I just had a two hour experience that just re-affirmed what I already thought – you can’t traditionally teach someone software, trial and error really is the best way.

Today we’ve started an interactive (fancy term for web design) module (fancy term for unit) and everyone has resorted to using the code destroyer that is, Dreamweaver. Now it’s pretty high up here on this pedestal, but anyone looking to seriously learn web design shouldn’t be using WYSIWYG editors and should be looking to know code like the back of their hand. I think fumbling your way through clumsy programs is the worst way of learning something, sure you’ll have something that might work but you won’t understand how. You’ll also have to partake in that clumsy process every single time.

Also, someone throwing barrels of information is the worst way to gather any kind of knowledge. You’ll know how someone else has done something but when it comes to something you don’t know, you’re more than likely to just bail out and ask ‘the source’. This old way of lecturing can’t be applied to high tech software, it’s like square peg in a round hole and people should just learn by doing.

Rant over. I guess I’m just bitter for paying to have two hours of my life… well, I wouldn’t say wasted.

Oh and if you’re wondering about the title, the lecturer muddled up the crime in one of his awfully West London sounding analogies. I spent more time giggling at that. Real mature, I know.

I’ll keep this one short as I’ve got an essay to write.

Just been trolling around on the web and stumbled upon this interesting article over at Smashing. It’s an intriguing concept, to design something new every single day, something that I might embark on.

While I definitely don’t have an idea of what I’ll do, I did like Mike Duesenburg’s album cover idea. It’s something that I’ve been doing of late anyway, if albeit for real albums or fake complications on iTunes, so I decided to give it ago.

You basically make use of the random article link on Wikipedia to get your artist name and grab the last few words from the last quote on The Quotations Page. Mine? Siem Bouk District with Intellectual Eye. I’d lucked out here, or so I thought. The final piece of the puzzle is imagery from Flickr’s commons pool (the 3rd one on the 1st row). 20 minutes later and I ended up with this…

While it’s far from a masterpiece, this is definitely an enjoyable idea. Whether I have the item to make 365 of them in 2010 is a different matter, it would be a challenge though.

A challenge I challenge you to, at least, give ago.

First project back of the new year was branding for the Museum of Eating. I was sent on a tangent and what original resulted in something similar to the Ministry of Food turned into The Handyman’s Cooking Manual, which is essentially the Ikea flat pack guide of cooking.

Check the PDF

Been working on a branding brief at the moment and I needed to scrutinise scamps. So I devised a list of questions, as compiled with help from The Little Know It All.

Hopefully people will find it helpful when designing logos, hopefully your design will meet all specifications.

Download Here | Download Monochrome Printer Friendly Version

That above image is the wall chart up in my new digs (never knew why a house is called a dig).

They turned out pretty well on the default A2 paper at reprographics. However I would recommend, if you can afford it, to print on B2 or A1 as the boxes turned a little too small on A2. It’s still functional though which is important.

Download the PDF and print your own, unless you are feeling lazy and would like to pay £5 for one. Comments below if you are interested in the latter