duration 17:31

In issue#14 we speak with Mia Michaels, xpert Choreographer.

I had the great opportunity to speak with Mia who was relaxing at Mom’s house in Florida. Mia shares what it’s like to be one of the most in-demand choreographers today. She talks about working with Celine Dion, Cirque Du Soleil, Fox’s So You Think You Can Dance and beyond.

Mia clippings | Source, wikipedia.org:
Mia Michaels is an American choreographer. She has worked with Madonna, Ricky Martin, Gloria Estefan, and Prince, and is best-known for contemporary dance choreography. She is a regular judge and choreographer on the program So You Think You Can Dance, and choreographed Celine Dion’s Las Vegas show “A New Day,” as well as a Cirque du Soleil show, “Delirium,” and several commercials such as those for Coldwell Banker, Ziploc and the WNBA.

INTERVIEW LINKS:
Mia’s Website | Mia at Wkikipedia

PPST: We’ve opened the doors on our design forum. Check it out: www.creativexpert.com/forum

duration 22:43

In issue#13 we speak with Eric Rodenbeck from Stamen Design.

It was at digg labs that I first heard of Stamen. After sitting and drooling over the digg work, I knew that Stamen were Creative Xperts. Eric walks us through an interactive tour of digg labs, so while you listen, head over to labs.digg.com and follow-along. Eric tells us about his education in NYC and his move out west. We learn about The Cabspotting Project and Invisible Dynamics, sponsored by The Exploratorium. We also hear about the work Stamen is doing using the Flickr API to create Mappr. One last thing: Stamen is hiring.

so digg this…!

While at digg, digg this posting.
And tell your design peeps about CreativeXpert!

INTERVIEW LINKS:
Stamen.com, labs.digg.com, Cabspotting, Exploratorium, Mappr

NEWS LINKS:
Flash Turns 10!, Apple leads other PC manufacturers in customer satisfaction, Odd Job Jack releases all episode master Flash files

duration 21:35

In issue#12 we speak with Lynda Weinman of Lynda.com.

Lynda shares her history of building Lynda.com and their training methodologies. We also cover the Online Training Library — why Alan considers this a Lynda-send. Lynda tells us about the FlashForward Conference and why everyone should attend. Tickets are still available for this year’s conference in Austin, TX.

{lifted from Lynda.com}
Weinman has worked as a consultant for Adobe, Macromedia, and Microsoft, and has conducted workshops at Disney, Microsoft, Adobe, and Macromedia. She has been a keynote speaker, moderator, and lecturer at numerous design, animation, Web design, and computer-graphics conferences. Weinman and her husband Bruce Heavin co-founded lynda.com, a training company with headquarters in Ojai, CA, in 1995. She co-founded the Flashforward Conference and Film Festival, the largest Adobe Flash® conference in the world, in 2000.

{FlashForward.com}
The Flashforward Conference and Film Festival bring together the best minds in the Flash design and development community, with an optional intensive workshop day, a three-day conference, and the largest International Flash-related film festival on the planet. With the focus on Flash as a platform, Flashforward offers diverse knowledge and inspiration for everyone in the Flash community, whatever role Flash plays in their life and work. Flashforward is dedicated to providing education, inspiration, information, and community resources via our conference, website, blog, and podcasts.

INTERVIEW LINKS:
Lynda.com | Helping media designers & communicators understand how to use professional tools and design to enhance visual communication through web, print, and motion graphics.
FlashForward | The best minds in the Flash design and development community, with an optional intensive workshop day, a three-day conference, and the largest International Flash-related film festival on the planet.

duration 23:57

In issue#11 we speak with Matt Shobe, co-founder and Chief Design Officer of FeedBurner.

Matt explains why feeds are so important, and why web designers should be using Feedburner.

{5-finger discount from FeedBurner.com}
He has over ten years of experience tackling design and ease-of-use challenges in web software design. Starting with the central Usability Group at Microsoft in 1993, and continuing with several startups through to the present day, Matt’s mission is to create enticing yet hassle-free user experiences through observant evaluation and design. The results include Yahoo’s July 2000 Top 50 Most Useful Sites award for Spyonit.com, desktop development tools for XML and Java-based alert development for 724 Solutions, and a host of other efforts for large and small companies alike, now including FeedBurner. Matt holds an M.S. in Technical Communication from the University of Washington and a B.A. in English from Purdue University.

INTERVIEW LINKS:
Matt’s Blog
FeedBurner’s Blog, BURNING QUESTIONS
Visit FeedBurner and create your feed. www.feedburner.com

• CSS WORLD AWARDS {CSSMANIA.COM} — Awards given to top blogs and web sites for excellence in CSS. First place: UX Magazine www.uxmag.com | Second Place: Veerle’s Blog http://veerle.duoh.com | Third Place: Vitamin www.thinkvitamin.com
• BROWSER SHOTS {BROWSERSHOTS.ORG} — BrowserShots.org allows web designers to view screenshots of their pages in different browsers, at different screen resolutions and with different plugins. LINK: www.browsershots.org
• THE WAYBACK MACHINE — In 1996, the Internet Archive began archiving the web for a service called the Wayback Machine. They’ve now archived 55 billion web pages. That’s enough web pages that if you were to print them all out using your roommate’s printer while he was at class and tape them end-to-end, you could reach the moon and back 28 trillion times. LINK: Internet ‘96

FeedBurner is now accepting volunteers to host and produce our podcast. Show off your skills and gain exposure for your podcast or podcast-related service. Sound interesting? Email podcast@feedburner.com today for details.

duration 21:57

In issue#10 we speak with Paul Miller a.k.a. D.J. Spooky That Subliminal Kid.

DJ Spooky, That Subliminal Kid (born Paul Miller, 1970), is a Washington DC-born illbient and trip hop musician, turntablist and producer. He borrowed his stage name from a character in a William S. Burroughs novel. {And this chunk was borrowed from Wikipedia} More on DJ Spooky…

INTERVIEW LINKS:
djspooky.com - DJ Spooky’s official site
rhythmscience.com - Get the book
In Fine Style - DJ Dpooky presents 50,000 Volts of Trojan Records

• Google’s Webmaster, Dennis Hwang {CNN} — Dennis Hwang may be the most famous unknown artist in the world — his work doesn’t hang in galleries or museums, but it’s been viewed hundreds of millions of times. LINK
• Adobe Goes Green {Treehugger} — The software developer recently announced that one of their San Jose buildings has reached the highest level of environmental efficiency and friendliness. LINK
• Scott Wade is an artist who’s favorite medium is dust. He works with dust on car windows. LINK

duration 41:54

In issue#9 we speak with Illustrator Richard May and Designer, Photographer Jason Arber of Pixelsurgeon.

Pixelsurgeon is an art, technology, culture, music, games and movies portal, that’s fueled by caffeine, a hand-picked team of newsposters, insanity and passion.

INTERVIEW LINKS:
pixelsurgeon.com - A digest of the creative, strange and interesting
blackconvoy.com - In short, it’s a collective
childrenoffinland.com - Jason Arber’s Design Thinger
richard-may.com - Richard May’s Illustration
audiosurgeon.blogspot.com - Pixelsurgeon’s podcast

NEWS LINKS: lullabot.com | twit.tv | orato.com | lynnster.com

duration 26:20

In issue#8 we speak with Tracy Thirion, founder of Bamboo Worldwide, on the subject of Advanced Ideation Principles and Brainstorming. One of the many things we learn is the fact that the Creative Director isn’t necessarily the most creative expert {Xpert} in your herd.

Tracy suggests the following:

Purple Cow by Seth Godin
More Lightning, Less Thunder by Bob Eckert and Jonathan Vehar
Optimize The Magic of Your Mind by Sidney Parnes
How To Have Kick Ass Ideas by Chris Barez Brown
Moderating to the Max by Jean Bystedt, Siri Lynn and Deborah Potts

The conference that I highly recommend is the Creative Problem Solving Institute (CPSI), as well as checking out their parent organization for local events: Creative Education Foundation | www.cpsiconference.com
Additionally SUNY Buffalo has a Masters program in Creativity that is highly targeted!

Visit Bamboo Worldwide: www.bambooexperience.com

duration 24:13

In issue#7 we speak with Luke Williams, Associate Creative Director for frog design.

Luke talks about Taking Your Design to the Next Level, creative brainstorming, innovation and the history of frog.

frog design is a creative consulting firm founded in Germany in 1969, where it worked with firms such as Wega, Sony, then Apple. Today, frog design works with Fortune 500 clients to evolve, expand and envision their businesses, by identifying emerging market opportunities and transforming ideas into compelling product and service experiences. Recent clients include Nextel, Disney, and Hewlett-Packard. frog also has a broad range of industry expertise ranging from retail to entertainment, finance to medical, consumer electronics to automotive, and software to fashion, among many others. The company is headquartered in Palo Alto, California and employs over 300 individuals with an eclectic range of backgrounds.

Luke Williams is Associate Creative Director for frog design, and heads the Industrial Design practice for the New York studio. Prior to that, he worked in frog’s Silicon Valley and San Francisco studios as a creative lead for projects spanning a wide variety of enterprises such as Motorola, Logitech, Disney, Hewlett-Packard, Microsoft, Yahoo!, and Daimler Chrysler.

He brings with him 10 years of professional facilitating and speaking experience, having presented at conferences and moderated seminars in the USA and abroad for audiences ranging from 50 to 500. He also lectures regularly at universities such as Columbia Business School, California College of the Arts, Parsons School of Design and NYU Stern School of Business. Luke’s opinions on innovation and design have recently been sought after in interviews with National Public Radio (NPR), Business 2.0 Magazine, ID Magazine, The Chicago Tribune, and The Wall Street Journal.

Visit frog: frogdesign.com

We want to hear from you! If you have any questions for Luke or comments for the show, email us: podcast at CreativeXpert dot com or leave a message at 206-20-CREATE. We’ll play your comment on the show, so keep it real and represent.

Additional music for this show was provided by Bryan Mark from the album Kunghay. Brian is at blog.xuru.net

duration 22:11

In issue#6 we speak with Patrick Riley and Jason McVearry of a brand-spankin’-new advertising company called Vantageous.

Vantageous is an advertising network comprised of high-end design communities and art publications. The company leverages the company’s existing relationships in the online art world to develop a gateway for discerning advertisers interested in reaching this valuable demographic.

Patrick and Jason tell us how hosting innovator, Media Temple, took a chance with this great opportunity.

Visit Vantageous: Vantageous.com

We want to hear from you! If you have any questions for Patrick, Jason, or comments for the show, email us: podcast at CreativeXpert dot com or leave a message at 206-20-CREATE. We threaten play your comment on the show, so keep it tight and drop it like it’s hot.

duration 32:14

In issue#5 we speak with Jeff Robbins, Drupal ninja.

Lullabot is a web development company focused on “making open source easy” by creating sites with Drupal, a content management system {CMS} that is gaining serious ground. Jeff introduces us to the world of Drupal and tells us about a few of the projects they’re working on: MTV.co.uk and TWiT.tv

Jeff also explains, with the rising awareness of Drupal, there is a high demand for designers and core developers in the Drupal community.
Visit Lullabot.com for training, the Lullabot Podcast and Drupal.org

PS: If you didn’t already notice, Jeff is the husband of designer Jennifer Robbins, who we spoke with last week on issue#4.

A few unrelated links we dropped on the show:
istockphoto.com, lomography.com

We want to hear from you! If you have any questions for Jeff, or comments for the show, email us: podcast at CreativeXpert dot com or leave a message at 206-20-CREATE. We might even play your comment on the show.