I think it all started when, at my first job as an in-house designer, I inherited all the files from the previous designer. I had to click through so many layers to find what I needed, re-labeling, re-grouping and deleting empty layers. A half hour at least for every file I had to open. Multiply that by even just 10 files and looks how much time is wasted. Right then and there, every file I created was labeled, grouped and clearly named. This became a blessing when the company hired two more designers and I already had a workflow in place.

The Offending File

Another more recent example – I downloaded a template file that a client purchased. I open the file, ready to get to work and what a letdown. None of the layers have names or they are weird names that make no sense to me. It took me an unnecessary 20 minutes just to nail down the layers and where things were.

Sure, it might seem tedious to name every layer. How about folders? You can group layers into folders named Header, Footer, Right Sidebar, etc. and, even if you don’t name the layers, at least you can drill down right to the specific area you need to edit and instead of going through 50 layers you only need to go through 10. I do both.

Neat & Organized

I name every layer and then group things into named folders. I’m a freelancer and, at this point, I’m the only one who works on my files but my workflow is so much easier because I can just open a file, zero right in to where I need to be. But who knows – maybe I’ll have an assistant someday. I wouldn’t want nightmare files slowing down the person who is supposed to be helping me. Besides being a bit anal and knowing that I have to practice what I preach, I just think it’s courteous and although I’m usually only being courteous to myself  – if I’m not courteous to myself, who will be?

Side Note: I recently worked with another designer who sent me the psd files that I would be using to develop the website. Of course, I was thinking the files were going to be a mess when I got them but I was wrong! Much to my surprise, this fellow designer created her files like I do. Naming every layer and grouping the areas in folders. The project was a breeze to develop.

What colour is my parachute? by rednivaram

As a fairly recent member of the unemployed I’m coming up against questions that surely plague many who have been out there for a while. I am fortunate – my chosen careen path of web design very easily translates into the freelance lifestyle so while I am unemployed – meaning no full time job – I am working.

I was having a particularly off or down day. I found jobs to apply for but I’ll be damned if there was a cover letter to be found in my brain. I decided to go to the library (YES, the library. The internet was just bringin’ me down) to get out of the house and see if I couldn’t jog some give-me-the-job juices from somewhere. While leafing through various books on cover letters (once again, the Dummies series came through! I really should return that…) I bumped into “What Color is Your Parachute?” It’s been around for a while and, apparently, it’s updated every year. Not very far in, a question is posed: “Is this a good time to try to figure out your purpose in life, your calling, your vocation, your passion, your “dream job”? Indeed, I have thought about this. I probably shouldn’t be too picky, right? I mean, I’m not that picky by any stretch. I don’t have to work for the #1 ad agency in the world (some would ask well, why not?) but I have read some job descriptions that, while I could do it, it didn’t inspire me. That or the company left something to be desired. Did I apply? Yes, to a couple of them but since there are only so many jobs available on any given day and after I have taken care of any freelance work, there is inevitably down time. So, as my grandfather used to say, might as well do something even if it’s wrong. Meaning, doing something is better than nothing because it gets the ball rolling.

I have finished reading the book so now I think I’m going to go back and do the exercises to see if I can’t unearth “my passion”. These exercises are recommended whether you are changing careers or just trying to find the right place to do what you love. I’ve never really gotten into exercises like the ones in the book – I’m an eye-roller, a nay-sayer, a wow-this-is-lame, PUH-leeze kind of gal sometimes. Maybe I’m older, maybe I care more, who knows. Maybe after these exercises, I will have to work for the #1 ad agency in the world!

The other thing I’ve been doing in my spare time (note: this is a fallacy in my life. I’m not working full time but I have less time than I did before) anyway – I am learning Javascript. I’ve been meaning to buckle down and learn it for quite a while but now, in my job search, I notice it’s expected in the ‘toolbox’ of a front-end developer/designer, which would be me. I can work with pre-written code – make edits and tweak settings – but not my own stuff and now it’s holding me back.

So, you’ve got your variables and your functions. Functions are really fancy ways of telling a variable what to do. I’m thinking I should write a function for my job search, like var parachute & var jobs. IF jobs < 0, THEN parachute should be huge, ELSE, IF jobs > 0, THEN parachute should still be big. Just in case. I may not mind doing something wrong to get the ball rolling but I still like an escape route.

HTML5 for Web Designers by Jeremy Keith

The first book of abookapart, HTML5 for Web Designers, whose goal was to be “clear, brief and specific with a touch of humor” were quite successful in their endeavor!

The book is 89 pages including the index, foreword, table of contents, about abookapart, about the author and a note on the font. Even the copyright and ISBN information are brief! Cleary brevity was achieved but can you be specific and clear in that amount of space? Yes and we’re not talking a 4 point font with no whitespace either. No sir! This is a great little book that manages to provide a history of mark-up, the new features of HTML and nifty little workable Javascript tricks to gracefully degrade in browsers without full HTML5 support thereby providing an almost seamless user experience.

It is a great little book with lots of good examples of how to use these new HTML5 elements throughout. I highly recommend! And a note to author Jeremy Keith: if you ever need back-up in your hunt for the users of autoplay and loop – I’ve got your back!

A Corner of
My Future Site

I am currently in the process of redesigning my own website, which showcases a portfolio of my web design work along with my photography. It is long overdue and certainly could benefit from more copy and a more coherent design and flow. Looking at the site from a potential client or employer’s perspective one would wonder who this designer is. What does this designer have to offer? On the surface, it doesn’t look like much.

The design aspect of my site is definitely farther along than the copy which is unfortunate because it is really better to design with content than without. Designing without the copy can lead to a whole host of issues including continually redesigning and, were it for a client, extra charges. While I may not be charging myself, I don’t want to waste my own time either.

Writing copy for the web is a little different, as many articles will tell you. The copy needs to be succinct but as detailed as possible because it needs to be found by search engines and users otherwise it’s just a pretty element of cyberspace. The thing that gets in the way is the search engine optimization (SEO) aspect of the writing. While there are key phrases and words you want to find you in a search, you also don’t want to sound like you’re writing just for the search, which is part of what was holding me back writing copy for my site. I could blame it on writer’s block but I can eke out a few blog posts and a lot of poetry in a given time span so clearly it isn’t writer’s block. Part of it of course, is determining who I am as a designer and then making that work with ‘key phrases’ and part of it is my perfection confinement: it has to be right the first time.

An article I read the other day at Website Magazine really helped. And the thing that got me was that as a writer, the advice was so obvious. “Start by writing 2 or 3 bulleted points that you want to make….” Wow. Brilliant, eh? That’s the basis for essay writing in high school: the outline. (Incidentally, I don’t think I ever wrote an outline that was worth anything. I went right into the writing part – I guess its coming back to haunt me now!) Using this paramount piece of advice for the ‘elevator pitch’ at the beginning of my resume, which was also eluding me, I broke through these barriers and I feel that I’m ready to move on to tackle the copy on my website.

Another good point at the Web Designer Depot was to “Think about the story you want to tell at each point in the design process.” This is something that was definitely missing from my approach. Looking at how I was proceeding in my own site design, I was seeing each page as its own entity, separate from any other page but this shouldn’t be the case. A website, in this instance mine, should have a solid idea as a whole and each page should support that. I am my worst client. I was doing all the things that frustrate me in dealing with clients. Not provide copy, not having a clear vision of flow, not thinking about the audience. No wonder I have been stumbling all over the place.

I now have a much more clear vision of what I want the site to do and I see my little cyber niche becoming a much more enjoyable place to land.

Axe Scrubber

Lately in the pharmacy I’ve noticed the shelves containing more skin and hair care products designed to attract the male consumer. Darker toned packaging, like the Dove or Vaseline Intensive Care bottles, and the edges aren’t as soft as products are that are geared toward females. Take the body scrubber thing that Axe has created for men to use in the shower, while using the sexy, masculine scented line of body washes, of course. It is not just a soft little ball of mesh attached to a soft colored string. No, the scrubber thing for men is contained. It has two sides, one to clean and one to buff. When I look at it I think, you could wax a car with that.  I also think that it would be easier to hold and guide to where you’d want it unlike the unstructured mesh poufs that litter the skincare aisle.

Vaseline's Male Packaging

Dove's Scrubber Thing

Dove's Male Packaging

I have always thought that I have a masculine ‘streak’, I guess you would say. It’s not that I don’t enjoy the typical shoe indulgence (in fact I have overindulged a time or two. or three.) or jewelry (I have cut myself off) but just an edge. I like suits styled like men’s suits, vests, pick-up trucks and have a marginal fascination with guns. So when I see these skin care products aimed at the male consumer dressed in navy blue, black and dark red packaging,  I always pause in front of them, longing to dress my shower shelves in more masculine colors. After smelling them, however, I sigh and walk away. I do not care to smell like “Active Sport” which, in reality, probably smells nothing like that sharp, fresh, tingly, smell. Someone active in sports probably smells more like a gym locker. I have yet to find a product in the male body care section that is unscented so, until that future time, I shall leave the ‘Fresh Sport’ scent with its lovely dark packaging for the male consumer and continue to buy pastel colored bottles with soft curves to adorn my shower. I will not, however, use products that are scented like Spring Rain (nope, smells nothing like fresh earth) or Rose (nope, wild roses don’t smell that way either).

Hopefully, there will be more pretty days like this to make the lunchtime escape that much more enjoyable!

I was a little put off at first. What could I possibly offer to these students and I said as much. Dad said you don’t have to decide right now, think about it a bit. So, before drifting off into the sweet slumber of vacation, I thought about it. As it turns out a number of things began popping up that I thought might be good to share with graduating students. Some of the most important parts of being a designer, at least as far as what I’m going through, are being able to compromise and not being afraid to speak-up.

When a CEO or a marketer, for example, comes up against something that won’t work or isn’t the right strategy for a particular project, what happens? They aren’t afraid to speak up and neither should you. Why? You are the expert. The designer is the expert in his or her field just as a marketer or CEO are the experts in their fields. Designers (you!) know layout, placement, typography and how to use color to convey meaning. And that education is continued all the time. Think about all the blogs you read, magazines you buy, even if they aren’t design related. Designers keep up with trends just the way CEOs keep up with financial and business trends. BUT  a good designer or business person also knows that some things have to be let go, which brings us to…

Compromise. It’s a tough word to love. It means some part of what you wanted must give way to what someone else wants whether it’s a personal or professional relationship. Design is always a compromise from the start between the designer and the end market. What is currently accepted as a trend may not be what the designer would choose but the final piece isn’t for the designer. Throw into that mix producers, managers, art directors and I’m sure a few others as well and there could be a lot of compromising. Not every element needs to be fought for.  If the major element, say the header, is the piece that is really breaking the meaning, fight for that and let the grainy sponsor logos go. If that font is wrong and you know it and other people know it, it’s worth it. Show them a piece like it that worked because of the font change or show them a piece that didn’t work because the header wasn’t given the proper treatment.

These aren’t mind-blowing revelations by any means but I think they’re important. The in-house design department I work in suffered for a long time because we didn’t speak up. We also compromise a lot since there are more than 3 people involved in any given project, which can be frustrating but if you really believe that what you’re thinking should be done will benefit the project, say it.

I am a web designer and kind of liked the idea of something web related. I had thought display:inline; might be all right but this piece of code lines things up neatly in a row, particularly for the list tag <li>. I then thought of overflow:visible; which allows content that is wider or longer than a particular space is coded for to be seen. In thinking about this I thought this sounded kind of like a journal or blog because it allows that which is inside of you that needs to come out, that is bigger than your insides are coded for, to spill over and be seen. It may sound a little cheesy or something, but I kind of like it so I guess that is one piece of blog evolution done.

Shopper 360 // Edge of Marketing // Future of Biopharma

The key thing that struck me tonight would be the fact that James had a plan. He came to New York when he was 20 and he had a 15 year plan. Wow. 15 years. That is quite impressive especially since he was 20. I certainly was not that pulled together at that age. But having made a few plans in the past few years I will agree it’s certainly the best way to do it. When you go on vacation you usually plan. The plane tickets, getting to the hotel from the airport, maybe a few activities during the week you know you’ll take part in. Sure sometimes you wing it but generally, there is a plan. The bigger picture decided, you then take smaller steps to get to the markers.

I confess to still wrangling with a plan for my career. My personal life in the past year has been progressing nicely thanks to planning so I know I can follow a plan, it’s just a question of coming up with on. There seem to be so many avenues in web design and development which is awesome and frustrating at the same time. I definitely enjoy what I do but I want to do more with it. There are so many amazing sites and technologies out there I just don’t know where to start.

James Victore reached a similar point between 35 and 40. He was floundering, as he put it. And he realized it was because he didn’t have a plan anymore. His plan went to 35 and then what? So he had to stop and put a new one together to get him to 70, which made everyone chuckle. That was reassuring that such a popular and accomplished designer would struggle. He seemed so self assured up there on that stage and has such a diverse array of accomplishments it was hard to believe that there was ever a point where he didn’t know what he was doing. It’s not that I go around thinking designers never struggle or have insecure moments but sometimes when I attend events or gatherings everyone seems so confident and hey, I’m doing great but I guess as Carolyn Burnham and Buddy Kane in American Beauty agreed “in order to be successful you have to project an image of success”.