Alex Designs Blog

First Attempt at Studio Photography

2009-02-04T09:42:00.005-05:00

In the last few months, I started doing photography again. I never really stopped taking pictures but with work taking over my life the last few years, I wasn't doing anything "creative" that I was proud of. So my main goal for 2009 is to get back to drawing, painting and creative photography... things I enjoy, away from the computer.

So I decided to learn more about all aspects of photography. Like manually controlling how I want my pictures to look in the camera, versus manipulating them in Photoshop. Also seeing how to lighting better and capture interesting subjects. Here is a display of some studio photography that I recently did. I didn't set up the lighting, but I did learn a lot about shooting in a studio. I used a Canon 50d. Please let me know what you think and if you are on Flickr, please add me as a contact: http://www.flickr.com/people/alexharris/

Barack Obama Wins President Elect

2008-11-05T01:37:00.016-05:00

I had my doubts that he could pull it off, but I very happy for the new President Elect Barack Obama. This truly historical event makes me proud to be an American. During the news media coverage of the election, I experienced many different types of content and technologies that I wanted to document. What did you experience?

CNN Now Has Holograms

So... I assume the host is just talking to the air and pretending the other person is there? Photo from Alex Hillman

Endless news coverage

Here is a collection of news websites that covered the election of Barack Obama. This collection from Jeff Junatas can be seen at this website.

Twitter Election Success

Of course there is Twitter, which not only provided the quickest updates about the election but the SMS updates from the news sites had latest breaking commentary long before TV, web or radio. Plus Twitter did not fail and go down.

Updated: 11/5

Election maps from Jason Kottke - kottke.org

Jason Kottke summarizes here: "Most media outlets covering the 2008 US Presidential Election used the familiar red/blue map to track the progress of the race as results from the polls rolled in Tuesday evening. Here are several of those maps, in some ways as similar to each other as they are varied." View them all

What else am I missing?

I will add more as I collect them. What cool technologies or content did you experience during the 2008 Presidential Election?

Good times at Web 2.0 Expo NY with videos

2008-09-23T01:30:00.009-04:00

It was awesome to get back to New York City for a long week. I was in town attending the Web 2.0 Expo NY at the Javits Center. Janetti Chon and the TechWeb / O'Reilly Media teams put on a great event. I was very impressed by the speakers and overall size of the conference.

My favorite part was the Web2Open unconference which was set up in the middle of the expo floor. Some of the highlights include "Starting Up In Silicon Alley" hosted by Nate Westheimer and the one-on-one Q&A with David Heinemeier Hansson from 37 Signals. Plus, it is always great to meet new internet friends, like Andrew Hyde, Sam Lessin and Robert Sandie.

View some Web 2.0 Expo NY Videos

Wine 2.0 with Gary Vaynerchuk	Jim Louderback, Revision3 CEO
Gary Vaynerchuk Live WinelibraryTV	Ricky Van Veen, CollegeHumor
Building Community Panel	John Resig, JQuery
Web 2 Open NY	Michael Lazerow, Buddy Media
Kevin Ryan, AlleyCorp	Tech Karaoke NY New York
David Rose, New York Angels	Techset NY Party New York

Were you at the conference?

Say what's up, post a comment below:

Social Media Camp - Miami w/ Erica Ogrady

2008-08-18T10:01:00.005-04:00

On August 2, Social Media Camp came to Miami, Florida. This event was hosted by Erica Ogrady at the Wolfsonian - Florida International University on Miami Beach.

What is Social Media Camp?
Social Media Camp brings together the brightest minds in Social Media with people interested in learning more about the power of Community Based Marketing. The event follows the BarCamp / unconference format.

Did you attend the event? What did you think?

Post a comment. Initially I didn't have huge expectations for the event, since it was on Saturday and the beach is preferred in Miami over tech events. I enjoyed myself, met a lot of new people but some of the presentations were a lame and a little too self promotion. Here is a video clip of one of great presentations from the day. The host Erica giving an overview about Social Media. Overall, she put together a great event...

Awesome story of my lost artwork

2008-07-21T23:07:00.007-04:00

This is an awesome story of how my artwork was found on the side of the road during college around 1997, then sent to me 11 years later. With the power of the internet here is a note I received on my Flickr account:

You do not know me but I think you must have spent some time in Tallahassee. I went to FSU. To make a long story short, one night I was driving home and almost ran something over. I stopped the car, got out and found a large book. On the top of the book it said Alex Harris. When I opened the book it said Alex Harris ORIGINALS. There were about 30 pieces of bad ass talented art work in that book. Some of the pieces of art work are currently on the web. I just decided to google your name after unpacking a bunch of old boxes in my attic. There was no contact phone number to call so I decided to keep it. Contact me at XXX@XXX.com

How cool is that!

He eventually went through my site and landed on my Flickr profile. Confirmed the artwork was mine and sent me the note. Turns out the artwork are prints of my original pieces. The book was used as a catalog when I sold artwork at the student union on FSU campus. Has anything like this happened to you? Take a look at some of the artwork that was found...

Creative Day - Fun times, inspiration and more motivation!

2008-05-22T19:33:00.011-04:00

This past weekend was Creative Day at my house. Really, it was my birthday party, but it was also a way to get together with my friends and have an art party. This is something we did a lot in college (10 years ago - wow) and now my excuse is - I really don't have a lot of time to work on traditional art projects.

Overall we had a really great day. I attempted to set up a live web stream but it didn't work out because my wireless wouldn't reach far enough - sorry to those who were expecting to watch us. Yet, many came out to paint, draw, take pictures, shoot videos or just hang out.

Aside from the party, part of setting this up was important to me for many reasons. 1) It forced me to organize my art supplies so I can set up my art studio 2) Provided instant inspiration to get more involved mixing art with new media 3) I was able to document my talented friends and we encouraged each other to be doing this a lot more.

Have you ever been to an art party?

Let me know, I would hear ideas from other events in your city. There were a lot of photography going on as well. Here are some videos I shot during the day. For the HD versions visit my vimeo page.

Ryan Droze - @droze

Jimmy Allen - @stinkyfatpig

Is Google Friend Connect a Game Changer?

2008-05-13T13:16:00.006-04:00

How will Google Friend Connect change blogs, social networks and relationships across the web?
Take a look at the video and post a comment on what you think.

Have you seen a site in action?

Let me know, I would love to see this live on a site and view how it works.

Video has changed everything: design + marketing + future

2008-05-06T18:05:00.011-04:00

There were two challenges for me to start doing my own video. One, I have no time. So it is really tough to fit anything into my schedule, especially editing and learning new programs/formats. The second reason is I know I am terrible in front of the camera and a really bad presenter.

Now after 2 months of experimentation, video has really changed everything for me. For example, almost twice a week someone NEW mentions seeing one of my videos. These online relationships are now more valuable because we have a more personal connection.

Also, I am seeing design, movies and marketing concepts a lot differently. It's a new perspective on how to make things more beautiful and precise. In ecommerce, it is providing more credibility for websites with low brand awareness and will directly improve conversion rates. Or at least shrinks the buying sales process for new customers. Video reviews are great use for this space. Plus, creating video assets are more valuable than photos, graphs or articles. Videos have more viral opportunity so the long tail is even longer.

With each new video I complete, I take a step towards pushing my creativity and improving my career. The quality of the videos will get better along with my verbal skills. In the meantime, below is my first HD movie I put online (personal test). You can preview it below, or visit Vimeo for the full HD version.

Are you doing video?

Let me know - I would love to share thoughts on editing, concepts or collaborations.

Owen In Florida from alex harris on Vimeo.

If you were 14 years old, what would inspire you?

2008-04-16T00:48:00.008-04:00

My girlfriend's nephew, Mike, is 14 years old and really passionate. Last week I saw his fashion designs (below) and told him he should start a blog, then ask people to review them. 2 days later, he put a site online all by himself. I motivated him and now I am asking you to inspire him. If you were 14 years old again (not even in high school yet), what advice would you want to hear?
Please comment on Mike's web site "My Designs". Thanks in advance!

Automatically Improve Traffic from Social Networking Websites

2008-04-07T23:14:00.023-04:00

Are you getting (non paid) web traffic and leads from social networking websites? I am working on a comprehensive strategy to improve "Referring Social Network Traffic". The business goals of using social sites include building brand exposure, creating customer relationships and bringing traffic back to the original website. This works the same for personal branding and corporate web marketing plans. Now you can automate the delivery of content to each of the social networking websites and stay consistently activate. This results in improving your "Referring Social Network Traffic". The key is to make it really easy for customers to connect (friend) and find you on ALL of the social networks so the audience consistently increases. I think, all of your personal and/or business profiles need a consistent look and feel to ensure brand consistency.

Here are some things to think about:

Your website or blog needs to have a "Social Networking" section. This area should be very easy to find and include clickable icons with text links. You can also use Lijit and automate the icons that show up on your website, plus track those subscriptions.

Make sure your company or brand is easy to find in a search query on the popular social networking sites. This can be done by using target keyword phrases or tags in the personal profiles, business profiles and groups you create. Example: Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn and ect should all have a consistent about me section in the profile messaging that includes target keywords.

Companies need to move marketing dollars into video. This is especially important since YouTube is owned by Google. Video is an essential part of universal search. Naming and tagging your videos with keywords make them show up better in search results. Tip - Try TubeMogul and you can upload one video, then distribute it to ten sites at once, plus tag and track them all in once place.

Automate the content updates for ALL social networking sites. For example, with Twitter you can update your status on Facebook, Twitter, Pownce, Tumblr, SocialThing, FriendFeed and more. You can also automatically make your new YouTube videos show up on Facebook. Plus automate your blog posts, events, Flickr photos to show up on your profile(s). This makes the company look active and keeps your audience's attention.

Connect with your audience with automated marketing research. For example, with TweetScan you can track keywords on Twitter and create RSS feeds out of that content. So, you can be notified automatically (web or sms) when someone talks about your brand or even a competitors. Also, Google and Yahoo alerts are extremely helpful to track blogs, news and ect.

Create viral content that is easily shareable. The biggest traffic drivers for me have been controversial articles that attract a lot of comments or people to Digg or Stumble.

A custom email signature is an easy way to express that you are using social sites. Having this on your personal or business emails will help increase your fans and friends.

[Addition] Widgets are great tools also, suggested by Justin Thorp. Widgets are a great way to deliver automated content, games and applications for a company or brand. Example: A health brand can create a widget for their audience to use on their desktop, Facebook, MySpace and personal start page or websites. Clicking links in widget and forwarding of applications will result in more traffic back to your site.

Who else is thinking about this?

Have you see other blog posts about the automation of content for social networking sites? Are you generating traffic from your social networking websites? Please post your ideas or feedback here.

I am testing this strategy across the web with corporate and personal websites to see which social networking sites bring the most traffic back to the original websites. Plus, I am experimenting with the best ways to get brand exposure, plus find ways to monitor the success in traffic, leads and conversions.

Brikolodge - New Miami coworking community workspace!

2008-03-27T02:55:00.009-04:00

As you drive down Biscayne Blvd in Miami, Florida you will run into the Art District with Galleries, Boutiques and amazing wall art and graffiti. Here is where Ali Wadsworth has taken the lead and started the first Miami Coworking Community Workspace – Brikolodge. The coworking space is located at the Wynwood Lofts - 250 NW 23rd St Miami, Fl 33127. Wynwood Lofts is characterized as a pet-friendly, sophisticated, urbane, chic enclave for artists, writers, photographers and entrepreneurs. I had the chance to visited the coworking space last night when it was launched at a meet-up for RefreshMiami.

Brikolodge is borrowed from the French word "bricolage". Bricolage as a design approach – in the sense of building by trial and error – is often contrasted to engineering: theory-based construction. A person who engages in bricolage is a bricoleur: someone who invents his or her own strategies for using existing materials in a creative, resourceful, and original way.

Ali has really been extremely motivated to get this started and already has one desk rented out. The potential of Brikolodge is obvious the minute you walk in. There are many additional lofts available in the same building for the coworking space to grow. Right now the current loft is around 1200 sq ft. This space will have 5 resident desks (for about $400 a month), 8-10 shared desk spaces which would go for about $250 a month. The lofts have concrete flooring, tall ceilings, and lots of windows. There are other creative agencies in the same building and also a few art galleries and studios as well. They even have a pool on the roof.

If you know someone who would be interested in a joining the coworking community, please forward this information and contact Ali Wadsworth. The space is are moving quickly, the lease was signed a week ago and they already have desks set up and internet access. They are building a conference center, with a large table and chairs, but the logistics of the presentation capabilities are yet to be determined. There will be someone at the office at all times to "manage" the facility and be under some level of "surveillance". Overall, I was very impressed. Great job, Ali!

Here is a video of Ali at Brikolodge - Miami Coworking Workspace

For more information about the Miami Coworking Community & Workspace - Brikolodge visit http://brikolodge.wordpress.com

Web designers that improve revenue & long term growth

2008-03-24T00:03:00.007-04:00

There are a lot of great web designers, but many designers do not focus on making their clients more money. A comprehensive marketing plan along with a great website design is the easiest way to help a company grow. The first impression of the design is especially important for small to mid size businesses that do not have strong brand recognition or are just starting out. When putting together a professional and organized web design it is important to build confidence with your visitors, show that you are a credible company and create a user experience is easy to read and encourages the visitors to tell their friends about the site.

Most designers do not understand all the factors that contribute to the success of a website. The artwork is just a small portion of what is needed to be successful. When considering a layout you also need to consider monitor resolutions, SEO, streamlining customer service needs, reducing page fallout and cart abandonment, plus determing a strategy to create a long term relationship with your visitors.

Exposing my secrets for successful website designs!

After 8 years of focusing on conversion rate web design, I have developed a strategy of best practices that goes into every one of my website designs. My company focuses on helping companies improve their revenue online through web design, internet marketing and building web traffic for long term growth. My new video podcast will present different ways my company helps websites improve their conversion rates, collect more leads and have successful growth. Some of the topics will include: Creating Landing Pages, Improving Conversion Rate, Defining Persona's / Click Paths, Best practices of a Website Re-Design, Designing for SEO, Follow-On Marketing, Multi-store eCommerce and Improving the lifetime value of your customers. You can sign up for the podcast on iTunes be clicking here.

Here is a sample of what is coming

Take a look at the first video podcast below. This video is a quick overview of me and some of the topics that I will be talking about. If there are subjects that you would like me to cover on my blog or in my podcast, please comment here, email me suggestions or you can call the podcast comment line at 206-888-0328 and I may play it back during the show.

You may also enjoy these articles:

Did we meet at a conference? Stay in touch!

2008-03-15T16:44:00.012-04:00

March has been a great month for conferences. Early in the month, I attended FOWA and Barcamp Miami, then this past week I attended SXSW and Barcamp Austin. This post is not going to be about the panels or anything I learned at the events. It is going to be about how I improved my networking skills and talked to more people than I ever have. If you go to a lot of conferences and you are very social, than you can probably ignore this, but here was my strategy to get the most out of the events.

Fine tune your personal brand before the event
Make a list of people you want to meet
Don't pitch anyone, just talk to everyone about anything
Find the best places to go, that aren't listed in the schedule
Blog about your experiences and take a lot of photos or videos

Fine tune your personal brand before the event

Before I went to these events, I did have a chance to update my websites and fine tune my personal brand. I challenged myself to finally update my website and blog after a 4 year hiatus. This was important because I was also updating my business cards and my brand consistency didn't represent me well.

Make a list of people you want to meet at the events

The panels will educate you, the speakers will motivate you, but you will get the most from people you network with at conferences. I made a mental list of people I wanted to meet and I met them all, plus so many more. When you do meet these people, make sure you have something to talk about. Do you read their blog? Talk about it and give them feedback. Do you watch their videos? Tell them, they love hearing you're a fan. Seriously! To the right is a sample of the business cards I collected.

I admit, originally I was intimidated to meet some people. I thought that they would be egotistical and not want to talk to me at all. Not one person acted that way. Every single people I wanted to meet welcomed a great conversation. A lot of them even knew who I was from Twitter or my website. Here are a few of the people I was able to meet: Guy Kawasaki, Kevin Rose, Chris Brogan, C.C. Chapman, Paul Boag, Jeffrey Zeldman, Robert Scoble, Tim Ferriss, and Tommy Guerrero.

Don't pitch anyone, just talk to everyone (about anything)

We are all trying to market ourselves when we are networking, but don't pitch anyone, just talk to them. I find it annoying when I meet someone for the first time and they immediately try to sell me something. Keep that for trade show floor!. I experienced this a few times, either I was offered a job or they had a product to test/buy. This shut down the conversation and I moved on.

Find the best places to go, that aren't listed in the schedule

The best way to find the unscheduled events is to use Twitter. I found many unpanels and social parties this way. At these unscheduled events I was inspired a lot more than the normal panels in general. To find these events, you can track keywords using twitter, keyword search tools or just turn on notifications for specific people you want to meet.

Blog about your experiences and take a lot of photos or videos

If you really want people to remember you after the conference, make sure you blog about it. Exactly like I am doing here on this post. Also, take a lot of photos and/or video while you are there. Plus tag it with the right keywords. It is possible that your content may be reused on another blog. This could result people adding you as a friend on Flickr or just a traffic driver to your site.

For example, here is a video I took during a BBQ that was held by Robert Scoble during SXSW at the Salt Lick. I ended up meeting the Scobleizer at an unscheduled party the night before.

Did we meet at a conference?

Let me know and let's stay in touch!

SXSW Screen Burn - See the Video Game Party

2008-03-12T19:29:00.002-04:00

I am was very impressed by the ScreenBurn Video Gaming Fest & Party at SXSW. The 2008 edition of ScreenBurn, the gaming component of SXSW Interactive, is a five-day event providing up-and-coming gaming industry talent an opportunity to learn from more established professionals. Rise to the next level of your career through enlightening panel discussions, networking opportunities, and technical discoveries. ScreenBurn features four days of presentations related to the newest developments in the gaming industry, held on the Third Floor of the Convention center.

ScreenBurn 2008 also includes the ScreenBurn Arcade, taking place on the first floor of the Austin Convention Center on Saturday, March 8 and Sunday, March 9th. The ScreenBurn Arcade, an open platform of exhibitors and game tournaments, is free to the public and connects consumers, independents, developers, and soon to be masters of the game world.

Here is a walk through of the screen burn event, plus a little hello from Jose Castillo.

Did you like Screen Burn - post your comment!
Or call-in and leave an audio comment: Call 206-888-0328

In Austin, finally, for SXSW

2008-03-08T11:42:00.005-05:00

What up people. I love Austin. People are great and the town is super chill. Check some of the new videos of me and my Twitter Travel experience. It's a classic story!

In this one I just walked off the plane. Look at me, I havent had any sleep in days.

Here is the conference has started and I recap the experience of meeting Marc Nathan and how he helped me get to Austin.

Going to SXSW... Maybe... If lucky enough to get there!

2008-03-07T01:41:00.004-05:00

Today has been an interesting day. I am making the journey from Ft Lauderdale to Austin, Texas for SXSW - South by South West. This is one of the top interactive conferences of the year. I originally booked my travel plans well in advance. I decided to fly a day early to avoid some of the flight delays of the weekend travel.

With my luck, it turns out I would have been better traveling tomorrow (Friday). Currently there is a snow storm in Dallas, Texas - my original connection to Austin. That scheduled on American Airlines, but the flight got cancelesd so I was moved over to Delta to try and get to Texas via Atlanta. Thanks to my Nintendo DS and my 40 gigs of music to keep me company.

Then of course there was a storm in Ft Lauderdale so my flight was delayed and I could miss my connection in Atlanta to Houston. In fact, I am writing this from the airplane (in the air) at 945 pm in hopes that I can get directly to Austin. My back up plan, if I get to Houston, is to rent a car and drive to Austin. I am not surprised that this is happening. I expect it. This stuff just happens to me. Things just need to be harder than normal. Yet, I keep pushing through and dedicated to reaching my goals, even if I have to sleep in the airport tonight.

One positive thing happened today. I was able to record my second video for my podcast. This time my girlfriend Sam was able to join me. She has been a lot of the motivated for me to try new things. We have already discussed a lot of ideas for our video podcast.

Great, we are about to land in Atlanta. All the people in the plane are going to get home and I still don't have a plan to finish my travels. I am totally going to get stuck, again. I know I will have to go to Houston and then drive to Austin. Urggg!

The new video is rendering now and I will upload it during the layover. Please keep the feedback coming and enjoy the video...

Have some feedback?

Please call the comment line: 206-888-0328
Or post a comment on this blog...

Redesigning your personal brand in a weekend

2008-03-03T12:15:00.005-05:00

This post was supposed to be live last Monday, but missed the chance. In anticipation of some of the conferences that I am going to. I decided to (finally) change the homepage design for Alex Designs LLC over last weekend, plus create some new business cards. I am very self-conscious of my own design work, so I didn't want to do anything that was over the top. Just keep the design simple and meet my objectives.

The objectives of my personal brand are:

Improve the exposure of my brand and my blogs through RSS
Show off some of the great work my company has been doing
Stream my connections through social networks
Improve my network of peers and social friends
Launch new initiatives

Keeping it simple and accessible

My old site was built in 2003, plus I built that one in a weekend as well. But it was probably one of the first sites that I built in CSS. So the code was pretty bad. Now the code is not 100% perfect yet on this site, but it is a lot cleaner and it getting closer to being valid. So far I fixed all the layout bugs. Then I can do a mobile version too.

My Challenges

Merge 3 areas of interest into my personal brand identity
Promote 3 different RSS feeds
Try not to screw up my search engine rankings
~~Anticipate~~ Launch a podcast

The 3 areas of interest I focus on are Landing Page Design, eCommerce Web Design and then my blog, which covers anything I am interested in. By focusing on these areas as separate sites, I have built my niche in 3 separate verticals. This help when your readers are various types of marketers/consultants, business owners and my peers. Each of the sites are blogs dedicated to the keywords for each of the topics. This should help with search engine optimization and helping people choose what they want to read or subscribe to.

Create it quickly and build from there

My theory has always been this way. I really just didn't want to spend a lot of time on this rebranding exercise. It is just a foundation for me to build on and it works for me. Since I put this new deisgn up last weekend, I have already started a new podcast and added it to my navigation. Even the podcast I put together very quickly. Yea, I am not the best speaker, but I needed to jump into it and get it out there. Then build on my podcasting skills as well.

Have any thoughts? Give me your feedback...

Motivated people inspire me

2008-03-02T23:39:00.011-05:00

This weekend I was inspired by some of the smartest people on the internet. From Thursday to Sunday, I attended Barcamp Miami and FOWA - Future of Web Apps. I dont want to review since there are a ton of blogs and podcasts covering the event, plus photos. What I got out the conference was motivation. You see... I am used to being the internet guy who knows everything. But this weekend, I felt I know nothing.

The speakers were (mostly) great, but I really enjoyed the energized Gary Vaynerchuk from Wine Library. His presentation didn't have any powerpoint slides and no internet demo - he just expressed himself from the heart. It's all about being passionate in your work, he said. Making a connection with your community and being dedicated to your cause. His connection with the audience was overwhelming.

Then, when I got home, I decided to finally start my own podcast / web show. I have never done video (at all) before, so I wanted to just keep it simple. Also, my girlfriend said she would do some episodes with me because I am a quiet guy, but my girlfriend makes me talk. Overall this is great motivation for me to try new things and work on improving my personal brand.

Here is the first video. I know I need a microphone. I did video because I will want to keep things visual with screen casts, art demos and interviews. Also, I am looking forward to doing some editing. ~~This will become a podcast feed~~. Podcast feed is now set up and submitted for review in iTunes, see Alex Designs Podcast Site. Please let me know what you think. Post a Comment

Now I can do some video in Austin for SXSW!
Will you be there? Let me know and lets put something together.

Move Web Pages Without Losing SEO Ranking

2008-02-22T01:53:00.007-05:00

For the last few weeks, I have been trying to transfer some search engine keyword rankings from my old blog to a new niche blog I created for Landing Pages. Take a look at these Google results here. As displayed in the graphic, Alex Designs is listed with two results for that keyword. Obviously, it would be stupid to screw this up.

My Approach

I created a blog post on the new web site that targets the keywords Landing Page Design and moved over the original content. Then all the previous links to this old post were changed to the new URL. Plus I added a server side 301 redirect to the old page. This strategy should transfer over the Google Ranking, plus the web traffic for my new blog.

There are several more pages like this that I need to complete. First, I am testing this page transfer, because it has the least traffic for this batch of keywords. If this is successful, I will then start to move over my remaining pages, one by one to build a new web presence for my new blog.

It's time consuming, but this is my way of moving web pages without losing SEO Ranking. What do you think?

SXSW Meet Ups, Tweet-Ups, Geek Parties and Events

2008-02-10T20:46:00.000-05:00

I have been meeting a ton of new people that are going to SXSW. Are you going? Send me your twitter name or look for "Alex Harris" in the SXSW Registrant Directory. You can also find me on the SXSW Ning networking site.

As South By South West gets closer, there are a lot of social events popping up. Below is a list of meet-ups that I am considering so far. These events may or may not be listed on the SXSW website. I will also be in town for the Music portion as well. If there are any suggestions on events that I should consider going to. Post them here!

Friday, March 7, 2008

Coworking Meetup at SXSWi
Hotel San Jose - 7:00 PM
2008 is the Year of Coworking! Meet the movers, shakers, and stirrers making it all happen!
Details: http://freelance.meetup.com/65/calendar/7166011/

Saturday, March 8, 2008

Social Breakfast
Magnolia’s Cafe - 8:30am
Local breakfast, great people, start SXSW on a full stomach.
Details: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=20921710532

Kickball Kickoff
Palm Park - 10:30 am
KICK! is a fun, free playground-style kickball game that makes a great way for you to meet and mix with attendees of the Interactive festival.
Details: http://www.dashes.com/kick/

EllisLab Party
Moonshine Grill - 6:00pm
This is the "official" EllisLab community meet up!
Details: http://camp.ellislab.com/

16bit SXSW Party
Scoot Inn - 10:00pm
Sponsored by Joyent, Pownce, Rocketboom, ComicVine, Get Satisfaction, Laughing Squid, 30 Boxes and Dogster/Catster.
Details: http://sxswparty.com/2008/02/08/16bit-sxsw-interactive-party/

Monday, March 10, 2008

Austin On Rails SXSW Happy Hour
Ruby on Rails developers and enthusiasts Rec Room for pool, foosball, pinball, air hockey, PS3, Wii, XBox 360, and an all-around good time.
Details: http://upcoming.yahoo.com/event/416846/

SXNW - South by Northwest Geek Fest Party
Iron Cactus - 11:00 PM
There will be plenty of free drinks and cool people to meet.
Details: http://upcoming.yahoo.com/event/217376/

Creative inspiration is my foundation to paying the bills

2008-02-06T20:14:00.000-05:00

I have been watching a lot of design and creative films lately. The recommendations I have received so far have been great. If you have a suggestion, Please let me know.

If you are fan of graffiti artwork, you should check out the movie "Infamy". The documentary is a really great view of the urban art world. I was inspired by the movie because I grew up in the suburban culture of it. I did a few pieces back in high school (90-94) and still to this day, my illustrations have a graffiti influence. If you do check out the movie, make sure you look at the bonus section for photographs. I was pretty impressed by Saber, Claw and others.

Urban artists are now monetizing their talents.

Saber's has been doing fine art, exhibitions and selling products from his online store.
This is a collaboration he did with OBEY Giant.

CLAW is now fashion director at Swindle Magazine and also has her own clothing line.

Other graffiti artists in the world.

One artist that was not in the movie that I like is DAIM. He uses his German graffiti influence to produce endless creative work including clothing, sculptures, installations, live performances, a full online store, and even Iphone covers. Here what one magazine said about DAIM:

"DAIM developed a diversity of skills which enabled him to grow beyond his roots. Concrete walls were replaced by canvas, while spray cans from a hip hop shop were now often amended by mouse clicks in Photoshop. Two dimensional pictures evolved into three dimensional graphics with seemingly unlimited depths and perspective only to finally become sculptures leaving behind the confinement of flat surfaces entirely. "

DAIM featured at the Graffiti Exhibition in Wuppertal / Germany.

It is really inspiring to see creative people making money off of their artwork. All artists want to sell your work. I did! Me and my buddy sold artwork and t-shirts in college. We were called Furious. Yet, it is tough to make a good living in the traditional art world. These guys have done it. So you and I can too. So live with your creative inspiration as the foundation to paying your bills.

TV Advertising needs a viral long tail to gain ROI

2008-02-04T23:50:00.000-05:00

On Sunday, prior to watching the Superbowl I was curious if there will be buzz about the TV Commercials in the twitterverse and much to my suprise, there was a Twitterbowl. I randomly found out about the event because I track the word "diet" and my SMS exploded with alerts about the Diet Pepsi ad.

My question before the game was:

"Which super bowl commercial will provide the biggest lift in revenue and provide the long tail word of mouth exposure"

Here is what I remember

1) The brands that I remember are: Bud, Diet Pepsi, Coke, Career Builder and IronMan
2) The website URLs that I remembered are: none, but I did remember GoDaddy asking me to visit their site. I also remember the Tide commercial, it made me laugh and it made me want to visit the site.
3) The ads that were most talked about during the game: From what I saw, the Justin Timberlake commercial for Diet Pepsi had the biggest buzz.

That leads me to determine which commercial would gain actual revenue from these ads. My opinion, the biggest winner will be "IronMan", the movie. The film looks great and now all of America wants to see it. You can't buy that exposure anywhere. Every boy and their father be in theaters for this.

My winner was Tide - because of the viral website.

If you visit the site, My Talking Stain, they have an excellent viral execution using multimedia. Its simple, its funny and it makes you want to enter your information. They do a great job of collecting leads, why? To send you coupons to buy Tide. Overall, it's the most diverse way to get brand exposure and the viral effect of their "Get Famous - Film A Spoof" will last a while. Here is the spoof I created:

In conclusion, I wasn't really impressed with a lot of the commercials. Especially CareerBuilder, it was terrible. But, maybe they wanted to do that on purpose to cut through the clutter. Sales Genie too, did they purposely make the worst ads. I would never go to the site on purpose because they were so bad. There were a few other funny ones, like the AMP and Shaq. I don't even remember the brand that Shaq was a jockey in.

The winners for me are the brands that establish the relationship of the product to the attractiveness of the commercial. Then in collaboration with a great website it a full experience that I will remember. Next time I am in the grocery store I may pick up Tide to clean my dirty shirt. Now the creative concept can really expand using online media/ads, blogs, YouTube and everything else to reach audiences for weeks and even months to come. The viral creative concepts build the long tail brand exposure and produce the best return on investment.

Social media screen names are the new domains names

2008-02-02T18:59:00.000-05:00

Last year, I was having a conversion with my friend Droze about the ridiculous amount of new web applications coming out every month. Yet, I told him that I sign up for them all. Why, because screen names are not just your handle or usernames anymore. A screen name is really your personal brand. Similar to a domain name, you need to register your brand or it will get jacked by someone else. Maybe even a competitor.

Then I was surprised when I read that the Twitter feed from Seth Godin is really not the best selling author. He mentions how he doesnt even use Twitter. It was interesting to hear that someone else was using his name, even though it wasn't for anything negative, but it easily could have been. Everyone else thought it was him, he has 1,417 followers and they are using a picture of him.

So whenever a new service comes out and gets popular I immediately sign up using my company name as the screen name (AlexDesigns). Here are a few examples:

http://twitter.com/alexdesigns
http://linkedin.com/in/alexdesigns
http://9rules.com/my/alexdesigns/
http://del.icio.us/alexdesigns
http://myspace.com/alexdesigns
http://vimeo.com/alexdesigns
http://virb.com/alexdesigns
http://ma.gnolia.com/people/alexdesigns

On the following, I was too late to get the correct URLs I wanted:
http://flickr.com/photos/alexharris/
http://youtube.com/alexdesignsllc

So as the next big thing comes out, it doesn't hurt to just snatch up your screen name. Else you have some impersonators when you become famous too.

Films about design, digital artwork and typography

2008-01-30T19:29:00.000-05:00

Finally, I was able to see the film Helvetica. I really enjoyed it. It was a little over the top on the philosophy and history of the most popular font. But it kept my attention and I found it interesting.

Then I was designing a website user interface in Photoshop using the Helvetica font. During my pixel pushing, I was thinking about comments from the film. I enjoyed how the older designers used grids to establish balance of typography on a magazine cover. Then related this to how we use rulers or guides in today's design process. I also thought about how much I really didn't want to be using Helvetica. The font stands for boring, corporations and even the Vietnam war...? You have to see the movie.

Really, the movie inspired me. I am guilty of not enjoying beautiful design work. Meaning, I haven't been appreciating good design or really doing any myself. Mainly because I design the same ecommerce sites and web experiences over and over again. Now that is boring, but it pays the bills.

I wonder if there are other design, digital artwork or typography films out there that I should see. Do you know any great design films? Or just inspirational films for creative people. I did a search on Netflix and to get the following results - they all look terrible. Have you seen any of these? Let me know, I am looking for recommendations...

Design
Filmmakers Danielle Schirman and Anna-Celia Kendall explore the fusion of form and function in six iconic products that helped define 20th-century design. See how the iMac, Akari lamp, BIC Cristal pen, Bubble Club sofa, Hoover vacuum and Citroën's DS19 went beyond pure functionality to capture the public's imagination and become part of popular culture.

ColorCalm: By Design
This isn't meant to be watched from start to finish, but to be just left playing. This collaborative effort from designers Peter Saville, John Maeda and Irma Boom (with music by Michael Nyman, Ryuichi Sakamoto, New Order and Terranova) experiments with using the soothing beauty of color as an accessory to your home decor, giving your television something to do other than pump out reality TV shows. A choice of four ambient programs offers a calming palate of options for adding color to any room.

Art 21: Art in the Twenty-First Century: Seasons 1 & 2
What inspires a particular artist to create a certain piece? This series explores that question by introducing a wide variety of contemporary artists across the United States. Seasons 1 and 2 explore what motivates and inspires these artists by focusing on eight themes: place, spirituality, identity, consumption, stories, loss and desire, time, and humor. Featured artists include William Wegman, Louise Bourgeois, Laurie Anderson, and Kara Walker.

In the Realms of the Unreal
By day, Henry Darger was a reclusive janitor who had few -- if any -- friends. But at night, he became a literary artist with a unique vision. Darger's 15,000-page novel is a wonderland of imagination as it details the exploits of seven angelic sisters who lead a rebellion against child-enslaving men. Featuring the voices of Dakota Fanning and Larry Pine and the work of talented animators, this film tells the story of Darger's hidden world.

I also tried to google for some suggestions, but all you get is design firms and movie tutorials. I am looking for documentaries and inspirational films. Are there really none out there? Want to make one?

First impressions on expanding your network

2008-01-29T00:03:00.000-05:00

The network of people that I talk to, or work with, has been growing like crazy. If you present yourself the right way, it's easy to find people you want to start a conversation with. The tools just help you self promote your image. The interesting part is when you meet your peers face-to-face at a meet-up or a conference.

It's great to meet a podcaster you have been listening to. Or a company that you have been following. Or a designer's art you really love. Majority of the time, they are totally different that I expected. So, this year I look forward to doing it up with two huge conferences that I have never been to. If you are into web development, design or social media, come and join me. If you are going to be at either, post a comment below or Twitter me.

Future of Web Apps - Miami, Fl.

February 28, 2008 - March 1, 2008
This could be the best event of 2008. Not because it is in my backyard of South Florida. The speakers line-up and the small crowds make this a must see conference. Not to mention the ridiculous parties on South Beach. This will be new ground for South Florida when Carson Systems brings the following speakers to Miami: Kevin Rose - Digg, Cal Henderson - Flickr, Erick Schonfeld - TechCrunch, Kevin Marks - Google, Leah Culver - Pownce, Blaine Cook - Twitter and so much more.

SXSW Interactive - Austin, Tx.

March 7-11, 2008
I have never been to a SXSW, but I have high expectations. Will it live up to the hype? SXSW Interactive The SXSW Interactive Festival features five days of exciting panel content and amazing parties. Attracting digital creatives as well as visionary technology entrepreneurs, the event celebrates the best minds and the brightest personalities of emerging technology. Whether you are a hard-core geek, a dedicated content creator, a new media entrepreneur, or just someone who likes being around an extremely creative community, SXSW Interactive is for you!

Are there other conference worth going to this year?

Let me know - and lets meet up.