Stay consistent in your beginnings and your endings. Have a great 2012. Lovely poster by PupilPeople.
TinyLetter
Mailchimp’s latest app, TinyLetter, makes it ridiculously easy to start your own mailing list and email newsletter. It’s a matter of minutes and you’re set to go. Pick a username and boom, you have your sign-up-page ready.
Mailchmp is fantastic service for maintaining business newsletters, but has too many bells and whistles for an individual that just wants to maintain a simple mailing list and send text email newsletter. That’s exactly what TinyLetter does best.
As Ben Chestnut, CEO of Mailchimp puts it: “You could think of TinyLetter as a “MailChimp Lite.” A more directionally accurate analogy would be, “Gmail on steroids.”
Read more about TinyLetter in this blog post.
Interested? Give TinyLetter a try yourself or subscribe to mine at: tinyletter.com/swissmiss
StudentShow
Hey design students, you might want to know that the fine folks over at Behance launched a site featuring student work from all around he globe: StudentShow.com! Fantastic way to find new talent!
(via @amritrichmond)
Tree Stand
Now this is what I call a stylish (Christmas) Tree Stand.
Lighting Vest
The Lightning Vest is one of the coolest bike accessories I have seen in a while! It is a hand-netted, highly visible safety vest made from a custom developed 3M reflective material. It can be worn all year, day or night and layered over jackets or t-shirts. Neck opening is wide enough to pass over your helmet and netting is large enough for your hand to access your pockets. It is lightweight and compact enough to fit in your pocket without ever getting tangled. Brilliant? YES!
(via velojoy)
Nest
Visionary Tony Fadell who, back in the day, was in charge of the iPod at Apple *just* launched a brand new product called Nest. It’s a incredibly sexy looking thermostat that learns as you use it and, in the end, helps you save money.
10% of all U.S. energy is controlled by thermostats. That’s the equivalent of 1.7 billion barrels of oil per year. But in most homes the thermostat is an unassuming beige box. It doesn’t matter if it’s a manual or complicated programmable thermostat,we do with it what we’ve always done: get up, walk over to it, and change the temperature. Every few hours. Every day. 1,500 times a year.
We still try to save energy, of course. We turn down the thermostat when we can, we don’t set it too high or low. But we’re human. We forget. Until we see our energy bills.
That’s where Nest comes in. Smart. Hat tip off to Tony Fadell and his team. Learn more or Pre-Order.
BrooklynBeta
Most amazing conference badge I have ever seen. Hat tip!
My studiomates Chris and Cameron organized a sequel to last year’s BrooklynBeta Conference. And it is happening N-O-W! It seems as everyone in my Twitter stream has come to Brooklyn and is currently 3 blocks away from my apartment. (check out the attendees here)
The notion of BrooklynBeta is dear to my heart: Chris and Cameron believe that the more people who work on their own ideas, the better place the Web and the world will be. So they built a conference where developers and designers can meet and then hopefully team up on new projects.
My studiomates Chris, Cameron and Team Jessi have been working *hard* over the past few weeks and I am thrilled to be attending today.
Ok then, off to BrooklynBeta!
Be Optimistic (continued)
Thank you Olimpia for pointing me to this video. You’re right, this video goes well with my prior Be Optimistic Felt Badge I posted just a moment ago.
Once in a while…
“Once in a while it really hits people that they don’t have to experience the world in the way they have been told to.”
- Alan Keightley
(via Chris Guillebeau‘s email signature)
♥ / HOW Interactive Design Conference
A big thank you to HOW for sponsoring this week’s RSS feed!
This first-of-its-kind HOW Interactive Design Conference is tailor made for traditional designers transitioning to digital design, and is all about helping them learn the skills they need to grow in their creative careers. All sessions are headed up by an all-star roster of speakers, including Second Story’s Julie Beeler, expert Patrick McNeil, interactive-design guru Cameron Moll, Mark O’Brien of Newfangled, and frog design’s David Sherwin, and Matthew Richmond just to name a few.
This HOW conference is made for traditional designers looking to succeed in the digital design world. If you haven’t registered yet, you should take advantage of the early bird rate until September 30th.
www.howinteractiveconference.com, San Francisco, November 2-4, 2011
(Interested in sponsoring a week of my RSS feed, learn more here.)
dConstruct 2011 Ticket Tombola
Authentic Jobs US, the job network I am a proud member of here in the US, is sponsoring dConstruct 2011, which has an outstanding lineup of speakers.
Authentic Jobs is giving away three free tickets to freelancers who wouldn’t otherwise be able to make it. Here’s how you can qualify for a ticket:
- You’re in the UK.
- You’re a self-employed freelancer who can’t quite afford to attend but would if you could.
- You can free yourself on 2nd of September to attend.
If you qualify, complete this simple form and AJ will be in touch if you’re selected.
This type of give-away makes me happy. Hat tip to Cameron Moll who is the brainchild behind Authentic Jobs.
Let’s Meet And Work
Let’s Meet and Work is a curated map of nice cafés, museums, libraries, etc that provide good working conditions for freelancers. At the moment it’s purely London based, but Alasdair Monk wants to expand it to NYC within the coming months. Yes, please!
UPDATE: Alasdair is taking recommendations for the NYC map.
(thank you Daniel)
Suitcase Eyes
MUJI, the Japanese minimalist retail store, has created OJOKEESUS suitcase eyes that give your luggage a bit of character. Oh, Muji, I love you!
Katie Lewis
Katie Lewis collects data through daily documentation processes, and then generates numerous systems to allow the information to exist in a material form. She abstracts and quantifies the data and creates mesmerizing pieces of art.
(via this is colossal)
Pay Attention
“Do stuff. Be clenched, curious. Not waiting for inspiration’s shove or society’s kiss on your forehead. Pay attention. It’s all about paying attention. Attention is vitality. It connects you with others. It makes you eager. Stay eager.”
- Susan Sontag
(via Maria’s CreativeMornings talk)
Curiosity
“Our number-one value isn’t in any of the skills we have. It’s that we’re essentially curious.”
- Jim Coudal
(via Maria’s CreativeMornings talk)
Ideas cause Ideas
“Ideas cause ideas and help evolve new ideas. They interact with each other and with other mental forces in the same brain, in neighboring brains, and thanks to global communication, in far distant, foreign brains.”
- Roger Sperry
(via Maria’s CreativeMornings talk)
Authentic Jobs News
Yesterday was a big day for Authentic Jobs members like me. (Ever noticed that “Come in we’re hiring sign” on the left of my blog?) Authentic Jobs is a job listings site founded by the talented Cameron Moll, which specializes in connecting companies with creative professionals.
Authentic Jobs got a major facelift and some new added functionality. If you’re looking to find a job you can search by location, category, type of employment (full-time, contract, freelance or internship) and can even subscribe to Email/RSS notifications based on your search criteria.
Cameron and his team managed to create a realigned, adaptive layout that renders well on most web-enabled devices. And with this new version he is also taking it over to the UK where Elliot Jay Stocks, Jon Hicks and Sarah Parmenter are joining the crew.
Read the official announcement over at the Authentic Jobs blog.
Check out Authentic Jobs UK, the revamped site Authentic Jobs and don’t forget to enter the Touchscreen Tussle to win an iPad. Oh, and if you try the new site on your tablet or mobile device and your browser supports geolocation, try the “Locate me” feature for some magic.
♥ / Listgeeks
A big thank you to Listgeeks for sponsoring this week’s RSS Feed.
Listgeeks is a social network for creating, sharing and comparing lists of things. The minimal design of the site, combined with an interface that allows for playful, collaborative engagement with other list makers, facilitates a totally new approach to the classic Best Of/”High Fidelity” school of list making.
Featuring weekly interviews and lists from prominent members (including Erik Spiekermann, Christoph Niemann and Khoi Vinh), Listgeeks is a source for inspired recommendations (see “Best Bookstores in NYC“, by Kupfers) as well as for unique and unexpected perspectives on modern life (see “Things That Are Usually Better in Theory Than Practice,” by Melissa).
(Interested in sponsoring a week of my RSS feed, learn more here.)
Jigsaw
Jigsaw is a modular coffee table designed by Belgian designer Linde Hermans for Mooz. Four independent angular pieces that can be arranged into different configurations or placed separately around your home. Fun!
(via shoeboxdwelling)
