ARTINFO magazine has ranked the Aspen Art Museum website in their national top 10 best museum sites. Husband and wife team, Rachel and Jared Rippy, designed and built the site. After working as the in-house design team for the Aspen Art Museum for five years, they're now freelancing in the Denver area. Nice work, you two.

Here's what ARTINFO had to say:

"The Aspen Art Museum wins the award for most dramatic introduction with an explosive splash page of abstract teal, white, and black patterns, the same colors that dominate the site. The museum’s Web site is about as simple as can be, offering large pictures of current and upcoming exhibitions that click through to text descriptions and slide shows. An offshoot site documents the museum’s fundraising campaign for their new Shigeru Ban-designed building."

A post from the Forum.

"I recently responded to a local Craigslist ad seeking a freelance designer for various print projects. Two days later I received a reply from the "Senior Manager of Operations" congratulating me that, out of 250 resumes submitted, I am one of 50 finalist who has "made the first cut." Before choosing who they would like to interview they are asking all 50 designers to create an ad, brochure, logo or t-shirt for one of their various companies which their website states produce "$35 million in equity capital."

I cordially replied to the email stating the AIGA strongly discourages the practice of requesting that design work be produced and submitted on a speculative basis in order to be considered for acceptance on a project. I included a link to the AIGA's official position on spec work and their reasoning. I finished the email by saying that if they would like to hire me for a small project as a trial, I would be happy to accommodate. Good luck and best regards.

Today I received an email from the company stating that they reviewed the AIGA's policy and do not consider that their request falls under the definition of spec work because they are willing to pay for any designs they "feel are in line with our vision for our final deliverables." There is no mention that they will pay for designs they feel are NOT "in line with our vision for our final deliverables." Mind you, their request for free work is "to narrow the field to a manageable bunch to move forward for in-person interviews." It's not to get the job, just to get an interview.

They finished off their email by stating "It may be worth mentioning that we have worked closely with graphic designers in the past and were never challenged on our requests nor have any of the other 49 candidates for this position mentioned the guidelines you reference below."

So I would like to know if other designers here on the Denver Egotist think this falls under the definition of spec work. And if it is, why I'm the only one out of 50 designers that did what the AIGA advises and voiced a concern? Shouldn't we all be standing up for each other?"

Weird pickler guys, Birkenstock wearing tree-huggers — there are lots of stereotypes out there about folks who go solar. Heat, San Francisco capture a few in these new spots for Sunrun — where controlling the electric bill is just as important a reason to go solar as taking care of the planet. Directed by Biscuit Filmworks' Mike Maguire and edited by Greg Scruton, Arcade Edit.