For the frequency with which Georgia is mentioned around here, one might think we here at Actual Size World Headquarters would be fairly educated about President Mikhail Saakashvili's country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia (pop. 4.3 million), more so than just being able to rattle off some of the republic's top exports (scrap metal, wine, fruit). But this couldn't be further from truth!

Our experience with Georgia is primarily limited to using the eponymous typeface, and the main reason for that is not our love for serifs with enormous x-heights, but rather the fact that there are so few typefaces that you can safely use on the web, and Georgia is one of the nicer options.

Fortunately for people like us (and in turn, people like you, our clients, friends and countrymen), new options are emerging. Typekit is "a subscription-based service for linking to high-quality Open Type fonts from some of the worlds best type foundries." Which means web designers can use more fonts! Which is all we really like to do. (I have literally like a HUNDRED fonts on my computer. No lie.) Now there are also other options emerging, like Fontspring, which use a new format of font file to give you what you want. Options are good, right?

So, without further ado, Actual Size presents our first projects incorporating new web font technology (in this case, Typekit's service), a couple of small, brilliantly fancy sites for our friends at Shady Grove (www.eatshady.com) and Walnut Grill (www.eatwalnut.com)!

Dan Mall, who we saw speak (and thoroughly enjoyed) at Flashpitt last year, makes great websites. And not just great-websites-that-other-designers-like, but sites that make an impact for his clients. He's moved on from Happy Cog to Big Spaceship, and I feel that this positions him quite uniquely to give perspective on the Flash vs. HTML5 debate – which if you didn't know was raging, don't worry, you're in the vast majority. This debate only matters to those who are using the tools, and Dan puts this and more into perspective perfectly in his article, Flash and Standards: The Cold War of the Web.

The point that is lost on a lot of people, who have justifiable and passionate feelings about this, is that it doesn't matter to the end user. The end user wants things that they can use. If you think annoying advertising is going to end because Flash isn't on the iPad, you're sorely mistaken. Sites that need ads to survive will continue to let the ads get in your way, and HTML5 will enable them to do just that.

Without ever stating it so eloquently, we here at Actual Size share a very similar philosophy with Dan. We have Flash people (okay, person) and developers. We all work together. Our work is proof of that concept – technologies are used where appropriate. I think Dan puts it in best when he says:

"Create something excellent where the technology is transparent, and allow only the curious to look under the hood to actually see what’s going on."

So figure out what your goal is, and use that tool. Because that's what these technologies are – tools. As the old saying goes, if your only tool is a hammer, everything looks like a nail. That means your mobile news site should not be in Flash, even if you love Flash. That means if HTML and JavaScript are limiting the execution of a concept, use Flash. Use anything. Make it happen. Do something that makes the curious web geeks look under the hood. Do something that the average user wants to tell their friends about it. Do something, but don't just sit around calling other technologies names.

For the last three years, we've partnered with our friends at The Century Council to create a holiday eCard, and every year, they make us raise the bar. For 2009, we created a game for them based on the arcade classic Frogger, called Holiday Hop. Instead of a frog, a family of gingerbread cookies is trying to cross the street without crumbling. As a twist, and to make this more relevant to The Century Council's message, we added drunk drivers to up the difficulty. So watch out!

We also used this game at their holiday event on the Hill (see their flickr set here), which was widely lauded as "the greatest Hill event ever." No lie. And if you can't tell in the photos, we made a custom "dance mat" for the game (similar to arcade dancing games), so you got to jump around to control your gingerbread cookie family.

So, as always, be careful on the roads this holiday season - don't drive drunk, and don't assume others are as smart as you are!

Happy holidays from Actual Size!

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We're very excited (okay, I'M very excited, and everyone else is reasonably excited) about Flashpitt09 this Thursday and Friday. This is the second year of what was a very cool one day conference about all things Flash. It has turned into a two day event this year, with a very impressive line up of both new and returning speakers. Dan Mall's Flash and Web Standards: Getting Along on the Playground is the presentation that I'm looking forward to the most.

The co-head honchos behind the curtain are our friends Val Head and Joe Kromer, the duo somewhat-better-known-as On The Fridge. Hope to see all you 'burghers and some new out of town faces there.

We haven't updated a single thing on our blog in 2 months. We'll make say some Our Fathers or run some laps as punishment.

In the meantime, our friends from Shady Grove have conceived a new restaurant, Freeport Pizza Kitchen. As an aside, this was one of the last projects that Kyle got to work on, before his internship ended, and he moved on to greener pastures. The logo he left us with is a frickin' sweet tomato on fire! What more would you like out of your pizza, other than some obvious spice, and to be fresh out of a fiery oven?

It's about to open in the next week or so, and we'll have a full update then. And a thorough review of their pizza, which will undoubtedly meet the expectations set by their new identity.

Nothing to report lately, at least nothing the general public is allowed to know about. See what I did there? I made it sound like we're working on stuff that you're not cool enough to know about! Now, in the back of your head, you think we're cooler than you did a few moments ago.

But seriously, we're talking to a few of our clients, and a few new potential clients, too. We'll introduce you once they are OK with everyone knowing that they're going steady with Actual Size. They've been burned before, and they don't want to get their mom's hopes up for grandkids.

In the meantime, we've been doing some renovating and painting, and also upgrading this very blog web page thingajig that you're looking at. You can now comment on what we're talking about and you can share our wisdom through the social network of your choice (I recommend Twitter, it's what the cool kids are doing, apparently). So poke around, let us know what you think.

In addition to Karl coming aboard recently, we've added two – not just one potential grifter, but TWO - new members to our team. Meet Mike and Kyle.

Mike is here or not. Depends on the day, talking to folks about all the projects we'd love to with them on. As a bonus, he's found the people watching to be tremendous in this part of town. And it is, believe me.

Kyle is as serious about design as he is about his beloved Red Sox. Although, he does have a soft spot for all things Pittsburgh, and would love for the Pirates to finally break that dreadful streak. Mainly out of pity, but they'll take all the support they can get.

It's getting crowded in here! Or maybe it was just sparsely populated before. Either way, welcome aboard guys - don't touch my yogurt in the fridge! (seriously.)

Being the patriotic patriots that we are, Actual Size just finished a project with our friends at The Century Council (hey guys!) for the 4th of July, an eCard reminding everyone to be safe this weekend as we celebrate our great nation's birthday. We drew on our vast picnic experience and childhood memories of Independence Day to create a 'moment in time' reminiscent of Anytown, USA (which is known for its cool breezes). After the process of setting our nostalgia to music, I think we're all ready for grilling out and watching the fireworks this weekend.

Check it out and help spread the word. Be safe and have fun this weekend!

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Today, along with a quarter million of our closest friends, we celebrated the second championship of the 2009 for our fair city. The parade for the Stanley Cup Champion Pittsburgh Penguins (the 'guins as I like to call 'em) came by Actual Size World Headquarters around 12:15 today. We watched from the observation deck, as the crowds jostled for position beneath us. We were quite worried about the Cup at one point, but it was apparently a tin foil replica that was dropped on the street. Whew.

We'd like to take this opportunity to congratulate the Penguins on a great season, and hope that some of that rubs off on our beloved, somewhat downtrodden Pirates. Maybe they all need to grow beards?