Monsters Etcetera

The joys of co-working spaces. Sam Bennett with mustache.

Wed, 25 Apr 2012 15:30:47 -0400

The joys of co-working spaces. Sam Bennett with mustache.

"Put down the megaphone. Stop ruining content so you can make a few pennies off of wasting my time,..."

Wed, 11 Apr 2012 10:06:58 -0400

“Put down the megaphone. Stop ruining content so you can make a few pennies off of wasting my time, and look into the other option: sponsorships. A few, non-intrusive words from a person that I trust is more effective than the most brilliantly designed banner ad. If we, as an industry, are going to survive, we need to get sponsors.”

- Nathaniel Mott (pandodaily)

"Ask yourself what you would do if nobody paid you. What makes you feel fulfilled and excited?..."

Tue, 20 Mar 2012 10:10:25 -0400

“Ask yourself what you would do if nobody paid you. What makes you feel fulfilled and excited? Whatever that is, do it.”

- Dana Tanamachi (The Great Discontent)

Tina and I have done every TGD interview together since we...

Wed, 15 Feb 2012 20:42:21 -0500

Tina and I have done every TGD interview together since we launched in August of last year; except for this interview with Rosie Thomas. It was a phone call so we decided it would be best for her to fly solo. She did a great job and the interesting thing is, I got a different perspective out of it. I always read through the interview before laying it out and this was the first one where I actually didn’t know what was in it, which was really exciting. I got to experience a little of what our readers experience.

We’ve been fans of Rosie’s for several years so it’s a real treat to include her on our site. She’s one of the most endearing people and I think you’ll really enjoy learning about her…

TGD: Rosie Thomas →

"The products that take design seriously and incorporate it from the start are going to be the ones..."

Wed, 25 Jan 2012 09:25:00 -0500

“The products that take design seriously and incorporate it from the start are going to be the ones that connect with people in a way that really makes an impact in the world. As more and more products are built in this manner, people are going to notice the pattern. Designers will be seen as an essential ingredient in any startup team. The perception of design as decoration will start to show cracks.”

- Cameron Koczon (An Important Time for Design)

The whole article is a must read.

One of my favorite up-and-coming indie artists is Ivana XL and...

Tue, 10 Jan 2012 09:00:23 -0500

One of my favorite up-and-coming indie artists is Ivana XL and we had the honor of interviewing her over at TGD. There is a lot to like about this interview but the highlight for me is this quote (when we asked her if she had an “aha” moment with music):

When I was about 20, I had my first break-up and went to our place in Italy to get myself together. I was completely devastated, love-sick, the whole thing. So I was playing guitar in my room and I guess I sort of stopped thinking about what I was doing and this song just came out in like two minutes: “The News”. Ever since then, it’s felt completely natural to write. Writing music is the best therapy. That was the moment when I thought, “Okay, this is what I’m going to do.”

Read the interview over at TGD →

"There are always excuses. There will always be obstacles. It takes conviction and resolve,..."

Tue, 27 Dec 2011 13:33:25 -0500

“There are always excuses. There will always be obstacles. It takes conviction and resolve, oftentimes mixed with a bit of madness, to move forward.”

- Me (from my Revolution.is story)

It’s not every day that you get an opportunity to chat...

Tue, 20 Dec 2011 09:34:00 -0500

It’s not every day that you get an opportunity to chat with a well-known music artist, especially one that’s extremely honest, down-to-earth, and generous with his time. Tina sums it up best why this was a special interview for us:

“Bazan’s Strange Negotiations came out in May 2011 and was on heavy rotation for us the rest of the summer—the summer of The Great Discontent. We spent those months working late into the evenings with music playing and the windows open; the warm, humid air rolled in around us as we talked, dreamt, hoped, questioned, and made something. We launched TGD in August and Negotiations is a reminder of the months leading up to publishing our first interview. When David agreed to talk with us, we were stoked. It seemed fitting that he would round out our 2011 lineup…”

Yes, we had the honor of talking with David Bazan for our final interview of 2011. It’s a long one, so grab a coffee and settle in or save it for later…

TGD: David Bazan →

(Photo by Laura Musselman)

One of my favorite things about doing The Great Discontent is...

Tue, 13 Dec 2011 10:27:00 -0500

One of my favorite things about doing The Great Discontent is getting to interview people that I look up to creatively. This week is no exception. Dan Cassaro (aka Young Jerks) is one of my favorite typography-focused designers. I love how his sense of humor and love for music comes across in his work. On top of that, Dan’s a great guy to boot so do yourself a favor and go read his interview…

TGD: Dan Cassaro →

(Photo by Niamh O’Hara with design/type by Dan Cassaro)

If you’re a photographer you’ll really want to check...

Tue, 06 Dec 2011 14:12:26 -0500

If you’re a photographer you’ll really want to check out this week’s TGD interview. We had the pleasure of interviewing the very talented Eric Ryan Anderson and it turned out great.

The above photo was taken by Eric’s wife, Amy, in lovely Brooklyn. Lately I’ve been veering away from web fonts for the header, and it’s made things a little more interesting. I’ve been able to be more creative without eating up a boatload of time. If someone could make the text in this photo work in CSS3 I would be quite impressed.

TGD: Eric Ryan Anderson →

Last bit of news for the day… Duet.me launched this...

Tue, 29 Nov 2011 19:39:00 -0500

Last bit of news for the day… Duet.me launched this morning. I had the pleasure of realigning the original teaser site by Dan Rubin. Go check out the site and download the app. It’s totally rad.

Again, the site is responsive.

The new crushlovely.com launched today, which I had the pleasure...

Tue, 29 Nov 2011 19:35:00 -0500

The new crushlovely.com launched today, which I had the pleasure of designing and developing along with the team at Crush.

And yes, it’s responsive.

Had some fun with this week’s TGD header piece. Photo by...

Tue, 29 Nov 2011 19:22:33 -0500

Had some fun with this week’s TGD header piece. Photo by Mike Bullock and design by me.

Go and read Phil’s interview. It’s really interesting…

This photo by Carrie Levy of Mandy Brown for The Great...

Tue, 22 Nov 2011 11:23:00 -0500

This photo by Carrie Levy of Mandy Brown for The Great Discontent is awesome on so many levels and the interview matches the photo’s greatness in every way…

TGD: Mandy Brown →

Eric White is one of my favorite contemporary artists. As my...

Tue, 15 Nov 2011 10:02:02 -0500

Eric White is one of my favorite contemporary artists. As my wife so eloquently put it, “Eric’s paintings are rich with nostalgia, meticulously executed, and hauntingly surreal.” On top of that, Eric is extremely down to earth and humble, which is rare for an artist that has garnered as much attention as he has. As we interviewed Eric we were glued to our screens, soaking up his stories and wisdom. We are truly honored to have this interview on the site and stoked that he is from our home state of Michigan.

TGD: Eric White →

I feel quite honored to have Food Sense (foodsense.is), a client...

Fri, 04 Nov 2011 14:57:00 -0400

I feel quite honored to have Food Sense (foodsense.is), a client site I finished back in July, featured in .net Magazine as their Mobile Site of Month (October 2011 #220).

We had the honor of interviewing Matt Stevens almost a month ago...

Tue, 01 Nov 2011 14:21:55 -0400

We had the honor of interviewing Matt Stevens almost a month ago for TGD. During the entire interview I couldn’t help but overwhelmed by the sheer amount of wisdom in Matt’s words. The kind of wisdom only gained through years of experience. The underlying theme: create your own momentum. It’s easy to make excuses. It’s hard to put in late nights and the extra effort it takes to build momentum. But once the ball starts rolling…

Most of us know Matt because of that momentum. His Dunkin’ Donuts rebrand and Max100 Project are testaments to the fact that a creative idea and a lot of hard work can go a long way.

Read the interview: TGD: Matt Stevens →

"Thing is, designing an iPad app shouldn’t be “just like designing a print product.” It’s not the..."

Tue, 01 Nov 2011 14:03:20 -0400

“Thing is, designing an iPad app shouldn’t be “just like designing a print product.” It’s not the same design you want to bring to new platforms, it’s the content. Issue-based publishing puts a straitjacket on digital content, freezing it into a big arbitrary block of pages and articles, sealed with print metaphors. This approach privileges print and its design conventions, imposing them on new platforms. And why should that be the case? Looking out five or ten years, will print be the winner among these platforms? Nope. So why should we rely on print’s design conventions and workflows now?”

- — Josh Clark at Global Moxie

Wise words.

"The bottom line is, if you swipe your BankSimple card at a store and you don’t have enough money in..."

Wed, 26 Oct 2011 12:30:00 -0400

“The bottom line is, if you swipe your BankSimple card at a store and you don’t have enough money in your account, the transaction is simply declined and no fee is charged.”

- from The $36 soda: Overdrafting in America

This is how it should be everywhere.

Custom illustration by E.W. Thomason for TGD. I had a lot of...

Tue, 25 Oct 2011 10:11:39 -0400

Custom illustration by E.W. Thomason for TGD.

I had a lot of fun working with E.W.’s illustrations this past week when laying out the interview. They are all so detailed and whimsical and beautiful… I just can’t get enough of them and feel totally honored to have E.W. on the site. Not only is the work great but the interview itself is equally wonderful and very insightful. We had so many great pull quotes but had to restrain ourselves. Go read it, seriously.

TGD: E.W. Thomason →