The celebration of processes and stories is one of the big steps towards recognition of the creative technologist in our society. Following the discovery of a blog about Interactive Producers the past weekend at iPro, it was nice to found out about the redesign of This Happened, on a twip (? a twitter tip) by Brendan Dawes.

The event website, focuses on the stories behind interaction design projects, their concepts and the production process behind many interaction design and digital companies.
Forthcoming events on the 23rd Feb 2009 at Utrecht and on the 12th Mar in London, but you can also watch past talks online and follow them on twitter.

Founded on 2007 by Chris O’Shea, Joel Gethin Lewis and Andreas Müller, it has now over 20 past talks, from United Visual Artists to the co-founder of the Arduino Project.

Just a quick note about a new tool, Multicolr Search Lab, that extracts the colours from 10 million of the most “interesting” Creative Commons images on Flickr. Just select your colors and get your Flickr colored and filtered photo.

Really useful when you’re looking for a comp photo that goes well with your artwork.
IdeeInc had previously developed Visual Search Labs, but this one seems a lot more useful.

EDIT (11/06/08): Celso is pushing the idea further, and created the Moo Crowdsourcing Flickr Pool. Join in and submit up to 7 selected works.
I also got in touch with the Moo staff, to see if they extend this idea. Thanks everyone. I will be delighted to feature your works on my Moo cards, with a great story to tell.

Are you an gifted illustrator? A sharp eye photographer ? A kick-ass graphic designer ?
Then leave a comment with your URL , send me an email or post to the Flickr Pool.
I’m ordering some Moo Minicards and would love to promote your great work.

This post will be updated with the selected sets and URLs. It’s also a great chance to find out the extraordinary talent of some of my readers and/or their friends. Thanks.

Example: submit to the Flickr group or comment with the address to your Behance portfolio page, as long as your Creative Commons license allows it.

Submissions:

• Pedro Pinheiro
  http://flickr.com/photos/pedromourapinheiro/sets/72157605513326102
• Andre:
  http://andrenussbaumer.110mb.com

Tickets are sold out for a while, and the new site by José Carlos and Nuno Ribeiro, has released the schedule for OFFF Lisbon’08, so now i can plan my attendance at the meanest and biggest design/technology event ever to take place in Portugal.

With so much to see and so little time, here’s the current schedule:

Also available as a Google iCal for the 3 venues: ROOTS (iCal), OPENROOM (iCal) and LOOPITA (iCal).

See you in Alcantara, Lisbon in a few days.
(Drop a comment and we might arrange a meetup).

hCalendar event:

Interactive design is no longer geek talk, with a MoMa exhibit there to prove it. Yugop (aka Yugo Nakamura), a long time interactive visionary, produced the Elastic Mind website, where you can find interactive inspiration for the next decade, by innovators from the past decade. That simple.

http://www.moma.org/exhibitions/2008/elasticmind/

From maps to origamis, mashups or sensory design, it’s like the living encyclopedia of interactive design.
The website features even more works than the gallery exhibit, with photos, videos and description on each project. Ben Fry, Philips Research Labs, GRL and, of course, Jonathan Harries, are all there. There’s a search feature if you can’t find them.
If only NY wasn’t across the ocean …

Support No!Spec. Or at least, think about it.

We, the undersigned, are against speculative work and presentations for the following reasons:

Spec work does not guarantee compensation for the designer or an appropriate solution for the client. It is an unprofessional practice because it takes away from a designer’s time and billable projects.

The very nature of spec work virtually ensures that clients will not get well-researched or executed solutions.

Spec work does not contribute to the overall image or branding of a client because it is often sought out for one-off pieces – it actually serves to dilute the brand, which can be extremely harmful to the client.

In addition, spec work devalues the communication design profession. It reduces communication design to a commodity, rather than to a specialized service.

Now the circle is complete: http://www.offf.ws/.

It’s a no-brainer to have their next edition at Lisbon, with so many Portuguese new media designers traveling to Barcelona since OFFF’s 1st edition, an obvious choice after Mexico and New York.

OFFF is the Post-Digital Creation Culture Festival, “exploring software aesthetics and new languages for interactive and visual expression” since 2001.

Past participants in OFFF include legends of graphic design and visual communication like Neville Brody,  Tomato, Kyle Cooper  or Stefan Sagmeister; acknowledged software artistssuch as Jared Tarbell, Lia, Casey Reas y Ben Fry, or Daniel Brown; innovators of the moving image like We work for Them, Tronic Studio, D-Fuse or Renascent; explorers of advanced interaction like Soda, James Paterson, Amit Pitaru or Craig Swann; and the most important names that have defined the aesthetics of the experimental and creative side of the Web: Joshua Davis, Yugo Nakamura, Hi-Res!, Josh Ulm, or Erik Natzke. The festival has also a special spot for the main names in the Spanish scene (Area3, Vasava, Innothna, Cocoe, Dani Granatta, La Mosca…) and for creators of surprising new kinds of sonic landscapes: Tujiko Noriko, The Vegetable Orchestra, Sutekh, Taylor Deupree, System, Daedelus, Stephan Mathieu, Kenneth Kirschner…

A tip to organizers: how about changing the url to http://www.offf.ws/lx
So this year, instead of going to Barcelona, i’m staying home.

Update – PRESS RELEASE (November 26th 2007)
(Courtesy of Rui Vieira , roughly translated by me)

OFFF MOVES TO LISBON

Because the geography of post-digital art is based on continuous motion.

Because frontiers are just lines on a map.

Because OFFF is not about where. It is about when, what, who and how.

Because OFFF is a dynamic event.

Because the time is right for a change

And change means evolution

Because all of that, OFFF MOVES TO LISBON!

OFFF’08
8, 9, 10 May 2008
LISBON, PORTUGAL

LX FACTORY

See you there !

OFFF is a a groundbreaking festival, exploring the latest trends in the disciplines of digital aesthetics and programming. OFFF features artists that defined new paths and design patterns on new media, an essential celebration in the world of digital creation. A one of the kind event.

OFFF LISBON 2008 is organized by Inofffensive (Barcelona) in partnership with 50DONE (Lisbon).

LINKS

About OFFF video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J9t5NuRYGK0

OFFF Websites
http://www.offf.ws/
http://www.offf.ws/bcn/
http://www.offf.ws/nyc/

The web has just lost one of his most inspiring members: Pixelsurgeon.
The webzine and design publication, that was there for me in the beginning of my web days, has just closed after 7 years of fresh design content.

To editors, authors and collaborators, my sincere admiration and respect, with the best of luck to future projects.
Let’s hope that DesignIsKinky and Kaliber10000 manage to stay afloat, or else i’ll feel like i’m getting really old.

At racheldiamondphotography.com you will not only find great photography, but also some fresh new work by old time interactive and design master Eric Jordan of 2advanced.

What a great set of wallpapers these illustrations would give.