I was reading Smashing Magazine as I do every day and came across a cool site form their post “50 Powerful Time-Saves for Web Designers“. One of the sites that really interested me was Markup. It’s a very simple browser based tool that allows the users to make notations and markup a page right through the browser. The thing I love is that you don’t need an account, there is nothing to download or install. You simply bookmark the site in your toolbar, visit the site you wish to markup and click the link. Once you are done you can publish the page in which you are provided with a URL to email around showing your notations. The user can then make additional edits on top of that or start over.

From the drawing palate you can select from freehand, arrows, circles, rectangles, or lines. You can also select different colors and control the thickness of borders. There is also a text tool allowing you to the ability to type up explanations or directions for an edit.

I think as a web designer this application will be a good system for some clients to work with because there is no real learning curve or another login to remember. I know there are more elaborate apps and tools out there allowing for more detailed collaboration and version history but to me this is a great simple app. So make sure you check out Markup and let me know what you think.

The other day I noticed my little 2GB flash drive had broken off of my keychain. The good thing about it was it’s a good excuse to buy a larger drive! So I went to Office Depot and purchased the Lexar 16GB TwistTurn drive. Currently Office Depot has it for $40.00 so go check to see if that sale is still going on. I’m pleased with it so far.

After replacing the drive I then realized that if I did have any private information on that drive anyone who found it could access those files. So this prompted me to find a simple way to password protect / encrypt the data. After searching for a short amount of time I came across LameSecure. (Lame name, no pun intended). The program is designed for Macs but it works on USB drives as well. After doing some testing I found it does not work on a PC, it doesn’t show the files so they will be secure, but if you need to password protect files and transfer from a Mac to a PC this is not the best option. But if you are only working on Macs and want some basic security that is simple this looks like a good bet.

Download it

Launch it

Once its opened select the folder you want to password protect

In the drop down select both

Type your password and confirm it

That’s it

When you open the folder it will ask for that password. You can have different passwords for different folders if you want.

If you ever want to remove the password open the program, select the folder that is already password protected, enter the password, then click remove

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.

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!

One of my favorite design sites Smashing Magazine just posted a new article about Backgrounds in Web Design. The article talks about the new trend in web design about using backgrounds as the main focus of the design. The sites they feature are very impressive and I can’t wait to have the chance to try out some new ideas.

My favorite would have to be the SilverBack web site, resize your browser smaller and wider to see what I am talking about, very cool stuff!

The good thing is I have been designing sites like these over the past year or so for here at Digital Skratch or at my other company AgencyWeb. I’m looking forward to trying new trying some new techniques and keep coming up with creative designs that are also functional and search friendly.

Body and Content Background as One
www.greengarbagedesigns.com
www.lifeskillssouthflorida.com

A Subtle Texture
www.agencyweb.com
www.digitalskratch.com

Semi-Transparent Content Backgrounds in Layered Designs
www.ihoopmadness.com

View more web design from Digital Skratch

Time Magazine just came out with their 50 Best Websites of 2007, broken down into 5 sections – Arts & Leisure, Audio & Video, News & Information, Social Networks, and Web Services. It seemed that the “theme” of most sites had a social media aspect. There are some really cool sites in there and worth checking out all of them. My personal favorite is Mozy, an online hard drive that is easy to sync on Mac and PC.