New Adventures Conference 2012 Wrapup

Photo by the talented Kitty Crawford

I haven’t been to a design conference since SXSW 2007. I got tired of the same old speakers talking about yesteryears technology which they still were catching up on.

In that respect, New Adventures greatly surprised me. It was fresh, on-point and absolutely fantastic. Like any conference there was a mixture of quality. My favourite talk was Dan Mall’s. I have a bias towards Dan as he’s one of the nicest guys on the web. He’s worked on some amazing projects but it wasn’t the Star Wars or Crayola site that he worked on that impressed me the most during his talk but the fact he showed some of his less lacklustre work too. Too many designers speak as if their first design is the perfect final image and the reality is that we work iteratively, creating new with the old elements. It takes someone very humble to be able to be so proud of the bad work, as it helped lead to the good work.

I also loved Robbie Manson’s talk. I’ve known Robbie from Twitter for a while now and have been super excited about seeing his talk. He utterly blew me away the fact that this was his second talk. I will definitely go out my way to see him talk again.

Travis Schmeisser’s talk was great also. I’ve worked with Travis in the past when I was at Hashrocket and he was at nGen Works. Not only is he a super smart lad but a very talented designer. I had high expectations walking in and wasn’t disappointed.

I won’t touch on the talks that I didn’t like as I don’t want to be too negative. The one thing I will say is; don’t listen to people telling you to be a ‘celebrity.’ Forget trying to be popular. Just do the best job you can and let your work speak for itself.

Simon Collison put on an absolutely fantastic event. Another one of the humble few with great skills and a natural born conference organiser. A top notch gentleman who definitely deserves the praise he’s been getting for the event.

I am going to aim to go to next New Adventures. If it’s anything like this year I will be happy. I’m not sure if I plan on going to any other design conference yet. I will judge it on a per-event basis.

I met and saw so many wonderful people. I am very glad to know and talk to the people I do. There’s a lot of great people in our industry. It provoked love for the community inside me that I haven’t felt in many years.

Being surrounded by the beautiful buildings that Nottingham had to offer, the people – both inspired and inspiring and inhaling the knowledge that was offered has enlivened the spring in my step.

A Brutally Honest Year In Review

The best friend & I

Canada

In February, my best friend and I work-holidayed to Quebec to see our good friends Nick Plante (zapnap), his wife Amanda and Nick Tomarello. It was the first time I’ve visited Canada but definitely not the last. We managed to book the time perfectly for the Winter Carnival where we saw such things as the ice hotel and went sledding.

The idea was that we would go out and visit the awesome sites during the day, and work on a project during the night. It worked very well and sparked us to create Startup Workaway (I’ll be at the next one!) The basic premise is to take geeks out their comfort zone, put them with like minded people and watch what they create.

Best Friends & Businesses

Unfortunately, it wasn’t all good. The middle crumbled for me. During the middle of the year I lost my other best friend tragically, shortly followed by a romance becoming seriously ill with cancer, breaking down and going AWOL. It seriously broke me. Two people that I had spent years talking to every night without fail were suddenly out of my life. I tried to remain as professional and normal as possible for my business’ sake.

At the time I was running London Made and we had just grounded ourselves by taking on some free work that ended up being more than we could chew. It was a huge lesson and the first time in a very long time that made us a big loss. I personally ended up in debt over it and we had to fire our rather unsympathetic client. It made me realise I should have done it sooner. We were being taken advantage of and it was my want of exposure that kept us on it. The sacred promise of riches. The project was then handed to another agency and it is still yet to have seen the light of day.

Running a business is incredibly hard work. There are both extreme ups and downs of equal measures – much like normal life. I’ve run a company in multiple countries, multiple people. At the top of my game I had a maximum of 15 people employed/contracting with us. And I just mentioned one of the many bottoms. Without failure, there is no success and I am proud of my mistakes. They could have been a lot worse.

We still have one last client to release soon. I can’t wait. They’re adding a few new features and going through a Private Beta. It’s work we’re really proud of so I can’t wait to talk about it when it’s ready.

Being entrepreneurial is incredibly important to me. I’m a day dreamer, I spend my days in the clouds. Dreaming of what businesses I could run (and also if I was a super hero, how different my day would be.) I dream of winning the lottery but not spending it on my retirement but instead on businesses.

Mark Boulton Design

Work was great. I was wanting to move to a different city and expand London Made, maybe find a partner in the process. Everything was great. Out of nowhere I got asked if I would consider moving to Cardiff for Mark Boulton Design. I had met Mark many years previously and had much admiration for his work to benefit the industry.

I said Yes without hesitation and went for an interview. Though it was a big decision, I was very sure of it. I had no interest in moving to Wales, I wasn’t sure if I could work for someone else after spending so much of my life not doing so. However, my Lead Developer had got a good job offer, my contractors were all busy and I knew that I’d benefit greatly from having Mark’s mentorship.

Within the company I found my footing leading the UX on an awesome client. It’s been months of really hard work but I couldn’t be more excited for when it finally releases. My time at MBD so far has been a hell of a ride. (I also learnt the hard way – keep yourself hydrated or get knocked out for weeks.)

More Health

Since I arrived in Cardiff I got complacent with my diet and gained weight. I’ve been working hard on changing that. I’ve started swimming before work (I kept it up for 1-2 hours every day for 2 weeks — although that’ll stop when my hours change next month unfortunately) but I’ll try to keep it up somehow.

Cardiff

Moving to Cardiff was an amazing decision. I’ve lived in a few countries in a few continents but none has ever felt like home like here does. I’m definitely going to be settling here for a while.

Side Projects

I still try to keep up the side projects. I’ve got a ton of side projects I want to do but so little time to do them. I am however keeping up to date with Crummy.

I’m not going to pay for the renewal of designblogs‘s domain (previously of designablo.gs) as it’s costing me too much (I already pay for hosting.) However, I will give it a proper design and work on more.

Best posts of 2011

Be Kind

On Monday, I wrote about The Jocks & The Geeks. In short the post discussed the divide between the popular clique and that of the lesser knowns. I described how people feel their views are not heard and thus rendered invalid. A lot of people have told me they related to the post, so have a read if you haven’t. I’m always interested to hear new angles and opinions.

The last week has exposed a lot of harsh rudeness going on in the industry. (I personally hadn’t seen any of this until yesterday.) There has been plenty of people flogging others.

Although you are probably very aware of the incidents by now, two of many that stick out to me:

The ‘Web Designer Of The Year’ winner was bashed publicly. This created many conflicted feelings for me. I agree with the sentiment. Though however valid I feel about that, this was bullying. My Jocks and Geeks analogy holds more true now, it’s definitely like high schooling.

Then another case of an event organiser publicly shamed speakers. I didn’t see the list so have no idea if I approve of any or not, but that’s not the point. The point here is there is no constructive in this criticism.

My post a few days ago was about how tired I am that people don’t band together. That people are too busy trying to be web famous to care about others – unless there’s an incentive in it for them. It’s a shame to see this is happening. Not just as a close industry, but as human beings. I was of real hope that people would come together and push this industry much further.

The web is open; open-source, open-communication and it’s meant to be open-minded too. The insulting is getting us nowhere. It just escalates and makes anyone’s opinion instantly rendered invalid.

I vote we actually speak about this. Some are feeling marginalised, some are feeling a lot of the things going on is a giant farce. We’ve changed this industry plenty of times over in the past, let’s create a better environment for all.

We need to get past the bullshit. I think the more we focus on the community than the self-serving antics (everyone’s gotta eat – doesn’t mean we have to be a dick while doing it) the more this community will reflect that. Complaining solves nothing, action does.

Let’s challenge everyone to post more of the unknowns they find. To listen to everyone’s opinion no matter what their ‘status’ is. To stop bickering like we’re 10 years old on the playground. To communicate with each other more privately rather than deliberately embarrassing and shaming people.

Most importantly, lets get the hell on with it rather than complaining about how the current situation is so despicable. We’ve reflected on it, we realise it’s an issue, now let’s change it.

(You may also want to read Paul Graham’s post on critiscism criticism from a few years ago.)

Type Cases

Look what arrived in the mail yesterday! Two type cases (One 1920s & one 1960s.) With a nice added touch, I received blocks spelling out my name with it.

I’m not sure what use I have for them but I will find some. They’re really pretty. Big thanks to Peter Lambert’s father for hooking me up with these.

The Jocks & The Geeks

My Twitter blew up as everyone piped into the conversation about web celebrities. I’ve worked for one of the top names in the Ruby industry, and now what I would consider one of the top in the design industry. Yet I’m an active advocate against the web celebrity scene.

I’ve futilely fought against what I’ve seen as the pompous circle-jerking side of the web industry since I was in my teens. I was not the cool kid in school – In fact, bullied mercilessly. I got into the web to create, to get away from that bullshit with my like-minded nerds. Then as I moved from my own little circle into the more general on the web I noticed that it was more and more like high school.

As time goes on, the rich get richer. The more well known get more well known. If I compare who I considered popular in 2005, compared to now — there are barely any differences. All of the people I would consider are active bloggers and speakers. Saying that if I look among some of their portfolios you’ll realise most of them don’t practice what they preach, or don’t really practice their craft to a high standard at all.

The truth is 80% of the web celebrities I have met are some of the most decent people I’ve ever met. I have fond memories of the personal kindness I have seen from some of the web celebrities to me.

Though I’ve had many a friend snub me when I speak out against the web celebrity scene (this will be my 4th time on this blog) because I wasn’t deemed popular enough. 20% may not be much, but I feel that it’s an acceptable way of behaving in this industry.

How does one get their thoughts known in the web industry now? You don’t need skill. You need popularity. You need to speak at conferences, or spend your time buttering up to already celebs. The truth is; some people don’t want to talk at conferences. I’m going to be presenting at my local Ruby User Group sometime, but I am not set on big conferences. That means that a lot of the work I’ve done won’t be seen. Think about the last 5 web conferences? It’s always the same people speaking. It has been since I entered this community.

My biggest referrals are always things like YCombinator, Digg, Delicious. Where the average Joe votes. I may get 5,000 here and there from web celebs but the chances are they’re too busy linking among themselves.

I’m hearing the argument that people who aren’t heard on the web aren’t trying hard enough. I call bullshit. I’ve seen some amazing designers and developers get sidelined. Yet, I see the most inane posts get popular because they’ve worked their way up the web celeb’ ladder.

Sour grapes, much? Absolutely. I can’t be any more truthful about how I feel. There is no avoiding this cartel culture if you live and breathe on the web. It’s turned off so many people I know getting into this industry. We’re such a new industry; look at the way our offices work compared to others. Why can’t we have another culture as well?

When Dribbble was introduced, I discovered a bunch of amazing designers I had never heard of before. That never got exposed due to the fact it was previously a closed community. Saying that, those people I see barely get any exposure outside of Dribbble even now. I can’t name anyone who’s gained enough exposure they’re now one of the “cool kids.”

The moral of the story is; fuck everyone else. If you care enough, stick at what you’re doing – The people who matter, will notice.

Update 1: This is in no way affiliated with my employers.

Update 2: Being aggressive and spiteful is not the solution. I really don’t condone that sort of behaviour.

Update 2: There’s been some insults flying around on the web due to people not deserving awards. Truthfully, I don’t think the person deserved it, but they deserved the insults far less. People being mean isn’t going to solve anything – it just makes the person behind the attacks look worse.

I wrote this post so we can enable discussion. THAT’s what I think will get us out of this mess.

Be Yourself. Everyone else is taken.

@media 2005. Credit goes to Cindy Li for this photo. (I was 19 – Earliest I could find)

This is a fact that took me far too long to learn. I started in this industry young. There were already people designing and programming far smarter than I and I always felt the need to project a bigger age, to show anything but myself.

In truthiness, doing the hustle is not a bad thing but there are two things that sell the most: Talent, and Personality. Without one, the other accounts for nothing. No one wants to work with a boring guy, just as much as no one wants to work with someone who will do a bad job.

I learnt that the hard way. I grew a beard as soon as I physically could (not as young as one would hope) coupled with the fact my personality always naturally appeared older. I was well on my way to projecting the persona I wanted to, which didn’t work as well.

Although this is partly just the fact that I lived on the web while growing up, I’ve learnt not to hold back. I try to show myself; faults and all. I swear (see this), I make mistakes, I say when I think something’s wrong. It’s a liberating experience It’s what I should have done all along.

If you look at the most notable designers or developers, it’s often not their skills that have got them there. In fact I’d say most of the notables are pretty average. It’s their personality. It’s the fact they’ve given large quantities of who they are to the web world and they’ve given a window into their persona.

“Be yourself; everyone else is already taken.” — Oscar Wilde

LoveFilm’s Cancellation Dark Pattern (Amazon UK’s answer to Netflix)

Dark-Patterns appear all the time on websites but this is one of the worst I’ve seen in a while. I’ve heard of people having problems with this before but had no idea to expect them to be this bad. I went to cancel my account on the Lovefilm website. I recently bought a Boxee and have plenty to watch without the need to rent. The money I was spending was just getting wasted. I figured I may open my account up again in the future though if I found this to change.

Following the cancel link in My Account gave me a page asking me to phone up. Instantly I knew this was so a rather convincing telemarketer could convince me otherwise. I was right.

I told the man that I wanted to cancel and his first response was “Well, I’ll tell you what I can do. Because you are such a valuable and special customer to us I can downgrade your account to only £4.99. This way you can get a DVD still but it will save you a whole £10,” forcefully I disagreed with this option and again received a “But you will save £10. That’s a lot of money to save.” I replied simply “But if I cancel I can save £15 and that’s a much better saving.”

He tried a different approach. “You’ve still got a bit over 2 weeks left on your account. How about you give us a call closer to the date.” to which I also disregarded as an option knowing there was a chance I would be too busy or forget again.

He gave up and told me that my account was cancelled. Then the friendliness act was dropped. “I’d also recommend you pay for the postage yourself so you can make sure that it actually arrives in our depot.”

A DVD rental website is a luxury – one of the first things to go when saving money, something you start and stop all the time. But I can tell you that I won’t be using Lovefilm again because I don’t want to go through this fiasco. I will try Netflix when it comes out here very soon though.

After some further banter on Twitter about why fixed-bid projects are better than hourly. I decided to put my points down here. The post says:

If you respond to the question with your hourly rate, they may start immediately comparing you to other creative professionals, despite stark qualitative differences, essentially comparing apples to oranges. Or they may stop listening to the carefully constructed explanation of your creative process and start calculating what they think it should cost or, worse, how much you earn, perhaps compared to what they earn. Don’t let them go there.

I’ve highlighted the sentence I want you to pay attention to. You should never worry that clients are comparing you to others. Not if your skills speak for yourself and you have sold yourself correctly. The bigger the client, the more likely they will be comparing you against others. Being insecure at this point is a sure-fire way to lose the bid.

Fixed-bids don’t often end well in my opinion. Ideas are ever-evolving and this method of work doesn’t consider that. Scope creep is your biggest threat here and there are 3 outcomes to this: There is more work than originally expected – you don’t get paid for the full hours you put in, there is the same work as you originally expected – everyone is happy, there is less work than you expected – your client gets less work than he paid for. Scopes change, so chances are someone will be unhappy here.

You are not a sandwich shop! Your materials are low, and your hours are high. Therefore as a service job, we bill hourly. I understand people’s issue with billing in their less productive hours but if you bill for your more-productive hours I do not think that’s fair. It’s not as clear-cut as fixed-bid versus fluid per-hours. Billing hourly doesn’t have to be unorganised. Work out max-budget or max-hours, keep the client in the loop and the client will be happy. We deserve to be paid for all the hours we put into a project, why accept less?

Politically Incorrect: Spec Work

Web designers love a good bandwagon. The latest Anti-Spec movement is strong and people are in a frenzy while taking no prisoners. A lot of people are seeing this as a black and white matter.

I see spec work as a completely harmless process if correctly done. A company asks people to do some work for them in exchange for some publicity. Not once does the company hold a gun to any designers head – this is completely the designer’s choice. Nor is there little work out there – this industry is full with potential work.

I personally have done a few projects of spec work. Both my projects for Mozilla were spec work for example. I did them for free, in return for the projects being a portfolio piece. I only spent a night on the old Mozilla Camino website (as Jon Hicks had already done most of it. The latter was a big project yet unreleased that I did the UX for and my old London Made Lead Dev did months of development.

Doing the initial Camino work helped established me as a designer and I am thankful for that. It was a good experience where I donated a night to help my future. I have no feelings of being taken advantage of; now or then.

I think an often overlooked idea is that spec work is similar to internship. For little to no pay, you gain experience and a portfolio piece. I definitely don’t see anyone calling that exploitation. Yet being an intern lasts much longer.

So what are people really getting annoyed at? Spec work has been a part of the industry since I can remember. Companies asking others to complete spec work doesn’t really affect those who don’t want to do it. I don’t get clients asking for “a little extra for free” because of it. I don’t get clients saying “Well, someone else will do it for free.” I am not running out of work in the because of it. There are plenty of big clients that want paid work.

Spec work is not inherently evil. The companies who do it are not inherently evil. Though they may require your compassion, your guidance into doing the right thing – rather than aggression.

My First Month @ Mark Boulton Design

It’s been one helluva month. Lots of life changes have happened and my whole life has been turned upside down. All in a good way, I assure you.

The furthest thing from my mind was working for a design studio as I was in quite a few talks with startups about taking on a Creative Directorship. However, as soon as Alex messaged me on Twitter asking if I’d consider moving to Cardiff, I knew instantly it was what I wanted to do.

I had only met Mark a few times before, back in 2005 and 2006 but following his blog had taught me to embrace grids and typography, and my love for both were in large part because of him. I knew that I could do a great job for him and the team and learn tons more in the process; it seemed a golden opportunity.

I knew Alex (Head of User Experience at Mark Boulton Design) indirectly from following him on Twitter. I liked Alex because he was outspoken and was happy to go against the grain, which is something I find lacking in the web design community.

The team is great. Everyone here has their own sets of skills and each bring something to the table. And there are no egos at all. Within a short time, I already felt very much part of the family.

I’ve been leading the wireframing on a big news website (that shall remain nameless for a while.) It has been an awesome experience. There are so many challenges presenting news that you would not even realise before taking it on, so it has definitely given me a revived respect for the news sites that I read.

Before I came to Wales I had no interest in the Principality. I have since learnt how severely underrated it is. I feel the best way to describe it is as a gorgeous mix of Country, City and Seaside Town.

Once I have internet back in my flat again, I shall definitely try to post more and catch up with those of you I’ve not spoken to. Until then, hope you all are well.