Being the Official Needmore Deejay (TM), there’s a definite pattern I’ve noticed to the music I play at work. It can be evenly divided up into morning and afternoon, and then often subdivided into a few artists or compilations that I play over and over.

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Our designed newsletters have become one step easier to update! Take a look at this video to see the new drag and drop feature as well as a preview as you type feature.

As much as we love taking on new projects, we often turn down new work when we do not believe we are the best match for a potential client in terms of design philosophy and/or technology. We do not take these decisions lightly; often, a lengthy treatise will go out with these notes letting folks know why we might not be the best match for their project. Hopefully, the information will help them to find the studio that will best suit their needs. Today, we received such an encouraging and gracious response to such a longwinded explanation that I just had to share.

I really appreciate your frankness
and wish you all the best for your designer-future.
You will go a long way if you stick to this honesty.
Believe me, I have a long experience,
people like you are rare in today’s world.

Interesting to see the AIGA’s Design Salary Survey results (PDF).

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Remarkable use of Flash - simple, clear and memorable.

Metalsmith Amy Tavern has unveiled her first piece in her new jewelry of the month collection. Amy notes:

jewelry of the month is a way for me to realize designs that don’t fit into my regular collections or studio jewelry. these pieces are an opportunity to take ideas from sketchbook to workbench and share them with you. each edition will be limited to less than 10 and will come with a numbered and signed card.

Aren’t these gorgeous!

OregonBusiness magazine features Gone Raw in their July cover story: 10 Coolest Tech Startups You’ve Never Heard Of. Take a look and Meet some of the coolest startups running around Silicon Forest today. You’ll find us there, along with a handy drink-finding site (so useful in these hot, hot days in Portland), among others.

Congratulations to our friends at Dolcezza Artisanal Gelato who are celebrating their grand opening of their Bethseda location this evening. If you are in Maryland, head over to 7111 Bethesda Lane, Bethesda from 6pm to 11pm. We hear there will be plenty of gelato sample and an ensuing mass gelato pandemonium. Read more in their latest newsletter or stop by their website for tasty gelato eye candy.

Brian Libby just posted an excellent writeup on the architecture of the Olympic Mills Commerce Center (our office), by Works Partnership.

(That’s our office in this photo of Brian’s ... in fact, you can see both of our scooters in the window on the left!)

A series of four courtyards cut into the warehouse with skylights to bring in natural light. These double-height courtyards, encircled by second-floor catwalks, are the most pleasant and photogenic portions of the building. They’re clad in slatted wood (made of 2x6 flooring) that was re-milled from several wood grain cribs that had been part of the tower’s grain elevator.

The new Wolf Parade album, At Mount Zoomer, is great. I’ve been listening to it for a week solid.

I came to be aware that this album was coming out because of iLike on Facebook. I’ve put in the bands I like most these days, and whenever they’ve got an album coming out, or are playing near me, I see a message. It’s great. I love it.

So the day of its release, I swung by my local record shop out of curiosity… and there it was! I bought the record… sound unheard you might say. Fifteen bucks isn’t as cheap as records used to be, but extremely reasonable considering that’s what the CD costs, and CD’s are crap. I mean, they are crap! I’ve always hated them. I’m not being an elitist record snob… I just don’t know why you’d choose a CD over a record. But I’ve been using an iPod for a long time, and that really does completely make CD’s obsolete. There’s just no point. The music might possibly sound better on the CD, depending… but most people don’t know the difference.

It’s like comparing a paperback to a hardcover book. Or like the difference between looking at art on your cell phone, versus a nice big coffee table book. The album is something. It’s big, physical, and it really puts the focus on the art. As a designer, I kinda like that. CD’s are like those tiny little booklets promoting Camel cigarettes. They’re like little crappy club flyers, wrapped in plastic garbage. Records are giant and lovely, and often have other artifacts within, as does this one.

Not only that, but it includes a coupon to download the MP3’s for free! And why not? If I had any doubt about buying the record, that certainly settled it. It doesn’t really cost them anything to throw that in, but it totally sealed the deal for me. I listen to the MP3’s at work or on the go, and when I get home I can listen to the record on our nice stereo.

With a glass of wine, of course. Not beer. Beer is crap. :)