I’ve been in Amsterdam for the last couple weeks, working, and exploring a new city. This is one of my favorite photos, so far.
I came out in time for Asymconf and I’m hanging around through this week to drop in on The Next Web. Overall it has been a great trip. I really love this city (it’s my first time here), and while my work schedule is full, leaving little room for tourist activities, I’m enjoying the change of scenery.
I’ve been lazy about updating my Flickr or Tumblr accounts, but I’m @gb on Instagram if you want to follow along there.
We’ve turned politics into a career, which means it’s a career focused on getting re-elected…
I’m not sure I’m as optimistic about the voting public, as a whole, but I do agree that—outside of dogma—the average, informed citizen is thinking further down the road than the average politician. And that saddens me. Our system essentially necessitates it. We’ve turned politics into a career, which means it’s a career focused on getting re-elected (short-term) rather than doing hard, good things for the country (long-term).
Something I’ve said privately for awhile, but I guess I haven’t been brave enough to post publicly: frontend coding is a waste of time. I know, audacious, right? But it’s true. I’m a designer who can code (full stack no-less, not only frontend) and while I highly value writing good frontend code, and often go to painstaking lengths to do so, it’s the most base level part of my process, and most in need of a replacement or alternative.
Let me explain
With few exceptions, a finished design in InDesign or Illustrator is ready for the press. This is not true of a finished web design in Photoshop.
I have a background in print design. In print, as I’m designing, I’m also creating/producing. With few exceptions, a finished design in InDesign or Illustrator is ready for the press. This is not true of a finished web design in Photoshop. I’ve started achieving the same parity in my web work, but only by designing in the browser, with live or prototype code. This process is quicker than the normal Photoshop > Frontend Code route, but it’s still a far cry from the direct creativity-to-production efficiency a print designer is able to achieve.
The Enlightenment
The web is also becoming more complex. Do you really envision hand-coding complex CSS animation, with gradients, and 3d transforms, and other whizz-bang features in a production setting? Sure, it’s fun to experiment, but when it’s your clients dime for the amount of time you spend on a project, with deadlines staring you in the face, you’ll end up simplifying the pitch—likely before you even talk to the client, let alone at their behest. Is that a good reason to constrain ourselves from using some of the amazing new features we have in our toolbox?
Youthful Indiscretion
I wouldn’t be surprised if we’re among the last of a generation of web designers who hand-codes all or most of our design work.
The web is young. Someday we’ll look back on this period in the web’s history and realize how little control we had over design, how underpowered our rendering engines were, how rudimentary hand-coding was, and how much work it took to get from idea to clickable execution. It won’t happen overnight, but the tools will continue to evolve. While the end result may not look exactly like InDesign for the web, I wouldn’t be surprised if we’re among the last of a generation of web designers who hand-codes all or most of our design work. After all, I’m sure somebody hand-coded some of the first postscript to ever make it’s way through the first digital plate-maker and onto a press.
January ends today, which I believe means that the statute of limitations on posts reflecting on the past year ends as well. I felt it would be remiss for me to not at least highlight a few things that I spent my time on last year.
2011 was a big year. As the year started, I was currently working on an as-yet unannounced, top-secret project for Threadless, alongside Good Apples.
As if you needed another indicator, this new deal between Warner Bros. and Netflix highlights how completely out of touch Hollywood is.
Another clutch quote:
Under the companies’ previous agreement, users could add discs to their queues even before they went on sale. Warner executives apparently believed that policy made it easier for consumers to wait, confident that the discs would arrive eventually.
Being able to put them in my Netflix queue, long before the DVD was available, was the best way that I could ensure that I would remember the movie. I would eventually see it, and Hollywood would get paid something.
There is logic here, it’s simply faulty. In a previous world of limited choice I could probably count the number of movies I heard and cared about in any given year on one or two hands. Now, just in movies alone, I am overwhelmed with what I hear about and what I have access to.
Consider only new releases: I know for a fact that I’ll never get to the movie theater to see all of the movies that look interesting. Being able to put them in my Netflix queue, long before the DVD was available, was the best way that I could ensure that I would remember the movie. I would eventually see it, and Hollywood would get paid something. If I can’t do that, I’m much more likely to simply forget the movie ever existed, not count down the days until I can buy it. I think there was a time that tactic could’ve worked. I simply don’t think it does anymore.
Mike Matas, designer and co-founder of Push Pop Press compiled a week’s worth of vacation photos from his time in Japan with his girlfriend into a captivating short film, framed perfectly with music by Patrick Brooks.
I don’t understand at all why it has taken so long to get to this point. A flat tax seems so painfully obvious as the best way to manage income tax. The only thing I can think is that, for the most part, the people who benefit most from the current tax system are the ones in charge of managing said system. Surprise, surprise.
I hope Fred’s right. I too would be excited to see a true simplification of the tax system.
Interesting take by Mat Honan. I can’t say I disagree.
I think the main feeling I have walking away from today is shame.
Today was interesting. I don’t usually find myself caught up in the sorts of protest-type “movements” that we saw today, but this one got me. I’m still not sure how I feel about it. Whether Mat is 100% correct or not, I think the main feeling I have walking away from today is shame. Shame that it got to this point. As a country, how do we continue to put people in power who are so ready to listen to special interest groups? Is it simply because sometimes our special interests get listened to and we feel like we got a win?
The very existence of SOPA/PIPA (and the lobbying efforts that birthed them) underscore a deeper problem in our current political system. It’s deeper than money in politics, corporate lobbies, or congressmen who don’t understand the internet. I think we’re facing the result of making politics a lifelong-career of the privileged and attention-seeking. How different would Washington be if everyone knew they only had—at the most—a few years to do the work they were elected to do?
