FiftyThree News

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As some of you may have noticed, we've been a bit hush-hush on the Tumblr front. Don't worry, we're alive and well. Keeping busy building the next big thing for you guys! 

But one thing we've been wanting to do for some time is to build a home on the web that's all our own. To that end, we’re proud to announce our new editorial blog, The Open Studio.

There, we will feature long form stories along with showcasing the awesome creations being made with our app Paper across the world wide web. We also launched an interview series, 53 Creative New Yorkers You Should Know About, to celebrate the amazing folks in our home city. (In the near future, we’ll be featuring creative thinkers all over the globe, not just in NYC.)

Follow along and feel free to contact us anytime with feedback! amy at fiftythree dot com

Happy Canada Day

To all of our Canadian creators, we wish you a happy Canada Day! 

So you’re looking for reasons to celebrate Canada, eh? Not only does 77% of the world’s maple syrup come from Canada, but they have the most doughnut shops per capita, and more lakes than all countries combined. Take that, Great Lakes and all of Michigan.

Check out some of our favorite Canadian creations in Mix, starting with some fun trivia by Brandon N. How much do you know about the world’s second-largest country?

We had a moose spotting on Mix!

Mixer Swann Sauves is getting in the game day spirit.

Eh!

Canada pride.

Do you have any #CanadaDay remixes? Show us on Twitter and Mix.

Remix! with CreativeMornings 

This month we've partnered with popular breakfast lecture series CreativeMornings to bring you 31 Days of Collaboration. It’s no secret that there is a breadth of talent across both of our communities, so what better way to bring everyone together than with a month of collaboration?

In the spirit of CreativeMornings' July theme, the CM team will be featuring remixes made with Paper from around the world.

FiftyThree Newsletter 6.26 Edition

We’ve always loved seeing Paper sketches of animals and their habitats, and this week we felt particularly grateful that our community is so environmentally aware. 

Like many others, we were saddened by a new study showing that human impact is causing mass animal extinction at an alarming rate. To remind us that our choices matter, we dug up some of our favorite sketches of the planet we call home.

Also, if you've been wanting a Pencil, take our product survey for a chance to win one of ten sustainably harvested Walnut Pencils!

With a summit of over 12,000 feet, Mt. Fuji isn’t just the tallest mountain in Japan, it’s also an active volcano. As Earth's temperature continues to rise, so has Mt. Fuji's, and researchers speculate an eruption is long overdue. Brooklyn-based illustrator Nicole Cleary shows us how to savor the majestic beauty of Fuji with her step-by-step drawing guide using Paper.

Beneath the world we know is an entirely different one, both magical and mysterious. Beijing-based architect and avid scuba diver Ye Ming sketches the creatures she encounters on her dives, such as these clown fish, who are known to inhabit coral reefs. Called the rainforests of the sea, coral reefs are home to 25% of all marine life (via).

Mixer C Roy captures wildlife at the intersection of land and water with this stylized illustration of an alligator and bobcat lurking in a swamp. Contrary to folklore, swamps are not mosquito-filled wastelands, but a valuable source of food, nutrients, and timber to people and animals alike.

TAKE OUR SURVEY. WIN A PENCIL. 

We'd love your feedback as we develop the next generation of creator tools. Please fill out our quick product survey, and you’ll be automatically entered to win one of ten sustainably harvested Walnut Pencils!

TIPS OF THE WEEK: COMBINE PAPER WITH IMAGES + YOU’RE INVITED

Did you know that you can export pages from Paper without a background? Go to Paper’s Settings, tap on Paper, and turn off the setting for “Include Page Color When Exporting Images.” This will create a .PNG file with a transparent background, which lets you layer your sketches and lettering on top of any background in a third party editing program.

On Wednesday, July 15th, come meet members of our team and fellow FiftyThree fans in Los Angeles at our first LA remixer co-hosted with our friends This Is Ground. Learn how the TIG team uses Paper and Pencil to design their line of leather accessories. There'll be food, drinks, and remixing fun! Space is limited so be sure to RSVP.

What could you do with 100 days of making?

That’s the question behind #The100DayProject, a captivating global exploration of the creative process. Inspired by Elle Luna, author of The Crossroads of Should and Must, in collaboration with The Great Discontent, participants from over 60 countries are making something for 100 consecutive days! This week, we’ve highlighted some of our favorite ongoing projects, along with two great Tips of the Week from Elle and Tina Essmaker, co-founder of The Great Discontent, on how to keep creating – even when you don’t feel like it.

Blogger Lauren Wager runs Color Collective, a designers’ resource for color inspiration. For her 100 day project, aptly named #100DayPantoneProject, Lauren pairs Pantone chips with found objects to “take a break from the screen and focus on the beauty of color in real life,” inspiring her to see color in a whole new way.

One of our favorite 100 day projects is #100DaysofMakingExcuses by Lise Yellen, using our iPad app Paper. Lise’s excuses range from silly to sincere, and will resonate with anyone who’s ever had to fudge the truth!

In #The100DayReminder, startup consultant Michael S Galpert experiments with different techniques and mobile apps to visualize the mantra “love yourself.”

Uber designer and Color Monster creator Zhen Zeng threw caution to the wind and let fate decide her project, #100Drawingsof2Things. On day one, Zhen wrote different nouns on 200 pieces of paper. Every day, she picks two words at random which then become the subject of her miniature watercolor paintings.

At FiftyThree, we’ve been getting into the making spirit, too! Don’t miss 100 Days of Newfoundland by Tara, 100 Days of Boring Bugs by Heather, 100 Days of Lebowski by Scott, and 100 Days of Caribbean Patterns by Paula. TIP OF THE WEEK: HOW TO KEEP CREATING

100 days of continuous creating is a feat of endurance! The leading ladies behind #The100DayProject share their secrets on how to keep the inspiration flowing:

Focus on the process, not the outcome.

Forget about perfecting the outcome, which can paralyze you creatively, and commit to an action instead. Paint, draw, dance, write, perform, do what you do. Enjoy the experience without putting so much pressure on the end result. – Tina Essmaker

Partner up.

When we’re on our own, it can be tempting to shrug off a deadline or not push ourselves when we’d rather stop. But when we’re in a group? No way! If you stop, everyone will notice! Having an accountability partner, especially for creative work that is so often done alone, is an incredible gift. Even better? Thousands of people from around the world, all doing the 100 Day Project together. – Elle Luna

FiftyThree and Guggenheim Bring Digital Art to Classrooms

Creativity is surrounded by myths, including the notion that it's innate. We see this disproved every day here at FiftyThree, from watching distinct sketching styles emerge and evolve among members of Mix, to getting emails about how Paper re-ignited someone's childhood love of doodling.

Creativity isn't second nature only to a lucky few; we're all born creative but, over our formative years, it's slowly trained out of us. This is no doubt why, when asking a second grade class who thinks of themselves as creative, 95% of students will raise their hands. Fast forward to fifth grade and only 50% will, and by high school only 5% of students identify as creative (via).

We want to help eradicate this trend, which is why FiftyThree teamed up with the Guggenheim Museum to do just that. For the past 44 years, the Guggenheim has sent teaching artists into New York City's public schools through a wonderful program called Learning Through Art (LTA). By studying not only art, but the artistic process, students are taught to think more creatively. The year-long program targets 4th, 5th, and 6th graders, a developmentally pivotal age when kids typically decide whether they're "creative" or not.

Understanding technology's ability to accelerate learning, the Guggenheim introduced our app Paper and iPad into the LTA program. Under the expert tutelage of teaching artist Jeff Hopkins, students from the 6th grade class at P.S. 86 used Paper alongside traditional art tools. Especially cool is that the resulting work is now on display at the Guggenheim Museum! The exhibition ends June 17th, so be sure to check it out if you're in the area.

Pencil Summer Sale

Get creative with Pencil this summer! Our award-winning digital stylus makes a thoughtful gift for dads and grads, and is the perfect companion for capturing ideas wherever you go. Pair Pencil with our iPad app Paper or any of our great partner apps, from Adobe Creative Cloud to Astropad.

FiftyThree Newsletter 5.15 Edition

Each week we send an email newsletter to the FiftyThree community featuring ways to make the most of Pencil and Paper, including a Tip of the Week. 

Last week we featured a basic guide to Think Kit, which you can check out below. Subscribe to our newsletter to keep up-to-date on creative ways to use our tools!  

Diagram. Drawing objects, straight lines, connectors, and arrowheads has never been easier. Diagram recognizes what we call Smart Shapes, shown below. Start drawing a line or shape using one continuous stroke, and the Diagram tool will instantly polish it.

Fill. Make your Smart Shapes stand out with color using the Fill tool. Simply tap the Fill tool, and then tap inside the Smart Shape you’d like to color. You can also use the Fill tool on its own to make completely new shapes. It’s perfect for creating graphs like the one below, or have some fun with it and write your name.

Cut. Use the Cut tool to cut, duplicate, and rearrange your shapes on the page. It’s not just for Smart Shapes, either. Use Cut on any object – even words! – to instantly create fun patterns and visuals.

Tip of the Week: Background Check 

If you’re looking to save a page with a transparent background, you may have noticed this feature has moved. Go to Paper’s main menu and select Settings. Tap on Paper and turn off the setting for “Include Page Color When Exporting Images.”

Introducing Think Kit.

Today, we're proud to announce the next generation of tools in Paper called Think Kit – three new tools to bring brainstorming and whiteboarding into the mobile age.

Think Kit's Diagram, Fill, and Cut tools make it fast and easy to draw charts, diagrams, graphs, flows, wireframes, and models. Use them to sketch perfect shapes and connectors, and create presentation­-ready visual models. Anything you create can then be exported directly to PowerPoint, Keynote, or your favorite iPad apps, and shared with colleagues everywhere.

Think Kit includes:

Diagram. A smart pen with style. Think Kit’s Diagram tool lets you draw objects, straight lines, connectors, and arrowheads.

Cut. Rearrange and move shapes or words around on the screen. The Cut tool has a manual mode to draw freeform selection areas, or use Smart Cut to automatically select shapes without switching tools.

Fill. Fill existing shapes with color, or draw new shapes with the color fills. Like the Cut tool, Fill has a manual and Smart mode, where you simply tap to fill a shape in with color.

Presentation-Ready. Export your creations to PowerPoint or Keynote with our custom­-designed presentation templates that make your diagrams look great. 

Share Anywhere. Paper’s new sharing menu lets you open work in Paper in myriad other apps, including Trello, Slack, Dropbox, Box, and more. Export entire journals in PDF or PowerPoint format, or choose individual pages.

Smart Shapes. Founded on years of scientific research, Intention Engine™ is our trademark drawing recognition and rendering system. It detects and corrects dozens of shapes sketched in real-­time – all while preserving the uniqueness and feel of hand-drawn lines.

At FiftyThree, we believe that everyone is creative, and that creativity can be unleashed with the right tools. We’re excited to broaden Paper’s toolset to enable more people – from any field or role – to show their ideas effortlessly with tools that work as fast as they do.

Think Kit is entirely free, and comes as an automatic update for existing Paper users.

Send a Paper Card with Felt for Mother’s Day

Last week, we co-hosted a card design contest on Mix with Felt, an iPad app that lets you send physical, handwritten cards anywhere in the world. Out of 1,800 entries, twenty designs made with Paper were selected and are now available to order and send from the Felt app! See all the winners here.

A Field Trip to FiftyThree

At FiftyThree, we're lucky to call Seattle and New York, two vibrant and culturally rich cities, our homes. Within and beyond our office walls, we're surrounded by creative thinkers, entrepreneurs, and independent workers. But while we’re among peers, opportunities to slow down are rare, so we cherish the times when we can leave “the work” for a bit and connect with one another.

One such champion of connecting creative thinkers is Tina Roth Eisenberg, founder of the popular breakfast lecture series called CreativeMornings. Launched in NYC in 2008, CreativeMornings has since expanded to over 114 cities. With growth came the chance to experiment with new event formats, so on Friday, April 24, 2015, CreativeMornings teamed up with nine companies, including FiftyThree, to host creative workshops around New York City called FieldTrips.

We were thrilled to host one of the first-ever FieldTrips alongside renown design and tech companies like IDEO to Microsoft, and even one of our favorite small-batch ice cream makers, MilkMade!

FiftyThree designer Ian Curry spoke about the importance of humility in the design process while attendees were encouraged to share their reactions on Mix. To wrap up, our web engineer and prolific Mixer Tara Feener demonstrated how she creates her signature fashion sketches with Paper. Coffee and doughnuts fueled ideas and conversation, inspiring us all to reconnect in the future.

Thanks to everyone who came out on a Friday morning to meet us. See you at the next CreativeMornings event!

Send a Card with FiftyThree and Felt

Ever wish you could send a greeting card with a Paper illustration on it? To celebrate this Mother’s Day, we are partnering with Felt to do just that. Felt lets you order and send physical, handwritten greeting cards right from your iPad!

As part of our collaboration, Felt is hosting a design contest on Mix. Twenty greeting card designs made with Paper will be selected to become cards, which will be sold through the Felt iPad app. Winners will receive a portion of proceeds from each card sold.

To participate, remix this sketch by Felt on Mix. While Mother’s Day is around the corner, card designs for any occasion are welcome. Create your card design before Wednesday, April 29th 11:59pm PST to qualify. Winning designs will be announced and featured in Felt starting May 1st.

Want to send a Felt card? They are offering FiftyThree fans 50% off all cards and $2 off orders that include photos. Just get Felt in the App Store and enter LOVEPAPER during checkout. For contest rules and eligibility, visit feltapp.com/fiftythree.

Pencil Support Comes to Astropad

We’re excited to announce our latest Pencil partner, Astropad, a beautiful graphic design app that lets you mirror your Mac screen right onto your iPad. Pair Pencil with Astropad to draw directly into Photoshop or any app on your Mac, and turn your iPad into a professional graphics tablet!

The latest Astropad update (version 1.1), released today, taps into Pencil’s special features, including Surface Pressure and eraser. 

Introducing Backup and Activity Center

Today we are happy to introduce two frequently requested features, backup for journals and Activity Center, a new place in Paper and Mix that lets you view all Mix activity in one place.

Back That Journal Up

With the latest Paper update, you can now back up private copies of your journals in the cloud! Backup is automatic when you create a new FiftyThree account. For existing users who are already logged in, you can opt-in to backup once you install the latest version of Paper. We hope this offers a little peace of mind in case your iPad is ever damaged, stolen, or you move to a new device.

All Your Activity, All In One Place

Instantly see if you have new starred or remixed creations, view people who have recently followed you, and tap on creations in Activity Center to immediately open them in Mix. Activity Center also helps you connect with more Mixers. If you see a user has followed you or starred your creation, tap on their avatar to see their creations and profile. Then tap "+" to follow them. Instant new friends!

Learn more about backup and Activity Center at support.fiftythree.com.

MEET THE LATEST PARTNER APPS FOR PENCIL

We’re happy to announce our latest SDK partners, Mobile Mouse, PDFpen 2, and Flowpaper. 

Mobile Mouse instantly transforms your mobile device into a motion-based mouse, trackpad, and wireless remote for your computer. When connected with Pencil, Mobile Mouse turns your iPad into a graphics tablet for your Mac. Tap into Pencil's special features, like Surface Pressure, right in desktop programs such as Photoshop!

PDFpen 2 is a powerful PDF editor for your iPad, and the latest version lets you use Pencil to annotate and mark up PDFs. Surface Pressure included.

Last but not least, Flowpaper, pictured above, is a beautiful, interactive drawing app that lets you make flowing paintings on your iOS devices.

What's more, Mobile Mouse, PDFpen 2, and Flowpaper are universal apps available on iPhone and iPad – use Pencil on both!

Wondering if your favorite app supports Pencil? See our fast-growing list of Pencil-ready apps.

The FiftyThree SDK is the simplest way for app developers to integrate Pencil’s powerful creative features into their own apps. Now developers anywhere can take advantage of Surface Pressure, blend, erase, adaptive palm rejection, and the simplest Bluetooth pairing with Kiss-to-Pair™ on new platforms for creativity whether it’s games, document editors, music, or even museum installations.

CARVING A NEW SPACE TO THINK WITH NEA

Three years ago, we launched Paper and so began our quest to build indispensable tools for the everyday creator. Since then Paper has been downloaded over 13 million times and been used to create over 150 million ideas! In late 2013, we introduced Pencil, which quickly became the top-selling digital stylus in the world and defined the standard for working with pen and touch on iPad. Last fall we released Mix, a new service in Paper that allows everyone to find inspiration and build off of each others’ ideas, which just welcomed its one millionth member.

For a growing team like ours, these have been significant achievements, but there remains a great deal for us to do. Every day we hear from high school and university educators who want to use Mix in the classroom, or people who work with teams and clients who want quicker, more human ways to present information without having to navigate finicky software. We want to reach and help these creators, too.

Today, we’re happy to welcome our new partners Dayna Grayson and New Enterprise Associates (NEA) to FiftyThree. Alongside our existing investors, NEA will help FiftyThree grow our team and product offerings, particularly in business and education. As a leading investor in widely used enterprise services like Box, Tableau, and Workday, NEA is a great partner to help us build a new crop of tools for creative thinking.

At FiftyThree, we’re committed to building the best mobile tools for creativity, and we’re excited to share that we’ve already begun. Meet Think Kit, the next generation of tools coming soon to Paper. 

Launching this spring, Think Kit will dramatically speed up the creation of diagrams, charts, and presentation sketches for those times when you need to quickly show an idea to a client, to your team, or to a lecture hall full of students.

With the fantastic support of the FiftyThree community, we’ve made great progress for which we’re grateful. Thank you. Now, an even bigger adventure awaits! We’re thrilled to play a part in making mobile tools accessible to more people, and we hope you will, too. Together, let’s carve a new space to think.

Join the team.