We are branching out from the internets and mobile apps and plastering our creations on bigger “canvases” all over Times Square. If you happen to be one of the 33 million people walking through times Square in The Big Apple between now and the end of the month – look up, you cant miss us. You can also check out the interactive ads from a web cam here. For more information about the campaign click here.
For those of you that spend your time in cold dark places coding and designing, you should check out SF Beta – San Francisco’s largest monthly startup mixer (the “king of Web 2.0 mixers”). Since launching in September, 2006, SF Beta has brought together thousands of people from hundreds of startups, creating innumerable connections along the way. Some people go to be social, some to make business connections, and many attend to do both.
For those of you who go regularly, you will notice the brand-spanking new logo – crafted lovingly by AVANTians for your event attending pleasure. But wait! That wasnt enough – we dig SF Beta SO MUCH we went ahead and created a whole family of logos for Beta events popping up all over the country! They’re like bed bugs… but… more fun. Check ‘em all out here.
We are proud to sponsor another GeekSessions event Tuesday, February 22nd, 6:30pm-10:30pm. This event focuses on the ever evolving world of UI development. From retro game emulators written in HTML 5, Flash interpreters written in Javascript, new tools like Unity, Mobile platforms, Multi-touch, and more. The field has never been more compelling or more complex! Come join us at this valuable community event: Founders Den, Google Map: 665 3rd St, San Francisco.
Almost anyone can get their hands on what they need in order to be a digital product inventor. That is to say: anyone can gain access to the fundamental design, development and production tools one needs to create a product. The digital product development space benefits from open access to a variety of tools and methods for developing digital products – including support programs like BizSpark, free trial software, FREE software, endless online tutorials, and open source solutions. Not only is there easy access to the tools, but the tools available do so much of the work for budding product inventors that the barrier to entry for coding is potentially low (depending on the sophistication of the product-to-be). So, what about the right product idea? Pretty much everyone I talk to – in and outside of the interactive industry – has a digital product idea, as well. Whether it’s for the web, TV or mobile pretty much everyone remotely interested in technology, (isn’t that everyone?), either has a product idea or could come up with one. A successful product idea doesn’t even need to be unique: most VCs agree that existing competition shows a real need and market for a product. One might think that this means inventing a digital product is easy: access + great tools + ideas = success. Right?
Well, lets be frank: it’s easier then it was a few years ago to create and launch a product – and its going to get easier in many respects. However, the reality of creating successful digital products is that the development processes can be fairly complex for a company building for the future. And by development, I don’t simply mean the actual coding, engineering, or testing tasks. I refer to the development of the product idea and user experience, as well. When considering the impact of decisions regarding business model, user experience, technology platforms (language, servers, scalability, etc.), operations, and more – it amounts to quite a claim stake with potentially little or no ultimate value or success to show for the effort in the end – except maybe some hard lessons learned. As an older and well respected colleague of mine said a few weeks ago: “… if you create a good product you might send your kid to state college. But the difference between that and actually launching a truly successful digital product is vast.”
We have been using a nifty application called Kaleidoscope, and we must say it is a pretty sweet application. The main functionality of this application allows us to do visual file comparisons very quickly. One is able to compare text and images side by side manually, or use the instant search function by using keyboard arrow keys and jumping from change to change.
What we found very useful was being able to spot the smallest details on retouches and color changes. There are several layout aids that you can choose from that help you spot the differences quickly and efficiently. The work flow on Kaleidoscope is easy as well! Just simply drag and drop multiple files whether they are png, psd, jpeg, tiff, etc. We are also thrilled about the UI design! We recommend you give this application a try and tell us what you think! check it out here.
We are very excited to announce the public opening of the Computer History Museum’s latest and greatest 25,000 square foot permanent exhibit “Revolution: The First 2000 Years of Computing“.
The Computer History Museum (CHM) is home to the world’s largest information technology collection, and with this new exhibit space unveils a 21st century makeover with its newly renovated building, more than double the exhibition space, added research and education components, and a vast new digital platform.
“Over the last year AVANT has been collaborating with CHM on a number of interactive screens including games, video captures and motion graphics. It has been an extremely fulfilling experience to contribute to the largest museum collection of technology in history. I believe one gains the best insight for where technology is going by studying its past, and now everyone can experience the genesis of technology first hand in this new exhibit. Watching the exhibit come together along with all of the museum renovations was thrilling and memorable!”
- Michael Kemper, Founder + Principal
There is something for everyone at Revolution, its an amazing interactive retrospective of technology. Filled with interactive displays, games, and exhibits, it truly is the ideal experience for learning and playing for all ages. You can learn more about CHM at their website: http://www.computerhistory.org. Check out some of the work AVANT produced for the new exhibit here.
Congratulations to the CHM team for pulling off this titanic achievement!
We Dream Halloween pairs 20 San Francisco school children (ages 5-8) with fashion design and merchandizing students to create dream Halloween costumes.
California College of the Arts is hosting this community project at their Potrero Hill campus, and students from San Francisco State University have joined in the effort as well. Faculty from both schools, along with professionals in fashion and costume design, are serving as consultants throughout the process. Each team (comprised of a student designer, a child and a parent) will design and craft a costume based on the theme “Into the Forest”. The project will culminate in a fashion show parade on Halloween at the Exploratorium.
Work Session I was held at CCA on Sunday, September 19th. Prior to this session, children came up with costume ideas, which the design students then translated into sketches. Professional clothing designer Miranda Caroligne was on hand to provide students with her expert guidance. Organizers anticipate additional professional designers will participate on work session II, Saturday, October 2nd.
In an effort to use recycled and re-purposed materials whenever possible, much of the fabric and supplies will be purchased from SCRAP.
Community involvement is at the foundation of AVANT’s business vision. The AVANT team is inspired by this fun and educational celebration of creativity, community and artistic expression.
“Providing a platform for constructive play is an important part of our company culture. We are proud to sponsor an event that empowers youth to explore design and art – hopefully planting seeds that flourish into lifetime endeavors for those involved.”
- Michael Kemper, Founder + Principal
Stay tuned for future updates as the project moves forward. Check out the facebook page and photos from the event.
The driving force for switching to HTML5 and CSS3 is getting sites compliant for the ipad / iphone. We can say that we are moving technology forward just for the sake of it, or because we want to code to web standards. But lets face it – we need a practical reason to make the jump, and Apple has given us just that. They are pushing HTML5 on their iOS platform and since their platform is the market leader, that is where designers are going to go.
A few days ago Apple published a useful demos to thier site – an HTML5 demo page that shows exactly how to use HTML5 to accomplish different tasks a la iOS
http://developer.apple.com/safaridemos/
I especially like the typography demo, as that is one of the more pressing issues, in my mind. These demos represent a major push by Apple to incorporate standards – based development practices into the ecosystem of their products, and AVANT is paying attention. Did you hear that Apple surpassed Microsoft as the tech company worth the most money? Not a fact to be ignored.
Recently, this HTML5 info graphic made the rounds here at AVANT. It was really interesting for a lot of reasons, partially because we are positioning ourselves strategically with clients and partners. But the main interest to me (as a producer) was the impact on production work flow – the browser compatibility chart. What stood out more than anything else was that Internet Explorer, once again, is incompatible in its support for the technology that several others seem to be getting behind. Is the Silverlight play SO important that Microsoft intends to leverage XAML against the rogue wave of HTML5? Is that going to be the development battle ground for the next phase of Mac vs. PC?
I understand that Microsoft has made an effort, that their business is built around proprietary software, IE8 was a big step up, and that IE9 will be even bigger in the right direction. But honestly, its not enough – soon enough – if the focus on UX is REALLY a goal for Microsoft. If this graphic is correct, then it appears that we will have to continue designing for multiple browsers in order to extend apps to multiple devices: All reasonable browsers, IE7, IE8, IE9, sometimes IE6 (still). Our goal is generally the best UX, and we would rather focus on that over bug testing syntax shifts for IE.
As if the promise of HTML 5 wasnt cool enough, watching the new TRON trailer using the new <video> tag gets us all hot and bothered. Check it out here along with other cool demos on new HTML 5 features. Looks like the pluggin-based web may be getting the End of Line from Master Control.
