2007

  1. Season's Greetings

    Edit

    We hope you had a merry Christmas! The entire wollzelle team wishes you and your family a wonderful New Year.

  2. Paul Rand Tribute Film

    Edit

    “Don’t try to be original, just try to be good.”—Paul Rand, American Graphic Designer

  4. Ouch!

    Edit

    Amazon announced their portable reading device called kindle.
    The screen works using ink but displays the ink particles electronically.

    Although the eInk technology sounds very promising and I like the idea that the screen mimics paper kindle looks “so not sexy”. It doesn’t look very innovative nor does it feel like a traditional book. It reminds me of a white plastic device from the eighties.

    I’m not sure if there is a market for a dedicated eBook reader or if it should be a device with more cross-over functionality (eg. web, mail). What do you think?

    Wired has a brief e-book readers at a glance
    overview or you can find a more detailed review over at PCWorld.

    Btw: Great fictions that share advantages of both worlds (traditional/interactive) are the The Daily Prophet newspaper, as shown in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

    or the newspaper in Minority Report, both epapers with constantly changing text, video and sound. On the other hand it would get really noisy in our beloved coffeehouses with those “talking” epapers ;)

  5. Sarira.com launched

    Edit

    “Huge images and a smart way to navigate through the imagery …” were the main objectives for the new website we did for makup artist Sarira Krueger.

    The design is focusing the imagery. During the process we always had this idea of an “endless-carousel” navigation in mind which allows us to get along without conventional controls enabling the visitor to easily browse the images. Enjoy: www.sarira.com

    Feeling inspired? Let’s make something together today!

  6. radiohead. business model for established bands

    Edit

    This weekend I bought a new record – in a new way. Radiohead just released their new album In Rainbows and with it a new way of distribution. Skipping record companies and online music stores the album is only available over the bands website. Also the price is up to you!

    The only thing I miss is a cover artwork by Dan Rickwood.

  7. Talent is Hard Work

    Edit

    I read a great articel this morning about The nature of Talent.

    Every day we deal with creativity and I agree with this article. Creativity is not a mystery it’s about being to the point, for every piece of work you do and for all the different ways on how to proceed to hit the target. It is not like “light breeze – idea flashes up – finished” it’s hard work ’till you can see the finish line.

    The really stimulation and fun part in the whole design process is to see how your ideas grow. And after a long way of working, rejecting and refining your work you can see the result. And at this point you should start smiling – enjoy the moment – take a deep breath – and head over to the next challenge ;)

    What do you think?

  8. Wollzelle is hiring

    Edit

    We’re looking for a designer and a developer to join our team here in vienna. The line between those two job descriptions are blurred, especially here at wollzelle it isn’t much about filling a job title, but about finding people with a particular mindset. So here are some things that are important to us:

    for the designer

    • Minimum of 3 years experience in the on- and offline design world.
    • You know Adobe’s CS Suite inside out. Photoshop, Indesign, Illustrator will be open on your computer pretty much non-stop.
    • HTML, CSS and JavaScript knowledge.
    • Additional knowledge of Flash, Flex are not essential, but welcome.

    for the developer

    • Minimum of 3 years experience in web application development (both front-end and back-end), good knowledge of relational databases and SQL (preferably PostgreSQL) and a broad programming background.
    • Very thorough HTML, CSS and JavaScript knowledge.
    • You know Ruby on Rails, Prototype and script.aculo.us inside out.

    for both

    • You are continuously fascinated by interactive design and the opportunities it offers.
    • You care about everything you do creatively and you enjoy being part of a team of creatives and love a good discussion.
    • An Apple Macintosh computer as your primary development tool.
    • Languages: German/English.

    And last but not least: You like to work hard and you’re nice to people. This is a permanent position in Vienna, salary is based on experience. So, if you’re familiar with our work and think you could add to make it better don’t hesitate to send us:

    1. Your CV
    2. A link to your portfolio or at least 3 references of your previous work
    3. A salary expectation

    to jobs[at]wollzelle[dot]com.

    Absolutely NO AGENCIES please.

  9. Fluxiom website update

    Edit

    fluxiom comes with an awesome interface and lots of UI effects. So, it’s logical that the fluxiom web site could use a little bit more visual eye candy, and we’ve worked hard to relaunch it in new glory.

    First thing, we’ve reduced the start page to provide a nice and welcoming introduction to fluxiom:

    Second, we added more details on the features page, including more and richer screenshots (try zooming in!). And sure enough some cool effects like our Rocket Columns on the features and the fluxUp! pages, when switching tabs.

    The new fluxiom site features screenshots and images from Viennese photographer Christof Wagner, who allowed us to show off fluxiom by using his very own fluxiom account. A big thank you!

    And, last but not least, we’ve added real-time searching on the fluxiom blog:

    We hope you enjoy the new site as much as we do!

    Feeling inspired? Let’s make something together today!

  10. Deja Vu - image resizing

    Edit

    This August Apple their updated .mac Web Gallery at the Special Event Keynote. A very cool looking web 2.0 app with some nice features.

    Steve Jobs really got excited showing of the new thumbnail resizing function …

    “… this is a web app, this is not a client app.”

    We also got excited and dug out our fluxiom teaser video from November 2005 ;)

    Feeling inspired? Let’s make something together today!

  14. The usual suspects

    Edit

    This is how here in austria mail is delivered after it went through the hands of the austrian customs authority.

    No, no body parts or snakes inside—just books from amazon. The worst thing is that they now look like second hand and I love new books.

    It’s like the last time when we received christmas gifts from the US everything was torn opened. The problem is not necessarily that they open stuff but how they treat property owned by others. It just sucks!

  16. Yellow Deli Corporate Identity

    Edit

    It seems that new districts spring up like mushrooms in Vienna. One of them is the new business park called “town-town” near Landstraße. In the middle of millions and millions of office buildings is this small new and cool restaurant called yellow-deli. We are responsible for the naming, corporate design, offline and online media. Here are some examples:

    Business cards:

    Get some food home:

    Sticky:

    What’s on the menu:

    Website and some pictures soon …

    Feeling inspired? Let’s make something together today!

  17. Back to the roots...

    Edit

    Last Friday we saw the spectacle of the Extra Action Marching Band from San Francisco in a great location: the Arena in Vienna. I know the other kind of marching bands from my childhood – more boring than sexy – but this one I appreciate much more ;)
    It was a perfect Friday chill out!

    Enjoy some bits we saved from there:

  18. Soziales Netzwerk issue 11

    Edit

    Finally the 11th issue dialogue between generations is out now! It is published by the non-profit organisation Wiener Hauskrankenpflege and the free magazine features articles about health and active aging and also professional articles about home based-care and primary nursing.

    Since the first issue (published in June 2003) where we volunteered to help with the initial start of this ambitious project we take care of the creative process: art direction, graphic design, layout and visual identity. It’s always a great experience to get insight into other professions and so there’s no risk of getting stuck in a rut ;)

    Feeling inspired? Let’s make something together today!

  19. Approximate Size of the iPhone and the death to the clickwheel

    Edit

    The eagerly awaited iPhone is coming on Friday; unfortunately here in europe we have to wait another 6 months and there are still a lot of questions. Will it support UMTS? Does this mean a tradeoff in battery livetime, Is there (and if so, who will be) an exclusive carrier over here … nobody knows … meanwhile you can use The Definitive Guide to Determining the Approximate Size of the iPhone to check out the exact size.

    “For optimal feel, use two crackers …”

    —enjoy your meal ;)

    Another more serious and very interesting article is about the death of the clickwheel:

    “Steve Jobs and Co. are pitching the new iPhone as “our best iPod ever” and at the same time changing the basic user interface that made the iPod so successful. This is no small step. In fact, it is a sign of Apple’s ambitions for the iPhone that the company was willing to abandon its signature interface for the untested waters of the iPhone’s multitouch display.”

  20. Panorama morning programme hacked

    Edit

    Ztohoven artistic group hacked into the Panorama morning programme of public Czech Television’s CT2 channel with an image of a mushroom cloud.

  21. Apple.com new design

    Edit

    before (November 2000)

    before (2007)

    now (white)

    now (black)

    submenu before

    submenu now

    very nice “side salad”— in particular the left one:

    Hopefully Apple fixes this Quicktime bug (overlay) and comes up with a solution – we would also need that pretty bad for one of our projects.

    Overall very intuitive, though on some pages the “transition” is not quite completed yet. Also love the use of JavaScript goodness, and they choose to use the script.aculo.us effects framework for that, which is extraced from wollzelle’s fluxiom application. So check it out: www.apple.com

    Other nice things announced at the WWDC:

    Safari 3.0 for Windows. This will make it easier for Windows users to test their websites and implement iPhone apps.

    Design Awards — this year’s winners!

  22. London 2012 logo

    Edit

    The London Organising Committee of the Olympic Games and Paralympic Games (Locog) has unveiled its branding for the 2012 Games, based around the concept of “Everyone’s Games”. The logo, devised by Wolff Olins, will be available in four colours pink, blue, green and orange.

    It starts to earn a lot of critizism, more than 80 per cent of the respondents to a BBC online poll disapproved of the logo. Also animated footage promoting the logo for the 2012 London Olympic Games was removed from the organisers’ Web site amid concern it could trigger epileptic fits.

    It looks pretty random and it takes a while to discover the number 2012 in the logo but on the other hand I don’t think that a poll has any significance (also you should watch the videos not only take a look at the logo). You shouldn’t ask everybody because this is a reduction to “taste”, and it’s not about taste. Aren’t you lucky that there’s no crown or a big ben metaphor in the logo?

    And at the end it’s better to get extreme reactions than no reaction although the “extremly brilliant” reaction is still missing.

  25. Wollzelle at RailsConf 07

    Edit

    Keynote by David H. Hansson at RailsConf 2007 in Portland, Oregon introducing Rails 2.

    It started off with Chad Fowler, organizer of RailsConf, welcoming the enormous crowd. He encouraged the people to donate for charity because he felt that this would alleviate some of the bad rep that Rails lovers get for being, in his words, arrogant bastards.

    “If everyone gave $75, we can make a loud noise from this event.”

    I didn’t saw that much arrogant bastards in the house nor I would describe it with the words from a slide from Adam Keys that said “You are surrounded by idiots” ;) So there’s a lot to learn for all you not so arrogant bastards out there;) Get real with the arrogant bastard t-shirt:

    If you think the arrogant bastard t-shirt is for sissies you can also go for this one:

    I made no picture of the back of the t-shirt because it’s white, it’s not stuffed with logos or something. That means you are not limited to wear it only when painting your house.

    For all attendees to RailsConf Europe later this year in Berlin: I hope that Chad Fowler plays the Ukulele again – that was awesome!

    Here are some images of and off the conference:

    …
    …but not only Sam was joining the talk.
    be cool – at the awesome Jupiter hotel.
    Finally found guitar heaven at Apple Music Inc. Dont start counting ;)
    Sneakin Out playing at the First Zoo Brew.
    The Accordion Guy. Plays everything from Britney Spears to AC/DC.
    and finally a lot of good web2.0 business ideas at Powell’s Books.

    Check out the RailsConf wiki where you will find the slides of almost all presentations.

  26. FF mt by Erik Spiekermann

    Edit

    FF mt is an economic typeface accomodating the spelling reform of the internet-chat-sms generation.

    There are examples all around like bklyn, razr or rbk or this “future” traffic sign (I love the typeface of the right sign):

    btw: to learn german will get even harder … or easier … wht d y thnk

    The font is free so you can download it at fontfont.com and start dropping vowels;)

    Update 7/24/2007
    BMW for the new 1 Coupé:

  28. Wollzelle is sparkling with joy

    Edit

    We’re very excited to welcome two new people to the wollzelle team: Dieter Komendera (kommen) and Philipp Markovics (joe), formerly sparklingstudios.

    I’m glad that I met them by accident at the metalab. Originally we were looking for one new guy, but if you have the chance to get two great people who perfectly fit in the culture of wollzelle— it’s a no-brainer.

    We’re thrilled to have them on board! Welcome joe and kommen.

  31. Pictures from the lecture at the MMA

    Edit

    A few images from the lecture at the Salzburg University of Applied Sciences, branch MultiMediaArt.

    Waiting for the students together with Maga. Karin Mairitsch (Director of Studies MultiMediaArt) …

    … the lecture …
    … going back to vienna, view from a train window.

    While getting back to Vienna I started this post— but suddenly my laptop conked out …

    … and all attempts at resuscitation by tom and joe failed! The read-write head of the harddisk touched the rotating platter— simply put: a head crash! So always make backups of your important stuff eg. with fluxiom ;)

    Thanks to Birgit Gurtner (Head of Specialised Studies, Design, Research and Development) and Matthias Edler-Golla (Instructor Screen and Interactive Design) for the invitation.

  33. Austria. webdesign island of the blessed

    Edit

    An article in this weekends issue of der standard defines the local value of webdesign in austria. It’s in german (no, I won’t translate it, it’s not worth the trouble anyway).

    So, everybody who wasted years of his/her life on design related studies instead of making a 6 days course to become a web professional – Cheer up!

  35. Monocle

    Edit

    Christina recently showed me an article about a new magazine called monocle. Christina always got her feelers out for interesting stuff in the design, architecture, photography, art and fashion worlds and makes sure everyone at wollzelle sees the highlight. She has a real knack of picking out exactly those things that later become successful.

    The designer Tyler Brûlé is the creator of the new magazine. Ten years ago he launched the very successful wallpaper magazine focused on design, architecture, … simply anything and everything (beautiful) that surrounds us.

    “We are from a second school of thought that firmly believes that there is room to talk to a globetrotting audience that is interested in news and information that is not delivered along national boundaries.”—Tyler Brûlé

    The first issue of the new book ahm magazine has 244 pages and over 50.000 words. Brûlé is not interested in market research he simply invents his market on his own and already proved that concept with the wallpaper magazine.

    Sounds promising so far! A bit disillusioning was the fact that after I finished the annual subscription I got this small hint:

    I subscribed 3 weeks ago so I can tell you a bit more in about 5 weeks though …

  36. Talks ...

    Edit

    Last week Thomas Fuchs— feels odd to mention surnames but sometimes people screw up with the two-Thomases-thing at wollzelle ;)— gave a talk about Prototype and script.aculo.us at metalab, a non-profit association at a cool location in the first district here in Vienna. Next time you’re near the first district you should check it out, there are people around almost 24 hours a day.

    The talk was not really announced, so here are some official dates where you can meet at least one of the wollzelle team in the near future:

    1 QCon

    Thomas Fuchs at QCon London, March 12-16, 2007.
    The talk gives an overview about the concepts and functionality of both Prototype and the script.aculo.us libraries, provides advice on what and what not to expect and gives pointers and hints on how to get started. Details

    2 MultiMediaArt

    Thomas Pamminger at MultiMediaArt, April 11, 2007 6:45pm.
    Invited by the Salzburg University of Applied Sciences (branch of study MultiMediaArt) I will give a talk about what we’ve learned building the web app fluxiom and why web designers will do more in the future (or: working with developers). Details

    3 Railsconf 07

    Thomas Fuchs at Railsconf 2007 May 17-20, 2007.
    Thomas does a tutorial where you can learn how to create your own swooshy effects with the script.aculo.us effects engine and the utter secrets of all the new shiny things in Prototype and how to put them to full use. Thomas and I will be in Portland (I just wonder if we are the only two austrians over there?) Details

  39. Wollzelle is looking for you to join us

    Edit

    We’re looking for a developer to join our team here in vienna.

    You positively must have:

    • Minimum of 3 years experience in web application development (both front-end and back-end), good knowledge of relational databases and SQL (preferably PostgreSQL) and a broad programming background
    • Very thorough HTML, CSS and JavaScript knowledge.
    • Feels odd to even mention this, but you know Ruby on Rails, Prototype and script.aculo.us inside out.
    • You are continuously fascinated by interactive design and the opportunities it offers.
    • You like to be part of a team and love a good discussion and also care passionately about everything you do creatively.
    • An Apple Macintosh computer as your primary development tool.
    • Languages: German/English

    And last but not least: You like to work hard and you’re nice to people. This is a permanent position in Vienna, salary is based on experience.
    So, if you’re familiar with our work and think you could add to make it better don’t hesitate to send us:

    1. Your CV
    2. A link to your portfolio or at least 3 references of your previous work
    3. A salary expectation

    to jobs[at]wollzelle[dot]com.

    Absolutely NO AGENCIES please.

    thanks,
    best
    thomas p.

  41. orange rules

    Edit

    We just branded a handful of iPods to say thanks to our closest partners who accompanied wollzelle over the last 7 years.

    Okay, maybe a bit late but it took Apple so long to come up with some orange ;)

  42. Talk about UI Design

    Edit

    Last wednesday Prof. Dr. Peter Purgathofer invited me as a guest lecturer for his User Interface Design course at the Design and Assessment of Technologies Institute (Vienna University of Technology).

    After providing an insight into wollzelle, business, our way of working together and how to find “the right client” …

    … I took the students behind the scenes of the development of fluxiom and talked about the design and development process and the lessons we’ve learned.

    Thanks to Peter for the invitation, I hope everybody enjoyed it – I did!

  43. lovely

    Edit

    A few days ago I posted a really cool multi-touch demo —here’s another one, just great:

    A lot to learn dear inhouse touchscreen and kiosk system providers ;)

  44. 10 things we've learned in 2006

    Edit

    Here’s a more or less random list of stuff that we’ve learned last year (well, and the first two weeks of 2007):

    1. As a rule, New Yorkers don’t have cars. If you think there are traffic jams there, you’re imagining things.
    2. Sometimes, more is more.
    3. Consumer electronics companies shouldn’t rely on their technical departments on how to implement firmware updates in a user friendly way.
    4. There needs to be a PSP that has accelerometers built-in, because of a certain addiction.
    5. HD DVD won over Blu-ray.
    6. In airport hotels you get to see buildings on fire while you can’t turn off the TV set.
    7. There certainly are airports that don’t suck, but we haven’t seen any.
    8. We’ve found the best-ever recipe for Schweinsbraten, and we’re not going to tell you.
    9. JavaScript, Ajax and Ruby on Rails rule supreme (see the first and third book on that list!).
    10. And finally, don’t try to come up with technical solutions before thinking of the usability of the whole thing.

    Let’s see what 2007 is up to.

  45. It's about the interface, baby!

    Edit

    Today Apple CEO Steve Jobs announced the new iPhone cell phone! The iPhone comes in 4 GB and 8 GB models and costs $499 and $599. It includes a 3.5 inch touchscreen with a virtual keyboard, a 2 megapixel camera, is WIFI enabled and runs OSX.

    Especially the touchscreen functionality looks great—The image zoom could be influenced by this amazing multi touch demo what is by far the greatest touch screen experience i’ve ever seen. And aside from the design and the quality of the hardware i think the biggest benefit is that the phone runs OSX.

    The iPhone looks like a great device and I’m sure it will easily stand out from the crowd—there are a lot of poorly designed cell phones with odd interfaces out there (btw. it will be the first device that nicely syncs with any apple). So if you don’t need Excel spreadsheets on the go the iPhone seems to be a good choice.

    One More Thing ;)—It’s cool to see that Apple’s iPhone website uses our cross-browser JavaScript framework script.aculo.us featuring advanced Ajax UI controls, visual effects and other niceties born out of wollzelles asset management web application fluxiom.

  46. Happy 2007!

    Edit

    Nothing says it better than a cool can of phoenix beer on an exceptional beach.

    Too bad that the “recharge” is over—why are holidays always too short?

    Happy New Year!