PxlDan
A hodgepodge of creative endeavors
It has been forever and a day since I have updated this site so I thought it was time to try and get back in the habit with something easy. I recently wiped my Mac for a fresh start and had the chance to decide which apps would have the honor of being reinstalled. Aside from the major players like the adobe suite and iLife, iWork, there are a handful of independent developer applications that I could not live without. Here are my top five favs.
1. Adium
It's a love/hate thing :) I've been IMing since ICQ and I still think instant messaging is the most annoying form of team communication. Particularly when used to think out loud. But I need to stay in contact with developers, clients and friends. Adium is the most unobtrusive instant messaging client and it supports the protocols I need: AIM/mac.com, google talk, Yahoo and jabber. Plus, thanks to a large community of third-party designers I can customize the look and feel of the interface. [Website]
2. App Zapper
If you have a need to install every application with a pretty icon then you probably have an app folder full of applications you never use. I'm sure I'll have some new apps to install after tonight's MacHeist Bundle Reveal. I have found no better way to clean house then to drag those unloved applications into the AppZapper window -- and having them Zapped into non-existence with a satisfying audio effect. Take that. Pow. [Website]
3. DropBox
Trying to deliver gigantic images to clients and vendors, sharing documents with the team, passing music files to friends and syncing files on my desktop and laptop used to require a frustrating mix of email file size limitations, FedExing CD's, FTPing Zipped files and toting USB keychains. Now I just drop any file into my dropbox where it is whisked away with impressive speed to be securely accessed on any machine (and any OS) by whoever I choose to share it with. [Website]
4. 1Password
Mosaicglobe sites, client stuff, multiple emails, social networks, bank accounts, blah blah blah. It is impossible to remember a unique password for each account and it's too tempting to give every account the same lame password. 1Password integrates into my browsers, offers generated passwords, and then remembers what they are. My 1Password application is a fortress holding over 250 account passwords. It frightens me to think would I do without this app to protect me from myself. [Website]
5. MyNotes
I jot a lot of notes and without a method to organize these notes my desktop would be strewn with random text files and i'd be sending too many emails to myself. I have tried every GTD app on the market (not a fan), and I have installed plenty of feature packed organization/productivity applications. But I keep coming back to one. MyNotes is simplicity. There is plenty it doesn't do but I don't need all that. It just allows me to write down my thoughts and organize them in a place where I can retrieve them later. Plus they're thoughtful enough to put a PSD version of their icon on the website in case you need it for a blog post. [Website]
Runner-Up: Handbrake Because I need to get those DVDs to AppleTV and my iPhone somehow. [Website]
Sometimes the work that I feel is the best can be rejected by a client, and sometimes the work that is chosen seems to be the weakest in the bunch...Flogged magazine features those great rejects. The magazine itself is a downloadable PDF so you cant read it on the crapper unless you print it out first - but on the upside, it's free. So when your feeling rejected, remember it happens to every designer - and here's the proof. http://www.floggedmagazine.com/
FriendFeed is a feed aggregator that consolidates the updates from social media and social networking websites, social bookmarking websites, blogs and micro-blogging updates, as well as any other type of RSS/ Atom feed.
Recently a friend asked if it was possible to add a FriendFeed widget to his MosaicGlobe website. I said no cuz I had tried to get creative with a blogcatalog widget a while back using a z-index layer in the footer field (hack). I was feeling good about it till another inspired friend informed me it looked a bit off in IE. She was being kind - it was a disaster on IE and made the page nearly unreadable. Remember kids - cross-browser testing!
Anyway, as it turns out FriendFeed has a Image widget that works everywhere. To paste it into a MosaicGlobe page, click the 'Embed in a web page' link on your FriendFeed site and select the Feed Widget. Select the option that you want displayed and select the Image format. Then copy and paste the HTML into your page (be sure you have the text editor in HTML view < >).
I embedded the widget to my About Me page. Note that I wanted 3 entries on mine but the widget creator only offered 1,5 and 10. So I choose 10 and changed it to 3 in the resulting code [num=3] - which seems to have worked. I also wrapped it in a float:left div to keep the page style looking decent.However, if it looks like crap on your browser - let me know.
Francis! Francis! (right) vs. The Ascaso Dream (left)
So now I have a decision to make. Buy another Francis! Francis! X1 or shop around. The new X1's have upgraded the pump pressure and added a brass collar. However, I don't like the new 'icons' under the toggles and the price is $900 (We don't have the disposable income we had in out twenties - I blame bush). I'm eyeing the BMW designed, 15-bar Starbucks Sirena machine which for $399 is an affordable alternative - but lacks the inspirational design of the Francis. However, I am really leaning towards the Ascaso "Dream". This machine is built in Spain, has a 16 bar Pump, nice lines and sells for $749. Not a huge savings over the Francis but perhaps enough for me to justify the purchase?
Artist Jerry Vigil just sent me an email about his new book Day of the Dead Crafts: More Than 24 Projects that Celebrate Dia de los Muertos. Jerry is a MosaicGlobe member and a very active artist in the Denver area. The book looks great and the timing is perfect. With Dia de los Muertos right around the corner (November 1st and 2nd), it's time to start thinking about those little Calaveritas. Read more about Jerry in a profile we did of him a couple of years back and be sure to visit his website. Jerry will be at the Tattered Cover Bookstore on Tuesday October 14th but if you're not in the area or can't wait to get your copy (like me) head over to amazon for a good deal - even if they did misspell the title.
A while back I created a new MosaicGlobe website to store and organize my grandfather's photographs (click here). In the process I was able to collect a number of articles and interesting background information. Mostly from my Uncle who has taken a very active interest in our family tree. A couple of years back I had the chance to visit to the small town where my grandfather was born. A small coal mining community just west of Trinadad, CO. near the New Mexico border. I need to put those pictures up as well. This summer I am hoping to make the trip back as I have been told there is a small graveyard in the area where a number of family members were buried. Anyway, the site is of interest to the family and I still have a lot of pictures I need to restore and add to the site - but it's been a blast to create and there's some nice pics of my dad as a child : ).
Also, for Christmas this year I created a cool hardcover photobook using the
software from Blurb.com. It came out pretty nice despite a few mispelled words (that's why I hate print). You can view the
preview at http://www.blurb.com/user/dannyvigil. At the time the software for the Mac was really buggy and I had to relaunch often. However, I haven't tried the latest version so hopefully it's more stable. A big thanks to Wendy at wazobirdstudio.com for the idea with her fascinating MosaicGlobe family website schwabik.mosaicglobe.com.
This collection of custom Playmobil characters are really over the top. Kill Bill, Kiss, Clockwork Orange plus super geeky superheroes, star trek and lord of the rings casts. Aside from a pale king of pop I personally like Jesus Christ and the KFC Colonel.
Earlier this week I purchased the MacHeist shareware bundle but until this evening I haven't had much time to play with the new applications. I got Pixelmator and CSSEdit installed on my Macbook. I was told Pixelmator would choke on larger images but, although I haven't really given it a workout, so far I have been pretty impressed. After using photoshop for ** years it's interesting to try and get things done through another interface. This application doesn't have all the tools that photoshop has but at $60 bucks it's a powerhouse. Most of your more advanced image editing needs can easily be handled here and the interface is really intuitive considering I haven't needed to open up the help menu yet. But then again I find the best way to learn most graphic programs is to mash buttons and see what it does. The second program I installed was CSSEdit built buy the too cool of a name, MacRabbit. I am in deep smit. Where has this program been all my life. Earlier today I was able to override the styles of a wiki application we installed and troubleshoot the designs without breaking a sweat; and the ability to organize your code in folders is nothing short of brilliant. I am just getting my feet wet with some of the more abstract features of the app such as Milestones and the Selector Builder - but they had me a auto-format. The next program I am looking forward to installing is VectorDesigner, which won Best of Show at this years Macworld. I dropped by the booth at Macworld and was intrigued at the idea of a full featured vector design app for $70 bucks and the Flickr integration. The photo here is Brian checking out a line of the New MacBook Air's strung out for display (edited in Pixelmator of course). We got to play with the laptop for a while and they are feather light and cooler than you think.
This song has been around for a while but it's so damn catchy. I can't get it out of my head. I m not helping myself by listening to song over and over. I want Tegan and Sara action figures. As a note to myself. I just transfered all my apps to the new Mac (Leopard yes!). Mac's default color profile results in some horrible mismatched RGB colors which results in some very frustrating web design experiences. Without getting into the details of why, the fix is easy; switch the color profile from AppleRGB to sRGB IEC1966-2.1. Heres a more detailed explanation.
After testing the waters, last night I finished transferring all my spreadsheets over to Mac Numbers. I heart spreadsheets and Numbers is a pleasure to use. If your accustomed to Excel it will take a little bit of time to get acquainted with how Mac manages multiple tables in a single document. It makes sense but performing equations across table still fills a bit awkward. However making colorful charts has never been so fun and I recommend anyone considering the switch to jump right in. I haven't had a chance to play with Pages yet but It can't be too hard to top the convoluted mess that Word has become. JRAY sent me a screenshot of their change tracking. Anyone who has seen a heavily edited doc with change tracking knows how difficult it can be to follow. Someday I'll try Keynote for kicks but I hope to never give a presentation in my lifetime.
I like a tidy desktop. Unlike my studio - I like my office and computer to be well organized and I need to keep all my files in their separate folders; clients, business, MosaicGlobe, art, this and that.... However, I was getting sick of seeing all those little blue folders on the dock because I don't know what I am grabbing until I roll over them. But after searching off and on for the last year I could never find a set of folder icons to compliment the standard OS X folder design. Well, I finally got around to creating my own set. There are 10 colors to choose from and they actually look alright with the 'Color Label' text treatment. Free if you want em.
Yesterday I swung by my neighborhood Starbucks and was really suprised to see it was getting a massive overhaul. Gone were the dark wood shelving and barista counter. They are being replace with bright (spring like) shades of green and some very modern furniture. The wood tables and counters are now lower and a lighter blonde. They have also been pushed back to allow more people to gather around the barista which solves one of the major issues with this location. This IKEA-Stark style is certainly a huge visual change to the Starbucks branded storefronts. I haven't seen any news of the new designs online anywhere yet. Speaking of Starbucks, earlier this month Howard Shultz wrote a memo which outlined his concerns for the company. One of which was the stores "sterile, cookie cutter" look. He also pointed out something that I feel really changed the Starbucks experience for me. In 1999 the chain switched to automated espresso machines rather than the italian La Marzocca machines. Now rather than a talented barista 'Pulling' shots we have a kid pushing a button. Granted it may be mostly show and tradition (and messy) but it required some finesse. I have even had a barista tell me that she didn't like coffee. ~ gasp ~ Talk about diluting the brand.
Being able to tweak a MosaicGlobe design is one of the things I really dig about how we built MosaicGlobe. I have modified my own site of course as well as a few others and recently I have seen some new designs come on board. Mr. Vacano has put together a great theme last week and then I saw what Moxie whipped up. Wow. Moxie also did this theme for Inspired. Also sweet. I really should put together some css specification on the MosGlo support pages to try and encourage more of these personalized designs. Some day....
Spitbubbles has just received it's five year visual revamp. The old site design (circa 2001) was really showing it's age. Now I need to clean out the design portfolios to trim out the weak 10 year old web work done back when 60k was a broadband site (ok it's not that old). I also need to add some more current work. Paintings won't be updated for a while as I just got back into the studio after taking a year hiatus to get MosaicGlobe up and running.
The iconic cover art of Minor Threat's self titled debut album (1981) featured the band's lead singer, Ian MacKaye, hunched over his tattered combat boots. Nike felt the need to 'appropriate' the cover with a pair of Nikes replacing the boots. Their mistake was trying to assimilate the identity of what is arguably the only punk band not to be swayed by big money corporate deals. A posting on Dischord’s website reads “Nike never contacted Dischord to obtain permission to use this imagery, nor was any permission granted. Simply put, Nike stole it and we're not happy about it.”, and in response to fan backlash Nike issued an apology stating “Every effort has been made to remove and dispose of all flyers…”
I think I'll have to go dig this vinyl out of the basement...
As an art director you want the best design possible and with a limited budget that sometimes means royalty free stock imagery. However, here's an unusual love story that may make you think twice about your decision.