Rocket Ride

I consider myself a Simplified Musicologist. By that, I mean that I’m kind of a student of music having been a musician and having had a short stint in the music business but I’m not an expert by any means.

Not long ago, I theorized that most artists who have made a strong impact in their respective genres (for example, artists that make it into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame) are usually influenced by artists who obviously had impact but managed to stay on the down-low. Simply put: the underground tends to influence the mainstream. I say that because often times those artists who make that strong impact actually bring a fresh sound or style to the market and they were clearly influenced by something or someone.

The same holds true in the world of design….web, video, print…whatever. We, as designers, are often subject…and I think privileged at times, to seeing the next hot thing long before it becomes mainstream. Of course, by the time any specific style hits the mainstream, we designers are usually sick of seeing it anyway, not to mention, we’re working on the next hot thing. We’re like parents teaching our kids to ice skate and then proudly watching them take Olympic gold in Hockey.

I’m reminded of a quote by Alan Kay, “The best way to predict the future is to invent it.”

We’re designers…unsung heroes inventing the future. No mainstream credit..but proud to watch our kids grow.

I recently went on an interview for an opening I actually thought I was a good fit for. I was wrong and deep down I knew that. I realized that I had nothing in my portfolio or examples to show which indicated that I had such a skill set and I was politely told that they didn’t see me as a good match.

The fact is, I learned that I was rusty in design. I didn’t have anything to show for design work..nothing current (bad, bad mistake) and even though my career path moved me into development, I still could have been comping out web site ideas or just visual elements even if I might not use them and as a result, I got rusty in design.

So what does one do when they get rusty like this? You get back to basics and you get back to designing. It’s not easy…you’re rusty, after all. But it is like riding a bike

My suggestion is to just design whatever. Buttons, interfaces, web sites, eyecandy, whatever. There’s no harm and it’s not like you’re wasting time or money in doing so. In the end, even if you design something new every day and half of it is crap, there’s still that 50% that probably isn’t. Portfolio work, friends.

Another idea is to look up some of those web sites you thought were just dag-nasty and redesign them. You know the ones I’m talking about: the local coffee shop or day spa site that looks like it’s straight out of 1999 or your worst Flash nightmare. Take that site and redesign it.

Consider pro-bono work. Not a ton, mind you..but some. Of course, freelance when you can…the benefits of freelancing will only help you grow, not only from a technical aspect, but from a business aspect as well. There’s something great in knowing that you can comp out a web site with 5 pages, basic navigation and dummy content over the course of X hours.

Of course the best thing you can do is to just avoid getting rusty, period. Apply the a fore mentioned ideas to your current situation and go with it. Yes, you may create some real garbage and you may feel, upon occasion, that you’re just designing for the sake of designing. But you’re not. You are designing with a purpose..the purpose is to stay fresh, grown and keep your portfolio up to date.

Get out there and design, people.

..it’s time to get to experimenting with Augmented Reality. In my case, “experimenting” means learning.

I got jazzed up about the AR business card last summer and started pondering on the other possibilities of AR…some of which I wish not to disclose though it’s not likely that they haven’t been done already, but these days, you never know.

So, I will be reporting back on what I find.