With Snow Leopard’s installation, OS X users will see their monitor gamma changed from Apple’s 1.8 standard to the long standing PC 2.2 setting. Photography professionals have likely had their monitors configured to the higher contrast setting for some time (among other specific color calibration, to be sure), but for designers it may be a new matter entirely. Assuming that most web designers work on Macs, what will be the effect of the gamma change on new and existing design decisions?

It could be difficult to poll the adoption rate of Snow Leopard amongst designers. Will early adopters forge ahead with color and contrast decisions based on the new settings, accepting that their choices will now appear equal on PC and a slim percentage of Macs — or develop a design process that retains the 1.8 Apple standard?

Mac OS X Snow Leopard – Enhancements and Refinements, Apple

IKEA adopting Verdana is a bit perplexing. My initial suspicion was that the decision was intended as a strategy to unite the typography used in print to that on the web — Futura hasn’t achieved ubiquity on personal computers due to licensing restrictions. Unfortunately it seems the official reason is that the company wants to use the same typeface in every country, a fairly weak argument. If internal standards have suddenly become so dire, they surely could have found an opentype font — Helvetica/Arial perhaps — that is actually intended for viewing at the sizes the new catalogue is typeset in. On a related note, the website seems to degrade further from the brilliant concept Huge composed for them on a nearly daily basis.

I’ve owned an iPhone for two years. When it was initially released, I couldn’t fathom the need to check my email or browse the internet at any given moment in the day — was the information truly that important? It intrigued me regardless, so I purchased one and of course adopted such usage religiously.

Present day, the phone is hacktivated and unlocked so I can use it with an Orange SIM card. The immediate result of this is an absent data plan and much of the iPhone’s core functionality (barring the occasional wifi). At first, this seemed like a tremendous loss — no maps or directions in a new city, lack of on the spot dinner recommendations. Gradually however, it struck me as more a blessing in disguise. Forced to write down directions and addresses in a notebook before I leave home, I’m free to take missteps and make new discoveries. As I spend the large majority of my time as a Web Designer circling the internet, there is liberation in knowing that an email or tweet has no way of reaching me when I’m out. In the middle of a conversation, forced with an unanswered question, the dialog continues in an unexpected direction instead of the quick fix of a Wikipedia entry.

I’ve always had a mixed reaction to new technology, a luddite reluctance mixed with an excitement for new ideas. As technology becomes not only intertwined in our everyday lives, but ubiquitous, I think we need to find the line between automating our experiences and keeping our eyes open to the literal moment.

When I first heard that Bob Dylan was producing an album of Christmas songs, I wasn’t terribly surprised, though it did bring to mind the career path of Jimmy Thudpucker. The commercial decisions Dylan has made in the last decade seem baffling at first but taken against the notion that he has always been nothing more than an entertainer — his apparent view — it can begin to make some sense. I’ve always appreciated that he makes decisions introspective of what anyone else demands or expects, whether it’s the direction his music takes or the commercial deals signed. This would certainly seem no exception.

There is a nice summary of articles and resources on the nature and disadvantages of spec work in the design field on David Airey’s site. I wholeheartedly agree with Debbie Millman (President of AIGA) — the focus of the article — that the practice is detrimental to both clients and designers.

During the summer before my senior year in college, I agreed to do a half dozen mockups as part of an interview process for a small design firm in Rochester. I never heard back from them, and a few months later saw a remarkably similar design to mine in use on a billboard for the client they represented. The prospect of tangible work can be alluring to design students — in limited markets such as upstate New York it can very difficult to find jobs or internships — but the disadvantages will always outweigh the potential.

AIGA President Debbie Millman on spec work, David Airey
Interviewing Debbie Millman: President of the National AIGA, No! Spec

As a developer, I make a concerted effort to build websites with strong interoperable support among web browsers. Generally, this translates to providing a separate style sheet – with all the necessary hacks and edits — needed to keep Internet Explorer 6 from mangling an otherwise beautiful layout. I know that as long as there a broad range of users to cater to, the effort is required.

A slow but growing consensus of web developers is beginning to abandon support for IE6. I agree with the vocal majority that if you believe you have a user base with need for continued support, by all means offer it. Otherwise, drop support and never look back.

That said, I take a small drop of satisfaction in stating this site will not make any more effort than needed to support Internet Explorer 6. Take a minute to upgrade or download the latest Firefox.

(a post never realized)

http://www.brooklynmuseum.org/community/blogosphere/bloggers/2009/08/04/does-tech-engage-or-distract/
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/25/magazine/25desire-t.html
http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/08/03/notes-on-abroad-what-do-you-look-for-when-you-look-at-art/

putting aside the recently documented >>link<< animal rights abuses for a moment, waiting in the subzero weather at midnight to watch a parade of zoo animals walk down 34th street in manhattan is a unique event few are able to witness.

/example/ (trying to get a snapshot of elephants coming through queens tunnel, spent entire time behind camera — entire event occurs through filter)

could be integral part of creating new experience, richer, factual and thorough
or supplanting the genuine experience

you can point to a photo or a video or a tweet but what (?intrinsic?) value have you really retained
less a notion of capturing a moment to remember the experience by then documenting every aspect of the experience