PC are from the past, and the Macs are “in mass”. Everywhere, in University campuses and in workplaces, there is a new generation of  “sophisticated geeks”. They are self aware and as a result, working environments have become more creative. In that context, I call out to everyone’s inspiration. Join in the movement and add your print. Personalise your Macbooks and contribute to a more inspiring working place.

Thanks Steve, Windows is Antiquity

Consumers came to new standards. The youngest generation thinks I sound funny when I talk about Windows 95 and laugh when I talk about Netscape Navigator. They relate to it as an era when Nokia phones were really cool…

I have to admit that I’ve grown old and a new generation which wasn’t obvious at first settled in. It is a generation that never had to worry about bugging softwares running on ugly, heavy and slow pieces of hardware. Windows had its glory days, like Atari and pong before, but these days are far gone. These days, the less we hear about Windows, the better we feel.

The new generation is changing the workplace

If  Microsoft created the first generation of computer geeks 15 years ago,  I think that Apple took over since the iPhone was launched. Or maybe it all started with the first TV ads with Justin Long (check the work in progress TV ad to see what I mean). Apple has been in schools and Universities for a long time and has slowly shaped the new generation. It has become obvious that their “world domination” plans came to pay off.  The term geeks has become obsolete, it no longer means what it used to be. We may refer to geeks as “self enthusiastic achievers” these days. Macs are extensions of our clothing lines. And it can define our status to some extent sometimes. Few people were suits and ties while others don’t. Well, few people have macs while others don’t. Everyone seems embrace the new macs, but it’s more than just the hardware, it’s a new culture.

I naturally embrace macs. I have a nice iMac at home, an iPhone of course, a nice MacBook Air 11” that I carry with me everyday and an Apple TV. I don’t have an iPad yet but it is on my shopping list (just waiting for the 3rd edition.) I’m naturally really enthusiastic about gadgets and I want to contribute to the new culture. So, here’s my 2 cents: get creative and personalise your toys.

Your next step is to get creative

Decals are perfect accessories to personalise your toys and standout from the crowd. There are enough of them for everyone and if you have enough imagination, no one else will have the same than yours.

I did my own research for my Macbook Air. In the spirit of sharing good tips, here’s a list of websites that I’d recommend:

1. Etsy is a great community based website which offers a great and large selection of accessories for MacBooks including nice decals and cases; check out process is easy and delivery was good although quite long;
2. WhiteMonstr offers pretty good decals ;
3. DecalsForMacBooks.com is worthwhile having a look;

Decal gallery

Ever wondered how to start a project when your client is just asking for a great website? well you are sorted now, you can download my latest website brief.

Partly inspired from Jacob’s brief (Six Revision), my brief provides an exhaustive list of questions that you may ask your clients to fill in before starting your project.

What for

It summarises the business context, objectives and expectations of your client in terms of content, design, functionality and delivery. You can use it as a base before settling the contract e.g. roles and responsibilities, deliverables and timelines.

It is in essence a project management template. It ensures that you start the project in the best disposition with clear expectations from both parties, and low risks.  You can be the best designer out there, your ability to manage your relationship with your client will determine whether you were successful or not. Give yourself all the chances you can to succeed and establishing a long and healthy partnership.

Download

Download the website brief here and put it to good use.

The first step to introduce a new culture is to build a unique identity and build a community around it. Here’s a very quick summary of the site we created to build a momentum internally.

Objective

The key objective was to reach out to our internal stakeholders and provide them with better support for Web analytics.

Benefits

There were many benefits from building a website:

• we could provide a one stop shop for all our stakeholders and users to find everything they need;
• it enabled us to clarify and communicate our processes, priorities and roadmap;
• It enabled us to share our best practices, tools and templates to drive more efficiency and more consistency.

Design

From brief to launch:

1. Brief
2. Wireframes: using Balsamiq Mockups
3. Mock ups: using Photoshop…
4. Build: with SharePoint 2007, the trick is to build the layout leveraging microsoft technology.

Result

Click on the picture to zoom in:

Learn how I’ve designed and developed a communication tool for the Chief Executive and his Communication team in order to respond appropriately to the emails that the employees sends him.

Objective

This main objective of this project consisted in designing and developing an online environment that supports both the employees in engaging the Chief Executive for feedback or requests, and the communication department in managing appropriately and in a timely manner all these exchanges with the employees.

Benefits

The benefits of  going through this development are numerous:

• Governance: clarifying, establishing and communicating an effective process that guarantees a satisfying and consistent service to all the stakeholders;
• Accessibility: all the communications are centrally stored and managed;
• Costs: building the platform online is cost effective and sustainable;
• Human resources: inductions and hand overs are eased by the design of the tool and the back end controls (e.g. workflow)

Design

The Executive mailbox is ideal for the business (the Communications department) because it aligns with the workflow that they engineered:

1. User can send a message from a form available on the Intranet.
2. The message is stored in the system amongst the other ones;
3. The Communication department can access the message through an online admin console.
4. A Communication manager is designated to follow the steps of the workflow through the online admin console:
   1. acknowledge the message,
   2. draft an answer,
   3. ask a Subject Matter Expert to contribute,
   4. get the relevant approval,
   5. and finally sends an answer to the user.

From end to end, there are 3 tools alongside the process.

1. The form which invites the users to submit a new “request”,
2. The admin console which enables the communication manager to go through the steps of the workflow from acknowledgment to closure of the request:
   1. Exhaustive list of messages accessible in 1 location;
   2. Real time status updates;
   3. Workflow based;
   4. Real time emailing capability;
   5. Templating capability for emails;
   6. Printing capability.
3. The “SME” form which lets the Subject Matter Experts contribute to the request.

CEO mailbox user form	CEO mailbox admin console
CEO mailbox admin console – send a message	CEO mailbox SME form

In the early 1980s and 90s, it wasn’t very popular yet back home, but a few pioneer eventually produced a few classic records and made it through to my local music stores, opening up my addiction to it. Here’s my Hip Hop manifesto.
Hip Hop was originated in the 1970s. It is defined as a mix of MCing, DJing & beatboxing. There has been a few classic tunes that haven’t aged, and probably never will. The good thing about it is that they keep you young. I  still listen to them now, I feel 10 years younger and I still  love the beat.

Here’s a snippet of my all time best tunes: a selection of my favorite artists from “back in the days” to nowadays. Tell me if i missed anyone!

1. Sugar Hill Gang

The first hip hop single to become a Top 40 hit. Still addictive.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=diiL9bqvalo

2. A Tribe called Quest and Busta Rhyme

Q-tip is the best MC to me. He’s the leader of “A tribe called Quest” which came out from the Eastern side in the early 90s. Below is a video with Busta Rhyme, which I’d describe as an animal.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Mt1uuA5YFw

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q_tjtGH3nB4

3. The Fugees

They produced the first album that i bought, the score in 1995. I grew up in High School with this music.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=totDCUm96Qk

4. Mike Mister Mike and the Beastie Boys

The best DJ ever and the famous white English MCs.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JPJmhTlhm3U

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D0WgoOcuoqQ

5. The Roots

Just brilliant, clean sound.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ojC0mg2hJCc

6. OutKast

Most innovative Hip Hop artists. They’ve received high acclaim from music critics, and manage to appeal to listeners of all ages. The Hip Hop came a long way but is now for everyone.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4wl6R8u6Zus

7. Kanye West

Maybe the most controversial artist at the moment because of Taylor Swift (who is she by the way?). He’s the protege of the most successful Hip Hop artist, Jay-Z that is. Kanye advocates for an evolution of the Hop Hip to fusion with Indie rock music, and or other style like dance music with Daft Punk for example.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PsO6ZnUZI0g

Tell me if i missed anyone!

Amongst many other creative platforms, “Behance Network” stands out for its creative yet functional and very social platform. Each artist is offered the opportunity to create its portfolio online for free, and to showcase his work to an inspired audience, a network of people dedicated to the modern art.

Here’s a selection of a few artistes:

Caricature

Grzegorz Domaradzki

Michael Kutsche

Marco Calcinaro

Jason Seiler

Illustrations

Archan Nair

Parris Whittingham

Cartooning

Alex Fuentes

Mazaki Gaja

Filter017

Jared Nickerson

Visit the site and enjoy! http://www.behance.net/

HDR is short for High Dynamic Range. That is a combination of images to render higher contrast and lights. It is a post-processing of taking either one image or a series of images, combining them, and adjusting the contrast ratios to do things that are virtually impossible with a single aperture and shutter speed.

A very good website that will convince you that it is indeed a great art is Stuck in Customs. They’re frequently updating their website, and they provide the best HDR photos online to download.

Banksy, or the fairy tale of a man who makes money in despite of himself: “I Can’t Believe You Morons Actually Buy This Shit.”

Banksy is an original, one of his kind. He likes to do things differently, his trademark is unconventionality. He’s an underground artist, no one knows what he looks like and he prefers to act “illegally”.

From Bristol in the early 90′s to now, his artwork is inspired from his political views (Anarchism) and exploits the weaknesses of our capitalist world to remind everyone that we’re living in a individualistic world. While a few people like to think that they’re “happy”, so many out of their sights remain “unhappy”. This contrast is recurrent in Banksy’s work to stigmatize our society.  His paintings are very clever and very inspiring for many people, offering a very different but very accurate perspective of the world we’re living in.

I’m a fan.

Relentless Energy have just released the most poetic, passionate, and honest video I have seen in a long time, a short surf film by Mickey Smith called Dark Side of the Lens.

The film takes a look surfing on the west coast of Ireland through the eyes of the renowned surf photographer. Enjoy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1swPZzxv0tI

There has been one discovery that is been shaking the world of physics and that promises a new era of electronics. The new rock star is the new material called the graphene!

Its ability to conduct electrons is off-the-charts, it is transparent (how can it be???) and unbreakable!

Those qualities make graphene a tantalizing alternative for use as a transparent conductor, the sort now found in everything from computer displays and flat panel TVs to ATM touch screens and solar cell. Imagine the potential, there are so many applications. For lack of words, here is video from the Samsung studios in which you will undertsand how graphene will be used everyday.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1nKFW-lDNK8