Much respect to Steve Jobs and the Infinity Loop. Mahalo. I made this hoping Bono or Al Gore would wear it to the Apple Christmas party. Here’s to hoping.

A few years ago ASWS was asked to provide design support for the Hawaii International Film Festival, we collaborated with the HIFF team to re-brand and strengthen their identity and collateral. A few years on, it’s great to see HIFF is stronger then ever with a growing attendance of younger viewers and volunteers. This year I got to take in a few movies and overdose on popcorn. Here’s a short list of my highlights from HIFF 30.

• Beth Gibbons (Portishead) voice in the credit track for the Tempest
• Bill Cunningham’s Photo Documentary
• Getting offered a stash of poke by the DP during ‘To Live & Ride in L.A.’. Thanks for the sweet sticker!
• Seeing even more friends names in credits this year
• Hearing the audience react to ‘How wasted are you?’ in ‘This Film is Broken’
• Getting over Star Wars
• Being the only guy to probably break a wine glass at HIFF this year
• Being mistaken for Taika Waititi (Director of Boy)

Good times. Big mahalo to Sarah, Andy, Sean and Chuck at HIFF for the passes.

NBC News chooses our Headline theme for their recently launched Tumblr blog.

Headline is an impressive theme from Airspace Workshop. In fact, without the Tumblr “Follow/Reblog” buttons, you would likely never even know it was a Tumblr theme.

Great use of space, columns and post types, along with lots of great elements and little touches. If you’ve ever wanted a magazine-style theme for your Tumblr blog, check out Headline!

10 Terrific New Tumblr Themes on Mashable

via U.S. National Archives (http://bit.ly/bSisuf)

Given the intimate size of our company, we often find ourselves fulfilling numerous roles throughout the day. One moment we’re handling client phone calls, the next we’re in a creative brainstorm, or reviewing mockups, or visiting the printer for a press-check, or…

If you were to divide our working hours into groups, they’d include categories such as “Creative Conference” and “Account Research,” in addition of course to “Graphic Design” and “Web Development.” When combined, those activities lead us towards solutions for our clients, and from a business perspective, provide valuable revenue that keeps Airspace Workshop in business. However, tucked between the deliverables and bank deposits lies a valuable byproduct that benefits both our clients and our business.

Yesterday I read an article by Seth Godin entitled Betting On Smarter that reminded me of this fact. The focus of his article is marketing, however it’s equally applicable to technology, design and the web. In it, he makes the distinction between marketers who strive to make their customers smarter, and those who work to make them dumber:

A few benefit when they make their customers smarter. The more the people they sell to know, the more informed, inquisitive, free-thinking and alert they are, the better they do.

And most benefit when they work to make their customers dumber. The less they know about options, the easier they are to manipulate, the more helpless they are, the better they do.

This brief excerpt reminded me that in addition to a website or brand identity, we also deliver knowledge, and our role of “Designer” or “Developer” is equally important as our role of “Educator.”

Show me the money!

During a recent trip to San Francisco, I found myself face-to-face with a Bank of America ATM at the Ferry Building Marketplace. Our encounter would be brief. After sliding my debit card through the reader and entering my PIN, I was presented with a number of options on the touch screen, including multiple cash denominations. Rather than pressing “OK” or “Enter” and being presented with various transaction types, I simply selected the amount I wanted. Moments later my cash and receipt were dispensed and I was on my way. Total number of keystrokes, including a 4-digit PIN: five.

Yesterday I made a withdrawal from the Bank of Hawaii ATM located in Kaimuki. First off, it “eats” my card, as opposed to swiping it. Then it requests my PIN, and instructs me to “Press Here After”. OK. Select a transaction type, “Fast Cash”. Select an account (even though I only have one), “Checking”. Select a preset amount, “$20″. Some whirring occurs and the cash is dispensed. Shortly after, my card is ejected, along with a receipt. Total number of keystrokes, eight. That’s 60% more effort than the Bank of America ATM required for the same transaction, and an unexpected lesson in how thoughtful design can substantially improve usability and user experience.

Entering the Flash vs HTML 5 argument is a trip down snoozer lane, but this passage from Hartmut Esslinger’s book ‘A Fine Line’ kind of framed the debate in a new light. Esslinger’s ID company frogdesign helped Apple design the original Macintosh line, he comments on overcoming the challenge of low fidelity dot-matrix printers that were ubiquitous at the time. Apple was focused on designing a computer that could produce high-resolution graphics and needed a printer that could deliver them in a home or office. Esslinger’s aside at the end is a telling piece of history that most people will have long forgotten.

Apple made an under-recognized breakthrough in the 1980s with its advances in desktop publishing. Our goal was to move beyond the horrible graphics of dot-matrix printers, so Apple began by licensing modern typestyles from the German type setting company, Berthold. We then took the Canon’s high-end copy engine and combined it with a Macintosh board, which had the capability to process the high-resolution PostScript graphics of scalable fonts, and added a “soft window” user interface. The printer was an instant success. With it, Apple pioneered an entirely new industry for design software (companies such as Adobe wouldn’t have started without it).

To be fair, Apple did not indirectly create Adobe, as the technology embedded in the printer was in fact Adobe’s first invention – PostScript. Founder John Warnock, a former Xerox PARC employee, created a technology that allowed scalable fonts for high-end main frame printers ($30,000 = high end). A combination of the Apple Laserwriter ($7,000), a copy of Aldus Pagemaker and a Macintosh is what set-off the Desktop Publishing revolution. Esslinger’s passage hints at the lucrative future for the publishing industry that we benefit from today, but their solution for protection against poor-quality graphics is the clue to Apple’s current strategy for the web. In the 1980s, Apple built a computer (the Macintosh) the industry did not understand or need, only until all the pieces were in place did the value of the Macintosh computer ascend. Apple’s foresight to use PostScript within the printer and OS allowed Adobe to be part of that revolution. Today, Apple is still trying to protect itself from poor-quality graphics, ironically from Flash, an Adobe acquisition from Macromedia. If you replace the Macintosh of the 80s with the iPad, you’ll see a pattern that Apple again needs to build the proper ecosystem for the device to exist within. Flash is a capable tool, but to Apple’s standards, it provides them with enough reason to break rank with the Industry – again. The iPad and iPhone is Apple’s new Macintosh and unfortunately for Adobe, Flash is the clunky dot-matrix printer of the 21st century. Oh the drama, nap time.

Introducing Headline, our second Tumblr theme. It consists of a three-column layout and a number of built-in features that may be customized directly within Tumblr’s Appearance menu, including: Custom fonts, colors, and images; Twitter integration, including hovercards via the API; Typekit for advanced typography; Disqus comment moderation; Streampad audio playlists; VigLink and Amazon Associate monetization; and Google Analytics to keep track of your metrics. Headline is elegant, easy-to-use, and best of all, free!

View the Headline Demo | Learn About its Features | Install on Tumblr

TheHI gets a flashy new flyer. Look out for a collaborative series of infographics courtesy of ASWS and HI2059.

DaFin is the #1 choice of lifeguards, bodysurfers, and top watermen around the world and is standard issue equipment for more than 40 municipal lifeguard and surf rescue agencies in the USA.

Airspace Workshop worked with DaFin Surfing Products to refresh their swim fin packaging for 2010. To emphasize the performance and reliability of the product, a new tagline was developed, “Trusted in the Tower,” along with a bold color palette and strong typographical treatments.

Research into the packaging’s presentation within retailer shops led to large logo treatments on the outer faces, to ensure brand identification when stacked amongst competitors. Look for the new packaging in your local surf shop this Spring.

For more information about DaFin, visit dafin.com.