on: Transition

So for the last 8 years I have been a full time something; part time designer. Student, Husband, Father, Intern, Manager, Associate, Agent, Representative. I have now made the scariest decision of my life: full time designer, part time everything else. It's a weird transition and not one without a bit a remorse, trepidation, and reservation. I have an amazing opportunity at Backcountry.com to work on new user interface initiatives in their newly minted product design group. We going to be developing products (in this case websites) that are unlike anything before seen in the outdoor retail category. Everything is based on business strategies and customer input; our job is to marry the two in a cohesive, comprehensive solution. We're like the bastard love child bridge between marketing, customers, and design. It's going to be a wild ride.

p.s. If ANYONE! has good ideas on sites they like, functionalities that catch their eye, engaging designs, or sites that flow seemlessly, hit me up at cody [at] calbrechtdesign [dot] com. (Sorry for the goofy link, but it helps keep spammers at bay) Conversely, if you see anything on Backcountry, Dogfunk, SteepandCheap, WhiskeyMilitia, Chainlove, or Tramdock that gets on your nerves, be sure to let me know.

Cheers, and thanks for reading.

on: Consumerism

Yeah, so I finally succumbed and bought an iPhone. It is the single greatest device (or compilation of devices) known to man. It moves between programs effortlessly. I can easily take a new contact from a chat window, make it a new contact, easily change information in a non linear fashion, save that contact, call the person, check my visual voicemail while on the phone, take a picture and email it to them, while still on the phone, and then browse for restaurants for dinner that. This thing is insane! As Mr. Eames was so fond of saying, "Details are what make the design." The iPhone works because designers paid attention to the details. They took to the time to solve and resolve many of the problems inherent in phone design. The didn't simply gloss over a problem because it was a "too difficult, too expensive, unnecessary, unnoticed, out of the ordinary, nobody else does it that way," matter. They took the time to solve the problems. Design is not about decoration. Design is fundamentally about arranging disparate elements into a cohesive, coherent whole. I don't care if it's graphics, architecture, road signs, surgical instruments, or soda pop packaging; design is about taking the chaos and making that chaos communicate. My iphone takes the chaotic variety of tasks that I need to perform in a day, and communicates to me how to perform those tasks in a way that is intuitive and succinct. I love the iPhone.