Dive into the archives.
- Weekend Reading: The 419 Design, Freelancing, Social Media & SEO Links I Tweeted This Week (8/21-8/27)
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.
- Social Media, SEO, Design, Brand, Influence: What’s Most Important?
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.”
- 3 Distinctly Different Design Blogs I Love Because They Break The “Rules”
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.
- Design Outside The Lines
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.
- WordPress: Hire A Pro Or Do It Yourself?
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.
- Should We Reevaluate, Redefine or Continue Regurgitating The ‘Design Blog’?
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.
- Pro Bono and Free Services: Is It Possible To Give Too Much?
Last Thursday I was taking part in a weekly discussion among designers called DCTH (Design Community Twitter Hours) and this question came up: When do you draw the line between pro-bono & just helping for free? A very interesting discussion followed and it got me thinking about my own experience with offering my design services pro bono or for free. In this post I want to share some of those experiences with you and how they have influenced my business approach as well as the impact this has had when I began applying it to my social media interaction.
- True Art
Those works created from solitude & from pure & authentic creative impulses – where the worries of competition, acclaim & social promotion do not interfere – are, because of these very facts, more precious than the productions of professionals. After a certain familiarity with these flourishings of an exalted feverishness, lived so fully & so intensely by their authors, we cannot avoid the feeling that in relation to these works, cultural art in its entirety appears to be the game of a futile society, a fallacious parade. (Jean Dubuffet)
- Martin Luther King, Jr.’s Radical Color Theory Redesign
I possess an unusual characteristic I want to share with you: I am color blind.
Not in the literal sense of the term, which would make it extremely difficult to be a designer, but from an early age my life experiences have developed in me an almost inability to identify people based upon the color of their skin.
Even more remarkable may be the basis for this writing: because of my own experience, I truly believe it is possible for all of humanity to shake off generations of racial stereotypes, prejudices, and perceived ethnicity-based differences to instead inhabit and embrace the amazing dream of a most amazing man whose birthday we recognized in America yesterday: Martin Luther King, Jr.
- Is “Good Design” In The Eye Of The Beholder?
I’ve seen quite a few articles and blog posts recently discussing “good design” and “bad design”. It got me thinking about the concept, along with the various categorizations and judgments we who operate under the title “designer” place so easily on the work of others. Is not the determination of whether or not an object of design is deserving of the title “good” a subjective one, formed by preferences and/or opinions? Or is there, in fact, a set of standards or guidelines written in stone somewhere that all design can and should adhere to?
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