Changethethought™

My old friends at Agency Net have burned even more midnight oil than usual to launch a new and spectacular version of their website that now also features a view of their Manhattan office. I was there a year back or so working on the last version of Own Your C and just had the time of my life. They were responsible for co-concepting, designing and developing both versions of Own Your C. It’s a tough thing to materialize something from a concept thrown at you by and ad agency but they managed to do it brilliantly every time we called them. I can’t say enough good things about them and their staff. I made some real friends there and the owner and founder, Rich is one of the more inspiring and motivated people I have met in my life. They pour their hearts into every project they take on and take their work extremely serious scrutinizing every last detail. I wish desperately that I will have the opportunity to work with them again in the future. They are wonderful people from top to bottom (NYC all the way down to Fort Lauderdale). Hey Agencynet, give me a ring. I miss you.

written by Christopher | tags: Agencynet, Coding, Development, Web Design

Rob Ford has relaunched an entirely new version of the Favourite Website Awards. The newest version focuses on the latest nominee and reduces some of the visual clutter from the last iteration of the site. The site itself is good enough to make FWA only it can’t because that would be some kind of crazy paradox in the internet space time continuum that could result in a butterfly effect.

written by Christopher | tags: Favourite Website Awards, FWA, Rob Ford, Web Design

I apologize for lagging on my usual 5-8 posts a day. I have been overwhelmingly busy since starting my own studio. A small shockwave hit the internet yesterday when the new and improved Thinking for a Living launched. I knew a redesign was in the works several months back and it does not disappoint. The best part of the site is that they reconsidered the blog format and it’s functionality. The site reads more like a magazine now than a blog. It looks great and filling it with content no doubt takes some work (as I have learned). My biggest question, just on a personal note would be if there are plans for monetizing the site or bringing in sponsored content or partners. Maintaining blogs such as Thinking for a Living takes an enormous amount of work and I am often curious, especially considering my own current redesign and relaunch, what the future holds for creative blogging minus any kind of financial support. Call me curious.

The new Thinking for a Living site was designed by Frank Chimero and BBDK. I was really excited to hear it was coded by Denver code guru Ian Coyle. The site sits on a grid and features keyboard navigation. They have also done a fine job with how they have managed to make the images weave throughout the content. They have several authors/writers on the site and it shows in writing. It will be a fun blog to visit over this next year to see how it unfolds and see what kind of content is posted.

written by Christopher | tags: BBDK, Blog, Frank Chimero, Ian Coyle, Thinking for a Living

Amsterdam-based digital agency Momkai has worked for some big-named clients. It is easy to see why just by the slick presentation of their work alone. They have some excellent examples of digital design in their portfolio and browsing it is a joy in and of itself.

written by Christopher | tags: Amsterdam, Digital, Graphic Design, Momkai, Web Design

Web design powerhouse North Kingdom has relaunched with a new site and some new project work. Their conceptual thinking seems to be transitioning nicely over to broadcast advertising and brand campaign development. It’s a testament to the kind of strategical thinking that goes into web design and development.

written by Christopher | tags: Broadcast, Graphic Design, Motion Graphics, North Kingdom

Alright, you asked for it so I did another search looking for well-designed Wordpress themes and ran across ‘Basic Maths‘. The theme was designed by was designed and developed by Khoi Vinh of Subtraction.com and Allan Cole of fthrwght.com. This one isn’t free though. It’s available for what I think is a reasonable price of $45.00 (US).

written by Christopher | tags: Allan Cole, Basic Maths, Khoi Vinh, Wordpress Themes

I have been on a quest lately looking for new ideas for my Wordpress theme. I am starting on redesigning the site next week and then relaunching sometime early in the year. I will soon be running on Mediatemple as well so I am excited about that. In my quest to find decent Wordpress blogs I ran across a theme called Neutica that uses everyone’s favorite font Die Neue Haas Grotesk (Helvetica) to yield some really fetching results. The theme was created by  Allan Cole and is available for free. You could do a lot worse for an off the shelf theme if you are thinking of starting your own blog.

written by Christopher | tags: Allan Cole, Helvetica, Neutica, Wordpress Themes

The Only the Brave online exhibition curated by Hellohikimori is finally complete. It’s a veritable trendy design who’s who list with contributions from Jeremyville, eBoy, Suprb, MWM, and Si Scott, LaundryMat, Combustion, Peter Jaworowski, HKI, Michael Paul Young, Tom Muller, Serial Cut, Renascent, Nico Stumpo, Eric Carl and several more.

written by Christopher | tags: Diesel, Hellokikimori, Only The Brave, Web Design

The slick people behind Resn are responsible for the mind bending screensaver exercise, Shapeshifter that is oh-so-hard to tear your eyes away from.

written by Christopher | tags: Graphic Design, Resn, Shapeshifter, Web Design

Piet Dewijngaert is a Flash Developer out of Leuven, Belgium whose website has to be more experienced than just viewed. It’s bizarre and maybe even a little irritating but there is no arguing that he is using the website itself as an artistic canvas to literally paint his Flash into.

written by Christopher | tags: Belgum, Flash, Inside Piet, Web Design

Creative Review has built a new and no frills home on the web courtesy (although I am sure it cost more than courtesy) of the Bureau for Visual Affairs.

Link via good ole Computer Love.

written by Christopher | tags: Creative Review, Graphic Design, Illustration, Web Design

A little Alice In Wonderland remix over 36 rows and 36 columns.

Trippy. Thank you Ryan.

written by Christopher | tags: Alice In Wonderland, Music, Programming, remix, Web Design

80/20 is a user interface design group. In their own words, “We conceptualize, research, design, develop and deploy solutions that set new standards in user experience.

written by Aaron Ray | tags: Adobe, interface design, ui

I woke up to this in my email box this morning:

“HelloHikimori™ develops a unique world for Diesel’s new fragrance: Only the Brave
The French creative studio (HKI)™ created a site that not only has all the process of doing Diesel’s latest product, but also has the creative input from different artists like Tofa, Nico Stumpo and Renascent, expressing their visions of force and courage, based on the concepts that “Only the Brave” was born. The site will also gain continuous inputs from artists all over the world, including Peter Jaworowski, Serial Cut, Tom Muller, LaundryMat , Michael Paul Young, Mr.doob, Jemma Hosteler,Suprb, eBoy, MWM ,Lapp Pro, NandoCosta, Combustion, Si Scott, Alex Trochut, Eric Carl.
Following the launching in Berlin, there will be a party on May 15th, in Paris.”

Wow, that is a lot of name-dropping going on there.

written by Christopher | tags: Diesel, Hello Hikomori, HKI, Only The Brave

Guess what? Juxt Interactive have updated after a very long time and once again, blog style with no Flash.

written by Christopher | tags: Juxt Interactive, Web Design, Web Development

Longtime super web-heavy-hitter Big Spaceship have updated their site with an entirely different and pronounced ‘non-Flash’ look and feel. The site is definitely more functional, but I am on the fence as to whether or not I like it. It definitely punctuates the overall trend of moving Flash into ‘entertainment pockets/buckets’ while going full-boar CSS for containment and functionality.

Regardless of how you might feel about the trend, they are tough to beat though as far as web design and development go.

written by Christopher | tags: Big Spaceship, Updates, Web Design, Web Development

Really amazing site housing equally amazing work.

written by Christopher | tags: Graphic Design, Hello Monday, Web Design

A guest lecture was held at MICA last night by fresh new designer Kenny Kim. Currently working for Droga5 in NYC, Kenny is doing some really slick work for some major clients, just two years out of school! Featured above, an interactive web campaign for the new Puma shoe, Lift.

written by Luke Williams | tags: Droga5, Interactive, Kenny Kim, Puma, Web