Mike and I went to the South by Southwest conference in Austin, mainly because it’s a kick-ass conference, but also because Cloud King was up for an award. I thought CK deserved to win (as did others), but I didn’t think it would. CK has a graceful, subtle design, attributes which usually lose out to bold and dynamic.
CK was nominated in the CSS category and the competition included AIGA Austin (the sentimental favorite) and Firewheel Design (the beautiful and popular kid).
I think what did it for us was the content. Cloud King hosts some fantastic art in a wide variety of styles and mediums. Cloud King is almost exactly what I wanted it to be, and I’m very proud that other people think so too.
(Of course, it may have helped that I put up this kick-ass piece by Nate Van Dyke on the homepage as soon as I found out we were nominated.)
In general, SXSW is the best conference of its kind, and it’s always awesome to hook up with the folks whose stuff you read (and are inspired by) regularly, or even every day. Folks like Jeffrey Zeldman, Andy Budd, Jason Santa Maria, Thomas Fulp, Jason Kottke, Sam Brown, and tons more.
And I can’t say enough about Austin. The thing I keep saying to people, if they don’t end up saying it first, is that Austin is like Boulder, CO, or Madison, WI — medium-sized cities with a liberal bent in the midst of conservatism. They all have money, business and youth, and it makes for very interesting cultures.