This week is an exciting one for me and my family. On Sunday, July 4th, Independence Day, we are driving out of Tallahassee, FL, with our belongings in a U-Haul trailer to begin the three-and-a-half-day journey across the country to our new residence in San Francisco. That amazing, unique city is where I grew up, where my wife and I lived for the first 3 years of our marriage, where my eldest daughter was born, and where our hearts are. Although we spent many years in SF Bay Area, we have not lived within the city limits for years, and we are anxiously anticipating our return.

In some ways the City by the Bay could be misinterpreted as our “comfort zone”, the place we feel the most at ease and safe. Yet anyone who knows us and knows our relationship with the city would make the distinction that we seldom ever make the choice for what is safe.

In the McDaniel philosophy of living, safe is equivalent to boring. Safe is for those who are satisfied with the status quo and have little or no desire to experience the adventure that is an intricate element of the potential within every breath we take. Safe may be fine for others, but it reeks of stagnancy, boredom and insufficiency to me and my family.

Don’t get me wrong. I’m sure we have our own comfort zones, and this writing is not an attempt to put our approach to life on a pedestal high above your own. It is, however, rich with the hope that by sharing our story you too might be inspired to examine your comfort zone and maybe, just maybe, step outside of it to experience all that you have been missing.

Posted on Jun 28.10 to Wanderings | 27 Comments »  

Over the past year or so I have been diving into the online design community, meeting and getting to know all kinds of interesting people from all over the world. As I come across different design-related blogs, I have added the ones I like or find interesting to my RSS subscriptions, and I check in with most of them daily. I currently subscribe to about 300 design blogs, everything from the most popular to the least known. I learn a great deal from most of them, and must credit my ongoing education to these wondrous websites that continuously put out tutorials, showcases, inspiration, discussions and more.

Recently I have become particularly enthralled with some new-to-me discoveries in the design blog world. While I do gain quite a bit of knowledge and inspiration from the majority of the design blogs, these three websites have risen to the top of my own personal list because of their distinctly different approaches. Where many others have an obvious focus on driving traffic, which in turn influences the content they produce, these three blogs write from their inspirations and passions. They wrestle in their writing with subject matter that they are dealing with themselves. They challenge and question. They inspire discussion and debate. They ask the all-important question: “Why?”

I have an affinity toward people who go deeper, who don’t just accept the way things are but examine them, pick them apart and try to understand how they became accepted in the first place or if they are the best option. Through different experiences in my life I have learned how foolish it is to blindly follow the crowd instead of think for yourself and I love to commiserate with those who challenge popular thought. I truly believe these types of people are leaders, influencers and world shapers. Not because they aspire to be leaders, but because their actions inspire others to follow.

I believe the creators and authors of these three design blogs are such people. Their writing challenges me. It gets me to look at things from another perspective. It dares me to enter into debate with the status quo. It inspires and motivates and strengthens what I do as a designer. I believe it does the same for others.

So I want to share them with you in the hopes that if you have not already discovered them, you will today be exposed and begin the journey alongside them as they contribute to the shaping of the future of design.

Posted on May 14.10 to Design | 5 Comments »  

I have been a part of a few different discussions regarding design trends recently. One of the best articles I’ve read on the subject was written by Matt Ward at Echo Enduring Blog. In it, Matt helps a rebel like me realize the importance of design trends and best ways to respond. I recently wrote a guest post on Pelfusion.com discussing design standards and trends and challenging us all to break out of the expected to create new, interesting and unique designs, possibly birthing more new trends along the way, or maybe generating some one-of-a-kind, stand-alone masterpieces.

If you have read much of my writings and ramblings, you are probably aware that I am bent towards breaking myself and others out of the status quo, so when it comes to this topic of following trends and adhering to standards I am pretty opinionated. I don’t necessarily think I’m right, or an authority on the subject, but I do have some strong feelings that are rooted in my own personal experience and philosophy. In this post I want to continue to challenge our thinking so that we will extend our approaches to design in any context beyond the perceived boundaries that can bind the creative spirit.

Posted on May 11.10 to Design, Wanderings | 5 Comments »  

Each week I share on Twitter all the links and resources I am reading and learning from with those who choose to follow me. Everything from social media, technology, freelancing, web and graphic design, search engine optimization and more! At the end of the week I am compiling these resources to share in one spot for those that are interested. So here is some weekend reading, or a mega-bookmark, or however you choose to use this list. I hope you enjoy it!

Posted on May 08.10 to Weekly Links | 6 Comments »  

Today – May 7th – is my birthday. Here’s a video with a small thank you to all my friends for this past year, and my birthday wish for each and every one of you.

Posted on May 07.10 to Wanderings | 3 Comments »  

I am a frugal person. If there is a deal to be found I will sniff it out and make it happen. If there is a way to do something myself rather than pay someone else, I will take the extra time (and sometimes the headache) and figure it out in order to save money. The ever-expanding library of online resources has helped me save money by doing my own auto repairs, computer upgrades, and much more. Of course, I have also used it to continually teach myself web design and development for the past 15 years.

Because of my personal understanding of a desire to save money, I have at times helped potential clients install and set up their own WordPress websites when their budget did not allow for the hiring of a professional. While this means less paid business for me, in the end I am helping someone out who couldn’t afford to pay me anyway. If I can help save someone a headache or two by giving them a small amount of my time, pointing them in the right direction and answering a few questions, I will do it.

Unfortunately, there are usually problems that occur when someone with little or no experience begins attempting to set up their own WordPress website, and I have had countless inquiries from the frustrated and confused webmaster wannabes, buried under the weight of something they never really completely understood in the first place. While WordPress is a relatively simple way to set up a basic blog or uncomplicated website, it can quickly become a nightmare for the weekend warrior website builder.

In this post I want to point out a few of the pros and cons of hiring a professional to set up your WordPress website versus doing it yourself. If you are considering either, hopefully this will help you know what to think about and weigh in your decision making process.

Posted on May 06.10 to Design, Online Presence/Branding | 19 Comments »  

Each week I tweet what some may consider a ridiculous amount of resources to share what I am reading and learning from with those who choose to follow me. Everything from social media, technology, freelancing, web and graphic design, search engine optimization and more! Now at the end of the week I am compiling these resources to share in one spot for those that are interested. So here is some weekend reading, or a mega-bookmark, or however you choose to use this list. I hope you enjoy it!

Posted on May 01.10 to Weekly Links | No Comments »  

Several times over the past few months I have received some ridiculous communications via Twitter from freelancers or small businesses who obviously are new to Twitter and have clearly decided to jump on the social media marketing bandwagon in an attempt to utilize the tool to find new clients. The reason I say these exchanges are ridiculous is because they have been asking me – a web designer – if I would like to hire them to do web design! Not asking if they can assist me or if I need an outsourcing contact, but flat out asking me to hire them to design a website!

Thanks to yet another misguided attempt at engaging me as a client for web design recently, I have written this post to help identify some critical steps that should not be overlooked if you are trying to use social media to drum up business. My hope is that it will provide some much-needed guidance for those that are new or considering diving in, while simultaneously aiming to rid current social media enthusiasts of the annoying, hard-sell marketing spam that is making its way onto our platforms.

Posted on Apr 26.10 to Online Presence/Branding, Social Media, freelance | 33 Comments »  

This is a question I’ve begun asking myself recently as it seems I am stumbling across a newly-created website donning this title every few days. With the growing success of online endeavors in the design realm, it is beginning to appear as though every designer must have some type of blog or design-related website if they stand a chance at establishing a name for themselves, and even more so if they are looking to simultaneously create some manner of passive income.

I’m not sure where it started, nor do I particularly care. I am a fan of many design blogs, and I am indebted to many more because of their contribution to my continuing growth and education as a web and graphic designer. There is definitely a need for quality design blogs, and in many ways the abundance should promote a healthy competition to provide a high standard of content.

Unfortunately, this is not always the case.

Posted on Apr 21.10 to Design, Wanderings | 28 Comments »  

Since I started publishing these weekly lists of all the links and resources I tweeted in the past week, this is by far the biggest yet! With over 600 links to this week’s published articles about SEO, social media, web and graphic design, freelancing and more, there should be enough weekend reading here to satisfy everyone.

Posted on Apr 17.10 to Weekly Links | 7 Comments »