This blog is about “the creative side of web design”. Not just about tips and techniques or rants against tables. We also talk about the organic, the subjective, the intrigiuing and the unexpected. Which brings me to Whiskerino.

The beauty of the internet is that it gives a voice and a face to every passion, every hobby, every weird aspect human endeavor. Like guys (I think they’re all guys…) who all committed to growing beards from November of last year, to February of this. A little weird, yeah, but also fun, and nice looking. I like the Edwardian graphics and typography, but I really like the sense of community that developed: a couple hundred people from all over took pictures, encouraged one another and became friends. That’s pretty cool.Maybe I’m biased, because I like growing a beard as much as the next guy (and maybe a little more), but this site makes me smile every time.

The ADDYs are coming, the ADDYs are coming!

Since last summer, I’ve been working as a co-chair for the 2008 Ad Club of West Michigan ADDY awards. As such, I’ve been busy with lots of meetings, e-mails and juggling of tasks. (You’re right, it sounds suspiciously like work.) However, one of the many cool things about the role is seeing a lot of really great work in a variety of media, including web and interactive. In fact, some of the best compelling work I ‘ve seen this year in the interactive categories. And all of the mixed media entries seemed to include web. I can’t mention exactly which pieces, because the actual awards ceremony is Thursday. I’ll try to weigh in with more comments and links on Friday.

Bill Barton was in our offices the other day, and we were talking about the Wii. We think the Wii is far more innovative than the X-Box 36o or PS3, and not because of its cool controller, the wii-mote. Sure, the way you interact with the game is different, but what makes Wii revolutionary is the way it encourages people to interact. Wii is a social video game that encourages social interaction. The software and controller are amazingly well-suited to having a gang of people over to bowl or play tennis, as opposed to shooting aliens and zombies which is best performed solo, in some sort of isolation chamber. So a tip of the hat to Nintendo for designing a product with human interaction in mind. As web designers, we need to take the same approach, and consider social interaction. Not just user experience, but users experience. More and more  web apps (like Basecamp) are leveraging this approach. The futurists’ fears that we’ll become less socialized appear to be in abeyance, at least for the moment.

  Cliff and Christian from Mighty were in the office yesterday. They’re cool guys and do some really creative work. We talked for a few minutes about our offices and how I love my new shorter commute (2 miles, not 40!). I mentioned that I wanted to ride my bike to the office in the summer and Christian said that he does exactly that. Weather permitting, he rode and walked to the office all summer. As we talked, I decided that most of the really good work is done by really good people. People who care not only about good design or good interactive, but about good beer, good mexican food, and yep, doing good. Driving less, and walking more for instance. So my goal of the moment is not only do the best creative that I can, but to be a little nicer, make the world a little better. Wish me luck. — Stephan 

 So Steve Jobs is at it again. Once more, he’s created a product that I didn’t know I needed, until I saw it, the Macbook Air. But this time, he threw in a product I’m only too aware that I needed, the Time Capsule. Finally, a backup designed with me in mind. It uses wifi, so I don’t have vacillate between hooking it up to the iMac upstairs, the MacBook in the living room, or the MacBook Pro that goes with me everywhere. It’s big (up to a terabyte!) and has hooks for Leopard so I click one button and I never have to think about backups again.They’ve actually designed a backup system around my sloth and lack of commitment to backing stuff up. Now that’s good design.