New work: Website StudioSpass

My good friends Jaron Korvinus and Daan Mens of StudioSpass have launched their brand new website! It has been in the works for the last couple of months. The coding and design work has been done by Erik Gelderblom and myself.

Although I’m very happy about how the design turned out, I must say the one stealing the show is the beautiful portfolio work itself. The guys have done a great job photographing all their valuables. I’m personally particularly fond of the pages with their work for De Wereld Van Witte De With ‘11 and of course our own Fontanel Jobs.

» Go check it out!

How Ad Agencies Can Act More Like Tech Startups

Very interesting read by Adam Glickman (founder of The IdeaLists), a creative platform that matches ideas with talent. He argues that ad agencies can learn a lot from the way technology startups are run, both in execution as in initial ideation. Some nice quotes:

Tech startups are based around automation and efficiencies. Agency business models are based around increasing billable services. 

…

Using the Web 2.0 approach, we envision agencies becoming aggregates: decentralized networks of ideas and specialized talent where creative directors work more like creative curators, able to tap into an eclectic database at need rather than relying on a single, convenient team that must continuously justify their cost.

…

Tech startups begin with the big idea, then seek to monetize. Agencies start with a budget, then seek the big idea.

» How Ad Agencies Can Act More Like Tech Startups

Garance Doré – Les Parisiennes

I usually find that the whole ‘fashion blog’ world isn’t really my cup of tea, being a bit too over the top. Although my knowledge about this world is very limited I do think that Garance Doré (the other half of The Sartorialist) is doing a great job with these short video’s. Instead of being overly fake, they manage to get across a personal and authentic feel.

» Garance Doré — Pardon My French

New website Condé Nast

Nice new website of worldwide publisher Condé Nast, known for titles like GQ, Vogue, Wired, Vanity Fair and many more. Usually ‘corporate’ websites like these have a much lower priority than the content, but Your Majesty seem to have done a good job at giving them a professional, minimalist appearance which let’s the brands shine.

» New website Condé Nast

Entrepreneurship is the safest career there exists today.

Despite its reputation, entrepreneurship also a much more secure occupation than having a job. Being a competent, skilled entrepreneur means having the ability to seek out business opportunities and make money out of them. No matter the business climate - boom, bust, depression, recession, or even war - there are always business opportunities and so there will always “be work” for entrepreneurs.

Interesting point Daniel Tenner makes about the fact that being an entrepeneur teaches you to role with the punches, recession or not. Something which is harder to train when you’re in a full-time job.

And also that being an entrepeneur is not a race to the end (i.e. being a millionaire), but a goal in itself.

» Entrepreneurship is the safest career there exists today

iOS in ‘86

Great stylesketches from Anton Repponen, visualizing what the iPhone’s iOS would have looked like would it have been made in 1986.

» iPhone iOS in ‘86

Criticism, Cynicism & Sharpening Your Gut Instinct

Time and time again, creative people are given two pieces of advice: (1) Listen to your critics and seek feedback, but also (2) Ignore your critics and follow your intuition. Clearly, there’s a powerful contradiction here inneed of reconciliation.

Interesting read by one of my favorite blogs of the moment the 99 percent. It argues there is a big difference between criticism and cynicism:

Criticism
“Criticism is doubt informed by curiosity and a deep knowledge of a discipline related to your work. Whether the criticism you receive is constructive or not, it comes from knowledge.”

Cynicism
“By contrast, cynicism is a form of doubt resulting from ignorance and antiquated ways. Industry experts will often express doubt based on an ingrained muscle memory of past experiences that handicaps their vision for the future.”

» Criticism, Cynicism & Sharpening Your Gut Instinct

Keep it real.

Interesting read by my man Nalden, finally sharing his thoughts and visions on the landscape he is working in. The article goes in to depth about his own explorations with ‘personal branding’ and gives some straight up, un-asked feedback from your friendly neighborhood webwalker.

“Tips to forget personal branding and built a reputation by focusing on that one thing you like most.”

» Keep it real.

New Kayak website

For all you UX’ies out there: Pay attention to the new Kayak website. Kayak is a self proclaimed tech company focused on making online travel better. Having made similar interfaces in the past, and therefore knowing how incredibly complex it can be, I think they have done a great job in creating a fresh new approach to the harsh online travel booking market.

» New Kayak website