Design Notes + Photos

As we explore possibilities for Tell Me DC, I am reminded of Corey Greeneltch's discussion at Refresh DC August. Corey illustrates the fundamental connections between art history and web design. At the meetup, we reviewed works of fine art (the old and venerable kind) and websites to discuss ideas of creation, inspiration and innovation.

How Art and Design Inform Each Other

Too often, we work without looking at the root of our curiosities and interests. We spend too much time "idea shopping" at CSS galleries.  Corey has nothing against inspiration-seeking. What he suggests is not that we slow down our systems of capturing but that we "learn the basics" of what makes design worth clipping in the first place.

We are natural clippers, so while we can't force inspiration, we can prepare for its arrival.

The challenge is this. We strive for flow: the mental context within which our best ideas are explored, measured and perfected. Flow is extremely valuable because it is hard to achieve. Between e-mail and client meetings, we lose sight of innovation and learning.

Luckily, many of us have had the privilege to connect disciplines--Corey, for instance, coming from a studio and liberal arts background. The truth is that artists, philosophers and violists make really good web people. A "right oriented" brain is simply a more connected brain.

Corey remind us that every critique we've had in school serves a purpose today. We appreciate them now, because we realize how much  stronger our work becomes after suggestion (the extra set of eyes; Nielsen's 5-person usability testing).

I hope you join my friends at Tell Me DC, who are seeking to showcase design talent as perceived from our design community. Follow @tellmedc and tell them you want to contribute (the group blog is powered by Tumblr, the super easy way to post just about anything). Only a few days old, so be nice!

See more photos from Corey's Refresh DC session >

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Curation is the latest trend, so we thought you might like to share tidbits that inspire you--as they come. Tell Me DC is a local design scrapbook edited by DC graphic and web designers (we are 3 for now). A fun experiment. Become part of it.

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Sent from my iPhone

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DC-based Phil Jones is like me: a web developer with a passion for art and photography. Last week, he gave a talk to artists at Hamiltonian Gallery. He recommends popular web services to artists looking to share their work in a more efficient and social manner. He mentioned Tumblr, Flickr, and Google applications (Feedburner, Docs) and how they are integrated into artists' websites. He also advocated for ShareThis/AddThis.

I was thrilled to see that Phil included my own blog as an example, an application powered by Posterous. As you know, I'm an advocate of the service since I switched over to lifestreaming in the summer. Posterous is releasing more features for lifestreamers than any other service on the web. If you haven't felt its power, see Steve Rubel's posterous blog. The Edelman-hired media professional is an evangelist for the start-up. Listen to him--he is usually ahead of the curve when it comes to web innovation.

Joining Phil tonight is Greg Lavallee, software engineer at The Washington Post.

Phil Jones works for CITI (Community IT Innovators), an employee-owned web development studio on U Street corridor. I am excited to see tech folks mingling with the DC art community, and looking forward to more!

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During the week of September 14-21, 2009, we're asking individuals to step up and make a difference by using the Web to better their community. We're looking for people who want to share, give, engage, create, and collaborate by offering their time and talent to local organizations and people who need their help.

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About the Redesign

• BusinessWeek Drops the Serifs (Brand New)
• John A. Byrne: A Few Words About Our New Look (BusinessWeek.com)

You should follow John Byrne on Twitter. He understands the power of social media for news organizations. See how and why he uses Twitter (video link).

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I'm a big fan of Philippa Hughes's Weekly Arty Picks. She never fails to make me think, laugh, or consider a new DC space. Her non-profit--The Pink Line Project--constantly finds creative ways to bridge interdisciplinary themes and personalities in the area, centered around art events and design happenings.

The Pink Line's website redesign is one of the best examples of an interactive calendar I've seen for art-related events, from a design and technology standpoint.

The Design

Content first: the best way to get to an idea. The overall look/feel: clean, playful, professional, flexible. Plenty of white space lets the event content and images take center stage.

Philippa's web team definitely took time to think about what we may want from an arts calendar. You can browse events by date, neighborhood and event type. This is great! I've always wanted a way to filter events by neighborhood, for instance--something conventional blog posts cannot do easily.

You will notice that there is hardly any pink on the site, an intentional design choice that I applaud. The subtle, crisp color palette serves a valuable purpose: to showcase photos and art without the clashing of colors, the overuse of widgets, and other busyness the eye doesn't need.

The Technology

The new site is built using one of the best open-source Content Management Systems on the web: Drupal. The CMS will allow Philippa and her staff to easily add content to the calendar and blog sections. We are also able to browse through events without having to wait for page reloads. The website follows current best practices in web development: it degrades super nicely (as a Drupal site should), and the AJAX scripting motivates user interaction while remaining unobtrusive.

Sharing

The Pink Line gets social with sharing features: send an event to a friend, or share via social networks like Facebook and StumbleUpon. Being able to tweet about an event from the event details pane would be a nice addition for a future release.

Pink Line Recommends

While the site focuses on highlighting DC art events and creative venues, it never loses its identity as a key player in the community. From upcoming Pink Line projects, to recommended Pink Line picks, we will not feel out of the loop. 

What You Should Do Next

You can still keep up with Philippa's personal blog, but definitely add The Pink Line's website to your bookmarks for the ultimate fix. Sign up to receive her e-mails. Submit an upcoming art event. Smile at the fact that you no longer have to look very far to see what's hot in the DC art and creative worlds.

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How do you connect over 200,000 current and returned Peace Corps Volunteers with the African Diaspora, development practitioners, scholars, technology innovators, and anyone who cares about Africa to change lives? Africa Rural Connect [ARC]. You have the power to help solve rural Africa's greatest challenges – simply add your voice, your comments, your ideas... Your idea could win up to $3,000 each month.  In November, the best action plan wins $20,000 – plus opportunities to meet with leaders in the development community to discuss bringing those ideas to life.

Not a bad incentive to get involved! The Africa Rural Connect project is an online initiative made possible by the National Peace Corps Association. Kudos to Whitmoyer (Nick and Phil) for the great site architecture and stunning design. Infamia and Wegora were also involved in the production of this fantastic web project.

                   

Check out Phil Foss on Flickr for his photos of the launch party: they paint a better picture of the place than the ones I've posted. Cheers to you, Phil!

More photos! These are the official party pictures, courtesy of photographer, blogger and technologist Nakeva C.

The event was held at Local 16 (see the poster invite). Visit the Africa Rural Connect website to learn more. You can also follow ARC on Twitter or join the ARC group on Facebook.

What blogs are saying about Africa Rural Connect

• Local Firms Partner to Create Africa Rural Connect Project - East Coast Blogging; July 22, 2009
• Innovations for African Farmers - BusinessWeek.com; July 22, 2009
• Your Ideas Can Be the Catalyst for Change in Africa - EchoDitto; July 21, 2009
• Press Release: NPCA Launches Africa Rural Connect - Peace Corps Connect; July 21, 2009
• Africa Rural Connect is finally here! - Peace Corps Polyglot; July 14, 2009

Do you have photos or blog posts about ARC? Send them my way at blog [at] vincentgallegos.com. I'll include them here. Thanks for supporting the cause!

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Added July 28: View the photo recap for this event.

Join us for a fun evening to mark the beginning of an exciting new online initiative, Africa Rural Connect.

ARC will bring together Returned Peace Corps Volunteers, technology innovators, Africa Scholars, development workers, and anyone else with an interest in Sub-Saharan Africa to create the best ideas to improve the lives of rural farmers.

This event also marks the launch of Wegora, a site platform made especially for online collaboration.

We hope that you'll stop by to converse with friends, meet new people, and learn more about these projects!!

Feel free to extend the invitation to others. Look for us and the drink specials upstairs.

Africa Rural Connect: http://www.AfricaRuralConnect.org

Here is the Facebook Invite. I thank my buddy @Whitmoyer, for the invitation. Nick has done an incredible job designing ARC's new web presence and campaign media tools.

Tuesday, July 21, 2009
6:00pm - 9:00pm

Local 16
1602 U Street, NW
Washington, DC

View Larger Map

(Invitation image courtesy of nickwhitmoyer)

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View the presentation slides (courtesy of Jason Garber and M. Jackson Wilkinson -- see my photo recap of this month's event).

Refresh DC (website / twitter) is a unique event that gathers super talented professionals from all walks of web life for monthly talks and happy hour. Some of the best designers, developers, and social media pros form this energetic and impassioned community.

One of my favorite pals from my old days at Refresh DC is Justin Thorp, a true connector and web evangelist (pictured left). He works as a community manager at Clearspring. Check out his blog, where he discusses human behavior as it relates to online communities and web trends generally. His blog posts are insightful and authoritative. He is humble and often initiates great dialogue. You can follow him on Twitter.

More Refresh DC personalities here.

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