In part three, our designers discuss recommended books and who/what’s overrated (e.g. Jonathan Ive, Getting Real, 2advanced, blog celebrities) and underrated (Nazarin Hamid, Jared Christiansen, Eric Jordan, scrolling).
| Matt | For all: Name one book every designer should own and/or one that everyone should own (designer or not). |
| Ryan | I would suggest The Picture of Dorian Gray |
by Oscar Wilde |
|
| Greg | Hmmm |
I’ve got 250 books on the shelf… hard to choose one |
|
| Dan | For everyone: Big Red Barn by Margaret Wise Brown |
| Jason | [Note: In this chat, Jason is Jason Santa Maria, not Jason Fried] As a designer: What is a Designer by Norman Potter or The Brand Gap by Marty Neumeier |
| Ryan | |
| Dan | Ryan just earned himself a beer |
| Ryan | Cha-ching. |
| Jason | In general, probably the Hitchhikers’ Guide to the Galaxy |
| Greg | BWD is good but I thought HTML 3.1 was better |
:) |
|
| Jason | snap! |
| Dan | lol |
| Ryan | Zinging abounds. |
| Greg | I don’t know why The Design of Sites isn’t recommended more |
it’s an encyclopedia of good practices for online design |
|
| Dan | For designers: The Elements of Typograhic Style. Although, I’ve only managed to get through 1/2 of it. |
| Greg | Massive Change by Bruce Mau is a must read |
| Jason | It seriously is |
| Jason | What’s your favorite design you’ve done? |
| Ryan | Purevolume.com for me |
| Greg | |
| Dan | fav design: corkd.com |
| Ryan | (Stands and applauds Cork’d) |
| Jason | Yeah, Cork’d rules. The color palette got me immediately. |
| Dan | Thanks, dudes |
| Greg | jason, favorite design… |
| Jason | I think actually my site. It’s not my best design, but certainly the most gratifying for me. And I’m my toughest client. |
| Dan | Love the October-ish theme you have there now. |
| Ryan | No doubt… that’s the worst thing about leaving client work. |
| Jason | For client work, I still like ALA, and the designs I’m doing for AIGA. |
| Ryan | Designing for yourself is always daunting and rarely gratifying. |
That’s why I have a stupid splash page. |
|
| Greg | I love your splash page |
| Jason | Okay, who’s overrated online, designer or otherwise… and who needs more press? |
| Greg | Jonathan Ive… we get it already |
| Ryan | Easy, Greg. |
I don’t really buy into the whole overrated thing. |
|
| Greg | maybe I read too many business journals… |
| Jason | I’ll get shit for it, but Getting Real can be overrated |
| Ryan | Wow. |
| Jason | Because I’ve seen clients think it’s a magic bullet |
And they put it in place of real thought |
|
It works wonders for you guys because you are amazing thinkers |
|
And you make a lot of decisions just based on experience |
|
But jumping right into the deep end doesn’t work for everyone |
|
| Matt | i’d argue it’s more jump into the shallow end. |
| Ryan | :) |
| Matt | but jump. |
| Jason | I guess I’m saying, when it works, it’s great, but a vital component is a good team |
| Matt | JSM, Getting Real is the answer to EVERYTHING. |
[passes kool-aid] |
|
| Ryan | Truth. |
| Jason | hahaha, I didn’t mean to go on a tirade :D |
I love you guys, it’s more about power in the hands of those who don’t know what to do with it |
|
| Greg | Oh, it’s logged |
and your superiors have been notified |
|
| Jason | Shit. Now I’m overrated. |
| Matt | you always were |
| Jason | haha |
zing! |
|
| Ryan | ZING!!!! |
| Greg | damn |
| Matt | mess with getting real and you get the horns! |
| Greg | 37signals rolls hard |
| Dan | I hear what Jason is saying. It’s the same danger that people have when they say "ok, I need a site that has AJAX and Ruby on Rails and microformats. Oh, and it’ll do this: __" |
| Jason | EXACTLY |
| Greg | Nazarin Hamid and Jared Christiansen should get more spotlight |
| Ryan | Spot on, Greg. |
| Jason | I second Naz, that guy is great |
| Ryan | Naz is a genius. |
| Dan | oh absenter is brilliant |
http://www.thebignoob.com/Gerard should get more press |
|
| Ryan | |
| Greg | Paul Nixon is wasting away at Apple… he should be rescued from the box they design in (it’s a nice box but still Paul got da skillz) |
| Ryan | I’m trying, Greg ;) |
| Jason | I agree about Paul too |
No one thinks anyone else is overrated? |
|
| Greg | 2advanced is waaaaayyyyy overrated by young designers |
| Ryan | 2advanced made me want to be a designer. |
| Greg | but you would starve trying to get work that would allow you to design like that |
| Ryan | That Korean site you sent looked very similar to what 2Advanced puts out… |
| Greg | 2advanced gives me a headache |
| Ryan | Eric Jordan probably tops my list of coolest, nicest people I’ve ever met. |
| Dan | Scrolling is underrated |
| Ryan | YES, Dan! |
| Greg | yes! |
| Ryan | Embrace the Mighty Mouse nipple, I always say. |
| Greg | I had a client tell me that people hate to scrolll |
I asked them where they heard that BS |
|
they said something about scientific studies… |
|
| Matt | DC, good point. scrolling: underrated. sidebars: overrated. |
| Jason | The plain fact remains, if you can interest people in what you have to offer, they will meet you halfway |
(and scroll) |
|
| Ryan | I’m still scrolling down basecamphq.com |
... |
|
| Greg | zing! |
| Ryan | Yep, still scrolling |
| Greg | zing-zing! |
double score |
|
| Ryan | I love it though. |
| Matt | having people scroll seems a lot more realistic than throwing up tons of horizontal content that just gets ignored (like a lot of content sites with multi-column layouts). |
| Ryan | Matt – Hallelujah. |
| Jason | It all depends on the point of the site ML |
| Ryan | I’m going to quadruple my splash page length right now… |
| Greg | I think "blog celebrities" and that status are overrated |
| Jason | here here |
| Dan | yes yes |
| Jason | Unless you had a blog before "blogs" |
| Greg | :) |
| Ryan | Are you self-claiming celebrity status, Greg? |
| Greg | No |
| Ryan | ;) |
Girls everywhere dream of running their hands through your firey red hair. |
|
| Dan | Do you guys read any blogs that you aren’t subscribed to (RSS)? |
| Ryan | I read http://joshuablankenship.com religiously. |
It’s one of the only ones I read not in RSS. |
|
I don’t know why really. |
|
| Dan | Ryan – cool stuff. |
| Greg | I have an RSS reader but I never use it |
I like my content rendered on the web |
|
| Dan | Ah, see I assumed…. |
| Jason | I am starting to ditch subscriptions |
| Dan | I used to be like you, Greg. I think I need to go back. |
| Jason | I try to delete a few a day |
| Greg | I’m also on the look out for non-blogs |
| Dan | Like I said before, I think RSS killed the blog. |
I mean, it’s great at the same time… |
|
| Jason | Then should we all stop offering RSS? |
| Ryan | I only do what Mike Davidson dons appropriate. |
| Greg | there has to be more to our collective creativity than blogs, Myspace, web 2.dough, etc. |
| Dan | I enjoy posting to Flickr more than anything these days. |
| Greg | maybe offline is where we need to go |
at least more than we do now |
|
| Jason | That’s where I go |
| Dan | offline, yes. |
| Ryan | I like offline. |
| Jason | I need time away from my computer and the internet to function normally |
I want to be alone offline, i see enough people online |
|
| Dan | Haha. I think I’m the opposite. I need to be more alone online, and be with more people offline. |
| Greg | The Church of the Offline |
| Ryan | I worship there. |
Is that our queue to leave? |
|
| Jason | haha |
I think so ;) |
Part one and part two of this chat.
Guests
Dan Cederholm
Jason Santa Maria
Ryan Sims
Greg Storey
[Fireside Chats are round table discussions conducted using Campfire.]
Joshua Blankenship
on 19 Oct 06Aw, thanks Ryan.
Chris
on 19 Oct 06Thanks much for this series. In just this portion of the talk I ended up with about 20 tabs open.
Jake
on 19 Oct 06I just finished my sixth read through of “The Big Red Bard” and have not had a single new client call.
Your advice is wack. The other books have to many small words.
Fun thread.
Zelnox
on 19 Oct 06Ya, I had many tabs open too! Thanks for Joshua’s link. Ever since I’ve started to use popurls, I consume links/content way too fast to the point where I run out of things to read (especially since the buzz stuff seem very homogenized, I suppose in order to bubble to the top). Some of the stuff linked here feels refreshing and reminds me of 1 year or 2 ago. _V
Tamim
on 19 Oct 06The quality of the interview is lacking. A good interview needs a good interviewer with straight questions.
John A. Davis
on 19 Oct 06snore
Michael
on 19 Oct 06Definitely my favorite part so far. Thanks for the great book recommendations and links.
Joshua Blankenship
on 19 Oct 06It’s not an interview, per se. It’s a roundtable dicussion/chat. By nature of the medium, I’d say that it does that quite well.
Mike D.
on 19 Oct 06That is the most cryptic reference to my name ever. I am lost in its subtleties.
Des Traynor
on 20 Oct 06I’m not sure if the studies still apply these days, with the standard of computer literacy going up, but 3 studies in 96/97 concluded that scrolling is a bad idea.
Berkman, 1997; Levi & Conrad, 1997; Neilsen & Wagner, 1996
emma
on 01 Nov 06can you play a sims game online with out downloading can you tell me the website and if not please mack one.
emma
on 01 Nov 06Hi again I love the game so could you send on the website game to play the sims pets and can you put this on open for bisness thank you alot
This discussion is closed.