I’m always reading these “how to blog” lists, well not so much of late, but I was reading them.  They all say consistency is key!

“Blog on a consistent basis, if it’s one time a week, then make sure you do it…”

In reading that, it seemed easy enough - but nope! Anyhow, it’s retarded for me to even blog about blogging (no offense to the retards who read my blog). I’ve been so busy doing that I haven’t had time to really tell about any of it - so here goes.

Wait! I have to share this video from Home Skillet Fest - I think it’s rad.

Ok, here goes…

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I’ve talked about education before, but yesterday I was blown away (again) by someone who decided to forgo school (for the most part) and forge on with a self-taught design career.  The first person I met that did this I worked alongside for a few years (at our first and only jobs) and was always blown away by his natural talent.  I suppose I can “lump” myself in the self-taught category, but I did go to college, just not for design.  I didn’t self-teach however, I borrowed, stole, and pillaged from a very talented design team.

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Just like most mornings, I woke up and checked my Twitter. The night before put us at the Gingerman where we drank a couple of pints of Lonestar and conversed with several geeks - doesn’t get much better. Dustin Diaz, of JavaScript and Google fame, brought his big camera, to which I proceeded to make obvious “your lense makes me feel inadequate” jokes. Yep, that’s me - taking the obvious one-liners and using them for personal gain. It may have garnered a chuckle, I’m not sure.

Jeff and I got back to our room and I use the words “passed out” here, although it was somewhere between passing out and going to bed - do you know the difference? Anyhow, the alarm came quickly and we got up, showered, and headed down to the complimentary continental breakfast. We’re staying at the Hampton - shitty wi-fi, fantastic continental, take your pick. One more good thing about the Hampton is it attracts a lot of the industry “rockstars.” Shit, Jeff and I were there, and we’re pretty important. I jest, but the highly talented Shaun Inman was there and I did get to pick up the size medium American Apparel Mint T-shirts he brought. Thank you Shaun - it was an awkward moment, but it was never dull - my name is George.

After all this we made our way to the conference, what follows are my notes from the different panels/presentations, enjoy. Read the rest of this entry »

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Wired wrote about it, but even before that it was in our hearts and on our minds. If trade-secrets ruled the day in the 20th century - transparency will rule the day in the 21st. The words competition and secrecy will be exchanged with collaboration and openness. Companies that fail to see this will find it harder and harder to gain the devotion of us, the “e” generation.

The “e” means we are empowered. As consumers, as professionals, as social networkers, as voters, and as evangelists. Believe me, you want us on your side. What we lack in numbers we make up for in determination and knowledge. Leveraging the internet to make real changes is second nature - and it will happen. We can’t be bought or sold by a television network - we really aren’t into TV, it’s too - linear, too “photoshopped,” or too fake. Our real news media has become satirical and our satirical news media has become real, and we recognize that.

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It would be a marvelous world indeed, if every comp/design ever produced was received with adornment and praise. The truth is, as designers, when we submit any comp - we expect that. This type of speculation is perhaps a bit naive - but we wouldn’t put anything out we didn’t think was founded in solid design principles and decisions. Well, that’s not totally true, occasionally we do have to put out work we feel could be better, given the proper amount of time. But for the most part an ill-received comp is not unlike a cold cup of water to a sleeping face, shocking.

“We hate it”

If one could predict what projects are going to go awry and why - perhaps the “Designer’s Crisis” could be avoided. It seems there are a few situations I have found in my limited experience which have a higher risk than others. It’s tough to design for designers, work under tight deadlines, and to follow someone else’s brand guidelines while resisting the “Designer’s Touch”.

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We designer types are a finicky breed. Rarely is something just right and we don’t really like the words time and budget. Good work takes time, a lot of it. That being said, when I launched version 2.0 of eleven3.com I was really excited, I felt I had achieved good work. I’m not sure if it’s just me, or if other designers do this as well, but when I design something I like; I stare and stare and stare.

With any creative work, the longer you expose yourself to it, the more stale it becomes. That’s why, about three months ago, I got the itch to redesign my site.

So here we are, one year ago and change I launched version 2.0 of eleven3. Today I launch version 3.0 - and yes I am just as excited as my last redesign. There are a lot of reasons for my excitement, but mainly it’s just a new look, a new focus, and more flexibility. Gone is the rigid and closed-source Movable Type and arriving is the flexible, fluid, Wordpress.

Continue reading for the off chance of relating to the requirements of the relaunch, the design phase, the challenges of coding the front-end, and the use of Wordpress and a plethora of plugins that now make up the site. A lot of work went into it, my hopes are that it is well received. Read the rest of this entry »

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Lately I have been rummaging through old printed material in search for things I really like. This is all part of a top secret super project, which I cannot mention. Most of the stuff I have been finding has been of actual printed pieces. I feel they are more unique, and in using them, I will most likely never see them anywhere else.

However, this is not to say I will never use another source for inspiration. This came across my radar via Lifehacker as a, “Download free vintage children’s books at the Rosetta Project,” post. To me, I saw a gold mine of old content to use in design. It’s a mashup world.

Enjoy the long list of scanned children’s books. There are a ton of stories and I would love to see someone do something. As for my top secret, it has been spurred by my disdain for Movable Type (which barely runs on my servers anymore) and my love of something new.

More on that soon.

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