Thanks to Kenny over at Showdown Visual for letting me work on this project. It was a lot of fun.

Motion Designer: Nathan Gross
Director: Kenny Mosher
Written by: VMA and Rachel Mosher
A 2011 Showdown Visual Production

For your reference:
Does The Future Of The Internet Have Room For Web Designers? (original article)
I Want To Be A Web Designer When I Grow Up (follow up article)

Cameron Chapman suggests that due to the recent surge of mobile apps and other content curators (Google, Twitter, Facebook) the future for web designers is glum and that demand for web designers will wane.

It is an interesting topic and I wanted to add to the discussion with some quick thoughts:

Cameron might have had better luck with a slightly modified title: “Does the Future of the Internet Have Room for Web Design?”

Consumers will go where the best experience is. Look at the movie industry. Consumers found a better experience watching movies at home on their large HD screes, Blue Ray players, and Dolby surround sound. Theaters fought back with 3D… and now with 3D tvs at home, the battle continues. If you want to attract consumers to your website, create a better experience.

Generally, a good designer transcends multiple mediums or will evolve as necessary. If you consider yourself solely a web designer the possibility does exist that demand for you will disappear (see: typesetting).

I’m curious how that works. Is it based on other’s recent searches? Or is there some sort of a current events algorithm?

Anyway, I’m impressed.

It went something like this:

Cashier: You can rest your arms (pointing at the open spot to put down my basket).

Me: Oh, thanks.

Cashier: I like your shirt. (I was wearing my MuteMath concert T-shirt from a few years ago)

Me: Hey thanks!

After the transaction had been processed and the cashier was handing me my bag…

Cashier: Are you enjoying this weather?

Me: I sure am!

Cashier: Well continue to enjoy it…it’s beautiful!

This was a very pleasant conversation. It was nothing out of the ordinary. It was, however, authentic.

Everyone understands that customer service is an important part of doing business—especially in retail. But a trend that is starting to annoy me is when everyone at an establishment says exactly the same thing. For example, if you walk in to a Chick-fil-A, everyone says “how may I serve you” or “my pleasure.” This might seem pleasant at first but after awhile it comes off as artificial and robotic.

The lady at Trader Joe’s was speaking to me as an individual and not going by any script. And for that…I thank her.

In a post today he suggests hiring a professional—”someone who costs a lot but is worth more than they charge” or an amateur—”a talented person willing to trade income for the chance to do what he loves, with freedom rather than to get the job done.” He then goes on to warn against hiring “someone who just thinks it’s a job.”

I wanted to add to that list—consider hiring a freelancer. While freelancers can certainly fall under the professional or amateur categories, I believe they can potentially combine the best of both.

When you hire a freelancer, you typically get a professional who is very passionate about his or her line of work—you have to love what you do to take on the risk of working for yourself. An independent freelancer has their name on the line and they will generally bend over backwards to get a steady flow of work from you. A freelancer also has very little overhead, allowing you to get great value for your money, when compared to hiring an agency. Note that freelancers typically maintain a network with other freelancers that they can plug in when necessary, making them virtually as strategic and versatile as agencies.

On July 22nd I was fired from my full time job (I will probably write more about this topic later).

I immediately set up my portfolio on Cargo. I also set up accounts on various sites like Behance, Elance, Facebook and others. I’m still in the process of updating all my portfolio sites. I can tell already it’s going to be a pain to manage multiple portfolios. I may have to think about which sites I keep updated.

I reached out to some previous clients and some potential new ones. I talked to a lot of family and friends. My mom and dad have been very helpful. I got a lot of support and advice.

By the 26th I was up and running my own freelance business.

I have since landed a few clients and I continue working on a freelance basis with my previous employer. There is still a lot to do and people to call but things really seem to be falling into place.

Today I freshened up the blog with a new look. I downloaded the free theme called Modernist by Rodrigo Galindez. I made a few changes to the color and typography. While it’s not my design, I am very happy with it. I’ll probably keep tweaking it as I learn the ins and outs of a WordPress theme. When I feel I have it figured out I’ll probably create my own.

I plan to make regular updates to this blog. Please stay tuned.

All in all, things are good.

Finder can now “Quick Look” Adobe Illustrator files (as long as they are saved with the default PDF preview turned on). I’m not sure why this didn’t work in 10.5 since Preview.app could already preview similar .ai files. Anyway, this makes me happy.

In screen sharing the thumbnail window is now a live preview. Before it seemed to just be a screen shot from the last moment you were in that window. The live thumbnail is great for several reasons. For example, you can see when a file transfer is completed without having to switch back and forth between local and remote full screens.

This works great for keeping my work iTunes synced up with my home iTunes. I just bring in my laptop every few days and sync it up. I wish they would add the ability to sync play counts and ratings.

I’m curious how it will work with mp3′s that have had the ID3 tags modified from one library to another.