Mike Solomon is a New York City based graphic designer, photographer, and musician who decided it was time to compose an entire song out of Mac OSX sound effects…
“As if all the sound effects of the Mac OSX interface weren’t annoying enough, I decided to take things a step too far. Enjoy!”
If you watched the Macworld 2008 Keynote, you know that Steve Jobs introduced the Macbook Air, Apple’s super-slim new laptop, by taking it out of a manilla envelope… to illustrate just how thin it really is.
Immediately after watching the keynote, Jona Bechtolt and Claire L. Evans came up with the idea for the perfect sleeve for the new device… the AirMail.
“The AirMail laptop sleeve is handmade out of durable upholstery-grade vinyl, and lined with fuzzy, soft fleece. All AirMail sleeves have the same dimensions as standard interoffice manila envelopes, which will serve to remind you — and everyone around you — that your new MacBook Air really is the thinnest laptop in the world!”
I personally think this is awesome. What began as a simple publicity stunt by Apple, turned into an idea for a clever new product by a couple of industrious quick-thinking people who were willing to run with it. Well done Jona and Clair!
The Airmail is available for pre-order for $29.95. The duo says it will be available by the time your new Macbook Air arrives.
A while back there was a lot of buzz about a documentary film called, Helvetica. As the name implies, it’s all about a font…
“We use it every day on our computers, we see it on street signs — and we take it for granted. Now, Gary Hustwit’s unique documentary introduces us to Helvetica, whose readability has made it the most popular font in the world. Interviews with designers and artists offer insight into the development, use and universal acceptance of Helvetica as the typeface of choice for everything from writing letters to creating corporate logos.”
I actually didn’t pay a tremendous amount of attention when it first came out. I missed it when it was in theaters. But, when the film became available on Netflix I thought I would give it a shot.
I’m really glad I did. It’s actually an excellent film. As a designer I probably have more interest than most, but I think even non-designers will find Helvetica interesting. I may have to buy this film.
“…And then the writers and designers, ashamed at rubbing shoulders with common humanity, discovered the 140-character Tweet and the Tumblr post. No stink of commerce, no business model, nothing that could even charitably be called content, and best of all, no effort. Peck, peck, send.
When you’ve flown that far from Gutenberg, the only place to travel is back…”
Whenever I start a new website, one of the first tasks to be done is to create a flowchart, often referred to as a sitemap. A flowchart (or sitemap) outlines the navigation through the entire site, so I know how many pages I’ll be building and what pages link to what other pages.
I’ve tried various tools over the years for building flowcharts. The one I’ve used the longest is, Inspiration. Although it’s not specifically tailored for web designers, it actually does a very good job, and is relatively inexpensive ($69).
One problem with using a tool like Inspiration, is none of my clients use it. The only way to review and revise my flowchart is to export a PDF, email it to my client, discuss it over the phone, and then make any revisions we come up with. It’s not uncommon for this process to go through several rounds before we get the final version. It can be very time consuming.
I recently came across an excellent alternative to this process. It’s called WriteMaps. WriteMaps is a free online sitemap creation and collaboration tool. It’s only been recently released as a 1.0 product, but it’s looking pretty sweet!
WriteMaps is extremely easy to use to quickly generate your sitemap. Once complete, you can send a link to your client allowing them to view and edit the sitemap, significantly cutting down the time it takes to hammer out the final version. As a bonus, once you finish building the actual site, you can export your WriteMaps sitemap as a Google sitemap (XML) file.
WriteMaps is the brain child of Boston-based graphic designer, Scott Jehl. Frustrated with the cost and/or limitations of other sitemap creation software, Scott decided to make his own. And, he’s nice enough to share it with all of us. Thanks Scott, you rock!
While WriteMaps is free, Scott does accept donations to cover hosting costs, etc… If you find it useful, consider slipping Scott a few bucks via the donations link on the site.
Today only (4.24.08) Evernote is opening up its private beta to anyone who wants to join. You need to use THIS LINK. Evernote is an awesome app for clipping content and organizing it on your desktop or on the web. It's worth checking out. [ via Web Worker Daily ]
Apple is offering a FREE 1/2 day seminar on using Final Cut Studio and Final Cut Server. The list of cities isn't long, but luckily there's one here in San Francisco on June 26th.
Woohoo! One of my favorite Apple Mail Plugins, Mail.Appetizer, has new betas out for Tiger and Leopard. I totally thought this software had gone bye-bye. I'm glad to see it's still being developed.
