Software developers often have to wear multiple hats in the midst of time constraints, small teams and lack of support manpower. So it’s no secret that software developers naturally aren’t very good at providing support to users. As one who has been on both sides of the fence, it only makes to describe what users of software don’t care to hear when they’re sending you support emails and tweets. Read More
If you have ever cared about designing a website, typography has always been an itch rarely scratched considering the support provided both legacy and modern browsers. But that is all changing right in front our eyes with such tools as Typekit and Kernest. Today I will talk about Typekit and why it’s not quite the tool it needs to be.
Since most web designers design first in photoshop or [your favorite design app here], Typekit does not do much good. Unless I can actually download those fonts for use in my pre-browser workflow, how can it possibly make sense to use typekit for a real project? Sure I can change my workflow to sketch designs and then go straight to the browser, but sometimes you just want to see how two fonts work together and that is difficult with Typekit.
If typekit offered some sort of 30-day “design time” trial on font downloads, that would be most awesome. I’d even pay a fee for it. It would give me enough time to test the fonts before I go to “production” or the browser.
Typekit is great. It is exactly how I expected this kind of solution to look and work. The font rendering is very consistent across browsers and darn near instant and the implementation is simple and portable. What more do you want? Font selection? Oh yeah, they have that too!
The font selection is awesome. But after riding the coat tails of Arial, Georgia and Tahoma for the past 10 years, I can’t say that it’s easy to get use to expanded horizon of typography options. I found myself looking for fonts that resemble what I’ve been using in the past. But that changes after a few tweaks to the imagination.
Like I said, I’d love to see more respect for pre-browser workflows (aka photoshop, fireworks, what have you). Another thing I’d like see is faster font rendering. I know, I know. It’s blazing fast for a first run, but dude, sometimes it’s not that fast and almost comparable to sIFR (Yeah, I just went there).
It’s no secret that I once was a decent web designer. I loved everything about it from conception to development. But my wings were eventually clipped because it became more about the race (aka career) and not the craft. Needless to say, I haven’t designed much of anything as of late and the things I have designed have been total failures. At one time I use to do both print and web design. But over time my burners eventually burned out.
Guess you can say I’ve given up on design. I’ve digressed into a spectator who once knew what it was like to see a design built with sweat and tears, be launched into the wild. The smell of the servers as they spin up to serve my awesome pixels, the click of my harddrive as I’m…alright, so maybe it’s not as poetic. But man I do miss design.
Brett Favre and I have a lot in common. We love what we do. We never want to stop doing it. But at some point we have to take a break and realign, rediscover and realize the real reason we wake up to do what we do.
I’m starting over. I’m emptying my portfolio, blanking my LinkedIn profile and online resume(s). I’m going zero on my entire history as a designer. It’s all burning down today.
The designer I was before today is no longer the designer I want to be going forward. Sure, the work of my past could be something to keep around, but I’m not really proud of that work anymore. Lessons were learned and those will stay with me forever.
Most would probably advise against this journey I’m embarking on, but it’s something I’ve wanted to do for a couple years but never really got up the guts to pull the trigger.
Being a designer “with no experience” will be fun. I promise. I’ll vlog about it as well.
It’s rare that a movie can actually make me feel really good at the end. Avatar is a James Cameron joint that had me on the edge of my seat for the full two and half hours and let me down nicely at the end.
Unfortunately lots of folks out there are scolding James Cameron for giving us a boat full of eye candy but no depth in the writing. Frankly that’s just wrong. Read More
Whether you’ve read the books or not, you surely know of the Twilight series. It is a tale of a human girl and a vampire (and a werewolf) falling in love. If you enjoy werewolves and vampires fighting while caught in a love triangle, this is the ticket.
Although most (as in non-teenagers and mature highschoolers) would find it difficult to believe that New Moon eclipsed The Dark Knight by just under $3 million at the box office on opening night. $70 million is now the new record to beat for a single showing of a single film here in the states.
Now on to the good stuff.
We reside in a country that lives and breathes on the media it produces across it’s numerous platforms. TV is probably the most ubiquitous medium from which we consume our media.
Folks all over the country give their time and money to watching an endless run of television shows ranging from news to reality game shows. But really, how much do we watch? Is it too much?
There was plenty to love about cable. I particularly loved on-demand (movies, tv shows, etc any time). If you could only have just on-demand and nothing else, it would be perfect. But that was not the case. The desire did not justify the means to afford it.
Over time my wife and I developed a sort of addiction to cable. We found ourselves watching shows we’d never watch otherwise just because we could. I mean, it’s 200+ channels, there’s gotta be something interesting to watch? Right?
The effects of cable television had adversely effected my personality causing me to feel like a drone than a real person. I use to be fun, outgoing and sometimes off-the-wall. But when you sit in front of a television watching completely mind-numbing shows for 3 or more hours a day, the effects add up while ultimately draining your interest in everything else.
Okay. So maybe that’s all a bit dramatic. But the difference in my attitude before and after cable are night and day. I find myself wanting to get outside more, talking to others seems easier and my wife and I’s relationship has grown even more so as a result of not watching cable.
Cable is not all bad. There are a lot of really great shows like The Office, House, Modern Family, Family Guy or Ghosthunters and plenty others. These are all shows I can watch on my own time on Hulu.com.
What is great about Hulu is that I cut my TV watching down to only the very minimum. Instead of 3 hours a day, it’s now just a few hours a week. Additionally with iTunes Store at my disposal there really is no reason to have cable. I could even buy 3 shows with season passes on iTunes and still save loads of money over cable.
Other folks may have a better handle on the amounts of TV they watch. But I’m one those dudes that sort of grew up on television. Giving a large section of time to TV was common and so that carried into my adult life and the effects of it were negative for me.
But all in all I’d recommend anyone to try not watching TV for one month or simply watching only the shows that really draw your utmost interest. You’ll see a difference. I promise.
Taking pictures is easy until you actually want to communicate something specific. Chasing artistic value brings more variables into the equation more so than taking a snap of your friends at the beach. Interpreting a moment or a scene for the purpose of communicating is most of the battle. The settings of your camera are maybe 20% of that battle.
I’ve gone on several photo walks and when I see a scene, I’m rarely ever thinking about my camera settings. Of course I have some basic settings to gain good exposure and white balance, but for the most part I’m lost somewhere in the viewfinder. I think it’s important to care more about the composition and the story you’re trying to tell. If that comes as a second thought, you’re just exercising camera settings.
However, the camera will always afford you some benefits in regards to getting quality shots. But the camera is at the end of the quality equation. Your images may be sharp as a tack, properly exposed and perfectly white-balanced, but if you put no thought into your composition and what you’re communicating, none of the previous items matter at all.
As always, I’m learning as I go and sharing it. While it may sound officious, it’s only one perspective among many in this space we call photography so take it for a grain of salt.
Someone on twitter posted a comic strip that really got me thinking about belief and what it means. In the dictionary belief defined as:
an acceptance that a statement is true or that something exists
Atheism is defined as follows:
the theory or belief that God does not exist
Atheism is a belief system hinging on the merits of a god that doesn’t exist. Often it’s not just the god of the holy bible, but just plainly any god (i.e, Islam, Buddhism, Wicken, etc, etc). My question is how is it (more) reasonable to believe in something where the foundations of those beliefs are based in nothing? It sounds equally absurd to believe in the god of the bible or the god(s) of islam or the power rangers. Atheism seems like a bigger, riskier step of faith than any other faith-based religion simply because they believe in the non-existence of something. They gamble on the idea that life will come to a dismal end resulting in the beginning of non-existence.
Okay so let’s use something else other than god. Let’s use racism. I’ve been affected by it as a teen. But in my adult years I pay no mind to it, taking an almost atheistic approach to racism, believing it doesn’t exist for me. That doesn’t equate to it’s non-existence for others. Frankly, racism is a very real, a very existent issue in many people’s lives. Just not mine.
This leads me to think that Atheism is relative only to the individual who subscribes to it. The logic and perspective of an atheist is no more valid, right or wrong than that of a christian, a buddhist or a muslim or even a kid who worships the power rangers.
Believing that something does not exist isn’t a license to believe that it doesn’t exist for others. No can really ever truly know that God does or not exist unless they ascend into the heavens themselves. But fortunately a lot of us aren’t that picky and would rather accept the little blessings in daily life as proof that their is a God who loves and cares for them. But love is built to be reciprocated. You can’t expect love unless you’re willing to give it and the same goes for belief.
Later.
For weeks I’ve been doing insurmountable amounts of research on entry-level DSLR cameras. Long story, short; Nikon D40 and Canon Rebel XS are premium choices for entry-level buyers. For me there is a larger problem at hand as I am not trying to be an enthusiast or hobbyist. I’m out for blood… err… money. In other words, I’m learning to be a professional photographer.
Why Designing for the Web in Photoshop Sucks
Web design is almost not even a real industry without Adobe Photoshop. I mean seriously, think about it. You can’t walk into any web designer’s office/workspace without seeing at least a trial of Photoshop. It’s a staple of web design. Well, a staple in any creative field for that matter. After all these years, I’ve come to hate it. It’s time to [partially] remove it from the tool belt. Hit the jump to find out my reasons. Read More »