Business-side of Design

This Office Never Closes

December 5, 2006

Working on the web is a lot like working in Las Vegas. Just like Sin City, the web never closes, and what we're working on is frequently a crap shoot. Now if we could just get free cocktails...

Division of Labor in Web Design

September 1, 2006

When I first started working on the web, it was not only possible but common to build an entire website by yourself, from back end to front end. Even promotion. We called ourselves webmasters because we had mastered (or more often, just did) everything. The back end was Javascript or Perl because that's what was available; the front end was table-based HTML; and promotion meant submitting to the 10 or 15 new search engines eager for links.

Top Ten Things I Like About Working in an Office

March 17, 2006

I just passed my first-whole-month-of-working anniversary. Now that I'm a seasoned pro at this employee stuff, I thought this would be a good opportunity to share some of my favorite things about working at 'A Real Job.'

Who's Designing the Web: An Informal Survey of Us

January 16, 2006

I'm always curious about other web designers—who we are and why in the world we put ourselves through this. Is it for love? For money? Because no one else in the organization had the guts to take on HTML? So, here's a long-running survey that I hope some of you will bother to take. Hopefully (barring death or jokesters) I'll keep it running for years.

Freelance Can Be the Pits

September 23, 2005

This blog has been quiet for a few weeks because I've just been too busy to write, and if I hadn't been, all I would have done is complain. Besides putting out fires and running around doing last minute changes to sites about to launch, I ran into the stickiest problem I've so far encountered in my short career as a web designer--and the problem had nothing to do with CSS.

The Past Isn't Always Pretty

June 4, 2005

I am a designer with a past. A dark, secret, shadowy past of nested tables, inline font tags and spacer gifs. My past is littered with shamefully bloated sites built with disgracefully contorted HTML. I'd like to forget about that past. But what they say is true. The past does come back to haunt you.

So, You Want to Be a Freelancer and Work from Home?

May 2, 2005

I've been a freelance one-thing-or-another for over ten years now, and whenever someone finds out I work from home, they give me an envious look--"That must be wonderful." Well, yes and no. And not in the way they mean. It's wonderful to not have to fight traffic, clock in, justify my comings-and-goings to anyone, or have a boss hanging over my shoulder.

Is This A Glamorous Profession, Or What?

March 26, 2005

I went to a birthday party for a friend last night. Shortly after arriving, I walked up to a group of women, and one of them said, "Oh, aren't you the one who writes?"

I gave the all-purpose shrug. "Not anymore. I gave it up a while ago."

"Oh? So what are you doing now?"

"I'm in web design."

You Can Teach An Old Dog New Tricks

March 20, 2005

When I started this business in January, a few short months ago, I'd already built quite a few web sites for friends and local organizations, and I'd been the webmaster of a large site for 5 years. I could write HTML in my sleep. I had some learning to do, yes. But I told myself I could easily master a few new tricks.