This is a quick study on products, services or tools that reach out to users in effort to educate.

Been working on this reputation.com cycling kit on my spare time. The original design was white and very ‘flowing’ with long stripes… I figured to try the opposite and was *semi-inspired* by trek-leopard and garmin-cervelo. Need to throw a couple more hours into it… but this should do for now.

“Do works anywhere – on your computer, tablet and your iPhone. Your information is always available and up-to-date from wherever you are and whichever device you’re using.” – Do

“Personal data is an asset and should be explicitly controlled by the owner. A whole new industry will emerge to provide people with the tools to effectively price their data.” -- Personal

www.youtube.com/watch?v=7QfpEsnmlW4

“Zaarly is changing how the economy works. That’s all… just a little global economic disruption. Zaarly enables people to ask for anything from people nearby. A simple idea; but when it takes root in a community, the impact is profound. Buyers decide what they want and the price they want to pay and someone from the community makes it happen, creating a job and keeping money local. Zaarly helps anyone invest directly into their local economy.” -- Zaarly

www.youtube.com/watch?v=yfNEXXi6s5g

“Chartbeat provides real-time data analytics and performance alerts for your website. Chartbeat is a revolutionary real-time analytics service that enables people to understand emergent behaviour in real-time and exploit or mitigate it. Chartbeat launched in April 2009 and is used by some of the most popular sites on the web including the Onion, Mahalo, Pitchfork, and DailyKos. Based in New York, the team is led by General Manager Tony Haile and is part of betaworks, a media company focused on the real-time web and social media. The best way to understand Chartbeat is to try the demo or take a tour. Customer testimonials can be found in our buzz section.” -- Chartbeat

www.youtube.com/watch?v=i90yWN5g5gQ

“Listening to music has always been one of those experiences that’s better together, whether at a concert or hanging out with friends. But the digital music revolution so far has been defined by a solitary experience. Turntable.fm is bringing the social value of music to the the digital music experience by letting people experience and discover music together — live — online.” -- Turntable.fm

www.youtube.com/watch?v=0gOLtxAZCDw

“Fab.com features daily design inspirations and sales at up to 70% off retail. Fab.com is design. Everyone, everywhere can benefit from good design. Exceptional customer experience is our most valuable design. Behind every great design is an even greater story. Our team is designed for success. We’re on a mission to be the world’s most valuable design resource. Smile (you’re designed to)” -- Fab.com

www.youtube.com/watch?v=iyiQpMV30YQ

“Lookout is a smartphone security company dedicated to making the mobile experience safe for everyone. Your smartphone is vital to your work and everyday life. Lookout provides award-winning security to protect you from viruses, malware and spyware, the ability to backup and restore your data, and tools to help locate lost or stolen phones. Lookout’s unique cross-platform, cloud-connected applications are designed to be lightweight and efficient while delivering the best protection possible.” -- Lookout

www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jh7anr-Df9E

“Sprout Social builds powerful, intuitive social media management tools used by thousands of businesses across the globe. We help businesses delight their audience and get real value from their social efforts.” -- Sprout Social

www.youtube.com/watch?v=hipqrliBNDs

“We love nonprofits. Particularly small ones. Having served more than 8 years with a nonprofit and helping friends and family with their nonprofits along the way, Dodd has seen the issues these small charities face when it come to websites and online fundraising. They need help but don’t always have the knowledge or big budget to seek it out.” Bellstrike

“American Apparel is a vertically integrated manufacturer, distributor and retailer, based in downtown Los Angeles, California. We currently employ approximately 10,000 people globally (about 5,000 in LA), and operate more than 285 retail stores in 20 countries.

Within our business model, knitting, dyeing, cutting, sewing, photography, marketing, distribution and design all happen in the company’s facilities in Los Angeles. The company operates the largest garment factory in the United States, at a time when most apparel production has moved offshore. With our recently opened stores in China, we are now selling Made in USA clothing in the largest consumer market in the world.” American Apparel

www.youtube.com/watch?v=T4vNPvQc9e8

“The Klout Score measures influence based on your ability to drive action. Every time you create content or engage you influence others. The Klout Score uses data from social networks in order to measure:

True Reach: How many people you influence
Amplification: How much you influence them
Network Impact: The influence of your network” -- Klout

www.youtube.com/watch?v=2FB8rICLmLg

“Strava grew out of our own needs as athletes. With busy lives requiring much solo training, we missed the sense of camaraderie and friendly competition that drove us to achieve our best through training with others. We envisioned Strava as the means to put our workouts and races into context. We call that social fitness.” – Strava

“Just because you can see your desktop site on a mobile phone doesn’t mean it’s mobile-friendly. Mobile sites are designed for the small screen, with the needs of mobile users in mind. A mobile-friendly site can help your business connect with customers and drive conversions.” – GoMo

“Affine technology was born out of the high tech intelligence community. Co-Founder Mike Sullivan was a Research Associate at the Institute for Defense Analyses (IDA) in Alexandria, VA, where he performed research and technical analysis in support of the Office of the Secretary of Defense and the Intelligence Community. It was there he came across what would be Affine’s online video targeting platform. Soon thereafter, a partnership was developed with Co-Founder Bobby Impollonia, and the two engineers decided to bring the new and unique technology to the world of advertising. Now based in San Francisco, Affine works with large brands and agencies in the online and mobile video sectors. The company is funded by Highland Capital Partners and Crosslink Capital, has multiple patents pending, a large client list, and tons of momentum. The Affine mission: To be the currency for online video.”

“In 2003, after being unable to find a way to elegantly publish his personal website, Anthony Casalena began work on the software that is now the Squarespace Platform. Since its inception, Squarespace has blossomed into a product that powers tens of thousands of sophisticated websites for businesses, bloggers, and professionals worldwide and currently serves billions of hits per month.”

www.youtube.com/watch?v=2NPLYG0t5LQ

Friday, April 22, 2011 from 8:30 AM -- 9:30 AM (PT)

“Craig Mod is a writer, designer, publisher, and developer who is passionate about the future of publishing and storytelling. Based in Tokyo for a decade, he is co-author and designer of Art Space Tokyo, a personal guide connecting readers with the neighborhoods and figures behind some of the most inspiring art spaces in the massive city. Since October 2010 Craig has been working in the Bay Area helping sculpt the future of digital publishing with Flipboard.” -- Creative Mornings

www.youtube.com/watch?v=c5PGtu2BF4s

www.youtube.com/watch?v=wpjssKYi_UI

“Wish there were more? We’re working on fixing that. Sign up if you want to help.” – 500 Startups

Blue Veritgo – All Design Resources

60 High Quality PSD’s for Designers

Forrst Podcast

Adap.tv develops video advertising trading, serving and management technology that make video more profitable and less painful. It is the way video advertising works. The adap.tv marketplace (atm) is the industry’s first online video advertising marketplace. atm connects advertisers, agencies, publishers and ad networks with a robust marketplace to make smart buying and selling decisions in real-time. adap.tv is also the creator of OneSource, the online video ad serving platform that empowers publishers to succeed in online video. A complete end-to-end solution, OneSource helps publishers increase advertising revenue, grow streams, make the right business decisions, and simplify every aspect of ad operations.

Affine Systems, Inc.

Affine Systems is a venture-backed technology startup that was founded in December 2007 and is funded by Highland Capital Partners. Affine has spent the past two years building out its computer vision technology in order to shine a bright light on the current black box of broadband video.

Auditude

Auditude is based in Palo Alto with offices in Los Angeles and New York City. Our team comes from some of the top Internet, technology, and advertising companies in the industry, including Google, Yahoo!, Idealab, IDEO, PayPal, eBay, and DoubleClick.

FreeWheel

FreeWheel offers the most formidable system for digital video ad management and monetization.  Founded and led by a team of executives from the world’s leading technology companies, FreeWheel’s solution arms content owners and distributors with the tools and services necessary to make the most money possible from video content.

FreeWheel was founded in 2007 and is privately-held with offices in Silicon Valley, New York, and Beijing.  We are well-funded by Steamboat Ventures, Turner Broadcasting System, Battery Ventures, and Foundation Capital.

Visible World

Visible World is the leading provider of targeted television advertising solutions. Our suite of services enables advertisers, agencies, and media companies to deliver addressable, interactive, and measurable ads. Visible World campaigns increase ad relevance and engagement by providing capabilities to target real-time offers, products, and creative based on geography, programming, inventory levels, time of day, weather, and other data-driven conditions. Today, Visible World helps over 200 advertisers target consumers in ~100 millions U.S. television households and across more than 1,500 major websites.

“Photoshop dexterity (PSD) is a skillset acquired by proficient users of Adobe Photoshop, the world’s most ubiquitous digital tool for creating visual ideas. Qualities of PSD include supernatural powers of imagination and an overwhelming desire to constantly make the world more beautiful. PSD affects people from different walks of life. In fact, there is a high probability that you have PSD.” -- Hyperakt

www.youtube.com/watch?v=yllNvsGsgl0

I received this email “As a public beta participant, you may be wondering “What happens to my account?” Don’t worry; it’s all still there. Your account has been migrated to a free plan. Using your free plan will be very similar to using our service during the beta. You can still use all 2,200+ Web fonts that were available through the beta and any projects you created. In the future, using the free plan will display a discreet Fonts.com Web Fonts badge on your website. However, this requirement has been waived until January, 2011. The free plan covers 25,000 pageviews every 30 days. If you exceed your pageview allotment, you’ll be extended a grace period during which you’ll have the opportunity to upgrade to a plan that supports your traffic demands.” Fonts.com

I’m sure glad I went up to one of the Sale members of Fonts.com and asked what this jibber jab was. Woo WHOO! You’ll see some new type shortly on my port.

Add great looking fonts to your Web site in three easy steps:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=OGWLpCoKIqs

” The debate became heated with the shower people asserting the several positives of showering -- it uses less water, less energy, it is faster, you rinse off with clear and clean water (ie. you don’t sit “in your own crud”), there’s no waiting for a tub to fill nor to empty and clean. ”  Bodysof

www.youtube.com/watch?v=IHlRAF40Z1I

1) Open Photoshop, Press [Ctrl + N] to open a new document. (Web – 800×600px – Landscape)

2)  Press [M] to select Marquee Tool for the region you want Black and White. For this example I will split it down the middle. You can select the whole photograph by pressing (Ctrl + A). **Make sure your image has color, durrrr**

3) Using the easy way press: (Shift + Ctrl + U)

NOW —- Stepping back to step 2, I will now display the un-destructive way:

3) On the Layers Panel go to ‘Adjustment Layer’ and add ‘Black and White’ to the selection.

4) When you apply the ‘Black and White’ you will notice another layer added to the layers panel, this layer can be triggered on/off so your photo is never actually affected from the black and white effect. When you choose the adjustment layer with Black and White you have more options to adjust the contrast based on the original color of the image.

That’s how you create a black and white image – fast and super easy.

Have you ever wanted a high paying job while having a blast at work. Ever consider being a digital artist. If this gets your creative juices flowing, motion graphics might be right for you -- or your just greedy and want money.

The top in-demand careers of 2009 includes industries of Business, IT, and Law. Technology is used in each of these industries creating market definition while using creative tools to voice the definition. Your hired to be the voice of the company while making sure everything looks appropriate to market definition.

You can get jobs as a Interactive Art Director.  Which pay an average of 70k depending on your experience.  You Develop creative concepts and push the limits of design.  This job isn’t for people afraid of critics.

There are Design jobs that don’t require years of schooling or experience.  A Production Assistance Specialist for example… Which means your the person responsible for various aspects of a production on set.

Revision3 always has opportunities (revision3.com/jobs/) for beginning students or inspired filmier’s, developers, editors, and assorted talent.

The best chance of landing a position in this economy is to do your research and make sure you are up-to-date with current standards in your industry. Here are some free resources, hope you find this helpful. From art schools to career salaries, how the market is working and real life examples.

Education:

The Art Institute of California – Los Angeles
B.S./A.A. - Visual Effects & Motion Graphics

The Art Institute of California -- Hollywood, a Los Angeles based design college is one of the Art Institutes, America’s leader in postsecondary career-oriented education for the creative arts. We offer degree programs in Interior Design, Fashion Design, Graphic Design, and Web Design & Interactive Media, Set & Exhibit Design, and Visual Effects & Motion Graphics.

Careers:

Motionographer -- Jobs

http://motionographer.com/jobs/

Indeed -- Jobs

http://www.indeed.com/q-motion-graphics-jobs.html

Tools:

Inspiration - Motionographer (http://motionographer.com//)

Tutorial - Ayato@web (http://www.ayatoweb.com/ae_tips_e.html)

Software - Adobe Aftereffects (www.adobe.com/products/aftereffects)

Goodie - Trapcode (http://www.trapcode.com/)

Market:

Motion Graphic v.s. Graphic Designer
150% Percent Growth from June 05′ -- Jan 09′

Average Salary of Jobs with Related Titles to Motion Graphic
34k [Media Technician] -- 93k [Senior Interaction Design]

www.youtube.com/watch?v=2YY3f-4yH7Q

PrestaShop provides a simple e-Commerce solution for designers in the need of something clean yet extremely powerful putting your brand into the spot light. Other e-Commerce like Zen Cart, OS Commerce, and WordPress (Using Plugins like: WP e-Commerce) -- gives the user an overwhelming amount of admin tools and data. Experienced web developers would consider community size and usability support which PrestaShop lacks being founded in France and standards could vary depending on your location and needs.

Over the years I’ve seen the PrestaShop community grow from strictly European to a slow mix of American’s or at least people speaking English. I tested version 1.0 back in 2005 for an experiment to see if my sisters clothing site could benefit from something they could easily use and adapt to. Since they were familiar with online stores like eBay, Etsy, and Smashing Darling I knew when it came time to launch a website for them I would considered form over function (not to say PrestaShop doesn’t understand function).

www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sa-E2SntsYs

The Google Font Directory lets you browse all the fonts available via the Google Font API. All fonts in the directory are available for use on your website under an open source license and are served by Google servers. View font details to get the code needed to embed the font on your web site.

Simplicity is a state of mind for many tea drinkers, so it doesn’t surprise me how large and innovative the design community is. I just wanted to spend a moment and track down some inspiring/different designs in tea related products. Here are some gems I found, click the image to view the source:

Modern Tea Bags -

Modern Tea Pots -

Modern Tea Cups -

Banksy is a graffiti artist with a global reputation. Fiercely guarding his anonymity to avoid prosecution, Banksy has so far resisted all attempts to be captured on film. “Exit Through the Gift Shop” tells the incredible true story of how an eccentric French shop keeper turned documentary maker attempted to locate and befriend Banksy, only to have the artist turn the camera back on its owner with spectacular results. The film contains exclusive footage of Banksy, Shepard Fairey, Invader and many of the worlds most infamous graffiti artists at work, on walls and in interviews. As Banksy describes it, “It’s basically the story of how one man set out to film the un-filmable. And failed!”

I just purchased my ticket for Friday 5pm at One Embarcadero in San Francisco. I’ll have more posted details here.

UPDATE:

Friday Movie Time was pushed to 7pm.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=GTlm6dU2xHk

San Francisco is known for it’s rich & diverse culture. These niche community’s came together to create and produce some of the highest quality and most stylistic backpacks. I’ll cover 3 San Francisco Inspired Backpack companies and what made them special.

Timbuk2 –

We’re like super glue, or a Chinese finger trap (that doesn’t suck); we just stick. We know you don’t need another bag. You need a sidekick, a constant companion. You need a bag that will take the hit when you skid out or literally “bail” you out of a leaky boat. You need a bag that will be a fire blanket for your stuff; a bag that will float your laptop when you’re drunk and your girlfriend drops it in the ocean. We hear you and we get it because we wear Timbuk2 bags too. We’re fully committed to meeting your needs and we’re confident that with your help, we’ll continue creating like-no-other products that don’t kick Mother Nature in the ‘nads.

Chrome -

San Francisco, a city with a huge urban cycling scene. The business grew. Bags were joined by clothes, gear and shoes. Our products showed up from Brooklyn to Berlin to Tokyo. But what matters today is what mattered in the garage – building products that work, and standing behind everything we make.

The North Face -

We have helped explorers reach the most unfathomable heights of the Himalayas. But The North Face legend begins, ironically, on a beach. More precisely, San Francisco’s North Beach neighborhood, at an altitude of only 150 feet above sea level. It was here in 1966 that two hiking enthusiasts resolved to follow their passions and founded a small mountaineering retail store.

To celebrate the Digg for iPhone launch, we’ve partnered up with ColorWare to give away 14 highly-coveted, limited edition custom iPads! What’s that? You want a free iPad you say? Just follow the directions below… we’ll be giving away one every day for two weeks to lucky tweeters (one of which could be you!)

To Enter:

Did you know that the tortilla chip brand Tostitos features two people represented as letter T’s. The Tostitos people are also happily dipping to represent the brand line of chips & dip. The Tostitos sign was first highlighted in a Facebook group called, “i just realized that the tostito sign is 2 people eating chips and salsa”, which already has an active user database of 430,000 and growing. I spotted a Google trend that arrived Wednesday night after a spark of conversations via twitter and Facebook. Frito Lay makers of Tostitos tailored the logo for the 2010 Super bowl which premiered on television. The logo says community with warm festive colors. I Digg it.

A comment from a friend:

“wow i really never noticed the logo and why are they sharing one chip lol !! xD haha thats weird!!”

www.youtube.com/watch?v=XZPuldXaWXM

Pharmaceutical companies continue to compete in marketing a safe and honest health ‘solution’. Since websites are a key to a companies marketing, executives will spend thousands if not millions of dollars to prepare a fully functional corporate site. The message is simple, simple. The key to making a truth-worthy site is to make things clean with a clear hierarchy. Here I cover the top 5 best riches Pharmaceutical Websites reviewing the good & the bad.

Johnson & Johnson

The Good – Consistent theme w/ beautiful imagery and large readable fonts.

The Bad – Red is overpowering, even if apart of brand identity (mainly suggesting the submenu overlay onto the image banner. The homepage and main navigation elements are developed in Flash which increase load time and also is confusing for SEO & the user.

Pfizer

The Good – Top down hierarchy with contrasting colors and educational content.

The Bad – Little to say about the bad, they could consider reaching out to different demographics by tapping into social media networks like Twitter, Facebook, and other relevant health related forums.

Roche

The Good – Simple, Clean, Informative, Font, Effective SEO. Extremely impressed with 99% of the development/design.

The Bad – Same thing as said before, little to say. I think they should consider removing the Flash homepage banner and use jQuery/AJAX to achieve more SEO rank thou companies like Roche aren’t worried about achieving traffic since this isn’t a B2C relationship.

GlaxoSmithKline

The Good – Full catalog of information inventory of products, company overview and history. Images are effective but lack proper cropping.

The Bad – Oh, man… The problem’s I have with this site could be a page alone – but in the sake of time. I think they should start from step one and redesign the pages with their current content. The colors – awful, The Images(cropping) – awful, hierarchy - awful layout, alignment of type/layout/images – awful. I shouldn’t ‘bag’ on this site since some of my previous portfolio work were designed without research. But since, this company pulls in over 44M yearly I can’t really accept minor issues like this (and in comparison to the others above).

Novartis

The Good – In Touch with their Online audience. Great colors & fonts that allow your eye to easily rest of key elements within the page. Well thought out navigation and good contrast from brown to white type. Mobile application support and video content on display at multiple social media & video publishers.

The Bad – Some wasted white space will little focus on content (text). I think they should reconsider the images used in the homepage to their core clients. From a snap shot view you wouldn’t understand the company mission which is easily identified in Johnson & Johnson.

A company emblem or device used to deliver a message within a certain market. I’m focusing on logo’s that imply cleanliness to drive product sales in brick & mortar stores like Walmart or Target.

1). Mr. Clean – The product’s mascot is the character Mr. Clean. In 1957, Harry Barnhart conceived the idea and Ernie Allen in the art department at the advertising agency Tatham-Laird & Kudner in Chicago, Illinois drew Mr. Clean as a muscular, tanned, bald man who cleans things very well.

In March 2007, Mr. Clean launched an online competition with YouTube that gave consumers the opportunity to create a commercial advertising the Mr. Clean Magic Eraser.

2). Tide – Tide is specially designed to provide great cleaning that’s gentle to your skin.

3). Glade – The family of products include: Aerosol Sprays, Candles, Car Scented Oil, Carpet & Room, Glass Scents, PlugIns, PlugIns Scented Oil, Press’n Fresh, Secrets, Scented Oil Candles, and Wisp.

4). Brawny Man – With Brawny® paper towels in the house, you’ve got the strength to get things done.

5). Dove Soap – Dove’s products include: antiperspirants/deodorants, body washes, beauty bars, lotions/moisturizers, hair care and facial care products.