A Bit About Nate
Ok. First, I'm not as into myself as I might first seem. The third person reference is there because maybe it helps search optimization. Who knows.
For the most part I'm pretty laid-back. Easy going. I'm not a very dedicated exerciser (check out my WalkerTracker Badge on my blog). I enjoy golfing thanks to a co-worker of mine. It's about as much as I'm willing to step into the corporate world. And I also will try go get out and fly fish, mountain bike, hike, and garden.
In the last two years my wife's convinced me to finally travel to other parts of our world. These trips have taken us to Barcelona (where above, I'm looking a bit scruffy on the waterfront), Budapest, Prague, and Vienna. And I know in the back of our minds, we're planning another trip - just not sure how soon.
Thanks for stopping by. And if you have any ideas, or projects you'd like to work on together, send me an email, or call.
A Little Design Philosphy
Such a Thing as Good Design
I believe, in general, that good design is above just being about taste and asthetics. Design is first about effective communication. Style comes in a distant second. I say that a lot. It's probably because I have to constantly remind myself of this simple point. A flyer on a message board is good design if it looks honest and communicates the right message. The annual report that presents a dazzling array of information that's learned to be fraudulent is bad design.
Of course, no one would ever hire a designer to create that flyer for posting at the local market. They'd be crazy to. It's quite likely a designer would botch up the job and the phone number on the pull tabs would be set in 6 pt type — too small to read unless printed on a high-end press.
What a good designer does do and the reason that companies hire designers in the first place, is to communicate messages bigger than the local flyer, messages like a corporate brand, or a million-dollar ad campaign, messages that will resonate, that if stated imporperly, can cost millions, or if it resonates, could make tens of millions.
A Designer is More Than Machine
As a practioner in the field, it's often easy to get caught up in the latest software release, or new technology. Being able to make something happen that other's can't, boosts the ego, can pad a few extra bucks to the hourly, and let's be honest, it's fun to put on the resume. However, the designer is more than a machine, and regardless of what technology offers, design is also heavily involved in fields that pertain more human habit, behavior and quirks. This requires that the designer also be adept in psychology, philosophy, history, as well as have a good dash of empathy for the audience. The ability to reach for these softer skills and deliver — that's what makes a good designer stand out.
About NateCreates.com
A Love for Newsprint
My background is newspapers. And I love newsprint. Unfortunately the daily is dying. No one depends on the newspaper for news anymore.
The influence of on-line news sites on the design of NateCreates.com is obvious. I spend time every day at cnn.com. I like the functionality of CNN.com. And hopefully my site retains the same functionality. Although they currently have a beta version available, and if this is where they're headed, I'm sad. The type is much too small.
NateCreates a Name
The name for my site and my enterprise was inspired by a college classmate of mine, Devante (responsible for the poster and type design on the Ulsan portfolio piece.) His site, devantedesign.com, which features some great work, inspired me to come up with "Nate Creates." (I always thought it was devantedesigns.com but whatever.) The fact that all the other good domain names were taken sometime back in '97 helped as well.
Shameless Self-promoting Name Spurs Similar Tone
The name NateCreates led to the style, the logo, the concept. Kicked off by a like for Victorian circus ads, I made a first attempt at designing the hand-drawn logo (see version 1 below.) I showed this version to one of the guys at The Felt Hat where I had interned for a short time. His stated, "I'd never hire you to design that," and promptly gave me a few reasons why. Let's just say, I left bruised and for the better. After this brutal critque of my logo, and one hundred hours of sweat over Bezier Curve hell, I finally reached something I liked. I've been employed steady ever since, although you won't find hand-drawn Victorian-style logos in my list of services.
Tired Old Flash Sites are Bad for Designers
Something that seems to happen with sites in Flash is they can't grow, or at least they don't grow gracefully old. This may be changing with the move toward Flex2 and the development of application-like RIAs (Rich Internet Applications).
For most of us designers though, Flash is a container that sits. Designers of Flash sites seem to forget — the web is going to be around for a while. That's one reason you won't see my site based in Flash like so many other designers, or design firms.
Don't take this wrong. Flash has some merit. You'll even find bits and pieces of Flash in this site. It can make for a very emersive experience but when the next newest rave hits the internet, the Flash site is still emersed in itself. So if you're looking for something Flashy, check out a sample of my work. There's some examples of what I can do. But if you call to hire me to do Flash, I'll be the first to warn against that direction — at least as a platform.
Anyway, I hope you've enjoy your visit to my site, and always check back.