Good design comes with experience, but also revising and taking your time. Design isn’t about owning a tool on your computer or having a folder full of free fonts. Design is about taking an idea and creativity communicating it to your audience. This article will describe a few key steps that I take with every...
Nothing is perfect on the web. We are always changing, growing, and evolving. From the responsive design approach, the various available devices, the growing demographics of our audience, and the constant progression of technology; it’s time we have a Wabi-Sabi perspective of the web. Wabi-sabi (???) represents a comprehensive Japanese world view or aesthetic centered on the acceptance of transience and imperfection. The...
My top list of albums for 2016. Spotify playlist link Bon Iver – 22, A Million The Album Leaf – Between Waves Chance The Rapper – Coloring Book / All We Got Russian Circles – Guidance Nothing – Tired of Tomorrow David Bazan – Blanco Tycho – Epoch Savages – Adore Life Beach Slang –...
As a designer, it gets hard to become inspired. It’s one of those constant struggles where you look and search and seek to find inspiration in every place around you. This post is about how to find inspiration and what I do, personally, to become inspired. Hopefully this may, ahem, inspire you to find some...
I was never a flower child. I did not grow up in the 1960’s. I never “found myself” at Woodstock. I never saw Jimi Hendrix or the Beatles play live. Aside from all of this, I connect with this culture because of my obsession with Volkswagen’s. This is the story about my obsession. Growing up,...
Driving decisions on dollars and conversion is half the battle – keeping design human centered is key. I sat in a room and listened to an executive describe design direction and his recommendation on color palettes based on his personal preference. This decision of a color battle had been ongoing at this company for years....
While at Disney, I served as part of the weekly Style Guide Counsel. The goal was two-fold – 1. To present new work and ideas; then discuss how these fit into the overall brand strategy with the design platform (Note: when I say “design platform” I mean everything from development, ux, content and visual work)....
What’s stopping you from pursuing your dreams? Yourself. It’s perfectly okay to not know what you want to do, even though you want to do something different than what you’re doing now. Being stuck at a dead-end job, having uninspiring people in your life, or relationship problems can do that to a person. It’s totally...
Design is best served when you tear something completely apart to understand how it can best be put back together, finding all flaws and areas to improve along the way. Don’t be afraid to destroy something, only to rebuild it from the ground up to make it better than it was. You have to be...
This is pretty “stream of thought”. I’m going Jack Kerouac on this article. I’ll be honest, I’ve spent the good half of the past decade designing things for the validation and admiration of others. I wanted my work to be loved and adored by other designers. I wanted to be invited to speaking events and...