Design Intellection

Type Illustration

david — Thu, 15 May 2008 16:51:00 +0000

Ricky Irvine with a neat typographic illustration. I like how the ‘L’ is leaning on the ‘V’, tilted off the ‘u.’ His site, Dressed in Value, is really nice as well.

Creating Custom WordPress Functions

david — Thu, 15 May 2008 13:50:41 +0000

Chris offers some neat tips on creating custom functions for WordPress.

99designs and the Harmful Effects Thereof

david — Wed, 14 May 2008 20:56:21 +0000

I have been appalled and frustrated with 99designs since I first heard of them. In fact, upon discovering them I promptly started writing a post titled, 99 Reasons to NOT Use 99designs. However I realized that the sensationalist approach of that post would probably just further alienate both sides of the argument.

I then started a more detailed and thoughtful post, Why You Can’t Crowdsource a Craft, to explain why I thought sites such as 99designs were harmful to the web design profession/community. (Which I’ll probably finish eventually and publish here, but that’s a while from now.)

Today I came across an especially poignant article by Anthony Zinni at Positive Space Blog calling out 99designs on their use of propaganda to advertise that participating in design contests makes you a better designer. (The graphic accompanying the post is spot on too.)

I encourage you to go read Anthony’s article and the comments as well, especially Anthony’s follow up comment.

He makes two solid points in his follow up comment (linked above) that I think you have to address if you’re participating in design contests and have regular client work. I’ve quoted them below.

Are you able to charge your normal rates [to the same clients whose contests you’ve won] for follow up work, or do they assume contest level prices?
…
How do you justify your rates for normal projects if you participate in contests where the clients determine what the appropriate rate for services are?

Using Time Wisely

david — Mon, 12 May 2008 16:14:30 +0000

“Did you ever see that episode of Gilligan’s Island where they almost get off the island and then Gilligan messes up and then they don’t? I saw that one. I saw that one a lot when I was growing up. And every half-hour that I watched that was a half an hour I wasn’t posting at my blog or editing Wikipedia or contributing to a mailing list.”
—Clay Shirkey, Gin, Television, and Social Surplus

Although essentially unrelated to the linked article above, one of the most helpful decisions I made regarding my web design career was when I decided to stop watching television almost entirely. Much could be said on the matter and opinions vary widely I’m sure, but I’ll just leave it at that. Take it for what it’s worth and run with it if you haven’t already.

(Now of course I enjoy a good show, and my wife and I keep up with Lost and The Office, but that’s about it.)

Processing JavaScript

david — Fri, 09 May 2008 19:59:46 +0000

I’m not really sure of the implications of this, or how I’m going to use it, or even really what it was before John ported it over to JavaScript. But I sense it’s something big. (via Shaun Inman)

Just please no one chase my cursor with anything when I visit your website.

Two Good Books

david — Thu, 08 May 2008 14:01:03 +0000

Two books that are probably worth their weight in gold—Web Form Design by Luke Wroblewski and Designing for the Social Web by Joshua Porter—became available this week.

I say probably because I haven’t actually read them yet, but I plan on it!

SimplePie RSS Parser

david — Thu, 08 May 2008 03:25:42 +0000

Just found SimplePie, a very easy-to-use PHP code library that allows you to display an RSS feed on your site. It works amazingly well! A more detailed explanation of all that it does can be found in the SimplePie FAQs.

Also, if you plan on using it with WordPress, use the SimplePie Core plugin (the stand-alone require_once(); call doesn’t play nicely with WordPress).

Information Visualization

david — Mon, 05 May 2008 22:12:25 +0000

A neat approach to displaying the United States’ Consumer Price Index by the New York Times. I’m not sure what you would call the display, the stained glass pie chart method?

Espresso in Paris

david — Sat, 03 May 2008 15:18:42 +0000

In the late summer of 2005, several friends and I took a three-week vacation to Europe. This picture was taken at a cafe in Paris next to the hostel in which we stayed (Montmarte district).

Paris is a lovely city and my favorite out of the cities we visited; I just wish my French was a little better as I ended up asking someone if they were a crepe.

Monotone WordPress Theme

david — Fri, 02 May 2008 12:16:47 +0000

Automattic has released the Monotone theme at WordPress.com. Very cool.

A New Kind of CMS

david — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 18:07:10 +0000

Jon Tan has a great write-up on a site launched by Grow Collective that uses an innovative approach to site management by combining content from multiple web services into one central space.

It’s different from other “life streams” because it doesn’t look or feel like an aggregated stream of time-based information. Very inspiring!

Twistori

david — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 15:35:18 +0000

Twistori is a neat little application that aggregates Twitter updates based on six different feelings. The design is superb as well. (via Shaun Inman)

The New Web

david — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 12:58:59 +0000

I’ve really enjoyed ReadWriteWeb’s three part series on the new web: 1. The Whatchamacallit, Post Recession Phase Transition, 2. The Emerging Main Street Web and 3. Dancing With Gorillas: The New Web Era.

The last sentence of the last article basically summarizes the thesis: Making money online will happen if you enable other people to make money online.

Quotes from HOW Magazine

david — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 16:57:25 +0000

The most recent edition of HOW Magazine has a good interview with the co-founders of Modern Dog, Michael Strassburger and Robynne Raye, on the subject of creativity and problem-solving.

I found two quotes from Robynne particularly note-worthy and I’ve listed them below.

Just be aware that the place that you decide to work will most likely mold who you become as a designer. That’s the kind of work you’re going to do 99% of the time.
—Robynne Raye, HOW Magazine, June 2006, p. 69

I think a lot of people come to us because they like how we think.
—Robynne Raye, p. 66

Muted Color Schemes

david — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 14:49:55 +0000

Design Meltdown on muted color schemes. The swinging pendulum…