We hosted a 4:59 workshop with a few of our favorite 4:59ers and decided to base this year’s display on the Festival poster, designed by a student group through OSU’s 208 Design studio. The original design used plexiglass, hand cut letters and wire. Our translation also uses plexiglass and wire, and then cut vinyl (thanks to our friends at NW Graphic Imaging). Add in a couple of vintage theater seats, courtesy of Truen, and some popcorn tubs from the Darkside Cinema … and, ta-da! Window display complete. Cool thing is that most of the signs can be used again in the future. The Festival staff love that.

If you’re in or around Corvallis, you can check it out in person at Footwise on 3rd and Madison.

A few photos from this year’s workshop and installation.

And if you’re curious, here’s what we did last year.

“I found my perfect match on Matchbook. Johnathan Curry was willing to work with our non-profit budget (small!) on a database rebuild project. He understood my needs for keeping things simple, making it functional and still managed to add flair/creativity to a project as boring as a database. Best yet, he was very nice to work with and stayed within our budget.”

Awe… that just makes us feel special. Thanks, Cynthia.

Have you had a good experience with Matchbook? We’d love to hear about it.

I’m curious to learn more about eCommerce solutions local companies are using, so I worked with volunteers to put together shopping cart demos for the Corvallis E-Tailing group. Here are the demo dates, in case you are interested in attending:

Feb 17th
Kevin Miller, WordPress with Shopp
North Krimsly, FoxyCart

March 17th
Jason Prothero, Magento
Ben Potter, X-Cart

April (regular date is April 21st but may be changed to accommodate a guest speaker)
Larkin Holavarri, CFWebstore

The meetings are held at the Corvallis Benton Chamber Coalition, 420 NW Second Street, Corvallis, OR 97330, 541-757-1505.

We saw things like: A ginormous nitrogen tank, DNA samples in a styrofoam ice chest, and a million-dollar magnet thing-a-majiggy. Plus, a small room buzzing with radiation-generating gizmos that we—despite the numerous yellow caution signs—stepped into for a closer look.

Stay tuned for the final product. In a few weeks we’ll return with video camera in hand, as well as a greater appreciation for people who do science for a living. Cool stuff.

That’s why your dog loves the MAC.

You come when you need to be here, leave when you don’t. There are no mandatory office hours, no mandatory meetings, no mandatory anything really. So go home. Give Rosco gets his 2:00 pm squirrel chase and and keep him happy.

That’s not to say we don’t have rules. On the contrary, we strongly require encourage collaboration. You just figure out the best way to make that happen.

You see, this is not your typical office. When you become a MAC member, you commit to keep your individuality as much as committing your individual talents. The MAC is about doing the best work with the best people working at their best. And sometimes that means taking some time for your labradoodle.

So join us in changing things up. We’re out to create a new kind of workspace and a new kind of agency. And a few happier dogs.

Madison Ave. Collective is always looking for talented, independent contractors who provide creative/tech services to join our group. We're big on collaboration, so naturally any new member prospects need to be a good fit in terms of services offered and personality, too. If you're a nice person who can play by the rules, here are the steps to becoming a member.

1. Get yourself listed in the Matchbook talent directory. There you’ll find graphic designers, photographers, web developers, copywriters and others with skillsets we look for in new MAC members. Once your Matchbook profile is complete, feel free to proceed to step 2. 

2. Download our new member kit. It contains a membership application (with rates and membership plan options) as well as a sample copy of our membership agreement (so you'll know just what you're getting yourself into).

3. Bring or mail your completed membership application to the MAC. If we’ve never met, we encourage coming by to introduce yourself before applying.

4. Interview with current MAC members. If your application looks good we'll schedule a time with you for a cup of coffee. We may or may not bring the Rorschach cards.

5. 60-day trial period. If you get through the interrogation interview process, a trial period may be offered. This gives us all a chance to know each other more, and hopefully you and other MAC members will have the opportunity to work together on a project or two during that time.

6. MAC members vote. At the end of your trial period we cast lots to determine whether or not to issue you an official membership badge and door key. If you see blue smoke rising over the building, that's a good sign. Red smoke, not so good.

7. Initiation ceremony. Papers are signed, secret handshakes are traded, we put your mug on our website. Congratulations! Now, get to work. 

As a designer, I find myself frequently needing to generate tints and shades from a color scheme.  I didn't see an online tool for this and I wanted to get better at JavaScript/JQuery, so I wrote my own. I'd be delighted if you had five minutes to look at it and tell me:

1) is it useful, 2) does it work well for you, 3) any suggestions.

The tool is at http://www.highintegritydesign.com/tools/tinter-shader.

Enjoy!

Thanks —North

Here's a Photoshop file I created to help squeeze a few more minutes into the day. The canvas and columns are sized for a 960-pixel wide design — about perfect for a 1024×768 monitor resolution. Web designers, feel free to use and improve. I'd love to hear what other kinds of tips and tricks you’ve got.

P.S. Speaking of efficiency, if you’re like me you could use a little professional help now and again. If so, I recommend giving the Productivity Maven a ring.

Speaking of headsets, I should probably pick one up now that it’s no longer legal for me to drive with coffee in one hand, cell phone in the other. Let’s see, something like the Matsuhashi B400 should do the trick.