8 Ways to Sunday

“A camel is a horse designed by a committee.”

– Sir Alec Issigonis, designer of the Austin Mini

About a week ago, I launched a new weblog on the Zenscope Studio site. There are a lot of other Web developers and graphic designers with blogs, but most of them are writing posts that only interest other developers and designers. This is a great way to share knowledge and find collaborators, but it shuts out the client.

With Zenlog, I’m aiming for both audiences. There’s advanced tips and design analysis for fellow pros. There are also beginner tutorials and business-oriented articles for potential clients.

Client communication and education is sorely lacking in this field. Too many design professionals seem to look at their customers as a necessary evil. I’m doing my small part to change things.

Risky Business?

I’m not sure how this approach will work out. Business owners may not be interested enough to tune in, and I wouldn’t be surprised to get some blow-back from other developers and designers. My latest article — stating that the Web industry should “get over itself” when it comes to client relations — will probably raise some eyebrows (and tempers). But how else should I respond when the latest issue of A List Apart refers to clients as “schmucks with money” and “the well dressed nemesis”?

Sound Off

Love it or hate it, I’d like to know what you think. So check out Zenlog, and leave some comments telling me where you stand.

Be sure to subscribe to the new blog, and stay tuned for “How to Find and Hire a Great Designer” — coming soon.

This site has been short on substantial updates for quite awhile, and with good reason. I’ve been busy both wrapping things up at my long-time day job and getting things started at my new web development and graphic design company, Zenscope Studio. Here’s the story. (more…)

A while back in the TextDrive forum, I posted some advice on color theory for a person who’d asked for feedback on his latest web site. Since this might be useful for a lot of other people out there, I thought I’d reproduce the most relevant bits here:

• Always keep in mind the effects of red-green color blindness on your designs. Visicheck and the Colorblind Web Page Filter are both good tools to help with this.
• Color Matters has a good article on basic color theory
• So does Microsoft (surprise, surprise)
• Worqx.com has several pages of information on color and its use in design
• Pantone on color psychology
• “Color, Contrast, and Dimension in News Design” by the Poynter Institute. Focuses on newspapers and magazines, but informative nonetheless.
• Some info on color perception around the world. I had no idea that red is the color of mourning in South Africa.
• Color Schemer is a very cool application (for Mac or Windows) that makes picking good color schemes easier. This page on Worqx.com lists more such software in the sidebar.

I’m late to the party (as usual) on this, but pMachine — the company behind the ExpressionEngine CMS — is hosting a design competition for EE-powered web sites. The contest is being judged by such web luminaries as Simon Collison, Molly Holzschlag, Cameron Moll, and Jason Santa Maria (to name just a few).

The submission deadline has already passed (winners in three categories will be announced March 15th), but the gallery of submissions is still worth visiting. Some of the contestant sites are truly impressive, and can serve as inspiration for pro and hobbyist web designers alike.