This is a couple of weeks old now but still exciting and fun news that you will be able to run a virtual analogue synth and drum machine on your DS. Would be nice if it could sync to other users in your vicinity for orchestral action. Check it
This $120 home-made robot drives up to objects, drums on them and then records the sounds. Have a look at the videos after the jump
Kuler, the colour sampling tool from Adobe has had a update recently and now allows you to upload an image and create a colour theme from that image. Pretty cool stuff.
Nice interface too.
A view from our meeting room this morning... check the car underneath!
We've just finished work on phase 1 of Visual an online art gallery for business. You can read more about the project in our portfolio. Alternatively, visit Visual and see some of the great artwork for sale.
This time a snazzy Pool Table. A definitive set of rules now needs to be established...
Yipeeeeee!!
Whilst over in Austin the hotel we stayed in had a cool waffle maker which made waffles in the shape of Texas. They tasted great!
Cut to the chase — SXSWi really blew me away. I cannot recommend the event enough. I only managed to attend 2 days, by the time I had to leave on the Monday I was seriously gutted; a glance through the program for the final 2 days revealed dozens of very interesting talks and events. Fortunately, many of the events are available to download as podcasts from the SXSW site. Wish I could have caught this — at my new favourite Texan billiard hall.
And that really gives you an idea of how great SWXWi really is. It is the most exciting and comprehensive event I've personally attended. What impressed me highly, was the sheer diversity of the schedule and quality of content. A previous conference I attended last year kept referring to web design from 2001 as being ‘back in the day’ and the term Web 3.0 was dropped on several occassions. Yawn.
SXSWi wasn't like that at all — it was refreshing to attend an event with such an open attitude from both the speakers and the audience. Not once did I feel it was trying to be too cool for school, or self referring.
So I've come away from SXSWi utterly inspired and excited at the future for digital media and for the future of TAK!
I'd like to notably thank the SXSWM team who I went over with. Everyone was really friendly and let each other do their own thing whilst at the same time re-group and share experiences and thoughts. Digital Central and Stef Lewandowski who organised the trip should be commended for their enthusiasm and commitment to getting 7 differently skilled individuals together to document their findings. I'd like to thank Stef in particular as he had the foresight to create the SXSWM central reserve for us to use during our time at SXSWi which proved invaluable whilst over there. Really great stuff.
Each of us will certainly bring back something unique from SXSWi and this will ultimately raise our own and Birmingham's offering.
The last talk I attended was hosted by Peter Kirn and Joy Mountford entitled Data As Art. This talk would prove to be the most inspirational talk out of my time at SXSWi.
I'm a big fan of Edward Tufte and simplifying data through graphics and visual art. I'm also really into generative art and using Maths to create visual graphics. This talk showcased some of the best in the field.
On a simple level representing data visually not only makes something which is impossible to understand into something very easy to understand. See this video clip to view the flight paths of aircraft over the United States over a 24 hour period. Millions of numbers through visual interpretation becomes easy to realise and understand. (Lets put it this way, I was shitting my flight home after seeing this!!)
To see some of the videos from the talk, click the image above or here.
After Joy demonstrated several experiments that she had worked on at the Yahoo Research Labs, Peter took over and gave a basic intro to Processing — a program used by many to visualise data.
He also demonstrated creating audio with Processing with a small application which converted his spam emails into music. He joked how laptop musicians are often referred to as 'checking their emails' whilst performing live. So he decided to make music whilst checking his emails. Nice.
Perhaps the best way to further explain what this whole scene is about is to check out some of the key people in the field right now. These are...
It's really hard to put into words what I experienced during this talk but I came away completely inspired. So much so, that I am considering a learning Processing and setting up a website (with
Expression Engine) to document my experiences and experiments. I've dabbled with
Max/MSP before but Processing results seem to be more visual and is the syntax seems similar to Actionscript but way more powerful. Apparently the community is very supportive and there are some excellent forums helping newcomers like me to learn the ropes.
Definitely the most inspiring talk of SXSWi.
Feeling quite inspired after the Logo discussion I headed over to a 15 minute book reading by Thom Singer about networking at conferences called,
Some Assembly Required.
I'm crap at networking, I'm the kind of person who absorbs stuff in so I thought attending this session would give me a few angles on how to get out there at these conferences and not to hang out at the back.
The talk was pretty short — just 15 minutes — but crammed full with useful information. The best piece of advice (and it's common sense when you think about it — isn't everthing?) is to simply say hello and take it from there. Thom retold the story about how, the day before, he met a chap who was setting up a focussed social networking start up. He met him simply because the man’s name tag said he was from New York. There had been huge delays in getting down to Austin from New York and so that provided the seed to start the conversation. He finished the whirlwind talk explaining how his daughter had a rare skull disease which was pretty much incurable. Through his network of friends he found himself with the opportunity to speak to a brain surgeon who had developed a new technique which would cure the problem — the only man in the world. It was a poignant moment to finish on and really hit home how a simple “Hello” could change everything.
As he left I decided to put his words into practice and turned to the chap sat next to me. Turned out he was the same man from New York who the speaker had spoken to the day before. We got chatting and he explained his start up project
Get Naked. Going against the grain of Facebook and MySpace where bigger is better, his project was to keep the stuff you want to share with your friends to yourself. It wasn't about having ‘friends’ with those you barely know, It was about sharing and communicating with your closest friends. I liked that — I really dislike the whole “how many friends have you got?” mentality. It was a good chat, I gave him our TAK! promo pack and he gave me his business card. Thom Singer said, one of the most important things to remember when networking is to follow up the meeting afterwards, which I intend to do.
I was on a roll after that and instantly got into the networking mode and shared a beer with Nicholas, a producer of the
Austin American-Statesman before heading over to the Adobe Lounge to see if I could find Sara Forsberg. Sara works for
Adobe and recently asked us if we would be featured in their
Design Center project. Unfortunately, she wasn't at SXSWi but I did end up having a good long talk with other key Adobe staff and again swapped contact details.
This networking thing is easy!
Personally, I don't use Facebook so wasn't too bothered about attending the keynote interview with Mark Zuckerberg. I find the whole Facebook concept a waste of time and a self agreed exploitation of privacy in the quest to get the most friends and to broadcast to the faceless Facebook herd. Slightly off topic but people complain about ID cards yet they happily share their most private details on a site which is rumoured to have ties with the CIA and can target and sell advertising based on users very specific data.
As it turned out, the Q&A with Sara Lacy was a bit of a circus, so I missed out on the hot gossip of SXSWi. If you're wondering what I'm referring too then simply check the link and see what all the fuss is about and watch the video linked above. From what I can gather, she was at times taking centre stage and the audience started to turn on her. Fair enough but from what I can tell, Zuckerberg wasn't the most forthcoming of interviewees and so naturally she became the personality. What do I care though, I wasn't there. Instead, I went to a debate entitled “Logos: Why They're Irrelevant and Can Actually Hurt Your Business” a debate which also became a hot potato.
The general premise of the talk was that the role of the Logo / Logotype brandmark has had it's day. No longer can the Logo carry a company along and you hear very little of the classic 'corporate redesign' jobs which were so common up until a few years ago. The big question was, has the Logo lost it's value in favor of other things like services, navigation and the url?
They stated the Logo's importance in comparison to well designed services, communication, content and usability isn't really that important at all. They questioned whether a good name and url was more important than a good logo mark. The panel raised the question if Logos of the past represented a good sign of trust, then in today's digital climate, is the URL taking that role? After all, many visitors arrive at sites via search engines — a logo free, URL rich process.
Apparently, on average your website will receive 1 new visitor per month for 1.5 seconds. What can you do to make them stay? My opinion then (and now) is that the Logo and site look and feel has a massive influence on that moment. The audience thought this too and the audience began to grill the panel. The panel argued that elements like descriptive navigation are just as important, and I agree completely. Navigation should instantly communicate what is on offer and can really explain a site fast whilst supporting a visual language. I think Zoppa is a great example of everything done right within that first 1.5 seconds.
However, I believe the Logo has an important place in today's service driven digital world and still represents a mark of trust and recognition. For example, in today's online mash-up environments where content merges into a giant data soup. Logo's confirming the content source can at a glance represent source credibility. Many mash-up sites don't offer this simple feature.
The panel and I also agreed that too often clients can get hung up on the Logo at an early stage in the development process when maybe their focus should be on knowing exactly what it is their product's services are. I've met many clients who don't really know what their site should say & do, but they know they want their logo rendered in blue. Perhaps the Logo should develop naturally alongside a website build. Services and content could then help define and shape the Logo rather than the other way round. I will try this approach in the future.
The panel then proceeded to show the infamous Web 2.0 Logo Chart. In my opinion it's a disposable logo graveyard with so many forgettable marks. The panel agreed and asked why couldn't the logotypes in this chart be just simply 12pt Arial. This disregard of the Logo caused quite a stir and personally, as much as I dislike most of the logos in that chart I understand they exist to at the very least resonate with a potential audience. My point here is, if a group of products delivered the same service in the same way, what would then influence the users choice? The logo will always be relevant.
As the talk gathered motion I began to reflect on a project close to my heart, StickerNation. I began to think how StickerNation demonstrated with it's vast image archive how important it is for people to express themselves and bond with an identity. The site featured thousands of personal brand marks created for no other reason than to simply achieve a point of recognition and respect.
Overall it was an interesting talk and myself, the audience and the panel agreed and dis-agreed with many points. Coming away, my conclusion is that brand values and services can't be solved within a single logo. The Logo is be a symbol recognition and a device to help support and resonate with the services on offer. To disregard the Logo completely would be to commit brand suicide.
I'm glad I missed that Facebook Q&A even if I did feel a bit out of the loop on all the gossip in all the bars that night.
I heard about the death of poloroid when it was announced on February 8th, since then I've been trying to work out whether I should be stocking up on film or shouting at Polaroid Corporation.
Luckily, SavePolaroid have come to the rescue with some tips on how we can go about trying to save Polaroid in a constructive way and until then we can just stock up on film.
Goto SavePolaroid and join the revolution. There's still life in it yet!
Via PhotoJojo. Picture courtesy speechlessson.