I worked on creating a lot of the social media profiles for Graff Toyz. We are excited to be a part of this project. Jay and I have been talking about this for years and finally have it underway. Over the next few months we are going to be working hard on this and will start to release more info about what exactly it is. In the mean time follow Graff Toyz on twitter and get ready for some cool stuff!

Today when checking my CNN News Widget on my Mac I saw - Hunch’ Web site will make decisions for you -. It seemed interesting enough and figured it was some type of personalized search engine. It seems to be a combination of a search engine mixed with Pandora where it “learns” what you like over time. Personalized search is not new as many companies are working on it. But with this interface it has more of a social media site feel then a traditional search engine.

The site just launched on Monday and was created by one of the co-founders of Flickr. I can see design elements from Flickr here, very clean, lots of negative space, 2.0 style looking javascript etc. The site is very user friendly and follows the trend of less is more and user generated content being the focus.

I think this will be a good place to do some initial research for products or decisions weighing on your mind. Or simply a fun place to surf around if you are bored. From a marketing perspective companies can use this form of crowd sourcing as the ultimate market research to zero in on exactly what their customer base is looking for. It will be interesting to see how this site / company progress in the future and who buys them out.

So go read the CNN Article and then head over to Hunch to check it out.

Local Mojo is finally up! We’ve been working on this behind the scenes at AgencyWeb for the last several months. I designed the front end of the site and built the css framework. Again we worked worked with Luke and his guys who built all the amazing features that make this platform work. It’s currently in soft launch but ready for some businesses to sign up for. It’s the perfect blend for most businesses. We found that a lot of companies don’t need or can’t afford a full blown web marketing agency like AgencyWeb, or they need something more then a directory listing like National Online Directory. Along came Local Mojo.

Local Mojo provides businesses with free local sites that provide the standard directory style information such as location with maps, hours of operations, payment options, services etc. But they allow you some “mojo” by having the ability to embed your own YouTube videos, Flickr photos, Twitter updates and more. Local Mojo also gives the user to track everything with powerful state of the art analytics and the option to buy targeted localized traffic to get even more visitors to your site.

So if you want a free website to help your local business check out www.localmojo.com and if you want to really have some mojo sign up for some of the enhanced features.

I’ve been working hard over at AgencyWeb on some internal SEO work for that site as well as Digital Skratch. I’ve also been cranking on stuff for Qivana, and MyQivana.com helping them with some reviews about usability, brand use and technical aspects about their site. It’s nice to see the results of this stuff happen so fast. Also have been working on an email campaign for Comcast. Our Local Mojo project is also progressing along nicely and should be ready for a soft launch in a few weeks. Then we have been getting geared up for our next big project, top secret for now but by August we will be ready to launch.

Busy busy busy

I also have some stuff on the Digital Skratch side coming soon. Been working on updates for Lannom and should be creating a blog for them next week. Also some updates to come for Green Garbage.

I’m flying up to Boston on Friday for the weekend, see some friends, go to Phish and then see the Sox. Can’t ask for much more than that!

So I finally got to paint my first piece! I had custom stencils cut awhile back from BlackBooks of the circle DS logo and put them to use last night. They showed me some techniques and let me have at it. I had a blast doing it and can’t wait to do some more decks and other projects. I think it came out alright considering this was my first run. I really like how some of the circles over lay to form arrows coming off of the d or s.

We also bounced around some ideas for a project we are starting and came up with a really powerful idea that we are gonna be working on as well so stay tuned for that!

Enjoy the pics, it looks good hanging next to the 53 piece.

Thursday night I went down to hang out with the guys from BlackBooks. I picked up the Digital Skratch and AgencyWeb business cards, they look amazing. We also got to play around with the laser etching machine and tried a few new fun things!

Afterward we all worked on the front of their building to get ready for the local Fort Lauderdale Art Show they were having Saturday night. The owner of the building wanted the guys to do an install on the front of their building for the show as well as other buildings he owns later on. It was fun to see the entire process from start to finish. I had a blast and they are great guys to work and hang out with. Enjoy the pics!

It has happened to nearly everyone at one point or another; we have lost some or all of our data - whether it be due to a computer crash, virus, losing the only disc, or deleting the only copy. Whatever the case may be, there are steps you can take to reduce the risk and not be put in that position again.

The key to backing up your files is to devise some type of system that works best for you and stick to it. You may choose to do it manually or use an automatic backup program. Whatever your case is, stick with it and do it frequently. Also, name and date your backups. If you have multiple versions, you will be able to tell which version is the most recent.

External Hard Drives
Today external hard drives are so cheap that everyone should have one. They are not only perfect for storing all of those family photos and mp3’s, but the perfect solution for backing up critical files and in most cases ALL of your files. They are also a fast way to backup large files that may be too big for CDs or even DVDs.

CDs & DVDs
Backing up your files on a CD or DVD is also very important. Hard drives can go corrupt, get viruses, and can crash. Once your files are burned on a disc they are relatively safe. Blank discs are so cheap that it should be a part of everyones backup procedure. Discs are also a perfect solution for archiving files that you no longer need on your computer.

Offsite Backup
It is also extremely important to have at least some form of off-site backup. You could have a dozen backups at your home or office, but something could happen to that location such as a fire, theft, or a natural disaster. They will not do you any good if they are all lost. A simple fix is to keep a copy of your files at both your home and office. Or mail CDs or DVDs of your files to a friend or relative in another location. If something were to happen you would at least have that as a “fail safe”. Also, Online Storage is another form of off-site backup.

Online Storage
There are plenty of online options such as Mozy that range in price from free or start at around $5 a month. You may also use your current web hosting as another form of backup. Most hosting plans offer at least 5 gigabytes of hosting space. You could create a folder on there called backup and upload all your files there.

Other Alternatives
Most web-based email accounts offer a large amount of storage space that could be used to backup files. Either upload your files there, if that is an option, or simply email yourself an attachment and you have another copy of it online. There is a great service called yousendit that allows you to email large attachments. It only stores them online for 7 days, but it is a good way to send a large file from the office to your home to then backup later.

Battery backup systems for your desktop computer are a must have in case of a power outage. They will keep your computer running for several minutes giving you time to save and shut down your computer. No more losing files due to power outages.

So we finally broke down and created a Twitter account. www.twitter.com/digital_skratch

I have to admit I always thought it was rather silly but have been using it the past couple of months for iHoops and starting to use it for AgencyWeb and some other projects, so my views have changed haha. So I created one today and applied a custom background to it as well as iHoops.

We just received our business cards from BlackBooks and they look sick! I was blown away with how cool they actually are. These photos won’t do them justice as you need to feel the cards. They are on a nice thick cardboard type stock and the etching is amazing. The back of the card features a circle pattern that feels cool to touch.

They are expensive for business cards but well worth it if you are trying to impress a client or potential business prospect. As a web design agency it is critical to have a professional and creative image and these cards help with that.

I also came across a cool free set of watercolor brushes for Photoshop today and used them in a mock up for a project.

We seem to be blogging quite a bit lately, maybe we can keep it up! So keep checking back and tell your friends!

Apple is closing in on another historic milestone, 1 billion app downloads. That is mind boggling considering the iPhone is less than two years old and the actual apps themselves have been around for less than one year. You can almost imagine Steve Jobs ala Dr. Evil holding his pinky finger up to his face saying to Blackberry we have 1 BILLION DOWNLOADS!

I remember July of 2004 when the iTunes store was closing in on 100 million song downloads and thought that was very impressive, especially how only a few short years earlier downloading music online was the wild west. Fast forward nearly 5 years and we are again looking at something remarkable from Apple.

Just as the iPod pretty much crushed the competition for other MP3 players the iPhone is already on it’s way to do the same in the smart phone market. The only thing holding it back is it being limited to AT&T, once it is available on the other carriers game over for everyone else.

The slogan you hear in the iPhone commercials is dead on “An app for pretty much anything.” You can seriously find an app for anything you can think of and if you can’t just wait a few months and chances are you will find what you are looking for. One can only think of the type of apps that will be coming out later this year with the 3.0 OS Software due out later with the push technology and other exciting features.