That’s right, the good people at the Iconfactory along with ARTIS Software don’t want me to work anymore. I know this because today they announced the release of Frenzic for the iPhone. You can pick it up here. It’s a pretty sweet implementation of the stellar desktop version of Frenzic. If you are an owner of the desktop version, you must setup a new account for mobile users. It’s probably the best way although I would have liked to have seen it integrated with my desktop account. Nevertheless, I look forward to countless hours lost playing a great game.

written by JM

The next item I want to share with you is the welcome banner that will be at the front door as people enter Rockwood Church. As you can see, it carries the theme of the postcard with the dot pattern graphic along with a stylized illustration of a person with their arms outstretched. Throughout this project, my biggest concern was that all the signs and banners look like a package. I think that goal was achieved and this banner is my favorite of the group.

written by JM

One of the major necessities of a successful church launch is having people actually show up. In order to help this happen, one of the tools we turned to was a postcard to mail out to around 10,000 people. This card incorporates elements that are being used in the signs for Rockwood to help form a cohesive identity. In fact, this image is more or less the same design that visitors to Rockwood Church will see when they enter the building. I think this image of a family has an energy and embodies the three core values of the church; Living Faith, Loving Families, and Lasting Friendships.

written by JM

GASP!!!

Hello all. I’ve just finished up a big week month of work for the launch of Rockwood Church. There are still things to be done but the GREAT BIGGIE part of the project (which would be all the signs/banners) were delivered today save one banner. I plan to prepare some posts showing off these pieces as promised. I’m very excited about what these banners will do for the overall presentation of the church. I’ll get one or two things posted over the weekend and then more as the week progresses leading up to the big LAUNCH!

written by JM

Well this is just great!! Recently I wrote about Pandora’s entry into the iPhone app market. Pandora lets you create “radio stations” of your favorite music by picking an artist and then Pandora finds other music that it thinks you will like. From there you can customize the results until you have crafted the perfect station for you.

Now it sounds like Pandora may throw in the towel, much to the consternation of its users, me included. The reason being is the fees that they are now being required to pay in order to play music online.

Last year, the Copyright Royalty Board handed down a decision that internet radio stations would have to pay a performance fee to artists each time a song is played. This is something that traditional radio currently isn’t required to do. This fee coupled with standard licensing fees means that Pandora will pay 70% of its revenue toward these requirements. All this is supposedly being done on behalf of the musicians who put so much hard work into their music. I have no doubt that musicians work hard for their money. I only doubt the sincerity of those imposing these fees.

Pandora currently has ads on its website that are part of the site design and change periodically when you input feedback on music choices. This is an unobtrusive solution to displaying the ads and are often times well designed. Pandora’s founder Tim Westergren has even suggested running audio ads periodically while listening. I don’t have a problem with this either.

A TechCrunch article over the weekend suggests that maybe Pandora should be the sacrificial lamb in this ongoing battle with the RIAA and the internet. In the article, Mike Arrington says that perhaps sacrificing Pandora will show the RIAA and the artists how wrong their position has been. I definitely agree that there is greediness although I don’t know how much of it comes from the artists. To me this just seems like an area that is being picked on out of fear.

Pandora is unlike anything else out there. Short of buying every song you might want to listen to, the ability to customize your listening is an absolute dream. The problem is that Pandora and other internet radio is a great place to find new music to which you might not otherwise be exposed. As a matter of fact, I have purchased quite a bit of music that I was exposed to through internet radio. To kill off Pandora and others who play music online is not the way to go.

Our only hope is that the powers-that-be are so stupid that they will eventually cast themselves into the pit of irrelevance.

written by JM

Several news outlets are reporting this morning that Friday night’s Olympic ceremony had supposedly faked fireworks in them. There was a sequence that showed fireworks being set off that were in the shape of footprints that were approaching the stadium.

THIS IS NOT NEWS

What no one seems to be reporting is anyone who watched NBC’s broadcast would know they said these particular fireworks were not real. It was deemed unsafe to actually have a helicopter fly through the path of the fireworks and the solution was to create them as special effects.

Maybe there was other fakery, but in this case it’s not a gotcha.

written by JM

One of the many things that occupy my time when I’m not working is the design work I get to do for my church. This fall, my church will be launching, or more aptly re-launching, as Rockwood Church. It’s an exciting time but also a bit stressful because there is a lot riding on this in a practical sense. A good deal of what goes into making this work is developing a new visual identity that will introduce people to the church.

Some of the things that are being developed are; stationery, business cards, postcards, advertisements, website, and somewhere in the neighborhood of 20 different banners or signs that will be used in the school we’re meeting in. Whew!

I’ll be posting some of this work in the coming weeks as the time draw nearer to the big day, 9.28.08!

written by JM

If you’re not, you should be using Pandora. Pandora is internet radio from the Music Genome Project. The Project set out to identify attributes of songs, hundreds of them, that form the song’s gene. The result is an offering of virtually limitless music based on your preferences.

I have been enjoying Pandora through my browser for some time now. I listen as I work to songs that I like as if I had my own radio station. You pick an artist that you want and Pandora will immediately begin playing a song from that artist. From that point Pandora plays songs from other artists based on the research of the Project that it thinks you will like. You can give the song a thumbs up that will then be used to further tailor music to your taste or alternatively give it a thumbs down and that song will not be played again. You can also choose to do nothing and the song will continue in the rotation of that particular “station”. Another option is to ask that any given song not be played for a month if you get tired of it but don’t want to banish it forever.

This power has now hit the iPhone thanks to the opening of Apple’s App Store. The App Store along with the addition of v.2.0 of the iPhone OS gives iPhone users the ability to install third-party apps on the phone. The Pandora app just happens to be free (and free of ads at the moment—which is at least part of what supports it on the desktop) although most require a modest fee. All your stations you listen to in the browser version appear on the phone once you login.

I don’t think they could have done a better job implementing Pandora on the iPhone and everyone else seems to agree. Web stats show that Pandora is seeing a new user every 2 seconds. Not bad at all.

written by JM

Here we go. The new feature I mentioned has arrived. I’m calling it the Defy Creative Release Series and the plan is for this to be a weekly release of a video for your consideration. Each week the new video will be available for free in a resolution of 640×480 for a period of about a week. After that, the video will be available at the Defy Creative Store for $8.00. In addition, a 720p version of the video will also be for sale and will be %25 off for the week of release. At the end of the week, it returns to its original price.

These videos are .MOV files playable in presentation software such as Keynote or MediaShout® as well as video editing software.

I hope that everyone will enjoy these videos and let me know if you do. Also, if there is interest, I would be willing to make other sizes available for purchase as long as there is some consensus about what they should be.

Download the free version here

Purchase the  640×480 version here

Purchase the 720p version at 25% off here

written by JM

Well, here it is. The new look of defycreative.com. Due some technical difficulties over the past week, it’s a little later than I would like and almost where I want it minus a few details. I’ve gone to a 3-column design for a little more flexibility and to make better use of the real estate. The sidebars can be collapsed by clicking the button on each window pane. In addition, the panes in both columns can be moved vertically for a bit of rearranging.

Because of said difficulties, the “new feature” I mentioned last week will be a bit longer in coming out than I had wished. I’m still gunning for week’s end though.

So, kick back and relax in the new digs and stay tuned for some good stuff.

written by JM