I imagine that upgrading could potentially break my theme, so I’ll wait until I have some time to troubleshoot, but it will be fun to play around with. What may end up happening is if I have enough fun with it, I’ll end up rocking another re-design of this blog. But work will have to calm down, both 8-5 and 7-11.

You’ll just have to wait and see…

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I realize that it is very nerdy in a designer way, but that’s why it is awesome.

The description from Veer:

Coffee, like Helvetica, is an acquired taste. To satisfy both habits, this white ceramic mug features four weights of the timeless font – in corresponding caffeinated shades – and a sensibly squared handle. Holds 15 ounces of your favorite beverage but, like the typeface that adorns it, has bottomless potential.

I spent the first year or so out of college as a writer, but as the company I worked for grew, my role changed and morphed and in time, I became a graphic designer. I didn’t do it on purpose, it just kind of happened.

I enjoyed it for a long time because it made me feel creative, but over time, the doubts creeped into my mind because I wasn’t trained as a designer…I was trained as a writer. I have confidence in my abilities with the tools — I’m a proficient user of Photoshop, InDesign and the whole suite of Adobe products that designers hang their hats on, but I often doubted my ability to actually design.

I eventually (and maybe only recently) overcame that belief that I just wasn’t a good enough graphic designer. I know now that there were negative forces who caused me to feel that way and I’m fortunate that those forces no longer hold any power in my life.

However, as I’ve embraced my role as graphic designer, I’ve lost touch with my writing background. That’s what this blog has always been about, really &mdash an outlet for me to tap my fingers to the keyboard and see what comes out. And while I thoroughly enjoy the blogging process, I’m finding that in my new job, I’m being called upon more and more to develop content (which is business-speak for “write”). I still can write perfectly servicable copy, but I am struggling to regain my voice as a writer. It’s as if I’ve gone hoarse &mdash the words are there, they just aren’t emerging with a lot of clarity.

Lately, I’ve been working diligently on a couple of projects that are very important to me. Neither are work projects and both are requiring to write a considerable amount of content. I’m finding myself grossly inadequate right now of accomplishing that writing and it’s really frustrating.

If this post doesn’t make any sense, it only proves its point.

I’ve been wanting to create my own Wordpress theme for a long time, but I’ve always been terrified of breaking the three years of blogging backlog I’ve got, so I never tackled it. Then Travis recently took a crack at it and he said it was easy. Now, granted, he is a genius. However, I was intrigued and I’ve been wanting to customize my site ever since. I am, after all, a web designer by trade.

So I mocked up what I liked in Photoshop and coded the XHTML. Then, I used an existing theme to try and figure out the nuances of Wordpress and PHP. I managed to figure most of it out and for the last 6 or 8 hours have been working diligently to get it up and running.

There’s no doubt that it’s buggy and I’ve missed plenty of stuff, but for now…it works.

As for the pink – you’ll notice that the design is rather dark…the only color coming from splashes of pink. I’ve decided that to raise awareness for Breast Cancer Awareness month. In addition, the darkness of the site is actually BETTER for the environment because monitors do not have to work as hard to display black. So in “going pink”, I’m also “going green”.

I’m planning on putting in a CSS switcher that will allow you to customize your colors to an extent, but that’s down the road. For now, I must say I’m pretty proud of myself for not breaking it. Sure there will be growing pains, but the fact that I managed to create a widget-ready theme in a night…well, that just makes my header all the more true.

This man is Seven feet, nine inches tall.

I know this because his shirt said: www.sevenfootnine.com. His name is Sun Ming Ming and he is the tallest basketball player in the world. When he got on the tram, I was certain that I was seeing things. There was no way that there was a man that large. Apparently, I was wrong.

I’m a tall guy…probably 6′3″ with my shoes off, but I was DWARFED by Ming, who was a full foot and a half taller than me. That’s a full-size Mr. Goodcent’s sub. Unfortunately, I only had my Sprint cameraphone and this is the best picture I could get, but there was a train full of witnesses, all of whom emerged saying the same thing, “MAN, that guy was HUGE!”

And that wasn’t even the highlight of my trip to Atlanta…

The HOW Design Conference is perhaps one of the most wonderfully invigorating creative conferences that exists. Bryn Mooth and her staff at HOW Magazine put together a stellar lineup of speakers and sessions that makes it the seminal conference for graphic designers, creative directors and the like. This was my 3rd consecutive year attending and it was just as good as the rest.

I didn’t take to Atlanta quite as well as Las Vegas in 2006 or Chicago in 2005, but it was really neat to see a city I’ve never been to before. It was like opening a new box of shoes for me, although this box of shoes didn’t smell of leather and rubber, but of smog and humidity. Despite its less-than-appealing weather proclivities, I found the downtown skyline pretty remarkable. It is unique and much bigger than I thought, although I found it rather frustrating that there were perhaps three restaurants in the 5 blocks surrounding my hotel that were open on Sunday (when I arrived). Lunch was an ordeal and I settled on an Irish pub where I got some fish and chips. Not bad, but not what I was looking for.

Food-wise, the rest of the visit to Hotlanta was a bust, save two meals. First was my dinner on Monday night. Alli had heard from Rachel Ray that The Flying Biscuit is the place to go in Atlanta. Since I’d heard that the train system in Atlanta was good, I purchased a 4-day pass to the MARTA, which turned out to be totally worth it. Not only did it take me 1 block away from my hotel directly from the airport (Tony, I know you think mass transit in KC will be a bust, but this is where it is AT), but it took me North to 10th Street, a mere 3 blocks from The Flying Biscuit. Great meal, eclectic setting, and very affordable.

The other meal that stood out was my Tuesday night sushi at the Pacific Rim Bistro, which was in the building next to my hotel. I had a Dragon Roll and some Hamachi and thought that it was wonderful. I don’t eat sushi that much, but since I’ve found I like it, I try to eat it whenever I can. Good stuff!

As far as the conference went, I was really happy. I love listening to these uber-creative people talking about their successes and their careers and how they have accomplished what they have. On Monday morning, I listened to Chip Kidd, a book designer who is probably most famous for designing the cover of Jurassic Park, which in turn became the branding statement for the whole franchise. I read his book, The Cheese Monkeys, last year, but forgot to bring it with me. Chip was nice enough to sign something for me and when I got home, I stored it in my book and it will be there for a long time.

While the rest of the conference was great, I had one minor issue – I wished that speakers would wait until the end of their talks to start showing all the work they’ve done that makes them so great. I’d rather hear what you’ve come to speak about first, folks. Graphic Designers are notorious egomaniacs who love the chance to whip out their portfolio whenever they can – even people who have great jobs and don’t really need to (do you hear me, Armin Vit?).

All in all it was a great conference. I’m glad to be home for sure. Alli and I leave in less than 2 weeks for our trip to Italy. I can’t believe it is almost here!

The Cheese Monkeys: A Novel in Two Semesters
by Chip Kidd
RATING: 9 out of 10

Back in June when I was attending the HOW Design Conference with my colleagues in Las Vegas, I was fortunate enough to attend a session put on by the guys at 3Dogz Creative about humor in the workplace. It was a great session and I got to get up on the stage to draw a quick logo for “DJ’s Hooker Vending Machines”. It was a traumatic experience because (unlike most other graphic designers) I can’t draw very well.

However, my participation in the class worked out for the best. I either got $50 in chips or copies of 2 books, one being The Cheese Monkeys (the other being one I haven’t read yet, but that’s neither here nor there).

Now, I’m not a knowledgeable enough designer to have known who Chip Kidd was before I read the book, but afterward, I definitely wanted to. So here’s a minor biography: Chip Kidd is considered the best book designer in the world and is as close to a “rock star” as a graphic designer will get. He has designed several of the most famous book covers, the most recognizable of which was Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton, the artwork of which was subsequently purchased by the movie studio for use in branding the cinematic dinosaur franchise.

The Cheese Monkeys is Kidd’s first novel and is interesting from the outside in. Kidd waste no words or space in or out of the book. The edges of the pages even provide 2 messages that are key to the book: “Do You See?” and “Good is Dead.”

Kidd’s book is about a student who attends a state school to study Art, even though he has a large disdain from what is considered “art”. It is told in two separate semesters, fall and spring. The fall semester is used to introduce the characters and to start developing their relationships and the spring semester is the one in which we meet the craziest graphic design professor in fiction: Winter Sorbeck.

Many would say that the subject of graphic design probably doesn’t deserve a novel of its own, at least not one that would be viable to the public at large. Kidd does his best to prove that just isn’t true. Whether or not he succeeds is really up to the reader. I think this book likely resonates more with artists and designers than it would any other audience, but I could just be biased.

I really enjoyed the book, although I thought that the end was a little disjointed. Maybe if I read it more carefully, I would have appreciated it more, but I think that it was intended to be that way because of the narrator’s state of mind.

The book gave me a better appreciation for my craft and made me wish just a little bit more that I would have taken more graphic design classes instead of being a self-taught designer. Sure, there are benefits to being self-taught that give me certain advantages, but I’m at a disadvantage in other areas as well.

If you’re a designer or an artist, I would recommend this book. Otherwise, I’m not sure. Maybe if you’re interested in the insanity of creative-types. And you’re into really, really good writing and great book design.

To update you on my 2006 reading list, I’m up to 22 books now, but I’ve read 5 books that were off my list, so according to the list, I still have about 8 to finish, which would get me to 30 total for the year. That wouldn’t be too bad, in my opinion. It’s not Julie level, but it’s still pretty good.

Anyway, I thought I would try it out, just to see what it was like.

I didn’t like it. I just felt like everything it offers, I already had (a place to share pictures – flickr, a place to share thoughts – this site). The only thing that I don’t have already is the whole “social” aspect of it. There are over 50 million users on MySpace, all linked through “friendships” and schools and groups and other connections.

What always bothered me about it was how ugly every site that I saw was. Not only that, but even ones that used these so-called MySpace templates STILL looked crappy. So I promptly deleted my account.
Today, Mike Davidson, the CEO of Newsvine, put forth a MySpace effort that is clean, respectable and wicked worn.

For the first time, I reconsidered my decision to delete my MySpace page, download his CSS hack, tweak it up and go back, but ultimately, MySpace isn’t really my scene. I found 1 or 2 people on there that I wouldn’t have otherwise, but to be honest it wasn’t worth the effort.

Maybe after their new security advisor gets things into order, I’ll go back…but for now, I’m dedicated to this site (and topFIVEdesign, of course).

I feel like my ideas are stale and everything that I do looks derivative. My wife, bless her, has given me some inspiration this morning that I am going to try and realize…we shall see what happens.

Anyone know what to do to get out of a funk?

Started the day off well with a nice breakfast at the Top of the Hilton Restaurant here in our hotel. Nice view of the city from there. Snapped a decent pic of the view:

After that, we went and registered and proceeded to our all-day workshops. Also got a nice selection of schwag in our conference registration bag, exclusive with a premium pass:

The reason that I say “half a really good session” was because I spent the morning at Aral Balkan’s “Actionscript for Right-Brainers” workshop, a session that was aimed at designers wanting a better understanding of the Flash coding language, Actionscript. Unfortunately, Aral’s approach was really to outline what object-oriented Actionscript, which is something that is useful for building Rich Internet Applications, but rarely for designers like me. It also wasn’t helpful that this is what my view looked like in the room:

I decided after lunch at the Cheesecake Factory that I would go over to Rob’s workshop on video, which proved to be much more useful, considering our company is getting ready to undertake a pretty large video project with our upcoming customer portal where potential prospects will be able to watch videos of our existing customers telling stories of how our product has made their businesses more efficient, etc.

Not only was Robert a much better presenter, but he was presenting something extremely relevant to me and the rest of our interactive team.

Once we were done with the sessions, it was off to the VIP party at Gameworks, a giant arcade. Adobe paid for the evening with free food and drink as well as free games. The latter was the most important to me because I was able to play the Sega Derby Owner’s Club game that our friends Paul and Maria got me hooked on when we went to Dave & Buster’s with the a couple weeks ago. Basically you train and race a horse and as you train it, it gets better and better. My first horse was so awesome that I retired it (after it won 14 out of 20 races) and created a new horse, the unstoppable force that is CHUCK NORRIS.

It was a fun evening. I’m looking forward to the conference too. I think that I will really get something out of it, whereas in the past, it has been a struggle for me to connect with the material. We shall see. More to come.