I spend a lot of time looking at things. No really, A LOT OF TIME. It makes sense, seeing as I’m a designer by profession. Aside from the obvious, inspiration, I find looking at things is meditative (or maybe it’s the seduction of drone, for me). In any case, it’s something I thoroughly enjoy. So I thought I’d share with you, a few of the places that have been calling my droning gaze.
Search Results for "few"
Alphabet Soup
The art of arranging type is perhaps one of the most important studies for a graphic designer. Typography is such a complex and sophisticated examination, you can easily lose yourself in the finer intricacies of this study. You can also amass quite an extensive personal library of type faces and spend exorbitant amounts of time hunting and sifting for the right font.
This is where font management software comes in. Or at least, that has been the idea.
Redesign: Design Notes
After 2.5 years of abuse, the time is ripe for a fresh redesign at Repeat Penguin. I’ve made little attempt to keep this undertaking private, nor to keep the reasons behind it off the internets. Let’s face it, the wallpaper was pealing, the flooring was curling up and the rooms were drafty.
It was a bit of a sprint squeezing it in, amongst client projects, side projects and general craziness, but alas, we are here and I couldn’t be more excited to share.
Blog Action Day 2008: Fighting Poverty at Home
Living in, not to mention running a business in, one of the most visited cities in the world has tremendous benefits. San Francisco is the home of diverse culture, great food, bounding creativity and innovation, and it’s not such a bad place for a web designer. However, like any other city in the world, San [...]
white space and redesign
I’ve been thinking redesign for quite some time. It’s not that I’m unhappy with my current design. It is because I’m unhappy with my current design. Well, at least with the limitations it presents and how it influences how and what I write. So, I’m thinking it’s high time to take action.
Approach
Approaching a blog redesign [...]
An Event Apart San Francisco
It’s been a crazy and hard few weeks. Between work, film projects, family coming into town (and crashing on our floor) and the passing of my Grandmother, my mentor and my closest friend, I’ve hardly been keeping my head above water. But this week ushers in an event we have all been looking forward to [...]
The Beauty of Syndication
I find little time to address the small things that would make my life easier, but when I do, I like to get the most out of it I can. So, when I blocked off time to re-architect our website, I made sure I addressed as many of the tedious, time draining tasks tied to [...]
The Principality of Sealand: a design critique
It is the pride and honor of every designer to have the opportunity to work on something that is truly profound. Such opportunities, like designing the Jüdisches Museum, Berlin or the Tube Map for London’s Underground, seldom grace the life of a designer. But, the opportunity to design a country, is one that almost [...]
hamburger helper
Being at loss of words lately, has led me down some strange paths of distractions, none of which ended at this blog. I’ve been wanting to get back in the swing of things for while, blogwise, but I’ve just found myself at a complete lack. Of interest? Of energy? I’m not really sure.
Yesterday I started [...]
one good rat
I don’t write very much about my personal life on this site, but one of the few exceptions I’ve made has been for our rats Abbi and Addi.
This past weekend, while cleaning out their cage, I discovered that Addi had a lump under her front left arm. We made an appointment with the vet for [...]
a FONT alike
The search for new sans-serif fonts is always a chore for me. Finding a sans-serif font, that has the right balance and play in its characters and does not assign meaning or dominate the stage, is perhaps the great challenge of the graphic designer. This is why, time and time again, I return to Helvetica.
That [...]
Good Cookie, Bad Cookie UI Design
I’m not one to think of products like soap or tube socks, as having a user interface, but in the practical sense, they do. We tend to lump product user interface design, into the parent category of product design. None-the-less, there is a distinction here. In some products, we can refer to the user interface [...]
designer vs. teflon
When the #%*@ just won’t stick and your deadline is fast approaching, being a designer is not fun. It’s a problem every designer has faced, many times. And if you’re looking for inspiration, everyone and their uncle is ready to tell you how to find it. Even me.
But, when it comes down to it, when [...]
Linguists are the new black
Semantic Web Trending in 2008
If Web design and development were fashion, linguists would be the new black in 2008. Beyond the confines of traditional Web vehicles, the need for smart applications is staking its’ claim. Leading this push, are the fledgling efforts of several Web applications, now touting something akin to good old Sci-Fi artificial [...]
critical resolution
There is something to be said for making resolutions. I don’t necessarily attach these to a particular time of the year or particularly special occasion, but I do make them. Resolutions help you grow, right? At least, that’s the intention.
There has been an interesting buzz trending around the internet, for the past few weeks, that [...]
Over Worked
My life as of late, has been nothing but work. I’ve been caught in this vicious loop that interconnects my bed, my computer and my bar tender. Seriously, I’ve been that pathetic. I’ve been so over worked that past couple weeks, that it’s all I can do to muster up enough energy to drag my [...]
User Experience and the Registration Form Pt. 2
There is one common and fundamental key to good user experience, the user should never have to guess. This becomes even more important when you are asking the user to divulge personal information by creating a user account. A few months ago, I wrote an article on the importance of branding and design for registration [...]
Designers’ Cookbook: How to make a penguin ‘turkey‘ dinner in under 30 minutes
You may have noticed over the last seven or eight months, that the graphic at the top of this site changes every so often. I started this project back in May and have been trying to change the header graphic each month, slowly adding to it, making it bulkier, more “over the top”, in a [...]
the show
Back in March of this year, a great period in web history came to pass. After months of having my plate piled as high as a Vegas buffet, I wanted to circle back and take a moment to reflect. At the time this started, I had a weekly radio show. We were one of the [...]
User Experience Design: The Registration Form
I’m so accustomed to lying about personal information when I create online accounts…
How many online accounts does a person need?
After designing what feels like my bagillionth registration form, I have to ask the question, how many online accounts does a person need? More accurately, how many accounts can a person have before maxing out on [...]
We’ve been at it for a year!
One year ago, on September 6th, 2006, I made a life changing decision to leave the doldroms of the 9 to 5 and start my own design firm with my fiancée. The decision was not an easy one to make. Leaving the security of steady pay and working for a well established design firm was [...]
Mobile Web 2.0
Today, I receive an email from Cameron Moll, reminding me about the (almost, August 28th) release of his long awaited Mobile Web Design book. Perfect, I thought. I’ve been waiting for this almost as long as I was waiting for the release of the iPhone.
One of the reasons I’ve been waiting in such anticipation [...]
WordCamp 2007
395 Attendees, 17 Speakers, 2 Days and 1 Men’s Room
And that’s where WordCamp 2007 started and stopped feeling like “camp”. This is not the YMCA.
The Skinny
After letting everything soak in for the past week, three key things from WordCamp 2007 jump out at me.
Blog from your heart
You want your readers to be like you
Don’t complete [...]
web factory
Delivering under tight deadlines is pretty much what you’re in for, if you’re a web designer. Knowing how to handle it, is what will make you a designer of the web. As many times as I’ve wanted to pull my hair out with unrealistic deadlines and “last minutes”, I also get my adrenaline fix out [...]
keeping sane ~ web design tool box
Life under fire has been getting the best of me lately. If there’s one thing I learned doing web design, is that you have to be able to deliver your best under pressure. And more importantly, you have to know how and when to still make time for yourself. I wouldn’t think about complaining about [...]
Worn, Torn and ‘Vintaged’
It just won’t go away
No turning back now. Grab your goggles, you’ve seen it before. You’ll see it again. You’ll see it when you really wish you wouldn’t. The worn, torn, vintage look just won’t go away. And, we kind of like it ~mostly
While working on designs for a client as an example, I thought [...]
beta testers UNITE!
Online media whores, we need you
It’s time to announce what I’ve been working on for the past few months and it’s your chance to get in on the ground floor with what I feel is going to be the next generation for online media.
We’re looking for beta testers for a new media application we’re working [...]
(–)mpotence of Articulate Structure
I’m in a great mood today. Last nights drink with the fishes meet up was a hit and I’ve spent the morning working on bloody photographs, literally. What could be better.
So, what does this have to do with the impotence of articulate structure? Nothing. I digress.
Impotence of Articulate Structure really
“To be sure, what looks like [...]
The Perfect Logo, Not really one for the uber-geekery set
11:37PM, Friday night and I find myself bolstering my Linked In profile and trolling the web for the benefit of my yet to be smoked cigarette. Thinking I have to be the only loser partaking in such pathetic behaviour on a Friday night, I’m amazed at how many of my contacts quickly respond to my [...]
Crap, I can’t believe I wasted another sentence saying this
Hey, it’s repeatPenguin! I’ll give you a brief introduction, so you will know if you’re up to the challenge, meh (or rather, if you’re willing to let me distract you for a few minutes with my rambling).
I am a designer and web developer in San Francisco.
“Oh no, another web developer BLOG,” you say?
Fortunately, YES! There [...]
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