Back again by popular demand. Well, okay. Only 3 or 4 people expressed a desire to see this series continue, but who am I to deprive them? And yes, I counted. 419 links in all my favorite interests – web and graphic design, freelancing, social media, SEO and more! Hopefully there are some tasty little tidbits of info here just for you.

Posted on Aug 28.10 to Design, Online Presence/Branding, SEO, Social Media, Weekly Links, freelance | No Comments »  

Did you look away from Twitter for a second and miss something I tweeted this past week? Not finding much to read on the weekend and looking for a list of current resources? Well here it is! Almost every day I tweet the day’s most recently published articles and blog posts regarding design, SEO, social media, freelancing, and technology news that I find relevant for my own life as well as those that I think others might find interesting or beneficial. Now I’ve taken every single one of this week’s links and dropped it into the following list, for your perusal. I hope you enjoy it!

Posted on Aug 21.10 to Weekly Links | No Comments »  

It was about 9:30 on Tuesday morning when I got a call on my cell from my eldest daughter. The voice on the other end was trembling, and I could tell even before she said two words that something was wrong.

“Dad, I just got in a pretty bad accident.”

Posted on Aug 18.10 to Design, Online Presence/Branding, SEO, Social Media, Wanderings | 6 Comments »  

In the last post I wrote over a month ago, I talked about breaking out of our comfort zones and shared some of the extreme measures my family and I have taken to ensure this is a consistent part of our lives. I talked about the recent move we made across the country to return to San Francisco, the city I grew up in. Now that we are settled in and I have a moment to breathe, I want to follow up with some thoughts I’ve had through this experience.

Posted on Aug 05.10 to Wanderings | 5 Comments »  

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 | 6 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 | 7 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 | 20 Comments »