...On A Long Piece Of String

The Wrong Message

2011-12-28T17:16:35Z

Back in 2009, I wrote a little piece on Burnout for A List Apart, which, while cathartic for me personally, also it turns out, meant a lot to many others. So it pains me to come across opinion pieces such as the one published a couple months ago by Applied Arts, which suggest that in order to succeed in the advertising/design world you have to be prepared to essentially sell your soul.

I saw and read the article the day it was posted and although I didn't intend on commenting on it, instead just hoping it might disappear into the ether, it's bothered me ever since, so here we are.

I'll give the author, Stuart, a bit of a break insomuch as I'm sure he's well-meaning and a perfectly fine fellow (we met briefly after I spoke during Typecon in New Orleans earlier this year), but it's sending the wrong message. Frankly, I call bullshit.

And I quote:

You don't get into advertising in order to stroll in at 9:26 and stroll out at 4:48. You don't get into it for the balanced diets or eight-hour sleeps.

No, perhaps not. But it doesn't mean the expectation is wrong, that it's not possible to remain excited, to love what you do, and even thrive in the industry without sacrificing a balanced life outside that world.

Sure there are times when an early morning, late night, or spat of weekend work might be required (too often the product of someone's poor planning or project management), but as soon as that door is opened, it's almost impossible to close. Such behaviour should be a rare exception, not the norm. As soon as it's a regular occurrence, you're in trouble.

Unfortunately, those new to the industry, such as Stuart, quickly fall victim to this so-called reality which perpetuates the problem. It's a slippery slope and a one-way ticket to burnout.

The worst part is that he knew going in. He was explicitly told to expect it. That it's normal -- be ready to give up your life so someone else can reap the real rewards.

Before I accepted the offer, I called a couple friends who were familiar with the agency, who uniformly said one thing: So long as you're ready to work late and on weekends (if needed), Prox is a great place to work with a killer atmosphere.

A "killer atmosphere" is nice, but it's hardly everything. It's not enough to make up for what you'll sacrifice in the process -- something typically not apparent until it's already too late. It's not enough when you're automatically nominated to be a punching bag for the agency (or their clients), or subject to someone else's misguided sense of normalcy.

The only way to truly put an end to the problem is to say "no" to this reality. For yourself. For everyone that will follow after. Unfortunately for Stuart, he went in anyway, which meant he was already screwed.

QuickStart

2011-12-20T06:01:31Z

Towards the end of October, the opportunity presented itself (thanks to the handsome and charming Brian Warren) to contribute to the upcoming 7th edition of Peachpit's seminal HTML and CSS Visual Quickstart Guide book which will be released on December 27th, 2011. Although the majority of the heavy lifting of updating the book was handled by Bruce Hyslop, Brian and I each contribued wholly new chapters to the book.

HTML5 and CSS3 Visual QuickStart Guide (7th edition) from Peachpit Press

In those new chapters, Brian provides an introduction to the use of the CSS @font-face syntax, and I cover a handful of the new(-ish) CSS properties such as border-radius, box-shadow, text-shadow, multiple backgrounds, and background gradients.

Because this book is aimed at newbies, it was an interesting challenge in restraint, and also my ability to distill some complicated properties, along with the use of vendor prefixes down to something a mere mortal can comprehend. If you've ever spent any time with the background gradient syntax for example, it's... um, complicated. That I managed to write something which makes learning the basics of CSS3 gradients simple, I consider that a win.

Aside from some minor aches and pains writing and editing in Word, the process was both a great learning experience and fun. And I, of course, would be remiss to not mention the expert editorial guidance provided by Bruce and our editors Cliff and Robyn.

Brian and I have some ideas cooking for something new, so I suspect this is not the last you'll see from us in book form. Until then, you can pick up a copy of the HTML5 & CSS3 Visual QuickStart Guide from Peachpit or Amazon.com, or if you happen to be in Canada, from Amazon.ca, or Chapters/Indigo.

An Artist

2011-11-22T19:22:51Z

American poet, novelist, social, and cultural commentator Charles Bukowski was perhaps best known for being what Time magazine called "a laureate of American lowlife," whose writing focused on the most ordinary and mundane aspects of life.

An intellectual is someone who says a simple thing in a difficult way. An artist is someone who says a difficult thing in a simple way.

While considering whether or not to attend a book reading by Steve Jobs biograher Walter Isaacson tonight in Toronto, I was reminded of the above quote from Bukowski. It defines Steve for me perfectly, and equally contrasts with McLuhan, who most would say falls into the opposite camp of people who expressed simple ideas in a complex way. I like to think McLuhan just made you work a bit to understand.

Designing for Emotion/Mobile First

2011-10-18T03:17:58Z

The morning of October 18th (that's today) brings not just one, but two new titles from the good people at A Book Apart -- Designing for Emotion by Aarron Walter, and Mobile First by Luke Wroblewski. While both books are important in their own right, along with the previously released (and reviewed) Responsive Web Design by Ethan Marcotte, they close the loop on a larger story about transforming the thinking behind how web, interactive media, and mobile apps are designed and created.

Designing for Emotion and Mobile First books from A Book Apart

The funny thing about the opportunity to review these books in advance is that as much as I might have a lot to say about them, my inclination is to let them speak for themselves. A lengthy review feels contrary to the spirit of the books themselves.

Instead, I'd like to make or reinforce a few observations about the series and it's overarching relevance to designers, developers, content strategists, project managers, business executives, and everyone in between.

As with previous titles, HTML5 for Web Designers, CSS3 for Web Designers, and The Elements of Content Strategy, they paint an unapologetic picture of what the web could be and where those leading the charge are taking it. These books are ammunition.

Because I was already familiar with many of the ideas expressed throughout both books, what became evident was that I wasn't the primary audience. Ultimately, the real readership is not the early adopters. Those people -- myself included -- don't need convincing. Early adopters have already read the articles and blog posts, or heard Aarron and Luke speak on their respective topics. Nevertheless, I found myself nodding in agreement pretty much the entire way through both.

Newness of the content to early adopters aside, it's the relevancy, timeliness, length, and quality of these books, and the time required to comfortably read them that positions them to hold the attention of clients, managers, executives, and other decision makers (and yes, your common design nerd); to convince those people to explore a new approach, to make the web more expressive, more beautiful, and more future friendly.

Should you pick up copies of one or both of these books? Yes. Should you pick up copies to share with a manager, client, or co-worker who's less enlightened than you? Yes... yes you should.

Jobs

2011-10-06T00:28:28Z

LIke pretty much every one of my peers, I'm gutted at the news of Steve's passing. I don't know what I'd be doing now if not for what Apple and Steve have created or enabled. Thank you Steve, for everything.

Photo of Steve Jobs from the Apple homepage

Pinned

2011-09-29T12:27:53Z

I was hopeful that Yahoo! selling off Delicious to the former founders of YouTube would be a smooth transition and that whatever they had planned to reinvigorate the service would pay off (reasonably) quickly. Now that the initial switch is complete -- I'm not so sure.

Perhaps it was just a matter of time before I came to my senses, but I have, and last night I quickly (and painlessly) made the jump over to Pinboard.

While I plan on keep my old Delicious account active, it's reached the end of the line and I need to find a way to flag it as inactive. In the meantime though, the Elsewhere links that either linked out to Delicious or pulled data from there have already been transitioned over to use Pinboard instead. Easy peasy. You did know that's what all that was about right?

And of course that just reminded me of the one thing I did forget to switch. Be right back...

Using Web Fonts in Photoshop

2011-09-12T03:27:11Z

The other day I was invited to take a peek behind the curtain at a new web font related technology that’s nearly ready to hit the streets from the fine folks at Extensis. Needless to say I was very interested and excited by what they’ve been up to.

But first a bit of context…

How (Most) Web Designers Work Today

During TypeCon in New Orleans this past July, one of the things Brian, Luke and I covered during our talk on web fonts was process — exactly how (most) web designers work, and what happens to the particular artifacts we produce as a result of that work. In particular, design mockups, and most importantly though, how those relate to a web designer’s somewhat contentious relationship with fonts.

Web designers have wanted the same control over typography print designers have taken for granted for decades, including being able to use the same variety of typefaces. Hacks such as sIFR and Cufon aside, it’s really only during the last two years, thanks to the encouraging work of type designers, foundries and browser makers, that the tide has really turned and we’re inching closer to that reality.

Unlike print though, where designers create final artwork files that are the final output of the design phase of a project (a newspaper advertisement, a book layout, product packaging), the large majority of web designers create mockups, a transitional artifact created for the benefit of clients and others involved in producing the actual end product — a functioning website.

Mockups are not the end result, and so purchasing desktop font licenses for what is effectively a throwaway product is counter-intuitive. Web fonts are part of the real end product of a web designer’s work, not their desktop equivalents. But that’s not the way we’ve had to work.

And it’s certainly not that web designers don’t want to pay for fonts — quite the opposite in fact. Web designers have flocked to web font services such as FontDeck, Typekit, and WebINK, and more will come as these services are more readily adopted by those beyond the early adopters.

During our talk at TypeCon, we further explored a suggestion which originated from Elliot Jay Stocks illustrating how web fonts might be integrated into a desktop design application such as Photoshop. In July no such thing existed; it was just an idea. And while the software is not available quite yet, I can happily say that it does now thanks to the team behind WebINK, Extensis’ web font service.

Introducing the Web Font Plugin for Photoshop

To address this disconnect in how web designers work, Extensis has created a piece of software that bridges their WebINK web font service and Photoshop, thus allowing web designers to use web fonts as though they were traditional desktop fonts in the popular design tool.

The WebINK Web Font plugin for Photoshop CS5

The web font plugin for Photoshop will be included with Suitcase Fusion 3 and available in beta in the coming weeks. Most importantly, it will continue to function beyond the software’s 30 day trial. There’s no requirement to purchase or use Suitcase — it’s simply the delivery mechanism for the plugin itself and assists in integrating the plugin with their WebINK web font service.

At the moment the functionality is simple and straightforward. Once the software is installed, open the Panel in Photoshop, sign in to your account and start working with their library of web fonts.

Transferring PSD files to others is seamless too, provided they have a WebINK account and the plugin installed. Designers will also be free to create JPEG, PNG and PDF files without watermarks or licensing restrictions beyond anything they’re already used to. Of course, there are still a few unanswered questions such as what happens without a network connection, but it’s a very promising start and raises the bar for competing web font services. Nudge, nudge Typekit and FontDeck.

Update (September 12, 2011)

Extensis has soft-launched the software’s microsite and you can download a 30 day free trial of Suitcase Fusion 3 and the Web Font plugin for Photoshop at webfontplugin.com. Go. Download. Create.

Under the Hood

2011-08-11T02:23:46Z

While I'm busily getting back on track in the little spare time I have on that project that I was really hoping to have launched by now, last week I set aside a few minutes to make some under the hood changes on this site. You hopefully didn't notice. Actually, anyone reading via an older version of Windows (roughly 30 people during the last month) may have, but any quirks will be temporary (maybe) and it's all part of a plan to finally get a long-delayed redesign and platform change underway.

I'm debating a "live rebuild", but will more likely do more behind the scenes groundwork and hopefully not break too much else in the process before I make a decision on that.

These latest changes were about accomplishing the following:

Simplifying a bit of the back-end template code
Reducing the number of external assets
Implementing other minor performance optimizations
Preparing for the transition of the underlying code to HTML5

The impetus for these changes was really about changing how the Elsewhere popover is loaded and rendered. Previously the code was rendered statically by Movable Type in every page but also using some PHP processing to grab the latest from my Delicious feed (or the cached version). Not really very DRY.

Now the popover is rendered as a static HTML file (no PHP at all, rebuilt every so often automatically by the server) and loaded into the requesting page progressively via Ajax. There's still a standalone (non-JS enabled) page as well of course.

Next up -- HTML5-ifying the base structural elements. Where's my hard hat and jackhammer?

McLuhan at 100

2011-07-21T13:00:00Z

Although he died on the last day of 1980 and has therefore missed further pursuing so many of the technological advances and societal changes he foresaw, July 21st, 2011 marks the centennial of the birth of Marshall McLuhan.

Photo of Marshall McLuhan and Centennial Edition Book Covers (Photographer unknown)

While there have already been many events this year celebrating McLuhan's centennial, this week in particular has been the one so many have been waiting for -- to properly re-examine, reflect on, and otherwise celebrate McLuhan's life and still hotly debated body of work.

Events and Reissues

In addition to the worldwide events honouring McLuhan, new centennial editions of many of his most important books will be making their way to book sellers around the world. The most recent being a new paperback edition of The Medium is the Massage featuring a beautifully designed cover by Shepard Fairey.

Even if you're not familiar with the man or his writing, if you work in the digital realm, you owe it to yourself to at least dip a toe into his observations and ideas -- you may be surprised what you find and how it affects you.

Digging a little deeper, the seminal book Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man (1964), and the quick-hit mosaics of The Medium is the Massage: An Inventory of Effects (1967) both still read as though they were written in the last few years. The world McLuhan describes is the one we live in now.

Celebrations in Toronto

Tonight, during a free to the public McLuhan Festival Celebration event, author John Ralston Saul will be awarded the first Gutenberg Galaxy Award for Literature "for his career achievements in literature and his contribution to the culture of Canada." I also happen to know there's at least one more surprise in store for someone else close to McLuhan during the evening...

Happy birthday Marshall.

SOGO

2011-07-18T02:29:52Z

Just as TypeCon was kicking into gear last week, I flipped the switch on a new limited edition print from Ligature, Loop & Stem. Unlike previous releases though, this one has a special mission -- to raise much needed money to assist those affected by the devastating earthquakes and tsunamis which first rocked Japan in March and again just a week ago.

SOGO Japan print design by Neil Summerour from Positype

The SOGO Japan project, designed and beautifully lettered in Kanji by type designer and lettering artist Neil Summerour, whose typeface Epic graced both editions of the Typographic Lesson Plan, has deep personal meaning for him, having amassed many friends and adopted family there since first visiting the country as a teenager, and we're extremely honoured that he asked us to be involved.

Each 18" × 24" print is individually signed and numbered by Neil, and features the names of all the cities affected by these tragedies. Additionally, each includes a smaller secondary print showing the matching English translations for the city names.

In keeping with the spirit of the SOGO Japan charitable organization established by Neil, and because we want to ensure as much money as possible will reach the people of Japan, LL&S is taking measures to ensure our impact on the funds raised are negligible. All money raised will feed directly into organizations on the front lines in Japan -- groups that know the landscape, the people, and their actual needs.

That said -- we realize this is not an inexpensive piece of art. On the other hand though, it's an opportunity to do good and support a country whose exports enrich the lives of so many around the globe.

We hope you'll help positively impact those who desperately need your support, whether by purchasing a print, or simply getting the word out about the project and the SOGO Japan organization. Thank you.

'Roid

2011-07-13T18:49:10Z

Monday marked the start of Polaroid Week and I'm taking part for the first time this year (despite missing the first day due to travel). As I've done the last couple years when travelling, I had my trusty SX-70 with me in New Orleans and was shooting a mix of older expired 600 film that my bud Brian Warren had brought down for us to use along with a range of film from The Impossible Project including the new PX-70 Color Shade which is easily their best yet.

A pair of PX-70 ColorShade photos I took during Typecon 2011 in New Orleans

You can see all the contributions in the Flickr pool, or follow along on Twitter and Facebook.

A few words about The Impossible Project

I've owned a Polaroid camera of one type or another for probably longer than I remember though it's only been during the last couple years that I've started to find myself interested in the medium again and excited about what the The Impossible Project is doing, particularly Annie and Dave who I had the opportunity to meet last year while in NYC on my way to Connecticut.

Annie and Dave and the rest of the Impossible team get customer service like few companies. They frequently going above and beyond to take care of customers. They've certainly helped me on more than one occasion -- and have my utmost gratitude and respect for being so constantly wonderful. I can't think of another company who would ship me something overnight and keep an eye on the order themselves to ensure it got to me. There's just not enough nice things I can about them.

As an aside, if I can offer one simple piece of advice -- do yourself a favour if you ever plan on visiting the Impossible Project Space in New York -- take the elevator!

Where are we going?

2011-07-12T14:16:29Z

This past Saturday, after several weeks of email, IM, and conference calls, my Butter Label cohorts Luke Dorny, Brian Warren and I, otherwise dubbed "three guys with hats," gave a brief talk at TypeCon in New Orleans on what web fonts means to designers.

As we discovered, the narrative on the topic of web fonts weaved its way into even more presentations than previously at TypeCon. This meant editing and rehearsing up until the last minute to ensure our spin on the topic was sufficiently unique. And while we somewhat ended up winging it, all three of us came away feeling good and have had great discussions with other speakers and attendees since.

The premise of the talk revolved around the idea that web designers have all along wanted the same typographic control as print has historically enjoyed. In that same vein, now that fine-grained control over type using CSS is becoming a reality, there's a greater need to educate web designers on how to sensibly select and pair type, evaluate web fonts, and to know when to use advanced typographic features such as those found in newer OpenType fonts.

During the talk we also briefly covered the history of workarounds and hacks that have been invented to bridge the gap between what's available and what's really possible.

Additionally, we've made the complete anonymous source data from the unscientific, yet (we think) still relevant and interesting survey we ran not long ago to help prepare for the talk. The way to best explore the data is to put it through the lens of early adopters. It's reasonably safe to assume that's who the majority of the respondents were.

From Brian, Luke and myself -- a big thank you to the TypeCon and SOTA board, staff and volunteers on hand during the conference -- especially Michelle, JP, and Grant who helped get us there and made presenting painless. And of course everyone in the audience too.

'Nawlins

2011-06-22T13:57:26Z

The last two years have seen enormous strides in the advancement and adoption of web fonts. Like any new technology though, designers and developers need time to push and pull it to understand how it works, where there are gaps and to come up with new or unexpected uses.

Access to real fonts on the web means a familiarity and understanding of 400+ years of typographic history is even more urgently needed by web designers to suitably pay respect to the typefaces and type designers whose work we now have greater access to. Or as Jason Santa Maria so succinctly put it during Ampersand in Brighton, UK earlier this week:

If your type is bad, the design fails

In just over two weeks, Brian Warren, Luke Dorny and I will be giving a talk titled "Where the Rubber Meets the Road: Where are Designers Going with Web Fonts?" at TypeCon 2011 in New Orleans. In finalizing our outline we felt it would be helpful to find out how other designers are using web fonts. To do so, we've put together a brief anonymous survey to help us identify common behaviours, patterns and gaps.

The survey should take less than 5 minutes to complete. We greatly appreciate all those who take the time to help us out with this and we promise to share the results along with our slide deck after the conference.

Take the survey

Behind the Scenes

2011-06-03T13:30:41Z

A few months back the video team from stillmotion paid a visit to Mike and Bianca who run Kid Icarus (formerly Studio 19) in Toronto's Kensington Market neighbourhood. In a confluence of perfect timing, this coincided with the start of print production on the sold out Second Flight Typographic Lesson Plan print.

Although I knew the film crew had shot Mike and Bianca working on the prints, it had slipped my mind until Bianca sent me a note the other day to say the video was finished. And so here it is...

Kudos to Kid Icarus and stillmotion for sharing this!

Marcotte

2011-05-23T02:41:00Z

The best part Ethan Marcotte's new book, Responsive Web Design (available from the fine people at A Book Apart on June 7th) is that it's brimming with his thoughtful ideas and unique approach. Actually, the best part of the book is the immediate and concise way he ties together everything you need to know to start practicing "responsive" design yourself. On the other hand, the best part is his hilarious self-deprecating humour that makes it almost impossible to read without hearing his voice narrating it in your head. That's just me? Oh.

Responsive Web Design by Ethan Marcotte (published by A Book Apart)

The prescience and immediate relevancy of this book cannot and should not be understated as the world of web design is further inundated by new devices and greater uncertainty, demanding an increased need for flexibility to understand and manage it all.

And while the concept of responsive web design might not be a silver bullet (it never claimed to be), Ethan's book does a brilliant job of wrapping what you need to know into a straightforward and accessible package -- covering both the lenses through which to approach deciding whether it's an appropriate choice for a given project, and how to go about making it happen if it is.

Responsive Web Design is 155 pages of compact insight and unquestionably one of the most important books you'll read many, many times this year.