Blog

Gall's Law: How to Evolve a Working System

Submitted by mjvesper on Wed, 04/01/2009 - 4:40pm

This is from a post on Daring Fireball about Apple but the quote, Gall's Law, is something to keep in mind while working with any system or any project in work or life - Start simple and evolve.

"A complex system that works is invariably found to have evolved from a simple system that worked. The inverse proposition also appears to be true: A complex system designed from scratch never works and cannot be made to work. You have to start over, beginning with a working simple system."

Art Against AIDS 2009

Submitted by mjvesper on Fri, 03/06/2009 - 3:46pm

The 2009 Art Against AIDS was last Thursday, February 26 at 6:00 PM at the River East Arts Center. If you haven't heard of it, it is one of Heartland Alliance's annual fundraiser events featuring food, drinks, entertainment and live/silent fine art auctions in support of HIV/AIDS research. I have donated artwork for the past 3 years and was an honorary co-chair of the event in 2008.

This year, the honorary co-chairs were:

FLIR: Facelift Image Replacement

Submitted by mjvesper on Fri, 03/13/2009 - 11:53am

One of the most frustrating parts of designing for the web versus print is the limitation of font choices. There are only a handful of fonts you can use that every visitor is guaranteed to have if you want to keep the text selectable. In print design, you don't have that unique problem - Just do your layout and send it to production or generate a PDF and all is well.

The alternative, of course, is to make images for each headline or block of text that you want to have in a typeface and insert them into your webpage. Ordinarily, that works well enough.

Interesting Article: The Man Who Said No to Wal-Mart

Submitted by mjvesper on Fri, 02/06/2009 - 5:05pm

From Fast Company about Jim Wier. Good article about foresight and taking pride in workmanship and your product, whatever it may be, over just caving to profits and the bottom line in the short run.

Full Article

Obama Inauguration 2009

Submitted by mjvesper on Tue, 01/20/2009 - 4:28pm

I've been watching/listening to the coverage of Obama's Inauguration on abc7chicago.com all day while working.

I'm still amazed by the amount of support that this president has received... It crosses all lines - party, ethnic, economic, religious...

He's inheriting a whole lot of weight as he walks through the White House doors. So, the best of luck to our new president and to the country as a whole.