3 Penguins Design

Roadrunner Records sign Rush

Posted: August 31, 2011 in I Don't Know, Music, News - crazy and otherwise
Tags: Geddy Lee, Progressive Rock, RoadRunner Records, Rush

Roadrunner Records has announced today that they have added Canadian prog rock power trio Rush to the family. Check out the press release from Roadrunner below for more details.

Press release

Roadrunner Records is pleased to announce a new worldwide partnership with Anthem Records and rock trio Rush. The band will remain on Anthem/Universal Music in Canada only.

“We have tremendous respect for Roadrunner Records, and what Cees Wessels and Jonas Nachsin have built on a worldwide level. After years of Roadrunner pursuing the band, Tom Lipsky presented a deal that worked and the timing was right. We wanted to be at a label focused on the rock genre – and that’s Roadrunner,” said Ray Danniels, manager of Rush. [read]

Why IE9 is a Web Designer’s Nightmare

Posted: March 18, 2011 in 3 Penguins Design, Design, Design, I Don't Know, Productivity
Tags: Explorer 9, Web Browser, Web Design, Window

Web professionals have been getting pretty excited lately, and it’s no surprise why. The latest spawn of Microsoft’s browser, Internet Explorer 9, has just been released. Many people have been talking about the changes and whether the latest version is a solid step forward, or if it’s too little, too late.

In a previous article, Jacob Gube (this site’s founder) had a more positive view of IE9. I’m here to play devil’s advocate and present the other side of the coin. [read]

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Joe Randeen – 3 Penguins Design

CSS Typography: Techniques and Best Practices

Posted: March 10, 2011 in Design, Design, I Don't Know
Tags: css, Internet, Typography, Web

In the first part of this series, we discussed some fundamental concepts pertaining to CSS typography. Now we are going to cover some excellent techniques, tips, tricks and best practices for dealing with typography on websites.

This is the second part of a three-part series of guides on CSS typography that will cover everything from basic syntax to best practices and tools related to CSS typography. [read]

Aliasing in Digital Photography Explained

Posted: January 26, 2011 in Photography
Tags: Aliasing, Digital Photography, Pixels, Tutorial

Aliasing and Anti-aliasing Examples

If there’s one thing that digital photography has no shortage of, it’s confusing vocabulary words. Aliasing, which is a common word in the world of digital everything (video games, CGI, photography), is one of those words that everyone has heard, but may not quite understand. And the anti-aliasing feature found on many digital cameras doesn’t do much to explain why you should use it. Not to worry though, for anti-aliasing is no where near as complicated as it may sound.

The Basics About Pixels

Most digital images are made up of square units known as pixels. If you take any of your digital photographs and zoom in a few times, you will notice that the closer you get, the more blocky the image appears. This blocky appearance is the result of the individual pixels becoming more pronounced as the digital image is increased in size. [read]

Adobe Shows Off Flash-to-HTML5 Conversion Tool

Posted: November 16, 2010 in 3 Penguins Design, Content Development, Design, I Don't Know
Tags: Adobe, Conversion Tool, Flash, Flash-to-HTML5 Conversion, HTML5

Even though its Flash technology is used as a punching bag by web-standards fans, Adobe has been building tools that embrace HTML5. The company recently released its own HTML5 video player, and Adobe Illustrator and Dreamweaver CS5 now contain a number of new HTML5 export tools.

Now it seems Flash might be joining the party. At Adobe’s MAX conference this week, Adobe engineer Rik Cabanier showed of a demo of tool that converts Flash animations to HTML5. (Well, technically it looks like a combination of HTML5, CSS and images.)

The video link, while not the best quality, shows the tool in action: YouTube Video

Adobe Flash has taken a beating the last couple of years. First Apple attacked Flash for poor performance, then open tools like HTML5, CSS 3 and JavaScript began stealing much of its thunder, offering video, audio and animation — traditional Flash strongholds — without the need for the free plug-in. [read]

On buying unmeasurable media

Posted: October 28, 2010 in 3 Penguins Design, Business, I Don't Know, Marketing, SEO
Tags: Ads, Advertising, Buying Media, Google, Marketing

Should you invest in TV, radio, billboards and other media where you can’t measure whether your ad works? Is an ad in New York magazine worth 1,000 times as much as a text link on Google? If you’re doing the comparison directly, that’s how much extra you’re paying if you’re only measuring direct web visits…

One school of thought is to measure everything. If you can’t measure it, don’t do it. This is the direct marketer method and there’s no doubt it can work.

There’s another thought, though: Most businesses (including your competitors) are afraid of big investments in unmeasurable media. Therefore, if you have the resources and the guts, it’s a home run waiting to be hit.

Ralph Lauren is a billion dollar brand. Totally unmeasurable. So are Revlon, LVMH, Donald Trump, Andersen Windows, Lady Gaga and hundreds of other mass market brands.

There are two things you should never do:

Try to measure unmeasurable media and use that to make decisions. You’ll get it wrong. Sure, some sophisticated marketers get good hints from their measurements, but it’s still an art, not a science.
Compromise on your investment. Small investments in unmeasurable media almost always fail. Go big or stay home.

And if you’re selling unmeasurable media? Don’t try to sell to people who are obsessed with measuring. You’ll waste your time and annoy the prospect at the same time.

10 Ways to Take Stunning Portraits [photography]

Posted: October 9, 2010 in 3 Penguins Design, Photography
Tags: Photography, Portrait Photography, Portraits, Tips and Tricks

I want to look at some ways to break out of the mold and take striking portraits by breaking (or at least bending) the rules and adding a little randomness into your portrait photography. I’ll share ten of these tips today and a further ten tomorrow (update: you can see the 2nd part here).
1. Alter Your Perspective

Most portraits are taken with the camera at (or around) the eye level of the subject. While this is good common sense – completely changing the angle that you shoot from can give your portrait a real WOW factor. [read]

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3 Penguins Photography

How to Choose a Digital SLR Camera Lens

Posted: October 3, 2010 in Photography
Tags: Camera Lenses, Choosing Lens, DSLR, Lenses, Prime, Zoom

When it comes to DSLR photography sometimes things can get a little complicated, this is especially true when it comes to making the first purchase after your kit lens. Do you choose a zoom lens, a wide angle lens, a prime lens or even a fixed aperture lens? Well don’t worry yourself to much because this article is here to help you.

Zoom Vs Prime

A zoom lens will allow the photographer to zoom which isn’t to surprising. The advantage of a zoom lens is the ability to zoom in and out on your subject to create the perfect composition. Zoom lenses are favored by most photographers because of this function, however zoom lenses usually have higher f-stops than prime lenses, and this means that they usually leave less light into a photo which will affect the shutter speed being used. [read]

How the iPad is Transforming Web Design

Posted: September 30, 2010 in 3 Penguins Design, Apple - MAC, Design, Gadgets, I Don't Know, iPhone/iPad, iPhone/iPad, Social Media
Tags: iPad, Online Media, Twitter, Web Design

The iPad has only been on the market for six months, but already it has had an impact on the way content is created and consumed. Already we’re seeing more and more people at airports, coffee shops and on the train using their iPads to read books, browse the web and watch video.

We’re also seeing web designers transform their websites and web apps to look more like iPad apps. In the last few months, several high-profile websites have adjusted their designs to look and feel more like the iPad. We’re dubbing this, the “iPadification of the web.”

We think this is a trend that will only continue to gain momentum as the iPad continues to sell and subsequent tablets like the Samsung Galaxy Tab and the BlackBerry PlayBook hit the market. [read]