Last night, I was having a debate with one of my friends, James, on IDE themes. The trouble of it is, the NetBeans community doesn’t get too many themes shared and basically, James hates my current theme. So, naturally, I decided to semi-clone the one he uses from TextMate and bring it over. I’m trying it out right now and thought I would share with the world.
Archive for September, 2010
What Milton Glaser Has Learned
Design hasn’t really been around for along time, at least not in how we view design today. One of the godfather’s of this modern design world-view is Milton Glaser. You’ve seen his work regardless of whether or not you’ve realized it. He has some of the most seminal pieces of design and illustration in the U.S., and he designed possibly one of the most iconic and recognizable logos ever: I♥NY.
Working in such a young profession—not only design but web and interactive design—is sometimes a difficult thing. Thankfully, designers love to write and design so there are plenty of books about design to be found about hundreds of topics, since they just write and design them themselves. The lack we have currently (in my opinion) in the profession of design is wisdom gained from a lifetime of being a professional. There are some amazing and brilliantly creative designers in the world, but there is nothing that can replace the knowledge gained doing something for a long time. Milton Glaser has been designing for a long time and has an encyclopedia of design knowledge and practice.
In 2001 at an AIGA talk in London and later in 2002 at the AIGA National Design Conference, Milton Glaser shared 10 things he has learned as a designer:
- You can only work for people that you like.
- If you have a choice never have a job.
- Some people are toxic: avoid them.
- Professionalism is not enough, or, the good is the enemy of the great.
- Less is not necessarily more.
- Style is not to be trusted.
- How you live changes your brain.
- Doubt is better than certainty.
- Solving the problem is more important than being right.
- Tell the truth.
While I disagree with some of the points in regard to daily life, his 50 years of design wisdom shows how relevant these 10 points are to the design industry. His essay, “Ten Things I Have Learned” is a fantastic read, and for a more intense read I suggest reading through his full AIGA speech “This is what I have learned.”
PRPL Discovers Human Cloning
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
September 14, 2010 — Purple, Rock, Scissors, an Orlando-based digital agency, has discovered how to clone their employees and is currently making an army of developers. According to Rob Zienert, PRPL’s Lead Developer, “It’s a really exciting time here having stumbled upon human cloning without investing in stem cell research.” (more…)
Mama’s Sauce: Letterpress Printing
This is a great video of Nick Sambrato from a print shop here Orlando called Mama’s Sauce. He owns a 2,000 pound Kluge letterpress. He’s keeping the age-old, time-tested art of letterpress printing alive. A tangible quality put onto your intangible creative content. A bite in the paper, a three-dimensional element to a two-dimensional idea. I’ve worked with Nick on several projects and he’s pretty fantastic.
Having started as a print and brand designer, I have a strong love for the printed object. There is something fantastic about an object you actually hold in your hand: a business card, a magazine, a book, I love them all. In this age of digital we live in, it’s still nice to see tangible objects. One isn’t better than the other, they’re just different. The web is obviously here to stay but we still live in a tangible, three dimensional world and we will always want things to hold and connect with.
You need to tell someone about that great new website that Purple, Rock, Scissors built for you? You could tell them the URL and have them write it down, or, you could hand them a smooth, perfectly cut, letter pressed business card. It’s a small investment into something that has staying power. People are less likely to throw your stuff away if it shows you put time, care, effort, and thought into your brand and how it’s present.
Tebow Time!
Purple, Rock, Scissors recently launches the digital campaign for Tim Tebow, one of the hottest new quarterbacks in the NFL. The campaign launch marks a leap for Tebow, arming him a digital megaphone to reach out to his troops of die-hard fans and foundation supporters on social networks including Facebook and Twitter. Upon launch, Tebow’s official Facebook Fan Page is already at 200,000 users and growing!
Stay tuned for more things Tebow, and keep in touch with Tim @TimTebow and become a fan on his Facebook Fan Page.
Relevant Links
Storyville Live – The Perfect Cup and the Perfect Story
The philosophy of Storyville Coffee Company is simple – to artfully roast and sell the best coffee beans and coffee-brewing essentials to create that once-thought-elusive perfect cup of coffee, which can only be made at home. Storyville is held in high esteem amongst the coffee elite for its purist approach to making good, fresh coffee – but that’s not its only story.
Inspired by the connections and similarities between coffee and music, Purple helps launch Storyville Live – through which Storyville enthusiasts can volunteer to host an evening of music, coffee and community – with proceeds supporting the International Justice Mission and its goal of abolishing human slavery.
Storyville’s coffee is pure, as is its purpose for Storyville Live. Here at Purple, Rock, Scissors, we also have a purist approach to good, clean Web design, making our partnership with the coffee guru an ideal match.
We’re in the process of working with Storyville to further streamline their main website at Storyville.com. Stay tuned for updates and information about the re-launch!
Branching Out – University of Florida Student Government Website
When the student governing body of one of the nation’s five largest universities needed a website overhaul, they turned to the experts at Purple, Rock Scissors. Partnering with UF’s student government leadership team, Purple, Rock, Scissors built the brand new site from the ground up. Creating a clean and informative user interface, visitors to the site can now easily navigate and identify all things handled by the UF Student Government.
To maximize site potential and lead visitors to the many services and programs offered by the UF Student Government, Purple, Rock, Scissors executed a tractable and goal-oriented funnel strategy. With the newly created site, whether you are interested in getting involved in campus activities or seeking out services provided by UF Student Government, Purple, Rock, Scissors streamlined the site architecture to accommodate the growing need for enhanced functionality, and implemented an easy-to-use Content Management solution that allows UF to stay on top of their website.
You can check out the new site at http://www.sg.ufl.edu
Fast Company Infographics
Fast Company, an award-winning magazine and website focused on the “business of innovation like no other media source†is continuously seeking novel ways to engage its target market. Recently, the company was looking for a unique approach to demonstrate the relevance of its ‘“A†Is for App†magazine issue to prospective readers and advertisers. The cover story focused on how the proliferation of handheld computers and smart phones ignited an “education revolution.” Purple, Rock, Scissors supported Fast Company’s ad sales team in developing unique visual collateral, which served to illustrate the pertinence of the publication to the company’s key audience by exploring the untapped, but potentially lucrative educational apps market.
In addition, for Fast Company’s sold-out 2010 Innovation Uncensored Conference, which was co-sponsored by AT&T, Purple, Rock, Scissors was asked to develop content that would present a theme of cohesive global innovation. This visually engaging and highly informative content, which was prominently featured throughout the event, included such themes as the world’s most networked countries, global market penetration of social media, and worldwide innovation headquarters.
Welcome Better Homes and Gardens
Better Homes and Gardens is the premier women’s magazine providing intelligent and insightful editorial on myriad topics, including decorating and gardening, food and entertaining, design and individual style, as well as personal and family well-being. As one of the top earning magazines in 2009 with revenue totaling $800 million, Better Homes and Gardens aimed to further enhance its top-notch performance by entering into a strategic partnership with Purple, Rock, Scissors.
Our team is working directly with Better Homes and Gardens to create unique interactive experiences and communication strategy in order to effectively engage the magazine’s target B2B demographic – media buyers – and help solidify the brand’s positioning to this key audience.
AT&T & Fast Company Co-sponsorship
As a leading provider of global mobile and wireless coverage, it was only natural for AT&T to serve as a co-sponsor for Fast Company’s 2010 Innovation Uncensored Conference (http://innovationuncensored.com), an event that featured some of the most revolutionary and influential thought leaders from various progressive disciplines. For the event, Purple, Rock, Scissors created a series of animated infographics depicting a theme of global innovation across a multitude of industries. These were featured throughout the entire conference on two dozen high definition televisions.
The infographics, which Fast Company declared “stunning,†included a net stream animation representing how companies are connected in terms of networking, as well as an animation of birds using a net to hoist Twitter’s fail whale across intercontinental waters as real-time tweets for some of the world’s top companies popped up on the screen representing Twitter’s rapid global proliferation.