Link’spiration™ – Friday June 21st

Link’spiration™ – A chance to be surprised and inspired by unexpected connections

Behind the scenes at Allen, there’s a constant buzz about the inspiration and entertainment we’re finding in our web travels. We pass links around, we bat ideas back and forth, we search for answers to burning questions, and we argue the finer points of donutology. We’d love to have you join in, so we’re going to start posting a recap of the week’s conversation every Friday. Here goes.

A list within a list
Who doesn’t love looking at a list of “best of” only to be directed to yet another list? We thought you’d appreciate it. A great list of best designed apps. We’ve been trying them out. Letterpress is definitely catching on. Try it and you’ll get lost in beautiful, clean design while stretching the bounds of your vocabulary.

What we’re following
A little self-promotion never hurt anyone. For all you Pinterest lovers: Follow us, you’ll be glad you did.

Watercooler conversations worth noting
We like to think all of our conversations are worth noting, but some of us also like to think that we’re super heroes. We’ve been talking about content curation vs. content creation, and what our clients need. We’ve been learning from David Kelly’s example and resources provided in conjunction with his recent ASTD ICE session.

What we’re reading
To publish an “L&D Manifesto” is a bold move that definitely merits a glance. But Cathy Moore’s blog did more than get our attention, it kept it. If you didn’t read it, be sure to check out the 7 principles of her manifesto. We particularly liked #3: We rejoice in the power of needs assessment. We can almost hear the Allen angel chorus singing Hallelujahs.

What had our eyes glued to the screen
Yes, we know that the big Apple reveal happened last week, but we are still talking about some of the implications. Besides taking in the changes, our designers honed in on how Jonathan Ive talks about design. In a field where we are pitching our designs, it doesn’t hurt to see it done well.

We’ve been going back and forth on the skeuomorphic to flat evolution. This article kept the conversation going: Bare bones of the debate.

What inspires you? Join our conversation below.