The Moving Castle: Paintings, Illustrations, Website Design, Blog by Kevin Inman. I work as a web designer at Virginia Tech, and am looking for employment in San Diego, CA.
There’s a lot going on here, all of it good.
I love when people paint their 4X4 with Cammo, and I love when they stencil on their cars.
I did the same thing with my tiger car back in the day:
Compare the beauty:
And just a cherry on top, the Jeep driver left the keys in the ignition (at the liquor store-ha!) A ballsy move if ever I saw one. I do not have the level of trust to do this, even in small town America where I live.
I am writing this post because I have never read an article or blog that says you should go to grad school. Most say you should save your time and money. I went to grad school and I stand by my decision. Why I chose to get a MFA:
You have to be realistic about college teaching as a career move. College teaching has bad pay, intense competition, and extremely strict experience requirements. For teaching K-12, a master’s in education is cheaper and more practical.
(I actually love teaching, but it is not my current career goal. I am considering it as a second career in 10 to 20 years.)
I worked design jobs and was at a competitive disadvantage because my degree was in another field. The diploma itself didn’t matter as much as the fact that I didn’t have the institutional knowledge and depth of experience I needed. Everyone else got that in art school, so I decided to do that too.
Also, I work at a university. Almost all the people with big jobs at my place of employment have an advanced degree.
I truly love the subject and wanted to increase my knowledge of it.
A cheap state school with a competitive MFA program was 15 miles from my house in a rural area of Virginia. This made school convenient and attainable. A big-name school in a city was completely out of the question since I would have had to pay back $150K in student loans.
(My MFA is in 2D visual art. My concentration is in painting and drawing. I took electives in commercial art, graphic design, and photography. I had a great experience and I am extremely happy with my decision to attend this program.)
I can’t even describe how tired I am of these. Sim City has always had them all the way back to 1995. This is not a new idea and it just gets more and more annoying.
Example: Picnik, the Flickr online image editor. Status message as it is s…l…o…w…l…y loading the interface over my terabyte connection here at work:
Applying sunscreen…
I think there’s another one along the lines of:
Unwrapping sandwiches…
I get it. The application is called Picnik, so all the status messages have to be picnic themed in order to have an integrated design based on this stupid application name. Right? WRONG!
This is not a clever design. It is annoying, and it sucks.
What is wrong with
Loading…
?
NOTHING! Loading is perfect! It gives you information and doesn’t make you feel like all these highly paid professionals think of you as a 3rd grader who is entertained by this crap.
I’m such a hater, but whatever.
I am so sick of seeing these glassy reflections. So overused, it has gone beyond trite into the realm of Design Crime. It was cool at Apple.com about 5 years ago. Please Lord, make it stop.
And also a Splash Page. How innovative that was back in 1997. Get rid of that too!
Cumbersome online PDFs.
Graphic designers often have tunnel vision and apply print design considerations to documents placed online. Web designers are equally guilty of sticking to web-friendly formats even for printed materials. Neither of these scenarios is desirable.
Remember that a printed design is gestalt- but online content is not.
Anything online has to be machine readable and screen-friendly. Do not force users to bend over backwards to get any sense out of your creation.
1. A gorgeous graphic design that extends to the edge of the page. Thank you *so much.* I’ve just discovered after printing this flyer off the internet that all the contact information has been cropped off. Solution: scale the image and put in printer-friendly margins.
2. Mismatch your page numbers. Why is page 14 of this document labeled as page 31? When I go to print page range 24-31, I get some random other set of pages I don’t want. Solution: pay more attention.
3. 2 column layouts. Yes, these look beautiful when printed. And when I want to copy and paste I get text from both columns in an unreadable jumble. Solution: use CSS and don’t make this a PDF at all, or use one column.
That’s not a winning attitude in any industry. But that’s the impression you give if you ignore the basic considerations of user-centered design. People will assume you are just going through the motions without thinking. And there goes your credibility.
Last week, following a night of tormented dreams, all of Julia’s fish suddenly died just before the slew of celebrity deaths. Sort of a grim prognostication. RIP, fish.
And in tribute to Michael Jackson, who although crazy was unquestionably a genius, I created Sparkleflask:
I’m interested to see the Mark Sanford scandal used as a cautionary tale about the risks of personal use of workplace email systems. Because it is not about that.
This is a story about high-profile corruption and moral depravity in a public official. If he had written in equivalently poetic detail on the topic of his problems with explosive diarrhea, it never would have made the news.
So instead of saying “don’t write personal email at work!” why don’t we just say “don’t commit crimes!” or “public figures should avoid lying about their extramarital affairs on the national stage” or “the sex lives of politicians are not newsworthy.” Because we will solve a lot more problems with ethics than with paranoia about corporate wiretapping.
And also, we need to get a sense of proportion about personal use. Personal use helps people be better employees.
Take me as an example. I work an IT/ design job in a non-profit. While I am totally stoked about the work we do here, I have almost zero human contact most workdays, and when I do it is with someone in a completely different field who can’t relate to my interests. Personal use of the office email is a lifeline. It allows me to stay in touch with people who can relate to my work, and to avoid sinking into a lonely depression, which would in turn drive me to seek a job where I was surrounded by jolly, talkative coworkers and probably get less work done. There is nothing wrong with personal use, as long as you are doing your job.
I bought this thing from eBay- Pentel Aquash Brush Pen. They don’t sell them in America, mine came from a seller in Hong Kong. It is basically a paintbrush with a water reservoir, so you can do watercolor with less hassle.
The brush pen is great. I tend to use pan watercolors anyway, and find myself using it instead of my normal watercolor brushes, even here at the house. The whole experience is like being able to do magic.
Mike’s roommate just moved out, taking the washer/dryer with him, so I can no longer secretively do my laundry at his place.
The dryers in my apartment complex do not work- leaving clothes shrunken, funny smelling, and wet. Fortunately I have plenty of railings.
Note to the wise: the more elaborate your patio furniture, the more socks you will be able to hang on it.
A friend asked:
i read something recently about how academics are often douchebags/office politics are particularly terrible in academia b/c the stakes are so low. i am hoping this does not extend to my workplace b/c we are doing meaningful research meant to help policymakers improve people’s lives.
After several years in the private sector, I started working in higher education in 2004. Without a doubt, office politics are less severe in Academia.
Academics have usually spent at least 10 years working on various degrees, and then they spend the rest of their lives seeking notoriety in their super-competitive field. All job hiring occurs between June and August. There are a maximum of maybe 50 openings per year, much fewer in this economy. If you don’t get one, you have to work part-time. Imagine trying to make it as a movie actor in Hollywood, except that the scenario gets played out at a really boring conference instead of on the big screen.
Bottom line: Academics perceive incredibly high stakes.
Generally speaking, all academics are specialists. They are hand-selected after a grueling nationwide search to fill a very specific job that their coworkers cannot fill. So they aren’t in competition with their coworkers.
The reason for this is the way money behaves in Higher Education.
There are no merit-based raises. You make more money by publishing books, getting grants, or when the central university administration gives a 3% raise to everyone who works there. Financial rewards are not pegged to how much people like you.
You will definitely meet challenging personalities in Academia. A typical example is a professor with zero interpersonal skills. This person is smart, they have multiple Ivy League degrees, they want to win in this highly competitive industry, and they hate it when people get in their way. They are a Professorzilla, abusing their students, fellow faculty members, and the staff equally. It happens. You must develop ways of dealing with these people, because you will meet them in all aspects of your life.
There is no point in backstabbing your way around an academic department. You will just make other people miserable this way, with no benefit to you. If so-and-so quits because you are so mean to them, there is no way you will get their job. Someone from Harvard will get it eventually. You may as well be nice.
Perversely, academia is one of the few places where I think this adage holds true. Your hard work adds to your reputation, but has no immediate impact on anything else, including your salary.
Oh, except for when your research helps people.
And this is why we work in Academia in the first place- the opportunity to support learning. It sounds sappy, but it is true.
For years I used this website to document my non-work life, but there’s so much overlap now. An old friend was recently thrust into a managerial role and immediately started using Facebook to screen employees. Whoa! Not cool.
Because it should not be necessary.
If you are hiring someone, you need to be smart enough, and experienced enough, to judge them based on their resume and cover letter. Any doubts you should be able to clear up with a couple of phone calls. If you can’t do this, or if you are afraid to, you should not be hiring anyone. You need to ask for help from someone whose judgment you trust.
Statistics that a hiring manager will spend 20 seconds reviewing your resume? They will do that because it only takes a glance to know if you are a fit or not. I know this. Everyone who has ever sat on an interview panel knows this.
Facebook is where people go to share party photos with friends, not their deep thoughts. Just assume that all your employees have a life outside of work. Only a *bad* manager obsesses about details that are not important.
If you have 20 great applicants, it doesn’t really matter which one you hire, does it? They are all great, so just choose one you like in your price range. There is no point in agonizing about this decision. Just like when you are shopping at J Crew.
Professionalism starts with you. You are in charge, and you have to guide your employees. When you go snooping into your employees’ private lives, you are being a creepy stalker. That isn’t professional. So you really can’t point any fingers if you find something on their profile you don’t like.
Than poetic.
According to Newsweek, anyway.
I am mesmerized by Penelope Trunk’s blog. It is a love-hate relationship.
I like her funny, outspoken writing style. I like her go-get-em attitude. I like the Reality-TV-esque backstory: Jewish American Princess turned pro beach volleyball player turned entrepreneur.
I also think much of her advice is wrong-headed. But in a perverse way, that is what makes it work for me. I immediately challenge everything she writes.
In other words, she makes me think critically about my own business decisions.
Her blog strategy: Write engagingly. Make people think. And screw the details.
She does not care if her assertions are just flat wrong or if the weak credibility of her citations undermines her argument. I respect her for that, because she understands that being right all the time is not critical to her success. And I think that is the case more often than people realize.
Hot pockets’ website is a timer for hot pockets.
I think this is the stupidest website design ever, but I kind of love it in a perverse way. Maybe it is insanely brilliant.
Especially since now I am suddenly planning to buy several boxes.
Dooce- it isn’t just a mommy blog. It’s an enterprise.
I still read Dooce intermittently, because how can you not? She is one of the highest-profile, most influential bloggers out there.
She has diversified over time: going from an edgy confessional blog to a confessional mommy-blog with a serious design component. She does graphic design, web design, photography, writing, interior design… and her work in all these areas is solid, although not groundbreaking. Maybe she is no John Fowler, but she has a particular kind of good taste and is very influential to her audience. I’d hire her in a second to market any number of products. Or to be design director of any firm that could afford her. (Well, almost any.)
Honestly, I don’t like her writing very much these days. I’m not interested in children (at this point in my life) - or dogs (at this point in my life). Although women frequently tell me that reading Dooce makes their ovaries throb with child-desire.
And I don’t like reading about depression. It’s boring.
And no aspect of her design portfolio appeals to my taste. It’s all too girly.
But I admire her work all the same. I think she is the internet’s Martha Stewart. An inspired genius who creates a huge* and worthy enterprise out of a cottage industry. Basically pulling money out of thin air. And you have to respect somebody who can do that with integrity**.
* Admittedly Dooce is not yet “huge”- but well on the way.
** I don’t think going to prison for securities fraud undermines Martha Stewart’s integrity. I think she made a poor (but commonplace) ethical decision and paid an enormous price. But she never compromised her demand for excellence.
The Moving Castle: Paintings, Illustrations, Website Design, Blog by Kevin Inman. I work as a web designer at Virginia Tech.
I am looking for employment in San Diego, CA. I am a skilled web developer, graphic designer, and big-picture thinker. Here's my resume.
Check out my new art.
I do fine-art painting and illustration and work on commission.
Artist Statement
Exhbition History
My portfolio. Ajax version underway!
I am a jack-of-all-trades but my core strengths are CSS user interface design and development of online business processes.
A picture of yours truly.
