I’ve (ashley) been catching up on a couple episodes of “My Life on the D List” and threw together a few poster-ish designs. What inspired this was a visit to Kathy’s website which I am sad to say is quite lacking. It’s kinda sad when celebs have such lame ass sites. I assume it isn’t so much there fault as it is those they’ve hired to take care of such (un)important details. Come on peoples, get with the program…get some legit shit up there.

Needless to say, I love Kathy, hence the random design sesh.

In the coming week one of our fabulous clients Heather will be launching her new business Pop The Box, located in San Diego. Here is a sneak peek of her branding and site. We’re putting the final touches on the development of the site and will post an update once it has launched this week.

Super excited about one of our newest clients, Island Foodscaping. Here is a sneak peek at what we’ve been working on…more to come soon. :)

Yesterday while being distracted by various humorous and interesting tweets, Deedee914 posted a link to the absolutely amazing new food diary/blog, “My Cooking Diary” by Sharon Hwang. Not only are the recipes scrumptious, but the photography and site design is so simple, so clean, so inspiring. Sharon’s boyfriend Mike Matas took all the photos and put together this awesome little trailer for Sharon’s new site. You should also make sure and visit Mike’s site, as his videos, stop-motions and photos are out of this world, sometimes literally.

My Cooking Diary from Mike Matas on Vimeo.

Space is limited this year. Tickets are almost gone. If you want to be a part of BarCamp Seattle, go register right now…it’s free.

If you don’t live in Seattle, just google your city + barcamp…chances are there is a barcamp in your neck of the woods. (the barcamp.org directory isn’t really up to date with all the barcamps, so google is your best bet.)

For all you science nerds, wood lovers, and modernists…check out our post over on the The Sunday Times Market on the “Save Food From The Fridge” project by Jihyun Ryou.

Consider this the first in a multi-post review. TVM hasn’t been around long (early June), so there’s sure to be much more to share as time goes on and their membership base blows-up more than it presumably already has. We’ve gotten a few emails requesting our thoughts on the Think Vitamin Membership and haven’t come across a user review yet, so thought we’d share.

Think Vitamin Membership is an online training subscription service provided by the ever so awesome Carsonified team. A service for both web designers and developers, offering an ever-expanding video training library, live q&a’s and live online conferences. Can’t really say we’ve ever come across such a robust, well executed, collaborative effort like TVM. It’s legit.

So what’s so awesome about TVM?

Well, so far, everything. From the opening sequence of each video, to the extensive video library, to the live online conferences featuring guys (and gals) like John Resig, Karl Swedberg, Dan Rubin, Aza Raskin, and Leisa Reichelt, to name a few. In the fall TVM will start featuring live Q & A sessions with fan faves like Dan Cederholm, Molly Holzschlag, and Kevin Rose. Short of traveling to a conference, it’s not likely you’ll find greats such as these in one spot like you do here on TVM.

In regards to the video training, most videos don’t run any more than 8min. These are nice bite-sized chunks to digest throughout the day and also allow you to keep up without taking too much away from the project at hand. This is something we often run into, feeling guilty for spending much time throughout the day on anything other than client work. The video library is split into categories such as HTML5, Javascript, UX, Ruby and many more. Each category has subcategories and videos targeting anyone from beginners to the more advanced. This past week they just launched a “Fundamentals” category which features videos for more of the beginner…so the resources TVM has to offer aren’t just for those already delved into the world of web design and development. Sometimes the hosts of the videos can be a little, hmm, how do we say…nerdy? It’s quite possible most haven’t stepped from behind the glow of their screen in some time, but that’s to be expected of such know-it-alls (and we mean it in the most endearing way possible) right? :) Aside from that, what these guys have to offer is a well-rounded and efficient approach to both the basics and advanced.

The live conferences are quite a bit longer, usually scheduled for 4 hours, but blocking 4 hours out of your day every two weeks is an investment worth making. Plus it’s nice to have an excuse to take some time away from the daily grind. You are also able to access and watch the conferences again later on for reference and things you may have missed. The line-up for each conference is more than legit and with each speaker taking an hour, you’ll find a lot of information gets covered. A lot. Tis the reason it is so valuable to be able to watch and revisit the conference video again.

So what about the price?

TVM offers a three tiered membership, Silver, Gold and Diamond. Ranging from $25 to $99 a month, we’ve heard a few ask if it’s worth the price, and in our opinion, you get a heck of a lot more than what you pay for.

First off, the library is stocked with nearly 100 training videos and 2 new ones are added daily. A reliable and consistent subscription such as this is of high value.

Second, as mentioned earlier, you’d be hard pressed to find another online conference service that involves such amazing speakers and designer/developer greats. Not to mention what each of these guys (and girls) bring to the table. Each of these conferences cost $150 without a membership, so there you go.

The first live Q & A session is scheduled for September, so we’ll have to retouch on that later this Fall.

And lastly, the overall appeal, support and service TVM offers is quite exceptional. With a kick ass interface, streamlined navigation and responsive team, we can’t really find anything wrong with TVM. This month when we would normally be charged our subscription fee, we got an email from TVM saying that something had gone wrong with the charge. We emailed TVM to see what the issue was, as everything looked good on our side. Ryan Carson emailed us back right away and said he was looking into it and would let us know what the issue was. We later found out our bank wasn’t approving the international transaction (Carsonified/TVM is located in the UK), but it was nice to have an actual person, let alone Ryan, get back to us so quickly. If you run into an issue, they’ve got your back.

So, is Think Vitamin Membership worth it?

You bet your sweet a.

So that wraps up part one of our little review of the Think Vitamin Membership. It’s quite possible we’ve left something out, so give us a holler if you have any questions.

*Disclaimer: No one from TVM asked us to write this review. We don’t even know them. We just think they and the service they offer is pretty damn sweet. We guess you could call us Carsonified fanboys. Peace out.

Dribbble has got a pretty awesome charity campaign going on for Charity: Water. Just $20 can give one person clean water for 20 years. An average water project costs $5,000 and can serve 250 people with clean, safe water. For each $5 donated, you are entered into a raffle for one of the 25 invites Dribbble is giving away. Since we aren’t a part of Dribbble (yet), we created our own 400×300 to share with ya’ll. Check all the others out here. And go frickin donate.

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A fun personal project we launched last Fall. A mid-century and vintage inspired blog and Etsy store.

via Gizmodo