself (and my friends!) my lists. I can change colors, assign due dates, retrieve and add things by text, archive completed items, and rearrange lists on the page. There are mobile versions of the browsers for my PDA (ok, maybe i just like thinking about my iPhone). Then you an print your lists because sometimes you just want it old school.

Special

Sometimes I am truly amused by social applications. I was just roaming around on a Facebook app called Red Bull Roshambull (rock paper scissors, from our energized friends at Red Bull) and it had a little status update on me. Nothing I had any control over, just a little note on how I'd been playing lately. As it happens, I haven't been playing at all. And whoever wrote these little things has a pretty dry sense of humor.




thanks, guys.

iPhone Apps

ok. i did it. i ordered my iPhone. eee! but as i wait the excruciating 7-10 day period i get to look at all the cool (and not) apps out there, awaiting my downloading pleasure. oh, i am a dork after all.

Loopt is an interesting one. It's a stalker-esque (although they like the term 'social compass') application that lets you track all your friends' past and present locations. personally, it makes me feel a little too followed. but i can see how it might come in handy now and then (example: late and stumbly weekend nights in the Mission. where ARE you?!)








Where is another location-based app that lets you explore what's around you. You can find nearby restaurants, coffee shops, gas stations, etc, and then share them with friends. could be kind of neat, although i'm not sure how often i'd actually use it.









Laptop Mag also came up with a nice Favorites List, which includes some free ones. I'm intrigued by the Google Mobile app, since I, too, wonder just how different it would be from using the browser.

But oh, the App Store. 550 cheap/free apps for our time-wasting and time-management pleasure. And it's integrated into your (my!) iPhone so it's fast and idiot-proof to download and install these tasty software morsels. mmm. I've been perusing them via iTunes and come across some seriously rad ones.

A few interesting ones:

Etch-A-Scetch. really! shake the iPhone and it erases your drawing.

Super MonkeyBall. well, there are actually a lot of games out there that use the accelerometer (tilt axis). this one just looks particularly ridiculous. and, you know, kinda fun.

Shazam. you know when you hear one of those pop songs that got stuck in your head at some club last week? well, catch it when it's playing, hold your iPhone up to it, and Shazam identifies the song, band, and album (and yes, a link to buy it on iTunes).


















oh man. i'm never gonna get anything done. ever again. either that or i'm going to become a super-productive friend-stalker. ack!

Mickey D's Hatching Egg

Lately, I have to say, i've been less than whelmed by McDonald's advertising. The print i've seen has felt kind of uninspired, although there have been a few gems here and there. This, however, is rather fun. And who doesn't like giant spectacles?

Leo Burnett Chicago created this huge live action billboard across from Wrigley field last week. Advertising the availability of fresh eggs served from 6 - 10:30am, a giant egg raised high in the air hatches between those times. Once it's open the yolk reads "Fresh Eggs Daily". Then, when breakfast is over the egg closes back up again and remains whole until the next morning.

So Gay

no really, it's legit. or at least it was for one hot second. then they realized "so gay" was a slur and they backed out. it only cost 'em 5 grand to figure that one out.

Lost/Taken

need a texture? want it to be free? check out Lost/Taken. this is a designer-for-designer site with super hi-res, copyright-free photography. three cheers!

SearchMe

a whole new way to search? well, not really. but it's prettier, that's for sure. SearchMe is a visual search engine that looks like it was designed by Apple, and search results are displayed as "stacks" of web page images you scroll through like album art.


and no, my website was not found. never fear, i submitted it.