Here is a little glimpse of the new website we are working on for Jive. We’ve been going for a few months now and have been through 5 or 6 major revisions with a multitude of variations. Slowly but surely we’re getting there. I can’t wait to launch it. Mad props to Kalani for all his help. We’ve also brought in Josh and David to help us kick even more ass.

The past couple of weeks I have been swamped. We created a new logo for Jive (that launches Monday). That requires new tshirts, new business cards, new powerpoint templates, the works. We are also rapidly building out a new website. New positioning. New screenshots. New everything. To top it all off the skirt and I have been in the process of moving from an apartment to a our first house. I’m really excited for our first full size dining table. Unfortunately I’m also pretty sure that I will permanently smell like tape and bubble wrap from here until eternity.

It’s all been quite exhausting and frustrating, exciting and crazy. Yesterday I got something awesome from my boss that made it all worth it. Thanks Sam!

This weekend we went to the ‘08 Portland Auto Show. Poor Acura seemed to be having some technical difficulties with their flash-based touch screen car builder. We had a great time though I walked away with less car fever than I expected. I further confirmed my love for the Infiniti G37. That vehicle is simply spectacular, though I preferred the more refined Journey edition to the Sports version. The Sport just seemed too chromed out and juvenile for a luxury coupe.

I was pleasantly surprised by how much I liked the Mini Cooper Clubman. I’ve always considered the Minis as something of a novelty vehicle. Actually sitting down in the Clubman and fiddling with its innards changed my mind. It’s a well thought out vehicle with quite a bit to offer for a couple like us. Small, efficient and sporty. Plenty of quirk without losing functionality. Room for a couple of passengers when needed and some nice fold flat rear seats for some extra cargo capacity when making a Costco run. The price is fairly reasonable as well, starting around $20K. The Clubman Sport starting at $24K. What I don’t like is that everything on the car is optional and they can add up pretty quickly. The Clubman I liked started at $20 and ended at $27 once I had it tweaked just right. Alas, the regular mini is still too small for the likes of me.

For trucks I rather liked the Ford Sporttrac. It had a nice blend of power, comfort and convenience while retaining a great amount of ruggedness to it. I loved all the hooks and rails for securing cargo, along with the power outlets, tool compartments and the like. A very well thought out vehicle.

Of course after all this car browsing I’m ready to sell my ‘03 Acura CL. Any takers?

Holy cow! I may be a bit behind in seeing this, but wow is that a great interface. Now to figure out how to get Tivo to start doing that. Apple Tv? DVDs? It’s a pretty interesting video too. I love me some JJ Abrams.

I’m proud to announce that the new identity for XMPP / Jabber is here! My friend Raja has done a stellar job creating the new mark. He really knows how to combine color and style into an effective logo. Of course it doesn’t hurt that I’m a sucker for a green-blue-orange combo. My own personal tastes aside, this new mark does a great job of conveying a much needed official face for the XMPP Standards Foundation. It’s great to see the amount of attention and appreciation that design is getting in the engineering-centric world of open protocols and open-source software.

I cornered Matt Tucker (our CTO and a huge advocate of XMPP) about the logo as soon as I saw it. He explained that the XMPP foundation needed to stand apart from the rest of the crowd. There is a tradition in the open-source/open-protocol realm where most logos are only afterthoughts (no offence IETF). XMPP/Jabber is a bit different from others in that they have a more structured and controlled standards body and wanted an identity to reflect that. Being an open protocol, they wanted the logo to feel open in nature. They also wanted something colorful. Jabber, Peter Saint-Andre’s parrot, provided inspiration in both the colors and the general wing-like shape.

I really think Raja’s done a great job conveying all of these ideas, while creating a mark that meets the many subtle requirements that go into logo design. It has a distinct silhouette. It is in part both an X and a J. It works equally well in black or white. There is a lot of movement, conveying the idea of communication. Can’t wait to show you guys what he’s been doing with us on the new Jive logo.

As a designer I never thought I would nerd-out on such a thing as an open messaging and presence protocol. As far as I knew, gremlins snuck into my computer and Pony Expressed them through some magical realm to suddenly appear on the screens of my friends and co-workers. Matt, Gato, David and the rest of the RTC team here at Jive has changed that. It’s great to see a bit of a design love given to those who make such magic happen.

Can’t wait to see what we can do with the XMPP website.