When I was in school, I was insatiably curious about how people created things, because I was convinced that it took me longer to make stuff that wasn't as good. Now that I'm old and realize that I'm just making myself anxious for no good reason, I'm happy to share my own behind-the-scenes look at my design efforts, successful or not. If you're struggling with your work, you are not alone. Attaining mastery is a hard row to hoe, ya know. What matters is that we continue to push for excellence.
This weekend I set aside the time to make a 4 by 6 inch version of the [Emergent Task Planner][etp]. Working from the half-sized version of the ETP, which already makes serious compromises, I had to somehow squeeze all the old elements into a much smaller space. Here’s what it looks like:
The left side shows the half-sized ETP overlaid on the 4×6″ template. The right size shows the resized version. I had to make several more adjustments, and ended up redrawing most of the form.
This weekend, the sixth local “technology unconference”, Barcamp Manchester will be happening yet again. I volunteered to make some badge designs and signs for the parking lot, and as I got drawn into the activity I started to experience the joy of serendipity in design. Here’s how it went down. Continue reading →
For the past 10 or so years, I’ve had this fantasy of having my own school where a bunch of my peeps could hang out, teach, and learn new things. The idea resurfaced when I was talking with some friends about the difficulty of maintaining a co-working space in a small town. If there was an additional draw—say, very short classes—people might think of co-working as something more than a social visit.
On a different note, I’ve been following [Tumbleweed Tiny House Company][twh] people for years, and recently I stumbled upon those [Little Free Libraries][freelib], which look like birdhouses filled with books. I like well-built small spaces that are designed for quirky lifestyles.
The desire for the small and quirky have combined with the school idea to create The Tiny School of Art and Science. I’m probably more excited about making tiny diplomas than anything else, but I decided to write about the concept this weekend to run by my friends. I then proceeded to get sidetracked doing logo design to accompany the collateral.
I’ve been taking a break from coding the webapp framework to do some thinking about design. Specifically: typography. Continue reading →
One of my current projects is learning how to write a good web application. For the past week or so, I’ve been focused on the back-end (i.e. the server and database programming), but now I’m at the point where it’s time to think of the front end. Continue reading →
Yesterday I made an infographic diagram of my “ideal” day broken down by six types of activity. I was in a playful mood, and had pretended I was a manufacturer of high-end data processors, including myself as part of the product line. Of course, I needed a manufacturer’s logo. Continue reading →