The Flakery – I live in New York. For the the first 26 years of my life, I lived in Florida, but now I live in New York. And New York is cold. So, to be totally honest, I’m really kind of over snow. And because of that, I should probably hate The Flakery, an application created by Paul Maciorowski that allows users to create virtual paper snowflakes.
However, despite the whole “so over snow!” mentality, I really, really like The Flakery. It’s a pretty simple concept. You start off with a circular piece of paper, folded into a wedge shape, just like the paper snowflakes you and I and everyone else made in school as a kid. There are over 30 different stamps to choose from to use on your snowflake, ranging from simple lines and curves to hearts, stars, and diamonds. There are even clubs and spades; the card game aficionados out there might have fun with that.
Once you’ve sliced up your snowflake to your satisfaction, you can view the finished product and, with the tap of a button, create a little snowfall of your custom snowflake on your iPhone. The Flakery has options for the snowfall, so that you can adjust the size of the flakes and how quickly they fall — you can even add color to them, which, while clearly not realistic, is awfully pretty.
The good stuff: It’s fun! No matter how not-artistic you think you are, even a gnarly mess tends to look pretty awesome when it’s unfolded, which I personally found oddly satisfying. You can save snowflakes to use or edit later, and there’s a built-in “Photo” option so you can send images of your Flakery creations to friends via email.
The less good: Well, not much, really. The only downside I’ve really found is that in snowfall mode, even with the flakes set to the largest possible setting, you can’t really see the design that well. So if you’ve slaved away over some clever, intricate design, it’s not terribly clear when they’re falling.
One thing I’d like to see in The Flakery is the ability to draw freehand on the snowflakes. You can do quite a lot with the stamps provided, but it’d be nice to have total freedom.
All things considered, though, The Flakery is a terrific application, and these snowflakes are infinitely more pleasant than the ones you’ll find outside.