Chipotle eschews the icky practices of factory farming. Michael Pollan would surely approve.
Tag: Design
Hold Those Pesky Papers
To say it’s been busy around here is an understatement…..work is buzzing along nicely. And, I’ve been meaning to get back and show the final shelf in A’s Workspace. Ta Da!
Each project now has its own box which holds those pesky papers. The second shelf holds all the project boxes and the table top is now clear and clean. He’s streamlining his work now and much more efficient.
Playing with BuddyPress
With the upcoming WordCampNYC 2010 and some other projects I have been playing around with BuddyPress again.
Coterie is a French word for a group of people who associate closely, a clique or inner circle. Seems a fitting name for an online community….@ least at this stage and until we get the final kinks worked out of the functionality of this type of community site and what we want to do with it. I must say, Steve Bruner does great job explaining the installation of both WordPress and BuddyPress in this video.
Visual Acoustics
Do check out this beautiful film called Visual Acoustics: The Modernism of Julius Shulman.
Narrated by Dustin Hoffman, VISUAL ACOUSTICS celebrates the life and career of Julius Shulman, the world’s greatest architectural photographer, whose images brought modern architecture to the American mainstream.
You can get it at NetFlix.
A 21st Century Education
There are a series of videos here, to view. I highly recommend.
Content in Context
Just like a carpenter, web designers need to know when to use the right tools. A big part of designing is problem solving. No, I should re-phrase that, a big part of living is problem solving and we need more of these skills in life.
So, in a recent query I received, Brenton wanted to develop a blogging site comparable to this site.
WordPress will make your websites and you might want to look into making css code out of your PSD [PhotoShop Documents]. Check it out.
Design Sucker!
I am the first to admit it: I am a sucker for great design! And can you believe this? It makes me want to get a little dog, just so I can have the crate. Humm, I wonder if you could build a terrarium in there? This is so fabulous.
Building iPhone Apps
For the last few weeks, on Mondays, I get myself over to the new Ford Building on the Smith College Campus. Now, I’m the first to admit, I am not a programmer. However, as a designer I’m intrigued with development and thus am assisting Lou Franco with ‘testing’ some chapters of his soon-to-be-published book.
Lou has the patience of a saint. St. iPhone or St. Xcoder is how I like to refer to him. He is a great teacher! In class, he sometimes tends to run through code pretty quickly when he is showing examples.
Some of the stuff we cover in our workshop goes over my head….Lou does move thru the information. But I am happy-no, I am joyous to say, I get most of it! I mean, come on everyone has an idea for an iPhone app. A few that have just recently come to mind:
- A Shit List App: something you could interface with that would assist you in being sure others met your criteria for being on your Shit List. And, of course, there would be some type of meter or rating system. Maybe it could even connect with your Contact list? Humm…..the possibilities. [Note: this is obviously a bit of a joke here. Then again, who knows….maybe there is something to this. Humm.].
- Then there is this behavioral app I’m working on….I can’t reveal the name just yet….let’s just say the market is for parents to use when their child isn’t behaving in the manner the parent prefers. This one is still in development stages.
- And then, an app to help you ‘know’ what types of organic foods are currently ‘ripe and ready-to-pick’. This needs to coordinate with locate organic farmers and dovetail with their crop growth charts….however, I firmly believe there is a need for this. Especially, as we grow more conscious of the foods we eat, where we buy those foods and in getting the freshest possible foods-locally.
If you have an idea for an iPhone app [or iPad app for that matter]. Leave me a comment….maybe we can get started on one. After all, I have a classroom full of Techie-Developers all of whom I am sure would love to develop a iPhone app.
Project Management Roles & Cool Titles
As I have mentioned, I am currently in an Online Project Management course, whereas we are working in groups on solving a project management issue [ours is partially real and some what fabricated-which is fine with our professor].One task last week was to choose our Project Management Roles. I am the Idea Developer for our group.
If you want to read some really interesting role titles, check out Automattic This is the startup group who are best known for a little project called WordPress. It is worth a quick scroll to read some of these titles.
My favorites:
- Happiness Engineer[they actually have about 6 of these],
- Digital Entomologist,
- Systems Wrangler,
- Outernationalist [his name is Ze Fontainhas],
- PollDaddy Jr,
- Design Wacko,
- Schmooze Engineer,
- Lightbulb Engineer,
- and wouldn’t you love to hear your child announce they were going to grow up to be a
- Bug Exorcist or Master of Suggestion?
Makes you want to re-think your title doesn’t it?
Joining The Institute for Digital Media Arts [IDMA]
Another group I am happy & proud to be working with is The Institute for Digital Media Arts [IDMA]. I am creating a Web Design Diploma for them.
- The Web Design Diploma offers students the opportunity to explore the design of websites, interactive media, and other digital technologies. Following a project-based curriculum, students will immediately gain knowledge and learn skills about tools and technologies used in designing and creating digital products.
- Student studies will focus on design, functionality, target audience, and user experience. The studies will remain grounded in the fundamentals of information architecture, basic front and back end web development, and interactive media design.
- These courses are developed to be presented completely online.
Fun and exciting times, online.
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