Archive for June, 2010

World’s tech scene growing stars… or the Ruby LipDub!

Wednesday, June 30th, 2010

Well, for the last few days we’ve been teasing you all with photos and tweets about that THING we did the other day. No more secrets, here is an official press release (any Press out there to care about it, guys?).

Applicake, a team of growing rock stars (not only in tech!) finally released their first music video.

So what it is? It’s a fantastic, well-performed LipDub (feel free to use the exact quote, dear Press). Applicake and PipeJump team supported by @josevalim and Socha (guest performance) wanted to give something back to the awesome Ruby community. They chose the song “Ruby” by Kaiser Chiefs to tell a both touching and romantic story of a Ruby lover. The Rubyist is trying various things and activities but they can’t stop thinking of Ruby. Ruby is, for better and for worse, their destiny.

And now seriously – we had great time shooting it and we do hope you love it! Watch out for the “LipDub – The Making of” video (we’re working on it, it’s hilarious) and for some really great updates and events organized by Applicake. Subscribe to our newsletter at the end of the video  – and we’ll make sure to keep you posted.


You can see the lyrics here. Credits: LipDub idea by Dorota, script by Ela, Dorota, Agata and Socha, video by Wiciu.

Ruby community is blave ;-)

Wednesday, June 30th, 2010

Or at least that’s what Matz said at EuRuKo last month… Yes, he did mean “brave” but changing “r” to “l” in words, excuse me,  wolds already became an inside joke for many EuRuKo attendees. Here’s the link to Matz keynote in case you missed it.

EuRuKo Ruby surprise – teaser

Wednesday, June 23rd, 2010

After we posted this photo album on our Facebook profile people literally stormed us with questions like ‘what it’s gonna be?’. As 15 of us are leaving for Applicake sailing trip right now (feel free to hate us), we’ll just post a small teaser. The date of the premiere of the whole THING is set on Monday. I’ll say what I always say – stay tuned!

Welcome on board!

Wednesday, June 23rd, 2010

A good couple of weeks ago two of talented and overall great guys joined Applicake Team. It’s the highest time to introduce them officially ;-)

Dear Everyone, please, meet Karolina – Web Apps Tester and Michał – Senior Ruby on Rails Coder.

As they both went through a very tough recruitment process, I KINDLY asked them to answer a few more questions.  What for? So that you could get to know them better!

1. Which cake ingredient are you?

Karolina: Which cake? Seriously, this is an important question! Probably yeast. I make everything grow..

Michał: I’m a raisin. You can have a cake without one, but it’s not the same cake anymore ;)

2. Finish the sentence: „ I can’t imagine my life without…”

K: Just to be crystal clear – yes, this is gonna be the most tendentious answer ever! Here we go: music, sleep, my at-many-times-annoying boyfriend, my cellphone, eating muffins, dancing and designing.

M: Imagination. If not for imagination, would not even know what/who I am.

3. What makes you happy?

K: I hate those questions ;-) Ordinary things. I’m happy when buying new clothes (yes, pathethic and so girly!), meeting with friends, spending my time with my spouse (minus times when he’s annoying or he beats me in FIFA WorldCup), eating delicious stuff and knowing that people are happy with my designs…

M: Achievements, spending quality time with friends and popping bubble wraps!


4. Which color are you?

K: Few years ago I’d definitely say “black”… but now I have no idea. I don’t even know which one is my favorite. I can be RGB tho!

M: Today I feel like #4BD14E.

5. What is the last book you read?

K: It was “Designing with Type: The Essential Guide to Typography” by James Craig. A good one.

M: Last book this week would be “Rework”. I liked it a lot. It’s nice to have all things 37signals talk about in one place.

6. If someone wrote a biography about you – what would be the title?

K: “The most boring story ever. Don’t read it unless you’re forced to”. Both inviting and provocative ;-)

M: “Super awesome rainbow unicorns with shotguns”. Therefore I’m glad no one
has written one yet.

7. If you could have superpowers, what would it be?

K: Flying, traveling in time or ultimate I-can’t-die ability!

M: Flying would be nice, preferably with cold resistance, and lowered oxygen need so that I could gain decent altitude.

8. What is your favorite food?

K: Oh, I love eating! *the-chewing-pie-sound* I’m crazy about sweets so I have to admit that “sweets” in general are my fav thing. To be specific, I could die for carrot cupcakes! And muffins – I actually bake them often. If it comes to more healthy food, I adore salmon, tuna pasta, cottage cheese with radish & more. Don’t ever tell me to go on a diet!

M: Sushi. I’m addicted to rice with rice vinegar and raw fish.

9. What is your favorite movie?

K: NO, NO, NO! I won’t tell you! I don’t have a slightest idea which of all movies I’ve seen in my life is my favorite. YOU WILL NEVER FIND OUT!

M: Luc Besson’s “Léon” – the only one to make me shed manly tears ;)

10. If Hollywood made a movie about your life, who should play the main character?

K: Of course Scarlett Johansson. Who else could it be?

M: Sylvester Stallone. There would also be a lot of shooting, fast cars and “stuff”.

11. If you were a “House” (TV Series) character, which one would you be?

K: Definately “thirteen”. She’s extremely hot. If it comes to man I’m a combination of Chase and House. Actually I kind of adore House. He’s a master of irony and sarcasm, which I tend to use really often.

M: I’d be House probably. Although I’m only half as cynic as he is. I’m glad you haven’t asked about “Dexter” by the way.

12. How would you describe yourself in three words?

K: Crazy, open, visionary.

M: I would not :)

13. If you won the lottery, would you still work?

K: At first probably no… but after few months of boredom I would definitely get back to work. I’d dedicate myself to things I’m passionate about.

M: Sure. Probably less than today, but I don’t see a reason to stop doing what I love just because I can afford to.

Behind the scenes of EuRuKo 2010 logo – time to share all designs!

Wednesday, June 16th, 2010

As many of you know already, together with Paul, Tomasz and Agata I organized this year’s European Ruby Conference. Here’s the post I recently published on EuRuKo website.

Many people told me they thought EuRuKo 2010 logo was beautiful. In fact, they were asking if we had any free T-shirts to give away as they liked how the white ethnic pattern looked on a red T-shirt. That’s exactly why I thought I should share the design process we went through.

So what’s the story?

When we first announced the competition for EuRuKo 2010 logo, we only got few designs. We chose what we thought was the best one… but we still didn’t love it. Luckily, the designer – Aneta from Krakow-based web design agency Manto – agreed to work with me until everyone was happy with the final look & feel (huge THANKS Aneta!).

Designing a logo should be a quick one, right?

Wrong. Especially considering the fact that organizing EuRuKo was not really our full-time job and rather an after-work activity.

To be honest, the bar was set high:

EuRuKo 2009 logo was really beautiful and we liked the idea of mixing local inspirations with ‘good old’ ruby. Hopefully Berlin 2011 (congratulations guys!) team can continue this short-lived tradition!

Design decisions are always tough – they depend much on personal preferences and perspectives. We needed probably something like 3 months (!!) to produce EuRuKo vivid-yet-simple logo. That’s a long time when you think that the designer actually never got paid – the initial competition just like all EuRuKo-related tasks was considered ‘community effort’.

Someone should be in charge (get ready for long hours!)

Having on a team people with different tastes is great.. but it makes things complicated, too. And – excuse my personal observation – men & tech people are rather conservative about design ;-) . A good tip for next year’s team – choose one person among you who ‘feels’ design and let them work with the designer. In our case that was me. An important thing to realize – in the beginning it seems that you only need logo but you will really need tons of stuff: website design, sponsorship pdf design, brochures, tickets, posters and all print stuff you can think of (including badges and drink coupons!). Make sure you work with a patient designer!

Final decisions…

In the end you ‘just’ have to reach that point when everyone accepts the final logo in one or another variation. In a bigger team (3+ people) a consensus of ‘liking it‘ or ‘loving it at first sight’ is very unlikely.  People usually need time to get used to what they’ve just chosen and accept that they can’t mix ‘all the best things from every option’. That’s the paradox of choice, too. Before reaching that point of approval there will be moments when everyone just stares at all different logos… not feeling good about any of them. Or – hating every single one – because if you care about something (and boy did we care about EuRuKo!), things get emotional.  Such dead-end is a good moment to ask for outsider’s advice. We asked just a few people and it really helped us speed up the process. We personally decided not to do ‘community voting’ because we didn’t think it was a good idea. Hope this helps ;-)

Here’s how the logo evolved in a chronological order:

Finally:

In the end – we’re all happy with the end result ;-) Which one do you like the most? Comment here or @ us on Twitter: @euruko or @elamadej!