“In most people’s vocabularies, design means veneer. It’s interior decorating. It’s the fabric of the curtains of the sofa. But to me, nothing could be further from the meaning of design. Design is the fundamental soul of a human-made creation that ends up expressing itself in successive outer layers of the product or service.” – Steve Jobs

“Here’s to the crazy ones, the misfits, the rebels, the troublemakers, the round pegs in the square holes… the ones who see things differently — they’re not fond of rules… You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them, but the only thing you can’t do is ignore them because they change things… they push the human race forward, and while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius, because the ones who are crazy enough to think that they can change the world, are the ones who do.” – Steve Jobs

We need to spend more time thinking about the way software behaves. Too many programmers design what things do but pay little interest in how it behaves, communicates or informs. The way people interact with software-based products id too often an afterthought. It’s not really their fault, they are driven by commercial forces to continually add more features whether those features are useful or not. This leads to bloated and cumbersome devices which demand faster chips just so they can run properly. We need to shape technology and design to be more in tune with each other.

I’m offering all of my customers an opportunity to decorate their websites with a seasonal Javascript snow effect. It works great on a dark background and looks quite stylish as christmas decorations go. If you’re a website client of mine already, get in touch and I’ll add it to your website and remove it again on the 5th January. No charge – absolutely free!

click here to see the full size version

Not many people around here seem to know much about QR codes so I’ve made a QR Code infographic to help people understand a little more about them.

click here to see the full size version

Not many people around here seem to know much about QR codes so I’ve made a QR Code infographic to help people understand a little more about them. See the bigger version at: http://www.baydesign.co.uk/qr-code-generator/

I’m reading a book by Nicholas Carr called ‘The Shallows’. I became aware of it after I was doing research for a project and found an extract in a magazine some years ago entitled “Is Google Making us Stupid?” The book examines the possibility that our brains and our cognitive abilities are becoming reprogrammed by the way we harvest information in the internet age. The author reminds us that the web is a conduit for much of the information that flows into our eyes and ears and is chipping away at our capacity for concentration and contemplation. “Once I was a scuba diver in the sea of words. Now I zip along the surface like a guy on a Jet Ski.” he writes.

Carr references one of my favourite books called ‘Understanding Media’ in which the great theorist Marshall McLuhan pointed out “Media are not just passive channels of information. They supply the stuff of thought, but they also shape the process of thought.” If you’ve read ‘Understanding Media’ or have any interest in the subject of new media, you might have heard of ‘The Medium is the Message’ and ‘The Global Village’? Both these terms were coined by McLuhan and what’s interesting is how his perception of ‘The Global Village’ has been distorted to pre-suppose some kind of positive outcome. In fact, what he meant was that media is responsible for declining social organisation – a sort of tribal village in which he forecast ‘An Implosion of Meaning’.

I’m only a little way through this book but it’s pretty good reading.

Not sure what to say about this? All I know is that it’s a 3d illustration/installation by U.K. designer Christian LaBrooy. It’s made from glass, steel, concrete & wood. I’d really enjoy seeing these plans getting through my local planning department.

I’m beginning to add bits and pieces that I’m finding in dusty corners of my hard drive that don’t appear to be directly associated with web design but with the convergence of media and the evolution of the ‘internet of things’, it is increasingly relevant. Where once, graphic designers moved into web design, now those from animation backgrounds are better placed because they know how to create new worlds and navigate through them. Have a look if you’re interested – http://www.facebook.com/webfruit