Archive for February, 2009
1. The Unleash Conference day-of website
2. A long overdue blog design for Perry Noble
3. A complete identity rollout for J. Windsor’s Salon
4. A blog redesign for WordPress guru Nathan Rice
5. An online home for Mrs. Blankenship
Bonus: Furniture, fixtures, and layout for my team’s new workspace, affectionately dubbed The Taj Mahawesome
You can watch a selection of CBS shows on your iPhone via TV.com. And suddenly, streaming an episode of Smallville while I get my tires rotated is a reality.
[Reorganizing teams is] a wonderful method [for] creating the illusion of progress whilst producing confusion, inefficiency and demoralization.
— General Gaius Petronius
Quote, “Like designers, if you give a programmer a problem with parameters, they’ll apply every bit of genius they have to solve it in the best possible way. If you tell them how to do it, you’ll suffer the wrath of an angry God.” — Derek Powazek on why Programmers Are Tiny Gods
I couldn’t think of anything to write about yesterday, so I asked the hive mind.
Mike Boutté asked me to write about blogger’s block, so here we are, my friend. Answer: leverage your friends to find content that meets needs.
Michael Harrison asked what I’m doing at this year’s Unleash Conference at NewSpring Church. Answer: I’ll be doing a breakout session with our Communications Director Suzanne Swift talking about communications and web strategy for churches of any size. I might also be speaking one other time, but it’s on the sly. I’ll also be walking around, meeting people, hopefully helping people, and generally being amazed that thousands of talented, passionate folks think we have have something to teach them.
Adam Spooner asked about choosing complementary serif/sans typefaces. Answer: I’m in way over my head, but I typically go for contrast, readability, and faces that have somewhat complimentary general angles/shapes. I also play the very annoying “until it looks right” card. You should probably listen to people who are smarter than me.
Sean Berger asked about Twitter + eCommerce Strategy. Answer: you’re asking the wrong guy. I use Twitter to make people laugh. I don’t know how valuable that’ll be in trying to sell them anything. (But it think that highlights the fact that there is no one way to use Twitter.)
John Flowers asked why I thought creativity was essential. Answer: I don’t think I’ve ever thought of it as an essentiality, I just like to make things and think of things and solve problems.
kjellnygren asked why content management system ExpressionEngine is so awesome and he wanted some tutorials. Answer: EE has a wicked learning curve, but a brilliantly simple payoff. Between it and CodeIgniter, there’s not much you can’t do fairly quickly and elegantly. Since I’m a problem solver, not a developer, you should look into EE Insider, EE Screencasts, these EE video tutorials, and Ryan Irelan’s blog. They’re all awesome.
A popular design doesn’t have to be made with populist intentions.
— Experimental Jetset, excerpted from this article on homages, tributes, and parodies
The new Virb made its way into the public eye yesterday. It’s fascinating to see discussed ideas become reality, and the rethink of the entire site is a definite improvement.
On another note, Virb is now owned by hosting provider MediaTemple‘s new (mt) Ventures division and their legal is a riot to read:
Your submissions of ideas will automatically become the property of (mt) Media Temple, without any compensation or other rights to you; (mt) Media Temple may use, modify or reproduce the ideas for any purpose and in any way and for an unlimited period of time, including giving your ideas to others; (mt) Media Temple is not obligated to review your ideas or to respond to you in any way or to return your submissions; There is no obligation to keep your submissions confidential; and (mt) Media Temple is not responsible for any similarities between your ideas and any (mt) Media Temple products, services or activities.
Gotta love that fine print.
Update: looks like their legal page has been updated with new copy to better explain their position now. I love the internet.
Casey needs help picking out Pantone® coffee mug color palettes. Help her out, internet.
Leadership is the ability to disappoint people at a rate they can absorb.
— Ron Carucci
I am happy to report that the BBC’s video player volume goes to 11.
Mrs. Blankenship took me on a surprise visit to the Greenville Zoo last week.
A man can fail many times, but he isn’t a failure until he begins to blame somebody else.
— John Burroughs
They changed Cobra Commander’s helmet and overall character design. He looks like a mix of ubër Jason Vorhees from Jason X, The Road Warrior‘s Lord Humongous, and a Victorian bartender. Played by the kid from 3rd Rock from the Sun.
1. Noah Stokes
2. Joshua Longbrake
3. Chris Glass
4. Jim Renaud
5. Phil Coffman
A designer knows he has achieved perfection not when there is nothing left to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.
— Antoine de Saint Exupéry
I love that there is an entire section of the Wikipedia page for He-Man villain Skeletor dedicated to The Question of Skeletor’s Head.
“Did you get that stuff for the thing done?”
“Oh, dude, I’ve been really slammed…I don’t have time.”
Liar. Thousands of people will spend hours just commuting to their jobs today. 20 years ago we didn’t have time for the internet. 100 years ago no one imagined carving out most of the night to watch TV. You have time. But you choose not to make time for certain things.
That’s wise. Own it. Your schedule is not like a weather pattern you have no control over. The lack of enough hours in the day isn’t happening to you, you’re intentionally choosing it. You are not a victim of an intricate time vampire conspiracy. All of us have to determine our priorities and defend them, and that means making time for the big ones at the expense of the lesser ones.
But ‘I don’t have time’ is a cop out, because it isn’t true. Stop making excuses for your decisions. You have time. You don’t make time for everything.
And hopefully, because of that decision, you actually get the right stuff done.
Creative/tech job board Krop has added a hosted portfolio service called the Creative Database with free and paid plans. Not that I’m in need, but I of course have to maintain consistent URL domination, so you can find me at krop.com/blankenship
I wonder what would happen if you took this advice…
There is a golden rule, long cherished by restaurateurs, for determining whether a business is viable. Rent should take up no more than 25 percent of your revenue, another 25 percent should go toward payroll, and 35 percent should go toward the product. The remaining 15 percent is what you take home. There’s an even more elegant version of that rule: Make your rent in four days to be profitable, a week to break even. If you haven’t hit the latter mark in a month, close. — Michael Idov, Bitter Brew: I opened a charming neighborhood coffee shop. Then it destroyed my life.
…and applied it to your personal brand/small business?
