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Web Design Culture (Archive)

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  • When we think of world changers through history, our minds instinctively turn to primary causes. Stories of Hitlers, Alexanders, and Napoleans intrigue us and shape our understanding of why things are the way they are. In most cases, though, it's secondary causes that are most necessary to the outcome of history. Philosophers, inventors, writers, and martyrs; these are the figures, without which our world would would be a very different place. These silent shapers converge and collide, many times unwittingly, to channel and shape the events and leaders of the future. I realize that pegging "web worker" as the most important job of the 21st century is quite a claim, but many signs point to the web worker as the secondary cause of the next generation's cultural atmosphere. Not only that, the web worker may be the most unexpected and unacknowledged secondary cause of change the world has ever known.

  • After designing for the web for over eight years, I've come to the conclusion that web design is truly a strange and unique art form. There's no other creative craft that quite compares to the temporary nature of it. You might try to compare it to ice sculpting, or sidewalk chalk drawing, or sandcastle building. And though these art forms are temporary (even more temporary than web design), the way in which they deteriorate is completely different. The ice sculpture slowly melts, the chalk is smudged and smeared, and the sandcastle is washed away, but not a web design. A website is not eroded into its primary natural elements. It can be no symbolic offering to natural law. In fact, the opposite is true: the ones and zeros that make up digital design hold faster and firmer that the hardest marble on the statues of Greece and Rome. Paradoxically, there is hardly a website alive today that looks anything like it did ten years ago.

  • I decided to round out the Mirificam Press interview series with something a little different. Wesley C. Griffin is an accomplished architect working in the Austin, Texas area and he also happens to be my father. I think you'll find his insight as a designer in an ancient vocation and as a mature Christian to be unique and refined. You can see some of the projects Wes has worked on in the past at GriffinJacobson.com. I consider it a great honor to feature my father here and I want to thank him for taking the time not only to answers these questions but countless other questions throughout my life. I may a little biased but, great answers.

  • Nate Ernst is a web designer/writer out of Charlotte, North Carolina. He is the owner of Varloo Design and right out of the gate he has an impressive portfolio of sites and clients. But the unique flavor that Nate brings to the Mirificam Press interview series comes from his dual interest in design and writing. Nate has recently returned to school for a degree in English from the University of North Carolina. It's an honor to have Nate here on Mirificam Press, a fellow designer and friend.

  • M. Joshua Cauller is a designer working out of York, Pennsylvania. In 2003 he earned an associates degree in digital art from the Art Institute of York. He has worked in Television and video production as well as web design. Right now he is the Art Director for the Barry Group where he oversees web design and video production. Take a look at his personal portfolio site for a showcase of projects he's worked on in the past. M. Joshua is involved in Dove Community Cell Church where he serves as a cell group leader. He has also served for the past three years as the director's assistant for Dove's Church Planting and Leadership School. M. Joshua has become a great asset to Mirificam Press in the last year, participating in conversation and adding great insight. It's a privilege to have him as a friend and I thank him for taking the time to answer these questions.

  • It is an exceptional honor to have Molly E. Holzschlag here on Mirificam Press. Molly is a long-time web standards pioneer. She has authored or co-authored over thirty books, one of which is the enormously popular Zen of CSS Design. For years Molly has been a favorite speaker and instructor at conferences all over the world and has been involved in consulting projects with AOL, Yahoo!, BBC, Microsoft.

  • Jonathan Snook is a self-proclaimed "creator of striking designs, impeccable markup and code, and forward-thinking idesa and applications." I'm inclined to agree. Snook is a frequent guest at web design conferences and the author of Snook.ca a top level blog about web design. He has also co-authored two books— Accelerated DOM Scripting with Ajax, APIs, and Libraries, and The Art and Science of CSS—which have met with success and critical acclaim.

  • Brooke Condolora is the the third designer to be featured in the Mirificam Press interview series. She and her husband, David, are partners in the California based creative agency The Bloc Creative. She earned her bachelor's degree in Electronic Media Production from Harding University. And, although she has a wide range of creative talents, Brooke has specialized in graphic design and web design. In her short time as a professional designer, Brooke has built an impressive list of clients and projects and I'm sure we will hear more from The Bloc Creative as they build their business. It's my privilege to introduce Brooke Condolora to the Mirificam Press audience and I'd like to thank her for taking the time to answer these questions.

  • Jeff is a designer for Blue Flavor, a standards conscious design agency in Seattle, Washington. He recently co-authored two web design books, Pro CSS Techniques, and Web Standards Creativity published in 2006 and 2007 respectively. Jeff is also a frequent speaking guest at conferences and blogs on jeffcroft.com whenever he gets a chance. Jeff has been designing web sites since 1994, and after working for two universities as well as The Lawrence Journal-World newspaper in Lawrence, Kansas, he found a place at Blue Flavor. Currently Jeff holds the official title of "designer" but wears many hats at Blue Flavor. On his site, jeffcroft.com, he says, "Blue Flavor feels like something of a 'destination job,' and it's hard to imagine myself anywhere else anytime soon." Jeff is the second designer featured in the Mirificam Press interview series and I'd like to thank him for taking the time to answer these questions.

  • It's an honor to have A-list designer and illustrator Veerle Pieters here on Mirificam Press as the first featured designer in this interview series. As a long time reader of Veerle's Blog I was especially excited when she responded to my request for an interview. Veerle is a graphic/web designer living in Belgium. She is the author of the immensely popular Veerle's Blog and founder of the creative agency Duoh! Veerle started her career as a graphic designer in 1992, designing mostly for printed media and has since made the transition to focus on web design and digital media. In recent years she has been working for the Library of Congress on a project called The Learning Page. If you've never been to her site, I recommend browsing through the archives. Her Adobe Illustrator tutorials are legendary.

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