Damascity

On the surface, Filter Forge is just a Photoshop plugin, a pack of
filters that generate textures, create visual effects, enhance photos,
process images. However, there are 3 things that make Filter Forge
unique:

1. You can create your own filters.
Filter Forge comes with a visual node-based editor allowing you to
create your own filters – textures, effects, distortions, backgrounds,
frames, you name it. All filters automatically support 16- and 32-bit
modes in Photoshop, real-world HDRI lighting, bump and normal maps,
huge resolutions and seamless tiling.

2. Anyone can submit filters to our online Filter Library
where other users can download them – for free. This means that the
more people use Filter Forge, the better it gets. Currently, the
library contains 2821 user-created filters.

3. Contributors get Filter Forge for free.
You submit filters, they get popular with the users, we send you a free
copy of Filter Forge. Sounds simple but don’t expect a giveaway, you
will have to earn it.

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Kevin Kelly talks about his favorite maps for backpackers: Nelles Maps.

Nelles Maps are the best foldable maps for travelers I’ve seen. I favor
them for six reasons: 1) They come at a good practical scale for
traveling, fine enough to show most small rural towns. 2) Each map
displays shaded physical relief of mountains, highway numbers and even
“places of interest” - which are often not listed in guide books. 3)
The maps are printed on both sides to maximize coverage. 4) They are
printed in a form that folds neatly into a shoulder bag, with cover. 5)
They are reasonably priced. 6) Best of all, Nelles seem to keep them
very up to date. I haven’t found any Nelles maps in print that are more
than a few years old.

The Life of Products: Products are not nouns but verbs. A product designed as a noun will
sit passively in a home, an office, or pocket. It will likely have a
focus on aesthetics, and a list of functions clearly bulleted in the
manual… but that’s it.

Products can be verbs instead, things which are happening,
that we live alongside. We cross paths with our products when we first
spy them across a crowded shop floor, or unbox them, or show a friend
how to do something with them. We inhabit our world of activities and
social groups together… a product designed with this in mind can look
very different. (from SvN)

Kevin Kelly covers what he feels are the two best personal book publishing services: Blurb and Lulu.

eMarketer reported today on the profile of Vistors to Fashion Websites. The stats show that over 60% are women, over 76% are between 18-44, over 22% have household income of over $100,000 and the top 12 websites make up over 41% of visits.

eMarketer has just put out a report on Health and Beauty Marketing. There is an interesting graph on the expected  growth of of online sales in different product markets. 

eMarketer published this article on Gender & Online Shopping with stats from  this Euromonitor study.

The eMarketer article also had an interesting wikipedia link on Digit Ratio studies. Interesting…

E-Tailer’s Digest has two good reads today: Accounting Tips and What Drives Luxury Purchase Sales.

Jargonboy has launched “M is for Modern” alphabet flash cards where each letter represents an art movement or style. “Forget A is for Apple. B is for Bauhaus is where it’s at.”

I love the uniqueness of Teetonic’s site. It definately provides a unique shopping/interacting experience and empowering the customers.

This site allows designers to compete with each month by submitting a design. The designs are voted on by viewers. The winner than gets monetary reward and proceeds from each sale.

I’m sure No!Spec would be against this but it brings up a Cluetrain argument that successful companies should build communicating and interacting with your customers. Unlike other ecommerce sites, Teetonic is built around community. I’m sure most designers use these forums for experimenting and possibly making a buck off their experiments. Where should the line be drawn between truely involving customers throughout product development and spec-ploitation? As a baby designer and an ecommerce owner that cares about customer involvement I am being pulled by both sides. It would be interesting to see where the No!Spec movement goes and if standards can be set by the design and interactive ecommerce communities as to what the standards should be.