I’ve always loved the effects you can get using cloud tanks (a popular ‘old school’ practical special effects tool), so Mark Mawson’s stunning Aqueous Fluoreau photography collection caught my eye. Check out the full collection. Via Beautiful Pixels.

I’ve always loved the effects you can get using cloud tanks (a popular ‘old school’ practical special effects tool), so Mark Mawson’s stunning Aqueous Fluoreau photography collection caught my eye. Check out the full collection.

Black Mirror

The first episode of Charlie Brooker’s black comedy / drama Black Mirror (The National Anthem) tackled our fixation on social media and celebrity gossip head-on with a demented cocktail of political satire and bestiality. If you didn’t see it I won’t spoil it, but you really ought to check it out.

Part two (15 Million Merits) takes on the public’s obsession with mind-numbing television and all manner of rather pointless digital distractions.  It really did get me thinking - and not just because I’d rather watch paint dry than sit through an episode of The X Factor.

Brooker’s point was further hammered home as my phone buzzed with notifications about trivial things happening on various social networks while I watched the show.

UK people can catch it on 4oD until next Sunday.

Time to purge my apps, I think.

Path 2

I’ve been using Path 2 for about a week now and I’m still delighted by it’s lightweight and minimal interface. To me, this feels like a glimpse into the future of both mobile interaction methods and social networking.

There are a lot of small touches which add up to create an incredibly smooth experience for the user. The sum of Path’s parts make your ‘moments’ feel like they have real weight and value. Sharing a photograph on Path feels a lot more satisfying than uploading one to Facebook, for example.

I can’t remember using an app that felt this fresh since I first held an iPhone in 2007. I could go on to list all of the neat things in Path 2, but you can just go and try it yourself if you haven’t already - it’s free.

Let’s hope the folks at Path can keep innovating in this space, I really think they nailed this one.

“Stay hungry, stay foolish.”

R.I.P. Steve Jobs, 1955 - 2011.

Stratus - a beautiful CloudApp client for iOS is now available for free on the App Store. Digital Flair worked with developers Jeff Broderick and Kolin Krewinkel to produce the promotional video you see here.

We tried to create a video that was a little different from all of the other iOS app promo videos. Judging from the overwhelmingly positive response we’ve had so far I’d dare say we succeeded. Thanks to everyone who got in touch to say they loved the video, it really means a lot to us. 

Dribbble Invite Contest: The Winners

So, it’s time to announce the winners of the Dribbble Invite contest. Thanks to everyone who submitted themselves and their work, we had a really tough time choosing 7 winners from 49 entries! I’d also like to once again thank Andy Smart, Haydn Woods, Octave Zangs and WelcomeToTheSky for being generous enough to submit invites to the competition.

So, after much deliberation we decided that the winners are Leslie Nayibe, Leonel Toribio, OJ Hornung, Jorge Mancheno, Chuck Gibson, Filipe Guth and Michael Norton. Congratulations guys, now go do some dribbblin’!

To everyone else; Sorry you didn’t make the cut this time, but keep at it and I’m sure you’ll all be drafted in no time, you’re all very talented designers. Good luck!

Dribbble Invite Contest

I have one two three four seven Dribbble invites to give out; I’m not sure if they still have the allure of gold dust that they once did, but I’ve decided to give it them out here on my blog through a contest. 

Update: Andy Smart has very kindly donated an invite too, so now there’s double the chance to win. 

Update 2: Haydn Woods has also donated an invite.

Update 3: Octave Zangs has donated a fourth invite! 

Update 4: WelcomeToTheSky has donated three more invites! So, for anyone looking to be drafted, here are the rules:

Firstly, link to your Dribbble prospect account.

Secondly, post a link to your best work (and full portfolio too if you have one you’d like to show off).

That’s it. Although, if you have Tumblr and fancy reblogging this post to spread the word to other prospective Dribbblers that isn’t going to hurt anyone. Andy, Haydn, Octave and I will decide the winners on the 15th of May and I’ll announce them on here, good luck!

The Commonwealth Club Podcast

So, an update on my latest creative endeavour: The Commonwealth Club Podcast. Everything you need to know about what it is, who is involved and why we are doing it is over at the website. 

However, if you’re too lazy to hit the link, here’s the elevator pitch: The Commonwealth Club Podcast is a bi-weekly show covering tech topics that pique the interest of Charlie Cooke (My partner in crime at Digital Flair), Stuart Bowness (Founder of the UI design firm Simplestation and open video platform MediaCore), or myself. We aim to have regular and frequent guests to talk about things like shipping containers and mosquito genocide (surprisingly, a recurring topic).

I just wanted to talk briefly here about why I’m doing this. I have no idea if anyone else in the world will find any our discussion interesting or valuable, but we have had some great feedback from those who have listened so far. I am aware that as a ‘show’, we are still finding our feet and balance; but it’s been great fun so far. I’ve come to learn that even the least structured programs still need at least a vaguely coherent plan or list of topics to start from - even if they end up totally derailing and heading somewhere completely different within the first two minutes. 

It’s still early days, but so far we’ve all had great fun doing the show, we’d love to hear any feedback anyone might have, though. If it sounds at all appealing to anyone reading this then please check us out on iTunes or find out more on the website. If you enjoy our ramblings, a good rating or review would help to support us.

If you are a creative professional / tech geek / general nerdlinger who would like to join in the discussion, give some feedback  or just have some ideas for things you’d like to hear us talk about then please get in touch by emailing us at hello at commonwealthclub.tv.

Digital Flair

I’m pleased to finally be in a position where I can announce a project I’ve been working on over the last few months. 

Digital Flair is a new creative venture between myself and my oft-mentioned friend and colleague Charlie. Simply put, it is a creative venture offering our services creating tailor-made web-based promo videos to clients.

Although we have ‘unofficially’ been up and running for a few months now, it has taken that long to establish a solid website, portfolio and approach to what we are doing. Today though, www.digitalflair.tv goes live - check it out, feedback is more than welcome.

Without going too much into the philosophy behind it (read the site for that), we are going into this for 2 main reasons:

1. Video is becoming an increasingly important marketing tool for products online: Today, if you have a great video promoting your product you stand head and shoulders above most of your competitors.

2. Not only do we love the process of creating these kinds of videos, but we believe we make a pretty solid team and produce great results.

Although we are more than happy and capable of creating videos for clients in other industries, our focus for the moment is to work with tech startups with interesting apps and services.

Our latest project was a video for Panda - the powerful video encoding web service. Check out the finished video on our site, or on Vimeo channel and account or on Youtube (fans and subscribers welcome). Also, you should really follow us on twitter to keep up with the latest news.

Please don’t hesitate to get in touch with any project enquiries or general feedback, we’d really love to hear what people think of the project.

California, Again.

So in a few weeks I will once again be jetting out to California, this time though I’ll specifically be staying in and around San Francisco for a full 11 days. I’m coming over on a semi-business, semi-pleasure trip, and will be there from the 17th - 28th March. I’ll be accompanied by good friends Charlie Cooke and Damien Tanner.

I’d like to catch up with all of the awesome people I met on my last trip, and any other Bay Area technophiles, designers, filmmakers, or just general geeks who want to say hi should drop me a line via email or shout at me over twitter - I’d love to hear from you all.