technically speaking

A few weeks ago I got together with a few buddies to walk across the Ben Franklin Bridge and do some night photography around Philly.  Here are some of the Results:

The big problem with this months Refresh Philly was that I couldn’t be in 3 places at once.  That’s because rather then the usual meet on 45 for great views and two presenters, Refresh met in CIM City and broke up in to three groups.

The main act was Jonny Goldstein, a giant white board and a bunch of folks interested in learning visual note taking and how to better get their ideas out of their heads and onto paper (via drawing).  I didn’t catch much of this one though it was high on my list, from what I did see, one of the things to keep in mind is to keep it simple…as in simple shapes (squares, circles, etc.).  Don’t get caught up in drawing the right shape for say a cat, go simple and move on.  Add the polish later (FYI, that was me paraphrasing right there).  Every time I saw the group they looked either fully engaged in what Jonny was saying or they were busy drawing.

On one side of CIM City was K-Fitz and others that wanted to work together to create an application using data from Data.gov.  Kevin broke down the details of the contest and connected designers with developers so they could break into smaller groups and work out a plan.  Near the end I saw them regather to talk as one big group again. Wish I could tell you more but I was on the other side.

On the other side of CIM City was Livia talking about “Design Games.”  The name may be confusing but basically they are fun and effective methods used to help problem solving (often used in the design process).  I’m sure you may have heard of a few of these included free listing, reversal, role playing, and divide the dollar.  Livia provided a great pamphlet explaining each of the different techniques, you can visit DesignGames.com.au for similar details on each of the games.  She then led the group in trying some of them out.  We picked the game to try and some of their pros and cons became clear as we used them.  After each round Livia pointed out some of the real world nuances to be aware of ensuring better results.  I look forward to having an opportunity to put some of these to use while they’re still fresh.

Links:
Refresh Philly
Jonny Goldstein
Kevin Fitzpatrick
Livia Labate
Data.gov
DesignGames.com.au

Back in the day The Crystal Method, Chemical Brothers, Underworld, The Prodigy and others were the captins of cool.  Essential parts of MTV’s Alternative Nation’s life blood.  Known for both their innovative visuals as well as their hypnotic beats.  With their mixing of sources, styles and sounds everything felt new, electronic and energetic.  Times and tastes changed, as did their sound.  Well looks like 2009 may be come back time.

Earlier this year The Prodigy returned with some new tracks and a new album, Invaders Must Die.  The first single, Omen is an updated version of the classic Prodigy attitude and sound.  The title track continues that trend, if nothing else it may even have kicked it up a notch.  Thanks to the Internets you can rock some samples from ThePodigy.com

The Crystal Method have returned to dropped some new beats as well. Their first single Drown in the Now is a bit more or a departure from the TCM of yesteryear. Visually the video ups the cool quotient, though I need to take in a few more listens before casting an opinion on the new sound. Got to say it’s growing on me. In both cases they sound nothing like any of the other new tracks I’ve been listening to which is refreshing all its own.

Links:
ThePodigy.com
The Prodigy - Omen
The Prodigy - Invaders Must Die
The Crystal Method
The Crystal Method - Drown In the Now

Not sure how many people have seen this months The New Yorker magazine’s cover (shown on right).  What looks like a water color painting is really an illustration created on his iPhone.  The app is called Brushes along with a companion app that will provide an animation/video of the process.  The New Yorker’s blog offers more details and a video of the illustration being made using the companion app.

I never had a reason to go to Gatorade’s website before but the link was sent to me from a designer friend of mine (Neuarmy).  Once going there it was obvious as to why he shared it.  Sporting the new aesthetic of the Gatorade “G” the site takes it to another level of sophistication rather then pure simplification.  It’s an all Flash site boasting lots of black, simplified layouts, vibrant images and large video headers.  Navigation is through the use of large black and white silhouettes for both the products and the athletes.  Which acts as a great accent to a highlighted item and it’s inline videos.  While you may learn more then you ever needed to about Gatorade check out the site for a great sample of extending a brand’s aesthetic across media.

Another gem sent my way from Neuarmy is by Boone Oakley and their use of YouTube for their website.  Ok, so it sounds a bit like Skittles attempt to use Web 2.0 tools to stitch together a web experience…well this isn’t that.  It’s literally their website embedded in humorous and (a touch) twisted little videos.  Very innovative use of such a common medium and a great way for them to show off their conceptual/strategic muscle.  They also feature some great work from that last few years, I’m sure you’ll recognize a few.  Well worth checking out.

Links:
The New Yorker’s blog
Brushes iPhone App for painting
Gatorade
Boone Oakley
Skittles
Neuarmy

…would the realize how ridiculous the requests are?  Would it make a difference?

Great video switching the context of client requests in to the real world situations.

Via @StellarGirl

Once again Apple has paired up with the New York Times to create an ad users actually want to see.  This time it’s for a homepage integration/takeover featuring multiple ads all working in unison.  Similar to Apple’s TV ads, this site integration features John Hodgman (PC) and Justin Long (MAC) talking about their differences.  In this case John is commenting on the results of a Forrester Research poll, shown in the ad space above theirs, when two characters from yet another ad space join in on the conversation.  Before they start talking they seemed to fade into the pages background drawing little to no attention.  When the main ad is complete the two secondary ads fade to an unobtrusive white panel with a floating Apple logo.  Allowing those that keep the NY Times open all day (to see news updates) not to be barraged with Apple, Apple, Apple.

Though this isn’t the first time for Apple it’s still worthy of the viral attention is getting/has gotten.  It’s cleanly designed and executed.  Continues the sense of humor that has made these ads a hit for the last few years.  Makes great use of its environment.  It may only run a single day but I’m sure both parties make out as winners each time they meet.




Links:
Apple
New York Times
John Hodgman
Justin Long

Once again, May’s Refresh had 100+ people in attendance. This month we had “punch and pie,” but I doubt that was the reason for the numbers. Hoping they were there for this month’s speakers, Kellie Carter and Dave Cooksey spoke about user-centered design, it’s history and method.  Followed by Allen Frank, the CIO of Philadelphia, talking about Philly’s digital future.

Allen is on a mission to work out a plan for using the funds from Obama’s Broadband Stimulus Package to improve Philadelphia’s technical offerings. He started his talk by telling us about his background which suggests he “gets it.” Then covered some of the complexities that make up Philly’s technical challenges.

• Listed as number 27 of 30 most wired cities
• High percentage of low income households
• Only 37% have a high school diploma or equivalent
• Percent of college graduates even fewer
• Initial Wireless Philly project fell apart due to service partner failure

He also covered some of the goals:

• Increased citizen access to Internet and city services via the Internet
• Enhanced public safety
• Aid youth and education (Philly net)
• Connect patients/students to schools and hospitals
• Create more Jobs (versus jobs) via a tech based growth sector
• Add a WI-MAX network to expand public accessibility

The best part was that all these facts and figures were leading up to a request for our input. Not that I have the solution myself, but as a group the ideas were flowing. Some of that energy continued online at the Refresh Philly forums.  Even better, June’s Refresh is going to be a big brainstorming event.  Ideally putting to use some of the methods of rapid prototyping as explained by Todd Warfel of Message First, whom spoke at March’s Refresh event.

Links:
March Refresh
May Refresh
June Refresh
Refresh Philly forums
Todd Warfel

Honda created the worlds largest LED display from the headlights of their new hybrid car, the Insight. As if this wasn’t enough to catch your eye, they worked with Vimeo to integrate the video with the page it’s on.  See the full video on Vimeo or watch the embedded version below.

Links:
Honda Insight - Let It Shine
Making of Let It Shine

So with all the hype surrounding the Swine Flu, or now the more pork friendly H1N1, this isn’t the first time there has been a swine flu outbreak.  According to the Center for Disease Control (CDC) the 1918 Flu Pandemic was associated with the H1N1 strain of influenza, as well as an outbreak in the US in 1976.  This does not mean that the version of H1N1 that we have today will be as catastrophic as in 1918, but this may be the reason for the increased hype over something that is currently effecting such a small number of people.

During the 1976 outbreak US health officials strongly promoted the immunization programs and released these PSA’s, which feature a Hitchcockian style.

BTW: Eating pork does not pose a risk of infection.  So break out the bacon and enjoy some Pork, the other white meat™.

Every news channel is talking about the Swine Flu as if it’s already a pandemic.  In reality there are a few cases scattered about the globe, and somewhat randomly at that.  So out of the 7 Billion people there are say 1 hundred people that have been diagnosed.  That’s 1 person for every 70 million people (1/70,000,000), far from freak out territory. That’s not stopping the news services from hyping it to no end, as they did with Avian Flu last year and SARS a few years ago.  Both of which turned out to be nothing close to what was hyped.

Some may say this is all a conspiracy, to distract American’s short attention spans from the economy and other more important/challenging/demoralizing news stories.  Others may suggest this is simply a ruse to get people to watch more of the 24 news stations and up their ad revenues.  Less conspiritory would be that this is just filler content with all the stations trying to one-up the other.

On a more entertaining note, all this hype has provided The Daily Show and Colbert Report some great (non-political) fodder for their shows.  Stewart had multiple sketches regarding the hype.  He closed his coverage of the Flu after he deduced that since this flu strain is a mix of Swine, Avian and Human sources that it’s origins must have been from a guy F’ing a turkey club sandwich. Followed by an even lowerbrowed visual.  And with that I’m done.