ISOC-NY's August monthly meeting will take place tomorrow, 14 August 2008, at NYU.
Date: Thursday, 14 Aug 2008 Time: 7:00 pm–9:00 pm Location: Room 317, 251 Mercer Street NYC (SW corner of West 4th)
Note: Use the entrance on the west side since construction blocks the Mercer Street entrance. Must bring photo ID.
Agenda
Meet new members. We expect and welcome new faces!
By-laws reform. Progress report from Joseph Shraibman.
Planning future meetings and events. Good news is we have just received a sizable grant from ISOC-NY for our Fall program.
ISXubuntu Linux project progress report. News from our trusty coders.
Web standards. How can we make our own site more W3C compliant?
Jeffrey Barke is senior developer and information architect at theMechanism, a multimedia firm with offices in New York, London and Durban, South Africa.
Years ago, before I moved to New York City, I developed a mantra - that as a designer, it’s your duty to change your style frequently. In the search for transformation, some designers might find solace in the variety of media and side projects (filmmaking, photography, painting, etc.), while others may deliberately change their individual creative patterns and methods of working. This approach helps you to motivate; it helps you to remain excited; and most importantly, allows you to remain valid in an industry that depends on fresh ideas and not just a rehash of yesterday’s stuff. It was this axiom that enabled me to come to New York City…
…as a young designer, I had shown my portfolio to a Cleveland-based agency in a job hunt. They tactfully told me that while they liked my work, without a specific & identifiable style, I would not be a “salable” creative; fitting into their corporate system. In other words, they wanted a singular style to sell instead of substance. I explained to them that my portfolio had creative solutions which were based on what the client’s audience required to identify with a brand, and had very little to do with my own personal visual style. I changed my personal visual styles when I got bored, or needed to feel revitalized. It was this response that empowered me to get in my car, drive from Cleveland to New York City, and take my first New York job at the now defunct (yet highly influential Web design consultancy) methodfive.
At The Police’s final concert last night in Madison Square Garden, I was reminded of the importance of transformation by Sting, who acted out a creative metamorphosis onstage. Arriving and playing most of the show with a shaggy gray beard – he appeared as a grizzled, aging musician instead of the symbol of health and vitality expected from the leader of the pop trio. Just before the encore, he publicly changed his appearance backstage (and onscreen) with a shave. Like a Phoenix rising from the ashes of a long tour and interpersonal battles within the band, he changed his persona during the intermission – emerging revitalized and new; shaved and young – delivering a two act play as an example of how first, the long tour had aged and tested him – and on this final night, revitalized him – as he moves once again past the shadow and drama of The Police, into the next phase of his career.
Was this overplayed and dramatic? Of course, but rock n’ roll should always have an unpredictable element of bombast. And possibly, so should you.
Dave Fletcher is the Founder / Creative Director at theMechanism, a multi-disciplinary design agency with offices in New York, London and Durban, South Africa. He is also a fan of music and believes that a sign of old age is going to see the “final concerts” played by bands that formed after his birth.
I know Apple is quite restrictive about information, but I was a bit surprised to see how far the non-disclosure agreement (NDA) for the iPhone SDK goes: iPhone developers are legally banned from sharing programming tips, discussing code or asking questions of one another in forums or over e-mail!
"F**KING NDA" has become a mantra on Twitter. Every time a developer posts about his or her latest run-in with the metaphorical brick wall that is Apple's NDA, the capitalized expletive is sounded off. "F**KING NDA" has become such a phenomenon, a website has sprung up at F**kingNDA.com to track the twisted tweets.
Apple's software development kit (SDK) for the iPhone is the primary set of tools for building apps for the iPhone, especially if the creations are to be included for sale in the device's App Store. The NDA, which must be agreed to before the SDK can be downloaded, prevents programmers from discussing the finer points of their code.
"There is no legal way for developers to talk about they are developing," Williams laments. "No way to post tutorials. No way to give code away. It's hard to interact with other developers and to write code without reinventing the wheel. Normally, you could post [a coding question] on Twitter and get an answer within minutes."
I was alerted to a comment trail and venomous ranting occurring at a Web site called Eater.com, where several creative folk and other knuckleheads are going apeshit over the similarities between the logos for Steak n Shake and Shake Shack. Some of the foulest bile is being hurled by people who found out the logo for Shake Shack was designed by “someone” at Pentagram, a highly-regarded global branding and design firm and home to creative luminaries Paula Scher and Michael Beirut.
We could have avoided the blog post except that an “unnamed designer at Pentagram” decided to “teach the kids and haters a lesson” by flinging his own monkey poo into the fray:
“I designed the new Shake Shack identity and the original existing identity. The permanent signage on the exterior of the new Shake Shack will appear as the original logo, familiar from the Madison Square Park location. The new retail identity will be used in the interior for items like menu boards, cups, paper and packaging, but not on the architecture. The sign in your shot is temporary–it’s just a piece of paper.
The new identity is not an homage to Steak n Shake. The typography has nothing in common–the new Shake Shack logotype is in script. Sometimes it appears straight. Sometimes it will appear in a stamp or seal in a circular motif. Saying it’s a rip-off of the Steak n Shake logo is like saying a hot dog is just like a hamburger because they’re both in a bun.”
Thanks “Mysterious Designer at Pentagram” – you have put the people who are been yammering about this nonsense in their place – not only with your mastery of the obvious, but with your snotty and authoritative tone. By mixing phrases for designers (“…it will appear in a stamp or seal in a circular motif”) with ironic comparisons designed to resonate with total morons (“hot dogs and hamburgers”? Really??), you’ve actually stooped to the very level that a masterful agency such as Pentagram should always choose to remain light years above.
Calling all designers, developers, information architects, project managers, writers, editors, marketers, and everyone else who makes websites. It is time once again to pool our information so as to begin sketching a true picture of the way our profession is practiced worldwide.
I was alerted to a 
