This post explores the thought process behind the live action game, Radar Blip, created by Big Spaceship strategy intern Jim Babb.  You can play it this weekend as part of the Come Out and Play festival.  Any readers of Think are invited to join us June 4th at 9pm at the Brooklyn Lyceum.

We’re all too familiar with the expression “Thinking outside the box”.  In fact, you’ve probably heard it enough times that it inevitably elicits an audible sigh anytime it is mentioned.  For bringing it up, yet again, I apologize.  However, rather than tread on the old ground of thinking inside or outside anything, I want to describe a better box.  One designed for the purposes of play and excitement.

Developed over years, matured through a long process of adding, removing rewriting, refining, curating, forgetting, re-adding, improving, collecting, enhancing, rewriting … hours of hard work by an amazing team. The Big Spaceship package is a collection of useful classes that help us to do our basic daily tasks faster so that we have more time to concentrate on the fun stuff.

Here it is, the public Big Spaceship AS3 Repository on github:
http://github.com/bigspaceship/as3

"You mustn’t say anything against the Machine," says the main character of E.M. Forster's The Machine Stops. Forster’s world is one that worships technology. Communication is virtual and constant. Like instant messaging. Friends in other countries materialize before you to chat. Like Skype. Information is omnipresent, but reverb outweighs originality. Like Twitter. Oh, and the story was first published in 1909.

Inspired by the documentation of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill, our strategy team curated a list of links that illustrate how governments, NGOs and ordinary people are using media – both new and old – to document current events and encourage political engagement. Our interest lies in creative uses of technology – whether it is web-based or not.

It's time to add some baggage to the word "like".

While the conversation rages about Open Graph and Facebook's new grab to dominate the internet, I'm stuck on the change in semantics. Suddenly we're being prompted to "like" rather than "become a fan" of posts, pages and other content all over the web. This is more awkward than it might seem. No longer am I a "fan" of Coke or Guitar Hero, I'm now a... "liker"? "One who likes"? When I visit the brand's page, is that a "Like Page"? Maybe an "Online Community For Likers"? And don't banner ads seem a tinge bald and desperate when the call to action reads "Like Our Brand!"? It's a syntactic hornet's nest. So what is it about that four-letter-word that promotes it to such an integral position everywhere we look online?

Back in February, my friend Linzi, a designer at Odopod, was talking about how much she loves sending and receiving things by snail mail. She said it was "like a hug from far away - existing in a tangible object that (she) can't click a button to accidentally delete." Laura, another designer from Crispin Porter & Bogusky, thought this was an interesting concept, one that found its way into a perfect personal project: The Craft Swap.

Tactility in design seems to be all the rage these days. More and more designers are daring to play with their physical environment in lieu of sitting glued behind glowing screens. Hand drawn typography, in particular, has permeated into nearly every medium; whether it be advertising, packaging, interactive, or motion picture title design. The following is a series of captivating motion picture title sequences which leverage the use of hand drawn typography to develop a tactile feel.

Adobe Flash is a plugin. A lot of websites don't require it, but there are many that do. The ones that use it have a worthwhile payoff: exceptional user experience. It's not outdated. It has a wide range of capabilities. And it can do more than you think. This article is not in defense of Flash or promoting any particular technology. I'm writing this to clear up the blatant misconceptions that make up the "reasoning" behind some of these arguments against it. If Flash were to "fade away," as some say it will, it has nothing to do with HTML5, Apple, or the iPad.

As the number of typefaces grows exponentially, it’s getting increasingly more difficult to know how to choose type. While there are countless resources for learning about typography and how to use type, one of the most useful ways to polish the skill is the ability to identify and distinguish the nuances among and between typefaces.

Although many typefaces look similar—especially as trends come and go—learning to recognize different characters helps to hone your type chops. One of the most unique characters across all typefaces is the “R.”