Not knowing where to start is the biggest barrier facing anyone building a website for the first time. To help ease that problem, I’m going to talk about my workflow, favorite tools, techniques, and general time-saving best practices.
CouchSurfing – Story of the Couch
When CouchSurfing decided to run a video contest to promote the service, I jumped at the opportunity to win round-the-world airline tickets. I thought I’d try my hand at promoting the spirit of CouchSurfing with a short video.
Master Web Typography
Digital Arts Magazine is the UK’s leading resource for creative professionals, both in print and online. I shared some thoughts on web typography for an article in the November 2012 issue titled “Master Web Typography.”
Mahalo, Minneapolis
This fall, I’m taking a few months off from design to go on an adventure. I’m going to be working as a farmer and part-time beekeeper deep inside the rainforest on Hawaii’s Big Island and I couldn’t be more excited.
10 Amazing Resources Every Designer Should Know About
As a designer, it’s really important to collect a library of resources and inspiration. Great design doesn’t happen in a vacuum. Although the web is packed with resources for designers, many aren’t very high quality. This is a collection of 10 of my go-to design resources. Everything from inspiration blogs, to symbols libraries, to info about design salaries. The best part – most of these sites are completely free.
Building my First MVC Web Application
After over a year of design and development, I launched my first web application this week. Lemonaid helps students start a business, nonprofit, band, or club and handpick the perfect team members. Building Lemonaid was no small undertaking. Having never built a full web app before, I spent a ton of time researching best practices, making mistakes, rewriting thousands of lines of code, patching security holes, and rethinking the UI. This post is about the mistakes I made along the way and what I learned from them. If you ever try building a web app yourself, take note.
How to Create an Amazing Design Portfolio
Now that creating an online design portfolio has been streamlined by services such as Cargo Collective, print portfolios are becoming somewhat of a lost art. Although setting up an online portfolio is much more important and relevant these days, there is still something nice about the tactile look and feel of ink on paper. Follow these eight tips to create an amazing design portfolio – print or interactive.
Things I’ve Learned
I had the honor of receiving the AIGA MN scholarship this past weekend at Portfolio 1-on-1. It was because of this essay and my portfolio of work that I was chosen. Huge thanks goes to AIGA MN, all the members, judges, and others who have been amazing mentors along the way.
Human Scrabble
If you’re looking for an awesome theme for your next event, the Scrabble theme is yours for the taking. Keep score, play for fun, try to spell the longest word ever, or just search for fellow consonants. Human Scrabble is an entirely new breed of party theme that guarantees a fun and memorable night. Get your pieces here for a limited time only.
Death Cab For Cutie
Death Cab for Cutie has been one of my favorite bands for a long time. Ben Gibbard writes some really beautiful lyrics. His words have the ability to adapt and take on new meaning depending on the context in which they are listened to. It’s magical, really. I thought it would be fun to make the words have as much visual impact as they do aural. This is a visual collection of some of my favorite Death Cab lyrics.