So, this week I began writing my first application with Cocoa in Objective C. To say the least, it was an experience.

I began first by checking out Apple’s Reference Library and Cocoa tutorials, found here, which gave me a decent understanding of how Objective-C in particular works and gave me a real preview of XCode. Truth be told, however, I’ve already learned a fairly decent amount of programing (having have started learning C at some point around 2005). So, to be fair, this tutorial is not for beginners; if you lack this amount of experience, however, This PDF tutorial (PDF linked) will get you started – it’s one I’m currently browsing, mostly because, while I have programming experience, I’m honestly no expert. Read more »

Turn on your favorite song and listen to it for a few minutes. What do you notice about it? Do you feel carried away on a journey through the ups and downs of the song? Ever wonder how songwriters do that?

Let’s take a step away from music now. Go to your favorite design and look at it. Is your eye pulled to particular areas on the page? Do you feel drawn more to one area or another? How is it accomplished? Perhaps through the use of arrows, curves, or other design elements.

This is flow. Ya’ve either got it or ya don’t! This is how we’re going to make a design really sing.
Read more »

I’m at home now. Well, not “home” home, but with family. I suppose after moving to Sacramento, I found myself making a new “home” home for myself.

It feels strangely, mostly because it feels as though I never left in the first place. I suppose that’s what “home” should feel like – a place you return to that feels familiar. Home base, home page, whatever – the word “home” I suppose has become synonymous with familiarity. Read more »

There, I said it. Web designer’s aren’t Superman.

WANTED: Graphic designer who can make beautiful graphics, code front-end designs, knows PHP, can make coffee..

Graphic design and front-end design ends at design. As it is, it takes four years to get a degree in this field, and back-end and front-end development use two completely different areas of the brain. This is why it irritates me so much when people post advertisements wanting a person who can do anything; there is a very limited amount of people who can both code and design, and I am lucky to be one of those few..

The man who does your front end can’t necessarily do your backend (pun intended)

The theories and psychology behind design are actually quite fascinating and take years to develop. It takes a certain kind of thinking to be able to do front-end design and nail these theories. Remember in grade school when they had you do those “mind maps” that were supposed to determine whether you were a mathematical thinker or if you were more of an artist? Designers, typically, fall into the realms of “artist” rather than the more logical “mathematical” types. There are maybe a handful of designers who can do both, but these are few and far between.

When hiring, please educate yourself.

So many people think that a developer and a designer are inter-changeable. Unfortunately, most times they are not. Most of the developers I know haven’t got a clue about how to do an aesthetically pleasing design that will deliver the message it needs to, and I know many designers who don’t have the capacity or time to go and learn the finer things of development, such as PHP or MySQL.

So as a final word…

Stop trying to hire both! Get one, and then another.

The essential energy of a design is created through the spacing. Spacing is not only important for defining elements and setting them apart, but also for creating the overall tone and energy of a piece; unequal spacing catches the eye, and adds the general flare to a design. With this in mind, it is essential that even the most novice designer learn the importance behind placement in a design, and through practice, develop an understanding that placement cannot just simply happen, just like good design doesn’t simply happen. Through nature and experimentation, the novice can best learn to use the placement and division of a piece in order to convey a proper message, and understand how it is used in the media around them. Read more »