Mark Bult Design: San Francisco, CA, Established 1988
Web design and development for small and large business, e-commerce, b2b, b2c, SAAS, and community websites. User experience design and usability testing.
I'm still drunk from the party (which may still be going on, for all I know, I had to come back to work to do some stuff), but we just celebrated Download.com's 10th birthday, which was Monday. There was an awesome cake (low-quality camera-phone photo tomorrow) and these spiffy T-shirts. Which I designed. So I'm really just bragging.
Anyway, it's really the back that's cool, so you have to click the image above to see that. And it was (co-worker) Greg Penhaligon's idea, so I can't even take credit for that.
By the way, that's the real number, as of a week ago!
Posted by espd at 9:13 PM |
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Thursday, October 19, 2006
Thursday top 5
1. Motion-Wave Definitely my #1 site of the week. Amazing web dev skillz on this dude from Seoul, Korea. www.motion-wave.com/mw_4/mw_p4.htm
3. Hunters Point Open Studios This site kinda sucks, it really doesn't show the voluminous amount of excellent quality art at Hunters Point Artists Studios, but it gives you some details if you wanna go. The fall Open Studios is October 28 and 29. I try to go at least once a year, it's fantastic. www.thepointart.com
4. New Sony Bravia TV ad The follow-up to the inspired rubber balls ad that was making the rounds on the net last year. www.bravia-advert.com
5. Personal Kyoto The U.S. Government won't sign on, but that doesn't mean you can't do it on your own. http://personal-kyoto.org
tags: top 5, video, advertising, environment, web dev, art, music
Posted by espd at 6:07 PM |
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Posted by espd at 9:43 PM |
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Google launches Mac blog
Maybe I was a bit premature in thinking Google's new Mac page was perhaps more for show than substance.
According to a post by the new Mac Product Manager on the new Google Mac Blog, they've got a dedicated team together and are looking to hire more.
tags: tech, google, apple
Posted by espd at 8:12 PM |
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CNET's new look and sexy new gadgets blog
CNET.com has introduced a redesigned header and footer for all the "redball" sites, CNET.com, News.com, Download.com, Shopper, and Reviews.
Gone is the all-yellow background and the black and dark green has been fading away for several months. They adopted the blue link color I specified for Download.com in January and borrowed a few things from Webshots (like the prominent yellow search bar) and some of the last Download.com designs I did.
Now the site looks light and airy by comparison. They still have a ways to go, but this is not a criticism. Having worked there, I know how immensely difficult it is to redesign such a massive site with thousands of pages, dozens of pagetypes, and scores of use cases and user-states.
Incidentally, they also introduced yesterday a sexy new gadgets blog called Crave, which will go up against the likes of Engadget, CrunchGear, and Aurum3's NewTech.
tags: webdesign, design, cnet, tech, gadgets
Posted by espd at 7:12 PM |
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I'm urging you to vote no on Prop 90 because it will: weaken protection for old-growth forests, artificially inflate the fair market price of land, introduce deep problems in the regulatory environment, and is likely to cost the state — and therefore us, the taxpayers — millions or possbly billions of dollars.
"In Oregon, two years after passage of similar legislation, Prop. 37, more than 1,800 claims have been filed seeking $3.7 billion in compensation," notes the Save-the-Redwoods League, which is among the many groups that has come out against Prop. 90.
Posted by espd at 10:26 PM |
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Digg it
In case you haven't noticed, last week I added links at the bottom of each post for adding to Digg.com, Slashdot, and bookmarking on del.icio.us. If you don't already at least use del.icio.us, you should consider it. And Digg is an awesome source for peer-vetted news and links.
Posted by espd at 10:12 PM |
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2006 clients
Here's a brief list of clients I need to add to my portfolio page soon. I also want to write up case studies for a couple of these, but that's going to take some time.
Mark & Velma Mark & Velma's Hitchin' Party website, invitations, assorted collateral
Webshots.com website redesign
UrbanBaby.com website redesign (in progress)
Consumating.com website redesign (in progress)
People for Land and Nature (PLAN) Santa Clara County Land Conservation Initiative (Measure A) campaign materials, logo, stationery
Palo Alto Historical Association map for "Parks of Palo Alto" booklet
Animal Welfare Institute (with Fenton Communications) brochure (in progress)
Wine, Women & Shoes (with Virginia Thurston Healing Garden) event invitation, stationery, and assorted collateral
The offerings are a little paltry, but it's a nice thing to see nevertheless.
However, one has to wonder how far it will go. Mostly it's just widgets and Firefox extensions, and several of the items listed on the page were products that had already been developed by other companies, for the Mac, when those companies were purchased by Google.
In fact, it's highly likely that this page appeared by direction of Google CEO Eric Schmidt, who joined Apple's board of directors in August.
"Apple is engaged in probably the most remarkable second act ever seen in technology," he told Time magazine. "Its resurgence is simply phenomenal and extremely impressive."
On another note: Is the slightly stylized Google logo on this page a portent of things to come? Will Google sport an updated logo soon, or is this just for the benefit of the Mac folks?
tags: Google, branding, logos, Mac, Apple
Posted by espd at 10:51 AM |
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Tuesday, October 10, 2006
Free hugs
This is awesome. Made me tear up *snif*. Pretty cool song too.
Posted by espd at 1:50 PM |
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"So, many of you know that I am the Director of Retail Operations for Tower Records in northern California. Some of you may know that Tower has been for sale for some time, and weathered some pretty monumental challenges with bigbox and the internet.
As of today, Tower was purchased by a liquidator and will be closing its doors forever, over the next several weeks. I've spent the last 14 years of my life with this company, and while it has certainly lost some of the greatness that was there in the 70's and 80's, it is still one of the best out there..."
Total bummer as far as I'm concerned. The San Jose store on Bascom and the Mountain View location with the bookstore have been my mainstays since I was a kid. I bought my first records (yes, vinyl) and cassettes at the Bascom store. Probably my first CDs there too. I bought my first first-day-new-release Ozzy album there. I bought my first concert tickets there. I bought my first Japanese import vinyl and first 'zine at the Mountain View store — my dad used to take me there after church on Sundays and I'd spend an hour or more going through the awesome selection of obscure magazines from all around the world.
I'm so bummed, especially that Mountain View and surrounding environs will be deprived of any sort of record/CD shop worth going to. Not to mention that it was still the best place to get magazines on the lower Peninsula.
What a surprise, the Arastradero Preserve Gateway Facility is still not done. Here's a pretty good article from the Mercury News.
I used to work for the City of Palo Alto, and it's notorious for its bureacracy and foot-dragging; especially the planning department. Still, I'm a little surprised it's not done yet.
Aaron
Alexis
Anne
Anya
April & Matt
Ari
Bo
Brian
Bryan
Chris
Cousin Carol
Dave & Terri
Dave H.
Debby
Drue
Fibu
Four Waters
Fwegan (aka Ynnej)
Gary
Holly
Hilary
Internet Rockstar
James & Eric
Jason
Jen
Jesse
Jessica
Joey
Kansinee
Karl
Kelly
Laura
Leah
Marc
Martin
Matt
Mike
Morgan
OkayDave
Olya
Paco
Peter
Rick
Rocky
Ryan
Stellah
Tatum 
Trent
Velma
Veronica
Whiskey Media
Yuliya
Yu-Po