Roadmap Rerun: Erik Spiekermann on Apple, modesty and typefaces
Fonts are font-astic! Listen in as Erik Spikermann talks about why typeface is so cool and important for a brand. Taken from our recent Roadmap conference.
Twitter’s IPO #pops, Microsoft’s CEO search narrows and people love fonts
On the podcast this week: Twitter’s big piles of money, Microsoft’s small pile of potential CEOs, and the surprising popularity of typefaces.
Infogr.am tries to keep the ugly out of graphic design
The number of free tools available to novice graphic designers has grown in recent years. GigaOM’s editorial producer Rani Molla tries out the latest, Infogr.am.
Gotta love that long tail: Walls360 goes on-demand with Zazzle
Graphic design startup Walls360 has teamed with Zazzle to let consumers create and sell their own custom wall graphics via Zazzle’s self-service customization platform. With more than 10,000 designs already uploaded, the partnership reinforces the power of an on-demand, long-tail business model online.
How startup life is different when you’re building stuff, not apps
Walk into the offices of most technology startups, and you’ll see lots of open space, lots of desks and lots of programmers hacking away at code. Walk into the office of a startup that’s creating physical products, and it’s a different experience.
Clear(ly), it’s time to say bye-bye to buttons
With its new iOS app, Clear, Realmac Software has taken the “less is more” axiom to its ultimate conclusion. Fjord’s Alfred Lui and Aynne Valencia explain why we’ll soon see more of this stripped-down approach to interface design, thanks to three big industry trends.
60% of YouTube’s video ads are skippable
Google SVP of ads Susan Wojcicki said on the company’s earnings call that 60 percent of all video ads that appear on YouTube are TrueView ads, meaning that viewers can skip it and move on to the video if it’s not relevant or interesting.
Snapseed on the Mac is a great tool for hobbyist photographers
Snapseed, Apple’s iPad app of the year for 2011, is available on the Mac as of Thursday via the Mac App Store. It’s more expensive than the iOS version, but cheaper than a lot of the photo editing competition. So how does it stack up?
Wacom Inkling easily converts hand drawings to vector
Wacom’s newest digital drawing capture device is a genuine pen-and-ink clipboard that captures, stores and then transfers your real-life drawings to your computer as layered vector files. Called the Inkling, it’s an amazing peripheral that could change the lives of graphic artists and casual doodlers alike.
How 99Designs Bootstrapped Its Way to Profits
99Designs acquired a devoted customer base, logged millions in annual revenue, and achieved profitable operations without taking on a dime of venture capital. I sat down with employee number one and CTO Lachlan Donald to find out how the company bootstrapped its way to profitability.