Dealing with phone companies, insurance companies, banks, etc has caused most of us to become so accustomed to terrible customer service that when someone actually does it well it feels like a tremendous breath of fresh air…something worth shouting about, even. So, that’s exactly what I’m doing.

I just had one of the best customer service experiences of my life with Dreamhost, the service that hosts this very blog. I’d been having some weird technical issues, and not only were they friendly, human and fast in their responses, they went way above and beyond the call of duty to get everything straightened out for me. So, if you’re ever in need of a hosting service for your site, definitely check these guys out. They’re great.

Like they say, customer service is the new marketing. I don’t think that’s necessarily a ‘new’ development, but otherwise this blog post is definitely proving that point.

Rhian stopped by the other day to show off Austin, the first baby ever born to a (female) Mozilla employee. Kind of a cool milestone for the company…

Brands are fundamentally very abstract things…they exist in people’s heads more than they do in any well-designed logo or fancy style guide. On his new Brand Tags site, Noah Brier starts with this notion and adds the Web 2.0-ish twist of letting people tag various brands with whatever attributes they see fit. It’s really a pretty fascinating experiment.

Of course, maybe I just like the site because Firefox comes across well…the Firefox Brand Tag page is dominated by generally positive associations, like “Internet”, “browser” and, my personal favorite, “awesome.” On the flip side, Internet Explorer doesn’t fare as well.

My only quibble with the site is that I’d love to somehow know more about the demographics of the people doing the tagging - obviously this is a fairly narrow sample so it’d be interesting to know who they are, exactly. Overall though, it’s an awesome site - and don’t miss Celeb Tags if you’re feeling a little more lighthearted.

(Thanks to Asa for the heads up on the link.)

Anyone who spends more than about 10 minutes around me these days knows that I’m totally obsessed with the Wire. If it’s not the greatest TV show ever, it’s certainly on a very short list. So, pardon the diversion from Mozilla-related topics for a minute…

My wife and I recently finished watching the Wire’s final season, and during the letdown period that inevitably follows the end of anything really good, it struck me that what the world really needs is a way of determining who is the toughest and most bad-ass of all the characters on that show. After all, there was a lot of ‘muscle’ on the Wire, but if they battled it out, who would win?

Purely for my own amusement, I’ve concocted a March Madness-style bracket of the Elite Eight of the Wire’s tough guys. After a highly unscientific seeding process, here’s how the first round matchups break down:

1. Omar Little
8. Michael Lee

2. Chris Partlow
7. Snoop Pearson

3. Wee-Bey Brice
6. Slim Charles

4. Brother Mouzone
5. Sergei Malatov

Any thoughts on how things play out from here? Let me know in the comments section…

I showed my wife the Awesome Bar last night, and our conversation confirmed that we’re definitely onto something with that name. It went something like this:

Me: Another cool thing about Firefox 3 is that, instead of having to remember the URL of a site, you can just start typing any part of the address to find what you’re looking for. It makes it much easier to get back to sites you’ve visited.
Her: Wow, that’s really awesome!
Me: Actually, it’s funny you should say that…

A group of us have been working on the Mozilla.com redesign for a few months now, and I’m happy to report that it’s definitely on track to launch at the same time as the upcoming Firefox 3 release. But, it’s also at that point where we really need some fresh eyes to look it over and make sure everything is working properly…which is where you come in.

Next Monday we’re going to begin what I’m calling a “semi-public” beta test of the new site. It’s ‘public’ in the sense that everyone is invited (and encouraged) to participate, but it’s ’semi’ in the sense that you’ll have to email me to get the username and password to the staging site. Here’s how it will work:
1. Email siteredesign@mozilla.com if you want to be part of the beta test.
2. On Monday, I’ll send out details about how to access the staging site, plus some info about known issues, filing bugs, etc.

It’s as simple as that…thanks in advance for your help!

Last fall, I did a short blog post about how we created a “Powered by Mozilla” logo for use by organizations whose products are based on Mozilla technology, and was pleasantly surprised at the level of interest that it received. The only problem was that my original post left pretty much all of the key details, like what it actually means to be “powered by”, unresolved.

We haven’t forgotten about this, though, and lately Harvey Anderson, Paul Kim, Tiffney Mortensen and I have been working on an initial framework of how the “powered by” program might work. Tiffney has a much more thorough explanation of our thoughts so far over at her blog, but the general idea is to set some basic criteria for whether or not a product is truly powered by Mozilla, and then let the community enforce (for lack of a better word) these standards. We very much want this to be a community project, and broad participation is essential to making it work.

Our thoughts so far are definitely just a first step, and we’re counting on community participation to refine and improve them. For lots more info on all this, plus some suggestions on how you can get involved, be sure to check out Tiffney’s post on the subject.

It seems that the Hubble telescope has discovered the Firefox logo floating around in deep, deep space (around the star V838 Monocerotis if you’re keeping track). Polvi, if you’re behind this somehow my hat definitely goes off to you.

Our recently completed Firefox 3 T-shirt Design Contest was one of the most fun projects I’ve worked on since joining Mozilla…it was tremendously gratifying to turn our brand marks over to the community and see so much creativity and enthusiasm in return. Out of the many truly excellent submissions we received, though, the work of Tracie Andrews (aka “egirluk”) really stood out, so it was no surprise when one of her designs was voted the overwhelming contest winner.

I recently emailed Tracie a few questions to find out more about her background, inspirations and approach to the contest. Here’s what she had to say:

1. How did you originally get interested in design?
I’ve always loved art and computers, and always wanted to combine the two. I did a Fine Art degree in 1998 but didn’t get my first computer until 2000. It was then that I discovered a magazine dedicated to digital arts, and that was it. I still dabble with paint and canvas from time to time, but I much prefer what I do now. I couldn’t imagine doing anything else.

2. How long have you ben designing professionally? What kinds of work do you specialize in?
It’s only been recently in the last few months that I have started designing professionally, and I specialise mainly in illustration and graphic design.

3. How would you describe your style? What are your influences?
To be honest, I don’t have a style - I prefer not to be constrained by that limitation. I’m continually learning and evolving as a designer and I think that is reflected in my work. To me the subject matter/brief dictates the style, not the other way around. As for influences, I’m influenced by everything! TV, cartoons, books, news, fabrics, ads, packaging – everything, I’m always looking at things and seeing the creative aspect!

4. What’s your creative process like? When you found out about the t-shirt contest, how did you approach the work?
When faced with a brief, I like to research everything about the project. Once I have all the information, then I can proceed with sketches and then start work on the computer. I always leave colour choices until last. When I found out about the contest, I searched for everything I could about Firefox and Mozilla, its history, and manifesto. Once I had that information, the designs sort of came together themselves!

5. You were one of the most prolific designers in the entire contest. Of all the designs you submitted, which was your personal favorite and why?
Thank you! My personal favourite was laptop-design. With each design I tried to push them as far as they could go, without losing the ‘message’ (I wasn’t always successful!). This particular design is my favourite because it incorporates all the things I love about Firefox, particularly how Firefox can be customized to each user, so my browser is as unique as I am!

6. Lastly, what’s your favorite thing about Firefox?
Lots of things! I love the customisation aspect, the add-ons and extensions, so I can tailor my browser to my needs. I love the tabs, which makes everything so easier, no more having lots of windows open. And, the fact that the software is relatively small, never crashes and is unobtrusive - oh, and if my operating system does crash, the ‘restore session’ is invaluable.

***
Tracie’s winning shirt will be available in the Mozilla Store in the next few weeks. Thanks again to everyone who participated in the contest, and stay tuned for more info on how we’d like to “open source” the rest of the design submissions to make them more widely available.

It’s been quite an adventure since his flying saucer-battling origin, but now that the final Firefox 3 beta has been released everyone’s favorite open source robot has retired to a comfortable and triumphant life of adoration from a grateful populace:

As it turns out, a lot of the action has been taking place around the (fictional, of course) city of Gran Paradiso. Although it’s nice to see it rebuilt after the carnage, it does change the context a bit knowing that there’s a gleaming modern urban area right around the corner from that quaint seaside village:

This entire robot series has been immensely fun, and huge thanks are due to Nobox for their concepts and creativity throughout. Also, props to Mr. Mike Beltzner for figuring out how to tie it all back in to Gran Paradiso in the end.

Coming up next: a variety of robotless designs related to the Firefox 3 launch.