We work in an open concept work space, the lack of privacy is a negative agreed, but it really facilitates the expression of opinions — whether they are requested or not. The thing about spouting your opinions within your peer group, you best be ready to hear how much your thoughts sink or soar.

In the middle of our ‘pit’, we installed a ginormous whiteboard, it’s intended for brainstorming sessions, working out silky smooth code, drawing obscene doodles and other collaborative exercises. Now every week, starting last week, it will also house the 76 Top Five. What is the 76 Top Five? I am glad you asked. A theme is picked, and people (participation is optional) list their all-time top five (usually under a barrage of comments such as, ‘Are you serious?’ and ‘Nice choice pointdexter‘).

Think of this whiteboard as a window into the plethora of personalities who fill out the 76design corps.

So without further ado…

Week 1 Theme: Cinema

Brett:

1. Donnie Darko
2. Gimme Shelter
3. Almost Famous
4. 28 Days Later
5. High Fidelity

Jeff:

1. Goodfellas
2. One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest
3. And Now For Something Completely Different
4. Rollerball
5. Cable Guy

Jordan:

1. Shawshank Redemption
2. Dumb and Dumber
3. True Lies
4. Pulp Fiction
5. Ocean’s Eleven

Julie:

1. Blue Velvet
2. Kill Bill Vol.2
3. Le Fabuleux Destin d’Amelie Poulain
4. Lost in Translation
5. Adaptation

John:

1. Seven Samurai
2. The Night of the Hunter
3. Rhapsody in August
4. The Last Picture Show
5. Kill Bill 1 & 2

Rob:

1. Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels
2. Fubar
3. American History X
4. Forrest Gump
5. Pulp Fiction

Dom:

1. Dr. Strangelove or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb
2. Il Buono, il brutto, il cattivo
3. Nuovo Cinema Paradiso
4. Rushmore
5. Jing wu men

Tune in next week for…76 Top Five: Music Videos!

I know, I know - it’s not polite to brag. But please, cut us some slack here, because we really do have something exciting to brag about!

Yes, for the 3rd year straight, 76design has been made an Official Webby Honouree for the work we did conceiving, designing and building the Ottawa Public Library’s new children’s website.

This was a really innovative project and it definitely feels good to get this recognition. In case you don’t know the Webbys, they’re kind of like Oscars for the Web. We didn’t actually win a Webby - we got the equivalent of 2nd place. But considering our co-Honourees in the youth category include the likes of Disney Channel, Barbie and MTV, we figure we’re in some pretty elite company.

What’s even more amazing though, if I do say so myself, is that this is the 3rd year running that one of our sites has been a Webby Honouree. Last year it was our corporate website, and the year before it was the site we built for Maisonneuve Magazine.

76design is not a huge shop. We don’t charge as much as the big international agencies and our clients’ budgets tend to be - well - just a tad smaller than Disney’s. But the quality of our work speaks for itself. Year after year we rank alongside the world’s top interactive agencies in the toughest competition there is.

Next year we’re aiming to crack the final frontier and become an official Webby award winner. Which of our clients will benefit from that acclaim, and be the proud owner of one of the best websites in the world?

It could be you.

Always looking for the right candidate. 76design is looking for a full-time web developer with a minimum of 3 years professional experience to join our talented team. We need a smart and responsible individual who is ready to be a key contributor to several exciting new projects. Our ideal candidate is equally comfortable talking to computers and to people. He or she is proficient in multiple programming languages but is also deeply engaged with the social aspects of web culture.

Our ideal candidate knows what’s happening today and what’s coming down the pipe tomorrow, and can’t wait to get there. He or she is driven to achieve but is also comfortable working in a collaborative environment, and is bursting with ideas and skills, just like we are.

The core technical skills we need are expertise in:

• PHP, mySQL and HTML

Knowledge of one or more of the following is also necessary:

• ASP.net, CSS, JavaScript, WordPress, Ruby on Rails, Ajax, SEO, podcasting, advanced web metrics

If you think you’ve got what it takes to join our team, tell us now! Email your CV and a cover letter to: jobs@76design.com

Thank the Mighty Corporate Gods that allowed Adobe and Macromedia – both Gods in their own rights – to come together in perfect (albeit until now, not so Macintel-friendly) harmony.

Our patience has finally paid off. We gave these two some time to play around behind closed doors (to the two or three of you that thought about naughty things – for SHAME.) and now the collective Company has brought forth upon us Designers a true Deity, one to call our own and worship. And we shall call it…CS3.

(Okay…wow…that was a bit melodramatic. I think I actually heard French horns in the background.)

It’s true though, what the Prophecy of the Internet has told has come true. Creative Suite 3 (or, the “Tré”, as I like to call it. [ED NOTE: This Institution reserves the right to keep 5 cents for any reprints of that, or any other subsidiary slang]) is truly a blessing.

First up, Photoshop CS3. Okay, so it’s CS2 like we’ve come to know and love but with a FEW innovative features. I personally can’t wait to see what a Photoshop animated creation would look like exported directly to SWF with that better-than-ever-before look of “Yeah, I do that now.” Other than that, I couldn’t really say how many new features there are to discover, but if it’s half as good as discovering the hidden gems of CS2 (because honestly, who knew?), I’m in.

Illustrator…yup. Still here. Added features: Check. Cool new look: Check. Full integration with Flash…mmmm….them’s sounds appealing. I’ve always been afraid to try taking a native AI and just dumping it into Flash. I just dropped one in there and boo-ya, layers, shapes, everything, perfect. Ahhhhhhh…now I can get on animating this letter-loving-lizard…

InDesign CS3? Slow clap. That’s for you, buddy. Awesome.

The best thing hands down is the integration. You get virtually the same interface elements across the whole Design platform. Dreamweaver, Flash, Illustrator, InDesign, Photoshop. I mean…native PSDs in Dreamweaver? Not GoLive? (Because, honestly.) That alone makes me want to personally thank the man who brokered their corporate merger.

So Thank You, Adobe/Macromedia. (mAdobe? Macdobe? There’s just no cool name, so enjoy just being Adobe I guess.) We are already salivating for some bug fixes for this new baby of yours, so get to it! (Why the *blank* can’t I associate .indd files with InDesign??? I mean Vista just won’t let me! I’ve tried editing my Registry and everything! Stupid Vista!! Curse you and your inability to understand what the heck I’m trying to get you to do!)

To recap. Adobe: Good. Vista: COME OOONNNNNNNN!!!

(Seriously. If you know how to make it open my InDesign files in…gee why not INDESIGN…please start a comment thread! I’m talking to you, Shawn! Thanks!)

Jim Coudal and Brendan Dawes

Jim Coudal: try ideas, explore ideas, research, embrace your short attention; need to be moving, follow inspirations, restarters not revisers, if its not right then throw it out; integrate dreaming into your shop: paint bathroom walls with CHALK BOARD PAINT!, the “book” is a holding place for unborn ideas, write it down and sketch it and put it down.

Brendan Dawes: get it out there, just do it, let people talk about it, make things happen; Experimentation, public installation, take a risk, learn from your mistakes.

Check out Brendan’s New book: analogue in / digital out.

http://design-feed.net

“Design-Feed is a design feed aggregator. [Design-feed] hand-pick the most interesting design related RSS feeds and present them in an easy-to-browse format. This means you can get all the latest design news in one place, rather than trawling through hundreds of sites a day. Every post aggregated is also searchable by keyword.”