As a designer and web person, I get asked to help people with there websites a lot. About three months back I discovered a service called flavors.me. This is now THE service I send people looking for a dead simple and pretty website.
Flavors.me from Jack Zerby on Vimeo.
In 1984 “Dr. Egon Spengler” from the Ghostbusers may have been the first intellectual mind (despite being fictional) to declare, “Print is dead“. Now 25 years later, we are seeing the once far-fetched statement come to fruition. This week Time, Inc. announced they would be moving into the digital publication space with the “Manhattan Project”. A focused effort on digitizing its publications into interactive and media-rich portals tailored to tablet/touch PC’s. The design of the project has been lead by David Link at the Wonderfactory and has been executed in Adobe Air. I don’t think this is “it” or even close. But it is another step in the right direction. It will be VERY interesting to see the implications of this move on Time, Inc.’s business.
Read more about the “Manhattan Project” on TechCrunch »
A New Look for "Aol."
“Aol.” has contracted brand/logo wizard Wolf Olins to create a new brand and identity for the fading online behemoth. In Aol’s press release the change is described as follows:
Our new identity is uniquely dynamic. Our business is focused on creating world-class experiences for consumers and AOL is centered on creative and talented people – employees, partners, and advertisers. We have a clear strategy that we are passionate about and we plan on standing behind the AOL brand as we take the company into the next decade,”
- Tim Armstrong, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of AOL.
grooveshark.com
Every once in a blue moon I REALLY dig a web service. Grooveshark has quietly slipped in and replaced Pandora as my online music service of choice. Grooveshark does everything Pandora doesn’t. It allows you to listen to *almost any song, artist or album at any time. You can fast-forward, rewind and all the other things you can do with a desktop music client like iTunes or Windows Media Player. AND to keep things legit, the service provides links to let you download the music you discover on iTunes or Amazon.
Check it out: www.grooveshark.com
Jason Witt, SVP and GM of MTV Digital, gives some interesting insight on a recent study conducted by MTV on the effectiveness of advertising units in web video.
Clip via: beet.tv
In the virtual world, the line between design and code is fading. Sites like Vimeo and Daily Candy were early to adopt an illustrative and artistic approach to web design. This trend has resulted in a strong relationship between the fine art and new media communities. It brings hope to keeping the art of illustration alive as printed media takes a back seat to the web for delivery of news, entertainment and books.
Check out the illustration from Chad Pugh above which inspired his work for Vimeo
Cooliris
Those who are not familiar with Cooliris will most likely live full and fruitful lives… but for those who have discovered it, searching or browsing images on Google, flickr and many other sites is a MUCH more fluent and enjoyable task. The big news today (Finally!), Coolirisis is no longer restricted to full-screen use. It will be interesting to see what their next move will be. Flash version? Embeddable? Time will tell.
If you haven’t already, install it: Cooliris.com