Behance founder Scott Belsky recently spoke on Penguin's podcast, "The Business Beat." The theme of the episode was bridging the gap between having a vision and solving a problem. Host Courtney Young talks to Belsky about how creative people can become more productive by getting organized, building a supportive community, and gleefully killing ideas. 

Visit Penguin's "The Radio Room" to listen to the Podcast! 

* The interview is the third video down in the tab, titled "Beyond the Book: Making Ideas Happen."

Starting this March, Behance Founder Scott Belsky has a new series of articles on GOOD Magazine Blog called "Making Good Ideas Happen." In the inaugural edition, Belsky advises on "How to Overcome Idea-to-idea Syndrome."

Ideas are worthless if you can't make them happen... Drawing on years of research and hundreds of interviews, Behance Founder and CEO Scott Belsky chronicles the methods of exceptionally productive creative leaders and teams in his new book, Making Ideas Happen, in stores April 15, 2010. Google's Ji Lee calls it, "a Swiss Army knife for ideas." And who doesn't need one of those?

For pre-orders & more information: http://the99percent.com/book

We're excited to announce that, for the third year in a row, Action Method Mobile is a finalist in South By Southwest's Interactive Awards! AMI is up for the award in the Mobile category of the 13th Annual SXSW Web Awards.

This week, Business Week featured an article by Behance's founder, Scott Belsky on the timely topic of Crowdsourcing. He discusses the perils and the promises of tapping the creative community at large for work and "unlocking the potential of the masses." Scott lays out ideas for how to fix Crowdsourcing so that client and creative talent alike may benefit.

Crowdsourcing is Broken: How To Fix It

This week, The Great Work Blog talked to Scott, and their interview just went up in the form of an audio conversation. They discussed why looking to the short-term can be a powerful execution strategy, how to overcome the tragedy that most ideas are born and lost in isolation, and why "acting without conviction" can be a good straggly for keeping things going.  Have a listen for some inspiration this Friday.

This week, we are extremely proud to announce the launch of three new Action Products - The Action Journal, Dot Grid Journal, and Action Cahier. Thanks to our partnership with New Leaf sustainable Paper Company, these products are eco-friendly and made from 100% recycled paper.

The Action Journal and Dot Grid Journal are both in hardcover, and the Action Cahier is a portable  3.5'' x 5.5 ''.  We think they look fantastic, and hope that many ideas come to fruition between these pages!


We're pleased to see some of our favorite bloggers review the new products:

Coolhunting - Behance Action Method Journals

Swiss Miss - Behance Outfitter New Products

Josh Spear - New Action Method Products

Last week, we spoke to Plywood People, a website that aims to address social needs by "searching for social problems with the hope to match them with entrepreneurial creativity to organize, innovate, and manage ideas that produce change." We were happy to speak with them last week and answer questions for a featured interview on their blog. They even gave away a free Action Book to a reader who RTed the interview! See the article here.

Apple has approved and posted version 2.0 of the iPhone application for Action Method Online. The new version is, in fact, an entirely redesigned application, resulting from over seven months of design and development.

As Scott Belsky, CEO of Behance, explained, "Our goal was simple: To make Action Method the absolute BEST collaborative task management application available for the iPhone. We wanted it to seamlessly sync (and back-up) with the online version of the application, enable the user to organize their Action Steps by Project, Due Date, Color, Who Delegated It, Priority, or any other keyword."

Unlike other task management applications for the iPhone, Action Method Mobile both (1) seamlessly syncs over the cellular network as well as a wireless internet connection, and (2) is collaborative, enabling users to delegate (and accept/reject) Action Steps (tasks) from each other.

Read More Information about Action Method Mobile 2.0 on the Team Blog

AIGA, the professional association for design, is the oldest and largest professional membership organization for design. AIGA’s mission is to advance designing as a professional craft, strategic tool and vital cultural force.

"This fall, AIGA’s member portfolios are moving to a new platform hosted by the Behance Network. This transition reflects AIGA’s commitment to providing professional tools for designers to develop their practice, in this case by promoting themselves and their work in an extensive network, with a clear designation as belonging to the professional association for design."

Behance is thrilled to announce its latest launch: The99percent.com, inspired by Thomas Edison's famous quote, “Genius is 1% inspiration, 99% perspiration,” 

What started as a research effort in early 2005 has become a robust think tank that serves the creative world.

The concept is simple: As creatives, we don’t need more ideas. What we need is better follow-through. To this end, the 99% delivers articles, tips, interviews, video, and events - all designed to help you push ideas forward.

In our articles and interviews, we offer a behind-the-scenes look at the processes of creatives we
admire across industries. People like Stefan Sagmeister, Seth Godin, Moby, Ji Lee, Jonathan
Harris, Ze Frank, and many more.

For pragmatic, actionable advice, we publish regular tips based on the Behance team’s
interviews and research. We complement these online tips with a monthly series of live sessions at our New York office, where we present our research in a personal setting.

Finally, as we build up to our flagship event in April of 2010 - the 99% Conference - we’re
rolling out videos from the inaugural 2009 conference, including talks from Pentagram’s
Michael Beirut, Google’s Ji Lee, bestelling author Seth Godin, Threadless.com founders Jeff
Kalmikoff and Jake Nickell, Echoing Green’s Cheryl Dorsey, and many more.

Behance CEO Scott Belsky was the featured guest for episode 35 of CreativeXpert - one of the world's most popular podcasts. In the interview, Scott shares the team's approach to developing the Behance Network and Action Method - all efforts to help organize the creative world. You can enjoy the interview here: CreativeXpert PodCast Episode 35 

Industry magazine Macworld recently reviewed social networks and noted the Behance Network as "the largest and most feature-packed of the social portfolio sites."

Macworld points out some of the differences between the Behance Network and the more traditional job-posting sites, "On job-listing sites like Monster.com and bidding sites like Elance, employers and clients must post an ad, then sift through the resulting flood of applications or bids; Behance works the opposite way. Its search-powered sieve lets clients examine profiles and portfolios for just the right skill-set and style. Then it’s the client who initiates contact privately and only to available, pre-qualified freelancers or job candidates."

You can read the rest of the review of Macworld's website.

Behance was nominated and selected as a finalist for this year's Silicon Alley Insider Awards, for the category of "Most Loved Product or Service." Our team was humbled to be among a strong group of finalists including our friends at Facebook, Tumblr, and Daily Candy.

The Behance Network was a finalist for the category of self-promotional tools in this year's Webby awards - the premier web awards affiliated with the International Academy of Digital Arts & Sciences. The Behance Network was also an honoree in the categories of Best Visual Design and Best Community.

Behance was featured at Mashable's NextUp NYC event at the Tribeca 92Y. Behance CEO Scott Belsky presented an update on Behance alongside the founders of Snooth, Savvy Auntie, and Aviary. The sold-out event was attended by hundreds of NY-based entrepreneurs and other members of the New York technology and venture community. Reviews of the event can be found at New and Improved , 92Y, and NYConvergence among other sources.

According to Advertising Age, Behance can help improve the working lives of freelancers.  Through posting work and getting feedback and recognition, the Behance Network acts as a social lifeline for the self-employed. The article goes on to say that Action Method Online can enable disparate parties to keep track of tasks, timelines, and people involved with a given project, by coordinating work in loose, virtual networks.

Fast Company - the business magazine that reports on innovation, digital media, technology, change management, leadership, design and social responsibility - attended The 99% Conference and blogged about some of the best bits. They introduced the day with "The Sweat Conference" ... Kicks Off" followed by an outline of Behance Best Practices -- The 7 Principles of Success. As the speaker line-up evolved, they captured some best practices as presented by Ji Li, Cheryl Dorsey and Michael Beirut.

The 99% Conference was a conference not about ideas, but about making ideas happen - inspired by Thomas Edison's famous quote, “Genius is 1% inspiration, 99% perspiration.” This two day event hosted by Behance and Cool Hunting was held at the Times Center in New York City.  More than 350 creative thinkers gathered to hear nine 20-minute presentations focused on productivity and the process of executing ideas.

For links to some of the press:

Technotheory
Venture Beat
Design Arts Daily

SwissMiss on 99%

Behance is the "Official Community Partner" of the 13th annual Webby Awards, the leading international award honoring excellence in interactive design, creativity, usability and functionality on the Internet. The event will close out the second annual Internet Week in New York City, and will be hosted by Saturday Night Live's Seth Meyer. This year, the Webby Awards received over 10,000 entries from all 50 states and over 60 countries worldwide.

The Webby's mission is to "recognize and honor the best of the web."  Last year, Behance was selected as an Official Honoree in the Web Design Category for "Social Networking" and "Self Promotion / Portfolio."

You can participate in The Webby Awards by voting for your favorite nominees from Web and Mobile Sites, Interactive Advertising, and Online Film & Video in the People's Vote Category.

Did you know that Action Method Online is the perfect tool for fostering loving, productive communication within your relationship? Jared Goralnick suggests just this on his blog Technotheory, where the focus is on "[helping] people to use technology as a vehicle rather than an obstacle to getting stuff done."

In addition to advocating crowdsourcing as a great gift-finder and Yelp-ing for a spontaneous night out,  Jared notes that AMO is a great way to work through issues using discrete goals.

Check out this unique digital relationship advice here.

The Served Sites have been nominated as a finalist in the "Art" category of the SWSX Interactive awards.  "From traditional photography to untraditional performances, this category focuses on web-based collections of life, society, and culture."  

The SXSW Interactive Festival celebrates the best and brightest of emerging technology, through five days of exciting panel content, parties, and awards that uncover the best new websites and acknowledge those who are building and implementing tomorrow's online trends. 

Last year, the Behance Network was nominated for a SXSW Interactive Award in the Community category.

Read more about the team's SXSW trip on the Behance Team's Blog.

VentureBeat, an online publication covering emerging businesses in technology, profiled Behance founder Scott Belsky's view on productivity in the creative world as well as the company's development.

Behance's Action Method received some center stage attention at this year's TED (Technology Entertainment Design) conference in Long Beach, California. All TED participants received a subscription to Action Method Online. And, those who attended the TED Prize lunches received a limited edition TED Prize Action Book. 

Every year, TED gathers luminaries such as Bill Gates, the Google founders, and other leaders of organizations, companies, and non-profits that are innovating across industries. Collectively, the audience has the opportunity to add value to three "wishes" that will improve the world - announced at the conference every year. 

With grand ideas comes the responsibility to take action. For the second year in a row, Behance proudly leveraged its tools and products to help add a "bias-towards-action" at TED.

Design Feaster, the blog written by Design Feast (the "webliography of design"), has included the Action Book in a great feature on notebook usage. The article details the ins and outs of a user's Action Book methodology; how he approaches the Action Method, why he loves this particular product, and the necessity of adapting the notebook to one's own needs.

The reviewer graciously notes, "I’ve only been using it for about a month, but it has been the greatest month of notebook usage of my entire life." Awwww.

Check out the entire article here.

The Project Institute of Italy's blog has written about AMO, encouraging its readers to check it out. 

For those versed in Italian, read the full article here. 

Creative Component, an interactive agency, recently featured an Action Method Online review on their blog (which explores all things design and digital). The write up particularly focuses on the ease of translating random "to-dos" into actionable steps, in addition to some aesthetic accolades.

You can check out the article here.

Global innovation tracker PSFK wrote up a review of Action Method Online today. They commented especially on the design and unique approach to project management.

"While the functionality is great, the design is the big sell here. The clean, simple UI will appeal to creatives, and really anyone who works best in a clutter-free environment." Full PSFK review of Action Method

We were also thrilled to demo the product for Tina Roth Eisenberg - curator of top design blog SwissMiss. Tina shares initial feedback in the SwissMiss review titled, Action Method - New Productivity Tool by Behance.

We have also come across some additional early user reviews:

Paul Fowler

This Mixed Company

George Cuevas

Burtner Labs - Lindsay Burtner

KNow Media

Form FiftyFive

The world-renowned TechCrunch team received early access to Action Method Online, the Behance team's new approach for productivity and project management. Mark Hendrickson posted a TechCrunch review today titled, "Action Method: A Flexible & Intuitive Project Management System."

Excerpt:  "Behance has now debuted an excellent new product called Action Method that will appeal to creative and non-creative individuals alike who wish to organize and collaborate on projects more effectively....The beauty of Action Method lies in the flexibility it affords each of its users to organize his or her tasks."

You can read the full review here.

Follow more behind the scenes from Behance at the TeamBlog.

The team at Mashable posted a review of Action Method Online today, "Action Method Puts an Attractive and Intuitive Face on Project Management." The review describes Action Method Online (AMO) as "surprisingly effective at group-based task management" and presents a thoughtful analysis of the product. We invite you to read the review here.

Michael Karnjanaprakorn and Scott Belsky from the Behance team were pleased to be the first guests for the VCU Brand Center Speaker Series in Richmond, VA. Michael and Scott shared tips from Behance's research on organization and productivity in the creative community, as well as some insights on trends in the creative professional world.

The team at Cool Hunting was one of the early beta users of Action Method Online. They posted one of the latest screenshots - along with a review - today. Check it out here.

Behance founder Scott Belsky delivered a keynote at this year's re:think conference on the topic of making ideas happen, based on Behance's research in the creative world. The conference gathered leaders in the event marketing industry. A review of the conference by the PharmaExec Blog is provided here.

The Behance Party in San Francisco, in partnership with PSFK (and a bar tab sponsored by our friends at Gawker), was a great time for many. The Otis Bar was over capacity, and many Behance Network members came to mix it up. Check out PSFK's coverage and some pictures.

Creative Commons is the rapidly growing movement for copyright protection in the media age. Creative Commons featured Behance in a recent edition of "Featured Commoners." Read the article here.

Behance's research on how the most productive creative teams operate is the featured cover story in the June 2008 issue of HOW Design Magazine, one of the biggest design industry magazines in the US. MORE

Behance founder Scott Belsky presented "Tips for Making Ideas Happen" at this year's HOW Design Conference in Boston, MA. Over 4000 people attended the conference. The session included tips from Behance's 200+ interviews of creative teams (many of which are profiled on BehanceMag.com) as well as the methodologies developed by Behance. Read an early blog review of the session as well as a blogger recap.

HOW Magazine features a prelude of Behance, in advance of a full article in the June 2008 issue.

Today the Behance Network was named an official Webby Honoree in two categories: Social/Networking and Self-Promotion/Portfolio. The Webby Awards are the premier online awards, run by the International Academy of Digital Arts & Sciences.  Only 15% of websites submitted are selected as Honorees. Given the early age of the Network, this is a tremendous honor that will bestow deserved attention on the creative professionals of the Behance community.

JCReport, one of the leading observers - and shapers - of global fashion trends, with over 50,000 subscribers, features an interview on Behance in their latest edition. Check it out here.

The Behance Network was featured in this month's BusinessWeek as one of the most exclusive social networks for creative professionals.

Behance Founder Scott Belsky was a guest on ABC News this week, sharing tips on productivity in creative environments.  Check out the clip here.

This past Sunday on MSNBC, Behance Founder Scott Belsky walked through a few tips for productivity in creative brainstorms. You can view the video clip here.

The Behance team was thrilled to learn on March 19th that Behance was selected as Yahoo's "pick of the day." The Yahoo Editorial Team wrote a nice review of the Behance site and featured Behance on Yahoo's Daily Pick Page.