We just launched a site for Design Meeting, an annual gathering for theatrical design graduates from Yale, CalARTS, and NYU/Tisch. I hope this website becomes a nice springboard for these grads. As we built and collected the assets for each grad, I loved seeing the range of imagery. Some are visually stunning. Some of my favorite screenshots include:

Julia C. Lee Scenic Design Yale School of Drama

Yi Zhao Lighting Design Yale School of Drama

Mark Nagle Costume Design Yale School of Drama

Cyril gave me a super nifty birthday present: a Nest thermostat. It was a bit of an indulgence since my old thermostat wasn’t broken but I was entirely grateful for a new gadget. I’m a bit of a lucky duck to have central heating and cooling in my NYC apartment. If you are thinking of buying Nest, make sure you do a compatibility check first.

I’m comfortable switching out light fixtures and handling light home repair so I watched a few of their videos first and got cracking on the installation. It took about 45 minutes total. Not so bad not knowing what to expect when I took out the old thermostat.

My observations in no particular order:

• The whole user experience was solid. The packaging was beautifully designed and the manual was easy to understand. I really appreciated that in the manual, Nest had little blue stickers that allowed one to label the wires so you wouldn’t forget what wire was what. Extremely helpful.






Helpful blue stickers




• The Support section of website was well done. I was able to find an answer relatively quickly. I had just (1) R wire and I wasn’t sure where to put it, in RH or RC. Turns out it doesn’t matter which one. I put it in RH.




• The User Interface of the thermostat is superb – the turning and pushing interaction is simple and intuitive. I can definitely see the Apple iPod influence here.






Powering up for the 1st time




• As a dog owner, remote access through the iPhone is smart and definitely a huge plus. This is an extremely useful feature that I’m sure I’ll use repeatedly to make sure Mac is comfy while I’m away.






I can control the temperature through my iPhone

Things that can be improved on:

• A minor problem in the whole installation was the inability to register with the iPhone Nest app. It repeatedly flashed an error. I was able to register through the Nest website and connected my iPhone to my thermostat.




• I routinely like to have my fan on to circulate air in my apartment. I eventually found how to turn it on by selecting the Fan option in the “Settings” area. For me, it doesn’t seem intuitive to place the Fan On/Off controls in “Settings.” My old thermostat had a simple on/off switch. That so far is the most non-intuitive UI item I’ve found in Nest.

It’s an amazing device and I’m looking forward to when it gathers enough information about my habits in order to save money.

Thanks, Mayor! RT @mikebloomberg Congrats to @TheWebbyAwards honorees, including @CitiesOfService

— Cities of Service (@CitiesOfService) April 17, 2012

Follow @cloudred

Once in a while, we get a nice email that tells us that someone out there likes our work. This morning, we received word that a few folks at the Webbys like the Cities of Service Online Network. It’s an honoree in the Government category.

View a full list of honorees & nominees.

We worked with FAIR Health on a relaunch of their corporate website. Their mission is admirable: demystifying & clarifying out-of-network health care reimbursements. In addition to a fresher look and feel, we’ve designed and programmed the website to be mobile responsive.

Award program

Now I know how the Oscar nominees feel when they don’t win. Seriously though…congrats to Big Stories, Small Towns. I met the 2 Aussies who took the prize and they are lovely fellows.

Highlights:

• Seeing friends and work buddies who came in from NYC, LA, & SF.
• Eating at Uchiko. The food here blew me away. So good.
• Staying at the Driskill…pretty swanky.
• Eating at many food trucks, including a Korean BBQ taco place called Chi’Lantro. Not a super fan of cheddar cheese and bulgogi as a taste combination though.
• Remembering not to hedge, put it all on the line….from Biz Stone’s session on 3/12. I liked Biz’s approachable, friendly speaking style…one of the better speakers I’ve seen.
• Being uncomfortable whenever Sean Parker spoke. He needs to look up once in a while and make eye contact with the crowd. Weird.
• Jill Abramson of the NYTimes is awesome.
• The Barbarian Group throws a good party.

Barbarian Group Party: View from the terrace

Barbarian Group Party: Matthew Dear

Yesterday, I had a very out-of-the-ordinary lunch at Per Se. Its 4-star review in the New York Times is completely justified. Up to this point, I considered a dinner at Le Bernadin two years ago as the best meal of my life. This meal at Per Se completely surpassed that dining experience.

Thank you to my generous brother who gave me a gift certificate for my birthday! All of us at the table had the lunch tasting menu which was 5 courses. Like the NYTimes review says, the food definitely stuns one into silence. I normally hate taking food pictures while eating but all of us at the table felt compelled to document a bit of the experience without being annoying iPhone picture-takers. We were also amazed by the beautiful dinnerware.

Sorbet over raw shrimp (this blew me away)

Crab with paper thin radish slices

Langoustines over butternut squash

Veal (stunning)

Banana Moon Pie

Extra dessert on top of the dessert course!

Cities of Service is up for a IxDA (Interaction Design Association) People’s Choice Award!
Support us by voting for Cities of Service! Thank you!

We’re excited and humbled folks here because one of our projects, Cities of Service, has been named a finalist in the “Community” category for the SXSW Interactive Awards.

Cyril and I have attended SXSW for the past 2 years and weren’t planning to attend this year. Looks like we’ll be down there after all. Hope to see you all there!

Update (2/6/2012)
It’s up for a SXSW People’s Choice award! Vote for us and tell a friend!

We aren’t above whoring out my cute Westie for our holiday card. He does have to earn his dog treats!