Here’s yet another interesting thing coming from the Google labs. This could get interesting for all you type-heads.

Since we live in an era of a select few web-safe fonts that the entire interwebs can enjoy, this might as well be a breath of cool fresh air.

So, I’ve recently been introduced to Google’s Font API. Simply put, it’s an interesting API that lets you use a hand full of non-web-standard fonts that happen to be hosted by them. All that can be achieved by  plopping in some Google code snippets.

So, they’re hosting the fonts?

Hey, good news for us! It sure is a decent alternative to font-replacement tools currently out there, it looks pretty stable and it’s seemingly easy to install, include, and use. Above all that and it’s very quick to load! Since the fonts from the directory are all released under open source and since they’re coming straight from the designers themselves, you can avoid possible copyright and license issues. Only thing I need to really verify is seeing if the whole thing is browser friendly.

Having said that, all I need to do now is do some good ol’ experimentation…

Albeit their directory of fonts is a little limited, I think it still beats the select few fonts that are widely available to 99.98% of the public. I’m sure the Google font folder is going to grow over time.

If it’s a worthy replacement to the font replacement tools we have right now? I personally don’t think so. Both this API and all other font-replacements have their pros and cons, issues and advantages. You’re probably better off trying all of them out to see what suits you or your project most.

I for one really do enjoy the choice of fonts they have in their directory. Fonts used for the body of this entry is Droid Sans, the one used for the quote above happens to go by the name of Lobster.

What ever that gold may be. It can be your line of work, your schooling, beliefs, thoughts, dreams, you name it.

Okay now, here’s what I learned.

There are those people who like the spotlight that follows the hunt for the gold. They enjoy the glamor and mystery it comes with and try to follow in the footsteps of successful people from the past. They adorn themselves with the (supposedly) correct attire. They get their equipment and clothes dirty and try to break in to the proper circles, and pose for photos at famous digging sites just to be seen. Heck, they even choose to take part in classes, visit conferences, join seminars and junkets, all that for all the wrong reasons. The only thing they are doing is looking the part, without breaking out a shovel. At the end of the day they are satisfied by deceiving most of the people they meet along their way.

On the other hand , there are those who are neck deep in the trenches, getting cut and bruised deep inside the mines, or way underneath sea level tirelessly and relentlessly digging. You might even call it an obsession with their chosen path in life. They don’t care about the bright lights and/or groupies. They are in Love with the struggle. They are fully aware of the sacrifices they have to make in order to find what they are looking for. Often they come up empty and yet they dust themselves off and pull themselves up, just to fail over and over again.  Even after all that, they still keep going.

These are two people on the exact same path, but they are light years away from each other.

I know which one of the two I want to be.

Since the iPhone 3GS just hit the shelves at the time, I basically switched away and grabbed me one and never looked back. Although since then, I really haven’t stopped keeping an eye on the Android Market.

So, if there is anything other than battery life that I wish to see improved in 2010, it should be an overhaul of the Android Market experience.

“Let’s get sh*t done”

In that one month of owning the Dream with Android baked in, I actually wasn’t interested in getting me the few games that were available. I immediately gravitated to all the lifehacks, to-do lists, instant messengers, you name it. For some odd reason it was a natural move staying away from their games. I guess that’s the feel the phone comes with, almost like “let’s get sh*t done”. I even had it tracking my jogging distances and all that for free and no extra gizmos to pay for and tack on to it!

All the free applications were brilliant and great to use, some may have had slight to major usability issues or a mildly confusing UI but I’m guessing that could easily be fixed once more interface folks jump on.

Purchase could be more fun

From my experience, the process of buying a paid application is by far not as quick and easy as that of the iPhone. For instance, I had a free promo application that would deadlink me to the location of the paid version. So, there I was standing in front if an empty page willing to pay. Since I was a little bit under time pressure that day, I decided to take care of it later, but as it was I completely forgot about it.

Also, I really haven’t figured out if I was able to have one master account that I can purchase with (i.e. like on the App Store), or would I have to make individual purchases every time? Purchasing can’t be easier through Google Checkout…

One thing for me is definite, the experience of the Android Market needs a lot more spit & polish, therefore it still has ways to go to capture the attention of Jane and Joe Average. There is a reason why the App purchases on iTunes are soaring – it’s fast, simple, and safe. If I see one of my friends using a crazy app, I just jump on to the App Store and get it. We shouldn’t really be surprised about the amount of iFart apps that are being downloaded on a daily basis. It’s easy grab hold of and widely available.

Having said that, I loved the applications I got from the Android Market, albeit 99.6% were free or sharewares and mainly consisted of lifehacks and work related tools. In comparison to my iPhone collection, I’ve got 4 game/entertainment apps to every 1 work related app.

As a general user – and possibly even a future Android owner, again – I’m hoping they’ll clean up and improve the experience and make it easier to purchase applications, if they want to put a dent and make an impact on the App Store.

But then again, who says that is the goal of the Android Market? The folks who generally buy an Android phone, already know how to code their own applications on it.

The Market is fairly young and as it seems it’s got a lot of room to grow, let’s see the future has in store for us…

Well, yes of course there are the difficult times everyone has to get through. But talking from the perspective of a freelance web designer – who went through his fair share of droughts – there are also those bright and sunny sides that get shoved to the back. It’s those inspiring times where you say “Hey, this ain’t as bad as everyone keeps telling me…”

Too many cooks ain’t always bad

In huge companies you also get to talk to people (aside from the Art Lead) who directly affect your work but don’t necessarily have to be web or graphic designers. For example the marketing and sales people, programmers or information architects who you usually pass on your mocks to for inspections and quality assurances. They often see layouts and designs in a different light or spot things you may have missed out since you were busy getting lost in the thick of thins. It’s always interesting having things viewed from a different perspective. Eye opening? Probably. But you get to see things outside the view of being a designer for a change.

Of course you may or my not disagree with some suggestions but ultimately it could improve the product, which is the site, as well as broadening your sense of perspective and creative process as a designer just that little bit more.

“In-House != Creativity?” I don’t think so.

Depending on which big company you’d be working for you may have to adhere to certain in-house creative rules such as what logos and wordmarks to include, colour themes, where to place what, look & feel or other factors. Basically a hand few of things that possibly could dampen your creative process… Only if you want it to have that negative effect on you.

I believe the creative part is in the process of finding solutions, which means including all the needed elements combined with your personal touch, what ever that may be. Nothing is more satisfying when marrying solution with the project’s requirements and adding your personal touch to it. Everyone involved is going to be happy. Above all the good ol’ clients will be quite pleased, too when everything goes according to project reqs.

Some may say…

Starting out in “the web design game”, I constantly read sad and depressed folks in huge design companys and how they’d rather work for places like kioken (at the time) or ad agencies, all of which put me into the wrong mindset of believing corporate is evil and long live the freedom of creativity. Approximately four years ago, after a few droughts and more education on how money works in the real world, did I give a corporate design gig a try for the first time.

Hell yeah it was difficult to start with, but which job isn’t? The constant pressure forced me to think and design differently and the high paced environment help me find the quickest and best solutions to problems. Those newly found experiences follow me around to this day.

Long story short

All I’m trying to say here is that corporate graphic and/or web designing can also be a great alternative to freelance or agency work and it doesn’t necessarily have to be the ugly step sister and last choice you’d have to resort to. There is also a wealth of knowledge to be found in that side of the industry.On

There are those projects where you believe (emphasize: believe) that it’s got no potential to become a portfolio piece, all creative juice goes stale and suddenly you have a heavy feeling in your gut as you begin to work on it. Hell yeah, I’ve been down that road a gazillion times.

It’s all in the mind..

Yes. Or at least that’s what I believe. For instance, after working on a huge project, learning new ideas from the senior designers and info architects, peeking the newest CSS work-arounds from the programmers.

All our mocks got sent of for sign-off and green lights. There comes that waiting period where I get placed on a project in which I’ll have to build two dozen ads in different sizes. For you sales folk those would be big boxes, skyscrapers.

Specs I received were basically to fit in stock images with a huge body of text. A very tedious and repetitive project. My mind kept wondering off to that one cool project that’s “so awesome, and it would look sweet in your portfolio.” At the same time thinking of having to create around some 12 ad units times 2, feels like having to climbing the Himalayas.

The Difficulty / The Challenge

It was exactly that challenging feeling that got me down and bored out of my mind. “Dude, seriously? 24 ads? ” I felt myself sinking deeper into my seat.  It got me thinking… What if this was the project I will be judged by down the ages? What if this were the last ever project I’ll ever work on?

So I sat up and popped on my iPod and started looking for the cleanest way to layout the text and best place to add the graphics. After that I looked for the fastest and most efficient way to replicate the look & feel on the rest of the 22 ads, keep in mind not all ads were to have the same text and graphics being that those were ad units to be shown in different provinces of Canada… Six days later, I finished. Man, a huge rock just fell off my shoulders. Although they didn’t really turn out to be the greatest ad units on earth, I could look back and say I gave what I had to complete those.

It was exactly that feeling of difficulty that gave me the drive to see the challenge in it. The challenge being able to overcome the procrastination and follow through. Or beating a tedious job simply by seeing it as my last shot that had to count.

If I was to overcome this simple yet repetitive project, how much effort will I be able to put into a project that really catches your passion and drive?

I’ll just come right out and say it. Boring/tough projects are a good way to build creative character, as corny as it sounds… Not sure if it’s true, but I sure feel that way. It’s exactly that feeling that usually gets me through.

Quick note right here. This post has been inspired by a chapter in Paul Arden’s It’s Not How Good You Are, It’s How Good You Want to Be A truly life changing book.

I’ve pretty much been stuck in front of some sort of monitor for many many hours on end. Sometimes I get the feeling 24 hours is not enough for everything I want/need to accomplish… There. I said it. I’ve been hearing that quote a million times, now I get to actually say with all honesty!

Yep, now it’s time to kick back and rest since my Time Capsule is backing up my entire drive…

Basically instead of dishing out for an iPhone, effectively giving a leg and an arm for it (on a monthly basis) I thought I’d invest in a new back-up drive. The last one I had was a basic 250gb external HDD firewire and backed up by Time Machine. Well, that one got fried by a split-second energy surge. Tried a couple of progs and apps to win back my old backups – 8 months worth to be exact.

All said and done, I didn’t experience any terrible file losses or lost documents in the few weeks I had to go without. I finally made up my mind and went and got myself the 500GB Time Capsule, which is backing up my files since this morning at 6am as we speak.

Second on my list would have been the MyBook 1TB Office Edition, actually. Actually had a difficult time getting one… No turning back now. Pretty happy with my Time Capsule so far. Now I can get to finally backup my MBPro at the same time.

Pretty important to have a major backup system like the Time Machine as a graphic designer though. Sometimes I overwrite files while working on them, busy beating the deadline. Some important assests get rasterized, cropped or deleted. Good thing I just need to “jump back in time” and pull it back out.

Speaking of lack for updates… I think I should go with twitter someday instead…

It’s been a year since I’ve made my first ever real ad unit (Sky Scraper) – and I never knew how much thought and work is put into an ad.

Behind the Scene

It’s quite a small space and a short period of time to work with, you’ll receive a “novel” of a copy to place (I’m just kidding my copywriting brethren, I still love you!), you have the imagery or materials to include and you basically should have only less than 2 seconds to really capture the users attention – and how many times have you been really intrigued by an ad unit…. and I mean REALLY intrigued? And I don’t mean those Apple ads with the Mac and PC guy going through their usual conversation like the ad on the tele. There’s no copy to read on it so that’s cheating, just playing, I love it.

Wax-on, Wax-off

It is a challenge working on an ad that really has to hit the mark while maintaining the target deadline. In that small confined space creativity gets stifled really quick – But I can tell you one thing, after working on an ad, working on a site layout suddenly isn’t as difficult as it seemed initially… It seemed like sort of a creative warm-up or exercise.

Ever since creating my first online advertisement, I browse yahoo!, MSN or CNN (or the other news websites for that matter) I actually enjoy watching and analyzing the art work and finesse other designers have in placing the copy that has been handed to them together with the images and graphics they are supplied with.

Having said that, ads are little inspiring creative snacks on the side, for me when they are well done!

I was actually glad to read that another designer also chose to get up early in the morning to work on personal artworks and projects. And I’m not talking about deciding to or not to get out of bed at 6 a.m. I’m talking about 04:00 hours. The time some people come home from a night out. Or the time bakers in the old world are already awake and baking the nth batch of fresh bread.

Up until this day, every time I mention that to people around me they’d think I’m a little desperate and should re-schedule my time, since “If you love something, you’ll always find time for it.” Yup it’s true, but hey sometimes your battery is just drained at the end of a long and fruitful day. And guess what, I found the time!

Going all the way back, the first time I tried hopping out of bed at four in the morning was back in my school days, just to get some homework done. And then of course I stopped after leaving school — A couple of months back though, I got up to hit the road for a couple rounds of jogging. I was standing at the front door, that’s when I noticed the world around me was just silent, streets were empty and I only could hear a bird or two twittering in the distance. You could say the atmosphere was like past midnight and your standing in the dark, in the middle of the living room.

After that I just had to try out working on a few projects, since I was desperately looking for time to work on some artworks. Getting through a long day and coming home, the only thing you sometimes want to do is just get to some video gaming or you end up watching some reality show you’d usually hate to watch.

That one morning I got down to some work on personal sites and ideas I had swimming in my head. And guess what? As if everything just happened magically, new ideas started emerging – they weren’t the greatest but I was thinking about the projects and artworks in front of me. Not that I’m saying the pieces I was working on turned out to be some kick-ass portfolio piece. But what really happened is I was actually was able to work on some personal stuff for the first time in a long while and I had the time to experiment and play. Something I haven’t done in ages.

I’m not really sure if it was a fluke, oddly enough on those days I got up early to work on my stuff, the ideas at the office came easier.

Let’s just say waking up early and being “creative” is like the warm-up before you get to the actual work-out. Instead of jumping in to warm-up-mode at 8:58a.m. when you enter the office, you’re actually already run-in and ready to tackle the problems of the day.

Yes, of course if you don’t go to bed early enough and you pull something off like that, you are bound to be really burnt out at the end of the day. Trust me I’ve been down that road once too many, but that’s not something Redbull can’t fix…