Mr R A

A rad little home-made-vid that Mitch and the boys did. Pretty sweet. I dig.

lukeholden:

So we here at FirstView do various things.

We Cycle, play table tennis, play xBox, play hackie, eat out, have drinks, create amazing websites, and of course juggle. 

Requiring someone to like your app or page before giving them anything is like a guy requiring that a girl sleep with him before he knows her name

I hate being forced to like pages. It makes me mad. Facebook and social media are social and should be treated, in someway, like a relationship. You should give what you want and you should never force anyone to do anything. You should never manipulate the other person, abuse them or make use of them.

You only really like someone after spending time together - maybe a couple of dates or a couple of braais. Please don’t force people to like your stuff - it’s really actually meaningless.

Your externalities are golden but your core sucketh

I’m a bit fed up with people, clients and businesses who aren’t the top brass in their industry, yet think that they can get to the top and become a somebody simply by doing, externally, what their role models are doing. Why do they think they can get to the top simply by changing a few externalities? Just like taking spectacular photos of an old banged up car won’t make your car look any newer or cooler, neither will creating a hot website make your company ay cooler.

And then I’m sick of the specialized companies who give these kind of people what they want without question. Sometimes it feels as if we’re a doctor who fixes noses without examining our client’s gaping head wounds, all because we need the money, it’s easy and we’re actually too busy too care. I work for a web company and sometimes it feels like we churn out websites and other digital gold that nobody sees, uses or cares about. And on other occasions we’ve told clients to sort their junk out and come back when they’re ready - and it felt really good.

These kind of companies need to get their core straightened up, they need good branding, good marketing, good customer service, good products and good services. They need a target market and they need a message. And they need specialised comapnies to work for them only once they’ve got these things sorted out. And us specialised companies need to offer services that help out these kind of companies before and after they’ve sorted themselves out. We cannot just do what we do and not care. We need to have the balls to say no or to help and guide these companies and people to achieve some long term goals though hard work and planning, and then maybe offer them some kind of specialized service that will rock their world.

So my friend with cool dreadlocks, Mitch, made a home-made skateboard. He said it was pretty gnarly. I’ll have to agree. This skateboard is way cool.

My work toys having some fun and doing some limbo stuff.

YOU ARE SO AWSOME!

Thanks Anonymous..

I made this little gif for my wife. To have a designer for a husband…
If you’re having trouble viewing the gif in Firefox, go here for some instructions.

Simple design

I’ve recently realised the importance of simplicity in design. I’ve been involved in the web design scene/profession for almost 3 years now, and the importance of design, usability and information architecture is now blindingly important. I’ve seen and been apart of website designs that are far too complicated, far too long, have far too much visual mess (even though it looks cool) to actually communicate properly and let the user do what they came to the site to do. I think us designers over complicate things, overload viewers and try to design for ourselves more than for the viewers of the piece of communication. A website, or any piece of communication that is designed, should have a single main goal or purpose and perhaps some secondary purposes that are related to the first. I’ve just completed 2 websites. One was my own and the other was for a company called Heim - they manufacture school bags, pencils bags, aprons and other school stuff. I tried to make both extremely simple for the viewer to achieve a primary purpose and some secondary purposes.

The main purpose of the Heim site is to enable customers to order products online. Secondary purposes were that of viewing the available products (which may lead to purchases), contacting Heim (which also may lead to purchases) and letting customers order by fax, phone or email. That is all the site is meant to do. Time will tell if it is successful.

The main purpose of my site is to introduce viewers to who I am, what I’ve done, what I’ve achieved, where I spend my time and then to get them to view more of me or my work by giving them links to view or contact details to contact me on.

I’m sick of sites with so many bells and whistles that you don’t know what you’re doing within 2 minutes or less and you can’t find what you want because there just seems to be far too many pages and links, too many ways of doing things and millions of cool, but distracting, features. I’m sick of people who write long articles about something that can be said in a sentences. I’m sick of people and companies trying to look authentic and big and better than other people by writing long articles and blog posts and having websites and other communication that is cluttered and without sole objectives or benefits.

Write less, take more out and have only a few core goals. The aim of this post is to try persuade you that long, lengthy, cluttered, bells and whistles content and design doesn’t mean that it’s better, or more authentic, but normally harder to read, harder to understand, harder for the viewer to achieve what they want to, and it wastes time, in writing and designing and in reading and viewing.

Please make designs and content that get to the point, that benefit the viewer, that communicate purposes or goals simply and that are designed to communicate and not just to look beautiful. Like the art movement of the 20th century making bold stands against the contemporary art of the times by producing art that was different and art that countered what was accepted at that time, I’m proposing that we counter the long-winded, bullshit driven, cluttered mess of today’s website design and other forms of designed communications with simple, minimal and effective designs that have specific goals and purposes behind them and that make comprehension, navigation and action easy for the viewer. Take out everything that is unnecessary and replace it with nothing.

Please excuse my lengthy post.

Heim Website

I launched a super simple, order-online, site for this company called Heim. I did their logo, their site design & coding, their photography - their everything. It took me about 6 months in after dinner time (spare time) to complete it all. I’m still improving it daily.

A designer knows he has achieved perfection not when there is nothing left to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.

I snapped my 2 and a half month old surf board yesterday. My Pastor gave me his old one though. And it wasn’t in particularly big surf either. I was surfing at Addington Beach.

Sacred writings

So there’s this book. Within it lies the source of life. Wisdom and secrets abound from within it. I am not selfish, so let me share it. I am not ashamed of it, so let me tell you about it. It’s an introduction to the creator of the universe and a comprehensive guide to living. Who would not read it? Yet it has become common. Yet it is sacred still. The words within are rich and nourish the soul. You may not like the word ‘bible’ so let’s call it a holy text or a bunch of sacred writings. Read them and connect to our creator.

Let the best idea win

If everyone was humble, wise and understanding, we’d all know when an idea was set to rock the world and we’d give way to it, moving our own precious ideas out of the way so that the one idea set for greatness could breathe, be exposed, be improved upon and ultimately rock the world.

This is not the case though. Most of us love our own ideas, and are our proud and unperceptive. We kill other people’s ideas in favour of our own. We don’t really want the best, we really just want the best for ourselves - to look good and to be seen as a visionary, which is contradictory in some ways, as most good ideas will benefit all in an organisation and possibly even outside of an organisation. And if you’re in a position of authority or if you’re higher in an organisation than others, or simply if you have a louder voice, which is often a sign of a fool, then you probably have a saying factor in what ideas are given light to succeed and what ideas are thrown to the dogs for breakfast. If you’re in this position it will be far easier for you to let your own, potentially terrible and harmful, ideas flourish, simply because you understand your ideas, and think that they’re going to work. Sad but true.

I want people to start letting the best ideas win. Lay down your pride, let humanity win, let ideas win. Aid ideas. Listen to people explain their ideas before dismissing them. Some people simply can’t articulate what they’re thinking properly. It may benefit your entire life, change the world, solve a fundamental problem or even make your business twice as successful as before, simply by taking the time to grasp the idea on concept at stake. Ask them to draw it. Ask them to write it. Ask them to show it in action.

This doesn’t mean running with every idea that plods along, but rather grasping the weight of an idea and then making a decision what to do with it. Don’t be selfish, don’t be hasty. Be wise. Be humble. Let the best ideas win.

So it’s a quick mockup of a Facebook like button in Afrikaans/South African slang. I think it’s a rad idea.