MentalX

New entry for Soft and Furry this week. You can also read up on the project at Changethethought. So, kick it on over there, and do what you do.

I have been doing less design work at my current gig than I’d like, so I have been looking for a few light-weight outlets. S+F seems to be the outlet for now. Here is a second design for the week:

nout.

After getting narrowly edged out last week (no official stats, just assumptions here), I’ve come back as strong as ever. Here is this week’s entry for Soft and Furry.

Kick it.

Here is my entry for week 4 of the Soft and Furry logo comp:

Your turn: www.softandfurry.com

New entry for Soft and Furry:

A cool little design shop here in Boulder is having a logo competition for the launch of a line of “limited-edition designer collectible toys.” Say what you will about logo competitions *cough* AIGA *cough*, but I for one find them a great deal of fun and generally enter one or two a year as time allows. Being creative without clients or bosses is something I need to keep my design skills fresh and advancing. Having said all of that, here is my first entry into the 8-week competition:

Please go visit: http://www.softandfurry.com and make some noise for yourself.

For the last 3 years, I have been an interactive designer in a university setting. I design and develop web sites used for online classes in the school of fine arts at Arizona State. Why is this relevant? Well, I no longer have clients per se. I have a boss, and I work with faculty members, and keeping them happy is a much different thing than keeping a paying client happy. What I have discovered is that over time more and more of my designing is taking place live, in the browser.

Let me rewind a bit to see if I can capture the progression. I was trained as an interactive designer, but the beginning of my career involved mainly print and writing projects. For these projects, obviously every i was dotted and every t was crossed in Quark (later Indesign), before being bundled up (or pdf’d) and sent to the press. I started off as a freelancer, bounced around a couple agencies/studios, before again becoming a freelancer. It was during this second run that I began taking more web design work. Most of this was strictly design work. I’d design, it’d be approved, and the files would be handed off to get cut up and coded. This process required the full development of Photoshop files.

In my current position, when I design a site, I also do the majority of the front-end development. Overtime, I have seen a decrease in the completed state of Photoshop files, and an increase in the time spent in BBedit tweaking things out in CSS. Now, don’t get me wrong, I still complete a lot of things in Photoshop. Most of the wireframe is finished, most of the graphical elements are in place before I start coding. The things that are up-for-grabs generally include color choices, borders, typography, interaction choices, and the like.

For the most part, I would argue that this approach is appropriate for web design. Things change when they hit the browser, start moving about and changing faces. Overall, I think it improves the interaction design of the sites — we have all had that experience where something seems like it should work on paper…but doesn’t. I am not sure how this way of designing would, or could translate in a world where a client needs to see three designs fully developed before moving forward. And I will admit that even I still do multiple designs…I just don’t finish them.

Example: Unfinished Pop Rock Image

If you haven’t already you should take the A List Apart Web Design Survey. I did, which means I’m a good boy and get to eat lunch out today!!

http://alistapart.com/articles/webdesignsurvey