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1. Reversed Logotype

   • Mon, 24th May 2010
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     • illustration
     • typography
     • brand
     • web typography
   

   This image shows a particular optical illusion that confronts us every day. Notice the difference between the black text on a white background and the reverse. With reversed type — light text on a darker background — the strokes seem bolder.

   Black text on white is very familiar, so we can be forgiven for thinking it correctly proportioned. For familiarity’s sake we can say it is, but there are two effects happening here: The white background bleeds over the black, making the strokes seem thinner. With reversed type the opposite is true: The white strokes bleed over the black, making it seem bolder.

   

   Punched, backlit letters on a sign outside the Nu Hotel, Brooklyn.

   One of the most obvious examples of this is with signs where the letters are punched into the surround then lit from inside. In his article, Designing the ultimate wayfinding typeface, Ralph Herrmann used his own Legibility Text Tool to simulate this effect for road and navigational signs.

   One might say that characters are only correctly proportioned with low-contrast. Although objective reality hails that as true, it isn’t a good reason to always set type with low contrast. Type designers have invariably designed around optical illusions and the constraints of different media for us. Low-contrast text can also create legibility and accessibility problems. Fortunately, kind folks like Gez Lemon have provided us with simple tools to check.

   As fascinating as optical illusions are —  the disturbing, impossible art of Escher comes to mind — we can design around reversed body type. On the Web, increasing tracking and leading are as simple as increasing the mis-named letter-spacing and line-height in CSS. However, decreasing font weight is a thornier problem. Yes, we will be able to use @font-face to select a variant with a lighter weight, but the core web fonts offer us no options, and there are only a few limited choices with system fonts like Helvetica Neue.

   Reversing a logotype

   For logotype there are plenty of options, but it makes me slightly uncomfortable to consider switching to a lighter font for reversed type logos. The typeface itself is not the logotype; the variant is, so switching font could be tricky. Ironically, I’d have to be very sure that that was no perceivable difference using a lighter weight font. Also, with display faces, there’s often not a lighter weight available — a problem I came across designing the Analog logo.

   The original Analog logo seen here is an adapted version of Fenway Park by Jason Walcott (Jukebox Type).

   

   The logotype worked well when testing it in black on white. However, I wanted a reversed version, too. That’s when I noticed the impact of the optical illusion:

   (Reversed without any adjustment.)

   

   It looked bloated! Objective reality be damned; it simply wouldn’t do. After a few minutes contemplating the carnage of adjusting every control point by hand, I remembered something; eureka!

   (Reversed then punched.)

   

   Punching the paths through a background image in Fireworks CS4 removed the illusion. (Select both the path and the background then using Modify > Combine Paths > Punch.) Is this a bug? I don’t know, but if it is, it’s a useful one for a change!

   Modify > Combine Paths > Punch in Fireworks CS4.

   N.B. I confess I haven’t tested this in any other Adobe products, but perhaps you will be so bold? (’scuse the pun. :)

   

   Matthew Kump mentions an Illustrator alternative in the comments.

   I grinned. I was happy. All was well with the world again. Lovely! Now I could go right ahead and think about colour and I wouldn’t be far from done. This is how it emerged:

   

   A final note on logotype design & illusions

   Before we even got to actual type for the Analog logo, we first had to distill what it would convey. In our case, Alan took us through a process to define the brand values and vision. What emerged were keywords and concepts that fed into the final design. The choice of type, colour, and setting were children of that process. Style is the offspring of meaning.

   I always work in greyscale for the first iterations of a new logo for a few simple reasons:

   1. The form has to work independently of colour — think printing in greyscale or having the logo viewed by people with a colour-impairment.
   2. It allows for quick testing of various sizes — small, high contrast versions will emphasise rendering and legibility issues at screen resolutions, especially along curves.
   3. I like black and white. :)

   I realise that in this day and age the vast majority of logos need to perform primarily on the Web. However, call me old-fashioned, but I still think that they should work in black and white, too.

   Brands and display faces emerged with consumer culture during the 19^th Century. Logotypes were displayed prominently in high streets, advertising hoardings, and on sign boards. In many instances the message would be in black and white. They were designed to be legible from a distance, at a glance, and to be instantly recognisable. Even with colour, contrast was important.

   The same is true for the Web today; only the context has changed, and the popularity of logomarks and icons. We should always test any logo at low resolutions and sizes, and the brand must still have good contrast (regardless of WCAG 2.0) to be optimal. A combination of colour and form works wonders, but in a world of a million colours where only a handful are named in common parlance, having the right form still seems a smarter choice than trying to own a palette or colour.

   A final word

   This article was prompted by a happy accident followed by a bit of reading. There are many references to optical illusions in design and typography books. The example image at the start of this article was inspired by one found in the excellent Stop Stealing Sheep and Find Out How Type Works by Erik Spiekermann and E.M. Ginger. There’s also plenty of online material about optical or visual illusions you can dive into. There’s also more on how the eye processes light. Oh, and don’t forget the work of M. C. Escher!

   Human eyes are amazing. In two sets of watery bags we get a wide-angle lens with incredibly sharp focus and ridiculous depth of field. Apparently our brain is even clever enough to compensate for the lag in the signal getting from retina to cortex. I know next to nothing about ocular science. Spending a morning reading and thinking about optical illusions, and contemplating my own view here in the garden office is pretty awe-inspiring. If only my photographs were as good as my eyes, illusions or no.

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2. Self-promotion

   • Thu, 13th May 2010
   • 12 comments
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   • Filed under:
     • social
     • work

   The world has changed. Everything we do is more immediately visible to others than ever before, but much remains the same; the relationships we develop are as important as they always were. This post is a few thoughts on self-promotion, and how to have good relationships as a self-publisher.

   Meeting people face to face is ace. They could be colleagues, vendors, or clients; at conferences, coffee shops, or meeting rooms. The hallway and bar tracks at conferences are particularly great. I always come away with a refreshed appreciation for meatspace. However, most of our interactions take place over the Web. On the Web, the lines separating different kinds of relationships are a little blurred. The company trying to get you to buy a product or conference ticket uses the same medium as your friends.

   Freelancers and small companies (and co-ops!) can have as much of an impact as big businesses. ‘I publish therefore I am’ could be our new mantra. Hence this post, in a way. Although, I confess I have discussed these thoughts with friends and thought it was about time I kept my promise to publish them.

   Publishing primarily means text and images. Text is the most prevalent. However, much more meaning is conveyed non-verbally. ‘It’s not what you say, it’s how you say it.’

   Text can contain non-verbal elements like style — either handwritten or typographic characters — and emoticons, but we don’t control style in Twitter, email, or feeds. Or in any of the main situations where people read what we write (unless it’s our own site). Emoticons are often used in text to indicate tone, pitch, inflection, and emotion like irony, humour, or dismay. They plug gaps in the Latin alphabet’s scope that could be filled with punctuation like the sarcasm mark. By using them, we affirm how important non-verbal communication is.

   The other critical non-verbal communication around text is karma. Karma is our reputation, our social capital with our audience of peers, commentators, and customers. It has two distinct parts: Personality, and professional reputation. ‘It’s not what was said, it’s who said what.’

   So, after that quick brain dump, let me recap:

   • Relationships are everything.
   • We publish primarily in text without the nuance of critical non-verbal communication.
   • Text has non-verbal elements like style and emoticons, but we can only control the latter.
   • Context is also non-verbal communication. Context is karma: Character and professional reputation.

   Us Brits are a funny bunch. Traditionally reserved. Hyperbole-shy. At least, in public. We use certain extreme adjectives sparingly for the most part, and usually avoid superlatives if at all possible. We wince a little if we forget and get super-excited. We sometimes prefer ‘spiffing’ accompanied by a wry, ironic smile over an outright ‘awesome’. Both are genuine — one has an extra layer in the inflection cake. However, we take great displeasure in observing blunt marketing messages that try to convince us something is true with massive, lobe-smacking enthusiasm, and some sort of exaggerated adjective-osmosis effect. We poke fun at attempts to be overly cool. We expect a decent level of self-awareness and ring of honesty from people who would sell us stuff. The Web is no exception. In fact, I may go so far as to say that the sensibilities of the Web are fairly closely aligned with British sensibilities. Without, of course, any of our crippling embarrassment. In an age when promoting oneself on the Web is almost required for designers, that’s no bad thing. After all, running smack bang through the middle of the new marketing arts is a large dose of reality; we’re just a bunch of folks telling our story. No manipulation, cool-kid feigned nonchalance, or lobe-smacking enthusiasm required.

   Consider what the majority of designers do to promote themselves in this brave new maker-creative culture. People like my friend, Elliot Jay Stocks: making his own magazine, making music, distributing WordPress themes, and writing about his experiences. Yes, it is important for him that he has an audience, and yes, he wants us to buy his stuff, but no, he won’t try to impress or trick us into liking him. It’s our choice. Compare this to traditional advertising that tries to appeal to your demographic with key phrases from your tribe, life-style pitches, and the usual raft of Freudian manipulations. (Sarcasm mark needed here, although I do confess to a soft spot for the more visceral and kitsch Freudian manipulations.)

   There is a middle ground between the two though. A dangerous place full of bad surprises: The outfit that seems like a human being. It appears to publish just like you would. They want money in exchange for their amazing stuff they’re super-duper proud of. Then, you find out they’re selling it to you at twice the price it is in the States, or that it crashes every time it closes, or has awful OpenType support. You find out the human being was really a corporate cyborg who sounds like you, but is not of you, and it’s impervious to your appeals to human fairness. Then there are the folks who definitely are human, after all they’re only small, and you know their names. All the non-verbal communication tells you so. Then you peek a little closer —  you see the context — and all they seem to do is talk about themselves, or their business. Their interactions are as carefully crafted as the big companies, and they treat their audience as a captive market. Great spirit forefend they share the bandwidth by celebrating anyone else. They sound like one of us, but act like one of them. Their popularity is inversely proportional to their humanity.

   Extreme examples, I know. This is me exploring thoughts though, and harsh light helps define the edges. Feel free to sound off if it offends, but mind your non-verbal communication. :)

   That brings me to self-promotion versus self-aggrandisement; there’s a big difference between the two. As independent designers and developer-type people, self-promotion is good, necessary, and often mutually beneficial. It’s about goodwill. It connects us to each other and lubricates the Web. We need it. Self-aggrandisement is coarse, obvious, and often an act of denial; the odour of insecurity or arrogance is nauseating. It is to be avoided.

   If you consider the difference between a show-off and a celebrant, perhaps it will be clearer what I’m reaching for:

   The very best form of self-promotion is celebration. To celebrate is to share the joy of what you do (and critically also celebrate what others do) and invite folks to participate in the party. To show off is a weakness of character — an act that demands acknowledgement and accolade before the actor can feel the tragic joy of thinking themselves affirmed. To celebrate is to share joy. To show-off is to yearn for it.

   It’s as tragic as the disdainful, casual arrogance of criticising the output of others less accomplished than oneself. Don’t be lazy now. Critique, if you please. Be bothered to help, or if you can’t hold back, have a little grace by being discreet and respectful. If you’re arrogant enough to think you have the right to treat anyone in the world badly, you grant them the right to reciprocate. Beware.

   Celebrants don’t reserve their bandwidth for themselves. They don’t treat their friends like a tricky audience who may throw pennies at you at the end of the performance. They treat them like friends. It’s a pretty simple way of measuring whether what you publish is good: would I do/say/act the same way with my friends? Human scales are always the best scales.

   So, this ends. I feel very out of practise at writing. It’s hard after a hiatus. These are a few thoughts that still feel partially-formed in my mind, but I hope there was a tiny snippet or two in there that fired off a few neurons in your brain. Not too many, though, it’s early yet. :)

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3. First Things First

   • Tue, 16th Mar 2010
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   • Filed under:
     • design
     • talks

   Last Wednesday I turned up in front of a friendly bunch of designers and developers at BathCamp — a regular and excellent monthly event in the city next door. Thanks to Mike Ellis for inviting me at the last minute, and everyone who attended. That day I’d roughly cobbled together a few thoughts about design culture from some old reading, a sprinkle of disquiet, and a bit of dubious optimism. Be warned, here be politics; provocative for some. My thoughts went something like this:

   1963–1964

   From what I have read, and soaked in by osmosis over the years, the early sixties were a fascinating time. In the early part of the decade UK society was emerging from the austerity following WWII. An impoverished Britain looked across the pond to the booming consumer culture of the USA with envy and ambition. Consumerism was on the rise. Advertising was on the rise. At the same time, there was a revolution going on in music, culture and politics. The baby boomers were about to change the world.

   In 1963 70,000 people marched from Aldermaston to London — part of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament. The Test Ban Treaty was signed. Martin Luther-King gave his ‘I Have a Dream’ speech. James Meredith became the first ever black student to graduate from the University of Mississippi. The first ever X-Men comic from Marvel was published and Iron Man made his debut. The first episode of Doctor Who was broadcast. Coke launched its first ever diet drink, ‘TaB’. The Museo Bodoniano opened in Parma. JFK was assassinated.

   On 29th November, 1963, during a meeting of the Society of Industrial Artists (now the Chartered Society of Designers) at London’s Institute of Contemporary Arts, Ken Garland wrote First Things First, A Manifesto (plain text here). He read it out to copious applause. This is what it said:

   We, the undersigned, are graphic designers, photographers and students who have been brought up in a world in which the techniques and apparatus of advertising have persistently been presented to us as the most lucrative, effective and desirable means of using our talents. We have been bombarded with publications devoted to this belief, applauding the work of those who have flogged their skill and imagination to sell such things as: cat food, stomach powders, detergent, hair restorer, striped toothpaste, aftershave lotion, beforeshave lotion, slimming diets, fattening diets, deodorants, fizzy water, cigarettes, roll-ons, pull-ons and slip-ons.

   By far the greatest effort of those working in the advertising industry are wasted on these trivial purposes, which contribute little or nothing to our national prosperity.

   In common with an increasing number of the general public, we have reached a saturation point at which the high pitched scream of consumer selling is no more than sheer noise. We think that there are other things more worth using our skill and experience on. There are signs for streets and buildings, books and periodicals, catalogues, instructional manuals, industrial photography, educational aids, films, television features, scientific and industrial publications and all the other media through which we promote our trade, our education, our culture and our greater awareness of the world.

   We do not advocate the abolition of high pressure consumer advertising: this is not feasible. Nor do we want to take any of the fun out of life. But we are proposing a reversal of priorities in favour of the more useful and more lasting forms of communication. We hope that our society will tire of gimmick merchants, status salesmen and hidden persuaders, and that the prior call on our skills will be for worthwhile purposes. With this in mind we propose to share our experience and opinions, and to make them available to colleagues, students and others who may be interested.

   In January 1964, one hundred copies were printed by Goodwin Press. Twenty-two designers, typographers, and photographers were signatories. That same year, the Civil Rights Act was signed into law by Lyndon Jonhson, outlawing segregation in the USA. There were race riots in Harlem, Philadelphia, and Singapore. Terence Conran opened the first Habitat store. The Vietnam War escalated. Mary Poppins was released by Disney. The death penalty was abolished for murder in the UK. Nelson Mandela made his ‘I Am Prepared to Die’ speech in an apartheid courtroom. Jan Tschichold designed Sabon. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl was published (with a wonderful cover illustration). Educationalist and writer, Caroline Benn was passed a copy of First Things First. She passed it to her husband, Labour politician and maverick, Tony Benn, who published it in full in his Guardian column. Following that, Ken Garland was invited to read the manifesto in full on BBC TV. What amazing times.

   By the ’80s many people, like me, had grown up with a love of the music of the ’60s, but no memory of the time. The counter-culture of the decade had been absorbed and distorted into mainstream memory: Flower-power; Hippies; Vietnam war protests; Civil Rights; Sex, drugs, and rock and roll. The Stones sang Paint it Black as we watched Platoon, going out to buy Zippos right after.

   2000

   By the late ’90s, the counter-culture I grew up with had been co-opted by corporate consumerism and woven into mainstream brands. From surfers to skateboarders and musicians to DJs, heros were willingly commissioned into endorsing the messages of consumerism. Designers were commissioned along with them. Culture was easy profit. If it was niche (and thus ‘cooler’) so much the better for parting youth from coin.

   The product developers, public relations consultants, brand gurus, ad agencies and design teams were so slick that most people seemed not to notice. After all, their heros lead the way. If people did notice, it seemed they quickly muscled past any twinge of loss and welcomed it, feeling validated. It didn’t seem to matter that it was to brand-build and sell gadgets or khakis. They barely noticed that their culture had become a lifestyle, or that their symbols were now just another transient fashion — one that would eventually be discarded by the new corporate curators they’d sold the rights to, who would then try to suck them away and onto to the next trend.

   I know this. That was me. I was there.

   In 1999, the superb Adbusters initiated a re-write of First Things First. Co-ordinated by Rick Poynor, it was signed by luminaries like Erik Spiekermann (amongst many others, including the original author, Ken Garland) and published in Emigre 51.

   Read the re-aligned First Things First 2000.

   (You may have to zoom Emigre’s squint-inducing 10px type.)

   Also, see the text of the Emigre article by Rick Poynor (PDF). It supplied many of the incidental facts here, and Rick Poynor illuminates the First Things First Manifestos of 1964 and 2000 much better than I ever could.

   2010

   It just so happened that I stumbled across First Things First as 2009 was about to become 2010. It was also just after Analog launched. Preceded by much navel-gazing on my part about what kind of work I wanted to do, for who, and why.

   When I read it, the first thing I thought is what about web design and development? How does First Things First fit? Rick Poynor’s comments on the 1964 original were thought-provoking:

   The critical distinction drawn by the manifesto was between design as communication (giving people necessary information) and design as persuasion (trying to get them to buy things). In the signatories’ view, a disproportionate amount of designers’ talents and effort was being expended on advertising trivial items, from fizzy water to slimming diets, while more ‘useful and lasting’ tasks took second place: street signs, books and periodicals, catalogues, instruction manuals, educational aids, and so on.

   Poynor goes on to say:

   Today, the imbalance identified by First Things First is greater than ever. The vast majority of design projects — and certainly the most lavishly funded and widely disseminated — address corporate needs, a massive over-emphasis on the commercial sector of society, which consumes most of graphic designers’ time, skills and creativity.

   I agree with Poynor who suggests that, ‘Design’s love affair with form to the exclusion of almost everything else lies at the heart of the problem.’ If there’s a legacy the ’60s left for me, it’s that everything we do is political and value-driven, from the products we buy to the jobs we take. Web design is no exception. If it is, where do we draw the line? At producing material for the intelligent design movement? Or perhaps designing insignia and making uniforms for the Nazis?

   I veer from accepting the political and economic status quo as the 1964 manifesto did. After all, it’s almost 46 years later, and the commercialisation doesn’t seem any less to me. In fact, to my mind, the barrage is ascendant.

   In Pynor’s article, author and book artist Johanna Drucker urges us to ask, ‘in whose interest and to what ends? Who gains by this construction of reality, by this representation of this condition as “natural”?’ In light of the current furore surrounding the Digital Economy Bill, that seems very close to what Tony Benn urged us to ask in 2005:

   What power have you got? Where did you get it from? In whose interest do you exercise it? To whom are you accountable? How can we get rid of you? Only democracy gives us that right. That is why no-one with power likes democracy. And that is why every generation must struggle to win it and keep it — including you and me here and now.

   We already apply our morality, politics, and sensibilities to our work in a multitude of ways. All the designers I know are subtle, thoughtful, detailed, scrupulous people by nature. It seems odd somehow that any of them would think their work as being apolitical. Or, to put it another way, that form matters more than content and the agenda behind it.

   1964 seemed like a much simpler time where the lines were much more clearly drawn between differing agendas. Culture had not been co-opted by commerce so ubiquitously. Advertising was not synonymous with design. The latter still seems somewhat true to me on the Web, too. But, with the increasing concern over commoditising relationships through ‘monetising’ everything, especially social networks, I wonder for how long will it remain so. Already the rather obvious message that design can improve profitability is at the core of how many people represent our craft; a step up from being seen as frivolous stylists, perhaps, but is it genuinely enough?

   Everyone needs to earn a living; me included. However, at the risk of being called naive, much like the signatories of the 1964 manifesto, I definitely see the need for a debate. Without being too precious about this profession I hold with great regard, web design (with development) is the filter between content and people. As designers and developers we have great power to solve problems, provide amenity and guidance, educate and enthuse. Surely we also have a responsibility, too. So, where is our own First Things First, 2010, the web manifesto?

   Two things stand out for me, re-reading this post:

   1. There is an imbalance in how we value design: Too much emphasis is placed on commercial work in publications, lauding style over substance. Content, presentation and interaction are interwoven and shouldn’t be examined separately. To do so infers that the substance can be ignored as long as the æsthetic is good.
   2. We must somehow help to open up the opportunity of public work to designers, and redefine the value of design away from either pure style, or profit. That’s the tricky one. The way public work is commissioned often seems constipated and self-destructive to me. I don’t have a solution but I have a feeling the large agency dominance is part of the problem, and co-ops part of the solution.

   At the end of my talk at Bathcamp, there was only one question that mattered, really:

   Given the choice, what work would you choose to do?

   The answer to that is, perhaps, all one needs to know.

   For those masochistically interested in the Bathcamp material: the rough slides with even rougher notes are available as a PDF.

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4. Introducing Analog

   • Wed, 30th Dec 2009
   • 20 comments
   • Permanent location
   • Filed under:
     • Analog
     • work
   

   Just before Christmas, a few friends and I launched a new company, Analog. Writing this, I’m still a little surprised at the praise from all those generous people about the holding page. After all, to me, analog.coop is just that: a little holding page. We did work hard on it and laughed a lot after the easter eggs started to appear. (Have you found all three, yet?) Then, we kept on laughing every time we saw them — a good sign. However, we never felt like the copy was quite right, and know we have more to do. Maybe that illustrates why I’m still chuffed a couple of weeks later.

   We stand on the shoulders of those who’ve come before, but we also lean on the shoulders of those around us. That simple truth is why I believe in collaboration, and co-ops in particular, and why Analog exists. It’s a company of friends.

   Analog is a change of tempo in a co-operative playlist that started a long time ago for me. I’m not sure where it began but I’m pretty sure it was way before I actually knew what a co-op was. (That is, apart from the Co-op supermarket near my Nan’s house.) Back in the early ’90s, running club nights and working behind the plates, I always ended up doing stuff with other people. I’d invite veteran jazz musicians to jam over the beats, with a mic plugged into the mixer. I almost always worked with other DJs. It was always so much more fun to have other people around. A friend who worked in a print shop was indispensable when I was designing flyers back in 1992. I remember designing a comp on a piece of paper. It was a logomark with a bit of copy. In the print shop we printed lines of text at different weights in different fonts, cut out the bits we liked, and stuck them into place with spray mount. We photographed the layout, and made a plate to print from. We chose the card together, and the dark silver ink. I would never have used either without my friend’s knowledge and help.

   Fast forward a bit to the early part of the ‘noughties’, and realising how working collaboratively across disciplines was so critical for web sites, I founded Grow Collective. I think of it as a test run for Analog. What it proved to me is that the co-operative principles made sense, and turned me into something of an evangelist. I believe that everyone working on a project should profit equitably from it according to the scope of their participation. I believe we should have the right to claim our own work irrevocably, without suffering the indignity of being white-labelled. (It still happens.) I believe that working for nothing in order to secure clients is daft, and reject the notion that designing ‘on spec’ has any benefit whatsoever for anyone involved. I believe that there are other choices than working either for an agency, or freelance. I believe that if democracy and freedom are important to us, then they shouldn’t be signed away when we take a job.

   It seems that everyone reaches a certain stage (or is that age) when the security of being an employee compares badly with the quality of life that independence can bring. I attach great value to being able to decide where the lines are drawn between profitability and quality; between when to rest and when to work; between what to do, how to do it, and who with. It’s a question of happiness. If independence is directly linked to happiness, but collaboration is the catalyst that makes good ideas work, a co-operative is an obvious choice, and Analog is my answer. I think it has all of the benefits of independence but a structure that could compete with the brand equity of agencies. It’s an hypothesis that is still unproven, but I believe in it. It feels right.

   Of course, the members of a co-op are all-important. If I may, I’d like to introduce you to my colleagues:

   • 
     Alan Colville is a veteran user experience designer. He’s worked both sides of the fence as the customer experience guy for large companies like BT, and a user experience design consultant for Blackberry, Vodafone, and Visa. If ever there was someone who understands design thinking as well as design doing, it is he. He’s a serious man on a mountain bike, too!
   • 
     Andrei Zmievski is the former open source fellow at Digg. He was previously a platform engineer at Yahoo, and is a core developer of PHP. He co-wrote PHP Developer’s Cookbook, and is the architect of the Unicode and internationalization support in PHP 6. If there’s a technical conference somewhere, the chances are Andrei’s giving a talk. Oh, and boy, does this guy know his craft beer.
   • 
     Chris Shiflett wrote the HTTP Developer’s Handbook, and PHP Security, as well as having numerous articles and other book contributions to his name. He’s given talks at the best developer conferences for a decade, combining the sensibilities of a designer with the rigor of an engineer. He’s also pretty decent with a (real) football, too (for an American).
   • 
     Jon Gibbins used to develop accessible music software for people with disabilities. He’s the best accessibility researcher I know — formerly an admin at GAWDS and moderator of Accessify forum — and a priceless interface engineer to boot (every designer should know one). After calmly wrestling with browsers for years, he can still play a mean guitar today.

   These guys are some of the best people I know. Not just in their work, but personally, too. When we wrote ‘good people, good work’ in our opening paragraph on the Analog site, it was a manifesto rather than a statement. Leaning on their shoulders has already given us great fun with JavaScript and CSS (the Analog easter eggs), with GeoIP, the Twitter API, and our little #grid. All of them can be seen on the Analog holding page. I’m proud of the work we’ve done already, and we’ve barely started. Sitting here in a lounge chair at home, with my feet up, and Ommwriter soothing my ears and eyes, I’m smiling to myself at the thought of things to come. Remembering some of the kind words people have said, I’m pulling that wry face we sometimes get when the praise of others is humbling, warm, but still a little embarrassing. Thank you if you’re one of them.

   After a brief excursion to wrestle a three-year-old (involuntarily), I guess I should wrap this up. I don’t know how this Analog gig will play out. Sometimes, back in the early 90s, I would often start with familiar tracks that I and the audience knew and loved. After a while, I always had an urge to try and play something different. Maybe an accapella over an ancient break-beat, or the intense Pao De Acucar from Pacific Jam. Analog is one of those gigs.

   If you fancy keeping up with how we do, follow analogcoop. If you’d like to work with us, please get in touch. If anyone has questions about co-operatives, feel free to ask, or keep an eye out for follow-up entries. One of them is sure to be about how to form an international co-op, as well a bits about the brand, the site, and things I’ve learnt so far.

   Here’s wishing all of you a happy, healthy 2010!

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5. SxSW Pick ’n’ Mix for 2010

   • Fri, 4th Sep 2009
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   I know I’m woefully late. Voting ends today! I don’t really mind, though. It embodies this restful period I’m having. However, I did want to write a bit about SxSWi 2010. I loved Austin when I went for the first time earlier this year. Perhaps it was the grumpy dude at Bobalu on 6th street making cigars by hand who Matthew Smith and I visited on a leisurely stroll. Perhaps it was sharing a room with Chris and Elliot. Maybe it was the Brit invasion. It could even have been the polar bear nochalantly strolling down 6th Street.

   

   I’m hoping for a return visit to Austin from March 12th to the 16th, next year. If you have the chance to go, go! You honestly won’t regret it. This post is part plea for your endorsement and part top picks from some friends who were panelists last year, with some juicy bits thrown in at the end. Panel voting ends today!

   Homemade sweets:

   1. View and endorse

      Web Typography: Get Your Glyph On 2

      I was so surprised at how packed the room was last time out. In the last few months, we’ve seen Kernest, TypeKit, and Fontdeck emerge (I should mention I’m invloved with the latter). Proposals have been flying around like chilli in a Singaporean kitchen. Foundries and designers are optimising for the Web. It’s all about to explode, beautifully. Who knows what the next six months will bring. We’ll try and explore it all. Richard, Elliot, Samantha, and I will be pontificating and hosting the discussion again. Join us!

   2. View and endorse

      Is Your Website Heading for a Car-Wreck?

      Behind the ominous title are a few simple questions that have plagued many a good idea for a web project: How can ideas be successfully brought to life by design? Why do so many good ideas fail, and how can designers help make a good idea become a good product? Join Giles Colbourne, Rich Rutter (penciled in), Alan Colville and I for a few insights into successful collaboration. We are (in order) user experience designers, a UX designer who used to be a product manager, and a web designer. We don’t necessarily share the same viewpoint; should be fun!

   Friends’ favourites:

   1. View and endorse

      Where the Sidewalk Ends

      

      ‘I’m really intrigued by Where the Sidewalk Ends because I’m fascinated by the difference between good design and great design — a concept I personally find very difficult to put into words — so it’ll be interesting to see what sort of definitions the panel come up with.’

      —Elliot Jay Stocks

   2. 

      ‘My #1 panel for SXSW 2010 is Where the Sidewalk Ends. I am really in favor of seeing more design thinking content at SXSW, not just web design content and feel confident that anything these guys would talk about would leave me feeling reinvigorated.’

      —Samantha Warren

   3. View and endorse

      Secrets of Open Source Communities

      

      ‘For me, it’s Secrets of Open Source Communities mainly because I’m trying to build a FOSS community around Spaz and SpazCore. As the project lead, I find it challenging to know how to encourage involvement, manage devs, and work with commercial interests.’

      —Ed Finkler

   4. View and endorse

      Cross Device Accessibility: Is This For Real?

      

      ‘Accessibility is so often portrayed as a boring subject, so I’m excited to see some interesting accessibility panels proposed. My #1 pick would be Cross Device Accessibility: Is This For Real?, which touches on the Mobile Web and geolocation, which should be very interesting, even for beginners.’

      —Jon Gibbins

   5. View and endorse

      Delight

      

      ‘Delight, inspiration, pleasure are all words that we as designers strive to deliver. However, at the pinnacle of the hierarchy of needs, delight is often hard to achieve. So, I’m very interested in hearing how to replicate delight first time and every time.’

      —Alan Colville

   6. View and endorse

      Design Thinking: Create Lasting Ideas and Better Brands

      

      ‘I’m a huge advocate of the idea that design is about problem solving more than about exercising one’s visual skills. Design Thinking is a topic that parallels some of the work of Edward DeBono who promotes thinking as an exercise you should practice to perfect. I don’t plan on just designing pretty things the rest of my life, I want to effect change, I want to solve real problems, and I think Design Thinking is addressing that. Plus I’m hoping Ian Coyle will sign my chest.’

      —Matthew Smith

   Other sugary treats:

   1. View and endorse

      Social Web Security: From Psychology to Programming

      Put Ed Finkler, Simon Willison, Alex Payne, and Chris Shiflett in a room together. It’s like a talent and experience super collider. Have them talk about where user experience and security overlap. It can’t be anything but interesting.

   2. View and endorse

      Travelog With Maps: When 1000 Photos Aren’t Enough

      Maps, pictures, and GPS. I’ve seen the little app that luminary developers, Andrei Zmievski, Helgi Þormar Þorbjörnsson, and Chris built for their trip to Iceland. It’s a wonder. Definitely worth a vote if you’ve ever wanted a better way to record your travels.

   3. View and endorse

      New Publishing and Web Content

      The future of publishing is a subject I find fascinating. I wrote a piece for OmniTI around it, and with Jeff Zeldman hosting a panel on the topic, there’s bound to be some erudite opinion.

   4. View and endorse

      Web Fonts: The Time Has Come

      When it comes to designers who know about publishing, you’d be hard-pressed to find anyone more knowledgeable than Roger Black. I’m curious who else might appear, but I’ll be there, regardless. Definitely worth your vote!

   For more hand-picked goodness, there’s Joe Leech’s south west picks, and to give the Brit contingent in general some love, see the 60 Brit panels in a handy list from Chinwag. For the designers reading this also see Ian Coyle’s panels for designers, or Samantha Warren’s top ten panels.

   Thanks to everyone who made ‘South-by’ such a blast last time, and here’s to seeing you there in 2010!

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