Work in Progress – The Life of A Designer

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In my 14 years of design I’ve learned that it embodies so many different things, from production to art direction to branding and coding all against constant deadlines. I ended up repurposing some of the artwork from my “Killing Time” piece and have been working on a semi-self portrait. Got a little too excited about starting the coloring so I need to finish the line work! Still not sure how to place the CSS. Seems off. Lots and lots of work needs to be done on the hair and line work!

 

/*Hello, World! */

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Adventures In Coding Land

Adventures in coding. I’ve always known how to code. Ever since I “acquired” my very first mac running Mac OS 9 and Illustrator 14 among others I taught myself at an early age I also taught myself HTML. Of course, back then harkens back to the days before CSS and the copious use of iFrames *shudder*. Increasingly, I’ve noticed that employers have started to require some level of HTML/CSS in their requirements for jobs and even more so some even PHP and JavaScript *double suddder*. When did web design and graphic design start to converge? Even though I taught myself JavaScript and can make my way through PHP in order to read the very words you’re seeing at this moment. It’s not that I consider myself a crotchety old designer– I built this site using a CMS (WordPress) and styled and got it working through JavaScript.

Lately I’ve been taking online courses for JavaScript and I noticed something: I started to have that same “tetris effect” (look it up it’s a real thing) I do when I’m knee deep into a project where my sleep is inhabited with thoughts of constant problem solving. Sometimes I’ve even solved complex problems that way. I always told in school: “most people are better at design, some are better at development, but never both.” Well, unfortunately, the times they are a-changing to borrow from Dylan and like a surgeon being expected to know how to tailor a well-made suit, a designer is now expected to develop.

Here’s what I hope for 2017:
Finishing up unfinished projects (huzzuh!)
Updating my stale portfolio from 2016
Starting to learn some compiler based programming (C++ or more likely Objective C so I can start programming in Swift)
Start developing my own iOS apps.

Not All Those Who Wander Are Lost

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My travel partner and I decided to pursue our long-time dream of seeing the world. This will be the place for all of our family and loved ones to keep track of where we are in the world during our time 3 months exploring our dreams. A wise man once said:

“All that is gold does not glitter, Not all those who wander are lost; The old that is strong does not wither, Deep roots are not reached by the frost. From the ashes a fire shall be woken, A light from the shadows shall spring; Renewed shall be blade that was broken, The crownless again shall be king.”

OUR TENTATIVE DESTINATIONS

Moscow
St.Petersburg
Istanbul
Athens
Vienna
Paris
England
Madrid
Spain

During the course of our journey, we will both be updating our blog here with pictures and descriptions of the foods we’re tasting, characters that we will be meeting and unforgettable sights that we shall surely see. I hope that through this blog we will be able to give a taste of our dream so others may pursue their passions and know just how big of a place life and this Earth has to offer. I hope that through this document that this will be our testament to our journey across the world and the personal growth within ourselves.

– Nate Rhys