We are exposed to endless logos, icons and symbols from the moment we wake up to the moment we go to sleep. Of course we all know this, but when we take an extra second to actually take in all of the branding that is around us, it can almost be overwhelming.

As promised in my last post I will be discussing the new additions to CSS3 that will not only allow us to manipulate Opacity and Alpha.

Originally a Carolina girl, I moved up to Boston from Charlotte when I started working with Silverscape. The move definitely shed some light on some interesting differences in northern and southern culture (some of which proved to be opposite the stereotypes too I might add!) and although I don’t find the people up here much different, apparently they don’t think the same of me.

(or don't because it annoys the people around you). Here at Silverscape we have a pretty diverse taste in music and some big music fanatics. You'll see our Last.FM playlist Top 40, to real eclectic and underground stuff. But when that's not cutting it, we all have our iPods/iPhones/iRivers(if you're Jake). Finding the right tune to match what you're working on along with your mood, for me personally can mean a difference in productivity.

Riiiing! Today we launched www.ascendentsystems.com! A division of our client RIM (the driving force behind BlackBerry™), Ascendent Systems allows users to automatically extend the identity and functionality of their business desk phone to any other device. Neato, right? As a collectively smartphone-obsessed company, this was a super fun project for us and we’re looking forward to more exciting engagements with RIM.

The Little Friends of Printmaking. I simply want to tell you how really, really, REALLY cool they are.

Part of my role at Silverscape has allowed me to interface as our “print buyer.” This aspect of my job has made me realize something I never thought I’d say, I love paper, and for that matter, I love printing! Not big corporate printers who only operate online, but smaller local shops. The ones you can visit on press and know how your job is going from start to finish. When I first started, there wasn’t a week that went by were I wasn’t calling up Lindenmeyer for paper samples, talking varnishes and bleeds with the designers and crossing my fingers as I sent files out to press. Recent economical troubles have caused people to either move away from print or, gasp, they have been forced to seek bargain-basement print pricing. This past month, I’ve seen a glimmer of hope for our print pipeline. Is it a sign of an improved economy or a realization that a beautifully done print piece can return a lasting impact on prospective or current clients?

 If you want to know more about how to understand who is actually on your website, and you are responsible for the forward momentum of your firm at any level, you must become a Google Analytics GEEK. This is not the IT guy’s job. This is not the Webmaster’s job. This is Marketing’s Magic 8 Ball and most of you are not using it on a daily basis

Don’t get me wrong, I love design inspiration websites. In fact, I have a whole bookmark folder chock-full of them (favorites being designbombs, dezinspiration, ilovetypography’s ‘Week in Type’ series). These gems aside, many design inspiration sites seem to be steadily veering away from a presenting a collection of hand-picked favorites and more towards becoming indiscriminate mass-aggregators riddled with generic templates and tired web 2.0 tricks. So, here’s what I’ve been looking at instead...

It’s a necessary evil in the business and marketing world to either cold call prospects or to at least send cold emails to people who’ve never spoke with you before. Over the last couple of years I’ve finally learned a few tricks that have made my cold-contacts more successful.

The completion of the next implementation of ‘Cascading Style Sheets’, CSS3, by the World Wide Web Consortium is something I, and many people in our field are eagerly looking forward to.

PC Mag released their yearly Top 100 Website list of 2009 (I guess the other five months left in the year don't count), though they aren't ranked in any particular order. But first few entries are really indicitive of some growing trends on the web.