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“Please welcome to the stage the very innovative Bela Fleck”
March 6, 2010Believe it or not, those are not the words I’d want to be introduced by. Every week I see a new article about the secret(s) of innovation. And then articles dissecting the word, suggesting better words, lauding innovation, deploring it. At the least, it’s fatiguing. But often I think it’s just barking up the wrong tree.
Don’t get me wrong: I find nothing categorically wrong with innovation. How could I, right? But as a designer, 90% of the time I’d rather do something really damn well than do something that’s innovative. I like much of Bela Fleck’s music, but I hope we’re not celebrating the man because he can make pitch-perfect quail calls with his banjo or because he’s sure to be the all-time best-selling heavy metal banjo crossover artist of all time. Innovative (if a bit hyperbolic), but not necessarily great.
There’s nothing innovative about any of the design I do, save for (maybe) a CSS hack developed as a means to an end now and then, but I can’t see why there needs to be. I’m in the business of communicating content visually and interactively. I respect the designers who not only push the craft forward through excellence in execution, but actually push the medium forward through innovation. Maybe the iPad (e.g.) will really enable us to better communicate content. I’m not denouncing innovation, but if no one ever calls me “innovative” I’ll be totally okay, as long as someone calls me “really good.”
This gave me a good chuckle
June 28, 2009
Some of you may know that I’ve been looking to move into a full-time role as a web interaction designer for the right company. [Potential clients: Don’t let this scare you! I’m adamant about keeping alive the possibility of freelance work alongside any full-time position I may accept, and I’ll always be honest about my ability to perform requested work in a timely manner.]
Beware Smashing Magazine
June 1, 2009I remember Andy Rutledge linking to an article from Digital Web from the “ephemera” section of his website. After linking, he said something to the effect of too bad it appears in such an “irresponsibly-run rag”. This pretty much sums up my attitude about Smashing Magazine. Sometimes there are very worthwhile articles and some of the best in the industry have written for or appeared in it, but, at the end of the day, Smashing Magazine is an irresonsibly-run rag. But this time they’ve really pissed me off…
Strong branding vs. good branding
May 26, 2009I think a lot of times strong branding is confused with good branding. In my personal definitions: Strong branding creates an undeniable public (define public how you’d like) consciousness of a person, organization, etc. Good branding creates a public consciousnhttp://www.twelve8.net/wordpress/wp-admin/post-new.phpess that is a) desired by the creator and b) appreciated by the public. TO (that’s Terrell Owens [Wikipedia here] for those of you unreached by his branding) practices the former; Zappos practices the latter.
Designing for the stubborn
May 11, 2009My first MP3 player was a 20GB Creative Labs Zen Touch, for Christmas ’04. It was a gift, but I pretty much picked it out myself. As far as I was concerned (and still am), that old Creative had a lot to offer over its obvious competition, the iPod:
- Superior sound quality? Check. (Uhh, it’s Creative Labs.)
- Ample storage? Check. 20GB. (iPod had a 20GB model too.)
- Superior battery life? Check. I think it was something like 20hrs. vs. 9hrs.
- Superior durability? Probably.
- Superior price? Check. By about $100, as I remember it.
- Superior UI (onboard & software)? Not a chance.
So I had plenty of good reasons to pick the Creative, but one reason doesn’t fit on that checklist:…