Category: industry

This web business: culture and concepts.

  • Algorithm & Blues

    Algorithm & Blues

    Examining last week’s Verge-vs-Sullivan “Google ruined the web” debate, author Elizabeth Tai writes: I don’t know any class of user more abused by SEO and Google search than the writer. Whether they’re working for their…

  • My Liz Danzico Joke

    My Liz Danzico Joke

    I used to tell a joke I made up. An American goes to the Vatican on Easter Sunday, joining a huge crowd of worshippers who gaze up in awe at a raised platform. On the platform…

  • Twitter Blues

    Twitter Blues

    Before the present owner, I was a Twitter Blue customer, because I always pay for software—to support its creators and help prevent it from disappearing, as so many great websites and platforms have done over…

  • He Built This City: The Return of Glenn Davis

    He Built This City: The Return of Glenn Davis

    You may not know his name, but he played a huge part in creating the web you take for granted today. And he’s back—kind of.

  • Fear of getting noticed

    Fear of getting noticed

    Back when I was in advertising, one of my team’s clients was a well-known Irish Airline. They could only afford an 1/8th-page ad in the travel section of the paper. But my partners and I…

  • Looking Back, Looking Ahead: artist Dan Licht

    Looking Back, Looking Ahead: artist Dan Licht

    In 1999, I had the good fortune to work alongside Dan Licht at an NYC digital startup called SenseNet, RIP. Back then, although still in his early 20s, Dan was already an accomplished art director and digital…

  • Enabling Folks to Express Themselves on the Web: State of the Word 2021

    Enabling Folks to Express Themselves on the Web: State of the Word 2021

    Bring popcorn.

  • My Night With Essl

    My Night With Essl

    Herewith, a scene from last night’s interview with legendary web & book designer (and Dean of The Cooper Union School of Art) Mike Essl, who shared his portfolio, career highlights, early web design history, and…

  • Amplifying voices

    Amplifying voices

    To inspire the next generation of black and brown designers…

  • Saving Your Web Workflows with Prototyping

    Saving Your Web Workflows with Prototyping

    Our static tools and linear workflows aren’t the right fit for the flexible, diverse reality of today’s Web. Making prototyping a central element of your workflows will radically change how you approach problem solution and…

  • The Web We Lost: Luke Dorny Redesign

    The Web We Lost: Luke Dorny Redesign

    Like 90s hip-hop, The Web We Lost™ retains a near-mystical hold on the hearts and minds of those who were lucky enough to be part of it. Luke Dorny’s recent, lovingly hand-carved redesign of his…

  • Another Blue Beanie Day

    Another Blue Beanie Day

    Yesterday was the nth annual Blue Beanie Day. (I’ve lost track of what year the standardista holiday started.) I was awake at 1:00 AM on Friday night/Saturday morning, so I tweeted “Happy #BlueBeanieDay,” then slept.…

  • Expressive Design Systems

    Expressive Design Systems

    Yesenia Perez-Cruz started her career as a designer at Happy Cog Philadelphia. From the first day, her design gifts were unmistakable. As her career progressed, she moved from one challenging role to another. At companies…

  • Design Kickoff Meetings

    Design Kickoff Meetings

    Posted here for posterity: Design kickoff meetings are like first dates that prepare you for an exciting relationship with a person who doesn’t exist.

  • Authoritative, Readable, Branded: Report from Poynter Design Challenge, Part 2

    Authoritative, Readable, Branded: Report from Poynter Design Challenge, Part 2

    THIS year’s Poynter Digital Newspaper Design Challenge was an attempt by several designers and pundits, working and thinking in parallel, to save real news via design. In Part 1 of my report from Poynter, I discussed…