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I read abcnews.com quite frequently and they always have some photoshops jobs that make me laugh, including the one above.

An eagle swooping down and picking up Britney Spears = Greatness.

The story can be read here.

In the digital age, everyone is tech savvy, and none more so than the current Miss America. I mean come on she has her own web browser for god sake. I thought this was a joke when I first heard about it, but it turned out to be true. Miss America, inspired by a bad encounter in a chat room when she was 13, has launched her web browser to keep the kids safe! What a sweet heart.

So how does this browser protect kids? Well it only allows the user to visit sites that are reviewed, pre-screened and approved by the Miss America web team.
Some of the other amazing features are: A fun and beautiful interface girls love, educational games that teach internet safety, and my favorite - an animated Miss America that offers encouraging words to your child.

I think its main selling point, only letting the user visit approved sites, will be its downfall. Perhaps it will work for children under the age of 8, but anyone older than that will probably need access to the more information than the Miss America web browser will allow.

In all honesty its a good idea and effort to help protect the young ones out there and its probably a better browser than I.E. I seriously doubt this idea will catch on, but perhaps it will shed some light on ways to implement stricter parental controls into browsers with a bigger market share. It will be interesting to see how many downloads the browser receives and to read the reviews on how safe it really is. Only time will tell if Miss American can take over the internet and get her face on every browser your child uses.

Seeing as I’m not really into the whole wedding scene, even though my girlfriend wishes I was, I had a hard time trying to create a meaningful and creative design. I wanted to outline the steps I took to help me get in the game and create a good design.

Step 1: Research, Research, Research -

Take a look at the competition or sites with similar content. You can get a lot of great ideas by seeing what other sites are doing. The point isn’t to just go out and steal someone else’s idea, but to get inspired by other great design. I personally believe you can never do enough research, the more you know the more you will succeed.

Step 2: Go crazy -

Sometimes the best way to come up with something original is to go in the complete opposite direction that you think you need to head. This is great starting point to generate ideas and layouts. It may not lead to the best design decisions for you project, but it will generate new and creative ideas.

Step 3: Ask for help -

Its hard sometimes, but asking for help is not a bad idea. I know I wish I had all the great ideas all the time, but thats is not realistic. Asking for help from another designer or non-designer can give you unique insight into how others perceive your design. It is important, however, to take all advice with a grain of salt though. You cant let your original vision be compromised by ideas from others, it is YOUR design and that can’t be forgotten.

So there it is, a few ideas I use for when I am stuck on a design problem. As with everything, these ideas don’t always work, but I’ve found these to be good go to techniques to generate ideas.

If anyone has any additional or different takes on this subject I’d love to hear them.

This isn’t your normal ping-pong table, this is its cooler, rebellious cousin. This table is called the Revolution and as you can see by its radical design, it will get more looks that green thing sitting in your basement. If you want to be the coolest table tennis player on the block you might want to considered getting the Revolution table. I know I’d feel like I could play as good as Forest Gump if I had one of these.

I began thinking about this and I totally agree. Yes, sometimes you are struck with a stroke of creative genius, but most times you have to put in blood, sweat and tears to generate a creative solution to a design problem. I know for myself looking back on past projects you always find ways you would have improved and refined those projects. I think this has to do with the fact that you are looking back on the project not only with a “clean pallet,” but also with a more refined and robust creative style.

As for the future of creativity in the American culture, I think we have tons of room for improvement. Until we as a society start to embrace the fact that being creative and unique is a great thing, we will still lag behind the rest of the world in producing creative citizens. The good news is that we can continue to increase our creative process by simply practicing at being creative. So I for one will try even harder to open my mind more and seek out inspiration from the world and people around me.

I hope you’ll join me on the road to creative enlightenment. Keep on trucking.

15 excellent examples of web typography

Our friends over at the US Bureau of Engraving have given ol’ Honest Abe a maker over. They have added some new and improved security features as well, to ward of those currency entrepreneurs, or as the government likes to call them, counterfeiters.

Some highlights of the redesign are a moved security thread and watermark and a “beautiful” purple tint to the center of the bill. The purple theme continues on the back with the freaking huge 5 on the back. When I first saw it I was confused by a gigantic purple 5 on the back of the bill, but when I found out it was to help the visually impaired recognize the different currencies (we all know the blind can see purple….), the purple 5 made sense. There are a few more features to the new 5 but if you want to know more check out the interactive $5 dollar bill.

Whether you like the new design or not, the design and engineering that goes into our currency is amazing. So keep your eyes out for the new $5’s, I’m sure they will hit the street soon.

This time I have no clue what is wrong with my battery other than it wont hold a charge for longer than an hour or so. I did a little research on the Apple website and found that there is another recall on macbook pro batteries. Call me crazy, but I think having my battery recalled twice in two years is just a little excessive. Lucky my laptop hasn’t caught on fire or been warped by crazy battery malfunctions…..yet.

So tomorrow I go to the mac store and hopefully come home with a fresh, functional battery. Who knows, maybe the third time will really be the charm. Heres to catchy phrases and being optimistic!

Update: So went to the mac store yesterday and my suspicions were correct, my battery was FUBAR. Thankfully the helpful staff at the mac store replaced my battery for free and made me a satisfied customer.