Recently a few people have been asking me about my blog. “What is it?” “Why do you do it?” “What is it for?” The funny thing is that most of these questions come to me via my Facebook page. This made me realize that there’s an ironic ignorance surrounding blogs by the general public. Ironic because Blogging is basically what everyone’s doing when they post information on their Facebook page.

I was describing a friend of mine as suffering from creative constipation recently. It’s a common complaint, many designers suffer from it and it can be the result of multifarious causes; tight deadlines, the distractions of every-day life, worrying about friends and families, an untidy desk. All of these have been my obstructions at one [...]

I’m hoping to see a few of you at MacWorld 2010 where I’ll be speaking next year. I love San Fransisco so will be taking a little extra time out to hang out with my old friends, Amacker and Nina at the Lucky 13 bar on Castro. I also hope to catch up with all [...]

One feature of GridIron Flow I’ve seen people really go nuts for is its ability to "roll back" a Photoshop document to a previous version. (Flow creates versions automatically.) I think the reason for this enthusiasm is the numerous ways in which you can inadvertently "harm" a Photoshop file - permanently altering (or deleting) data. [...]

When people ask me why we need rules for design I like to use the analogy of spoken languages. In order to communicate with people in other countries you need to learn their language and the rules pertaining to the local customs. We’re all familiar with the cliché of the tourist, unable to speak the [...]

By Daniel Brown
Sr. Evangelist, GridIron Software
“Social media” allow (if not encourage) us to be less social in the traditional sense. Instead, they provide us the “Cliff notes” of the lives of others. We each become our own P.R. teams, releasing an average of thrice-daily, carefully-worded, “press releases” related to the things we care most about [...]

By Daniel Brown
GridIron Software
An idea was born about 3 years ago, turned into drawings and schematics, then to command-line “proof-of-concepts”, to early prototypes, to a 5-month long “public beta” of a promising, if not-quite-polished, application. Now, the final result of our efforts is here;  Flow 1.0 is now available for purchase at www.gridironsoftware.com.
Flow was designed [...]

Creative Director (Europe) - Gridiron Software
As research for my book I’ve been looking at the effects of drugs on creativity, and finding out if the two are linked. I’m hoping to get some feedback from the readers of my blog regarding their own experiences but first I guess it’s fair to give you my own [...]

by Daniel Brown
GridIron Software
A few times a year, I step away from my computer (well, my WORK computer anyway) and head off to tropical destinations to co-teach underwater photography. The Caribbean is pretty much the oppposite of a convention center and, for a week at a time, I have sand between my toes and sunlight [...]

Every now and then a piece of software comes along that changes your life. The first one for me was Cubase, I learned how to do music sequencing on an old Atari during my deejaying career in the late 80’s and early 90’s. Then there was Deluxe Paint, the first application that allowed me to [...]

I had a bad day yesterday! It started with a friend calling to tell me how unhappy she is at her new job. She’s an artist, and up until recently, had her own studio, where she painted, partied and hung out. She’s relatively successful, selling the odd painting here and there and doing digital media installations. But [...]

Being of a ‘creative’ nature, I have a naturally chaotic mind, or so I’ve been told on good authority! My head is pretty much always ‘full of stuff’, work, friends, family, relationships, ideas, inspirations, mundane tasks, creative ideas, all of them ricochet around my brain like flies trying to escape from imprisonment.
And since I’ve progressed [...]

By Angie Taylor - Creative Director, Gridiron Software
I love the software industry for its diversity. It’s pretty unique and is made up from people with backgrounds ranging from designers, artists, musicians, scientists, technical wizards, PR, sales and marketing gurus, hobbyists, enthusiasts, the list goes on.
People like myself can cross the divide from user into maker [...]

by Angie Taylor - Creative Director (Europe), Gridiron Software
Well, I’ve just left Broadcast Video Forum 2009 after a successful launch event for our new software, Flow. And I must say I’m pretty exhausted, I don’t think I’ve ever talked so much in my life!
I’ve only been with the Gridiron Software for three months but already [...]

Creative Director > Gridiron Software
Software features can dominate our designs, the design becomes prevalent to such an extent that it takes precedent over the designer. We’ve all heard an ad or feature described this way; ‘y’know, the one with the puppet tool and the new 3D text animators’.
Isn’t it about time that we escaped from [...]

Sr. Evangelist > GridIron Software
There is a phrase in cooking called “mise en place”. In short, having everything organized and prepared in the right place, in the right quantities ahead of time so that, when it comes time to start actually COOKING, you’re not spending time still prepping. In cooking, and in my daily work, [...]