Play, Live, Work, Enjoy.

As a follow-up to my previous entry, here are links sorted by category to various websites that follow the 'Collective Design' phenomenon.

Online Tutorials
PSDTuts
Tutorials at Abduzeedo
VectorTuts
VectorKid

Color Schemers
KULER - Adobe's Flash-powered color palette creator
Colr.org - Create palettes using an image online
Color Schemer - Standalone Color scheme software

Frameworks & Scripting
Script.aculo.us
Shadowbox Media Viewer
Mootools
jQuery

Downloadable Resources
Iconbuffet
Squidfingers Patterns
Iconfactory
TexturePacks

Articles & Discussion
A List Apart
Veerle's Blog

On Thursday, September 18th, Jose and I attended Beers Biz @ Pearl Street Sponsored by Infotech Niagara. For a nominal fee, we were able to mingle with the IT Community of Buffalo, NY as well as enjoy the fine foods and variety of great beers.

As the Executive Director of Infotech, Jeff Ross has helped the IT community of Buffalo come together, network and share ideas. This is just one example of his efforts that was well planned and attended.

Mr. Ross had also invited a musical guest, Greg Klyma. Greg's music is a combination of Rock n' Roll and Country influenced folk music. His new CD, Rust Belt Vagabond, features an anthem called Two Degrees in Buffalo. This song is a historical and touching story of Buffalo's trials and tribulations. Two Degrees in Buffalo is emotional and moving as instills a sense of pride and nostalgia for all that is Buffalo.

Greg performed the song acoustically for those that attened Beers & Biz @ Pearl Street.

Give a listen to Two Degrees in Buffalo

“It’s two degrees in Buffalo, Snow is coming down…"

Lately I have been looking for more and more illustration on the web, just craving nicely crafted images, great drawings, and scenes. A while back I obtained the link to CGSociety.org, and have been soaking it all in ever since. If you are a Sci-Fi / Fantasy type of person or even Fine Art appreciator then you will appreciate this site! There is a wealth of great stuff to look at and enjoy. If you are an artist or designer there are some tutorials for both 2D & 3D illustration, articles, features and forums. If you need a break take a few minutes and enjoy some art, take in the techniques, or pick out a new desktop background!

Now that I am inspired I have been making my own monster. Maybe we’ll see it in a later post.

Ah 1984…what a glorious year it was. Not only was that the year I came to be, but it was the year Apple Inc., introduced Mac to the market. They introduced the very first publically offered efficient personal computer, the Macintosh 128K. The computer featured a luxurious mouse, and came with a whopping two applications. Hard to imagine, isn’t it? Technology has come so far in the last 25 years. A company that started out offering a simple personal computer with a green screen has evolved into one of the most successful and highly regarded companies in the world. I don’t even know how I survived before I got the iPhone…joking…but really, my cell phone enjoyment was stifled pre-iPhone. Oh Apple…keeper of my tech-enjoyment…I salute you!

One of the greatest commercials of all time!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OYecfV3ubP8

I know I'm a bit late out of the gate with this one (about a year and three months)… but wow… Geometry Wars - Retro Evolved just plain rocks. I was able to pick it up for $3.00 on Valve's Steam, which in case you have been living under a rock for the last couple of years is an online store where you can purchase and download games instantly. Thumbs up to Valve for making great indy (and mainstream) content available at the click of a button. Here's the link to the product page for Geometry Wars.

The game features some of the most fast and furious arcade-style game play I have experienced in a while. The controls are a bit daunting… you use two sets of four-way keys… the standard W,A,S,D for moving along with the arrow keys for shooting. Similar to the arcade classic Robotron (and later Smash TV) you can navigate your "ship" (an abstract shape reminiscent of your character in Tempest) in one direction while shooting in any other direction.

The visuals are astounding… and honestly… pretty psychedelic. The game play is addictive once you get the hang of it and becomes way hectic after the first ten or so waves of enemies.
I would love for us to develop a Flash game like this, but I think it may be some time before the Flash Platform can support this kind of speed.

Anyhow… check it out for yourself. Support independent game developers and have fun while you're doing it.

In this day and age of trying to save a buck or two, coffeefair.com has created a downloadable .pdf of recipes that resemble Starbucks’ fantastic products.  There are 32 pages of free recipes for beverages, pastries and desserts, and sauces.  Being in the digital media industry and subsequently addicted to anything coffee or caffeinated, to me this is a great way to experiment and enjoy your favorite flavors without leaving the house or office (unless you need to get the ingredients).  Give the recipes a try and let us know if they come close to the real thing.  I know I’ll be trying them…they sound delicious!

Free Starbucks Coffee Recipe E-Book

The multi-billion dollar social networking site Facebook, also known as the primary communication hub of the mass youth, currently has over 90 million users. Developed by the then Harvard student Mark Zuckerberg for his fellow Harvard colleagues, Facebook has reached maximum popularity, and as such is currently worth somewhere is the vicinity of 10 billion dollars.

With such an exorbitant amount of members, it’s rare to come across an individual that doesn’t have a Facebook account. It seems as though almost everyone who has the ability to access the internet has one. Facebook’s astounding popularity has prompted developers to create applications for use on the Facebook platform. Applications such as bumper stickers, top friends, sports fans, advanced walls, buying your friends, card games, and so forth seem to be drawing noticeable popularity.

Here at JRVisuals we love Facebook and its many applications! We love to challenge one another with the many brain teaser games. How do you feel about these applications? Take a look through the many applications Facebook has available, and keep an eye out for those developed right here at JRVisuals!

It's safe to say that a decade ago, the web didn't have nearly the amount of sheer resources that it so readily offers today. Professional as well as hobby designers, on a regular basis, are creating assets, tutorials, insightful articles, and tools which serve to inspire and teach other designers. The web design community is interesting in that it is a collective of individuals who are all freely helping one another become better at what they do. In other professions that would be not only unheard of but suicide – you wouldn’t see a construction company providing half-built house frames to a competitor to give them a head start. I find it to be a wonderful thing to have an onslaught of people from all over the globe to have as a sort of "support group" to get ideas and information to better us in our profession.

A List Apart is an online magazine that mostly tackles CSS in an editorial format, and also often includes articles and insights about the industry in general. Each article has a comment section attached to it where designers and developers voice their opinion on the article and also communicate with the other posters. This type of system is helpful in hearing the wide range of viewpoints and ideas that exist within this one profession. Discussion and disagreements stimulates individual growth and learning, and helps to keep us interested in what we do.

Continue reading 'The Trend of Shared Inspiration and ‘Collective Design’'