The Artistic Outlaw

April 19th 2007 / shared

I Answer Questions

Back in March I received an e-mail from Smashing Magazine asking for my participation in an upcoming article where they ask five questions to a whole bunch of web designers.

At first I was reluctant, thought it was maybe spam or even a mistake—I don’t consider myself an industry leading designer. After a few e-mail volleys with Smashing Magazine’s own Editor-In-Chief Vitaly Friedman, and assurance that it was not a mistake, I was willing to give it a go.

I answered the five questions and sent the e-mail and had not heard anything back.

Today, David pointed out to me, via IM, that the article was up.

So without further hyping of something that I was only a very small part of, please enjoy the article; 35 Designers x 5 Questions over at Smashing Magazine.

And my sincere thanks goes out to the team at Smashing Magazine for seeing something in my work that I myself have yet to realize, it’s appreciated.

April 16th 2007 / shared

The Artistic Outlaw Rides Again

Hello and welcome to the new and permanent home for The Artistic Outlaw a creative pro blog. If you’ve read TAO before over at Onelotus, then there may not be anything super new yet, but rest assured I’ve got some great articles in the works and have plans to keep this blog updated regularly. If this is your first experience with the Artistic Outlaw, then everything is new!!

I broke the blog off from the Onelotus main site so that I could have more room to stretch out and really get serious about blogging about my work and industry, without being tied to a specific style or tone.

I decided to use WordPress for this version of TAO, for several reasons several of which have to do with onepanel not being completed.

Search, Tags and Trackbacks being the main missing pieces. All of which onepanel will have once released.

Plus, this will give me a damn good reason to write a WP convertor straight out of the gate.

The only downside to switching to WordPress is I’ve lost the previous comments on the existing articles, not a huge deal we’ll just pretend they’re all new discussions.

All in all, I hope to see new and old faces alike around.

Thanks for visiting, here’s to a new beginning for the Artistic Outlaw, don’t forget to spread the word.

December 21st 2006 / shared

Can I get that icon in Cornflower Blue?

Apparently so. Adobe has announced the new CS3 icon family and it has caused some minor dismay. I’ve yet to read any resounding praise for the icons. However, I’ve read many angry outbursts, some eloquently put criticisms, but mostly just confused indifference.

Why a company as well known for producing creative software, would create an icon family that has a novice visual feel is beyond me. I suppose we could only speculate at Adobe’s motives until they supply an official explanation, but I’d like to believe they have a good reason, and that it’ll all become clear as we get closer to a full launch of CS3.

There’s more, go get it

July 9th 2006 / shared

Mr. Alan Jax is an Asshole.

I’m at this party, I’m not entirely sure how I got here. I think I’ve earned my way in, I think I’m being funny, everyone’s laughing with me, my jokes are flying out, I’ve got to think about them and my lips move while I say them, but my wit is quick and they’re coming rapid fire.

Everyone’s gathered around drinking and laughing.

Then he arrives, Mr. Alan Jax—Mr. Asshole if you ask me. He floats in, transitioning smoothly from person to person telling jokes, stealing glances. His lips don’t move—the jokes are just there. People are beginning to notice him and they’re drawn to him, away from me.

There’s more, go get it

February 23rd 2006 / shared

Web Two Point Oh No!

There’s a new way to create and market web-sites and no one told me about it. I didn’t get my invitation to the private beta release party. No one told me that we would be taking old methods and technologies, placing new names on them or groups of them and touting them as brand new. Someone failed to mention that certain design elements were now part of this new and improved web. I suppose the memo never reached my desk.

I’m already tired of Web 2.0, not because of its absolute and powerful inundation into every nook and cranny on the web. Not because some of its components infuriate me as a accessibility supporter. Not even because it’s another trend or catch-phrase or buzz-word.

There’s more, go get it

February 22nd 2006 / shared

A Community Divided

In the world of web development and design there’s a strong division of developers who each think that their way is the way, the only way. None of these differing groups are 100% wrong or 100% right. It’s not unlike religion. There are base qualities to each that are identical at the core, but the majority of the philosophies are different. And not unlike religious fanatics, web developers also adamantly defend and preach their way as the one true way. I think this is a horrible way to approach the development of web-sites. My personal philosophy is; if it works, it works. That’s not to say that I feel we should be using (x)html elements in the incorrect way, because it works. It means that I am not going to beat myself (or others) down if I need to use an extra division tag to get my design to function and display correctly in a myriad of browsers.

There’s more, go get it

February 22nd 2006 / shared

Crazy Tasty, the Evils of Product Design

Yesterday afternoon, my wife, kids and I went to the local Wal-Mart super-center for our semi-regular, grocery shopping spree. Why we keep putting ourselves in this position is beyond the scope of this article, but just let me say this; shopping with two young boys in a crowded shopping center is just a little less fun than it may seem. The point and scope of this article is the evils of product packaging design. Specifically I want to discuss how a product could so easily lure me into an unwanted purchase based solely on the packaging.

There’s more, go get it

February 15th 2006 / shared

Anatomy of a Forum (part three)

I’m continuing our open-ended discussion on the modern forum GUI with the third installment; topic reading view. This is going to be the most controversial view—I believe—because I’m going to suggest stripping out a large amount of clutter and secondary information that’s unnecessary to the task at hand; reading the topic. Today I want to discuss a little about why it’s important to focus on the topic itself more, and less on the secondary information that often accompanies the modern forum GUI topic reading view.

There’s more, go get it

February 6th 2006 / shared

Anatomy of a Forum (part two)

Last week we began a discussion on the modern message board and its GUI, we talked about ways to improve this common and outdated user interface by making things slimmer, cleaner and more logical. There was extremely good feedback on the article and concepts overall, the only real complaint was that the concept lacked a design logo/brand. I feel a logo is not necessary to the overall software package, some argued that some administrators would want to leave the software as is, but replace the logo/brand with one of their own. My response was “I feel it’s just as easy to add a logo as it is to replace one”. Although, the more I think about it, I think there is a possible solution that would work well as a compromise, without real sacrifice.

There’s more, go get it

January 6th 2006 / shared

Anatomy of a Forum (part one)

The modern message board has a certain look and feel, it’s a specific look, it’s been in use a long time, it’s comfortable and it’s friendly, nay familiar. The modern message board GUI is for lack of a better phrase; inundated to a point of almost no return. Software developers are afraid to stray too far for fear of user rebellion, message board administrators feel the same, afraid their user group will turn their collective backs on the community or software due to sweeping changes and tweaks. Unfortunately, this makes little sense and if it weren’t for a very vocal minority it would be a ridiculous notion of stagnancy and inability to develop something better, making daily and first time use easier and more intuitive. In this series, I intend to propose a better way; I’ll focus on one standard forum view per article, and try to back up my ideas, and ideals with solid arguments, in some cases I may fail miserably. Won’t you join me?

There’s more, go get it