09.14.12 |
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Jess Cartner-Morley, writing for The Guardian:
Remodelling the grand structure into a bricks-and-mortar version of a website is a clear statement to the world that, for Burberry, digital now comes first.
Christopher Bailey, the firm’s chief creative officer, said: “We designed it like that because when you’re shopping at home online, you are on the sofa with your credit card. You don’t stand up and queue.”…
For Bailey, the primacy of the digital experience is self-evident. “I find it weird that anyone would find it weird [digital-first thinking].
“Most of us are very digital in our daily lives now. Burberry is a young team and this is instinctive to us. To the younger generation who are coming into adulthood now, this is all they know.”
Hats off to Burberry for getting the message loud and clear. It’s still shocking that so many high end labels refuse to put their stock online or have such a poor branding experience on their respective websites. There’s an amazing opportunity with this market, both for web designers and developers.
09.14.12 |
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If you thought the hotness of Twitter Bootstrap would slow down in any way, sites like Bootsnipp beg to differ. Bootsnipp compiles free HTML snippets that can easily drop into Bootstrap friendly sites. There’s some really common and useful UI functionality here: a monthly calendar, progress bars, like/share buttons and much more.
09.13.12 |
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It appears from this Digital Photography Review post that the iPhone 5 camera primary benefit is its speed, albeit with slightly greater light sensitivity.
09.12.12 |
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Really enjoyable article on the influential gaming company Valve, best known for the Half-Life series and Steam gaming service. I liked the insights here on their very unorthodox management structure (there effectively is none) and distributed work ethic. If you’re into gaming or just interesting in learning about a shaken up company hierarchy, it’s a good read.
09.11.12 |
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Now that I’m teaching a front end web development class over at General Assembly, I’ve been researching HTML and CSS tutorial sites to get ideas for class. Most are pretty bad, but Don’t Fear the Internet stood out. Lots of really simple, well done videos to get web newbies on the right track. Love their intro:
Are you a print designer, photographer, fine-artist, or general creative person? Do you have a shitty website that you slapped together yourself in Dreamweaver in that ONE web design class that you took in college? Do you not have a site at all because you’ve been waiting two years for your cousin to put it together for you? Well, we’re here to help.
09.10.12 |
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Excellent extended interview between Indiewire‘s Peter Labuza and Michael Slovis, director of photography for Breaking Bad. The show is already very cinematic with a film-like look, but this little exchange was a surprise:
[Show creator Vince Gilligan] said, “If you want to know where I’m coming from, and where my sensibilities lie, you should watch ‘The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly,'” which I’m incredibly familiar with and love as well.
Vince loves that movie so much that he and I, between seasons three and four, made a pitch to Sony and AMC to shoot the series in widescreen like a Leone movie, in 2.35 or what would be called Cinemascope. We wanted to do the whole series in that size frame. The two of us were arguing, saying, “If you want to be noticed, if you want people to see what’s going on, we’ll be the first! Everybody will see!” But they didn’t let us do it.
Breaking Bad in 2.35? The implications of that on TV would have been huge.
09.10.12 |
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In a small amount of shameless self-promotion, I’m teaching a course over at General Assembly starting tonight on core front end web development: HTML, CSS and JavaScript. If you’re in NYC and looking to bolster your skills for web, design, back end development, startup management, and many other tech skills, browse through General Assembly’s site for other courses. They’ve got everything from quick, 90 minute one-off classes to multi week intensives. Excellent staff and two nice spaces in the Flatiron district.
09.10.12 |
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Software developer Reginald Braithwaite on Twitter likely killing off updates for their Mac client:
Even if they have a new version “in the can,” releasing it today means people falling in love with its features and being even more resistant to using the web. It means support costs. It means sending a mixed message. If the web’s the place, why not go “all in” on it now? Why wait for tomorrow if it’s the right decision today?
And why wouldn’t it be the right decision? The web is the ultimate write-once, run-everywhere platform. Why incur the additional expense and headache of maintaining multiple, heterogenous development platforms unless a vendor forces your hand by selling a gajillion devices that don’t have a decent web browser?
I tend to agree with Reginald here. Granted, I, like almost everyone else, is pissed about Twitter’s recent antagonism toward third party clients. Yet Twitter’s own official app has to support a huge number of platforms, especially when considering the global marketplace. The web in this context makes sense.
09.07.12 |
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(Spoiler warning, this linked video has footage through Season 5’s midseason finale “Gliding Over All”, so don’t watch if you’re not caught up.)
This eight minute tribute to Walter White’s evolution is expertly edited by YouTube user UltraBrawl. I can’t think of a better way to mark Breaking Bad‘s epic four and a half seasons. It only adds to my anticipation for the series finale next summer.
09.07.12 |
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If you’re a web designer, developer, work in a web company or are just curious about the industry in general, ALA‘s annual survey is essential reading. It’s pretty heavily favored by responses from developers (39.4%) and designers (25.1%) yet pretty indicative of the industry as a whole.