The first Firefox 4 beta was released two days ago – a big milestone for both Mozilla and the web in general. So, to commemorate the occasion we’ve started a new series of first run page illustrations in the same vein as the Firefox 3 robot saga from a couple of years ago.

Because the beta process is really all about people in our worldwide community working together to build a better product (there are a few different ways you can help by providing feedback while you browse), the illustration is meant to represent that collaborative, innovative spirit. I’ll leave the specifics a mystery for now, but it seems as if it’s taking place in some sort of futuristic biosphere. The initial artwork for beta 1 is only the first in a series, so keep downloading those betas as they’re released to watch the story unfold!

The artwork is inspired by the work of 20th century futurists like Klaus Bürgle…as a kid, I was always fascinated by drawings of futuristic cities like this, so it’s fun to see a Mozilla version taking shape. The illustration itself was done by the very talented Steven Olds, with additional guidance and ideation from Tim Hogan and our friends at the Royal Order. Big thanks to those guys.

Lastly, if you’d like to see a big version of the artwork without the text and other design elements on top, I’ve got one in my Flickr account: check it out.

So, when Fligtar (now a seasoned Mozilla product manger) approached me a few weeks ago about a Rock Your Firefox reboot – this time in the form of a blog – I was all too happy to help once again. We called up Lee, gave him the same set of inspirations (as a fun game, see how many elements from these screenshots you can find in the actual site design) and asked for a 2010 twist on the 2007 original. The results are even bubblier and groovier than ever, and if you’re in Austin for SXSW this weekend there are some good opportunities to grab various swag items.

Most importantly, keep an eye on the Rock Your Firefox blog for the latest and greatest highlighted add-ons. And, for old times’ sake, be sure to check out the original video that started it all:

Thanks to Lee Tom, Justin Scott, Julie Choi, Nick Nguyen, Chris Howse and Elise Allen for their help with this project.

A couple of weeks ago, I put up a short post asking which fictional character best embodies the Firefox brand. As expected, you came up with some great responses.

Also as expected, there was a definite common thread running through the answers. Whether it was Robin Hood, Neo or MacGyver (awesome), most of the answers portrayed Firefox as a brave and heroic underdog using pluck, skill and ingenuity to battle a powerful foe. Sound familiar?

Although this question was at least semi-frivolous, it’s important to think about what exactly Firefox represents and means to people as we continue to carve out our place in an increasingly crowded browser world. We have a great story to tell, but telling it well requires a lot of careful thought and understanding…expect more posts on this topic!

Lastly, I promised a t-shirt to my favorite comment, but picking just one turned out to be too tough, so I wimped out and used random.org to choose. So, congrats to Sean Hogan and his suggestion of Don Quixote. Thanks to everyone who submitted their ideas.

Although this might sound insanely frivolous, I’m actually really interested to hear what you come up with. Call it an informal brand perception survey.

So, think about it and post the first thing that comes to mind in the comments section. As added incentive, I’ll send a fabulous Firefox t-shirt (or equivalent merch item) to the person who submits my favorite answer.

Thanks!

To make it happen, we turned to our friends at the Royal Order and the Delicious Design League. After some discussion about what type of sci-fi direction the illustration should take (we settled on “philosophical and psychedelic”…think 2001), they came up with the artwork below.

You’re certainly encouraged to share this with anyone you think might enjoy it, and you can also download a larger version if you’d like to print a copy for yourself. Here’s to browsing without borders!

For the record, Microsoft didn’t send us this one. Nonetheless, big congrats to everyone around the world who made these releases possible…amazing work, as usual!

Big news from the world of Mozilla: we released Firefox 3.6 today!

(I’ll pause for a moment while you go download it.)

As always, we made a bunch of site content updates in an attempt to convey the full awesomeness of the new browser. Here are a few of the highlights (Laura Mesa also has more details over on her blog):

* Personas: uplifting Personas from an add-on to the product was one of the biggest consumer-facing features in 3.6, so we made sure to cover that news in a variety of spots. Most notably, Tara Shahian and Mary Colvig masterminded a great video to show off what Personas are all about, and we added functionality in a few key spots that lets 3.6 users demo some sample Personas with a simple rollover.

* WOFF: another cool 3.6 feature is support for the new WOFF font standard, and we put that to good use by showing off the WOFF version of Meta on the newly redesigned First Run and What’s New pages.

* Security: keeping users safe is always a major priority, so we revamped the Firefox security page to reflect all the latest goodness (including the plugin check – another new 3.6 feature). As an added bonus, the page also includes a new security-themed illustration…of a walrus teaching a squirrel to surf, of course.

* Customization: building on the new Personas content, we also created a new Customization page to spread the word about Collections and other ways to personalize your Firefox.

* Download Pages: the various versions of the Firefox download page received a variety of content tweaks to support the key features and benefits of 3.6, and to roll out the “world’s best browser” messaging.

These projects (and dozens of others) wouldn’t have been possible without a lot of people’s very hard work. Huge thanks to everyone who contributed to the website portion of the release, including (but not limited to): Tara Shahian, Laura Mesa, Steven Garrity & silverorange, Tim Hogan & the Royal Order, everyone at Addis Creson, the Delicious Design League, Ivo Gabrowitsch & FontShop, William Slater, Melissa Shapiro, Johnathan Nightingale, Nick Nguyen, Mary Colvig, Alex Buchanan, Mike Morgan, Irina Sandu, Kohei Yoshino, Pascal Chevrel & the l10n community, Stephen Donner, Raymond Etornam, Jeremy Orem, Chris Blizzard, Ken Kovash, Rainer Cvillink, Mike Beltzner, Chris Beard, Sean Martell and more.

Through a series of boneheaded executive decisions, NBC has managed to position itself as a bumbling, inept company that is in the process of tarnishing a 60-year old television institution and doesn’t know what to do with its own talent. Leno has gone from a bland, everyman sort of comic to being seen as a Machiavellian schemer and backstabber who will stop at nothing to get what he wants. And although, on the face of it, O’Brien is the one getting the worst end of the deal, his brand is soaring…by keeping it real and staying funny he’s more popular than ever.

So, here are a few takeaways to keep in mind as we begin what will surely be another very big year for Firefox:
- speak honestly and directly to your audience (like Conan did with his open letter)
- recognize the power of a grassroots following
- use your communication channels as effectively as possible.
- branding matters…be aware of how you’re perceived.

What other lessons can we learn from the ongoing soap opera of late night TV?

Our Five Years of Firefox design challenge over at the Creative Collective has ended, and I’m very pleased to report that the winner is “Happy B-Day Firefox“, by Rogelio Calamaya, Jr (aka Lucero). There were a lot of great submissions, but his stood out as one of my favorites…very creative and well-done.

Mary Colvig has a post with more information that also showcases some of the other amazing community activity that took place around Firefox’s 5th birthday, so be sure check that out.

Congrats to Rogelio for his awesome work, and BIG thanks to everyone who took the time to create and submit a design. Stay tuned for info on the next one coming soon!

When we launched the Mozilla Creative Collective last August, our goal was to give artistically-inclined members of the Mozilla community a place to share their work. Since then, our artists have uploaded nearly 800 pieces, including some very unique and unexpected stuff…as always, seeing the community in action is a very awesome and inspiring thing.

One of my favorite Creative Collective artists is Hamu, who lives in Beijing and has posted 29 Firefox-inspired illustrations so far. His work is an interesting blend of and modern cartoons and traditional Chinese styles, so I decided to get in touch and find out more about his inspirations and process. He gave some great answers, so be sure to read the interview below and then check out his full gallery at the MCC.

Thanks Hamu!

When you start working on a new piece, what’s your artistic process like? Specifically, what about Firefox inspires you?

Well, as same as other artists, before painting I need some inspiration. Inspiration in my perspective means some human feeling from one’s daily life. When the inspiration is clear and definite in my mind, I will do some imagination to decide the overall composition and construction, then I will start painting.

Firefox comes from a worldwide community. I started my Internet browsing in 1997 and witnessed “The 1st Internet Browser War” between Internet Explore and Netscape. After that, this virtual world lost the balance – IE grew bigger and bigger, but it became worse and worse.

The rise of Firefox was like new blood giving this virtual world a rebirth. It has stimulated people’s creativity. The success of Firefox is a story happening in front of eyes. In the story, Firefox experienced failure, reflection, rebirth and eventually won. It encouraged me to keep creating something new.

One of my favorite pieces you’ve done is “Traditional Chinese Style” (annotated version shown above). What was the process like as you were creating that one? What do the various symbols and characters mean?

At the very beginning of my Mozilla Creative Collective life, I tried to do something different than others. I didn’t focus on the group of keywords like “5″, “birthday” and “anniversary” – instead, I tried to express the feeling from my daily life with Firefox during this five years. With “Traditional Chinese Style” I wanted to express that with Firefox we could freely do anything on the Internet, that there were no longer any restrictions on browsing.

I have heard that, 201 years ago, an American man named Abraham Lincoln was born in Kentucky – afterwards he proposed “The Emancipation Proclamation”, which gave hope to those black slaves and eventually he won the American Civil War. I have also heard that, 92 years ago, a Japanese man named Matsushita Konosuke used only 100 Japanese yuan and built the world famous corporation Panasonic. 16 years ago, a black African whose name is Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela ended the apartheid in South Africa and won in a fully representative democratic election. With a dream, a mortal will become a hero.

When I saw the notice of Firefox’s 5th anniversary, a Chinese proverb flashed in my mind: “海阔凭鱼跃，天空任鸟飞”. The direct translation is “the sea is wide enough that fish could swim to everywhere, the sky is wide enough that bird could fly to everywhere.” It comes from a Buddhist named 元览 (Yuan Lan) who lived in the 唐 (Tang) dynasty in China. He wrote “大海从鱼跃，长空任鸟飞” on a piece of bamboo to express his feeling. I translate this poetry as “With a dream, you could sail to everywhere you want; with a dream, you could fly to everywhere you like.” It’s a metaphor that one can be fully free to act, or freely demonstrate one’s abilities without constraints.

(editor’s note: here’s a larger version of the annotated image shown above)

Another one of my favorites is “Creative Pioneer: Protector“, which is very different from “Traditional Chinese Style”. What was your process and inspiration for that one?

All of my paintings are about my feelings. When I reviewed the past 10 years, I remembered some terrible experience at that chaos time – pop-up advertisements, unauthorized redirection, cookie tracking, malware…I think the role as a protector is the best way to represent Firefox, which has made your Internet browsing more safe, simple and secure.

If you have religious beliefs, in front of a huge statue you will find a piece of calm. So I decided to draw the Firefox as the sphinx – a huge protector who protects the tomb of the pharaoh. The feedback from visitors shows that people like the pictures with a intuitive meaning better than others, so I added some words for the major characters to help people understand it.

Lastly, what led you to become involved with Mozilla? And how did you find out about the Creative Collective?

The biggest attraction for me is the various communities of Mozilla. Here, I found many people who have the same hobbies with me. We communicate with our designs and share these to the others. It opened my eyes and let me learn a lot things which I didn’t know before. The Creative Collective is one of the web sites which I visit frequently. I heard about it when I looked for some news about Mozilla on mozilla.org and found a link about the 5th anniversary design challenge. As I said before, when I saw these words at a glance inspiration flashed in my mind. I signed up for an account immediately and started my Creative Collective life then.