We all know the internet is “catching on.” It’s becoming harder to remember when it wasn’t around in every home, even though it wasn’t that long ago. It’s how we make a living, something already vital to us and those we work with. It’s crazy to think it could become almost on par with utilities. Finland is headed that way. Wow.
http://mashable.com/2009/10/15/broadband-internet-legal-right-finland/
I know it’s been a while since you heard from us, and believe us, we missed you too. But sometimes, you just have to put your head down and take care of business, you know?
The business we’ve most recently taken care of is a web design project that I’m struggling to describe without using words that I try to avoid when discussing our ultra-important, super-serious, strategically-driven web design work. Words like cute. And adorable.
There may be no way around it.
The most recent addition to our portfolio and client family is The Little House – a boutique children’s clothing store, located for over 40 years in the charming Brookside neighborhood of Kansas City, MO. Success over decades doesn’t happen by accident (I dare you to go to their store and tell me you’d buy your children clothes anywhere else), but they felt that it was time to grace the World Wide Web with a little of their delightfullness. Yes – delightfullness is in no way a real word, but you’re going to have to go with it because it’s all too appropriate. READ MORE →
We’re proud to announce that Republic Tile’s website is live! We’ve been working with them to develop their brand from the ground up, including logo, print collateral, and a website (of course).
Hello Dear Readers,
We so appreciate the time you devote to reading this here blog, that we care deeply about making sure our posts do not waste any of that valuable time. For that reason, this little update will be short and sweet…
Johnny Lightning Strikes Again is on Facebook.
If you haven’t found us there already we wanted to let you know that we’ve joined the entire world on Facebook and are anxiously awaiting your fandom. Check out our page and become a fan here. We’ll try to keep the page full of interesting stuff about us, our inspiration, and our industry.
That’s it for now!
We’re unabashed junkies of culture, addicted to today’s 24/7 datafeeds, spotting of trends like bird-watchers spot, well, birds. This is the first of a (hopefully) weekly list of nifty stuff that might have slipped by you unnoticed.
Gives Me Hope
We’ve all seen and enjoyed the schadenfreude of FML. Seb Lee-Delisle tweeted about an inspirational version of the same thing called Gives Me Hope. As they call themselves “Like FML for optimists”. Unless you’re a charcoal-hearted jerk, you’ll find something on there to bring a hopeful smile to your soul.
Natske Inspired
“canvas” is a new HTML element which allows for the display of scripted visuals. It was first introduced by Apple for the Mac OS X Dashboard but it has made it into modern versions of Safari and Firefox (sorry Internet Explorer users, the following link won’t do much for you). Eric Natzke creates generated artwork. Here’s a link that has been passed around Twitter quite a bit this week that uses the “canvas” element to produce “Natzke inspired” interaction. READ MORE →
Just as the Roman Catholic church once commissioned works from the master artists of their time, so too were we commissioned to create something magnificent – something that would stand the test of time. The only difference is instead of painting the Sistine Chapel, we wrote a theme song. For a blog. For no money. And it was entirely the result of an ongoing joke on Twitter.
People say we are progressing, but I sometimes wonder.
For the people who know me well, it is a known fact that the whole “design firm, alt-pop musician, black clothes” shtick is simply a deceptive disguise for a run-of-the-mill sports fanatic. You may be one to disagree (you’d be wrong), but for me, the absolute most exciting sport to watch is golf. I’m serious; my entire world stands still during the four major golf tournaments. I tell James & Josh that I sit at my desk and work with the tournament on in the background, but that’s a straight-up lie. I watch. I watch hard. READ MORE →
After a year of badgering, David finally caved and bought a road bicycle. Up until that time, he had been riding an old mountain bike he purchased at Wal-Mart back in college. The thing was a heavy armored vehicle that crushed the asphalt beneath its thick treads as David rode. Oh, and although it had gears, they were broken and didn’t shift! More details and images after the jump.
I was fooling about with the behavioral seeking code that drives the fishpond in our former Play section. I’ve just started dipping my toe into the drawing API of Actionscript 3.0 and was interested in having a line draw the path one of my fish would be swimming. The test worked out fine, so I followed through on the idea a little more and added fish, changed behaviors, and so on. I ultimately came up with a nifty random doodle drawing animation where one line wanders at random, another line seeks the wanderer, and then a third line seeks the second line (as pictured below). The topmost line I made the same color as the background so there’d be the illusion of negative space.
Screenshot of the dynamic drawing output
James at The Filling Station
— Update —
Due to popular demand (and an oversight on our part to begin with), the coffee shop in question is Filling Station. The link should give you everything you need to know to make the informed decision to spend the morning there. They serve a mean quiche as well.
