We are excited to announce the launch of View Zine, an independent, tightly-curated photography magazine. The iPad app is available today as a free download from Apple's iTunes app store.
Inside you will find: “Views”, a portfolio review of mostly unsung, talented photographers (many of whom I found on the web) whose simple passion for looking is exciting; “Projects”, which highlights some long-term assignments or personal passions; “Quotes”, our sincere attempt to introduce text on the subject by some great writers; “While You Were Away” which explores a different place of conflict in the world - starting with Palestine - through the unique perspective of people on the ground in whatever capacity they find themselves in; and our “Overview” section, which includes an information-graphics map displaying stats about this issue’s contributors, our short manifesto and ways to connect with us online.
View was created using the Adobe Digital Publishing Suite (prerelease version) which works quite seamlessly with Adobe's CS5 software, InDesign in particular. This is the same solution used by Wired, The New Yorker and other publications to create their magzines. We wanted to explore this exciting new way of communicating and View is the result of that work. We will write more about our experience and process of collaborating with far-flung photographers as well as using this new software option very soon.
In the latest issue of Eye magazine, which we received last week, several iPad apps are reviewed. To our pleasant surprise the app we designed for Thomson Reuters is among them.
Alfredo Triviño writes: It's the best live-content dashboard of the App Store, with a fascinating feature called briefcase for managing briefs, transcripts, events, news and watchlists. Top content-driven design, extremely well presented. Lots of content but very manageable.
See Eye Magazine No.77/Vol.20, Autumn 2010
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Alfredo Triviño is creative director of NewsCorp's new digital venture for tablets only and is involved in the design of the Sunday Times iPad app. He was also instrumental in imagining the iPad app for The Times.
I decided to shoot video of nature near my house. I didn't want it to be too special, or too beautiful but rather a slice of normal life below my feet.
What would happen if one stopped and kneeled down to see the trail of his footsteps? The ants, spiders and other creatures in nature that surrounds us, quietly looking for food, shelter or mates. This is what I saw.
image/words is a poetic discovery tool for photographers and writers Just choose a photo from your album (or from one of our publicly hosted images), add freeform text and you’re done! Experiment with your text, thoughts or poems. Or just make custom LOLcats. The text can be large, small, transparent or opaque and in two great colors: black or white—but with a variety of fonts.
When you’re done and happy with your creation, make an iPad™ slideshow of all your hard work (and LOLcats). If your friends are too far away to hand your iPad over to them, you can email them or share on Facebook straight from the app. And if you just want to take your images and go home, save them to your library—the high resolution images you sync via iTunes will retain their size.
When you’re not feeling creative or when your cats aren’t doing anything particularly funny, image/words connects you to our library of images with texts to get you started. We plan future updates that will provide additional and more refined typographical controls and a universal version that will work on an iPhone.
Features:
Many fonts to choose from, currently in black or white
Free images periodically delivered directly to the app
Pinch to re-size text
Create beautiful, one-of-a-kind greeting cards
Display your images in a slide show
E-mail and share with Facebook directly from the app
High-res images can be synced to iTunes
Easily delete or rearrange images in your image/words library
I just found out about CauseCast. Simply put, as they say on the homepage: CauseCast is a place to explore issues while helping you connect with a community of people wanting to make a difference. I think this is great and definitely worth checking out the various videos and causes people support. http://www.causecast.org/
Steve Jobs recently published a succinct summary explaining why Flash is not used on the iPhone, iPod and iPad. The complex issue has been boiled down to a few key points:
As web developers, this makes a lot sense to us. Though Flash filled in a lot of weak spots in the early days of the web, we have been using it less and less in our development process as modern browsers have begun allowing us to use open web standards to achieve effects that were once possible only with Flash.
I hadn’t previously known that Apple had requested to see Flash working on a mobile device and that Adobe didn't deliver. This shows the recent discussions in a new light. What's the point of attacking Apple for lack of Flash in their devices if Flash simply doesn't run yet on those platforms?
This is something we thought about quite a lot when designing the iPad Marketboard app for Thomson Reuters. The touch interface requires a rethinking of how to approach and interact with content on screen. The touch screens allow an intimate, tactile manipulation of content and navigation on a personal level we haven't experienced in the past with point-and-click interfaces. Though Flash really works well with mouse manipulation, its limitations might hinder the creativity of developers working in this new area.
1. "Openness". Flash is not an open source platform, and since it's controlled solely by Adobe, there are questions future compatibility. Apple advocates the use of open source standards like HTML5/CSS and H.264 video.
2. Access to the "full web". Adobe claims that Apple's devices can't see the full web (which mostly means video content), but most modern websites are adding HTML5/H.264 encoded video which looks great and works more efficiently on mobile devices.
3. Performance & Security. Apple asked Adobe to demo Flash on a mobile device in the past, but Adobe has yet to provide an example. Though there are currently no mobile devices available on the market with Flash installed, according to Adobe, we should expect to see something in this area in the second half of 2010.
4. Battery life. Most Flash websites currently require software decoding which takes a huge toll on battery life. In Apple's tests, viewing video via Flash as opposed to H.264 (which can be decoded via hardware), results in an almost 50% loss of battery life - 10 hours vs 5.
5. Touch. Simply put, Flash websites use a lot of rollover effects for both aesthetic reasons and to improve user interfaces. So far, such rollovers don't work at all on touch interfaces, meaning those sites would have to have separate versions for them to work on touch interfaces, even if Flash were available.
6. Development control. Apple wants to control the development cycle of their own product. It's their software and their SDK (Software Development Kit), and they don't want a third-party solution acting as a layer between the user and the device. While it may be tempting for developers to use Adobe’s tools now (and certainly easier than writing Xcode), there is the fear that in the future Adobe will be slow to adapt to new features launched by Apple. This has happened before, for example, with the slow adaptation of Adobe's Creative Suite to Intel processors.
Apple's position is clearly defined and honestly written. While some people might miss Flash now, I think that the open-standards path make a lot of sense. And for developers, it's nice to read such a clearly written letter from Steve Jobs to clarify and explain Apple’s way of thinking. Read the complete letter.
At the end of last year we were fortunate to be able to work closely with the esteemed non-profit organization Population Council on their new website. We are happy to announce they just launched and have been receiving great feedback.
Last night’s event with Paul Shaw, Massimo Vignelli, Tom Geismar, Jan Conradi and other wonderful speakers was interesting and introspective. As Massimo noted when he went up to speak, most of the people in the room were not even born when he and Bob Noorda were hired to design the New York City Transit Authority Graphics Standards Manual.
Some additional thoughts and quotes I quickly wrote down yesterday include:
Massimo on design:
“Great thing about design is that it can simplify complicated systems”
“Design is not something you do to get rich, it’s a civil responsibility”
“Design is about problem solving, not adorning.”
Massimo on the MTA:
“When working with big organizations you have to make sure the implementation is done properly, because most often they will take your work and destroy it”
Massimo on the MTA map:
“They want to put too much information on the map, they want to make it into ‘War & Peace’”
Michael Hertz on signage condition:
“We used to say, when god wants to punish a typeface he sends it to Bergen Street”
And last one, from an MTA worker (I didn’t catch his name) in the audience currently working on designs and signs, to Massimo:
“The Graphics Standards Manual you designed is the bible, we just tweak it here and there”
It was a great and lively discussion, revealing the reality of working with very large organizations. I bought the beautiful Unimark International book that was on sale there and Massimo and Jan Conradi signed it for me (even Massimo’s signature is beautifully designed…). The beautiful and limited edition Helvetica and the New York City Subway System: The True (Maybe) Story, designed by Paul Shaw and Abby Goldstein was also available, as well as some of the original Graphics Standards Manuals.
In November of last year, we were contacted by Marianne, head of studies in the department of Communications Networks and Services at the University Institute of Technology of Marne-la-vallée near Paris. She explained that her students are planning a trip to New York and that they hope to interview some companies in related fields. In subsequent emails Marianne explained that the students researched such companies on the internet and selected FusionLab for the range of its activities, the design of our site and our achievements. We agreed to host them and answer any questions they may have.
This Tuesday a group of ten students as well as Marianne and a fellow teacher knocked on our door. We had a lovely time discussing how we work, went over our latest portfolio and showed them previews of projects that are about to launch but not yet live. We also discussed design philosophy and reviewed a selection of books I thought they should see (some about grid design, as well as books by Josef Müller-Brockmann, Edward Tufte information design books and more).
The students listened intently to everything my partner and I had to say with a sense of seriousness (visiting a foreign country and office) as well as play (one student taped the whole thing, another wrote every url I showed them). In short, it was a lovely, and lively visit. I hope we can see their impression of the visit online soon and we wish them all the best. Au revoir!
