Archive for January, 2010
Creativity, definition of
Wednesday, January 27th, 2010
My talented neice's fancy fruit bowl... very creative!
I’ve just read this article by Andy Rutledge on creativity, and while I cling to my creativity, I have to agree with his sentiments…for the most part.
He seems to believe that you need to be properly educated. He’s written other articles on creating a set curriculum and adding a few letters after your name. I’m self-taught. Some of the best designers I’ve met are also self-taught. I learned web stuff by little bit of luck, mediocre-levels of innate talent, and a lot of sheer will.
Growing up is hard to do
By doing things wrong, I actually knew why those rules were important.
Knowing the fundamentals and being able to apply them do make designs better. Every designer with a few years under their belt should know that. But I still think a creative mind still makes a fantastic job. Any dunce with a bit of discipline can apply the principles to a bit of information. That doesn’t make it good design.
Designers should be creative
The definition of creativity has been warped a bit. Most people say that children are very creative. My niece is a fantastic artist, and she comes up with some really good stuff. In the past, I’ve often confused expressive creativity with useful creativity.
Design, by definition, is inherently useful. For most professions (architecture, engineering, and hey, why not… accounting), I think of it more like problem solving. And those curious and perceptive will work and niggle until a design works, and every pixel works towards its goal. Fitting components onto a page coherently and effectively requires more than just a knowledge of design fundamentals. Sure, they give you a framework for putting things in place, but the elegance that comes from a beautiful design usually comes from creativity mixed with a whole lot of empathy (whether it be artistic, typographic, structural, or any other type of creativity).
More to learn
Some of the design experts that we’re supposed to admire don’t really impress me that much, and a lot of their stuff doesn’t strike me as unique or creative, but their mastery of design theory and care and attention to details do. Within the confines of a new distinction between useful and expressive creativity, most of the problems associated with the terminology disappears. I can say that yes, they have solved the problem, so I guess they are being creative, but they haven’t found the most elegant solution (if your initial reaction is, “Meh!” then can it truly be the best design for that content?).
I ultimately think you can’t hide behind design’s rules either though, just as much as you can’t hide behind ‘creativity’.
Go ahead and read his article. He really says it well.
Taking the short way
Thursday, January 21st, 2010
Take the fast route baby!
There are so many resources out there on keyboard short cuts out there. Some really good ones that just got published include Mastering Photoshop: Unknown Tricks and Time-Savers (where I learned how to commit the text I had just written when my toolbars were hidden: It’s cmd enter!) and I’ve just finished installing Zen Coding into my Coda and Textmate, which will save me a lot of time formatting boring static text, definitely.
Shortcuts are great…
I know quite a few shortcuts in the Adobe package, and I can get around my mac pretty easily with a combination of key strokes. It saves me so much time, and it makes it so much easier to get into my “zone”. We all have our techniques for efficiency when we’re on the computer.
…but they’re also really frustrating
The problem is, they’re not universal. I hit the “V” key constantly in flash in order to get my direct select arrow. I hit “command D” constantly in Illustrator to place an image, but that’s the command for inDesign. After a while I get frustrated enough that I’ll go and change them in the settings, but by then, all flow has dissipated.
They also make teaching difficult
I have often gone to show people how to do something very simple in Photoshop, and to be honest, it takes me a while to find certain things in the menus. I hit keystrokes to change tools, and they are shouting, “Wait! What is that?”
Remember these words: patience and repetition. I think people should always learn the long ways of doing it first. Menus and panels often give a context that learning shortcuts do not. It’s like at school with math: the teacher would show you once or twice how a formula was derived, and then you just remembered the formula, but understood its context. It meant memorizing the formula was much easier, because it had something to connect to in your brain.
They make “experts” out of “amateurs”
I’ve met a few people who are whizzes at Photoshop, could talk to the talk, do the shortcut walk and then I saw their stuff, but it turns out they couldn’t design themselves out of a paper bag. Just because I’m really good with the drill and the hammer, doesn’t mean I should be designing the house.
This short-cutter has mistaken tool mastery with real skill, and that’s a huge problem. For those who strive for mastery in design, shortcuts are not important.
Visualizing hate love for Air Canada
Tuesday, January 5th, 2010
No carry-ons, extra security measures and an interesting customs experience. These are the things we have to look forward to on our flight tomorrow to England through the US from Canada.
We combined two tickets, by changing the date of one, so we’re not spending more on flights as we’ve already bought them. But when it comes to common sense, Air Canada has really thrown it out the window.
Here is our flight itinerary:
Here is how our trip will look like
Ottawa and Toronto are a 5 hour drive apart, so we thought, “Let’s just drive to Toronto and pick up the flight to the UK from there.” Sounds simple: it benefits Air Canada as now they can sell our seats on the San Francisco leg. It benefits us as we save about 14 hours of air time, don’t have to fly through the states with the increased security (I can just imagine explaining this to the customs guy in the states), and I can see my friend who’s living in Toronto.
Our proposed trip
But Air Canada said ‘NO’.
We’re not asking for a refund for the unused portion and we’ll make our own way to Toronto, so it’s not a route change. But APPARENTLY it IS a route change. Their rules state that if you miss any portion of your flight, the whole ticket is void. I’m not sure when common sense went out the window, but it seems a bit crazy to send us all the way there and back, when they could sell that seat. Of course, the flight TO San Francisco is with American Airlines. If we don’t make our connection in San Francisco, do you think Air Canada would void our tickets?
Update! Good news!
Well, the counter staff at Air Canada have saved us! She said, “That’s ridiculous!” and told us that we were lucky we got her to serve us. She said, “I’ll take your money for a change though” and now we’re just flying from toronto tomorrow morning! YAY!
Writing more this year… project52
Monday, January 4th, 2010
I recently came upon Sam Brown’s blog post on project52. As much as I want to berate people that take on these challenges, I’m a sucker for them. While I’m going to take it semi-seriously, I think it’s a great thing to post more consistently.
Anyway, here’s the first week’s post. Sorry it’s so boring. The plan is also to make them progressively more interesting.
Last year’s goals, 50% complete… plus goals for 2010
Friday, January 1st, 2010
So it’s the end of the year, and I look back at last year’s new year’s resolutions, and I’m pretty pleased with what’s happened. I’ve reworked safetygoat, launched some apps, done some designs, learned some new computer stuff, and had an adventure!
I still haven’t got a vinyl toy of safetygoat made, I didn’t make half as many new clothes as I planned, and I definitely didn’t do as much spraypainting!
2009 was a great year though!
I launched my first apps, thepickuptruck and graffed, and I’m close to getting theboxcat out in private beta. I also started writing for Smashing Magazine, and will hopefully become a more regular writer this year. I also quit my job at bview in September to go traveling for a while, and have realized I am more of a projects girl than a traveler. I’ve realized that you’ve got to try things to find out if they’re for you.
I’m really excited about 2010, and I think this decade will be very good, but I’m not sure what this year will bring. I’m not sure about my visa for England, so I’m not sure where I’m going to be living, but there’s something a bit exciting about that. In that sense, it’s hard for me to make resolutions for next year, but it is fun to do!
1. Get a job
Travelling these past few months have been fun, but I really want to focus on my web design. I would love to see if I could do part time somewhere, and then do freelance part time, but as long as I’m doing something that challenges me, with interesting people, I’ll be happy.
2. Refine and refine
2009 was great for new websites for me, and I’ve learned so much about coding, designing and usability. I’ve done some good work on some websites, on safetygoat, on graffed, boxcat, etc, but they’re a work in progress, and I’m looking forward to refining them!
3. More drawing
Last year, I occasionally used my lunch hours to do sketches, mostly of cbc radio 3 songs. It was really rewarding, and a good way to keep drawing. I want to get my “lunch time sketches” up and going and at least once a week, if not twice a week, to keep me coming up with visual concepts.
4. More arts and crafts!
I’ve bought some books on dress making, and I’d love to learn how to make clothes in a bit more traditional way– ie not me making it ALL up as I go! Whether I get my safetygoat made, or continue to experiment with moulding them myself, I want to continue trying lots of new things.
