From designer to developer: a logical leap

What goes on in my mind is comparable to stew. There is no recipe for stew, really. You just sort of throw a bunch of crap you think might work well together in a pot over medium heat and hope for the best. More often than not, the result is delicious (or maybe I’m just always hungry). One of the great strengths of stew is its improvisational nature: you can hit on unexpectedly great flavor combinations by combining “incompatible” elements. Unfortunately, the flip-side of this strength is that it’s incredibly hard to discern how you arrived at that amazing flavor, should you try to reproduce your legendarily tasty stew.

In terms of my brain, I like to pour in whatever interests me at the moment, let it simmer in there for awhile with everything else I’ve been thinking about for awhile…and then do something. It’s incredibly hard for me to separate all of the individual influences on an idea or experience, or obtain a “recipe” of any sort whatsoever. All I know is that I’m having quite a bit of fun at the moment, and my current direction is a culmination of years of disparate interests coming together.

It’s strange to me how we label ourselves in order to try and achieve some idea of an identity. For me, I’ve been wandering around as a “creative.” I’m not arrogant enough at the moment to call myself an artist, but I’m certainly artistic, have a keen interest in art (of all forms) and have occasional bouts of self-expression. This label has its origin in my high school experience of social and micro-cultural ostracism. I was an “art guy.” A select few fellow bizzar-o friends got it, and everyone else just knew me as the dude who drew pictures and produced the weekly school news program.

There’s an incredibly self-limiting stereotype that goes along with being a “creative.” It’s born out of a paradigm that came about in the era of corporate vertical organization and has been dead for years now. Ready for the lie I told myself for years? “I’m a creative. I’m a designer. I don’t do code.” This is a ludicrous statement that I subconsciously absorbed and believed until very recently. In truth, a designer (and especially a web designer) that “doesn’t do code” is akin to an architect who “doesn’t do floor plans.” The deeper I delve into code, the more I realize it’s a tool every bit as vital as Photoshop, and I regret not starting the journey sooner. If you desire to do any work online the bottom line is you must learn code.

For me, my quest to learn code began from a purely economic standpoint. There’s far less competition for jobs involving code, the jobs pay better, and much back-end functionality is similar enough that if you’re doing similar projects you can build on and improve existing work you’ve done in the past. Sold. I started adding developer sites and blogs to my reading alongside my ramblings on design blogs. I also took a trip to the book store and purchased some books (I still love margin notes too much to do everything online). To my unexpected delight, I found that creating code is actually incredibly creative! My brain loved it! The stew got tastier.

One of the most intimidating aspects of getting started with code is the sheer number of languages you can learn. As a designer, I already had a working knowledge of HTML and CSS, and I did a lot of work with WordPress and Joomla. Both of these technologies are open source (free) and driven by PHP, which is also open source. Therefore the next logical step for me was to learn PHP. This gives me the capability to create advanced applications for clients, such as custom e-commerce solutions, or Content Management Systems (CMS). The next language I plan to learn is Flex, which in an open source development environment for apps that run in Flash Player and AIR (desktop applications – ex. Tweet Deck). This would allow for the creation of gorgeous interactive interfaces and media presentation methods. Do you see the logical progression of creative capabilities by taking this path? Let me break it down:

• HTML : contains a page’s core content  (examples: every web page ever.  resources: W3 Schools )
• CSS: controls the presentation of that content (example: CSS zen Garden.   resources: site point)
• PHP: allows your pages to communicate with your web server and prepare HTML in a manner customized to individual users’ needs.  In other words, allows for interactivity.  (examples: Facebook, WordPress.  resources: php.net , Learn PHP 5)
• Flex: allows for the creation of dynamic and elegant interfaces etc.  (examples: Adobe Official Site.  resources: learn Flex in a week)

So there you are.  My path from designer to designer/developer was a kind of unintentional flow, a mash-up of  “conflicted” interests, and now makes for a very tasty stew.

Two piles of pulp

I’ve been reading a lot lately. And no, it hasn’t been deep, or particularly intelligent, or dinner party bragworthy reading. I’ve been on a shameless sci-fi pulp binge that I can only explain by saying “it’s summer, I read what I want.”

Here’s what I’ve eaten through in the last couple of weeks:

1. Orson Scott Card’s Empire :

I’ve never read any of Card’s Ender series, but I’ve heard talk. This guy has fans. Very loyal and excited fans. So when I saw his name on the cover, and read the promising summary on the back, I bought the book. Then I read the book.

Then I regretted it.

Apparently, this is the bad apple in Card’s otherwise shiny applecart. A few minutes reading Amazon reviews confirmed that many folks felt the way I did about this book. It’s a cartoonish, simplistic, thin, unrealistic, and generally ridiculous blending of politics and sci-fi. The two can go together beautifully, a-la Heinlein’s The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, but Card bungles the whole concept and this novel falls flat on its face. Disappointing.

2. Karpyshin’s Mass Effect: Revelation:

Ok. I have never, repeat, never read a videogame novel before. I think I bought this because the game looks incredible, but I currently lack the dollars to ahem buy a 360 and the game itself. Since I have an overactive imagination anyway, I figured reading a book about an alternate universe was probably as interesting as gaming in one.

I think I was right. This book is undeniably fluff, but it’s interesting fluff. It’s exciting fluff. It’s also fairly convincing fluff. I enjoyed the characters, the universe, and the story presented in Revelation and I know that the back story presented will be very interesting to be aware of, should I ever end up playing the game. At any rate, the quality of this book has convinced me that I should stop pretending like I’m such a snob and go try out some other books of the same sort. I’m considering the Halo trilogy…

Enough! I’m off to eat lunch.