Oooh, Aaah.. Color Scheme Designer 3!

Sarah  /  February 4, 2010, 1:49 pm

We recently discovered this great online color palette tool that had all of us in design giddy about it. You can create all kinds of palettes for online use, from mono to complementary and beyond. The contrast and saturation levels can be adjusted and previews are available to show you your palette on light and dark page templates. The tool also features an export function which allows you to export your palette to photoshop, HTML/CSS or XML. Additionally, the “Vision Simulation” option lets you preview your palette through the eyes of people with color blindness and other vision impairments, a great feature for assessing accessibility concerns.

Check it out here
Created by Petr Stanicek in the Czech Republic. Thanks Petr!

Posted by Sarah / No comments >

DBP, Renée Rouleau, Blenderbox Honored with W3 Gold Awards

Heather  /  October 19, 2009, 12:05 pm

Blenderbox is thrilled to announce this year’s W3 honors — two Gold awards in the Tourism and Homepage categories for Downtown Brooklyn Partnership’s “It’s the Moment” campaign site, and one Gold award in the Beauty and Cosmetics category for the Renée Rouleau Skin Care site!

This awards cycle received
 nearly 
3,000 
entries 
from 
ad 
and interactive
 agencies,
 in‐house
 creative
 professionals, web and graphic 
designers, and other
 web
 enthusiasts, and less
 than
 10%
 of
 all
 entries
 were
 selected
 as
 Gold
 Winners.  We are truly honored to be counted among these highly talented agencies.

“We were incredibly impressed by the quality and creativity of this year’s entries.    W3 winners continue to set the bar in Web development and design, push the limits of web advertising creativity and advance the use of web video. We are thrilled to have reviewed such a diverse and respected pool of work” said Linda Day, the executive director of the IAVA. “On behalf of the entire Academy, we congratulate this year’s W3 Award winners as they continue to advance Internet creativity and greatly contribute to the robust and ever-changing online community.”

Posted by Heather / Also posted in Awards, Development, Uncategorized / No comments >

Is it just me?

Tsam  /  June 19, 2009, 6:38 pm

Or are there striking similarities between odopod’s and big spaceship’s new websites? From the ubiquitous gallery slideshow to the portfolio thumbnails. Or perhaps it’s a case of great minds think alike?
You be the judge.

Posted by Tsam / No comments >

Blendercise!

Heather  /  May 22, 2009, 1:25 pm

One of the great things about working at Blenderbox is being surrounded by people that are constantly trying to better themselves in one way or another.  Blenderboxers are a curious bunch, always looking to do more, learn more, and create more, and in no instance is this more apparent than during the semi-annual celebration of knowledge known fondly as the Blendercise.

Blendercises are our own particular brand of continuing education; an opportunity for designers to teach us some of the finer points of Photoshop, for developers and information architects to teach us the best SEO techniques, or for project managers to provide tips on organization that might help us in our constant struggle to keep our time sheets up to date.  They’re a way for each department to learn more about the day-to-day work of others and to take away valuable information that makes us stronger individually and as a team.

Anyone can suggest a topic for a Blendercise, and with the constant stream of innovations in web technology, we’re never at a loss for new material.  Previous Blendercises have covered a diverse range of subjects, from SEO and Google Analytics to Photoshop and Web Form Design, and many more are yet to come.

Currently scheduled Blendercises include sessions on InDesign and Sitecore, but with an increased interest in projects requiring open-source development and a variety of opportunities for professional development outside of the Blenderbox office, 2009 may be our biggest year yet for tech-centric Blendercises.

Posted by Heather / Also posted in Blendercises, Development, Information Architecture, technology / 1 comment >

Blenderbox Takes Home 5 Summit Creative Awards

Heather  /  May 4, 2009, 2:18 pm

Blenderbox is pleased to announce our most recent SCA wins – two Bronze awards for 7 World Trade Center Events and BackboneNYC, two Silver awards for World Trade Center and the Bedford Cheese Shop, and a Gold medal for the Clinton Presidential Center website!

The Summit Creative Awards were created in an effort to recognize and celebrate the creative accomplishments of small and medium sized advertising agencies and other creative companies throughout the world, with submissions evaluated based on the strength of their “big idea”, the quality of execution, and their ability to communicate and persuade.

The Summit International Awards organization is dedicated to furthering excellence in the communications industry and has established itself as one of the premier arbiters of of creative and communication excellence.

Posted by Heather / Also posted in Awards / Tagged , , | No comments >

Blenderbox Launches Hewlett Beta

Heather  /  March 19, 2009, 4:14 pm

When Blenderbox first engaged with the Hewlett Foundation to redesign their existing site, Hewlett wanted to be sure that their site’s users would stand to benefit first and foremost.  So Blenderbox developed beta.hewlett.org, allowing the Foundation to gather feedback from the site’s users that could be used to gauge their level of satisfaction with the new design and influence the ultimate re-launch of hewlett.org.

After receiving initial user feedback, the site’s new design is a rousing success!  New sections like “What We’re Learning” have been met with remarkably positive feedback, and many users are applauding the Foundation’s user-friendliness and transparency as well.

Since 1967, the Hewlett Foundation has been making grants to solve social and environmental problems at home and around the world.  For more information about the Hewlett Foundation’s mission and work, and to check out the Beta redesign, head over to beta.hewlett.org.

Posted by Heather / Also posted in Development / No comments >

Launched: the New + Improved Backbone NYC

Heather  /  October 30, 2008, 10:27 am

Earlier this week, on behalf of longtime client Backbone NYC, Blenderbox launched the newly-redesigned backbonenyc.com.

Back in 2005, Blenderbox created a compelling Flash-based website to showcase Backbone’s high-quality retouching and pre-press capabilities.  In the intervening years, Backbone’s already robust portfolio grew by leaps and bounds, eventually outgrowing their portfolio section.

With the 2008 redesign, Blenderbox used updated Flash technology to bring Backbone’s portfolio front-and-center, revamping the organization and navigation scheme to allow easier access to their work.

Posted by Heather / Also posted in Internet, technology / Tagged , , , | No comments >

Introducing Compost

Iain  /  October 20, 2008, 4:39 pm

This past weekend was the Rails Rumble and a team of intrepid blenderbox developers hunkered down in our Brooklyn headquarters and, in a mere 48 hours, produced a slick new web app: Compost.

Compost is the simple way to post, share, and present your design comps.

More than just a slideshow, Compost allows you to control your presentation and your message. Now your clients see what you want them to see, when you want them to see it.

Sharing comps is easy:

  1. Post. Give your gallery a name and upload your comps. Upload as many images as you need – all at once.
  2. Share. Invite people to view your new gallery. Emails are sent to your clients with a unique URL for their gallery.
  3. Present. Control your viewer’s experience in real-time – remotely! With complete control of your presentation, you decide when, and for how long, each image appears on-screen. The viewer – your client – sits back and watches the show.

Try it yourself.

Posted by Iain / Also posted in Development, Humor, Internet, technology / No comments >

Font Conference

Tsam  /  July 23, 2008, 10:03 am

Funny to see fonts personified though I’m not sure if I agree with Comic Sans as superman…

Posted by Tsam / Also posted in Humor / 1 comment >

The desktop, literally

Matt  /  July 22, 2008, 4:14 pm


“Layered Desktop,” by Gabriel Radic.

The desktop has been the primary GUI metaphor of operating systems for the last thirty years. Over that time, newer operating systems have stretched the desktop metaphor pretty thin, in the interests of better usability and faster task completion.

For example, remember when Apple’s System 7 would open each folder in a new Finder window, creating a cascade of windows that quickly became unmanageable? That was a literal interpretation of folders on your actual desktop. Fortunately, we now browse the contents of multiple folders within a single Finder window, an activity that doesn’t transfer to the stack of folders sitting next to me.

I found the wallpaper above really interesting: someone created a solution for organizing desktop icons which makes your computer screen look more like a desk, even though the design trend has been to move away from such literal interpretations. It’s not right or wrong—lots of people find it useful, judging by the comments—it’s a creative solution to a desktop organization problem.

Posted by Matt / Also posted in Information Architecture / No comments >

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