VeriMark. Welcome to Us. This is our website. Here you will come to find who we are. Because you’ve seen our name. Somewhere.

VeriMark. A trusted name. Because it’s so ambiguous and strong, you won’t question it. You’ve got your veri, and you’ve got your mark. As in, we very much hit the mark. Exactly where that is? That’s up to you to find out.

See that background image of the guy climbing a cliff free solo? That’s the American spirit right there. That’s VeriMark. Do we sell mountaineering gear or something? No, you didn’t come to us for that. Besides, that’s way too niche for us. We’re clearly a huge company. And seriously, look at the guy. He’s climbing with his bare hands. That’s not much gear on him. That wouldn’t be a good ad for a climbing gear store, now, would it? Come on, now, think.

Be like that climber. Achieve your dreams all on your own. But with VeriMark behind you.

See, our logo is sort of a hot-air balloon, but not. It could just be a teardrop upside down. Maybe we do something with oil? But again, think of us as more than that. You’re being too specific.

Our Mission:

• To be a positive force for our people, your people, and the global community.
• To relentlessly implement our initiatives, delivering excellence to every corner, exceeding our goals on a daily basis, remaining true to our commitment, our strategy, and our core values.
• To enable a relationship of continuous transparency.

And now on to the tab labeled WHAT WE BELIEVE. We believe in doing great things and in going great places. Beyond the horizon, specifically the horizon of explicitly describing what we do.

No, wait, you’ve actually been reading our About Us page. A Korean family sitting down for a traditional meal of fish and rice. Family. Tradition. Legacy. Culture. You’re getting warmer. Maybe.

But in case you think we’re a musty old company, we’re actually brand new too. See those entrepreneurs pointing to those solar panels? We’re not saying we install those. But we’re not saying we don’t either. That’s VeriMark for you.

Remember that commercial now? The one with the farmer with his hands in his overalls, standing beside his truck? We have something to do with him. He’s a hard worker, and so are we. Get it? We also have something to do with those kids in Nigeria all raising their hands in a classroom. Vaguely, we might have done something charitable to help make that happen. We’re not claiming we did outright. But you thought it.

Children are the future, and the future is for tomorrow’s dreamers. VeriMark.

And then something about vision and innovation, and somebody sliding a deep-dish pizza off a wood serving paddle into a brick oven. Every ingredient represents one of the countless possible services we actually provide here at VeriMark.

VeriMark. Ongoing for generations. Greek pillars. City traffic. We make the remarkable conventional. We make the possible tangible.

Think Statue of Liberty. Think Grand Canyon. Think WASP family of three barefoot in the grass. In slow motion.

VeriMark. What exactly do we do? We honestly can’t pinpoint it, either, but boy, do we make it look professional.

VeriMark. Leading the way in manufacturing actuators and other components for hydraulic systems since 1973.

All images © Studio Ibbini, shared with permission

Artist Julia Ibbini and computer scientist Stéphane Noyer of the Abu Dhabi-based Studio Ibbini (previously) continue to collaborate on intricately constructed works that fall at the intersection of art and mathematics. The duo creates vessels and flat pieces by layering laser-cut papers into complex structures replete with floral filigree and ornate patterning.

While many of their three-dimensional sculptures appear to twist upward in tight, perfectly aligned rows, the pair incorporates more negative space into their recent pieces, many of which seem to morph from architectural or ornamental motifs into wild, botanical growths. Ibbini tells Colossal that this requires finding a delicate balance between the frail material and the resulting form to maintain the work’s structural integrity. She explains the process:

In the pieces that seem to be fading away, hand-made drawings are turned into computational tree structures and density maps on which graph theory and probabilistic algorithms are applied. Through this, we are able to manipulate the geometry of the work so that it looks almost as though the details are slowly eroding into empty space in the final piece.

Studio Ibbini will show works with Long-Sharp Gallery at Art Miami starting next week and in a group exhibition at Sharjah Art Museum from December 13 to January 21. Keep up with the duo’s latest sculptures on Instagram.

Do stories and artists like this matter to you? Become a Colossal Member today and support independent arts publishing for as little as $5 per month. The article Studio Ibbini Juxtaposes Negative Space and Botanical Filigree in New Laser-Cut Paper Works appeared first on Colossal.

All images © Jun Ong, shared with permission

A follow-up to the massive, six-pointed star that pierced a concrete building back in 2015, a new site-specific work by Malaysian artist Jun Ong bores through a former warehouse in Kuala Lumpur. “STAR/KL” is an illuminated installation comprised of 111 LED beams in various sizes that burst outward in the open-air structure, impaling the chainlink fence, support columns, and facade of the Air Building at The Godown art center. Described as an “extraterrestrial light being,” the glowing public work performs a hypnotic dance of flashes and flickers each night with an accompanying sound component by Reza Othman, who’s part of the experimental electronic and jazz project RAO.

“STAR/KL” is up through March 26, 2022, although its light will fade gradually during the next few months until it extinguishes entirely. You can see more of the otherworldly piece and dive into Ong’s process on Instagram. You also might enjoy this radiant intervention by Ian Strange. (via designboom)

Josh Clark, back in March:

Hey, please, under no circumstances should you pin social buttons to the top or bottom of mobile screens. In an effort to try to boost mobile use of share buttons, About.com experimented with fixing them to screen bottom and separately to screen top, so that the buttons were always visible when scrolling. While this did modestly increase share-button usage, it also caused overall session engagement to go down.

You read that right: adding a locked toolbar to the small-screen experience shortened sessions and reduced page views. The very small increase in share-button usage was far outweighed by reduced site usage. (I can’t explain why this is the case, but I’ve seen it elsewhere with locked toolbars, too. They chase small-screen users away.)

Read the whole article. First, Clark’s advice is based on actual results, not just opinion and hunches (like mine). Second, he doesn’t advise against ever showing custom sharing buttons — but he does say only to show them to visitors coming from social media referrals. And but even then, don’t put them in fixed position dickbars.

As for why dickbars actually decrease site usage, I think the answer is obvious: when people see user-hostile fixed position bars at the top and/or bottom of their display, especially on phones, they’re annoyed, and the easiest way to eliminate the annoyance is to close the fucking tab and move on to something that isn’t annoying.