Apple Keynote

In memory of Steve Jobs (1955 – 2011).  Visionary American computer entrepreneur and inventor with a passion for simplicity, ease, elegance, beauty and a human interface.

Steve Jobs turned personal computers from brown boxes into user friendly, minimalist, seductive devices and mobile phones into sparkling digital jewlry. You leave us with a legacy to inspire and think different. To create, invent and reinvent. 

7-year old girl: “He made computers that when you touched the screen, they touched you back.” 

Steve Job’s Stanford Commencement Speech 2005 where he talks about following his intuition, joy and curiosity. Being poor, getting fired from Apple in 1985, about life & death.

Think Different

“Here’s to the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels. The troublemakers. The round pegs in the square holes.

The ones who see things differently. They’re not fond of rules. And they have no respect for the status quo. You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them.

About the only thing you can’t do is ignore them. Because they change things. They invent. They imagine. They heal. They explore. They create. They inspire. They push the human race forward.

Maybe they have to be crazy.

How else can you stare at an empty canvas and see a work of art? Or sit in silence and hear a song that’s never been written? Or gaze at a red planet and see a laboratory on wheels?

We make tools for these kinds of people.

While some see them as the crazy ones, we see genius. Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do.”

“Think Different” is an advertising slogan created for Apple Computer in 1997.

Tags: Apple, art quotation, quotes, technology

iPhone photography: the last picnic for this year?

An Indian Summer and possibly the last picnic for this year. Migrating birds, flying over the lake. A gentle shift from summer into autumn. In the kitchen: days of apple. Root vegetables. Figs, satsumas, grapes and cheese. The basil on the balcony is still blooming and life drawing sessions have just got started. A glorious beginning to autumn.

I’ve been interviewed about my new Seasonal Shift Goal Kits and I’m already working on the Winter Shift Goal Kit. An exciting kit, shifting our focus from the active summer days and into the inner world of creativity, introspection and intuition!

Today, Apple introduced us to the iPhone 4S, but what I found really exciting and innovative is Siri, a voice control virtual personal assistant! “Ask Siri to do things just by talking the way you talk.” Siri writes and sends email messages and texts — and reads them to you, too. It searches the web, takes dictation and plays the music you want to hear. It helps you find your way, checks the weather forecast and shows you around. It places calls, schedules meetings and helps you remember things. And it wakes you up. Impressive, eh!? I think we’re going to have to get used to people talking to their phones!

I’ve got some goodies lined up for you who visit Marmalade Moon. I’ll soon be releasing some new desktop art: Golden Ratio Autumn Wallpaper and Vintage Folder Icons: Purple Grapes, both share their palette of rich purple and orange with the Autumn Shift Goal Kit. But first check back in on Friday for a new interview, and prepare to be inspired!

iPhone photography: Migrating Birds

Tags: Apple, autumn, Goal Kits, iPhone, planning, Seasonal Shifts, seasons, technology

Wacom’s Inkling is a digital pen that captures your sketch from paper. Recording your strokes and transferring your sketch digitally for further editing on your computer. The Inkling has a pressure sensitive ballpoint tip and can create layered sketches.

It’s exciting to see new technology unfold, bringing tools that bridge the gap between traditional, freehand sketching and digital input with a mouse or tablet. Both the iPad with its finger-painting and the Inkling give artists the tools to interact more directly with their devices, removing the clunky layer between your hand and your canvas.

A special thank you to my friend, artist Jamie Berry, who brought the Inkling to my attention. 

Related Posts:
Top 20 Apps to Turn Your iPad into a Portable Creative Studio
15 Best Photo Apps for iPad and iPhone

Tags: digital art, iPad, methods, natural media, sketch, technology, tools

iPhone photography: computer error

It started last weekend with a faint but ominous and mysterious flicker. Last Sunday there was an election in Sweden, and on Monday it was clear that the racist far-right Sweden Democrats won its first-ever parliamentary seats. Alarming and deeply depressing. And then my laptop gave up the ghost.

In the middle of all this mess, it was a HUGE relief to find that all of my art work that I’d backed up on Dropbox was safe and sound and that I could simply continue working from a different computer, without having to also recreate all the art work I’d already done, both on the commissioned work and on the new collection of Process Icons. (Yes, I’m using a referral link in this post. If you register and install Dropbox (for free) using the referral link, we’ll both get extra free space!)

I’m way too busy  just now to even begin looking for the warranty for my laptop. In the meanwhile all of my e-mail, my bookmarks and RSS-reader are trapped on my broken laptop. This is why you won’t see much of me online, as well as why I might owe you a response to your e-mail. Please bear with me until I get the situation sorted out.

The moral of the story? “Always backup your data” and “there’s never a good time for a disaster”? My little disaster with my laptop is a catastrophe in my small world, but in the bigger picture, it’s a storm in a teacup.

Tags: software, technology

I expected the iPad to be a revolutionary device and holding it in your hands, interacting with it, really is a revolutionary experience. It’s the computer of the future.

• It’s fast!
• It’s powerful!
• It’s intuitive, responsive, easy and inviting to use
• The iPad with its multi-touch screen and single tasking is the first computer that adapts to how humans work, while other computers expect us humans to adapt to how they work
• The iPad apps I’ve tested embrace the idea of simplicity, beauty, fun and ease. Just like the iPad itself
• The iPad is the first computer I’ve used where reading really feels inviting and user friendly
• This tablet computer is wonderful for a new kind of story telling! The iPad can blur the line between reading, watching films, gaming and I can see how people could invent new ways of telling stories where images, film, audio, text and interactive experiences all blend together into a new kind of multimedia story telling
• The digital environment on an iPad feels peaceful and focused
• The touch screen is crisp and sharp and the book-size feels user friendly
• The iPad lives up to its promise of long battery life
• You need a bag and/or a slip to protect your iPad
• You need a soft, lint-free cloth to remove marks left by your fingers

The iPad and iPhone are innovative devices that bring to mind Think Different, Apple’s advertising campaign from 1997

“Here’s to the crazy ones. The rebels. The troublemakers. The ones who see things differently. While some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius. Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do.”

Now, what I’m really interested in, is how I can use this revolutionary tablet computer as a digital, portable, creative art studio! I’ll be back on Tuesday with my findings and hope to present a list of 20 outstanding creativity apps for the iPad.

Tags: apps, ease, iPad, simplicity, technology