On Thursday, July 3, 2008 at 2:15PM, I will be donating blood for the first time in my life.

This is completely motivated by Michelle Greer’s poking and prodding (pun intended) over her idea of organizing a blood drive via Twitter, the social messaging network. Read her blog post about the entire thing and get over your fear of needles like I did. Just get over it. I’m most likely going to pass out, but it doesn’t matter. Michelle will be there to hold my hand. Or David Neff. Or Mike Chapman.

See you there.

Tags: Austin Evolution · Technology1 Comment

Take any communications class (or major in advertising like I did) and you will invariably research the importance of the Industrial Revolution in the history of the industry. Innovations like the printing press, the telephone and the personal computer have been catalysts for speeding up communication between multiple parties. The internet has quickly become one of these innovations and has, to a certain extent, even rendered some of the tools of yore obsolete (newspapers, I’m looking at you).

Nowadays, the PC and the internet combine to change the way lots of things are done, but the change I get most excited about is the democratization of virtually everything with these tools. Armed with a computer and a connection to the web, anyone can be a film producer, a musician, an artist or a journalist (don’t worry, the irony of this article isn’t lost on me).

Last night, I really felt this change within the work that I do as a designer. While settling on the branding for Michelle Greer’s latest entrepreneurial project, I decided to use Mac OS X Leopard’s screen sharing function for the first time in iChat. To break it down, using this feature, I could turn my computer into Michelle’s and she could watch what was going on from her end; we communicated via iChat’s voice chat, which was turned on automatically for our convenience.

Within a half hour of “using” her computer and mine, we had typography and a color palette chosen and collaborated on a business card that I layed out and she could instantly give me feedback on. There was no need for ping-ponging emails back and forth or me drawing up screenshots from PSDs to JPEGs (which believe it or not, can be a grueling process). It was fast, efficient and fun.

The internet has made so many changes in the way people’s lives function and I’m continually finding ways to integrate some of these tools into the way I work. I just finished a meeting with a client and instantly shared a creative brief in Google Docs; I use GrandCentral to manage my phone calls from potential clients; Basecamp is my project manager; Twitter is my watercooler.

What tools do you find invaluable to the way you work? What magical application do you wish existed for your industry to make your job way easier? Do you think that these tools are only beneficial to those that are technologically inclined or do you think anyone can find value in them? Let me know!

Tags: Business · Design · Technology · cesart4 Comments

This March, like so many others, I got the chance to meet the phenomenon that is Gary Vaynerchuk via his now famous Twitter flash-parties and as Kathy Sierra’s on-stage example during her keynote. His talks on personal brands and his involvement in the technology/startup sector as a marketer—and not a developer—are what initially piqued my interest in what he had to say; the SXSW wine parties were just a bonus. ;)

I’ll admit, that my interest in wine has definitely increased since I’ve been keeping an eye at him on Wine Library TV and on his personal, more business-orineted, blog. When I heard he was going to be back in Austin for a signing of his recently released book, Gary Vaynerchuk’s 101 Wines: Guaranteed to Inspire, Delight, and Bring Thunder to Your World, I knew I had to take the chance to see him speak again. True to his book title, Gary inspired, delighted and brought the thunder to Grape Vine Market on Tuesday afternoon.

After a brief introduction by Jeff Jones, local Twitterer and Vayniac, Gary went into a quick recap of his life to this point. He made sure to graciously convey his appreciation for everyone’s attendance by acknowledging the probable inconvenience of an event at one in the afternoon. The sincerity and passion that poured out of this guy was incredible as he had the entire group of 30+ people hanging on his every word. This man is truly one of the most down-to-earth, humble, appreciative and considerate people I have met, celebrity or not.

After the short introduction, he opened up the floor to questions which incited discussion (read: two-way) which hit on everything from his perspective on the future of social media/the internet, to his childhood, his relationship with his family, to his $2B goal of buying the “New Jersey” Jets (what he would call them on his way to make them “America’s team”). What would have only made the event better, in my opinion, is if we were all sitting at a huge table over dinner at someone’s house, the bottles of wine a-flowin’, of course. The intimacy of the conversations would deem that a more appropriate setting.

Looking around the room at one point, I couldn’t help but notice the seemingly random mix of people absolutely riveted by this guy. If I had to venture a guess, I would say the age range in the room was between early 20s to early 70s. It amazed me that one guy with a wine video blog can bring those people together. During the discussion, Gary mentioned one of his favorite things about wine is the way that it brings people together. From my branding perspective, I would go so far as to say that the Gary Vaynerchuk brand brings people together. So, if wine = (me + other vayniacs) = Gary, then wine = Gary Vaynerchuk. This, boys and girls, is what you want for optimal brand equity (e.g.: Volvo : safety :: Gary Vaynerchuk : wine).

Here’s a guy that gets technology, gets social media and gets marketing and branding like the best of them. I should note, that all the understanding in the world of these topics can bring success, but really, to me, happiness is the ultimate success and one that Gary definitely seems to have a grasp on. But how do you gain that? What I’ve learned from Gary is the importance of being genuine and how this leads to happiness. For Gary, authenticity is what drives happiness and optimism and I could not agree with him more. You can have all the material things in the world, but if at the end of the day, you can’t be proud of your legacy, then what’s the point, right? I think Gary is the perfect example of a brand that is (quite literally) human, engaging and is done right. His generosity, human-ness and approachability are, to me, what has brought the guy so much success. Well, working your ass off and answering every single email your fans send you doesn’t hurt either.

I’ll leave you with a quote of one of his responses at my question to him on what keeps him going and inspires him daily:

“I woke up, nobody died overnight, I’m pumped!”

Imagine the supermarket aisles if every brand you interacted with had this kind of outlook on life. Until that day comes, I’ll just watch Wine Library TV and LOST on my Apple TV. ;)

For more coverage, make sure to read Tim Walker’s awesomely extensive recap of the afternoon, as well as video perspective provided by Kristine and Dane.

Tags: Branding · Business · SXSW2008 · Technology · cesart10 Comments

If you don’t know much about my musical tastes, you should learn that the one thing I really love musically is remixes. I think it’s great to hear someone else’s interpretation of an original song and how they can mash it up with another song. Not to discredit original artists—I merely love the newness of a remix and the weird blend of certainty and uncertainty all in one.

That said, let it be known that Facebook is currently remixing your profile in their studios in the Valley. Let’s just get it out there; there’s nothing you can do about it (opt-in, remember?). Okay, now that we’re over that, let’s examine what’s happening (you can view slides from the presentation to bloggers and the media here).

There are three major parts to the redesign:
• Profile Tabs
• Publisher Box
• Navigation

Profile Tabs
TABS?! Well, I’d say this was a long time coming, what with the introduction of Applications and the ever-accelerating popularity of the Wall. Profiles were growing way too tall and even as I tried to collapse every Application I wasn’t interested in, it was still a burden to have to scroll so much for something as simple as getting to the Wall. Anchor links for the icons under your profile picture helped, but were way too small and required thinking about an extra step; let’s be honest, I never used them.

Tabs are a great way for users to visually interact with their information. It’s a simple concept and the average internet user gets them. With Facebook becoming more and more popular with the “average user,” I’m sure the design team at Facebook is really keeping that in mind with these redesigns.

I mean, tabs only kinda worked for Firefox, right?

Publisher Box
Essentially it seems like this round of design and interface revisions is all about consolidation. The Publisher is a consolidated and tabbed graphical utility that will let you easily post information to your profile; it will also let you post items to other people’s Walls.

I’m not really impressed or offended by the Publisher. I think the consolidation is necessary and naming it is only a means for simplification on the part of the design team for users to easily refer to “that thing that posts stuff.”

Here’s a mockup of the two items together:

Navigation

Clean and simple. I thought I hated it at first, but looking at it for a while, I understand why I changed my mind. It’s a well known fact that Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg loves Apple (he’s been called out on mimicking Apple CEO Steve Jobs on more than one occasion). Take a look at the new navigation above and check out the Mac OS X toolbar in the current version of OS X Leopard:

I would say it’s almost a total rip off, but you know, integrate it if it’s already proven to work, right? The new navigation bar is familiar. It’s one of the major components of my daily computer use.

Conclusion
Overall, I think when redesigns like this come out, users go into interface shock. Things aren’t where they used to be. Icons are slightly different. Everything’s shinier and there’s a learning curve. You hate the redesign because it slows you down.

We already knew that with the opening of the Facebook Platform for Applications the social network was trying to position itself as something like a web-based operating system. They’re getting closer with every new upgrade and revision and visually, this is the closest they’ve come. Let’s not forget the existence of an Inbox, Chat (recently released), Search (branded as Spotlight in OS X) and drop down menus. We’re on the verge of a “Facebook OS.” Think of the possibilities of this kind of infrastructure for a social network. It’d be as if my OS X could talk to the OS Xs and Vistas of my contacts saved in my Address Book. And you know that data portability and OpenID will be major factors in this Facebook OS. Exciting to see what these guys come up with.

If you want to keep up to date with all of the changes before the launch this Spring, make sure to become a fan of Facebook Previews. What are your thoughts? Do you like the design? Absolutely hate it? Do you think they should just pay you to sit there and play in Photoshop all day instead? How would you make the new design better?

ED. NOTE: Apparently, TechCrunch writer Erick Schonfeld also wrote about this topic on the same day as I did. Also, check out Hayes Davis’ response to the two posts, for a more technical perspective (one that I totally agree with).

Tags: CesarTorres · Design · Startups · Technology3 Comments

Today I took a 72-question Myers-Briggs quiz on the Facebook app MyType. It’s funny how spot on these seemingly silly quizzes can be (I guess that’s why the theories surrounding them have been around for so long). The quiz determined that I’m an ENFJ (Extraverted iNtuitive Feeling Judging) [typelogic] [wikipedia]. It’s interesting to read through the different characteristics of my personality type and the ones of a few people who mentioned theirs on Twitter.

As you can tell, it seems I am very Extroverted (a recent development only in the past six years), fairly iNtuitive, VERY Feeling and just barely onto the Judging side. I would even go so far to argue that I most likely fluctuate between ENFJ and ENFP on a pretty consistent basis after reading through the description of the latter.

I am thinking it would be an interesting social experiment to put this personal designation on my business cards or make a tshirt that stated my acronym. How much quicker people would get to know me! What do you think about these results if you know me in the real lifes? What are your results? If I made you a Myers-Briggs tshirt, would you wear it?!

Tags: Life5 Comments