Dive into the archives.
- 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.
- How To Become A Link-Spewing Maniac and Still Have A Life (Like Me!)
Those of you who follow me on Twitter or Facebook are presumably aware of the seemingly endless stream of quality resource links I provide (an average of around 150 per day). I have developed a few methods to incorporate my own online reading, research and education into my social media management routine to make it one that invites and enables others to discover valuable links on a variety of topics. I share my interests in social media, technology, web and graphic design, web development, freelancing, and art. Without even really trying I have created my own “niche” with widespread reach, thanks to my own personal needs and interests being simultaneously broad yet specific. I have learned to intermingle the spewing of links with real interaction and engagement amongst those that I follow and those that are following me in a way that really fits my lifestyle and provides reciprocal value that is priceless for me. This combination has literally changed my life both professionally and personally in ways that I consider significant improvements. I have explained in previous posts the impact this has had on my site visitor traffic, increase in clients, and my own personal education, so I won’t go into that here. But I do want to share with those that are interested some of the key transferable principles and tools that I have learned to use so far in my foray into social media.
- Behind The Avatar #2: Meet The Husband/Wife Team Behind AdmixWeb.com
Today I am pleased to introduce you to the bilingual husband/wife team of Teylor Feliz and Holly Lamarche, creators of one of my favorite new discoveries in the design/development blog world: AdmixWeb.com.
AdmixWeb was created in October 2008 with the purpose of providing information regarding all the latest and greatest technologies, topics, and applications available to use in web design and web development and to improve the web through blogs, postings, feedback, and comments. They feature bi-weekly original articles and tutorials on web development, design, freelance, business, and programming.
- DESIGNERS: Submit Yourself and Nominate Others To Be Featured Here!
If you’ve been following this blog recently you have been witness to a few new features that I have initiated in an effort to introduce and promote lesser known members of the design community. Yesterday I launched a new feature titled “Behind The Avatar” in which we will get to know different people who are designers and developers (and maybe other pursuits as well) a little more personally. In previous posts I have shared with you 24 Designers You’ve Never Seen On A List Before, 43 Twitter Backgrounds You’ve Never Seen On A List Before, and 27 More Designers You’ve Never Seen On A List Before. I explained my reasons for doing this in detail in this post: DESIGNERS: Why I Promote and Support You Rather Than Compete Against You.
Today I want to remind you how you can get involved. Whether you are a designer or developer yourself and are interested in a little self-promotion, or you know someone who you think deserves some recognition for the work they do and/or the type of person they are, all you have to do is leave your information in the comments below to be considered. Here’s a little more info…
- Behind The Avatar #1: Jack Franklin – 17-Year-Old Web Developer and Editor of The Web Squeeze
Today I will be starting a new feature here on the blog in which I will introduce you to people and blogs and websites who I have found to be of value to my education and life experience. Whether I follow them on Twitter or subscribe to their blog’s RSS feed or have interacted with them in some other way, these are people that I am getting to know and want to encourage you to do the same. In keeping with the spirit of previous posts on this blog, I want to try to bring to the forefront those that for one reason or another are not as well known as some of the more “popular” in their field.
This feature will appear at least once if not more per week. When I am recommending someone on Twitter it is a direct replacement of my previous #FollowFriday posts that I used to do each week, thanks to the bit I wrote a couple weeks ago about #FollowFridays Are Like Flowers At A Funeral. That got me to thinking I should recommend others as I am inspired by them, rather than waiting until Friday. Then I decided to expand outside of the Twitterverse and include many others that are becoming a part of my online life in some way.
The idea here is that there are countless avatars and websites and icons and blogs. But every single one of them has a person or people behind them. Get to know the person a little bit and you will be all the more interested and invested in what they have to say and share.
Jack Franklin’s AvatarSo today I am pleased to introduce you to Jack Franklin, a 17-year-old web developer who was born and raised in Falmouth, England.
- Google Wave: Interviews of Real People’s 1st Impressions (Not “Experts”)!
Yes, I was one of the lucky few who happened to know someone who was willing to send me an invite to preview Google Wave last week. You can read more about my experience and thoughts in an article I just wrote for Thoughtpick.com which will be published shortly (check back later today for the direct link). Once I added a few contacts I decided it would be a cool way to test out the collaborative functionality of Wave by conducting a small interview asking my contacts about their first impressions of the new technology. More about the process and experience is in the Thoughtpick article, but I wanted to share the interview transcripts here with you. Each of the users had some similar and some unique contributions, so I think you will find it beneficial as we all voyeuristically anticipate the widespread release of this phenomenal new tool, platform or whatever you want to call it.
- Readers Sound Off: What Do YOU Want On the bkmacdaddy Blog?
I have been writing on this blog for a few months now and I’m trying to get a handle on what would be most helpful and interesting for those that are reading, subscribing, or pass through every now and then. I watch statistics very closely in order to measure which posts get the most views, comments, tweets, Diggs, etc. It is very interesting to me to see how people respond and what catches readers’ interest. As I’ve stated many times here before, I definitely do NOT want to change the way I write or what I write about in order to increase visitor traffic. However, I definitely DO want to hear from you, the readers, what topics are of most interest to you so I can better communicate and share and inform.
- Influencers, Followers and Friends – Oh My!
Is social media unwittingly watering down the true meaning of these words and affecting our relationships in the offline, real world?
- #FollowFriday Again? Really? (Plus 8 More People I Think You Should Follow And Why)
I mean no disrespect to all of the amazing people who have recommended me on this and past Fridays. To the contrary, I am very flattered. I don’t just say that out of false humility. It truly floors me that almost 6,000 people have determined that what I put out on my Twitter updates is worth their time. I don’t look at it flippantly because I myself don’t just follow anyone. I choose people who I believe add value to my Twitter stream and my life, and if over time I change my mind, I unfollow them. In my opinion, to be followed by ANY amount of people is an honor. And a responsibility, I am learning.
So I want to make it clear that I am very grateful – as I’m sure everyone who gets recommended on Twitter’s #FollowFriday lists – to those that deem me worthy.
But have you noticed that more and more people are beginning to shy away from the massive, meaningless lists of reasonless recommendations that flood the Twitter stream at the end of each week? I have. I am starting to see many others recognize the #FF noise for what it is and move into the realm of giving more detailed explanations of people they recommend to others, much like what I have been doing for a few months now. I didn’t start it, but I certainly want to continue encouraging others to do it. Yes, it takes a bit more time than just clicking a few buttons and typing #FF. But if you REALLY want to recommend people to your followers, aren’t they worth the extra time?
- 8 People I Think You Should Follow On Twitter and Why
If you’ve followed my blog at all you have come to know my feelings about #FollowFriday on Twitter. If this is your first time here I have several posts explaining why I prefer to provide a more detailed explanation of why I am recommending people for you to follow. Please take a minute to read them if you can.
The bottom line for me is that I really enjoy interacting and sharing with the people I follow on Twitter, for many different reasons. If I just lumped them all into a list and said ‘Follow them’ I wouldn’t be doing them or you a service. I’d rather invite you to hear a little bit about why I follow each of them and make more informed decision for yourself.
So here are this week’s recommendations from me to you. Please check out the previous weeks’ too, because they are great people who I know you would enjot getting to know if you don’t already.
The bottom line for me is that I really enjoy interacting and sharing with the people I follow on Twitter, for many different reasons. If I just lumped them all into a list and said ‘Follow them’ I wouldn’t be doing them or you a service. I’d rather invite you to hear a little bit about why I follow each of them and make more informed decision for yourself.
So here are this week’s recommendations from me to you. Please check out the previous weeks’ too, because they are great people who I know you would enjot getting to know if you don’t already.
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