Portal A Interactive

A little more than four months ago, my designer friend Alan Wells recommended me to his friends Kai and Nate for a freelance gig to build a website for their newly founded viral video production company. He sent me the link to their site at the time, which he had quickly put together showcasing their past video projects. I quickly did more research on these guys to get a sense of the type of work they do. (And by research, I meant watching all of their videos in one sitting.)

One of their larger projects was a video blog called Huge in Asia, where they lived in Vietnam and other Asian countries for a couple months documenting their adventures. (I mentioned this in my monthly review last December.) After watching the fifty-episode vlog series, I knew that these guys possessed the potential for excellent content and success, and despite the upcoming busy holiday season at Peet’s, I decided that I would help these guys out and build a site for their company Portal A Interactive.

Pre-work Work

Being a typical recent-graduate designer, I couldn’t help but start coming up with ideas for the site. (I suppose I was still in school mode, where I was compelled to act on any ideas I thought of without considering ownership and compensation.) At the same time, though, having completed a design project for my relatives a few months back without a contract, I definitely learned my lesson and was determined to do everything I was supposed to as a freelancer this time around to protect myself and the client from unnecessary unhappiness.

I looked up tutorials for drafting freelance design contracts, and like the advice that young designers receive from experienced designers for preparing portfolios, there was an unbelievably overwhelming wealth of types of ways that one could go about this. There was so much conflicting advice that I could seriously curl up under my covers and cry. I asked my freelancer friends for advice and tried to write my own contract, but I was still concerned that I might be missing something that would come back and bite me later on.

Fortunately, I remembered that AIGA’s site has a section for business practices. I found the AIGA Standard Form of Agreement for Design Services that designers can use as a template. I adapted the AIGA agreement and took out one or two clauses that didn’t apply at all and had no way of hurting me or the client. I also put together a project-specific proposal, and quickly tried to get all that legal stuff taken care of so I could stop turning off the part of my brain that is responsible for thinking of ideas for the site.

The Logo

After the administrative stuff was taken care of, the first task in the agenda was creating the logo. I enjoy designing logos not because it’s easy (it’s not). I love that good logos look simple, yet are highly complex. Generally, the more different elements there are in a logo, the weaker the logo becomes. So with this project, I tried to keep the logo as simple as I could, sticking to the criteria of using a “one” letterform design and projecting a light-bulb signage mood that the client had envisioned.

Here's the basic concept of the logo:

Here's the final version, lit up and against a dark background:

Since this logo doesn’t include the name of the company, I developed a secondary logo mainly for the website.

Details of the neon:

While the neon isn’t the same type of lighting as the light-bulb logo, incorporating both into the site creates a mood that could not be achieved by using just one. This results in a mix, a melting pot of ideas, something that is not completely established and boring, and something that is flexible and can change as it grows, which is, in a way, what this company is about.

WordPress

Before I took on this project, I had never touched WordPress. I had heard about it, but I always thought it was a paid service, and I just didn’t want to pay to create a blog that I could do the same thing for free somewhere else. But turns out it was free, and it gives you mad power for customization… in PHP. I was new to PHP, so this was both a challenge and an opportunity to learn.

As I worked on this project, I became more familiar with the WordPress setup as well as with PHP and MySQL, which I was also new to. But I quickly grew to like it. In fact, I liked it so much, I set up the video thumbnail section in the header that is based on MySQL. Furthermore, when I will be done with this project in a few weeks, I’m going back to my own site and convert it to accommodate the use of MySQL, such as my portfolio and experiments pages, which is currently based on PHP and XML.

Interactivity

This project has also allowed me to experiment with interactivity that I would not have needed with my own site. The video thumbnail section in the header has a slider that shows more thumbnails when you click on the arrows. It’s a simple function, but there’s a lot of planning involved. It’s even Javascript-disabled-safe in that, if you disable Javascript, the arrows disappear so you won’t have non-functioning arrows which would weaken user experience.

Another interactive feature is the Grayout. When you click on a thumbnail video in the header or a Featured video in the sidebar, the whole page darkens and displays the video on that page. The size also adjusts based on your window size (except for IE) up to certain max/min values. Again, it’s Javascript-disabled-safe; if you disable Javascript, the images act as normal links and bring to a different page so you can still watch the videos.

Finally, launched two weeks ago, a video player that plays more than one video in sync. This was something that Kai and Nate had first suggested, way in the beginning, before we even met and agreed to work together. Currently, the controls are basic, but using the YouTube Chromeless Player API, I set up a player that plays two or more videos at the same time, so that one (or more) video(s) can sync with one another. Here’s an example of what they did with this player. I’ve added volume control that Kai and Nate can determine beforehand to maximize viewer’s audio experience.

What I Learned

There’s a lot more to talk about than what I can cover here (or that you’re willing to read), so let me wrap up by briefly going over the many things that I have learned through this project.

• Contracts. This once nerve-wracking issue has been resolved thanks to AIGA.
• Neon. I never had to draw neon before, but thanks to Bert Monroy, I’m proud to say that I did a pretty good job with the neon I created on the site.
• WordPress. Move over Blogger, I’m with WordPress now.
• MySQL/PHP. My new best friends whom I still have much yet to learn.
• Interactivity. Much love for scripting (and a little bit of hate for troubleshooting).

Flush.

What Am I Doing? (Feb 2009)

What am I doing? Not blogging here, obviously. Not a single blog since my last update. As I’m writing this, I am in the middle of a semi-deadline to get my client’s site up and ready to go because they’re going to a convention in a few days and passing out business cards that I designed, and leading them to the site that I also designed. (I just realized how I don’t like saying that I designed these things because it really was more of a collaboration, and I just happened to be the one who knows how to use the tools the most.)

It’s been almost three months since I’ve learned about this project and met these awesome people that are my client. And mostly it’s been an exciting and a great learning experience for me. I sort of wish I will always have clients like these in the future. And every day, I become more comfortable and have a better idea with what I want to do, at least for the next few years. I enjoy waking up every day, looking forward to do something that I love.

Post-Peet’s

Since my last monthly update, I had left my job at Peet’s. It was probably a good time to have done so, both in the short term and long term. Because soon after my last shift, I put this freelance project into full gear and started working on it almost every day, putting in more hours than at Peet’s. As I had said before, some things took longer than I expected. Had I kept working both “jobs,” I’d still be sketching the layout for the site or, perhaps more likely, I would have been fired by my client!

I probably went through a week or two of old job withdrawal. I liked my job at Peet’s; I really enjoyed working with the people and seeing the regulars. It was a real bittersweet moment to have left that job. Only a few days ago did I notice how I don’t really remember how it feels to steam milk or pull shots. Ever since I left Peet’s, I had devoted my life into this freelance project; I literally couldn’t imagine working at the bar. I still love the people, no doubt, and I wish I could see them more often (if I could get over the awkwardness of going back to my old workplace).

The Future (Always Thinking About the Future)

As I’ve learned to enjoy my new “job,” my mind became more free to think about the possibilities of where I could go. It’s probably okay to say it here since my family doesn’t read this, but I’ve been thinking about moving south. And by “south,” the range spans from the South Bay, near the San Jose area, to SoCal, around L.A. and San Diego. I want to do it mainly for independence, and also for the weather. But what’s as important, if not more, is my career. If there’s a job that’s fit for me all the way in the East Coast, I wouldn’t mind giving that a try. My family’s probably not so keen of that idea, but it wouldn’t be the end of the world for them.

A “Historic Moment”

I’ve been so engulfed by this project that I haven’t really had the time to digest the fact that we’ve just witnessed what so many people apparently without a thesaurus have described as a “historic moment” in the country. It still hasn’t fully hit me yet, just as it hadn’t hit me eight years ago with the previous administration change. There are moments, though, where I realize that this man is our president.
Right now though, it seems that none of that matters. It must be a sobering feeling for him and everyone that the world and its problems don’t stop for this “historic moment.” (Maybe for a day, but that day has passed.) It’s time to get to work, employed or unemployed.

Flush.

What Am I Doing? (Dec 2008)

I’ve done enough anniversary/milestone posts for the time being, so I’m not going to dwell on the anniversary of the “What Am I Doing?” series. Besides, I have something interesting/productive to talk about this month.

Freelance Gig

Mid-last month, a college friend of mine contacted me about a freelance gig that I might be interested in. His friends from high school have created a startup, doing viral videos for clients, and they need a designer doing the site and create a logo and all that jazz.

I don’t know how much liberty I have with talking about this gig, since it’s still in progress, so I’m going to be conservative in the details. But what I would like to say is that I am excited for this project, and I am excited to see this company grow and succeed. I see real potential with the guys who created this company, and it’ll be interesting to see where it will stand six months or one year from now.

Last night, I spent two or three hours watching all the videos that these guys have created for their old project, Huge In Asia. You might have heard of it, and I think I have, too, back when I was still in college two years ago. To be honest, back then, I probably thought it was really cheesy and silly. But it’s so cheesy and silly, that it’s also entertaining and good! These guys seem free to let their creativity lead their journey, something I wish I have a lot more often.

Luckily, I am now a teeny part of their next project, and I am not going to screw up, not that that happens often anyway. I just have to balance this with my job at Peet’s. So whenever I’m not making lattes, I’m working on this project. Sorry to those who tried to contact me and I haven’t responded. It’s going to be pretty crazy for the next few weeks, especially when you add on the holiday season madness.

Last Month at Peet’s

Speaking of Peet’s, I will be leaving this job sometime next month, after the holiday rush. It really hasn’t hit me yet. But no matter how I feel, I think this needs to happen. The time for change has come.

Flush.

100th Post; Wish-to-Do List

Every night, as I lay in bed waiting to fall asleep, a million things speed through my mind. I think about what I’ve completed that day and what I have yet to accomplish the next. It never stops until I am asleep. When I wake up, I already feel behind.

This is a problem. Even though I take pride in being someone who is constantly generating ideas, I inevitably have more ideas than I can execute. Yes, a lot of those ideas are probably not that good and practically trivial, but ideas are ideas, and until they are executed, they all weigh relatively equally as valid solutions.

So, to ease the pressure off my brain just a little bit, and to celebrate the 100^th post of Flush, I would like to share 100 things I have brewing in my head. (I have a lot more, as I’m sure you do as well.) Some are very realistic and executable, while others are more ideal and fantastic.

Site

1. Get all areas of the experiments section opened and working.
2. Have a creative About section.
3. Redesign Flush to fit with transparency theme.
4. Have the entire site be mobile and screen-reader friendly (in other words, accessible).
5. Have the site completely done by sometime next year, before I realize I need a redesign.

   Career

6. Continue with learning ActionScript 3.0.
7. Learn MySQL.
8. Learn Processing, whatever benefit I may get from it.
9. Learn AfterEffects.
10. Learn podcasting.
11. Learn a printing press.
12. Learn to hand-assemble a book.
13. Learn to use a type design program.
14. Learn to write a form that will update an XML file.
15. Finish my print portfolio.
16. Create a multi-functional business card.
17. Design a body font family, including ligatures and special characters.
18. Attend AIGA Design Conference 2009 in Memphis, TN.
19. Be a part of the Olympic branding committee of a Summer Games.
20. Buy a copy of CS4 (unless I wait too long and CS5 comes out).
21. Meet well-known design figures with mutual respect.
22. Design a self-promotional holiday souvenir.
23. Be part of an “awesome” project.
24. Own a copy of Sagmeister’s “Things I Have Learned From My Life So Far”.
25. Volunteer with whatever AIGA SF needs volunteers for.
26. Start a career portfolio archive.

    Experiments

27. Design and screen print shirt graphics with geeky design-related topics.
28. Make a poster/series with writing with light.
29. Make an info-graphic poster of the bodies of the solar system.
30. Print an image on the same sheet multiple times.
31. Print an image on separate transparency sheets and align the images in the light, then photograph it.
32. Create a poster series of the sun’s actual visible electromagnetic spectrum.
33. Design a reusable calendar.
34. Do a time lapse series of one location at the same time each day for a long period of time (e.g. a year).
35. Invert night sky photographs.
36. Overlay a high-resolution photo onto a low resolution version of the same photo.
37. Align panoramic Photomerge photos but don’t blend the edges.
38. Put supposedly-panoramic Photomerge photos in a grid in relation to one another.
39. Create a new typeface by overlapping two typefaces, then take the overlapping areas or dissimilar areas.
40. Use enlarged small type on screen as regular type.
41. Use Flash/ActionScript to write a visualization of two bodies orbiting.
42. Create a motion graphic piece that will show a writing with light, but the light moves with time, so the writing cannot be seen at any one time, but collectively.

    Life

43. Continue with learning either/both French or/and Japanese.
44. Learn Morse code, just because.
45. Learn Braille, just because.
46. Learn American Sign Language, just because.
47. Learn more about astronomy.
48. Learn more about physics.
49. Learn to surf.
50. Learn to ski and/or snowboard.
51. Learn to ballroom dance, for whatever future occasion.
52. Start life blogging again.
53. Get my life completely GTD’d.
54. Pay off my student loans and start being in the black.
55. Get a green job.
56. Live in a studio apartment.
57. Have a road trip of some sort across the country.
58. Go to an amusement park one of these days. It’s been too long.
59. Go mini-golf with friends.
60. Go on a road trip with friends.
61. Go on a cruise with friends.
62. Go to a beach where the water and the weather is not cold.
63. Be part of the excitement in Washington D.C. on January 20, 2009.
64. Attend an American/Western wedding. (I’ve only been to Chinese style weddings).
65. Attend a baseball game.
66. Attend an indoor concert with die-hard fans who sing along to all the songs.
67. Play more Wii.
68. Become a space tourist.
69. Experience Zero G in one of those planes.
70. Fly first class.
71. Ride in a Rock-Star-Style Tour Bus.
72. Spend a week in a cabin with friends.
73. Get into a habit of exercising and eating right (for the most part) for the rest of my life.
74. Return to a routine of swimming.
75. Get shampoo/body wash that takes out the smell of chlorine.
76. Have a crazy adventure night like in the movies, but with no one dying.
77. Buy myself things for the holidays that I’ve been longing for all year but have been really conservative with money. Or when I get a full-time design job.
78. Go on a “vision quest,” whatever that is.
79. Re-watch the Matrix Trilogy.
80. Watch something in IMAX.
81. Re-watch Motorcycle Diaries.
82. Re-watch the Beijing Olympics Opening Ceremony.
83. Have a movie marathon of Planet Earth.
84. Be an awesome and cool uncle when my niece or nephew is born.
85. Help build houses for families who need and deserve it.
86. Volunteer at a soup kitchen or something similar during Thanksgiving and Christmas.
87. Convince my friends that it’s “should have” and not “should of”, among other things.
88. Build something useful with wood.

    World

89. Visit New York City and live there for a month.
90. Visit Japan and live there for a month.
91. Visit Beijing and the Olympic area.
92. Visit Vancouver during the Olympics in 2010.
93. Visit London during the Olympics in 2012.
94. Volunteer to do something in Africa.
95. Visit Australia.
96. Visit Machu Picchu.
97. Visit France and try to live there for a month.
98. Visit Italy.
99. Visit Dubai and sight-see all the cool architecture.

100. Learn to live, and live to learn.

Let’s see how many of these I can accomplish by the 200^th post. I know I won’t be able to do all of it, but it’s still good to try.

Flush.

Portfolio Page Linked

It’s sort of a milestone. For more than two months, I’ve been working on my portfolio page whenever I could find the time. Design, code, and test. There’s still a lot of testing to do… and coding… and designing. It’s not 100% done and not 100% good yet, but I have enough good stuff to show you what I have so far.

This page may not look that complicated or that impressive (even to designers), but there’s more than enough happening in the backend that I am proud to have come so far in the past two months. In the process, I’ve learned a new programming language that is very powerful and opened a lot of doors for my creative outlet. I look forward to learning more PHP as well as the next step up, whatever that is.

Next entry will be very special. Another milestone. I haven’t decided what to do yet.

Flush.

What Have I Done? (Anniversary Review 2008)

Today marks the first anniversary of Flush. A year ago, I “soft opened” this blog, and believe it or not, I still haven’t “grand opened” it, although I’m not sure if I really need to anyway.

Flash Review

The past year has been a bumpy ride. I finished my last undergrad class, got sucked into the world of Sim City 3000 and Sims 2 as I prepped for my job search, started my beta site, got a job at Peet’s, went to see Sagmeister speak, skipped out on Alumni Day (I’m sorry!), worked on a freelance project for my aunt’s business, bought a new printer, watched the impressive production of the Beijing Olympics, resumed working on my portfolio and site, and rekindled my passion for web developing.

My attitude on design has changed, and that has helped me narrow down the types of careers that I would like to pursue. And every day, I’m getting closer to that job and that career. Working on my site almost every day excites me and motivates me because 1) I’ve grown to enjoy coding and designing, and 2) I can’t wait to share with the world what I’ve done.

Prediction for the Next Twelve Months

I don’t know.

Nobody does, and I’ve been wrong enough times about where I would be right now to not make any more general predictions. But I will always have hope, I will always have my expectations, and I will always believe in the future.

A year from now, I may or may not be a designer, and I may or may not enjoy coding still/anymore, and I may completely change my mind about this site and start a brand new one, or career. And that’s perfectly okay, as long as I am okay with it and it’s for the better. I may not reach my current desired destination, but that may or may not be as important as the journey to get there. I mean, I totally wish I were rich already and not have to work but become a philanthropist and help starving children in Africa or save the rain forest in South America, but it would probably mean more to me if I actually pay my dues, work my way up, meet interesting people, and learn about the issues to get there.

Flush.

What Am I Doing? (Oct 2008)

Web Languages

As I had posted in the past few entries, I’m teaching myself the relatively basic web programming languages by working on my site, mostly the portfolio section. I’ve conducted a couple experiments to get a better understanding and grip of these languages. Learning Cookies, Ajax, and PHP has been very exciting and has stirred up project ideas.

Every day I wish I would have enough energy after work to work a little bit on my site or an experiment. I could see myself doing this as a career, although I haven’t been with the big kids yet, so troubleshooting one line in the haystack of hundreds that others have written might make me think otherwise. Still, it’s exciting when things work the way you want it to, and that might make it all worth it.

Economy and Job

So the economy’s not doing so well. Just when you think you’re at the bottom, you’re wrong. This isn’t really affecting me as directly as other Americans, since I don’t intend to buy a house or borrow large sums of money in the near future.

But when others suffer, we might, too. I’m talking specifically about companies’ ability (or inability) to keep their finances in the black, which may require them to lay off some employees, employees who might now compete with me in the job market, or employees whose positions that I desire but seize to exist because they’re laid off.

So that makes me reconsider the length of my employment at Peet’s. But then again, if I worry too much, which I probably already have, I won’t get anywhere.

Flush.

Career Routes: Web Developing and “Green” Companies

In the past few weeks, as I have been working on my portfolio site and learning PHP and Ajax, I re-found my excitement and fascination in coding, and I could imagine myself working on it as a full-time gig, despite the hairsplitting troubleshooting (but when it works, it works beautifully!) At the same time, my interest in environmentalism and sustainability still exists. Not so much, though, is visual design, at least as a career. Therefore, I now have narrowed my choices down to two: web developing and “green” jobs.

I don’t know which is more correct, web “developing” or web “programming,” but I know what I want to do. The problem is that a quick job search online shows that most of those jobs require multiple years of experience, which I don’t have professionally.

And with green jobs, I still don’t know where to start, because I don’t know what my education in (mostly visual) design can contribute to the organizations. But I’m sure there is a future and potential for growth for the entire industry, so I’m not too worried; there’s something to do for everyone.

Therefore, the perfect job right now would be to combine both: to code the website or whatever for a “green” company, letting me contribute to my passion of changing/saving the world by doing what I enjoy doing.

This is not too far-fetched of a dream, compared to my other ones. If I have to pay more dues by working for a year or two somewhere to get there, I just might do it.

Flush.

Learning PHP

I’m learning PHP right now in conjunction with AJAX for my portfolio site. I’ve been hitting a couple of roadblocks but I think I’m getting the hang of it. It’s funny how all these languages look sort of different but are more or less similar in structure and goals, just like cultural languages.

Flush.

Portfolio Section: The Basics

So for the past week, between work and the Olympics, I started working on the portfolio section of my beta site. I figured that I could draw inspiration from the Olympics and get a boost in pursuing my goals and all the good stuff.

I purposely have not yet made the link available from the home page because I don’t want new visitors to stumble upon my site thinking that the active link to my portfolio leads to a complete collection of my work. You may, however, manually type in the URI and see what’s been done so far. If you don’t know what the URI is, there is a hint on the home page’s navigation.

I haven’t figured out exactly how to lay out the page yet. I’ve designed probably five or six web portfolio sites, always trying to figure out the most efficient and logical way to navigate. My criteria for the layout include:

• how easy it is for new visitors to understand how to navigate within the portfolio section;
• how the work is displayed against the rest of the layout;
• how accessible it is for browsers without/that have turned off style sheets, JavaScript, and other applications;
• how it would translate onto mobile device displays;
• and what kind of experience most visitors would get from viewing this site.

I’m trying to avoid laying out boxes (or squares of “transparencies”) into neat little rectangles. I’ve done that before and even I’m getting a little bored. I’m trying to let the function take care of the form.

And it doesn’t look like I’ve done much so far, but I’ve actually fixed the code behind the navigation so that it works in more than one page with the same code, as well as allowing it to work (more or less) in JavaScript-disabled browsers.

Comments on the background image?

Flush.

What Am I Doing? (Jul 2008)

Little Freelance Gig

For the past month, I’ve been helping my aunt with a light box menu redesign for her Mediterranean fast food shop at the Great Mall food court down in Milpitas. She needed new photos of the dishes and a more attractive design to improve her business. I’m supposedly done with all the designing, and now it’s out of my hands and off to wherever she sends them to have the designs specially printed. When it’s all done, I will post an entry about the entire process.

There have been many challenges with this little freelance gig. I’m not gonna elaborate on the details, nor will I reveal the numerous updates on my private Twitter page, but I’ve learned plenty about being a freelancer as well as a graphic designer in general. There were technical lessons like setting up my first makeshift photo studio at the back of the store (with my trusty light tent!), and then there were client-designer relationship lessons, including overcoming a slight language barrier, understanding a difference in communication medium preference (phone vs. email), and enduring a hearty dose of scope creep.

I guess I will elaborate more in the official post, but two important things I learned from this job: 1) don’t promise you can do things faster than you can actually do them, and 2) get a contract before starting any work, even if it’s a job with your family or friends.

New Printer

Another thing that happened recently is that I finally received my new printer. It’s an Epson Photo R1900. It prints up to 13” in width and 44” in length, has individual color cartridges, and prints on CD/DVD’s! Those were the three main selling points for me. I’d been wanting to get a nice printer to print my portfolio pieces since the beginning of this year. I took about half a month to research decent wide-format individual-cartridge inkjet printers, including the price, reviews, ink costs, functions, etc., and then I hesitated a whole month before finally deciding that it would be a worthwhile investment in my still budding career.

My next purchases now will include backup ink cartridges and Epson photo paper.

The Beta Site

I have not given up on the beta site. I’ve just been busy with everything else. I realize that my last update was April/May, but the site will be built.

In the mean time, take some time off your work and find a way to watch season 1 of Mad Men on AMC. It’s about the advertising agency culture of the 1960s in New York. Lots of cultural references, lots of smoking everywhere, lots of drinking, lots of political incorrectness (compared to now), and lots of good writing. Check out the show’s site and watch the first episode.

Flush.

What Am I Doing? (Jun 2008)

You realize time really flies when you see the weather gets nicer by the day and you start writing “6”’s in dates.

This past month, I’ve moved forward with my career planning by continuing my ambitiously comprehensive website, mainly in the type experiments section. I’ve also started looking into getting a wide-format, individual inkjet cartridge printer so I can have large and nice prints for my print portfolio.

Finally, I have a tiny photo shoot gig for my aunt’s business. If all goes well, I will post the completed pieces.

Even as the country continues to go downhill economically, there is still that ray of hope in my personal life emerging in the past few weeks, believing that things will get better; I just need to be patient, continue to work hard, and persevere.

Flush.

A Real Ax to Grind

A few weeks ago, I received an automated e-mail from the feedback form on my beta site home page. It wasn’t from someone I know, nor was it a feedback on my beta site, either. It was from a Mr. Stephen Eskilson. Based on the content of his comment and a little Googling research, I found out that this Mr. Stephen Eskilson was the author of Graphic Design: A New History. It turns out that he had read my Christmas wish list on Flush, where I had crossed off his book from my list because I read in a guest review on Design Observer that the book wasn’t that good.

Mr. Eskilson suggested that I check it out from a library and give it a real look myself. Giving him the benefit of the doubt and trying to be fair with everyone’s work, I immediately looked up his book on my local library’s website. There was one available at the library near my work, so I decided to go to work early and check out the book before starting my shift. But after about twenty minutes of looking around the library, including with the help of a library staff, it turns out that the book was missing. Frustrated at my search and at Mr. Eskilson’s comment, I gave up and went to work.

That was seven weeks ago. I haven’t done anything about it since, but I don’t see a real urgency to do so. A little more research revealed that Mr. Eskilson is an associate professor in the Art Department at Eastern Illinois University, specializing in Art History, according to the school’s website. And with a reread of the review, I’ve come to a temporary conclusion that Mr. Eskilson sees graphic design from an art history perspective and may not fully understand the mind and the essence of graphic design.

Now, I may not be as educated in art history and in life as Mr. Eskilson, nor do I know how much graphic design experience Mr. Eskilson has had, but I am more inclined to take the word of a graphic designer than that of an art historian when it comes to the subject of graphic design. Still, Mr. Eskilson deserves a fair review from me before I make my final decision on whether I should have this book in my design library. After all, Mr. Eskilson approached me in a relatively polite manner and closed his letter with “best, Stephen.” And I just discovered yesterday that his book is available again at the library, so I will most likely check it out in the next few weeks or so.

I won’t post what was said in Mr. Eskilson’s comments, although he mentioned that I might find one of the reviewers “had a real ax to grind.” I might risk looking stupid, but I honestly don’t know what that really means. I know it’s not something good, but other than that I’m stumped (semi-pun semi-intended).

Flush.

Typexperiments Title Block Test 1

Here’s the first test of my Typexperiments page title block. The original concept came from the old school type cases that people use for the printing press. This is the digital version/take for the new way most fonts are created. I’m still looking into whether I should go all the way with that concept and layout my content in those type cases or just do a different layout all together.

The image above is pretty much a demo of how the type floats and stacks as you shrink your window. Yay CSS.

Notes on the current state of the page:

• The background color will change.
• The legibility of the “type pieces” is not of main concern.
• The color of the “type pieces” will change, but the legibility will not be the reason for that change.

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Typexperiments

So I’ve slowly settled into my job at Peet’s, which leads me to having more time to get back to my website. The above is a process snapshot of the title block for my Type Experiments page. I’ll explain the concept more in a later post when the page is created, but I wanted to point out how the middle three rows turned out. They make really good type experiments and are why I enjoy creating new type so much.

Flush.

What Am I Doing? (Apr 2008)

Peet’s

A month flies by so fast sometimes, especially when you’re working almost every day. Working at Peet’s has been “learningful.” Not only did I learn about coffee and tea in general, I also experienced firsthand the corporate branding trickling all the way down to the sales floor, both in visual design and business management.

Other than the freelance route, I believe that organizational hierarchy and communication are essential to success and growth in any job out there. I am fortunate to work with a group of knowledgeable and experienced people who aren’t afraid to teach others and newbies like me their tricks and provide really useful advice. It’s not as if they were competitive and afraid that I would take their jobs somehow, especially when almost all of us have the same positions. And as “upper management” has shown us, my coworkers and I are a team; we all work together, and we are only as strong as our weakest link and all that good stuff.

I don’t think I’m revealing any company insider secrets here, but I really like the fact that Peet’s places great emphasis on two main things: quality service and quality products. Customers and fresh coffee pretty much sit next to each other at the top of Peet’s list of importance, as they should be. While it’s not possible to guarantee 100% quality on everything all the time, I still do my best everyday to make sure those two goals are achieved, and I feel proud to associate myself with an organization whose ideals are such.

Peet’s and Design Business

That sense of pride is partly due to my background in design (I say “background” like I’ve had decades of experience, haha). The way I see it, from the perspective of a baby designer with little or no “professional” design business experience, the design business is about the client and what you produce for that client. Design is about listening to what the audience and client want, but at the same time, it’s also about what you make to meet their needs and wants.

In the month that I’ve been at Peet’s, I’ve begun to develop relationships with the regulars. Every regular has his/her own unique personality and quirks, and I had to readjust to address each of them differently. Some are real cool, and some are… not so much. I feel that (and I know that) I’m going to encounter clients like that when I do design full-time. Some clients are gonna micromanage, just like some of the Peet’s customers who watch everything you do in preparing their coffee. And some are more carefree and trust you and your knowledge about coffee/design so that they get the best darn product that your skills could produce for them.

Design

Since my last monthly update, I had worked on my home page some more, continuing with the transparency concept. I know that in a real project, I really shouldn’t work on the home page until the end (nor should I take this long to build a web site). But I feel that since this is a beta site, it’s the most seen page, so the design should reflect my concept for the site so that new visitors can immediately get a sense of what’s happening and will come back if they like what they see.

So in short, I’m not going to do much else until this home page is done, as much as it pains me to not have enough time to do anything else in the mean time. But the good news is that I think I’m almost done with the design. The remaining issues are 1) how to place the slideshow “screen” on a faux-transparency while sticking to that grid I had, and 2) a more interesting background, possibly changing based on the time of day.

I believe I will resolve these in the new few weeks, and hopefully, it’ll be sooner than later.

Design Opportunities

Two weeks ago, I saw on HOW’s design blog a fellowship opportunity at Chronicle Books. It seems like a really cool gig and I really want to do this, but seeing how the deadline is at the end of this month, I don’t think I have the time to put together a solid portfolio and application. It’s a six-month fellowship from July to December, and it pays $15,000 total, which converts to a $30,000/yr salary, which is not too bad. Unlike that teamwork mentality that I was talking about earlier, I was being a little competitive here by withholding informing people about this, especially to my graduating design friends who may be interested in this. But seeing how I probably won’t apply, I figure I should share the wealth and hopefully a Davis graduates gets in.

A few days ago, a good good design friend forwarded me about an immediate job opening within her company, and other than the 2–3 years professional experience and QuarkXPress requirement, my commitment at Peet’s is preventing me from doing anything else any time soon. And that made me think about what I will be doing in the next few months.

Flush.

Transparency Round 2

I reworked the transparency concept. Basically, it’s faux transparency films. It’s not “authentic,” but that quality’s still there, I believe.

Here’s the link for convenience: ivanwlam.com.

Flush.

What Sites Do You Pay For?

Q&A via swissmiss.

• Flickr: $24.95 a year. (I should use this more often.)
• GoDaddy: $~50 a year.
• PayPal: on certain transactions.

That’s all I could think of. I try not to pay for anything if I don’t need to. Haha. I know I don’t have that many web services where I pay for a membership, but I figured it’s nice for myself to see how much I spend on web things.

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Preliminary Transparency Mockup

So after writing the latest What Am I Doing? post, I figured I should keep my word and continue working on the website and portfolio. I did a really rough mockup (though the position of the image won’t change much) of my Transparency in the Sky concept for my home page.

I honestly don’t know how I feel about it. I like that it’s a different style than the typical streamline web design that sticks to standards as much as possible, but at the same time, I don’t know how practical it can be. My main concern here is still function and usability, and not so much aesthetics, although that’d be nice.

In the final version in my vision, this would not include the text box at the bottom nor the feedback box. If you want to see how it looks like without those boxes, roll over the edges of the “screen” box above the text box. (Don’t roll over the Flash slideshow, but the edges around it.)

With the links, I plan on shifting the tape and the transparency that holds “IVANWLAM.COM” up and down as the mouse rolls over the navigation items. I’ve actually taken individual photographs of each position, so it’s just a matter of changing the image upon cursor movement. Right now, it’s just one static image, but you may access the Experiments section in the progress report.

I think my main concerns with this concept are that 1) the image quality isn’t that good, 2) the image load time may not be practical, and 3) it’s not really accessible unless I do extra coding, though I don’t mind in the spirit of learning. At the same time, I do like how the background image accommodates to screen resolutions up to 2500px wide without leaving the image.

So this is one of those designs that I really need feedback on. Comment on this post or use the feedback box. (Notice I added a small “human verification” feature because I started getting robot spam through that form.)

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Transparency in the Nicer Sky

This is only work in progress. I haven’t code it into the home page yet, but I want to share what I have and ask for some feedback.

Since I want the image to fill the page, I had to think about different monitor sizes and accommodate for it. That’s why I took three photographs and Photomerged them together into a wider view. The green boxes show the range of monitor sizes that could be viewed (800x600, 1280x1024, 1920x1080). I’m thinking about the future as more people move into widescreen as well as a larger resolution (because I know I want to.)

I printed out the original digital layout and traced it on a transparency, so it’s half digital font, half handwriting. The image here made the type look weird, but that’s because I haven’t actually accurately measured the dimensions; these are only estimates.

One of my problems now is to decide whether I should use the same image for all the other pages with the same layout or have different images in different sections, which I don’t mind doing; it would just take a longer time.

Flush.

If Designers Were Worshipped Like Pop Stars

Here’s an idea that I’m interested in exploring (at least right now): how would an admirer of a designer express his or her obsession with the designer? How would a “fan site” look like? Would it be like MySpace, or would it be like the cheesy, over-designed fan sites you see for musicians and actors? Would there be links like “gallery,” and “media,” and “tour”?

If I were to have a fan site for a designer I really like, the designer would have to have Stefan Sagmeister, no doubt. (A semi-distant second would be Josef Müller-Brockmann.) The site would be well-designed, of course, and it would reflect Sagmeister’s style, though I’m not sure what it is exactly. I would imagine, though, that it would involve a lot more organic forms: handwriting and fruits come to mind.

The typography must be unique, whether it’s digital or handwritten. As is everything else. It would probably be about the experience of the site that reminds viewers of Sagmeister; it couldn’t be a boring grid of text in Verdana or Georgia and straight photography that doesn’t evoke any personal connections.

I haven’t thought much about this (I just thought of the idea less than an hour ago), but I’m interested in other people’s ideas for “designer fan sites.” It would be even cooler if someone actually built it!

Flush.

Flash Experiments Portal

Worked on the Flash experiments portal today. Making something look like something else proved difficult, but I think that when one is done with it, satisfaction takes over.

I’m not done with it yet, though. I still have to:

• Code it so the width of the frames on the timeline are determined by the length of the frame label, but still conform to the 8px widths of individual frames.
• Make it work in IE 7 (grr.)
• Make the arrows clickable to expand/collapse the folder (which I practiced in the web experiments section), and have the arrow and folder icons change accordingly.
• Make it have auto horizontal scrolling instead of a defined body width.

At first, I wanted to make the portal Flash-based, but I figured that might be too crazy and not that accessible if people have slow connections or don’t have Flash Player installed. This is a fun alternative, I believe.

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Transparency in the Sky

I want to try to something different. This is just an idea. If I’m sticking with this idea, I will clean up the type and the lines. I’m still thinking about making the coding and the interactivity work.

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What Am I Doing? (Feb 2008)

The Sims 2 obsession has faded (fortunately), and the words “portfolio,” “site,” and “job” have become the three most used terms in my daily mental query.

Live Site

The most significant thing that I’ve worked on this past month, I believe, was my site. On January 28 or 29, I suddenly had the motivation to start my web site with a “just do it” attitude, constructing it in public and requesting feedback. This process is moving along, and I’m glad I got started, not only because I’ve moved onto the next step, but also because it makes me realize how much work (and time) I need to put in to have a fully functional, content-rich, informative web site about me and my work. Therefore, I’ve decided to not wait anymore for this site to complete and move ahead to search for a side job.

Job and Sagmeister

Yesterday, I ordered a ticket to attend a now soldout lecture featuring Stefan Sagmeister in San Francisco on March 6. For those who don’t know (although I might have mentioned it here on Flush), Sagmeister has sort of been my hero ever since I’ve heard of him last year, when I was researching for my “Why Don’t We Care?” project. In any case, I made my first not-directly-related-to-portfolio,-site,-or-job purchase in a long time, under the condition that I get a job/side job before I go to the lecture. We’ll see how that will turn out.

Portfolio Review and Helvetica

Last Friday, a couple of my design friends and I met up to present and review our portfolios (By the way, Y.I. and T.P., the address to my main site has always been in the About sidebar). It was a very helpful experience for all of us, and I’m glad we did it. Somewhat sticking to the promise to myself, I unwrapped and watched Helvetica with my friends. Maybe it was the mentally highered expectation, but 1) I thought it was supposed to be longer, and 2) it was a different experience watching it with friends. I think caring about what others think of the film (which none of them had seen) distracted me from paying attention to the film. I shall watch it by myself next time, including the bonus material and take names and ideas for future reference.

Words Pondered

Here are a few things that I’ve been thinking about in the past month:

• “Safe is Risky.” —Seth Godin
• “Trying to look good limits my life.”—Stefan Sagmeister, from his Things I Have Learned in My Life So Far Series
• “Love all, trust a few, do wrong to none.” —William Shakespeare, from the wrapper of some chocolates my cousin-friend gave me for Christmas.
• “Hope”
• “Change”
• “Honesty”
• “Dreams”

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A Bit of Beta House Cleaning

I did a bit of site house cleaning today. I know, I don’t have that much on my beta site to clean yet, but I made some messes while creating those pages, like writing messy non-validatable XHTML and illegal characters, as well as inconsistent page titling.

I also began a format for the web experiment pages, which I’m bound to change so they’d go more with the rest of the site, which has yet to be created. I’m starting to see that this entire site is going to some time to build. But I don’t feel defeated at all; I am so excited to see how this site is going to turn out. Anyway, less talk, more walk.

Flush.

Background Change By Time

Been a few days since posting an update on the web site. Before you make snap judgments on the image below, hear me out. That’s not how the site is going to look, exactly. Think of the idea, the concept behind it. Concept, concept, concept.

The point is that I figured out how to control color using time, as well as brightness and saturation control just like the HSB panel in Photoshop and the like. This might be a sarcastic BFD for geeky programmers, but I’m still proud that I figured this out in one night, part of it without power because of some storm.

Background Change By Time

I may or may not continue applying a time-based background color on the home page. This is actually the same saturation and brightness as the original dull blue background color, but I guess it’s just too bright and saturated-looking in other hues.

Shaun Inman

The idea for this came from Shaun Inman’s site, which I heard about from a (relatively) recent BADG podcast interviewing Shaun Inman. His site has a changing background that repeats every year, and on top of that, his older articles fade to white as a metaphor that writings on web programming and such get outdated very quickly over time, even stuff written in 2002.

I will continue to play around with the background color; I’ll probably make it darker and muted if I was to keep the script on the home page, because frankly, I don’t really have a strong concept and reason like Shaun's to have the script on the home page.

The process of writing the script is documented under Experiments > Web > JavaScript.

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Beta Mode Day 3

Experiments Section. Still working on the design.

Web Experiments Section. No, that’s how it’s supposed to look like.

Thanks Rosa and Alissa for your comments!

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Day 2 of Beta Mode

Made some changes to the beta site, including the addition of a simple feedback form. Ch-ch-check it out!

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Beta Mode

This afternoon, I was officially in the last stage of putting my interview portfolio together. I had all the prints I need, and I just need to crop them and mount them. There are gonna be a couple other things to take care of, as always, but I was pretty much ready for the next stage.

What that next stage is is not that defined, really. I could continue with creating a simple, or elaborate, leave-behind for my interviewers, but I felt that I wasn’t ready yet. I was ready to, however, build my web site. It’s taken me a long time to get to this stage, and I’m excited. After weeks of working with a print-oriented goal, I was ready to get digital (“Let’s get digital, digital.” Sorry.)

Even though real construction began today, I had spent the same print-oriented weeks to think about the website (I was that excited). What it must have, what it could have, what the concept should be, how it would look like, etc. I actually started sketching layouts during an off-print day to get that crap out of my head (the fine spirit of Flush), and I’m glad I did, because I’m (currently, at least) going with a different approach.

Usability Testing

While setting up the basics of the site today, something dawned on me. I thought about the importance of usability testing as mentioned by Steve Krug in Don’t Make Me Think! While I don’t have the money to conduct the proper research (nor do I really need a usability test for a site this small, though it's still important), I have the resources: designers I know (including most of you guys)!

Live Construction

Long story short, I’m going to construct my site live. As I work on it, I would like everyone to give me feedback, whether via Flush or by email. I haven’t gotten the whole plan worked out, but I will probably provide mini-plans for the next few things I wanted to work on, like navigation, layout, special coding, etc., and visitors can give me suggestions, comments, notes, criticism, food, etc.

I figured that this way, I would be more motivated to work on the site, because I don’t want it to look like this for longer than I need to. Displaying incomplete work to the public makes me uncomfortable.

Beta Mode

I’m calling my current site “in beta mode.” I’m not sure if “beta” is the right word because it seems to me that every web service I’ve used that are in “beta” mode (Gmail, mind42, Blogger before) are pretty much functioning services. Am I using the word “beta” correctly?

Anyway, the beta site is up, and the first round of feedback is appreciated. As of right now, the site:

1. has a gridded background that I use to layout the content. I might take that out in the final version and let the content stand on the invisible grid, including the black-border boxes.
2. has a text-based navigation. I plan on making the navigation image-based but still accessible when all the CSS is taken out, because I know it’s better to have the navigation text-based so if I’m making it image-based, I should at least make it accessible. I want to do this because I have this “hover” idea that I want to try.
3. has a giant orange/yellow image as a space holder for either current news images or a Flash slideshow/movie, which is a pretty common feature these days. I’m not doing this just because everyone else is doing it; but because I want to learn more ActionScript. And if that couldn’t be done in time, I will just leave it like this and rotate images periodically or with JavaScript.

Please Comment/Critique/Suggest/Wash Your Hands after Using the Bathroom

So if I could get anybody to make any constructive comments on what I have so far, that would be really great, even if you think it’s silly or unimportant. If you don’t tell me, I won’t know what you’re thinking. Eventually (soon), I’m going to add a comment box on the beta site so you can give me notes while you’re looking at the page. But for now, comment via this post.

Flush.

What Am I Doing? (Dec 2007)

Last night was officially the last exam of my undergraduate days. And no, it doesn’t feel good to say it the second time. Either way, I have no real, long-term commitments scheduled, which means that I don’t have any reason for not looking for a job.

It wasn’t like I haven’t done anything to prepare for my job search, though. I have been looking at listings and taking notes about the whole application and interview process. I’ve done a lot of that soul searching stuff and figuring out what I really want to do right now and in the future.

Here’s a summary list of what I’ve done for my career and my life: I took on the GTD method to begin to organize my life, read a lot of design blogs daily to keep myself updated on what’s out there today and what design is like as a career, read/reread a few books on design, started this blog and worked on my entire web site, and listened to and watched a lot of design podcasts, some related to technical skills (Adobe Creative Suite Video Podcast, Photoshop Killer Tips, and PixelPerfect with Bert Monroy), and others related to design in “real life” (Be A Design Cast and Design Matters with Debbie Millman).

The Attitude on Blogs and Podcasts

I don’t know what the professional attitude among employers and business people out there is on blogs and podcasts, but 1) this is the current trend in our culture so businesses should pay attention to it, and 2) I definitely learned a lot from reading these blogs and listening and watching these podcasts about how to and how not to be a designer in the business world.

The Lesson

One thing I heard repeatedly is to not act like you know everything, because you don’t. That’s great because I don’t know everything, and I admit it! I know that there is a lot of stuff that I need to learn that I didn’t get to in school, and I am ready to learn. Just give it to me, baby. I want to be a sponge and absorb as much knowledge as I can.

So hopefully, potential employers won’t scoff at me when I say that I like to listen to podcasts and read blogs, because while I understand that it sounds so teenage and unprofessional, you learn a lot more than you would think.

Task One

But back to what I’m doing now. Since I’m done with that class with no more studying to get in my way, I am currently putting my portfolio and my web site together. I’m going to rework some of my pieces, and then I’m considering making different versions of the portfolio (not just one print and one web) that suit different needs and different situations. That is my number one task to do.

That leads to my number one-point-five task to do, which is my web site. I’m tired of constantly changing the entire site just because I’m past that style or that layout. I want to create a more permanent but flexible site that is accessible and user-friendly using what I know now, which is simply XHTML, CSS, and a little of JavaScript (and, when appropriate, a little Flash/ActionScript).

I plan on developing a structure where I would keep around for a much longer time than any of the personal sites I’ve done in the past, while still allow it to change as I please and as I know more about different web development languages. CSS is going to be my love-hate friend.

I think that once I’ve gotten my portfolio system and web site under control, I will be ready to just design and experiment and grow and learn.

Flush.

P.S. I don’t know if I should make this a monthly or a bimonthly update. We’ll see.