Designers and Animators of the World, Rejoice: GIF's turn 25!

Remember back in the days of Netscape Navigator; the days when anyone with a propensity for black backgrounds and neon green text could make a geocities page? Such pages weren't complete without at least one GIF, though usually those tiny moving graphics like waving USA flags or burning flames made up entire border designs. You may have forgotten about GIFs once we crossed the web 2.0 threshold, but a lot of designers didn't--and thank Jevoha: They've taken the heretofore hideous format and turned into something surprisingly great.

The first GIF appeared in all its pixelated glory in 1987 (!) and to celebrate it 25th anniversary, PBS made a video that tracks the history of the form with a nod to four web wunderkinds who have transformed those little moments of Internet-browsing candy for a contemporary audience. First though, we should probably get one thing straight (as our design compatriots here tell us): it's pronounced Jiff, like the peanut butter, not GIF with a hard G. Yeah, we've been saying it wrong for two decades too. If you're unfamiliar with the form of micro-animation, Patrick Davison of MemeFactory defines it as "an image that's been encoded using the graphics interchange format, where it has multiple frames encoded into a single image file and a web browser or other piece of software will play those images back in animated sequence automatically."

But instead of animating You've Got Mail logos, the new crop of GIF wizards are applying the technology to photo-collages, fashion editorials and scenes from movies.

Our personal favorite are Jamie Beck and Kevin Burg's Cinemagraphs, which remind us of those magical moving pictures in the newspapers from Harry Potter. Beck and Burg describe their work as "the evolution of photography." It's also the most elegant and sophisticated we've seen from GIF-makers so far. Still, GIFs as a serious art form something of a brand new phenomenon. "It's too new," Tumblr's Topher Chris says. "I love being a part of this at a time when we're just figuring it out."

Want to learn how to make your own GIFs? Yes. Yes you do. Enroll in one of 3rd Ward's classes in Multimedia or Web Design.

Contemporary Music Organization "Ear To Mind" Asks David Karlins To Take Their Vision From Mind To Screen

David Karlins and Ear to Mind co-director Inhyun Kim meeting in the conference room.

Since its beginnings in 2010, contemporary music nonprofit Ear to Mind has relied on a typical cookie cutter blog-style website as their online home. It did the job, but with an upcoming concert at illustrious Carnegie Hall, the organization decided they'd like something more original and reflective of their adventurous artistic identity. For that they turned to 3rd Ward Web Design teacher and prolific author David Karlins.

"They felt it was essential to create a Web presence more in keeping with the creative energy and spirit of what they are all about," Karlins says. He met up with Ear to Mind co-director Inhyun Kim and worked to create an online destination that achieves just that.

"A substantial focus of my Web consulting involves working with artists, musicians, performers and particularly venues, organizations that promote the arts," Karlins says. "While my main activity is writing books and developing online teaching materials for publishers like Dummies and teaching material for Adobe, I do keep my fingers on the pulse of cutting edge Web challenges by continuing to do design projects."

Karlins' upcoming book is Web Sites for Dummies All-in-One. Here at 3rd Ward he teaches classes including Web Design with Adobe Creative Suite (both regular and condensed) and Intermediate Web Design // CSS3 and loves soaking up our positive vibes. "My meetings with the principles and people involved at 3rd Ward allow us to absorb and bounce off the diverse activity and creative energy here, and in turn feed into my work on books, my live and online classes, and the teaching materials I create here," he says.

The Ear to Mind Carnegie Hall concert that prompted Karlins' design work happens on April 19 and will feature pianist award-winning Jenny Q Chai playing a variety of music, including the world premier of a new composition by Inhyun Kim.

-- John Ruscher

Tech Competition // NYC BigApps 3.0 Invites You To Build Apps That Improve City Life

With New York City's tech community getting some much-deserved attention through the Cornell tech campus planned for Roosevelt Island and the recent protest of SOPA and PIPA, we wanted to make sure all of you Silicon Alley fans are aware of an awesome competition that brings together NYC and technology.

NYC BigApps 3.0 invites software developers to create apps that use city data to improve the NYC experience. As the name suggests, the competition in its third year, with past winners such as the Roadify iPhone App, which employs user-submitted data and official transit data to give users alerts on subway, bus and driving conditions, and Big Apple Ed, a online guide to NYC public schools.

This year's competition will award $50,000 in prizes, including $10,000 and a chance to present their app at one of NY Tech Meetup's popular gathers going to the Best Overall Application.

If you'd like to enter, then you better get coding. The deadline for submissions, January 25, is less than a week away. Some submissions are already in, and you can check out videos, images and descriptions here.

So programmers of NYC (many of whom we happen to know here at 3rd Ward), let's show the city what you've got.

-- John Ruscher

WATCH THIS NOW // Douglas Rushkoff On The Importance Of Learning To Program

Still in search of a New Year's resolution? How about learning to program in one of our many different web design classes?

Why should you, you ask? Well, these days computer programming is a valuable and increasingly critical skill, not just for those who want to make a career out of it, but for anyone living in today's increasingly technology-oriented world. Author and media theorist Douglas Rushkoff laid out this argument in full in his 2010 book Program or be Programmed: Ten Commands for a Digital Age. He offers a shorter but no less enlightening version in this video of a talk that he gave at SXSW Interactive:

Inspired? Check out our wide selection of web design classes and sign up for the one that best fits your needs. It's 2012—be a programmer, not one of the programmed!

-- John Ruscher

NEW MEMBER WELCOME // Noah Wall Takes Web Design To The Next Level

Noah WallWe're thrilled to introduce you to one of our new co-working desk members, web designer extraordinaire Noah Wall.

Wall started the cleverly named Knowawall in 2007, and his company quickly established itself as a leading name in creative and cutting-edge design. Clients have included iconic filmmaker David Lynch and renowned artist Maya Lin. Knowawall's website for Lynch's Interview Project received two Webby Awards for Best Documentary Series.

Working on such high-profile projects has been a unique and valuable experience. "I'm so lucky to have worked with some really talented folks," Wall says. "Many of our clients are so heavily invested in their own work that it can feel a bit like cradling someone else's child sometimes. There's also a lot of opportunity for close collaboration which I've definitely benefited from as a designer."

With plenty of impressive work under his belt, Wall has recently been taking a break from web design to focus on some personal projects, particularly his music. In September he released the album Hèloïse and created 38 Figures In Hiding, a scavenger hunt throughout New York City to promote it. "I hid 38 copies of the LP and cassette all over the city," he explains. "The locations of each corresponded to points on the Manhattan grid that, when connected, spelled out the name of the album." The project naturally attracted lots of attention, including a feature on WIRED.

Wall tells us that he has more musical projects in the works, including a couple of videos and "a 'memory catalyst' EP that includes scratch and sniff packaging for triggering memories."

Luckily, he hasn't abandoned his design exporations. "In the web world I've been trying to focus less on custom sites and pursue some web apps geared toward 'creatives,'" he says. "These ideas have been brewing for a while and should finally see the light of day in 2012!"

Either way, let's extend a hand to to Wall for taking the initiative to make these things happen. We think he'll prove a vital addition to our new co-working space.

-- John Ruscher

CALL FOR CONTENT // 3W Web Design Teacher Looking For Model Content For New Book

Feel like having your work published and distributed around the world? Listen up:

3rd Ward's Web Design teacher David Karlins is the author of dozens of popular graphic and web design books--from The Complete Idiot's Guide to Macromedia Flash 5 to Illustrator CS3 How-Tos: 100 Essential Techniques. He's obviously got a knack for explaining things clearly and concisely, but that's even easier to do with some great examples. Karlins is currently looking for "model content" to help illustrate different techniques in his upcoming Web Design For Dummies book.

Specifically? The content can be pretty much anything; craftwork, services, portfolios, product lines, performances, causes and so on—you just have to be willing to see it reframed, presented in different ways and truncated. Karlins promises though that he'll do his best to respect your work.

Check out the image above for an example of how your work might appear--that's Danish jeweler Eric Geist as featured in one of Karlins' most recent books, Adobe Creative Suite 5 Web Premium How-Tos: 100 Essential Techniques.

Interested? Get in touch ASAP with David Karlins at dkarlins@davidkarlins.com.