Please ignore the annoying start-up music - the content is great though.

SEOmoz Whiteboard Friday-What’s PageRank Got to do With It? from Scott Willoughby on Vimeo.

Just when you thought facebook wasn’t wasting more of your time already, along comes polyvore. It’s a site that allows you to put together inspiring outfits that you wish you had the time and money to buy. Most articles of clothing are linked to online retailers, generating them a little revenue on the side.

polyvore.com

Search Engine Optimization. It sounds like one of those techno-babble phrases that means almost nothing to the everyday person. It’s the kind of thing you could easily ignore, simply leave it to the tech geeks (like all the folks at SolDesign) who constantly review the specs of their brand-new, food-themed internet phones. If only the term didn’t leave you with one sneaking suspicion: it may be one of those phrases. The ones that have surreptitious, quiet, unnoticed control over every aspect of your life, your work, your business, your money. You need to know what that phrase means. Understand the phrase; control your world. Read the rest of this entry »

This guy is the man! I consider myself pretty handy with the Ajax but this guy…

the coolest AJAX UI that I have ever seen

You have to read about how he did it, then check it out for yourself! so good.

Sol Design follows Tandus at the Neocon World’s Trade Fair this year to blog all about it.

Check it out / Tandus at Neocon

What can I say, this is pretty dope.

I love handmade typography & using post-it notes is such a fun idea. This typeface was created by Sanda Zahirovic, a student at Kingston University in London. Nice work!

I just picked up a sweet book called “Hand Job: A Catalog of Type“. It’s by Michael Perry, one of my favorite hand drawn typographers. He has done a lot of the work that I admire for Urban Outfitters & Polyvinyl Records. His stuff makes me want to get a pencil and start doodling.

FL909 drumcomputer - make some beats!

The first time I saw this I thought it was just a picture of the original drum machine that defined early house music. But no, it’s actually a fully functional clone of the beat machine created in flash. It even looks like it’s from 1984 with coffee stains and such (is that blood??). I was in love with Daft Punk’s album Homework which has the TR-909 all over it. Their latest effort Alive 2007, is a mashup of all their songs and it totally has me pumped about electronic music again. So if you’re like me & one of your goals for 2008 is to make more hot beats, lay down some high-hat & drop that b.a.s.s bass!

We at the office have stopped the yelling (or much of it) and have resorting to tapping keys to communicate with others down the hall and even across the desk if need be. Using an IM client such as GTalk or AIM cuts down the e-mail for simple messaging or to ask a simple 1-2 line question. It’s a great way to communicate without leaving your seat or picking up the phone. For those of us on a mac, we already have a built in client, iChat, which can easily be harnessed to use GTalk. GTalk is a jabber based application which allows it to be used within other apps such as iChat and mobile devices. To learn how to do this, keep reading. Read the rest of this entry »

I set out to make our new portfolio box this past weekend. Here are some photos:

I had to design it first. Adam thought I had already finished it after seeing this photoshop mock-up. Go go hax0r photoshop skillz!

First cut, safety first!

I settled on using aspen as the material for the light color and availability.

A bunch of pictures are missing between here. The finger joints were one of the most in-depth parts of the process! But they are oh-so-classy

Cutting the hinge!
This was the test piece so I could photograph it. Cutting the actual piece felt like swimming in stars.

Installing the hinge.
A channel was routed in the back of the box so that the hinge would hide inside.

Burninating the screen (There was extra room so I snuck a poster in).
We wanted to put our logo on it and battled between the idea of laser etching or screen printing it. We settled on screen printing for the clean white on white look instead of burnt wood from the laser etching.

Putting the latches on and the outer panels. Almost a box. Exciting!

Screening printing the logo on.
Luckily it went on without a problem on the second try. Wood has a natural tendency to bow which made it hard to keep the screen flat on top of it. Crown up did the trick.

All together and clamped tight. Ready to be used the next morning.

It was fun pretending to be a woodworker. Now back to being a super nerd at the computer..