Design - Craig Jamieson

Web Designers in 2016

Its been a while since I actually got to code a website from scratch without some sort of CMS or other hosted solution. Web design simply is nothing like it was when I started out almost 2 decades ago. A lot of the major engineering is gone and for that matter, so is a lot of the design/styling. We really don’t do as much grunt work as we do, know what works. So I was thinking about what a web designer in todays online world looks like.

Nomadic

Working nomadically is nothing new to web designers, but it’s never been easier than now to work remotely. As co-working/co-living spaces become more available, with high end internet access availability, there really isn’t much holding web designers back from enjoying travel/vacation and work, a term we like to call a workation.

Basic skills

No web designer should have the right to call themselves that if they cannot at the very least understand how to write html and style with css, but I have a sneaky suspicion there are plenty of folks out there who simply know how to use the customisation panel within WordPress or their hosted online solution.

Knowing

There doesn’t seem to be any reason to have to code anything from scratch anymore, so the modern web designer really does have to know, rather than have to do. You could probably surpass more seasoned web developers by simply trying all the platforms out there and understanding their offerings than actually being able to develop anything.

Designing

Often we forget that despite being able to code, or not, there is the design, in web designer. There is very little need to design anything anymore, it’s more like a mix and match type of process. I don’t even see the point in doing a mockup design anymore, I think it’s easier to just jump straight in and add your logos, select fonts and colours and add your content.

Content is king

This old rule still stands true, even today, except it’s a whole lot easier to do now than at any other time before given how comfortable we all are taking photos of just about everything using little more than our phones and writing micro copy on the fly. Crafting words will always be an art thats hugely valuable, not even spelling is something we ned concern ourselves with, given the incredible tools available to us in editors.

Thinking

I haven’t been paid to do much for years, most of how I keep the lights on has to do with design thinking. How I see things has become far more valuable than how I (physically) do things. Knowledge, experience and approach mean a whole lot more to people than how neat my style sheet is.

Users vs taste

While every designer should have good taste, I guess it’s what separates us, it’s far more important to understand our users needs than to impose a design style. I still believe I’m an artist, my tools have just changed, my choices show my style, but my methodology and approach are the real art for delivering an experience people will love.

Innovation

You don’t have to be hugely innovative to be on the edge of web design, you simply have to know how to use the right offerings, but if you do want to innovate, then there are plenty of opportunities to join teams of designers building apps, templates and services that require that sort of thinking. But being a pioneer does not a web designer make, you can earn without being the inventor, rather you are more of a curator, so to speak.

The web is dead

If that was the case, then I see web people. Web designers are everywhere and I would think it’s one of the easiest things to get involved in, no matter what your experience. The learning curve is constant, you have to keep your skills sharp, whether it’s designing, coding or learning the latest online offerings. Being a web designer will always evolve, the web is not going anywhere. As long as there is a browser, web designers still exist and while I’m sure their is a decline in people accessing the internet by way of the browser due to apps, there is a growing internet access footprint as connectivity becomes more available.

In 2016, you don’t need to design or code to be a web designer, you just need to know how to solve problems for the web.

Fuck Lorem Ipsum

I remember early in my career, I struggled with one thing, content Not being formally trained, discovering Lorem ipsum was a useful place holder. Looking back, I can see why my I ended up designing and then redesigning layouts, as content trickled in and I never really profited the way I should have when working on projects. But I’d like to think I’m smarter now, but still I am faced with working on projects where the content is not considered up front and the expectation is that I will just use latin. Well fuck your Lorem ipsum, I design right, I design with content. The content will absolutely influence my design decisions, so there is really no point in designing without the correct content, in fact I’d say design is content, laid out. Now I love me some Samual L Ipsum as much as the next motherfucker, but it’s wrong, so stop it and tell the next person who suggests using Lorem ipsum where to get off.

Nobody Tells This To Beginners

We all had to start somewhere, and we all find ourselves wanting to give up because we are just not getting the results we want, the work we do isn’t as good as our ambitions, but we have to pay our dues and never give up.

‘Nobody Tells This To Beginners’ is an inspiring animation for creatives who are just starting out in the various innovative fields.

Created by 18-year-old Saar Oz, the motivational video is based on an interview with radio personality Ira Glass.

[youtube id=”E1oZhEIrer4″]

via Design Taxi

Freelancing Creative Director Failure

My career has never been the norm, not by any standards. I did not get a matric, I dropped out of college, I was self-educated in design, computers, development etc and instead of joining an agency, I started freelancing from day one. But eventually I joined an agency and was quickly hired as a Creative Director and did a descent job of leading the digital charge within the Ad industry. But it was never smooth sailing and I have had to resort to freelancing again, with very little success. Now if I had the answers, I would at least have a fighting chance of understanding why after 10 years of successfully freelancing, I was suddenly unable to. So I have a whole lot of assumptions as to why, freelancing as a Creative Director is doomed to fail.

Before I start explaining, I want to apologies for the mixed use of CD and Creative Director, I simply felt it made sense to use one or the other as I typed it. It’s how I roll … deal with it.

Networking

Any good freelancer will tell you that one of the must have things you need to go it alone, is a pretty strong network. Well I have been a CD is some of the most respected agencies in the country, if not the world. I have successfully worked on many campaigns for multiple brands and formed relationships not only with my colleagues, but the clients too. I don;t mind saying I contacted everyone I felt comfortable enough to reach out to, but with very few people able to offer much more than encouragement. Which leads me to wonder, why that is.

Expensive

My first thought is that people may think I’m an asshole, it’s possible, but I can’t control what people think of me and I try not let that get me down, besides that would make a lot of people pretty two-faced, cause I generally feel pretty liked. So my next thought has to be that people assume I am too expensive. Truth is, I probably am too expensive. While I would not dare charge the rates an agency does, I do believe given my experience, I am worth a descent wage. Even if I wanted to work for less, I’d also have to be responsible and charge the type of money, I am used to earning, or what am I doing this for. I can;t exactly be a homeless CD, it just doesn’t work like that. Any CD would understand what I’m saying, firstly we don’t earn as much money as people think, we gave up getting rich a long time ago when we chose creativity as the main focus of our career, by joining the creative leadership team at an agency. It was a very conscious decision. The hope being that maybe one day we might be promoted into a higher earning position, get profit share or some day get our name on the door. The industry is pretty good at coming up with reasons not to give you the annual 5 – 8% increase agency folk might get, there is no pay for overtime and a world cup period where festive bonus cheques comes once in a lifetime, at least it did for me. But still, I believe I charge a fair rate, so much so that the number I had in my head is actually less than I earned, before I joined an agency.

Skills

You’re the big cheese, you direct creative, so your skills are probably a little rusty. Now I’ll explain this in detail next, but to be clear, you cannot freelance as a creative director, you are a creative director freelancing in digital. So it means you have to do the work, the teams you used to manage did. You have to design, develop, art direct, write and so on. And truth be told, there’s a lot of CD’s I know who were never very good at doing any of those things before taking on the CD role, they were good at brown-nosing the man who hired them over Friday drinks. But that’s not me, as I said, I successfully freelanced for a decade prior to becoming a CD, and given that I was self-taught, I made it a habit to constantly keep learning, so despite being a CD by day, I used to study at night. I admit my confidence in this area, was not as high as I would like, but that’s only due to the high standards I aspire to for myself. I was always a believer, that I need to know as much as anyone I manage, so I can make informed decisions. I am also quite a geek, and wanted to stay up to date and engage with colleagues in my industry who were doing big things, away from managing talent within agencies.

Director

The creative part of what I do, combined with the skills I have, means I’m pretty much covered. It’s the director part that I debate, even if it’s only with myself. Good CD’s lead by doing, they have the respect of their teams cause they lead from the front, but another important thing is relationships of mutual respect. If you think it’s easy to walk into an agency and actually freelance as a CD, let me tell you, it’s tough work. Creatives in agencies have mis-guided egos, so trust me, being told to lead a team is challenging. A CD is supposed to direct creatives, and depending on the agency, be responsible for not just the teams, but the direction creativity goes within the agency, but if you’re only a temporary resource, it’s not likely you will factor into the operational or drive the vision. It has been my experience that other than being a contractor, you are rarely ever asked the CD at an agency. Often I have been asked to help with campaigns etc, but I tend to fill the role of an art director or designer. Positions on a freelance level that are not a whole lot of fun for someone who has been leading creative teams for the better part of 7 years.

Conclusion

Freelancing is supposed to be about working for yourself, choosing when, how and what you work on. Waking up late, going to bed later. Sure there’s a bunch of challenges associated with that, but for a long time I did it, producing some amazing work, that spans a client base and a network across the globe. But then things were simpler, I had no education, so I earned enough money to pay the few bills I had, but it provided me the opportunity to free up my time to learn more, usually by playing. However now, as I furiously head towards my 40’s and I’m responsible for more than just myself, but now a 6-year-old kid and some poor financial decisions, I can no longer earn what I need to be a freelancer, yet alone a freelance Creative Director. I don’t know that I have explored this in it’s entirety, so perhaps there will be a follow up post and it might only be a play on words or my own understanding of responsibility, but you might be an art director, a designer or even a contracting creative director, but you will never be a freelancing Creative Director, it simply makes no sense and you are setting yourself up to fail.

Available for hire

I have recently joined the team at Treeshake, educating people on different digital design topics, something I consider a privilege and really rewarding. In my enthusiasm I posted an update to my LinkedIn profile and have had plenty of people congratulate me on my new position, thank you. However, I only teach part-time. I am still looking for a full-time employment or freelance projects, which ever comes my way. I’m writing this post to hopefully clarify for people. If you have an opportunity, please get in touch, I’m available for hire.

2015 Web Design Trends

I recently taught a web design fundamentals course and at the end I shared some of the most common web design trends I have noticed during 2015. I have not and will not attempt to predict what will come, but there is certainly two obvious directions we seem to be going into. Firstly there’s the rich multimedia experiences, that care less about download speeds, but offer visitors something entertaining, something like Flash websites used to do, before Steve pulled the plug. I have a huge amount of respect for the efforts these teams have gone to, given how difficult this is to do with todays technology. The second trend is just he opposite, super simple sites that focus more on content, speed and minimalism. I recently ~~re-designed~~ re-aligned my personal site and unconsciously added a few trends without even realising it. I simply had no consistent images I wanted to use, so I decided the use of colour, large fonts and minimalism would suit me better. Hope you like my list.

Hidden Main Menus

With only a hamburger menu on the right hand side, the navigation is hidden, only on selection to reveal a full screen navigation that is hard to ignore. I’m sure there are other’s who may have done this before, but I first noticed that Teehan + Lax were early adopters of this technique.

Make it Big

Large full screen backgrounds are nothing new, but large fullscreen videos that seem to load relatively fast, are just epic.

Multimedia Experiences

The team at ultranoir have crafted an amazing online experience, the likes of which I have not seen since Flash ruled the rich media experience online.TimeSifht165 is a Digital & Interactive Fan Artwork inspired by the exceptional story of a unique French car : The Delahaye 165s and the amazing thing, is you can drive the car with your desktop keyboard or through your phone.

Patterns

I’ve started spotting patterns everywhere as a way of breaking the large device focussed stereotype layouts that were all of the web over the past couple of years. They re not only gorgeous, fill the screen, but they can be interactive. The light vector graphics also help with speed, but still offer a richer visual appearance.

Typography Microsites

It’s interesting to see a font get an entire site dedicated to it. Font microsites are popping up everywhere and none as slick as the FS Millbank microsite, which is gorgeous on any device.

Flat Design

Flat design is everywhere and with SVG being the preferred image format, I doubt flat design is going anyway any time soon. Love it or hate it, it makes sense in our multi device world where speed and vectors are king.

No more Boxes

It’s fantastic to see html sites breaking out of their grid like structures and telling stories in new ways. Again similar to how Flash sites were built, this is another tribute to the interactive era of the past, or maybe the beginning of an exciting future.

Simplicity

Simple, clean, content focussed sites that purely drive the message home make sense when we consider how despite faster internet bundles, the internet just seems to be getting slower.

No header background

Almost every template you find these days has the same large image background, and while we love the large format video experience, sometimes it’s simply lovely not having a large image in the background. Another great example of simplicity.

Very Large Typography

Someone commented during my course that this site reminds them of the mad men era ads, where there was a huge focus on copy driving the campaign message home. With the use of web fonts, we can pretty much use any BOLD font we like and do something beautiful with words and type.

Speed & Performance

I love how Google have stated that performance is a feature. Speed is super critical to users, UX people cannot stress enough the importance their research has identified speed as one of the most important things to users. But it’s more than that, with pages filled with all sorts of animation and other functionality, how fast these services perform is equally as important. People want a fast, smooth experience and taking into consideration speed and performance will ensure your site is a hit, not only with users, but with search engines too, who now rank you on both speed and performance. I think this will be the biggest trend going forward and as you might have noticed with the minimal websites above, simple is influenced by speed.

Professional websites on a small budget

After building sites for over a decade I still get requests to build sites for R5k (under $500) and given that the very first website I ever built cost the same amount all those years ago, I try not take offence, I try to be understanding and encourage people to find other ways of getting their site built on the cheap. So I thought I’d share how I would build a website if I was on a shoe-string budget and still wanted a professional looking presence online, with all the bells and whistles.

You could hire a student, a family member or friend who moonlights on the side or you could simply, do it yourself. Now there are probably a couple of things that immediately ran through your mind when you read that.

I know nothing about web design.

I think you know more than you think. You probably spend more time online these days than you do watching TV. You also don;t have to know much, you just need to follow instructions, I think it’s probably simpler than following a guide on how to build something in Lego. Read on and you might just know enough to get something launched online.

I’m not creative.

You don’t have to be. There are what we call design patterns which are the most common principles for layout, colour, texts etc. Professional web designers build sites around what you, commonly referred to as the ‘user’ does online, so most of thinking is already done. Good online sources will have already thought of this, so it becomes more about taste and function that any talent. The creative part is preparing your content, preparing graphics, which you could even get a descent designer to do and then picking a template.

I don’t know how to code.

You don’t have to. Once you have chosen your template, the functionality is usually included and it’s just about selecting what you want, no coding required. The hard work has been done by a development team.

I don’t have the time.

If you can’t spare a few hours, then you must save up and hire somebody, otherwise this is an excuse because you can get a site up and running in no time at all.

Ok I make it sound easy, and it really is. You can google free website builders or not waste your time and simply use Squarespace. They have packages that start at $8 a month. Thats under R80 a month and includes hosting. I sell hosting to my personal clients for more than that. A domain locally costs just over R100 a year or you can get a more international domain through Squarespace for a few dollars a year. You will have a site that is beautifully designed and functional website, no matter your taste or requirements, hosted with your domain name for give or take R1k. If you have a R5k budget, that will last you a few years, and you can even refresh the design as often as you’re willing to take the time to change the template.

I’m not here to pitch you on Squarespace, I’m not affiliated with them and their site will do a better job convincing you than I ever could. But I have presented you with an option, call it a hack that will really just take a little investment in time. There are many alternative things you could do, but this is what I would do to have a professional website on a small budget.

UPDATE – 23 July 2015

Squarespace has just released a new, free online class on Skillshare called Creating a Website to Build Your Online Brand. In just one hour, instructor George Denison walks you through creating and maintaining an online presence that’s beautiful and helps you achieve your business goals.

Enroll for free and go make something you love!

Learn to study

One of the most common questions I get asked over the years is how to stay skilled up as a designer. Well it’s rather simple, I keep studying. Now everything we do is a learning curve, and that almost seems natural as a designer, but learning also comes from studying. I have no formal education, I have a masters in nothing. But I have committed a lot of my spare time, to learning through studying online courses.

I try and study something new just about every day. Sometimes it’s just reading articles online, sometimes it’s trying a technique or an idea I have had, but mostly I use a couple of really good online resources.Some of my favorite resources to study are

Treehouse, for a wide selection of design, development and other soft skill courses
Udemy, for specific application and skill courses
Skillshare, which is good for just about anything, someone who was brave enough to teach, was willing to share.

Granted this doesn’t give me any sort of certification, but in an industry where it’s probably better to do good work than have any certification, studying daily, is a pretty good thing to do. If you’ve read my blog thoroughly over the years, you’ll know I also read, a lot, so I will be sure to share a few of my latest finds real soon.

The tip here is to become disciplined in your approach to staying skilled up within our industry. It doesn’t matter that as a Creative Director I might not use most of these skills, it just challenges me to think differently and fills me with knowledge about things I might have to give direction on.

Another thing is to at least learn something, be it a chapter, a full discipline or just a workshop, try and study something every day.

One last thing is to learn new things, stuff that makes you uncomfortable, challenges you and is something you never even considered you could do.

I am genuinely interested in design, in all it’s forms, it’s as much a hobby to me as it is my career, and seriously no one has ever really had to hold a gun to my head to get me to learn more. I think due to my lack in formal education in my youth, I have learned to love studying.

Productivity & being chained to your desk

I spend a lot of time thinking about the in-efficiency, of what feels like, being chained to my desk in order to show how productive I am. I’m not only speaking for myself, this is an observation I have made for a really long time, at many agencies I’ve worked at.

Working in a open plan office already bothers me, I’m introverted and while I’m comfortable socialising in small groups, working in a communal space makes me terribly uncomfortable. I prefer having a space to work in private, I simply get more done. But that isn’t the issue I have with working in agencies, it’s the perception that by being at your desk, staring at a computer screen all day equals productivity.

I have to problem solve, whether it’s strategically finding an approach to a business problem or coming up with a new look for a brand, it requires me to think. I think all the time, in almost any space. I find open office spaces more distracting than coffee shops. So I prefer to be out. But I think in the shower, while pushing weights and most especially, while taking long walks. While I don’t always have a pen and paper near I do jot down ideas on my phone, which is pretty much always near me.

The unfortunate thing is that most 9 – 5 companies don’t seem to allow you to be in the right place to think, their expectation is that you should be at your desk or a space within the agency. I’m not really sure what thats about. I get we need to work with colleagues, as a leader we need to be available to staff we manage, for meetings etc, but hey, if it’s scheduled, I will be there. Otherwise, I’d prefer to be free to think and work at my leisure. If I need to work with colleagues, do I need to go in the office, hell no. Why can’t we go brainstorm in a museum ,at suitable coffee shop or over lunch?

As a creative in this industry, we have few rights, we are not paid overtime and the expectation is that we will drop everything for our jobs. The least agencies can do, is allow us to work at convenient times and places of our choosing. By choosing when we work, we can avoid traffic that wastes a lot of time and causes unnecessary frustration. I’m sure I can think of a whole lot of reasons the company can benefit, but thats a post for another day. So for now, what might I propose as a suitable arrangement?

hhhmmmmm, let me take a stab at this …

I don’t like my inbox controlling me, so I’d welcome the opportunity to check my email as few times a day as possible. Starting with a quick check in the morning to make sure there is nothing urgent, no crisis that is unavoidable. I would then make a to-do list and make sure I am aware of any meetings I might for the day. It would help if the rest of your team agreed to schedule meetings, say between certain hours every day. I’m drinking coffee, eating breakfast, reading email … thats work, so it should be done during normal hours, not before the sun comes up, but say 8am at home.
I’d like to avoid the crowds at the gym, so after 9am hit the weights, do some cardio and do some research while I drink my protein shake. All while thinking about the problem I wish to solve. Who doesn’t have some pretty great ideas while they’re in the shower, so while freshening up, I’d bet the best ideas are brewing.
Ok a light lunch with the team at a local restaurant to run through ideas, debate the merits of each and give some direction for each team member to action.
Back at the office for a new briefing, coffee with one of the team to discuss a promotion and an internal review with one of the designers and then off to a client meeting. This is all perfectly normal work for a Creative Director.
Ok time for an afternoon snack and a coffee, while going through new email before heading for a walk along the promenade, thinking about the new brief or how to solve other challenges yet unresolved. A quick meditation and it’s off to discuss some ideas with your boss over some sushi.
With a firm understanding of your seniors direction, it’s time to sit down and push around some pixels. So back to your apartment where you can spend some time with your partner, kids or dog before firing up photoshop and giving a design a good sprint.
A healthy amount of time switching off, unwinding so to speak before you hit bed, just remembering to put your notepad next to bed, incase you have any further ideas that pop up before you go to sleep.

To me, that sounds like a perfectly productive day, and I didn’t have to sit in that open plan factory desk like setup the whole day and I am getting the job done. Productivity should be measured by results, not the accumulated time you are perceived to be busy working. Ask yourself, whats your take on the perfect day being productive, without being chained to your desk?

Non-responsive web design

I’m sure you have all heard the buzz words, responsive web design (RWD), adaptive or responsive sites. But incase you have been living on the moon.

Responsive web design is fluid grids, flexible images, and media queries. It was first defined in an article and a book by Ethan Marcotte.

To me, this term is already old school. If anything we should be talking about, non-responsive web design … websites that have not adopted RWD principles. To me simply, sites are responsive. We are so past the desktop browser being the only way to view a website. So please, if you haven’t already, do your people a favour and make sure you don’t have a non-responsive web design.