I was recently approached by friends & musicians We Are The City about a new website. They had a short, simple request, “We don’t want as much clutter… …we like far more simple.” I had been following their latest release, the High School EP, and had thoroughly enjoyed Andy & Aidan Knight’s take on their design for the CD/Vinyl and splash page and was pretty sure we were on the same page when they said ‘simple’. After a few sample sites, we agreed on the look for this one.
Borrowing inspiration from their release, we stuck with the bright red colour because it stood out, and we all loved it. Something I’ve always loved about the boys is their quirkyness and how often you can turn around into a pair of open arms just about anywhere in BC and it’s usually theirs. They randomly show up everywhere and I used this concept literally for their site by incorporating random stills from their music video for Happy New Year, the first single off the EP.
The boys video page needed something special. Having a close relationship with Vancouver production company Amazing Factory means the boys are always making videos. Like, always. Keeping the page updated and organized was key to deal with the large amount of content they wanted to release to their fans. They also Tumbl frequently so it was important to both incorporate their Tumbls into the News feed and for fans to see their questions to the band in a different sort of environment than many other musicians websites.
Andy also mocked up this fantastic page for displaying their full 26 minute High School continuous music video that I helped to code for the new site. A breathtaking video series containing a video for every song on High School, this was an inspired undertaking. Meant to be presented all together, much like you’d sit down to listen to a vinyl record, they belong as one collective piece.
All in all, as always, it was a complete pleasure to collaborate with We Are The City on this site, they brought so much to the table and the result is an amalgamation of ideas and a site we all came together to make.
I’ve known Mel & Curtis since about 2005. A year after I moved out on my own to Kelowna, I was a young 20-something with a lot to prove who wanted the hair to match. I had never been pleased with my hair growing up, mostly due to the fact that I couldn’t get it to look like “all those people on T.V.”
I was recommended to CREAM through Ryan, and for the first time I loved my hair. My short attention span has always directly correlated with my hair. It has been lots of lengths, dozens of styles, and just about every colour in the Pantone colour book. As far as a creative canvas, it always grows back so nothing was ever too permanent.
As my hair grew, so did their business. Expanding over the years from the one location on Cooper Rd in Kelowna, BC to now three over the area. And, as we found out over that time, we liked creating a lot of different things together. Over the years I’ve been in their fashion shows, helped host their annual anniversary at Habitat and design posters for it, aid them in their music selection and vibe in the salon, and most recently, have them feature in our A-OK Launch Party in a fashion segment while we worked on their website re-design.
Mel has spoken to me about turning down offers for the web design over the years because of how much CREAM is her baby. The CREAM site needed to be done by someone who understood what CREAM is, because it’s more than a salon, it’s a hair-raising experience. Being infinitely familiar with the brand and concept, including taking a very small part in it, meant Mel and I had built the trust for a step like this. For me, it was such an honor and opportunity to be able to work with some of my favorite creative individuals in a new and different way from what we had before.
Updating the look wasn’t the only thing we wanted to do, we wanted to completely overhaul everything on the previous site. We looked at every nook and cranny and asked ourselves, “How can we make this better?” Making the website as much an experience as stepping into their Hair & Makeup Lounges meant introducing online booking requests, application forms, a selection of music reflecting their playlists, social media integration, and active marketing through a rolling slideshow.
An online tour of their locations and a stylist portfolio are just some of the extras you’ll find on the new CREAM Hair & Makeup Lounge website.
Yesterday Death Cab for Cutie performed the first ever one-take, scripted, LIVE music video for their new single ‘You Are A Tourist’. As fans and listeners, we able to tune in to www.youareatourist.com/ at 4pm PST / 7pm EST to watch them perform live on a stage with dancers, lights, and some great visuals. So awesome. This is exactly the reason they are my favorite band of all time, and have remained as such for 10 years.
When Tiffany’s mother Joanne came to me a month ago regarding Tiffany’s website, she had a special request, “we don’t feel that this look represents her music and is outdated.”
It was February 20th and Tiffany had a new single being released mid-March, they were hoping to tie a new website into their marketing piece that would reflect the new direction that Tiffany’s sound was taking in “High,” her latest single. Most importantly, she sweetened the deal with “we would like the option of maintaining of content once the site is finished,” which is one of my favorite things to do. Empowering a client is so important, what’s the point of them having a website they can’t use and update themselves. After a few emails back and forth, it was clear we were on the same page and both parties felt comfortable moving forward.
You can see from the initial two designs I presented that sometimes these things can take completely different directions. With some hard work, we were able to get the site built to go live Friday, March 18th. There’s nothing like a challenge to bring out the best in people, it was a complete pleasure to work with Joanne, Tiffany and her team to bring this concept to light.
It’s a great story, inspired by an 8-bitted Dribbble post by UK artist and designer Harry Harrison, San Francisco interactive designers Addison Kowalski, Amadeus Demarzi and Courtney Guertin took the idea to the next level by 8 bit-ing their Twitter avatars, which inevitably went viral among the tech set, finally consuming MG Siegler and myself in a blaze of pixelated glory about a day ago.
Facebook recently announced that they’re adding full HTTPS support for the site, to keep you protected from attacks like Firesheep. The feature’s finally rolling out, and you should probably do yourself a favor by watching this video and even giving this article a quick read.
I am in love with Cut Copy. I have been for some time, halfway between their 2004 debut album Bright Like Neon Love and their 2008 follow up In Ghost Colours I came across them and have never looked back. For example, when I started writing this post, I had no music on, but now I do and it’s Cut Copy. It’s like magic!
Today my email informed me there were some limited pre-sale packages available so like a big nerd I had to nab one package #2 with a Vinyl and signed lithograph (hand numbered and limited to 500 prints, hot damn). If you’re unfamiliar with Cut Copy, I used them last summer in one of our ‘vacation videos’ featuring their then just-released track Where I’m Going. You can find it on Oh, Canada! (How’s it Goin’?).
Over the last few months, they’ve been releasing chapters of a 4 part series, documenting the making of their 3rd album, Zonoscope. Catch up now!
And here’s one more treat, their latest single Need You Now.
Some really great typography and cinematography in these commercials for EF Language Schools directed by Gustav Johansson. The excellent examples of typography are thanks to Albin Holmqvist.
The Awesome Okanagan concept is a community-based event, food, culture, art, fashion, drink, etc blog. Focusing on the central area of the BC interior, we look to provide a positive spin on all happenings and to raise awareness of the amazing opportunities and creative people growing in our communities.
“Nothing good happens online after 1 a.m.” claims Webroot, and I happen to know that’s only partially factual. However, the new Webroot Firefox plug-in aims to curb potentially harmful online behavior by giving the user a virtual field test before posting on certain social networks at certain times.
After downloading the plug-in, you basically get to set up your own “road blocks” before posting to Facebook, Twitter and more. If you try to access one of those sites within time frame you specify, you’ll have to perform one of a multitude of hand-eye coordination tests aimed at making sure you’re sober enough to post. The best part is what happens when you fail, watch the video to see what the Sobriety Test posts for you…
Vimeo finally starts catering to the next generation of video comfort. For all of us that love to sit on our couch and not get up as often as possible (see. VLC Remote for iPhone), Vimeo introduces their new Couch Mode. Taken from Vimeo’s site:
Couch Mode is a special new section of Vimeo that allows you to watch collections of videos (such as Staff Picks, your inbox, your videos, etc.) completely uninterrupted like a TV channel. Just press play and grab the popcorn.
That’s not all. You can still do many of things you already do on the site today: like clips, add them to your Watch Later playlist, and get more information about videos and other users. We’re extremely excited about the potential!
Couch Mode is optimized for Google TV and will be available in the Spotlight section soon. Don’t have a Google TV? No worries, Couch Mode will work on your desktop too. However, we use a lot of HTML5 and CSS3 technology for this (no Flash!), so at the moment it will only work on Chrome and Safari.
Ever since I began making these Mixcasts, it was my eventual hope I would be able to co-host and co-curate some of these mixes. In some way, this small dream has come true with the Guest Mixtapes I've been able to share with you; but at the end of the day, it was still my voice. At least in the literal sense. All of that changes today as I'm joined by my friend Erik Jack (@erikstocrat).
We sat down and picked some of the songs we haven't been able to get out of our heads in the past couple months, as ...
Faked Potatoes Mixcast No. 027
Well spring has sprung (if you ask me, and no, no one did) and you know how I feel about warmer weather. Instead of doing a two-parter spring Mixcast this year, I figured I'd just do a double length. I didn't put a lot of effort into narration for this one, so the good news you get to enjoy more music! Get in the mood with these fine musicians:
Amor Fati by Washed Out
Weekend by Class Actress
Young Silence by Echo Lake
Friendship Station by Le Tigre
A Visit From Drum by Liars
Ashamed by Deer Tick
All We'll Ever Know by Parallels
Triceratops (CFCF Rmx) by ...
The Top 10 Songs About Robots
Now this has been a long time coming. The last few months for me have been a ride, to say the very least. January, usually a slow time in my life was quickly filled with personal projects I had been putting off for a long time. I followed up with a lot of people I've wanted to collaborate with, under the assumption about 30%-50% of them would have the time to commit to a collab... imagine my surprise when just about everyone was into working together.
Long story some-what short, I asked my friends in Sex with Strangers (@SWSmusic) to put ...
…By a Fire: Volume 2
I tried something new last year when I gave you the ...By a Fire Mixtape, an alternative—although not entirely disparate—Holiday Mixtape. An hour long, commercial-free Holiday Mixtape where only 1/3 of the tracks are actual Christmas songs. To this day, I've considered producing another Mixtape in a similar fashion. I know it's nice to be able to put some music on and forget about it. I also hate the silence between tracks on regular Holiday albums so we kill two birds with one stone. Now, enjoy ...By a Fire: Volume 2.
Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow! by ...
