New Work

Aphorism #27

Sat, 29 May 2010 16:47:00 -0700

Some people have families, some people have jobs, some people have hobbies, some people have businesses. Some People get really lucky and get 2.

This is why I hate you, Adobe

Thu, 27 May 2010 18:02:00 -0700

Dear Adobe,

I’m usually not one to complain¹ but I’ve reached my limit. The time has come for me to draw a line in the sand, make my final stand, and, well… continue using your Creative Suite. If that sounds conflicted, confused and cynical, it’s because it is. I am. As a graphic designer slash web guy operating under the current reign of Apple, Google and Adobe, my choices and options for quality tools are indecently limited. Here’s the good news: the tools I do have are all great. Things have progressed so amazingly fast in the past couple decades, and the capabilities of our software have multiplied so rapidly that I feel like a complete jackass complaining about how my quartz rendered real-time 3D true-perspective shadowmapped anti-aliased-on-the-fly-[insert crazy shit]-whatever doesn’t work exactly how I want it to². But I have no one else to turn to. You killed Paint. You decimated PaintShop. You put Corel out to sleep on the porch. You mocked Quark mercilessly (and maybe you still do - I donno, who cares). Nothing else is left. Adobe, you make the best applications for the job, and you bought out the rest. For the most part I‘m cool with that. I love PhotoShop. I love Illustrator, and InDesign, and I really love Bridge. I love you, Adobe, and that is why I hate you.

The Devil’s in the Detai1s

Some people say that God is in the details, some people say it‘s the Devil. It really doesn’t matter which in this case, though, because you don’t care about details. Maybe you’re just too busy keeping your employees happy, and maybe they’re too busy keeping their families happy, and maybe when it all is said and done Adobe is too busy just being good. I understand that [you think] you have to crap out a major release each year and convince people like me that I need to buy it — because if you don’t you might end up less rich, and that would mean you’d have to fire some of your happy employees. And I also understand that new features generate more sales than minor bug fixes. I understand that the business men and women run your business, and I’m beginning to understand that you really don’t give a crap about your customers or the quality of your products³.

But here’s what I don’t understand:

Crappy Adobe UI: Illustrator CS5

I don’t see any excuse for this kind of piss poor attention to detail. Adobe Illustrator first shipped on January 1987. It’s 23 years old!⁴ (Sure, I had some rough spots myself at that age, but software ages faster than dogs. Since the lifespan of a software app is only 1 year⁵, Illustrator is approx. 1,610 human years old.) What really sucks is that I know you can do better. Adobe Bridge was not released until April 2005. Check out the same type of panel in bridge:

Decent Adobe UI - Bridge CS5

Sure, a white fringed png might seem like a minor trifle to you, but I spend a lot of time looking at things while zoomed in 1,000 times their actual size to make sure my work is pixel perfect⁶. I’ve been doing this for a long time⁷ and can’t tell you how annoying it is that you don’t fix these things⁸. I’d be a lot more forgiving if there was only one or two glitches but there's not. We’re talking about hundreds and hundreds and maybe even hundreds of tiny little irritations. Some of them are so amazingly inept that they’re actually fun to browse through in a sick and twisted way⁹.

BitterSuite Ending

I have one request that if implemented would increase the quality of your product tenfold. The best part about it is that this idea would cost precisely 0 dollars. I’m sure you get disgruntled designers writing you and complaining about things in your forums all the time, and that there are appropriate channels for ideas and bugs that make ignoring them easier for you, which is why I’m writing this here:

Would you please remove the word suite from your products?

Here‘s some free advice: Call your next version Adobe: Creative. The word creative doesn’t imply cohesion, integration, compatibility, consistency, or quality of any sort. The fact is that you don’t have a suite, you have a myriad of independently developed products that bear only the word Adobe in common. Keyboard shortcuts vary nonsensically between apps. Basic tools that function the same have different icons. Basic functions, like how an image is zoomed or otherwise interacted with are bafflingly inconsistent.

The most basic element of your array of apps — the user interface — is critically wounded. The following is from Illustrator CS5 and the controls create the ugly mess pictured first in this post:

Again, Bridge handles things with a bit more urbanity:

In fact, the elements of you so called 'suite' are so disparate that I wonder if there are grounds for a classaction suit based on false representation. I wonder…

If you let the guys building Lightroom or Bridge run the Creative Suite show, then I probably wouldn’t be so pickled. But you aren’t. You’re letting Joe the New Feature Dude drive, and quite frankly, he sucks.

Sincerely,

1. Yes I am.

2. Everything is amazing and nobody's happy

3.Dear Adobe

4. I didn’t actually know that offhand, I asked W.

5. Your annual releases prove that.

6. Thanks for the super annoying pixel grid that I’ve had to disable about 300 times now, by the way.

7. No, not quite 1,610 years. Maybe 20 though.

8. It’s almost as annoying as the fact that with the release of CS5 you’ve changed the scroll behavior for no good reason with no real improvement in Photoshop. WTF. Now I have to remember to zoom different.

9. Adobe UI Gripes

I love you, Firefox

Tue, 02 Mar 2010 15:33:00 -0800

Darn! Firefox's latest update has brought a fistfull of ugly to my website. I guess I'll be fixing that soon. Pfeh.

New Website Design: Chali2na

Mon, 22 Feb 2010 16:52:00 -0800

Finally got to design another musician’s website. This one is for Chali 2na, from Jurassic 5. His solo album Fish Outta Water is great if you like aggressive dance / rap music. Check out his MySpace to hear some tracks.

Some more site designs:

I think they’re leaning towards the following design. The concrete texture provides a nice contrast to the whole tuna water theme:

inGCI Corporate Intranet Redesign

Tue, 29 Dec 2009 19:54:00 -0800

Founded in 1979, GCI introduced long-distance competition to Alaska and has since grown to be one of the nation's premier integrated telecommunication providers. The company employs 1,250 Alaskans and has a current run rate of $440 million.

I was contracted to redesign their corporate intranet. This is the result.

New Website Design: Michael Fuss, CPA

Tue, 29 Dec 2009 17:04:00 -0800

Newly approved site design for Michael Fuss’ new accounting servivcres website. Slides are to be seasonal - currently showing winter. Site is currently under development.

IDT Identity System

Mon, 21 Dec 2009 16:00:00 -0800

A new logo design that serves as the heart of a new corporate identity system for IDT, makers of integrated displays (go figure!) that are installed in airports and public places around the globe.

Site Launch: Northwest Bible Training Center

Tue, 15 Dec 2009 16:00:00 -0800

Northwest Bible Training Center is one of 15 Mission Teens centers nationwide. NWBTC provides residency, rehabilitation and bible training to those in need.

The site began as a bit of a left field challenge for me, but quickly turned into one of my favorite projects. Check it out!

The Pursuit of Comfort

Wed, 18 Nov 2009 18:39:00 -0800

My least favorite aspect of the human condition is that comfort is fleeting. You would think that there would be an ideal position, but no.. With the right goosedown pillow or memory foam mattress, we should be able to lie motionless for hours on end, but in a singularly wicked twist of biology, we can’t. Well, I can’t, anyway. Even in my sleep, I flop around like a frustrated seal that’s being taunted by a herring on a string. Yes, I know this is a weird analogy, but the act of seeking out comfort that quickly transitions into restlessness seems to bleed out into our daily life in profound ways.

Technology, as an obvious example, is always evolving and climbing to temporary plateaus. But a programming language is only good enough when it is brand new, a computer soon becomes antiquated and a huge flat screen tv doesn’t impress our friends anymore. We constantly head off to the store and drop a few more bills on the latest creature comfort. So it is in this modern day consumer based society, but it is all built upon our inherently limited attention span for that which works. Maybe one of the reasons that ‘they don’t build ’em like they used to anymore’ is that we don’t need to — we’re just gonna trash it next year anyway when something shinier tempts us.

It is the same with our relationships. After the buzz from the whirlwind of first dates, kisses, and sex wears off, we typically find ourselves contemplating diminishing returns. We quickly get uncomfortable and discover an overwhelming need to stretch out, roll over, or go for a run.

Maybe our inhherently praiseworthy curiosity is to blame. Maybe it is mankind’s constant search for comfort that has driven us to become the most destructive creative species on the planet. But the problem with life in a world where everything is always improving is that nothing is ever good enough. So, for today at least, I’m done with it. To the discomfort and grass-is-always-greener mentality I say this: I like things the way they are.

For now.

Website Launch: Wings & Scales

Tue, 17 Nov 2009 01:35:00 -0800

Wings & Scales is a personal site for Jennifer Peck, a Portland Oregon based writer, photographer and artist. The site primarily houses her blog and photo gallery. Check it out!

Pinback Photos

Thu, 12 Nov 2009 18:09:00 -0800

Last night I took some pictures of Pinback - one of my favorite bands. Check out the Pinback photos at my super secret photo gallery.

If you haven’t heard of Pinback and like good music, check out their site.

Website Launch: Lazy Dog Crazy Dog

Tue, 10 Nov 2009 10:09:00 -0800

Lazy Dog Crazy Dog is a new dog boarding and daycare center in the Montevilla neighborhood of Portland, Oregon. Their corporate identity and website blend whimy and fun with sophistication and trust that should appeal to lovers of all dog breeds. The website brings layers of functionality to their business with features such as their sign-up application, ecommerce for package sales, and the galleries of their dogs and facility. The site was built with the SilverStripe content manager, which makes updates and changes a breeze.

Owned by husband and wife team Jackie and Pete, LDCD has the goal of bringing balance to a dogs life through activity and rest. They are good people and love dogs, so if you live in Montevilla and are looking for doggie day care, this is the place. Check out the site!

Top Ten List of Mac Productivity Top 10 Lists

Sat, 10 Oct 2009 20:30:00 -0700

I’m about halfway done with an article about setting up a new Mac, and I realized that there are so many top 10 lists for Mac software and design applications that someone ought to compile the best of them. So here they are. The ten best top 10 lists for Mac productivity apps.

Top 10 Productivity tools for Macs

10 Apps to Increase Productivity on Your Mac

Top 10 Mac Productivity Applications for Developers!

10 Free Menu Bar Apps for Better Productivity

20+ Mac Apps to Increase Your Productivity

Top 10 free apps to boost your productivity on the Mac

Top 10 Basic Freeware Applications For Mac

Top 5 Mac Productivity Tools

Top 10 AIR applications for productivity

Top 10 Mac Productivity Enhancements

Website Launch: KiraCraft.com

Wed, 30 Sep 2009 20:45:00 -0700

A new website design for fashion designer Kira Craft. She wanted something very minimalist that had a brief bio and pictures of her work. Check it out.

Pink & White

Wed, 16 Sep 2009 13:14:00 -0700

A flyer design for a Pink & White party put on by Flare Events at 210 Dance in San Juan Capistrano.

Here’s the back:

More Produce Row Ads

Tue, 04 Aug 2009 01:38:00 -0700

A couple more ads for Produce Row Café - these are for the Portland Mercury special “Chill Off” section. Since it’s been so hot in Portland these days, they’re doing a special about cool bars that have good air conditioning.

Another Redesign

Thu, 30 Jul 2009 21:14:00 -0700

One of the biggest annoyances I have with being a web designer is the constant urge to redesign my own site. This is the fourth iteration of this site in about as many months. Each time I’ve updated, I really liked the design aesthetic for a few days, a few weeks, or a couple months, but at some point a switch is flipped and I’m completely over it. This is a common syndrome I’ve discussed with other designers refered to as redesignitis; from what I can tell barely any of us actually like our own sites for more than a week.

Interestingly I find that very few clients suffer from this tendency. Clients often tell me they love the site years after launch. There are many possible contributing factors to this, such as corporate restrictions, brand protection, lack of interest, or insuffient resources or energy. But in the end they paid us to design and develop their site because they couldn’t — or for whatever reason didn’t want to — do it themselvs. (It’s funny how paying for something makes you appreciate it more.) In turn, that makes redesigning a lot less feasible.

So what makes us designers so prodigiously prone to perpetual pepping? Partly it is that we can, so we do. We spend way too much time at our own sites because we built them ourselves, and like a crazy grandfather tinkering with his hand-carved toys in the basement, we just can’t leave well enough alone. And partly it’s the fact that we just care way too much.

We are by our nature pioneers of this whole internet thing. We are constantly forging into new territories and implementing newly developed tools, effects and techniques. Like mechanics 10 years after the model-t was unleashed to the publc, we are in the enviable position of laying the groundwork and establishing the roadmap for the future. What is the internet? Is is an information network? Is it a branding opportunity? Is it a way to sell things? Is it a way to connect people? What's next? Clearly the internet is the current frontier en vogue, and as designers it is not surprising that we are vested in what it looks like and how it behaves.

Anyway, if you’re wondering where it went, I took the old site down and put up this one. We’ll see how long it lasts.

Produce Row Café Ad

Tue, 28 Jul 2009 14:13:00 -0700

An ad recently printed in Willamette Week for Produce Row, a cool indie bar/cafe in SE PDX:

Cruise Control

Tue, 19 May 2009 14:53:00 -0700

Oh cruise control, I do love you.

you give my right foot less to do,

you've saved me from a ticket or two,

and maintained my speed whilst I tied my shoe.

Of course I know you’re nothing new,

but, cruise control, I sure love you.

Maximizing Satisfices

Fri, 06 Mar 2009 00:08:00 -0800

Today at the The Happiness Project, Gretchen Rubin proclaimed that “most decisions don’t require extensive research” in the entry, Myth No. 4: You’ll Be Happier If You Insist on “The Best.” It is certainly a bold statement, and I respect her for that, but I have to wonder if she did much research before deciding to make the argument.

In the article, Ms. Rubin paraphrases Barry Schwartz’s analysis of two different types of decision makers: satisficers and maximizers. Satisficers delineate a set of requirements for a decision, and when those criteria are met they are contented. Maximizers, on the other hand are anxiety ridden throughout the exhausting process of researching every possible option, and are not satisfied until they’ve found the perfect solution.

I realize that Rubin is not necessarily intentionally pejorative towards research and educated decisions, but I object to the implied disdain for those of us who labor intensely over choices that may have profound ramifications. True, the extremes on either side of the spectrum can be detrimental — I'm not sure which is worse: obsession or negligence.

As brand strategist, I consider it an integral part of my job to study a variety of solutions and evaluate the pros and cons of each. I don’t feel that I’ve been thorough or that I can make recommendations to a client until a plethora of variations have been considered. Moreover, volumes of research go into educating the creative mind that generates those solutions. While it is true that on occasion we’ll just whip out an exquisite design, we would soon be out of work if we didn’t labor over maximizing our solutions. People pay me to design brands for them because good decisions take considerable effort. It’s not always easy, but it is always rewarding.

Design is not just a profession; it is a way of life. I make all attempts to surround myself with things of quality and people of caliber. I hate loose doorknobs, cheap ballpoint pens and bad movies. When making purchases, I buy the best that I can afford, because things that are made better are more enjoyable, last longer, and typically cost more. I look for deals because I am practical; I don’t want to pay more than I have to. I never suffer buyer’s remorse because I make measured decisions. I much prefer stressing the decision than the result. Advocating the reverse sustains the mediocrity that permeates our existence.

Perhaps my maximizing tendencies are inconvenient at times. And they very well might cause me a spot of tension now and again. But those deterrents are a small price to pay for the confidence that research and consideration bring about. Oh, and they also mean that when I'm at an electronics store I never have to ask the guy in blue shirt anything. And that makes me truly happy.