mediarosa

Fly Banner Fly!

Jamie — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 21:40:34 +0000

German publisher Eichborn pulled off a great stunt at this year’s Frankfurt Book Fair. 200 fly’s, each towing a miniature banner, let loose to buzz the attendees. Watch the video. I’m going to go wash my hands…

Found on Publishing Perspectives

Rainbow Flip Book

Jamie — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 16:10:39 +0000

I know this has made the rounds previously – but what a wonderful flip book this is.

Morell – Camera Obscura

Jamie — Sat, 12 Sep 2009 16:20:48 +0000

Here’s another small, but fascinating set of Camera Obscura images, this time from photographer Abelardo Morell. Some beautiful landscapes, made to be intimate by bringing them inside, others more of a nod to Camera Obscura as the origin of photography.

Abelardo Morell

Chameleon Guitar from MIT Labs

Jamie — Sat, 12 Sep 2009 15:09:22 +0000

Check out the Chameleon Guitar, developed at the MIT Media Lab. They’ve made an effort to combine acoustic qualities and digital capabilities. Very cool. You can view the MIT Lab Cast video for an introduction to the concept, or jump over to Ars Electronica 2009 for more plus lots of other cool stuff. Or just go to http://www.thechameleonguitar.com

Lets Take the High Line

Jamie — Sun, 06 Sep 2009 14:20:08 +0000

The High Line is just around the corner from our offices, currently located in the Chelsea Market, and I finally made my way there for a walking tour. I shot a few photos while I was there but these pics from the High Line Flickr Pool provide a little more variety – but what’s up with the copyright on all these pics from the Flickr Pool. None of them have a Creative Commons license. None!

There’s more going on besides a walk on the High Line. Check out highline.org for events happening in and around the park.

Image by ArtJoy4Ever

Something has gone terribly wrong – 404 Pages

Jamie — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 17:43:10 +0000

Ideally, you should never see a 404 error page, but if you do, I hope it will be something interesting or entertaining. The 404 error occurs when a page is not found on a website. It’s mostly likely not due to any one of the mysterious server or Internet glitches that we blame everything else on. It’s because the web site owner has a link to a page that isn’t there. Maybe it used to be, or maybe it’s just a hastily typed link that they never tested.

Smashing Magazine has a nice 404 design gallery they posted back in January and Web Design Resources has a gallery as well. Better still, go discover some of your own. Here’s a couple I’ve found.

Swiss Miss 404

Laughing Squid 404

Kottke 404

Failure is an option, or , how you fail has options. 404 pages are there because shit happens. Shit you didn’t plan. So make it a memorable failure. Something you can be proud of. Something that doesn’t look like a failure. Alternately, make it not-broken, have the page redirect to your home page, or make it a search page. Smashing Magazine’s solution is to direct you to their 404 Gallery. Just don’t make it a broken, boring, oh my God I fucked up page.

If you are using Wordpress with a decent theme, you should be able to customize your own 404 template easily. Just go to Dashboard -> Appearance -> Editor -> 404 Template.

You can see my 404 page by clicking here, or trying some odd URL of your own like… http://mediarosa.com/wtf.

The Forest – Animated Short by David Scharf

Jamie — Sun, 30 Aug 2009 14:38:14 +0000

Typepedia – For Love of Type

Jamie — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 01:04:40 +0000

In a nutshell, Typedia is a community website to classify typefaces and educate people about them. Think of it like a mix between IMDb and Wikipedia, but just for type. Anyone can join, add, and edit pages for typefaces or for the people behind the type.

We love type, and we have a burning desire to learn as much as possible about typefaces: where they come from, who made them, and why they look the way they do. We want everyone to be able to share in that rich knowledge and enjoy the art and artists of type design. Over time, we think Typedia could grow into a great educational resource for people to learn about their favorite typefaces and discover new ones.

Two Weeks – Grizzly Bear Fan Video

Jamie — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 01:25:59 +0000

Sex Positive URL Shortening Service

Jamie — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 21:47:35 +0000

That’s right. Sex Positive. Positive in the sense that you are not going to be censored for linking to something – which we’ll assume to be responsible content – just because it implies or refers to sex.

Violet Blue, yes, you know who I’m talking about, has launched vb.ly so you can safely shorten your NSFW urls. There’s also an API for anyone who want’s to tinker with the service or integrate it into their website or application. There’s also rumor of a Wordpress plugin, but I haven’t found it yet. If you come across the plugin, let me know. Now, go out there and link to things like there was no tomorrow.