Tag Archives: design

Design is a Job

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I’ve just finished reading the latest short book from the A Book Apart series. It’s called Design is a Job, by Mike Monteiro. Mike is the owner of Mule Design, though if you’ve heard of him, it’s probably from his ascerbic twitter account, @Mike_FTW. Even more likely, you saw the video of a talk he gave about the importance of having a contract before you do any work, titled “Fuck You, Pay Me.” If you haven’t seen it, drop everything and go watch it now.

First thing first: If you’re already dismissing this review with “I don’t have time to read a book,” know that this book is only 130 pages long. You can read it in just a few bus rides. It costs $18, or you can just come borrow the copy that’s on my desk. (I’m not kidding, please do borrow it, I’ll be thrilled you’re reading it.)

Second thing: If you’re dismissing the book because you’re not a designer, you should know that this book isn’t really about design. It’s about how to be a professional in the design community. It is about how to interact with clients, and how to avoid getting burned when things go wrong. It’s about why clients behave the way they do, and what you can do to keep things going smoothly. It’s aimed at designers, but the lessons apply to everyone. I guarantee that everyone in the sales department will benefit from reading this book just as much as everyone in the development pit.

Here’s a brief quote:

I am tired of seeing you get your ass kicked because no one taught you better. I am tired of you not getting paid. I am tired of you working nights and weekends. I am tired of you doing spec work because someone has convinced you it will look good in your portfolio. I am tired of you sitting by and hoping the work sells itself.

So I wrote you a book. It has a spine, and by the time you’re done reading, so will you.

And another:

Companies love talking a studio out of the process that got them to hire them. Which is akin to signing Roy Halladay and then asking him to play the outfield. (Yes, it’s a baseball metaphor — I’ll walk you through it.) Roy Halladay is possibly the greatest pitcher of his generation. He’d be a terrible outfielder. But imagine some VP in the organization decided that since they’d just sunk a lot of money into signing him, they’d better get the most use out of him. So they should put him at a position that plays every day, instead of having him pitch. (Starting pitchers go once every five days.) In this metaphor baseball is standing in for design and the stupid VP is still the stupid VP.

I cannot recommend this book strongly enough. It’s a quick read, and it’s funny. As you’ve no doubt noticed, Mike writes in a very conversational style, with a liberal sprinkling of curse words. The overall tone is that of a seasoned veteran sharing his hard-earned life lessons. Mike has made all the mistakes he writes about, and he wants to help you avoid them.

In a nutshell, this book will make you better at your job.

2012 Presidential Candidate Web Design Review

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A couple weeks ago, I gathered my coworkers in the big conference room for a design critique. Instead of reviewing one of our own projects, however, I put up the websites for each of the current candidates for president. The process was fun, but also illuminating. It quickly became clear that in addition to overall aesthetics, political design carries its own set of considerations. Continue reading →

Blinded by the Light

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Sources of Lighting in the Quikster Landing Page

Today, everyone was linking to the new Qwikster landing page. Most people who saw it probably thought about the business implications of Netflix spinning off the DVD rental part of their company, or wondered if they would have to recreate their rental queue. I got annoyed by all the different light sources in the image.

This is what it’s like to have a design education. You are immediately irritated by the shadows on each piece of clip art in the image. It’s a gut reaction, like fingernails on a chalkboard — the image just looks wrong.

You are annoyed by the basic breakdown of the theater metaphor — here we are in our theater, eating popcorn, prepared to watch a movie or play a game, but apparently we’re facing into the projector? Which is kept behind the curtains for some reason? And why does everything have a shadow except the tagline?

To be fair to the poor designer who assembled this frankenstein, it’s difficult to create a scene out of disparate images like this, and they probably had to do it on a very tight schedule. I don’t mean to pick on them… but the shadow on that game controller is killing me.

Roger Black’s Advice for Young Designers

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“On the skillset side, what you’ve got to do as a young person entering the field, is really equip yourself with some basic development skills. You have to be able to understand HTML and CSS. You have to know what JavaScript can do and what it can’t do. You don’t necessarily have to write cool JavaScript transitions, or even in CSS, but you’ve got to know what you can do in each. And you’ve got to be able to design so that if you have a more adept coder working with you, they know you know what you’re talking about.”
– Roger Black

Design For Yourself Fast

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“Design for yourself fast. You shouldn’t need to think about what you want, you are what you want. It just comes out of you, and it will be good. But sometimes, you have this feeling that you have to think about it like you would for some detached client project where they sell gutters; your stuff ain’t like that, you know it by heart… so design it by heart. Fast. Don’t get trapped.”
– Alana Twelmeyer on designing for yourself (via Noah Stokes)