As MacHeist is underway, I thought I’d share with you guys a little peek into its design process.

As John Casasanta, Scott Meinzer and I began to finalize details on Heist a couple months ago, we realized that what we were going for (spy themed, campy stories, etc.) would require an extremely capable web designer with a distinctive style. This had to look different from all the forums and blogs out there. It had to look amazing. And it had to be designed fast.

So my first pick for the project was Adam Betts, who I had worked with previously on the original design for MacThemes. What he had created for MacThemes, in my opinion, was fresh nearly three years ago, and is still fresh today. And the amazing thing was, he had come up with the general visual idea and details in a matter of days. So, after a few days of chatting with him, I convinced him to join the project, and he got to work.

Below are a few snapshots from the process over roughly two weeks (click for full size):

Notice something? Adam had the fundamental pieces of the design nailed from the beginning. And from there, it was a matter of relatively minor changes. (Combo code entry, site background, etc.)

Of course the design job isn’t over quite yet… but I think it’s safe to say that people are loving what Adam came up with. Major props to him.

Voila, the final product

A little over two months ago, I previewed an upcoming YouTube client by my friend Steve Streza. The app is still upcoming, but it’s a lot closer to release, and taking a cue from some mutual friends, Steve is taking preorders for his app, now renamed Tubular. (CBS threatened suit for InnerTube.)

Before you kill him about the presale, it’s worth noting that in this case, you guys actually do know what you’re digging into your wallets for. Plus, Steve is hoping he can continue development on a bit more robust of a development platform than his aging G4 iBook.

While the name has changed, Tubular is still very much the app it was promised to be. It features extremely slick YouTube video browsing (couchpotatos will love keyboard navigation), easy video organization by drag and drop, and one click video conversion for playback of your favorite videos on your iPod.

As always with presales, it’s a bit of a risk to purchase the app before it’s released. But there are, of course, some perks. The price on the blog for interested people is $12.99. (I’ve been told it’ll sell for $19.99 when 1.0 is released.) But hardcore YouTubing blog readers can grab this for $9.99 by clicking here. Enjoy! (Digg it!

Jan over at MacRabbit has just released version 2 of his CSS editor. I can’t emphasize enough what a beautiful app this is. CSSEdit 2 is truly a labor of love, and the final product simply reeks of Aqua goodness. (If I revised my top ten list of beautiful OS X apps, this one would be near the top for sure.)

CSSEdit 2 has been in the works for over a year, and the list of changes is pretty substantial. One of the cooler new features is the ability to “X-ray” webpages to visually identify different elements of your site:

And another great thing about CSSEdit is the fact that it makes CSS very easy to edit for noobs like me, with its extensive visual editing tools. Even I can drag and drop. Woohoo!

There’s plenty of other neat things in this release. I’ve been having some fun tweaking other sites with its “Extract from Site” and browser integration features. (Plus its very powerful instant preview support.) This is honestly a must have for any web designer. (And as a further plug, a beta of 2.0 was used extensively by our web coder, Scott Meinzer, on the My Dream App and MacHeist websites.)

A huge congratulations to Jan for this excellent release. Check out the changelog and download the app on MacRabbit, and Digg it to spread the word!

What we’ve been calling “Act 2″ after My Dream App has just begun, and it’s called MacHeist. Thousands of you signed up with interest in the event, and over the next few days, you’ll be receiving spiffy invite tickets by mail. (It’s a closed event for now.)

And for the rest of you… well, if you’d like a taste of what Heist will be about, I encourage you to check out this post on TUAW. We call it a wild monkey chase. See, unlike most wild goose chases, this one involves a monkey, and actually ends somewhere cool. (Plus I think you’ll agree. It’s pretty hilarious seeing people’s reactions to over a dozen monkeys mysteriously popping up all over the Mac web.)

Enjoy, and hopefully I’ll be seeing some of you soon inside MacHeist! And Digg this!

For those of you who participated in My Dream App, you know what Insanely Great Tees is. But for those of you who don’t, my friends at Monkey Business Labs have just opened up their Mac-centric t-shirt shop, and it’s full of some really great shirts for all of you hardcore Mac users. My personal favorite is the “Magic Eraser” shirt pictured on the left, and I’m looking forward to more shirts sporting visual puns as the store fills out. (There are currently six designs available for purchase.)

I’m aware of two other Mac-related t-shirt vendors. If you guys know of any others, be sure to let me know in the comments!