adidas NEO Label It interesting watching brands navigate their way onto Tumblr.  The ones that do well clearly understand the unique culture behind the Tumblr community.  Brands and everyone on Tumblr should take these guidelines for posting to heart in this order (Source - Seth Godin | The TED imperatives): Be interested. Be generous. Be interesting. Connect. As a bonus they did a fantastic job customizing our Style Hatch premium theme Juuvy.  Other brands that we have noticed who are doing great job on Tumblr and using one of our themes: Kate Spade (Swell) Nike ID (MARS) Puma (Juuvy) Alternative Apparel (Swell) Travel Channel (Atlantic Noir) Lucky Magazine (Swell) Men’s Health (Juuvy) Quiksilver (Swell/Atlantic Noir hybrid) X Games (Backburner) Time Magazine (Inspire Well) Ben and Jerry (Nova) Fab (MARS) Photojojo (Inspire Well) High-res

adidas NEO Label

It interesting watching brands navigate their way onto Tumblr.  The ones that do well clearly understand the unique culture behind the Tumblr community.  Brands and everyone on Tumblr should take these guidelines for posting to heart in this order (Source - Seth Godin | The TED imperatives):

  1. Be interested.
  2. Be generous.
  3. Be interesting.
  4. Connect.

As a bonus they did a fantastic job customizing our Style Hatch premium theme Juuvy.  Other brands that we have noticed who are doing great job on Tumblr and using one of our themes:

The Ajax Experience

Commissioned by the 100 year-old Ajax Amsterdam football club, Sid Lee Architecture in collaboration with gsmprjct° created a truly immersive fan experience for the legendary team.

Walking into the museum you go through the hall of “Giants” visualizing the important club members and glorious moments.  Through the hall you travel into The Ajax Academy filled with multimedia rooms and interactive training areas.  Once you have practiced your technique and speed hear an inspiring speech from the club’s coach and head into the stadium to hear the roar of the crowd.

Video Walkthrough & Experience

Apparently I’m a fan of Sid Lee’s work since this is the third time I have posted one of their projects.  They certainly deserve the recognition.  Also see Bota Bota and Redbull Amsterdam HQ.

Look Back at 2011: Most Popular Themes

staff:

Tumblr gives you complete control over all aspects of your blog, and once you know some HTML, you can make them look pretty much any way you want! On the other hand, many of us would rather benefit from the skills of the thousands of brilliant designers whose work is featured in the Tumblr Theme Garden.

The top themes of 2011 were…

The Minimalist

Inspire Well

The Style Hatch theme Inspire Well is the most popular premium theme on Tumblr! 

Mediocre designers should be worried

I think that social blogging platforms like Tumblr may see a huge growth in 2012. Your designs are helping lead the way in responsive and more customisable themes.

I no longer believe in web designers taking thousands of pounds to design a small biz web presence. Social is doing more to drive…

An excerpt of a Style Hatch support email we got earlier today.  Small businesses need for expensive, custom designed online presence is declining as more of them turn to platforms like Tumblr, Virb, Squarespace and others.

Highly skilled and strategic web designers and studios will always deliver value to small businesses, but mediocre designers should be worried.

The app that changed my life

I never thought an application on my phone would ever change my life and honestly it still sounds strange to say. 

Let’s start at the beginning

A couple of years ago I started using the app Gowalla (the 50th person to sign up) and I started to explore. 

This actually became a favorite pastime for my good friend Ryan and I to do over our lunch breaks and just get out of the office. While using this app I met some awesome people and made a lot of new friends. But that isn’t how the app changed my life, those are just natural things that happen when using a social app. Here’s how the app changed my life…

It all started with a simple checkin

This checkin to be exact:

Jonathan's Gowalla Checkin

It was this checkin that spurred a quick conversation about an upcoming family vacation that was coming up and we would be in that area. 

Long story short we ended up meeting up for lunch while I was on vacation.
At that led to another checkin at an amazing Sushi place

 My Checkin

Now here where the life changing part comes in. Just a couple days after that lunch I received a phone call from Jonathan offering me a position at New Ezra/Style Hatch and by the end of the week I had excepted the position.

How crazy is that!

One small checkin on this app and now I am a front-end developer for an amazing company and moved my whole family from Illinois to California. All because of a checkin on Gowalla.

So say what you will about the app but I have always been a fan and not only got to meet some amazing new friends but now I am continuing to live out my dream in a place I never thought possible.

So for that I thank the entire team at Gowalla and wish you best on your future endeavors.  

“People are rewarded when they can do things that take trained judgment and skill — things, in other words, that can’t be done by computers or lower-wage workers in other countries. Money now flows around the world so quickly, and technology changes so fast, that people who thought they were in high demand find themselves uprooted.”

The Dwindling Power of a College Degree - NYTimes.com

Grit Is More Important Than Talent

Very often when we talk about the skill of ‘productivity’ what we are really talking about is ‘self-control.

We are getting ready to hang this very flag in our office at Style Hatch and now when I look at it I will always remember this article. 

Nest | The Learning Thermostat

According to Nest 50% of your homes energy use is controlled by your thermostat. Focusing on simple design, Nest created an intelligent thermostat that learns from your cooling and heating habits to help you save energy.

The simplicity of design might remind you of an Apple product because Nest’s founder Tony Fadell was in charge of the first 18 generations of the iPod and the first 3 of the iPhone.

Nest’s amazing site was created by SF agency Odopod.

Virb.com: Now Hiring

The fantastic guys at Virb are hiring. Check out the details and apply if you feel qualified or spread the word to your friends. 

virb:

The Virb team recently celebrated our first birthday, and like any company with an exciting new product, we are growing fast. Because of this, we are happy to announce two new job openings: a Community Manager and a Front End Developer.

Our customer-base is growing fast and we need someone to help us stay on top of Support, wrangle our social media, and manage our Customer Showcase and Testimonials. If you think you have what it takes, and love working with people, check out the Community Manager position.

Our code-base is growing just as fast, and we need someone new to help us write the code that powers Virb, as well as develop new themes for our customers. If you love HTML and CSS, write clean semantic code, and love cross-browser testing, then check out the Front End Developer position!

Plus, you’d be showered with bounties like full health coverage, 401K options, a shiny new Mac, and high fives — just to name a few.

Know someone that’d be perfect for either of these positions? Spread the word.