Jordi Romkema

Today the first public beta of the TMF Video Player was launched. The TMF Video Player is an interactive desktop application made with Adobe AIR. With this application you can watch the latest music videos, watch your own playlist, read the latest gossip and showbiz news and watch previously aired episodes of television programs created by the Dutch television channel TMF.

The application will also notify you when there’s a new music video, a new blog post by one of the TMF presenters or a new news article at the TMF website.

The TMF Video Player was designed and developed by me but wouldn't be possible without the help of Bert Hagendoorn, Serge Jespers and Klaasjan Tukker from Adobe Benelux. I would like to thank them for their wonderful support they have given in the development process. They have supplied me with lots of information on how to get the best performance out of this little application and how to use the Adobe AIR framework.

The TMF Video Player was made entirely in Actionscript 3.0 with Adobe Flex. The application retrieves Flash video streams served through a Flash Media Server.

You can download the TMF Video Player here.

On September 1st Comedy Central will launch a new digital television channel in The Netherlands called Comedy Central Family. The channel will air a broad selection of local successful productions and international hit series for the whole family 24 hours a day.

Comedy Central Family differs in a lot of ways compared to its bigger brother Comedy Central: It has a different target audience, more family oriented and the design is also more colorful and more playful.

Moodtape Comedy Central Family

To support the launch for this new television channel a small website was created to supply viewers with information regarding the television shows and a TV guide. The site has the same structure as the Comedy Central website launched a few weeks ago yet looks completely different as you can see below.

Comedy Central Family - Homepage

Today, the website for Comedy Central in The Netherlands has been completely renewed as part of an extensive online and on air rebranding campaign. The change in the look-and-feel of the television channel (which will happen today at 8pm) will give the Comedy Central a more personal and fresher appearance.

A change on air also means a change online which was the main reason why the site was updated and refreshed. The new website differs in many ways with its processor launched in 2007: There’s now much more information and more visual elements from each television show. The television guide contains much more information and now you are also able to print your own television guide so you can sit back and relax on your own couch without having to turn the computer on to check what’s on Comedy Central.

The channel is home to proven success shows such as Californication, It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, Family Guy, The Simpsons, Frasier, Reno 911!, Scrubs and much more.

Below you can see a screenshot of the new website but obviously it would be best to visit it yourself! In other news, Comedy Central will launch a new television channel next month called Comedy Central Family which will also get its own website. But more information on that as soon as it happens...

Comedy Central - Homepage

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As you might have noticed already I am a fan of bright colors used in web design. Today I stumbled upon Rox, a website for a music & art festival in the UK. Although the primary colors are shades of grey and black (again, a big fan) the design comes to life thanks to the use of bright green, blue and green.

The hand drawn art is what makes the Rox site standout though. I love the elements design by hand, a trend I see more and more each day. I don’t mind the trend as long as it’s used moderately and not for primary controls or navigation.

If anyone else knows some good examples of websites using hand drawn elements, drop them in the comments below.

McJunior Club is an interactive playground for kids containing lots of games, fun facts, movies and promotional contests. The site has been created for McDonald’s together with Nickelodeon. The primary goal of the website is to offer the kids a form of entertainment, to stimulate the kids to play games and do sports.

A new logo was specifically designed by me to be used on the website and on promotional items such as posters and in-restaurant placemats. The site was also designed by me and features several different sections each with a specific layout: Movies, games, Happy Meal, birthdays and Ronald McDonald. Every month the site’s look and feel is updated to match the current Happy Meal theme (as you can see in the screenshot the current theme is promoting healthy food options such as water, carrots and apples. Other times the theme is around an upcoming movie, a big event such as the Olympics, a television character and so on… The site is very popular, especially the flash games.

McJunior Club - Homepage

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TMF Reaction is a very popular television program made for teenagers/young adults and can be seen on a daily basis on the television TMF. With TMF Reaction the audience is in control and they influence the content of the show.

The show is presented by a changing group of VJ’s: Nikkie, Sascha, Saar, Damien & Valerio. Every day after school they discuss the funniest and hottest facts of the day regarding celebrities, fashion, sports, school, music, games and more. In between different topics and items on location the newest and best music videos are shown.

TMF Reaction has its own website where the viewers can join in on the show with their webcam. Through the webcam they can interact with the VJ’s, ask questions to famous guests in the show and play games and win prizes with each other. TMF Reaction can be seen every day between 16:30 and 17:30 on TMF but the show continues on the web through active blogging by the VJ’s. Throughout the day they post their news, videos, photos, etc.

The design of the site was made by me and every VJ has its own variation of the homepage design. The design and colors correspond with the topics the VJ’s are interested in. Below you can see the different variations.

TMF Reaction - Homepage

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Expo Cooperative is a collective of designers that create and solve problems together. They share their results, research and output with the design community. I came across their site today and there are several elements on their website that really impressed me. The first thing that immediately struck me was the use of vibrant colors, I simpy love the color combinations used througout the website. The main content is a combination of grey, white and black but the background is really colorful to make the main content stand out more. Second thing is the use of large typography. Besides being easy to read it's also a great design element.

Another fun fact is that the site looks like it's being held by one of their designers as you can see from the hand on top of the main page and the hand on the bottom of the main page. When you go to their about section the site is flipped, including the menu and hte logo, and you see the designer holding the site among other really creative artwork. Cool!

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I haven't had the time to update my site the past couple of days unfortunately. I had a week off from work but I had another 'project' that's keeping me busy. I mean extremely busy... but right now it's about 30% completed. It will probably take me another couple of weeks or maybe months to finish it. I'm talking about Grand Theft Auto IV of course. If you want to play, add me on Xbox Live. My nickname is SizzlingJordi.

Spring has officially begun a week ago and the Tennessee Department of Tourist Development launched a new website to promote Tennessee in the springtime. They usually do this every season but never got the chance to write about it. Their main website Tennessee Vacation is absolutely stunning and now they released the spring version promoting events and happenings in the upcoming months. The whole look and feel is literally a breath of fresh air which suits the time of the year perfectly! The attention to detail is simply amazing. Makes me want to go to Tennessee!

The latest, the spring version

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I just came across this new website created by Pikaboo, a creative studio from Brussels in Belgium. Their site is really simple but extremely well executed with smooth animations. At first I thought it was a Flash-based website because of the smooth transitions but I was wrong: It's all javascript! I'm impressed...