March 2011
1 post
A wrote a couple things recently
I have neglected this tumblog quite a bit but thought I would let anyone out there reading this that I wrote about my experience at SXSW this year here:
http://jbrewer.me/sxsw2011.html
And then I had the privilege of writing an article for Typekit, Type study: Choosing fallback fonts, where I talk about how I go about making sure my fallback font-stack is bulletproof so that the spirit of the...
December 2010
2 posts
CMS Poll Results
Yesterday on Twitter I asked:
“CMS poll: Need a simple, designer oriented solution, multiple authors, pages & blog. What do you recommend? (will share results)”
The poll yielded some interesting results. As you might expect, Wordpress came out on top as the most recommended solution. The next highest recommended CMS was Symphony CMS, which surprised me. I wonder if there is some...
“Jon Hicks:
“I normally design ‘in the browser’ but it was essential for...”
– http://hicksdesign.co.uk/journal/the-story-of-shelf
October 2010
2 posts
I Don't Miss My Feeds
I forgot to set Google Reader as my Home Page on my new laptop and completely forgot about my RSS feeds for 3 weeks.
Seriously, folks, this is what happened. Now, mind you, I am one of those guys that would always defend my RSS feeds. When people around me dismissed their RSS feeds as information overload, I swore that mine were relevant and necessary for me as a practicing designer.
And then...
September 2010
1 post
August 2010
2 posts
Maniacal Rage: The Problem with Facebook's... →
Here’s the thing about Facebook that really gets under my skin: They are slowly incorporating the features from every other independent web application on the internet… That’s the problem with Facebook. They are slowly destroying independent web applications with boring versions that immediately win due to Facebook’s population (which at this point is the 3rd largest country on earth)....
Amazing Insights
There have been 2 blog posts in the last couple days that have really struck a chord, not just with me but apparently with quite a few others as well. I am very thankful to be apart of a community of people that are thinking about and sharing their discoveries and gleanings of life. here are a few excerpts from each that struck a chord with me.
Ryan Freitas wrote 35 Lessons in 35 Years:
- There...
July 2010
3 posts
Bobulate: See no boundaries →
To create patterns is natural. In fact, not only as designers, but also as humans, we make sense of a wild environment by taking haphazard shapes and concepts and giving them form and meaning. We categorize them: poster, website, building, typography, interactive, stone, and so on. Creating…
Brilliantly stated.
Biome — the making of a typeface →
There is nothing like getting a glimpse into the creative process and design decisions that push a typeface this way and that. Kudos to John Boardley for the layout of the article!
June 2010
4 posts
“It’s not hard to see why innovation is becoming the design world’s...”
– http://observatory.designobserver.com/entry.html?entry=3857
“Here’s the thing. I need to trust what gets me up, what gets me inspired, what...”
– The “always-making-me-think” Liz Danzico: On Trust
May 2010
1 post
Project Headlines →
I love this idea: an ongoing daily/weekly project in which I design an 11×17 poster relating to a particular article I’ve read that day. Not really much more to it than that! Just an exercise to keep myself informed with current events, challenge myself with dealing with content and context visually…
I am extremely tempted to start something similar myself. I always make the excuse that I...
March 2010
8 posts
4 tags
Armitage from DTF
Armitage is a new typeface from DTF.
“Sturdy and humane, Armitage renders type with vintage American warmth. Even with a subtle sparkle Armitage stays humble to let words work.
Rather than build on recent trends, Armitage starts over, derived from designs of the late nineteenth century. Designer James Puckett cast a wide net for source material. Letters from sign manuals, inscriptions,...
“Even if it is true that the average man seems most comfortable with the...”
– Paul Rand Thoughts on Design
2 tags
BRANDON GROTESQUE
Brandon Grotesque is a sans serif family of six weights plus matching italics, designed by Hannes von Döhren.
Influenced by the geometric-style sans serif faces that were popular during the 1920s and 30s, the fonts are based on geometric forms that have been optically corrected for better legibility. Brandon Grotesque has a functional look with a warm touch.
The Regular weight is free through...
Normals →
I have been harping on this one lately and wish that it could be implanted into the brain of every designer, developer, startup founder and anyone else suffering from being part of the “technostocracy”
bobulate:
Spencer Fry on the definition of “normals:”
A Normal is maybe not an everyday person in every way, but has limited Internet knowledge. They certainly don’t read TechCrunch,...
Frank Chimero has a blog.: Enthusiasm →
Well said:
If you translate “enthusiasm” from its Greek origin, it means “to be filled with God.”
Being filled with God is a pretty ideal, state, huh? If you think about all the great philosophers talking about the supreme state of a person, and asking “What is the good life?” it seems to me that being…
Visual funnels →
Now to apply this to designing on the web…
bobulate:
All things that can be organized, will be:
At the shop where I work we just toss loose screws, bolts, nails and other bits and pieces of hardware from the workbenches and the floor into a bucket and, every couple of years when the bucket gets too full, somebody has to dump the whole mess out and sort everything back to where it belongs....
February 2010
3 posts
Just remember...
Just remember where you came from.
Just remember you, too, were once the “new guy.”
Just remember you don’t have all the answers.
Just remember communication erases confusion.
Just remember you are capable of more than you think.
Just remember there is always another way.
Just remember the sun will rise tomorrow.
Just remember your response matters.
Just remember a...
Teehan+Lax's iPad GUI PSD →
I completely agree with Neven Mrgan here. Please pass this on!
mrgan:
I’m linking to this attempt at recreating the iPad UI as a warning, since you may see it linked other places; the warning is, don’t use this for any sort of production work. It was a lot of effort Teehan and Lax to put this together, but that doesn’t change the fact that it was a sloppy effort.
Bevel and Emboss used for...
January 2010
14 posts
Thoughts on the iPad
dkeithrobinson:
While at first I was pretty underwhelmed by iPad, loving the form factor but not all that impressed with the software. As the announcement went on though, I got more and more excited. About the prospect for game designers and content publishers primarily.
If this takes off, and at a $499 introductory price point, there is no reason why it shouldn’t, it could be a huge first...
The brick approach →
bobulate:
Unexpected wisdom from Will Smith talking with Charlie Rose on approaching tasks:
You don’t set out to build a wall. You don’t say I’m going to build the biggest, baddest, greatest wall that’s every been built. You don’t start there. You say I’m going to lay this brick as perfectly as a brick can be laid. …. You do that every single day, and soon you have a wall. (~23:00)
I’ve always...
Ribbon Hero turns learning Office into a game →
I completely agree with Keith and will probably need to re-read this a few times to absorb all of the awesome in here.
dkeithrobinson:
I’d consider this a must read for all UX/UI designers interested in the use of game mechanics in their designs. Actually, it’s probably something anyone interested in UX or UI design should read.
Related: Ribbon Hero on CNET
“I have essays to write, designs to finish, sketches to make, and friends and...”
– Frank Chimero
Obsessing over the details
Last night I re-tweeted something that Brandon Walkin said: “The Teehan+Lax iPhone PSD is indirectly responsible for reducing the quality of UI on the App Store.”
I got a few replies this morning asking what I meant by it, so here goes.
First off, the guys at Teehan+Lax do some great work and the first iteration of the iPhone PSD (and subsequent updates) were a god-send to...
The Best Laid Plans...
Ahhhh… what grand plans I had for the beginning of 2010. A complete overhaul of my personal sites/branding, a new collaboration with Josh Porter, updating my wife’s website, and numerous things at work.
However, leading the design team at a startup and being a good husband and father took up a bit more time than I had planned on and so the only thing that got out the door was 52 Weeks...
Frank Chimero nails it again
viafrank:
Faucet gets turned on. No water comes out. The plumber comes. Makes some noise. Bangs around a little bit. Faucet gets turned on. Poof. Water comes out. I envy that.
But, did the faucet elicit the right feelings? Is the faucet optimized and properly commented for future plumbers? What’s the ROI on properly functioning indoor plumbing? If we hire 9 plumbers, can they do 9 hours...
“Design communicates on every level. It tells you where you are, cues you to what...”
– Jeffrey Zeldman, Style vs Design.
“And even if what we do grabs someone’s attention for a season, we have to...”
– Joshua Blankenship | Blog » On The Entitlement Baggage of Social Media (and Human Nature)
3 tags
So we started this little project...
www.52weeksofux.com—a Josh & Josh production. The totally awesome Mr. Josh Porter and I started this project because we wanted to try and simplify down some of the principles that go into creating meaningful experiences. We both love simple, clear interactions and have a desire for people to make it over the hurdles often thrown in front of them (many times purely by accident/ignorance) and...
A practical boarding pass redesign
timoni:
Improving the air travel experience is something of a passion of mine, so when I saw Tyler Thompson’s boarding pass redesign, I was intrigued. His article is well-thought-out and provoking, but unfortunately his redesigns don’t address a lot of the practical issues that airline travelers and airlines have to deal with.
Tim Morgan discussed some of the obvious shortcomings in his summary...
“In personal work, optimism trumps experience.”
– (via designethos)
December 2009
11 posts
Travel
This year saw lots of short trips, hops-skips-and-jumps here and there. The following is a list of places I stayed for at least one night this year:
San Diego (permanent residence until July)
San Francisco (permanent residence since July)
San Jose
Denver
Los Angeles
Irvine
Well, that was a short list. Might need to expand the travel plans next year and try and make it to the east coast—I...
“I know the price of success: dedication, hard work & an unremitting devotion...”
– Frank Lloyd Wright
“You have to find something that you love enough to be able to take risks, jump...”
– George Lucas (via i-peach-feng-shui) (via minimalmac)
Font Submission: Raleway
theleagueofmoveabletype:
RALEWAY, submitted by mattmcinerney
Raleway is an elegant sans-serif typeface, designed in a single thin weight. It is a display face that features both old style and lining numerals, as well as a stylistic alternate inspired by more geometric sans-serif typefaces than it’s neo-grotesque inspired default character set. If you’d like to see more characters, check out...
1 tag
“‘Hardcore’ design is design focused on results. We consider and...”
– Eric Karjaluoto, F*ck Style 