( I + P )

Fellow NYC based internet startup BricaBox launched today. BricaBox is a great platform to create a community based space with basic social tools to share and interact. They've received some coverage from a ReadWriteWeb, a favorite blog of ours.

While they were in beta, I had the opportunity to setup my own BricaBox for New York City record stores with a focus on vinyl.  Check it out here.

On behalf of the Convos Team, we wish them the best of luck with their launch and future growth.  

Last week, we developed a basic login widget that will allow anyone to place a Convos login box on their website.

This is great for groups on Convos that already have a website and want to give their visitors a quick way to login to their Convos accounts.  You can even customize the size and color to fit in with aesthetics of your site.

To get the widget, simply click "Get Widget" at the bottom of the login box, customize the size and color of your widget, and embed the code into your website.

This is the first version of the login widget and we will be making updates including a link to retrieve your password, allowing users to signup for Convos right from the widget, and a version designed for dark backgrounds.

Give it a try and let us know what you think. 

As a visual person, I have always been a fan of typography and how much of a role it plays in the look and feel of text (both in print and digital).

Last week, thanks to Netflix's recommendation feature, I watched a great documentary about the font Helvetica. I know. You're probably thinking, "How could anyone make an entire documentary about a font?". When you realize how prevalent this font is in the world, it's a real eye opener to understanding how typography is used to strengthen messages, describe brands, and convey certain emotions.

Here are just a few of the places where you'll see Helvetica:

After watching the movie, I dig a quick search on the font we selected for our Convos logo.  I found a rich history that takes us back to an American typography designer named Sol Hess and the early 1900s.

Sol Hess was born in Philadelphia in 1886 where, at the age of 13, he received a scholarship to study at the Pennsylvania Museum School of Industrial Art.  At the age of 16, he joined the Lanston Monotype Company as a type designer and worked for over 35 years, creating some amazing typefaces.

Among these was a font called Twentieth Century.

Twentieth Century is based on geometric shapes which originated in Germany in the early 1920's and became an integral part of the Bauhaus movement of that time. Form and function became the key words, unnecessary decoration was scorned. This clean cut, sans serif with geometric shapes was most appropriate.

Here's our Convos logo in Twentieth Century:
                                          

Neatorama has a great post about the history of technology company logos and how they've evolved over time.

Check it out here for more companies.

A portable flash drive is a must have for anyone that needs to easily transfer files from computer to computer. But, how do you know how full your flash drive is?

Here's a great concept called the FlashBag. As you fill it with your files, it inflates, giving you a visual cue that you're almost out of space. Check it out here.