I am a fan of living a balanced life, professionally and personally. So, as a designer / artist, I try to keep up on technology as much as possible. This not only includes, of course, the world of new and amazing gadgets, but also includes using CSS AND ActionScript whenever a job calls for it, and learning about new features and enhancements whenever they are made.
In the Six Revisions article:Why Designers Should Learn How to Code http://sixrevisions.com/web_design/why-designers-should-learn-how-to-code/#more-1018 , John Urban does a nice job of making the point that while it’s important for designers to understand the code involved in making concepts a reality, it can hamper the concept a great deal if they are the only ones to actually implement the front end or back end code. I would agree.
Some of the best designers I have ever worked with, had no idea what Javascript meant. The worse a designer was with a computer, the better a designer they were.
This seems to be changing, but at a very slow pace. Speaking just for myself, the more involved I get into code or MAC OS maintenance the more I feel pulled to begin a new pencil drawing, digital illustration or logo. When I exercise my left brain a little, I must also work out my right brain twice as much to stay balanced as an designer.
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Color and Memory
According to this article: color influences the type of memory that one associates with the data one is trying to remember. Blue gives the viewer a sense of safety and creativity, while red gives a viewer a sense of urgency and triggers memorization of details to a greater degree.
I have always been triggered by these colors on a very conscious level. I can even remember not taking a teacher’s comments on a paper or test seriously because they wrote in blue or black ink. The teachers that used red ink always got my utmost respect, and more attention from me than those who didn’t. I even remember being very cautious of any professional, teacher or co-worker, that carried those multi-ink pens..almost as if they were going to switch personalities on me in a split second.
Win Woes 7
Why am I so worried about Windows 7? I use both Leopard and Vista, but I find myself thinking about the Windows OS launch more than I’m even thinking about the health of Steve jobs. It’s at the point where Windows is like that cousin who just got out of rehab; I hope they’re all better now but…. I am really not sure if they should come live with me-or even visit for more than three days. Windows 95 (not 3.1) was my first introduction to sensible and clear user interface. Windows 95 gave me a visual work area within the space that my monitor occupied on my desk. It was a perfect illusion of a work area-I understood computers for the first time. I loved macs, used them exclusively until 1995, but I began to relate and identify with what Microsoft designed. When Vista launched -it was like catching my best friend dressing up as an Elvis impersonator. The simplicity was eradicated, the gloss was on 11 and I didn’t even want to see any new admin or control panel features because it involved some kind of Silverlight animation. I hope the new Windows is smarter, quicker and ..sober.