The dreaded W3C standards; This is a topic I’ve been meaning to write about for a while now. With the official launch of Hotcakes New Media, it’s an issue that is once again at the forefront of my decision making process. What the hell is W3C? Why does it matter? And why does it annoy me so much? Read on.
Keep reading the rest of this article…

I promised you all something big, so here it is! I invite you to visit Hotcakes New Media, my new video production and design company. There is still a bit of organization left to do before I start taking contracts (getting a business bank account, setting up accounting, and awaiting delivery of my new lighting and chromakey kits) but everything is registered and well underway.

Today marks the official launch of Hotcakes New Media.

A7

We recently had our very first official site visit for our new house. We were delighted to find out that construction was well ahead of schedule, and progressed much quicker than we had anticipated. As you can see from the pictures, the house is pretty well built already. All cabling, HVAC, rough-ins, framing, walls, roof, windows and doors are completed already. They even have most of the drywalling done. Very impressive! Looks like all is on schedule for a December 8th closing as expected.

It was interesting to see the house so bare without any of our design decisions in place yet. But you might be wondering what design decisions we made? Well here’s the list of upgrades and colour choices we made.
Keep reading the rest of this article…

After much deliberation, soul searching, suggestions (thanks to all who participated!) and great recommendations, I have made my decision. For the record, I was leaning towards version 3 (the blue one) and version 4 (the lighter blue and purple one) of my previous designs. At the recommendation of some tattoo artists I spoke to about my design, I’ve combined my two choices to create the look I was hoping for.
Keep reading the rest of this article…

I’ve finished designing my new tattoo, but I’m calling out for your help! I can’t seem to decide on a colour scheme. I have a base set of colours in mind that go with the flow of the tattoo and the aura I’m trying to project from it, but can’t decide on a specific design.

Want to help?

Keep reading the rest of this article…

OMG!!! A new post!!!

I know, it has been a while since I’ve posted. It’s hard to find the time to post when I don’t have a place to call “my own” and I’m constantly bouncing from one place to the next. Combine that with work, travelling, new tattoo designs (more on that in a bit), video art planning (more on that in a future post), house planning, and other random things, and it leaves me with no time left to write a decent article. In fact, I should be working right now, so let’s get right down to it shall we? The topic of today’s post? Tattoo designs I’m working on, and why I enjoy designing tattoo art.
Keep reading the rest of this article…

I’ve created a new category on the site in order to post about Interaction Design (IxD) and other general design (DES) topics. Posts in this section will cover my personal ideas around creative thinking, user experience, accessibility, brainstorming/bodystorming, prototyping, and all other elements of design.
Keep reading the rest of this article…

This week I’m giving you a double dose of geek goodness. Instead of writing one longer article, I’ve decided to write two smaller articles. I’m doing this because I wanted to write part 2 of the Hackintosh post, but there just isn’t enough information to fill a full article. Be sure to check out the Hackintosh article here. But for now, let’s talk about Microsoft.

You all know I’m an Apple fanboy. Well, that’s not entirely true… I’m a fan of great design; Apple just happens to get it right 99% of the time. As an Interaction Designer, I place a high value on design and the user experience. It’s why I own a Dyson. It’s why I like Affliction Clothing. It’s the reason I use a Mac. It’s why I love my iPhone so much. But recently, I even shocked myself: It’s why I like Microsoft Office 2008 for Mac.
Keep reading the rest of this article…

You may be wondering why this is posted in the Art News section. I debated this with myself for a while, but in the end, this news is in fact art related.

As many of you know, I make a very clear separation when it comes to art and design. I strongly believe art is created by the artist, based on the artist’s concept with no outside influences or pressure, and fully developed with no financial gain as motivation. Design on the other hand, as artistic as it may be, is always created with another person’s motivation and objective in mind, often, but not exclusively for, financial gain. So why is this post Art News?
Keep reading the rest of this article…

In case you are one of the unlucky few who didn’t get to see me in Ottawa, or you are one of my far-away-friends, I thought I’d share a bit of news on my contract with Artez and how that’s going.

I’m not sure if I mentioned this before, but my 1 month contract was yet again extended for another 3 months, until the end of April. Originally, I was asked to continue working a dual-role as IT admin (to help with generic IT requests like installing software and setting up servers) and E2 Support (supporting Artez’s main application called E2RM). Although I made it clear on a number of occasions that I did not want to continue doing IT and Support, I decided to continue the 3 month extension to help chip away at more debt, in the hopes that they would transition me into another role. Well, they unofficially transitioned me into another role.

I recently attended some quick training sessions on customizing the E2RM application with custom designs and templates for some of Artez’s bigger clients. As it turns out, a couple of days later both of their current designers decided to go on vacation for several weeks at the same time, leaving people scrambling to get some design work done in a hurry. That’s where I came in to save the day.

For the past week I’ve been working with an Australian charity to design a fancy template, graphics, and plug-ins for their custom designed site. The bad news is they had insanely tight deadlines, and working with Australia means I’m always one day late (they are a day ahead of us!). Due to the time difference, I’ve been working really weird hours. I even pulled a 16 hour day this week. Yikes! That would explain why I’m a little brain-dead this week. The good news is I haven’t felt this comfortable in a job in… well… ever. I really enjoy what I am doing, and I am having a blast creating great looking designs and tools for major sites. It’s very rewarding and everyone seems to love my work (despite it being only a fraction of what I can do… just wait until they give me more to work with…).

I wrapped up the main site design today, and just found out that they are so pleased that they’ve asked me to work on their main portal landing page as well, which will include a clickable map of Australia to select the charity events across the country. I’m booked until the end of next week with more design work, and I’m hoping it continues indefinitely!

So… while it may not be officially official yet, it looks like I’ll be doing web design and coding from now on. If I continue to impress them with my design, I’m sure I’ll have another contract extension, or better yet a permanent position, at the end of April. Wish me luck!

P.S. In case you didn’t read between the lines, doing design work affords me the option to work from home, which means I can work from Ottawa. And yes, we have contacted people about homes and mortgages already. More on that as we get further info in a few days.

A7