Archive for the ‘All Things Design’ category

Yesterday’s little letter from Steve Jobs where he confessed his hatred towards flash (like we didn’t already know that) was a bit of a blow to my confidence in the future of flash (at least at the chance of seeing it on the iPhone and iPad). The most troubling part will be a large amount of consumers will read it and believe “hook line and sinker” every word Steve wrote, and I’m not saying he was wrong or incorrect on everything he said (he pointed out some valid points), but flash is a hugh part of the inter web and yes there are new standards and methods to author creative content that are open source, but as some one who is neck deep in the industry there are some things better done with flash. Which brings me to the real purpose of my post today.

I found this site today and it made me smile. I didn’t really dig too deep into the content, but if you pop over you’ll see what I mean. Salt Films.

I apologize for what seems to be the only thing I blog or talk about lately (ActiveDen), but Susan can attest that it’s all I talk about in person too. It’s pretty consuming. I keep telling her, “baby when Activeden goes platinum…” and then it’s usually followed with some lofty dream of traveling the world, living abroad for months at a time, remodeling the house, buying a car, starting another adoption…

So far it’s been mildly successful. Each month is better than the last with a few exceptions and I’m constantly working on new ideas and projects to add to the portfolio. One day I’d love to see it over take my current salary.

Today though was a pretty good “feel good” moment. As you can see from the image above I received a comment on one of my files giving thanks and praise. This happens from time to time, but since I’ll never win any FWAs or CA awards for my stock work hearing from a real customer is pretty nice.

I don’t know what it is but I love headphones and these are the latest I have my eyes on. Maybe it has to do with the fact that at work sometimes headphones are the only way to gain a little solitude working from my 5 foot cubicle. And it’s not like I don’t have fantastic headphones already that I LOVE, but the thought of this pair makes me weak in the knees (I mean sheep leather ear cups), and it’s not like I’ve bought oodles of headphones in my life. Maybe 2 or 3 pairs in 10 years.

From the reviews the P5′s sound as good as they look. I know they’re such a luxury item, but they are now on my list wish along with a whole lot of other gadgety.

I read this article over at the New York Times this morning about how Google’s asking illustrators to create custom skins for their new “Chrome” web browser, and after all the artist’s hard work Google’s going to give them a big pat on the back as compensation. For a company that profited $1.42 billion in the first quarter of this year I think they could afford paying the artist. I’ve heard that Google’s a company that doesn’t value design and this just confirms it. The article quotes one of the Artist who was invited to participate:

“I have done gift cards for Target that are in stores nationwide and animations for Nickelodeon that run 24 hours a day worldwide on cable TV,” Melinda Beck, an illustrator who is based in Brooklyn, wrote in an e-mail message to Google rejecting its offer. “Both of these jobs were high-profile and gave my work great exposure but both clients still paid me.”

Maybe it’s time to give bing a try.