Archive for January, 2008

There are numerous reasons why a designer would want to start a personal project. They could include gaining relevant experience (see my earlier article on gaining experience), raising awareness, or possibly even making money. In reality it is almost impossible to not have a personal project give you all of these things. This is the reason that I highly suggest that designers, developers, and writers alike either contribute to a personal project or start one of their own.

It seems like every day I come across a new link to an eBook that claims it will revolutionize the way that I do this or that. Each time I research the eBook, it is nothing more than a poorly written word document that some no name person is selling for about 5 to 15 dollars. Most of the time this is information that can be easily found elsewhere on the internet. I am not saying that all the eBooks are bad, Cameron Moll has a great one relating to Mobile Web Design, and Freelance Switch has their wonderful offering. However these are the exception and not the rule.

Another tip of the hat to Elliot Jay Stocks, he has release quite possibly to most useful download I have come across in months. With the release of the “Starkers” theme Elliot has created the foundation that we designers need to quickly develop custom Wordpress themes. By removing all of the unnecessary code found within the basic Wordpress theme the process of starting from scratch is now infinitely easier. In addition our code will be extremely cleaner, and much easier to debug. I applaud Elliot for releasing the very thing that every Wordpress designer has dreamed of since they first time they touched a style.css file.

Today I was looking through the article archives on A List Apart, and I came across the article When You Are Your Own Client, Who Are You Going To Make Fun Of At The Bar? written by Jim Coudal. As many of you may know, I find Jim to be a revolutionary in thinking outside the client / designer relationship and fully embracing entrepreneurship. I have written about him numerous times. In this article Jim raises the question “Should my blog have a business?” which instantly stuck with me.

Well, I do not want to turn this blog into a site devoted to endless lists full of links, however I was called out when I wrote my first article about designs that do not have the typical “web 2.0” aesthetic. Here is the comment from Adam that led to this sequel:

Earlier today I came dangerously close to going over my monthly bandwidth limit on my old host. Because of this, and the rapid growth this site has received over the last month I have decided to purchase a domain and hosting package. There are a still few bugs to iron out from the move, but the site should be almost completely functional. This site has grown so fast in fact that I think I may have to design a new theme for positive space, possibly in more of a magazine format to accommodate all the new features I am planning.

So welcome to positivespaceblog.com, and make sure to update your bookmarks!

Recent discussions on this blog regarding the nature of web design, the 2.0 look, and where we should be taking inspiration from has led me to write this post with 10 of my favorite sites that do not look at all like the stereotypical web 2.0 site. I hope that this short grouping of sites can help explain to those who did not understand me before what type of sites I have been referencing. This is by no means a complete list, and there are new ones being added every day but these are definitely some of the best.

When was the last time that you had a great idea, but never saw it realized because you got too caught up in all the details? I have entire Moleskine books full of great ideas that were never realized because I got lost in the minutia. I was so caught up with all these details that nothing ever happened with the idea. Inevitably someone else comes along with a similar idea, and I have lost the competitive advantage I would have had by just getting started on the project. The repetition of this process over and over again has led me to one conclusion; stop thinking and start doing.

Why bother worrying about what could happen in the future, when you can get right into the project and actually see what will happen. Chances are that you will figure out whatever problems may arise, when they do. By over thinking what could happen, not only do your persuade yourself not to take risk, you also plan for contingencies that may never happen.

Why you may be worried about what the consequences of these actions could potentially be, I ask you to think about what you could be missing out on instead. What if your idea does take off? What if you get 300 potential clients knocking your door down asking you to work for them? Those are great problems to have, much better than worrying about where you will get your next client from, or what kind of project you will have to accept just to pay the bills. So next time you think you may have a good idea, why not try it out before writing it off? At the worst you will learn something along the way.

Recently I have come to the conclusion that current trends in web design are causing a complete lack of creativity. The whole “Web 2.0” design movement (if you can call it that) has already caused its damage. What do I mean by damage? While many people believe that these trends in web design have increased the importance of design in the eye of our users and clients. I however believe that this is not true. All that has been accomplished is that these people have developed a false perception of what good design is. So what does this mean? It means that we as designers now have a new hurdle to overcome. We must now fight even harder to effectively meet their communication needs. In addition to the typical requests for bigger logos and larger type, now we must fight to stray outside the world of glossy buttons, and reflected logos.

I recently ran across the article Do not download WordPress themes distributed by 3rd party sites on the 5thiryone blog. Apparently there are a number of 3rdparty free wordpress theme sites that are popping up all over the net that are including malicious code in the themes. What does this mean? Basically, the sites are placing small snippets of code in the themes that could potentially open up your server for their Denial of Service (DoS) attacks. This is very bad for your as a webmaster because not only does it waste your precious bandwidth, but it can also get your ip banned and cause numerous problems with your hosting possibly even getting your hosting canceled.