I’ve been retooling my personal portfolio site this past week. Any designer will tell you that portfolio sites are a cruel, unforgiving monster. Almost always, as soon as you finish all the work of concepting, coding, and design, you look back at the finish piece and feel disappointed. Because that site just isn’t you, and just can’t do a good enough job of representing you. And almost always, you’re too tired to care at this point – so that’s what goes online. And it haunts you every time someone asks for a link to your site, because in your heart you know if it’s not good enough for you then it certainly isn’t good enough to share with the rest of the world – and certainly not fit for sharing with potential employers who literally wear pants made out of money and would like to possibly give you some.
So designing a portfolio site is exhausting work. And I’m not going to share it until it’s done, which hopefully won’t be too terribly long from now. But I can share some ideas I have about it, and the crazy thoughts that have come along with it.
I want my new portfolio site to be an absolute celebration of dynamic content. I want the traditional elements of a portfolio to be there, the biography, the resume, all well presented. But I also want to make it fun and interesting. I want it prove that I’m intelligent and sort of well-rounded or at least not completely retarded outside the scope of my work. (Not that my portfolio would lead you to believe I’m some sort of creative savant, or anything.) And the way to do that today is twofold: First, you supply interesting content of your own – blogs, photographs, side projects, video, microposts, etc. And second, you show that you’re engaged with the rest of the world. You show other people’s content that you really like, because that will always say more about who you are and especially who you want to be and have the potential to be than what you’ve created to this point.
Plus, and maybe this is just me, I always think other people’s lives are more interesting than my own.
Obviously there’s a danger there in overwhelming your own work with that of other people, and I think it’s a concept that works for some portfolios better than others. Personally, I’m trying not to box myself to a design career, and I’m thinking a lot of about social media, viral marketing, and augmented reality. So I’m trying to show a little interdisciplinary flair here, and hopefully it’ll work out.
Okay, now here is where this post gets interesting.
Assume you want to own your online profile entirely. You want your site to be a portrait of authenticity, a portal to yourself. So you want your twitter, blog, flickr, last.fm, etc all lined up in a row so there’s no mistaking who Matthew is. This stuff is all cool, but pretty basic. Why not try something more unique, more interesting? Previously you’d need to dabble around in webapp API toolboxes and, man, I am just not ready for that level of development shenanigans. But it’s becoming increasingly easier to tether data from multiple applications together and produce unique (and extremely cool) applications of your own. Yahoo! Pipes, which I discovered today, has suddenly made this a lot easier.
So what’s to stop you from linking your latitude/longitude via iPhone gps to a flickr widget that will constantly display new images from your exact current location? Why wouldn’t you create a robot to trawl the internet to search for pictures of anorexic midget clown porn (that got your attention) to automate your new photoblog? Who is going to walk up to you and say, “No, Matthew, you cannot create a “The Path of Matthew” page that displays, historically, exactly where you have been for the past year as a moving icon on Google maps?
No one is going to stop you. The only thing stopping you is utility. How useful would these machinations be? We’re approaching a time where anyone with basic web design skills can assemble an app that does truly stunning things, and all you need is an imagination. So get in while the getting is good. Make something cool before someone else does it first, and then share the coolest things other people have done with the rest of the world. That’s how you make your portfolio something to be proud of.
CB: What does the bite in the apple represents? Is it a reference to a computing term byte? Is it a reference to the biblical event when Eve bit into the forbidden fruit? Is the fruit itself referencing the discovery of gravity by Newton when an apple fell on his head while sitting under the tree?
RJ: Well, I’m probably the least religious person, so Adam and Eve didn’t have anything to do with it. The bite of knowledge sounds fabulous, but that’s not it. And, there is a whole lot of other lure about it. Turing the famous supposed father of computer science who committed suicide in the early 50′s was british and was accused of being homosexual, which he was. He was facing a jail sentence so he committed suicide to avoid all that. So, I heard one of the legends being that the colored logo was an homage to him. People think I did the colored stripes because of the gay flag. And, that was something really thought for a long time. The other really cool part was that apparently he killed himself with a cyanide laced apple. And, then I found out Alan Turing’s favorite childhood story was Snow White where she falls asleep forever for eating a poisoned apple to be woken up by the handsome prince. Anyway, when I explain the real reason why I did the bite it’s kind of a let down. But I’ll tell you. I designed it with a bite for scale, so people get that it was an apple not a cherry. Also it was kind of iconic about taking a bite out of an apple. Something that everyone can experience. It goes across cultures. If anybody ever had an apple he probably bitten into it and that’s what you get. It was after I designed it, that my creative director told me: “Well you know, there is a computer term called byte”. And I was like: “You’re kidding!” So, it was like perfect, but it was coincidental that it was also a computer term. At the time I had to be told everything about basic computer terms.
It makes me so happy to know that even the designers of the most iconic logos still do some of their best work on accident. It’s fantastic that even when we don’t know why we do the things we do, there’s a part of our brain chugging along in secret, determined to make us look good. Each of us has a tiny think tank in our heads in a little cold war situation room with glow-in-the-dark paint all over the walls and a dozen crazy impulses battling to make the best of every situation. To know that you always have backup in your own head for any creative challenge: that’s reassuring.
Since I started thinking so much about augmented reality, I’ve got information design on the brain. Data visualization is a natural counterpart. Visual Complexity is a [four year old - sorry, i'm your grandpa, how do i work this thing] site that gathers impressively designed visualizations of complex information for your geeky delight. It’s produced by Manuel Lima, who went graduated from the program for Design + Technology at Parsons, in NYC.
(Evidently Helvetica just resolves well in all your standard-issue future interfaces) I’ll know more about it once I pick up some of theseinterestingbooks. In an equally cool-looking but perhaps slightly less useful display of info visualization, Random Walk has compiled images that attempt to interpret randomness in graphical form. Here, take a peek:
The project RANDOM WALK simulates randomness in visualizations, which are easy to understand. In this way, it delivers insight into a phenomenon, which has so far remained unexplained.
WHAT DOES RANDOMNESS LOOK LIKE?
RANDOM WALK asks this question and presents experiments in mathematics and physics, showing the mysterious interaction of chaos and order in randomness.
For extra Data Viz fun, check out this (also antique) Smashing Magazine article.
Well, any posting is better than no posting! So here’s an awesome link for today. I’ve seen a handful of amazing Augmented Reality (AR) videos online this week that are giving me serious reason to drop everything and pursue AR with my whole heart even though I’ve no idea where to start. Ever since I was a little kid, I’ve dreamed about having a heads-up display projected onto my glasses [and if you're being honest with yourself you know you've probably dreamed of it too]. So watching this video may make a little part of your brain squeal with glee:
I can’t tell if I’m more excited about the social or technological innovations Augmented Reality technology is going to inspire. It’s too easy to see marketing campaigns taking advantage of this in a GE Smart Grid / William Gibson Spook Country GPS Art installation way, city-wide promotions with special hidden symbols that reveal prize codes, et cetera. It’s also easy to see Starbucks and other brick and mortar retail stores unveiling their own apps that’ll tether personal purchasing habits, store accounts, estimated wait times, pastry availability data, et cetera together so you’ll know how far and how long till the next caffeine boost. That’s all obvious, if depressing, but that’s just the field I work in. I imagine the utilities for doctors and medical professionals will be stunning and much more useful, and you know the military has already been working on this technology for years for combat purposes.
But I’m interested in the visuals, for better or worse. And I’m curious if the extremely cluttered visual environments we’re used to navigating every day are going to begin to gradually simplify as more of the data marketers would have us absorb migrates into the ether. Or what the social consequences will be if the privileged elite are actually privy to a whole other world of interactive information, a common marker of class division made concrete through technology. You can talk about how the internet is already fulfilling such a role, and people do, but bringing it into the physical world is unquestionably – well, a little bit spooky.
If you’re interested in pursuing AR development (and you know Actionscript 3), you can check out this link for a Flash CS3 toolkit that should get you started. Of course, I’m no coder – but you might find it useful. Developed in conjunction with the Seattle, Washington based AR Toolworks. I’m still looking around for more information on AR development, educational programs, and just cool-ass videos. So if you find any, send them in! Besides Parson’s program in Design+Technology, which, basically, I’m already going to go to. It has been decided.
It’s about time for a new post… but I have nothing to write about. So instead I will feature this link to a bunch of awesome free fonts, since that is just the sort of person I am. And if you read this chances are you dig typography too, and like free things (everyone likes free things!)
Emphasis on ‘Professional’, there—these look good. This isn’t fontz4u.tv or whatever.
I may live in Midtown, but I’m gay for only two things: Quirky Slab Serifs and Hugh Jackman (even with the pants-peeing/vomiting stuff, but man was that ever a disappointment). But anyway Archer from H&FJ (Makers of Gotham, which, you know Gotham) is like $200-$400 for use on one computer. Romeral, however, is free. It’s only available in one weight, but I think I’m okay with that for now.
And there’s more to be seen on flickr with the tags ‘seattlelibrary‘ and ‘seattlecentrallibrary‘! It felt like I was walking around Mirror’s Edge, but thankfully I was able to restrain the urge to attempt some spontaneous parkour. I suspect this is the beginning of another level in my obsession with postmodern architecture, bright colors, and lowercase Futura bold.
Evidently there is quite a bit of controversy surrounding the building in architectural circles, or so wikipedia tells me. It’s pretty mind-blowing when you walk in, so maybe I wasn’t noticing things like usability as much as I should. Seattle P.I (R.I.P., LOL) Architectural Critic Lawrence Cheek reversed positions on the library in this insightful if not entirely persuasive retrospective piece:
This one feels, in varying places, raw, confusing, impersonal, uncomfortable, oppressive, theatrical and exhilarating. Ponder any spot in this vast building, and two, three or more of those adjectives inevitably swirl together. That’s the first indicator of trouble. If this building were fulfilling the showers of acclaim heaped onto it, all we’d be talking about is joy.
I could, and have, spent hours looking through this collection. Like many amazing things, it comes from the casual optimist. from the interview I excerpted earlier: an exchange that I thought was actually very insightful and changed my mind about e-books:
E-book detractors have of a strange idea of what most books are. Those beautiful dusty old encyclopedias, that rare first-edition of Ulysses, even your fancy new Vintage paperback? That is not most books. The Grisham and Grafton paperbacks at the airport, Chicken Soup for the Spirit, college textbooks — that’s most books. Does anyone really care if the next Janet Evanovich thriller has no corporeal form? Wouldn’t that be an improvement?
So I was going to make this random post about how awesome Baskerville is, but I wanted to illustrate its greatness. And its greatness is not in how great it looks on screen, but how it looks when printed. Unfortunately I don’t have any samples of that so I was going to just fake it in photoshop and it occured to me that I had no idea how to make type look like it was printed. Namely – that it had that slightly blurry look from dot gain, a slight gloss on the ink, maybe a bit of paper grain in the background and showing through under the type. I searched for a tutorial on this and couldn’t come up with anything, so I decided to figure it out.
STEP THE FIRST:
Set your type up in photoshop. Do your kerning thing. Alt+ arrow keys to get a nice snug fit between letters, or whatever your thing is.
