Aug
15
So what can Michael Phelps, Seth Godin and this Tree teach you? To be persistent. To not quit. To adapt. To evolve and yet keep going.
Persistence isn’t using the same tactics over and over. That’s just annoying
Persistence is having the same goal over and over
- Seth Godin
Sure you could trade all the stress of running your own company and having to deal with clients for the temporary security and comfort of getting a job and an average “secure” salary, but I believe that people who are willing to make that trade, deserve neither.
I don’t think there is anything more important in today’s world than to be persistent and keep moving forward. Your clients, employees and the economy will thank you for it. Take my word for it.
Aug
15
Believe it or not, the pale kid sitting on his speedos is no other than the greatest Olympian of all time, Michael Phelps. Isn’t amazing what 8,000 to 10,000 calories a day can do to your body? And no, your eyes are not lying to you, the picture on the right does look like a Photoshop Disaster.
Aug
12
With all the buzz around Michael Phelps’s AMAZING race to become the winningest Olympian ever AND after his uh-mazing performance last night, I thought it would be a great opportunity to show you what the Olympic Medals actually looks like, that is in case you haven’t seen them already.
Designed by the Design Professor of Beijing’s Central Academy of Fine Arts, Xiao Yong, the medal for the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games is designed with inspiration coming from “bi”, China’s ancient jade piece inscribed with a dragon pattern. The medals, made of gold and jade, symbolize nobility and virtue and are the embodiment of traditional Chinese values of ethics and honor, sending forth strong Chinese flavor.
The medals are 70mm in diameter and 6mm in thickness. On the front side, the medal adopts standard design prescribed by the International Olympic Committee. While on the back, the medal is inlaid with jade with the Beijing Games emblem engraved in the metal centerpiece. The design inspiration of the medal hook derives from jade “huang”, a ceremonial jade piece with decoration of double dragon pattern and “Pu”, the reed mat pattern.
Wow. And to think Michael “I’m just doing my work” Phelps already bagged 3 gold ones. Almost makes me want to close the lid of my lappy and embark on physical activity right away… like doing some curls with the remote control. What? I said “almost”.
Aug
12
via: Monster Munch
Aug
11
So guess what? My wife and I are going to have a baby! Woohoo! Yup, what you just read. I’ve been wanting to break the news for a few days now but with everything that was going on, my endless to-do list, the trip and stuff, truth is, I couldn’t find the time.
Now, let’s take a look at the specs: Little Baby Teixidó is 7 weeks old, 0.27 inches long and it sports a 120 BPM heart rate. Needless to say, WE’RE INCREDIBLE EXCITED!
Right now, I’m counting the minutes to see my wife again. To be honest, I feel really guilty about having to leave her side, specially because of work… specially on this crucial weeks, but hopefully, these next 6 weeks will fly and the 2¼ of us will be together soon enough.
So that’s it. My time has finally come and now I’m Mac Daddy! And by that I don’t mean the pimp-meister kind but the male-who-uses-an-Apple-computer-and-has-fathered-at-least-one-child kind.
Aug
06
Hey everybody! Just wanted to let you know that I’m leaving to the States in a few hours to kick-start two big projects and I’ll be staying in Albuquerque until the end of September which (among other things) means: I’ll have a great time catching up with my Albuquerquian friends aaaand I’ll be ingesting unhealthy amounts of spicy food. Hopefully the last 2 weeks of the trip I will be joined by my lovely wife and we will enjoy a (much deserved) few days off in NYC and South Florida.
So to make this shorter, Payees: come back in 2 months. Wife: will miss you dearly. Employees: Go ahead, I know you guys want to celebrate like the monks on Ace Ventura, just don’t forget I will have to come back eventually…
Jul
29
I remember back in 1997 everyone used either Lycos or Yahoo. The obligatory question back then was not if you “got online yet”, it was “Do you Yahoo?” and if you didn’t happened to know the answer to that question then you probably didn’t know what the Internet was all about. But then there were a few of us, who didn’t like Lycos nor Yahoo at all and instead, we liked HotBot. No, we actually LOVED HotBot. I mean, it was fast, cool, straight forward and it was designed by Jeffrey Veen. WHAT’S NOT TO LOVE?. Then in 1998 Lycos bought HotBot so we went back to square zero: you either had to use Yahoo, Lycos or HotBot by Lycos. Of course there were others like Metacrawler and Altavista, but they shared a minority of the traffic pie.
By early 1999 we were all “Googling” in (pretty much) the same interface and way we do today. So if you think about it, not much has changed since then, which I find funny and interesting enough to write a post about it. I mean, so much has changed since then, the way you listen to your music, the way you get in touch with your family, the way you carry your files (thank God for the extinction of the floppys), the way you take pictures and yet, the way we search for things on the Internet, is the same way we had almost 10 years ago only now instead of looking for news, we Google our ex-girlfriends, our future employees, the possible names for our kids and our chocolate cookies recipes.
So yesterday when I read about Cuil (pronounced “Cool"), it made me think about all those people who might not “get” or “like” Google (the de-facto search engine these days) the same way I didn’t “get” Lycos/Yahoo back in the old days. I was also surprised to know that there are still people who are investing time and effort into finding the next “sliced bread”.
The Internet has grown. We think it’s time search did too.
- Cuil Team
Founded by ex-Google engineers, Cuil claims to be the world’s biggest search engine, with around 120 billion indexed pages, which they believe it’s about 3 or 4 times the size of Google’s index, of course we will never know for certain since Google stop publishing their index many moons ago when they were in the vicinity of 8 billion.
Whether Cuil can dethrone Google or not is impossible to tell at this point, but I can already say that after using it briefly and comparing the same search results, the interface felt really comfortable. Must be the fact that I’m using a widescreen display or just the idea of getting a fresh breath of air, but putting next to each other Google showed me 5 results “viewport”, while Cuil allowed me to see 8 at the same time without having to scroll vertically.
I do agree with the early reviews that Cuil still needs a lot of work to do, but I’m sure they will eventually mature into something really interesting so I’ll just keep it on my radar.
One thing is for sure though: they will never turn their brand into a cool multi-language verb like Google did. Can you imagine someone actually saying: “I just cuil-er my room mate and I found out he’s a trekkie”
Jul
24
Stop the press! This is HUGE, the moment we’ve all been waiting for, the moment where the Redmond-based company would strikes back and strike HARD.
Microsoft this week offered a window into the first phase of a mega million dollar advertising campaign designed to clear up ‘misconceptions’ about the quality of its Windows Vista operating system exacerbated by in-your-face marketing efforts on the part of longtime rival Apple.
That’s right people, go get your popcorn and soda cause THIS is the real battle: forget Batman vs. Joker, McCain vs. Obama, McCain vs. McCain, no, this the real deal (insert Celebrity Deadthmatch intro song here): Apple’s “I’m a Mac” Campaign vs. Microsoft’s “Indisputable Historic Events” Campaign. I’m sorry, I just fell asleep. * yawn *
Lame Steve decided to preview the new campaign at a Microsoft employees-only Global Exchange Conference. Instead of responding directly to Apple’s aggressive campaign, they are taking a different approach, which is to “clear up some confusion and lingering misunderstandings” about Windows Vista. Still confused? Here’s a piece of the campaign spotted by ZDNet.
Huh? Yes, that’s right. This is how they are trying to convince people that the $ 300 software they bought, it’s not just crap, it’s a round-shaped piece of crap.
Seriously Ballmer, what is next piece? Oh! I have one! How ‘bout “At one point everyone thought Internet Explorer was awesome”
Source: Apple Insider
Jul
23
Well hey there! ‘member me? It’s been AGES. I know, wasn’t you, it was me. I wouldn’t even know where to start. Let’s see.. umm. Well, basically I’ve been COVERED with work and I know it’s not an excuse but the past 3 months have been hectic. The good news is that I’m almost done with everything I had on my plate so I should be able to start getting back to normal and catching up with my digital life.
So what was I doing all this time you ask? As soon as I get permission from the clients, I will start posting the new pieces on my portfolio. Right now, all I can say is I’m glad I’m back.
Jun
12
Santa Fe is one of the prettiest places in the New Mexico and everytime I visit our Albuquerque Offices, it’s always a treat to drive up north and walk around the town, but, the town once known for his famous art galleries and great mix of cultures, might now be known for their “electro-sensitive people”.
It turns out members of a Santa Fe Group wants to ban the use of Wi-FI on public buildings because of the chest pain it’s causing to them.
Arthur Firstenberg says he is highly sensitive to certain types of electric fields, including wireless Internet and cell phones
Really, Arthur? Really? Chest pain? Anyway, if you’re in the search for a good chuckle, go ahead and read Wired’s article here. Now if you excuse me, I need to find my tin-foil hat.
Jun
10
Luftman, Heck & Associates LLP is a Law firm based in Columbus, Ohio. Their current website is 100% flash and they needed a total overhaul so this is the how their new site is going to look in a few weeks. I really enjoy working on corporate sites, specially when they give you enough freedom to speak your mind and share your points of view.
One other thing that I found particularly interesting about this project is that I tried to De-Web-2.0-lize (does that even mean something?) the design and stay away from the gradients. I also used lots of negative margins and I chose Verdana size 11 for the copy. Good news is the client is very happy with the result and the site should be launched in the next few weeks. You can view how the inner section looks here.
May
22
It’s nearly lunch time and today’s special is textures. I love textures so when Smashing Magazine announced their Texture Contest, I start digging on my library and found these, so without further ado, I present The Olive stripes curtain, one of my submissions for the Smashing Magazine’s Texture Contest. More textures after the jump.
Ok I’m now officially craving for dry fruit. Be right back.
May
22
This is the new 2008 Gs. 50.000 bill. The new design features the face and work of Agustín Pío Barrios “Mangoré”, one of the greatest guitar player and composer the world has seen.
The old bill used to feature the “unkown soldier” who fought one of the many wars Paraguay had during his history of independence and it can be seen here:
The bill had to be redesigned after a HUGE lot of the C series got robbed by “pirates” from the container inside the ship who was transporting them from France to Paraguay. Yeah, I wish I was kidding.
In case you’re wondering how much Gs. 50.000 the answer is: around $ 12.
May
20
Yesterday I had a surreal trip to the supermarket that included meeting Mr. Robert Eggplant and finding a dog food called “Blog Dog”
May
16
The Obelisco on the 9 de Julio Avenue, the widest street in the World
Here’s a piece of advise for all my friends and readers in the US and across the pond: Sell all your belongings now and move south. I’m not talking about Miami-Kinda-South. I’m talking about south, south, like Buenos Aires South.
José in one of the 3 Web Events held in Buenos Aires last week
For those who don’t know, my brother José (who also happens to be on the Web Scene since IBM OS/2 Warp) and his family just moved to Buenos Aires, Argentina to work with some pretty cool cats down there on a project called Keegy (which looks like a Regional Digg on steroids, in case you haven’t see it yet).
On Keegy HQ unveiling the banners for one of the Web Events, more photos of Keegy’s HQ here
Anyway, José was just telling me the other day how the IT Scene in Buenos Aires is off-tha-chain, so I decided to give y’all a heads up on what’s going on down there. Only last month there were at least 3 Web Events, the Palermo Valley 3.0, Open Social Week(with speakers from Google to Joyent) and StartMeUp.
Not long ago, Argentina was one of the most expensive countries in the world (which lead to an economic disaster and eventually knocked down the current government at the time) but that’s all in the past. These days the biggest companies on IT and Communications like Motorola, Intel, BT among others have not only returned, but made huge investments to turn Buenos Aires into the Latin American Silicon Valley.
Puerto Madero at night
But… no Silicon Valley would be completed without a Google HQ, which why last year Google opened their regional HQ in Puerto Madero, only like *THE* most stylish district in Buenos Aires.
On his visit to Argentina and after meeting with the country’s Vice President, Eric Schmidt (Google’s CEO) said:
Google’s first move into Latin America will be a key towards e-commerce as broadband usage is set to explode in the region, which also happens to be the region with fastest growth in the Internet sector, even before Asia, the U.S. and Europe
Bang! How’s that for a statement.
Photo by: formfaktor
Argentina, the land formerly known for their soccer, tango music, the widest street in the world and excellent steak is now on the verge of becoming a weird mix of Silicon Valley meets MTV Spring Break with VC’s on every stop light and Web Events every 20 minutes.
But wait, the good stuff don’t end there.
Argentina’s Capital City was founded by immigrantes from Spain, Italy and Germany so you get the best food, architecture and culture mix from all three. Not to mention, the mix of genetics between the immigrants and the natives produced some of the most beautiful and athletic people on earth.
Photo by: Simon
So if you’re any good on anything Web/IT related, love hitting the red line of your cholesterol levels with some good steak and are willing to give soccer a chance, then you should stop reading right now and start posting your belongings on Craigslist.
May
16
A bunch of people got together back in 2005 and decided that the internets needed his own dedicated day and for some reason they picked May 17th as the “D” Day (or is it “I” Day). You can read the press release here.
Internet Day is an on-line project which has emerged from society, on account of society, and for society. It is free, and open to anyone who wishes to take part. Because Internet Day is a common task.
Now, I’m bit confused on how are we supposed to celebrate this day. Shall we kiss under a Cisco Router at midnight? Light up some candles on the DSL Modem? Or just chant naked around the official site. OMG I’m so excited! Please let it be the chanting!
You can visit the oficial International Internet Day site here.
PS: Dear Internets, please try to keep your font selection on your Website Design to a maximum of 2 next year. My bleeding eyes will thank you.
May
08
by this excellent poster? or is it an Album Cover? via the always interesting Luke Dorny
May
07
Content precedes design. Design in the absence of content is not design, it’s decoration.
- Jeffrey Zeldman
I feel so much better now that someone with enough respect and trajectory in the media as Mr. Zeldman shared his point of view on the matter. It remind me of the “100 % Intentional” poster I did for Veerle’s “What is Graphic Design” Poster Competition back in February. You can follow the discusion on his website.
May
06
My friend Mario is the kind of guy you would normally meet once and never forget. I met him back in 1993 while we both assisted to a local Computer School. We later ended up working together in ABC Color.
My friend Mario is the kind of person who hates being “just another brick in the wall”. He can’t just stay in line, nodding his head and smiling just because everyone else does it.
My friend Mario is the kind of father who would give up a 12 years old job as the Chief Engineer on the most successful Newspaper in Paraguay and move to Miami because he knows that’s what it takes to achieve his goals, even if it means taking 3 different jobs to provide for their 2 kids, Mario and Stefanie.
My friend Mario is the kind of friend who would not only run the extra mile for you, but he’ll actually pick you up and carry you down to the finish line if he has too. He’s the kind of friend who will tell you “There is not a single problem in this world, that you can’t solve by listening to some good Salsa music”, would turn the volume up and start dancing around.
My friend Mario was diagnosed with Leukemia and was hospitalized in Miami last Saturday. My wife, Martin and I are devastated by the terrible news and we can’t even imagine how his family must be right now.
I can’t describe the impotence I feel for being 4000 miles south from him, which is why I’m trying to make the necessary arrangements to fly up there so I can be with him in this difficult hours and while I pack, while I get in line at the airport, while I nod my head and smile at the customs officer, I’ll be praying and hoping Mario was right: there isn’t a problem on this earth that can’t be solved with a good salsa song.
Gloria Estefan and Celia Cruz
Apr
28
go to work, send your kids to school
follow fashion, act normal
walk on the pavements, watch T.V.
save for your old age, obey the law
Repeat after me: I am free
This could very much be a dialogue from Fight Club, instead it’s a graffiti found in Bristol, UK. Via: Flickr.
Apr
22
My good friend and former workmate @ Conexion, Victor Cartes, started his own Dev Shop called TIVA and asked me to design a logo for it. His only request was “clean lines and a warm color scheme”. Needless to say I was very honored to fulfill his request, and this is the result.
Probably the thing that I liked the most about this brand is how strong it is, and I guess you can attribute it to the fact that the whole thing was done with only 3 shapes. The “T”, the “I”, and the “V” (doubles as an “A” and also as the icon on the top). So anyway, Thank you the opportunity Victor, I wish you and TIVA many success on the years to come.
Apr
22
I wonder what would happen if I tried the same approach with iStockPhoto’s comp. Via: xkcd
Apr
21
Great Illustration by demolin
Apr
10
Aqua Colbert is a conservationist’s worst nightmare: a bottled water with a carbon footprint that stomps on sustainability and kicks it senseless in its quest to quench America’s insatiable thirst. Ahhh, why do I even try if I can have Stephen itself explain it to you.
Apr
09
Did you ever got feeling that you should be using your abilities in Design to help someone out there? Well of course you have, and that’s call freelance, but I mean, really helping someone and having an impact on somebody’s life, not just their revenue. I know I do, which is exactly why when I found out (too late I’m afraid) about this Charity Project, I was very excited about the idea.
Project Charity:Water is a non-profit organization that helps bringing clean and safe drinking water into impoverished communities, and they just finished a campaign that included a partnership with the World Famous Saks Fifth Avenue. The idea is pretty simple: Design a E-Card, and Saks.com will sell the card and use 100% of the revenues to build wells and give people in Afrika clean drinking water.
http://www.charityis.org/designacard/
Sadly for me this past week has been crazy busy and I didn’t find out about the Charity:Water project soon enough (entry deadline was today), but I still didn’t want to let the project go unnoticed.
Jackson Pollock used to say:
It doesn’t make much difference how the paint is put on as long as something has been said. Technique is just a means of arriving at a statement.
Amen. I don’t know if that philosophy is just starting to have a stronger effect on me or what but I wish in the near future other Non-Profit Organizations imitate this type of campaigns and allow people to take action in a different way and from their own desks using nothing but their talent and a mouse to make a statement that will have a positive impact on other people.
Apr
09
This is one the ongoing projects that I’m working on and the reason why I haven’t been able to blog this past few days. The Design itself was a real challenge and now that the project has moved to the coding stage it is really starting to take shape. It should be live before the end of the month if everything goes according to plan.
Oh crap. Just because I said that, now nothing will go according to plan. Damn you Murphy.
Apr
01
My wife is turning 23 today which makes me extremely happy. For those who don’t know her, she is an incredible fun and loving human being, OR, she’s an alien from Narcon 5 who’s mission was to marry me in order to learn more about our inferior species , in which case, I’m totally cool with it. Also blowing the candles today, Apple. Yeah, she shares the same birthday as the best computer in the world. That’s how cool she is. Happy birthday Honey!
Mar
30
Well, I bet you’ve all heard about Google going black yesterday. The reason? The Earth Hour. Apparently, there’s enough evidence supporting the fact that White on Black websites consume less power on displays.
As noted, an all white web page uses about 74 watts to display, while an all black page uses only 59 watts, the shift to a black background will save a total of 15 (74-59) watts. That turns into a global savings of 8.3 Megawatt-hours per day, or about 3000 Megawatt-hours a year.
Then again, on the same Google’s Earth Hour Page they explain that the real reason behind the decision on going black is actually more of a publicity stunt than an actual conservation measure.
As to why we don’t do this permanently - it saves no energy; modern displays use the same amount of power.
Wheew, Thank God somebody came in and made everything crystal clear. No, wait, now I’m even more confused :/
Mar
27
Now this is a Birthday Party I’m glad I wasn’t invited to… Yet? That’s right! On a day like this, 10 Years Ago, the US Food and Drug Administration approved Viagra, which in case you didn’t know, was a drug originally conceived as a Cardiovascular aid for its ability to lower blood pressure. Instead, the scientists at Pfizer Laboratories accidentally developed… well you know the rest history. Yeah tiger, you keep looking away like you don’t know what’s going on.
But one thing that was found during those trials is that people didn’t want to give the medication back because of the side effect of having erections that were harder, firmer and lasted longer
Isn’t that funny? I can imagine how the test patients responded 20 minutes after initiating the test: “Yeah, you know, about writing our reports can we do that tomorrow? I just remembered there’s something I need to do back at home, seee yaaaaaaa!”.
So let’s hear it for the Greatest Health research Accident in History! (for some people, you know...)
PS: I can already see my Page Rank going to the flush for using the word Viagra too twice. Dang it. That’s three times. Oh well…
Mar
26
They are here! FINALLY!. It took some time (just imagine, from Halifax → Miami → Asunción) but it worth the wait. MAN this things are beautiful. Seriously I don’t think I can explain how detail, sharp and vivid this posters are. I’m still scratching my head trying to figure out what the heck did James used to print these. Anyway, a little less talk a little more action, Here are the pictures!
Mar
23
You can file this under “Hey Apple, wouldn’t it be GREAT if you include this tips somewhere in your manual?” category. Anyway, found over at CreativeBits, this audio setting tip is pretty useful, at least to me.
If you own a laptop, you probably use the Volume key shortcuts (F4 and F5) to adjust your volume, rather than visiting the System Preferences or Volume menu item.
Every time you press the Volume key, a full block of volume is raised or lowered in the Volume bezel on your screen. If the amount it is raised or lowered is too much or not enough, you can adjust the amount by a quarter of a block at a time.
Well, it turns out you can fine-tune the Volume adjustment, by hold the Shift and Option keys while hitting F4 or F5. Gee, I did not know that.
via: CreativeBits (which for some reason seems to be down)
Mar
22
Three Car ads that caught my eyes the last few days. I always find interesting to see what will Agencies come up with next.
Mar
18
Wheew… that was exhausting. The posters finally arrived and I just added the SHOP section to the site using ExpressionEngine’s Fairly Complicated Simple Commerce Module. I just hope everything is tied up the way it should be and I’m not making a someone in Nigeria even more richer.
In any case, I just uploaded some PrOn over at Flickr where you can check, among other things, how thick this guys are or how good they look on a dark background.
Also worth mentioning, is the hidden “thank you” message to everyone who participated on this flickr post until the day I sent the file to the printer. So if you wrote anything before this, it means your name is printed on the poster.
What’s not to like?? Now go get yours!
Mar
13
Hi guys, sorry for the lack of updates. I know I promised that I’ll call write, but seriously it’s not that I didn’t wanted to, I just got caught up with two new projects, a few kernel panics, 3 clean Leopard installations and a hard drive failure. Seriously, it’s not you, it’s me. I just needed some time. Sheeeeeesh… I’m starting to sound like Janice. Anyway, I thought to chime in this morning and illustrate my last few days.
Let’s start with the Kernel Panics shall we? Seriously, I don’t know what the heck is going on with the Mac OS X 10.5.2 update. Clearly, I’m not the only one suffering, there are tons of reports about people updating their Macs and then later getting the gray screen of death. I know it happened to my MacBook Pro already, but on the iMac it got to a point where I had to reinstall the whole system 3 times. I already tried memtest and TechTool Pro and every test was passed flawlessly. So anyway, because I was getting a lot of kernel panics (which forced me to restart the computer by pressing the Power button for over 3 seconds or so) it seems like I damaged my external Hard Drive.
Yes, *THE* external hard drive with my 130 GB iTunes Library and the 80 GB iPhoto Library. At one point it just didn’t mounted itself anymore. I got a lot of “Do you want to Initialize this Drive?” dialogs and Disk Utility wasn’t being too useful either. Not even TechTool Pro 4.6.1 could’ve fix it, it was like possessed!. That is, until Disk Warrior came along. Cue for Def Leppard’s “Rock of Age”
After this, I was able to gain access to my data, but half my iPhoto library was gone. If you think that’s sad, wait til my wife finds about the Wedding Pictures and the Wedding Album that I had there.
Poor sucker, look at him. It looks like Robocop. I had to take it out of its original IOMEGA External Case in order to mount it on a different case and format it on a PC, after which the PC reported the hard drive is totally fine. And this is Janice’s cue for...
Even so, I won’t even trust this hard drive with our Frankenstein iSight photos, from now on, this sucker is condemned to be The Official Torrent Archive Hard Drive. You know… for the… ummm… Readme Files and Software Manuals that I once download from the internets.
Yay! We got the proof from the printer on Monday and I they look amazing. They are printed on a 18 x 24, 100# Gloss Cover High Quality paper with Satin Varnish AND I specifically ask the printer to use the special fruity-scented ink that repels Zombies. I don’t know if you knew this, but someday, Earth will look just like the I am Legend movie, and when that day comes you better have one (or two) of these hanging on your walls. Don’t tell I didn’t warn you.
Anyway, Except for that last part about the fruity zombie-repellent ink which I totally made up, they really look amazing.
I’ve been feeling a little bit burnt the last few days and besides my mud-wrestling sessions with the iMac (and the external HD) the only thing left to blame was my messy desk. You ever get that feeling that you need to change things a bit in order to jump start your creativity? I know I do. I like keeping my workplace organic, change things around, switch back to Windows once in a while, ok maybe not that, but I hope you know what I mean, so today I came armed with a Zen philosophy and a clear goal: to clean up my desk.
Act without doing;
work without effort.
Think of the small as large
and the few as many.
Confront the difficult
while it is still easy;
accomplish the great task
by a series of small acts.
- Lao-Tze
I just finished and Boy am I enjoying it. Let me tell you, while it’s sill too early to see if I got my groove back, I already feel a lot less contaminated.
This is how my desk looks like right now and it is as uncluttered as it’ll ever be. I only hope it last until the afternoon. DISCLAIMER: Now, contrary to what it may look like, Martin isn’t just picking his nose. He’s bringing back the lost “Pick your Nose whenever someone next to you is having a Zen Epiphany” tradition of the old Zen Monks. As you can see, he’s very devoted to that.
In the middle of everything I was working on a new project for a client of us, called PERMASPACERS. Their product is a Permanent Ceramic Tile Spacer that is not only is easy to install but also helps reducing time and costs. Pretty nifty huh?
So the whole layout was organized in a way that will reflect the symmetrical distribution of tiles on a 120px by 120px grid. I’m very excited to get the client’s approval and start coding it.
In other totally irrelevant news, today I got a new record high of 9km (5.5 miles) on the treadmill… doing the Michael Jackson Moonwalk. Gotta tell you, it’s actually harder than it sounds, specially when everyone laughs at you. Ok I’m done. Vent mode = off and now I need some breakfast.
Mar
06
Today I went to pickup my mail from the (stupid slow) Mail Forwarding Service I have down here in Paraguay. Little did I know the ISO50 Posters I ordered last week were already sitting there waiting for me. Warning: Poster Pr0n content ahead.
UPDATE: In the spirit of providing a full review, I just ate the “Soft’N Chewy, Hard ‘N Fruity” candy that came inside the mailing tube with the posters, and here’s the verdict: Gooood. After finishing it, my wife made an interesting remark: “I just hope it was Scott who put the candy on the tube and not just some random candy the mailman (or anybody else) dropped” Oh crap.
Mar
04
I just finished installing Umbra’s “Invisible Book Shelf that Floats Large Books” that I got in exchange for $ 16.50 on my last visit to Duke City. Man that was hard. While it does come with it’s own pair of screws, they are definitively not appropriate for the concrete walls on the studio, so I had to drill, use a plastic bracket first, and then screw the thingy to the wall.
In the process, I somehow ended with two big ol’ holes that despite my great efforts on measurements, end up being too close to each other. Yeah, I know, it sounds like a HUGE endeavor just to put this dang thing up on the wall, but I did it! Woohoo!!.
Now that I think about it, my CSS books are actually floating left. Mmm… interesting.
In case you are wondering where to get one, visit the Umbra’s website here. I just found out they have other neat things too. Can’t wait to start putting more holes on my wall.
Mar
03
You get mad at your .PSD for weighing more than 25 MB. On Saturday I re-did the Winning Poster from the scratch on 18 x 24 @ 300 DPI and prepare it for printing and every CMD + S took about 5 minutes. Photoshop CS3 ate about 10 GB on temporary scratch files. Boy am I excited to finally send this to the printer.
If anyone wants to be notified when they ready for their debut, be sure to let your email on the comments. Thank you!
Mar
03
Thank you so much for visiting my office this weekend. I hope you had a great time trying to break my door. Gotta admit I’m impressed at your finesse and style. I bet you must feel really disappointed for not getting the part for Ocean’s Thirteen. Pfff, it’s their loss. I am certain they wont find your your white-gloves skills anywhere else.
Anyway, I’m sorry you couldn’t actually break in. If there’s one thing I learned from Web Development is that you have to pick the right tool for the right job. Next time bring an axe. Or grow some muscles.
What I find interesting though, is how you broke the entire lock, and yet didn’t manage to break in. Maybe you’re either too weak or too dumb. Which (contrary to my expectations) are clear signs that you’re not Catherine Zeta Jones. Oh crap. I guess we both loose ey?
Anyway, if it makes you feel any better, thanks to your incompetence, now the door has no lock so neither you, or I have entry.
Love,
- The owner of the studio you couldn’t break into.
So this morning I got to the studio as usual, and I found that someone (unluckily for me, NOT Catherine Zeta Jones) tried to break in over the weekend. My first thought was:
“OMG MY DATA!”
Then my second thought was:
“OMG MY ITUNES LIBRARY!”
As a burglary victim myself (back in 2001) I don’t think I ever felt a more bitter moment on my career than the moment I realized all my belongings and my digital existence was stolen. That’s why I have so many few works from back in the day. I lost all the photos, mp3 and documents I had from 1995 til 2001. It pretty much SUCKED BIG TIME.
So after we manage to get in and 10 seconds before going into DEFCON 4, I ran to my office and I got a huuuuuge relief when I found everything was untouched, just like I left it on Saturday.
After the 2001 incident, I learned a few things that, while this time didn’t help to avoid the attempt of burglary on my studio, may help you in the future:
I know technology will always get cheaper, but you can’t take the risk of losing all your equipments and not having a way to get a backup soon enough to finish your client’s work. Remember, even the most open-minded, easy-going client will understand and cut you some slack, but they won’t be able to cancel their event or website launch because you went mustang on your office security.
Unless you have one mean Pit bull (the dog, not the rapper) doing night shifts at your studio, there’s nothing more effective than locks when it comes to keep people out from your facilities. If you just moved in, replace the locks. If someone at the studio needs to stay behind to finish up some work and you need to leave, install an extra “employees-only” lock. Your employees will only have keys for that lock, but not the main one. That should be only reserved for you (and if you’re like me) your wife :) That way, when they leave they will be able to lock the door. If you’re bit of OCD like me, you can later stop by and lock the main lock too.
If you’re on a small building like I am, talk with the neighbours and explain that security is a matter that should concern everybody. If you can, change the main door entrance lock too. Who knows if an old neighbour didn’t just lost the key and someone found it.
One of the undeniable proofs that technology is getting cheaper each days are thumb drives, hard drives and optical media. I remember paying $ 949 for a 1X SCSI Sony CD Burner back in 1996. If you think that’s a lot, think about the box of 10 blank CD-R’s sold for $ 99.99.
These days, most computers already come with a built-in burner and you can get a whole tube of blank DVD-R for less $ 25, which equals to 47 GB of backed up data. Seriously, if you think about it, it’s even dumb not to do it.
Even the latest OS from Microsoft and Apple have built in backup solutions right to on the core, so you just need to add an extra hard drive and backup those early Britney Spears album that you like so much. Don’t worry, you’re secret is safe with me. “I’m not a giiiiirl… not yet a woooooman”. Ahh… timeless.
Wait, not done yet. After you backed up everything, DON’T LEAVE THE BACKUP AT THE STUDIO. Yeah, I know it might be obvious, but I know a lot of people who store their piles of burned DVD’s on their cabinets.
Also, forget about the spare key. This is not your bachelors apartment.
I’m not talking ONLY about your computer, operative system, directories, etc. If these guys managed to steal my equipments, not only they will gain access to all of those things, but also to my Washington Mutual, PayPal, Ebay, Flickr and Gmail accounts. Why? because I’m so cool that I don’t like to retype my passwords every time. That’s why I always check the “remember me” option on each of those services.
“Yeah but I have a laptop so, it’s cool”. EEEEEEEERRRRRRRRRRGN. Wrong, it’s actually even worse, not only you can get your laptop stolen, but I know of people who lost them instead. Same as with your iPhone. How would you feel if you find out someone just wire all your money from your account and there’s nothing you can do about it.
From this moment on, I refuse to use the “Remember me” option on all those websites, and so should you.
Anyway, the locksmith just finished replacing the door lock and I need hug him so, may you all have a great (safe) week!
Feb
27
Photo by Zsolt Vajda
I suppose you’re wondering why I’ve gathered you all here and I understand you have more important places to be, so I promise it won’t take more than 10 minutes. I will ask you however, that you let me finish what I have to say before you start bashing me.
The reason why I asked everyone to come here today is because I wanted to ask you that you please STOP ACTING LIKE DIVAS ALREADY!
Photo by dorywithserifs
There, I said it. Seriously people, what’s wrong with you? I don’t know where exactly, but somewhere in between Saul Bass and Joshua Davis, a new breed of designers was born. A breed with tremendous talent (most of them anyway) but with one big flaw: they developed an arrogant attitude and started acting like Divas instead of acting like the professionals they were supposed to be.
Rockstars Designers and Web Superstars, put your talent to a good use and start giving something back to our industry, when requested, help other colleagues, educate, instead of promoting your latest book, try to connect with your audience for a change, if anybody, it is them who put you there, it is them who will buy your next book and invest their money on your talent. You owe them that much.
Photo by Andy Woo
Be nice and graceful to the people who want to learn from you, like with everything else in life, you will too feel curious about someone more talented or experienced than you down the road. How would you feel if they ignored you?
Photo by Sebastiano
If you want your readers, clients and the industry to respect you, you first need to know the secret recipe of respect and understand that it is not a birth right. It is something You have to earn, and in order to do that you need:
Quick, grab a mirror or turn over a CD (if you don’t have one close) and look at yourself while asking, “WHAT AM I?” (Not to be confused with “WHO AM I”).
Photo by camerondaigle
You are a communicator. That’s what you are and at the end of the day, you communicate through design with other people. It should be a lot more important to remember WHAT you are, instead of repeating all day WHO you are.
I bet you’ve heard or seen “Devils Wears Prada”. Remember Miranda Priestly? Well, you’re not gonna like this, but that’s how project yourself. Yes, your work is AWESOME, Yes, I’m one of the thousand people out there who bought one of your books and your websites will still be one of my daily reads, but seriously, you have to get rid of the whole “Don’t waste my time, I’m the 8th Wonder of the World” attitude.
(This Reminds me of this AWESOME Ad Michael Bay did for Verizon)
We are living in a time where the quality to listen and switch perspective is a core value in personal and professional ethics, a time where titles, diplomas and other stamed recognition have become practically irrelevant.
Understand that you don’t need to be cocky, arrogant or have attitude to justify your rates or your trajectory, y
