Here’s some notes on the topic we scribbled over Gyro’s at Zorba’s.

• Branded Mini-Shops
• Containing collections of products
• Each under the umbrella of AIRSH(O)P
• New Sales Model : Kickstarter meets Online shop
• Pre-order functionality
• generate interest and critical mass before production.
• Scarcity, limited availability tactics
• Early-adopter pricing
• discounts for sharing
• 3 Product Types
• traditional products: selling/fulfilling stocked items
• Affiliate products: curated items related to the mini-shop’s brand, style (mailbox money!)
• Pre-order product: see above–also see Groupon, United Pixel Workers, threadless
• Using The Shopify Platform
• how do we work within Shopify’s constraints to build this model?
• can we spin off custom-designed Shopify themes? REVENUE!

So, we’ve already started production on a Shopify theme, and there’s no shortage of good product ideas.  Add that to our trial by fire (literally) experience creating the Central Texas Wildfire Relief T-Shirt campaign, and we feel this is a great concept and worthy experiment to try.  Got any advice? Product ideas? We’d love to hear from you.

Funny Computer Generated Transcription:
Hi this is Joey how are you … up it’s Steve you … coming to get the phone on the phone line to the Block to your space and … just calling to wish everyone a happy new year their ship is officially 1 year old and … we couldn’t be happier about the … things it transcribes since we just company doesn’t opened up shop we … just wanna give a shout out to our friends and family inclined to the Mae this year possible we’ve got some big things on the horizon and … can’t wait to share with you so … quick shout out to some of our clients in the past year Chet casey James tarmac milk shake media time to Fly needs it rail road revival tour Gram Wilson single vendor hey still trying get tickets municipal taste purple be crew door gate plaster … J. and J. landon marine costing days or some major Sean Nelson none you Perry got another Kelly Dead … or line samples on hey anyway … anyone else we failed to mention is we really appreciate you guys so … keep checking the website and face book twitter yeah you Yet … we can’t wait to … wrap with you in 32 page … they just

Note:
this voicemail->blog post was made possible by the fine folks at If This Then That..  its a sweet service that allows you to integrate tons of different web services by creating a simple recipe of events -> for instance, we have a recipe that says, “If there is a new post on the @airshp twitter feed, then post the same message to the airshp facebook fan page“.. pretty cool eh? the possibilities are endless.. and its just one of the many tools that we use to establish brands across the social web.

I have been loving YQL ever since I figured out how to use it to scrape webpages and return the data as JSON – allowing you to turn any standard web-page into a simple API ..opening up endless possibilities for data mash-ups.. IMO, its the best thing Yahoo has ever produced!  

I wrote a little jQuery plugin that uses YQL to convert an RSS feed into a handy JSON object – this tiny extension makes its easy to work on rss feed mashups and widgets.. just check out this instagram tag search or this gimmebar user feed that i made in a matter of minutes..  

download from GIT-HUB

Ok.  This is really just a sketch or rough-draft of what’s to come…but…I made a quick montage of Chris Dye laying down basic tracks at Jimmy George’s new Roostudios in Manchaca, TX.  This footage will eventually be used in a finished music video or “brand film” for Dye4…enjoy!

• shot on Canon T2i – monochrome profile.
• lenses: 18-55mm kit lens & 55-250mm EFS
• edited with Final Cut Pro 7.
• plugins: Digieffects Aged Film

Snapped this pic from a Blackberry at a gas station in Spicewood, TX.  Gotta love those natural drop shadows on the blinds!

User experience (UX) is about how a person feels about using a product, system or service. User experience highlights the experiential, affective, meaningful and valuable aspects of human-computer interaction and product ownership, but it also includes a person’s perceptions of the practical aspects such as utility, ease of use and efficiency of the system. User experience is subjective in nature, because it is about an individual’s feelings and thoughts about the system. User experience is dynamic, because it changes over time as the circumstances change.

In short: UX reaches beyond the superficial facades of design and technology.  It taps into the psychology of interaction.

A great UX should be baked into all modern web-designs from their inception, which, of course, requires additional time/resources/money to achieve.

So, why should we invest in better UX? What’s the ROI?

Dr. Susan Weinschenk breaks it all down for you in this nifty little stop-motion video below.

Also, be sure to check out Dr. Weinschenk’s video on the 7 Principles that make websites more engaging.

We’ve been around.
Although AIRSHP is new, as a 2-man team, we’ve been around the block a few times. We have a 12-plus year background doing quality design and development for the entertainment industry. We’ve spent most of our careers working for other firms and we’ve learned a ton along the way, but the day has finally come to set out on our own – to forge a company that is built from the ground up around us – our collective skills – our creative ideas – we’ve got something to say!

Who does what?
Dustin handles most of the development work and Evan handles the graphic design.. we share duties when it comes to creative and strategic services..

What kind of projects would you like to take on?
We prefer to take on projects that utilize our broad skill set – web design, logo, branding, internet marketing, social media strategy, user interface design, email newsletters, etc.. allowing the end result to communicate our clients’ message consistently and effectively across all mediums. Ya Dig? If so, we are actively seeking new projects to sink our teeth into.. holla.

Very nice type and Joni Mitchell reference by Dan Cassaro of Young Jerks

AIRSHP is officially off the ground!  Many a-blood, sweat, and tears were shed in the process, but here we are.. finally able to show off our work to the world.. The goal was to create a website that showcased our collective talents in an intuitive and fresh interface that ‘gets out of the way’ and lets the work speak for itself..  we’ll post more on the details of the making-of process later – but for now, its time for us to rest and time for you to explore our work.  Feel free to sign up for our email newsletter and please do contact us if you are interested in chartering the AIRSHP for a project or three !

If you’re wondering, right now you are in the ‘LABS’ section of our website – which is more or less our blog – a place to post news, ramblings, links to cool stuff, and experimental projects that keep our creative fires burning ..

Plenty more to come!
DBOZ & EBOZ

No, you probably don’t, because you have the good sense not to do something like that.

Why then do so many people feel no shame in rampantly retweeting compliments they receive on Twitter? Some examples, with names changed to protect the guilty:

“RT @joesmith I just heard the most wonderful speech from @lisafrench. That girl is a genius.” (retweeted by @lisafrench)

“RT @fred24 Just saw @jasongotham’s redesign. So good. So jealous!” (retweeted by @jasongotham)

“RT @cakester Scrummify’s sign-up process is a thing of beauty.” (retweeted by @scrummify or an employee of Scrummify)

Let’s count the number of things wrong with this practice:

1. In real life, it’s considered impolite to brag. Unless you are authoring an anonymous satirical account on Twitter, this is your real life.
2. If your intent is to spread a compliment your product received, you’re spreading it to people who are already believers, or at the very least, already aware of your product. You want other people to spread it. Oh wait, they already are.
3. You’re filling your followers’ Twitter feeds not with your own thoughts, but with other people’s thoughts… thoughts about you. The practice of retweeting insults about you on Twitter can also be controversial, but that’s a different beast altogether; one that aims to dismantle trollery by elevating it ironically.

I know many people view Twitter as a medium that can be used by anyone in any manner they see fit — without regard to how other people use it or how other people think it should be used — but I’m not really talking about Twitter here. I’m talking about basic manners. Your mom taught you them when you were young. They haven’t changed that much.

Try not to forget them.