Netdiver Mag

Joslyn Reid is a Jamaican born design director and illustrator currently living in Ottawa – who very recently launched his website.

_______

Now that’s what I called using a dark theme to its fullest to showcase a series of very cool projects. A stunning debut portfolio.

Much talent – one to follow.

Communication Arts interactive competition call for entries. Student work now accepted.

_______

Any interactive project created for digital distribution on disc, interactive kiosk, handheld device, online service or the World Wide Web is eligible.

Deadline: October 3

I have a deep appetite for sciences such as astrophysics + astronomy + geographic expeditions especially dedicated to discovering the deep seas.

________

The Aquatilis project website is extraordinary on many levels. Please donate if you can.

________

First the scope – 3 years around the seas on a high-tech sailboat.

Secondly the leader is no other than underwater photography genius – Alexander Semenov.

_______

Thirdly – branding – font – interactive design is the handicraft of extra talented Tobias van Schneider.

For Office Use Only is a graphic and interactive design studio hailing from NYC. First discovered their work back in 2004 – we are 10 years later – they are steady holding pace.

Vast difference? More experience and expertise warranted garnering high-end cultural mostly entities and projects.

They are good. Very very good.

Names for Change is home to an UMD caritative initiative – selling naming rights to all the items that connect their clients to food, shelter and a future.

Connecting everyone who comes through their doors with food, shelter and a future requires a whole lot of stuff.

_______

What a smart way to raise funds! Give as little or as much. Each vignette explains what each item will have as impact and why they are a necessity to recovering one’s human dignity and place in society.

The website is crafted delightfully. A great interactive and learning experience.

_______

via: Must read article: We are all part of the same thing by Nick Jones

Prompted to do this post following a recent tweet: ‘The sheer amount of ‘on / off’ – websites that ‘vanished’ is crazy. Thinking of all the man hours and dreams that have disappeared.’ – and ensuing exchange with Chris Tse.

_______

After releasing a little (www) Story – and ystd – reading an article about the people behind the Wayback Machine to discovering that ‘websites last in average 100 days!’ What???? to which Mike Sullivan replied: ‘Viral / campaign sites? Some 30 days.’

_______

Sifting the archives to see if some of the pre-database years featured awsm people / projects are still around.. to do an encore..

I found the multi-awarded MadeinMTL project – of which production cost must have been upwards of multi-hundred grands in government grants + corporate sponsorships to produce this interactive documentary.

Version 1.0 + 2.0 were released.

I followed the link and I was really shocked (do it). To be honest – I don’t get it. Read the feature to understand the scope of loss.

_______

I am blown away! MadeinMTL is a touristic destination site for both visitors and locals. Although this is my hometown, I must admit that the teams (Locomotion and BlueSponge) behind this little jewel have done their darndest to cover the City which is known for its load of good food and creative vibe, shopping, its underground city and lots of cultural events and festivals and much much more.

You can even make your own itinerary. Now if you plan to visit – don’t forget to visit the site and give me a shout!

Here’s what you can find on the site: 425 addresses, 15 000 pictures, 400 texts, 50 hours of video, 40 sound scapes and 25 shorts.

_______

Showing: Version 1.0

_______

Showing: Version 2.0

In 1995, JF and I started a little company – Netdiver. It’s original mission was to uncover and report on the economic possibilities of the emerging www.

ndlr: JF & I in pixel regalia presenting a new logo. Still love it (/him too).

________

We were going to ‘dive’ to fetch the pearls – in opposition to ‘surf’ – which was then buzz word du jour.

We thought it pretty clever.

_______

Remember vividly my awe upon ‘entering’ the infant web – wow – we are now connected to the world! To this day – still awed.

First search was this single word: Idea.

Landed on TWChiatDay – Idea Factory which posited on a ‘new’ approach on how to run a creative studio – horizontal instead of hierarchial.

The interior ‘spaces’ were amazing – and have now become the norm for all those Silicon Valley giants and startups: funky offices – team pods – free food – game – flexible hours, etc.

Exactly what I was envisioning.

I concluded – if there’s one maybe there’s hundreds??

_______

ndlr: Netdiver site banner circa ’99. Diving not surfing ;))

_______

I remember the early www to be barely above double-digits millions. The web was ‘small’ and somewhat.. uh.. intimate.

I theorized ‘freelancing’ to become the economic norm – clients to be landed anywhere in the world and the ‘disenfranchising’ of selling both creative skills and goods to be possible.

At long last – designers could change the world with ‘communication’, ‘exchange’ and ‘collaboration. The circulation of new ideas to be unbelievably faster than pre-Internet since new ideas always reached ‘culture’ – post-mortem for authors.

_______

Followed 3 intensive years of stealth research gazing / gauging the ‘opportunities’ that would be afforded creatives types when they would settle in the then land of MiS, technologists and scientists.

I was mind-mapping infinite files to locate like-minded people who – as us – were exploring and building what today has become such a commodity – although an irreplaceable one as that.

_______

In ’98, I decided to ‘share’ the results of the ‘likeminded’ research – aka bookmarks with small screencaps – our visual trademark 200 x 115 pixels and a bit of text to describe it.

_______

ndlr: Wayback Machine archives

_______

We hard-coded a ‘website’ with frames and attempted to emulate a ‘magazine’ look and started to post (lol) – what would later become Netdiver Mag.

Way long before blogs were even in the ‘pipe’ of extraordinarily talented visionaries.

_______

ndlr: Netdiver vintage pins + postcard distributed at conferences / events.
Reissue TBA

_______

Through the years I kept a directory titled ‘x_pired’ in which I saved thumbnails of websites either redesigned or gone offline.

I had this sentimental attachment. I remembered all of them. It made me sad when so much creativity (not counting the man-hours) was thrown out in the ether. Once bright lights. Now gone.

Forever.

I chose to turn that sadness into a somewhat very unofficial web museum of what was new in design.

This is what Netdiver Vintage edition is about.

Since onset – I had and still have a very privileged overview of the web. When I went on hiatus – I don’t exaggerate stating having visited over 150k websites.

I have saved all the ‘archives’ pre-database years – and I am continually adding to it. So far 2.4k projects listed.

Enjoy.

_______

_______

ndlr: Netdiver Vintage 2 columns interface.

ndlr2: Hard to believe it was once trendy to use very + very small fonts.