On Wednesday I asked, ‘what did I miss?’ and was happy to receive some great links from commenters, filling me in on a number of product launches, noteworthy articles, and events that had appeared while I was away on honeymoon.
In the interest of sharing them for those of you who might’ve missed them as well, I’ve compiled a list of the most interesting, along with a few choice finds of my own from various RSS subscriptions, and those rather handy email digests sent by Twitter (which really come into their own when you’re away). So, this is what I missed:
Product launches
- Microsoft.com got a makeover thanks to the talented chaps at Paravel, who have also launched a redesign of their own site. (I love everything these guys do, which is why I’ve hired them to redesign the 8 Faces website ready for the next issue’s launch.) For full write-ups on the Microsoft redesign, be sure to check out the blog posts by Nishant and Trent.
- Adobe pulled an impressive rabbit out of the hat with the announcement of their Edge Tools and Services. Some really interesting stuff is coming out of Adobe these days and the Edge apps suddenly make Creative Cloud a much more valuable proposition.
- Linotype: The Film has finally been released! I think it’s been a couple of years since I originally backed the project, so I can’t wait to get my copy of the DVD!
- Speaking of type, check out the Kickstarter for Matthew Anderson’s latest project: NYC Type.
- A teaser trailer for the brand new Myspace has been posted and this represents two major surprises for me: firstly that Myspace is being re-imagined, and secondly that Myspace is still a thing. But despite my cynicism, I have to say: the new Myspace looks pretty bloody impressive. Make sure you watch the video the whole way through. I love their treatment of stats. Beautiful, massive search overlay, too.
- What’s My browser Size? — a simple but handy little website from Jamie Brittain.
- My friends at Five Simple Steps announced a series of Pocket Guides — ‘concise ebooks focusing on specific and timely aspects of web design and development.’ Really looking forward to that. They all sound great!
- Another new product from some friends: the boys at Riot have just released Anvil ahead of their forthcoming Hammer app, both focused around local (Mac-based) development. Check both of them out! Lovely new Riot site, too.
- I haven’t tried it out at all yet, but ReSRC.it looks interesting.
Recommended reading
- The second issue of Codex — my other favourite typography magazine ;) — is out. I guess this is kind of a launch, but as I would strongly recommend Codex as a reading resource, it goes in this list!
- A List Apart is always recommended reading, of course, but two recent articles really caught my eye: ‘Mo’ Pixels Mo’ Problems’, by Dave Rupert (there’s some more Paravel-love for you), and ‘The Infinite Grid’, by Chris Armstrong (one of my friends from the awesome Typecast team).
- Speaking of recommended reading that is always good, Howells has written yet another great post, this time collating some superb quotes on the subject of the ‘flat’ design aesthetic vs. skeuomorphism. I really need to write up my own thoughts on this at some point soon.
- I’m cheating a bit here because this was actually published this Wednesday, but Tim Kadlec’s article on IE10’s Snap Mode outlines a very important technique for catering to Windows 8’s unique handling of responsively-designed sites, so I thought it was worth a mention here.
Events
- Just before I left, the first ever Smashing Conf was held in Freiburg, Germany. (I was asked to speak and would have loved to, but sadly my schedule was just a little too hectic in between getting married and heading off on honeymoon: in between that time we had to release Insites: The Book!) It sounded amazing and I’m hoping I’ll be there next year.
- Sadly, being away meant that I missed this year’s Brooklyn Beta, my favourite event of the conference calendar (not that you could really call it a conference). I’ve heard heaps of incredible things about BB3, which comes as no surprise. If you haven’t attended yet, do. I’ll see you at number four. Much love to Chris and Cameron.
I love our industry. Look at all the cool shit we’ve done in a month!
Let me know in the comments if you think there’s anything I’ve missed.