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this could be something of a game-changer: flash cs5 will have an option to export your apps natively to the iphone. keyword there is ‘native’: as the proponents of c64 emulation know well, apple doesn’t permit 3rd party runtimes on the phone. more detail on the compiler changes is available here:

http://www.adobe.com/devnet/logged_in/abansod_iphone.html

at the same time they’ve opened up flash partnerships with, well, pretty much every single other mobile handset creator to bring flash to their web capabilities. so to sum up – everyone gets flash on the web except apple, who instead get their app environment opened up to a legion of as3 coders who, for one reason or another, can’t or won’t learn cocoa. personally i think apple have the best of it – i’ve yet to see a compelling use case for flash on mobile devices, especially when you have apps which can do pretty much anything a desktop app can anyway, but time will tell.

the above, giant, 3′ x 4′ poster was available exclusively at the protomen’s act II release show last weekend in nashville, TN. we created it with the band as a thank you to fans for making the long trek, as they all did, to see the band perform both their albums back to back in thunderous, conceptual glory. version industries representatives, myself included, attended and helped make sure the performance was recorded both in HD video and with digital still photography. below is a taste of the material we gathered –

you can view the rest of the photographs we took here. you can also expect video footage of the show from us in the coming months. in the meantime check out this incredibly flattering review of the new album by nashville resident?yewknee. a perfect come down to an incredible weekend with our friends in the south.

wanted: business development manager
location: new york / london

version industries has offices in london and new york and clients across the world.? we have? long-standing relationships with both major companies and many exceptional individuals.? we are looking for someone to take this to the next level.

we need a candidate who understands the strengths of our portfolio and can develop our business in harmony with our strong design ethic.? this means providing a long-term business strategy as well as pursuing more immediate leads.

compensation: nominal base salary, with opportunity for high commission-based earnings.

email us at jobs@versionindustries.com for more information.

here’s our poster for the protomen’s act II release show. with two stages, a choir and an orchestra playing both album’s back to back, it’s safe to say you’re missing out if you ain’t going. see you all there. we’ll probably be the ones workin’ whilst you dudes are playin’, though don’t doubt our desire to meet you all and share a few stories. it’ll be our first time in nashville and we’re determined to make it count.

man, when it rains it pours. beyond apollo is site of month in the september issue of .net magazine. click here to read the full PDF including a short interview with us about the making of the site.

we are truly honoured. thanks again to film director?michael grodner for giving us this chance.

it gives us great pleasure to present the cover for the protomen’s long-awaited second album, act 2 – the father of death. once again a huge thank you to artist john delucca for his stellar draftsmanship. it’s not often you can completely realize a vision, particularly one as vivid and painstakingly detailed as that of the protomen.

we handled all design + layout duties on this project and created the 24 page booklet that comes with the cd. if you are a fan of the film-makers john carpenter, walter hill, sergio leone, ridley scott and james cameron, then this record is for you. for all involved it was an exercise in bringing together every element of the toughest cinematic experiences out there and melding it into an audio-visual experience of the most unique and powerful caliber.

the record is out on september 8th, but you can preorder it now either at zambooie or on amazon. for more information about this and the forthcoming release show, check out the band’s news page.

overall it’s extremely satisfying working with a band like the protomen. particularly when after years of collaboration they still manage to enlighten and inspire with the consistent quality of their musical output.

here, complete with flash design by us, is the first fully mixed and mastered track from the protomen’s forthcoming new album, act II –

light up the night

if you like what you hear, pass it around. music like this needs to be heard.

we’ve just been given the most humbling write-up over on the german design blog designjournal. we’re not sure what we did to deserve this honour but it’s a very flattering read. we want to extend our greatest thanks to the authors of that site and will of course be bookmarking it for future reading. after all we’d be foolish to question their taste at this juncture!

here’s a brief snippet of what they had to say about us:

Version industries is a remarkable small design studio in New York City. Version Industries provides design for print, motion and web. Especially in the latter discipline, the studio shows its strengths. The – now come in the years – Website Version of industries is unique, it creates a very strange atmosphere, and has simply charm.

you can read the full translation by google here, or the original german here.

the other big news is that we’ve just risen from number 18 to number 7 in the design charts. this is our first 2 week stint in the charts & we’re pretty stoked about it.

we’ve also just been informed that both beyond apollo and house of jackie brown have been posted for user comments and ratings at the rather elegant design bookmarking site, irie.be. again, truly thankful to these bastions of aesthetic connoisseurship for pushing our work out to a wider audience.

so we had the great honour of being in the july issue of .net magazine, a UK based print magazine focussing on web design. our website for house of jackie brown piqued the interest of their editors and landed us a place in their showcase/gallery. you can view a PDF of the write-up we got here.

also, it looks like beyondapollo.com is our new champ. she just went in at number 18 in the design charts along with appearances on xhilarate, S5-style, spyline, QNT, RGB garden and practika. thanks again a million times over to director michael grodner for giving us the chance to be involved in such an awesome project.

hello again.

i’ve also listed a few of my favourite tracks from this month to check out.

so far this month:

richard skelton – grange
richard skelton – marking time – type records

richard skelton’s seminal ‘marking time’ finally gets a re-release on type records. this is an album of great, haunting beauty & has been a really effecting listen over the last year or so. richard’s music mainly consists of the interplay between bowed piano, strings, piano & location recording ambiance. richard runs his own label, sustain release, that put’s out bespoke cd packages to order for all his personal & side project releases. it’s worth checking out the packaging at his website, here. the thought that goes into the design is so spot on with the music he creates.

clint mansell – welcome to lunar industries (three year stretch….)
clint mansell – moon sountrack – black records

clint mansell’s soundtrack to film, moon has just come out here in the uk. the film however has not. bloody typical. same thing happened with darren aronofsky’s, the fountain. the only upshot of this was that i could fully immerse myself in the music before seeing the film & i felt this really helped with the emotional impact that the fountain managed to deliver. it’s also good that the others at the new york arm of version industries that have seen moon, are good at keeping spoilers to themselves!

floating points – j&w beat
floating points – j&w beat e.p – planet-mu

brand new signing to planet-mu, floating points has already been tearing things up with his ‘love me like this’ e.p from earlier in the year. this is an awesome two track e.p that weaves heavy melodic synth work into the already label established dubstep sound. tight drum work & a wicked hook on the first track made me pick this one as my last track of the month.

so that’s it for this month! next month they’ll be another bunch of other tracks that i think deserve some respect (i’m looking at you already, falty dl!)