US:
Small interactive design agency specializing in forward-thinking solutions, specifically in the mobile/social realm,
to help our clients engage their audience in new and exciting ways. We’re also incredibly passionate about what we do,
and we bring that passion to every aspect of our work.

YOU:
Keen eye for design and design translation across multiple platforms.
A strong passion for digital creative.
Experience with all things Mobile and the desire to learn as this medium evolves.
Experience leading other creatives or working closely with a group of creatives.
Background in the development/coding process (actual development skills a HUGE bonus, but not required).
3-5 years experience in the interactive/digital industry.
Strong communication skills.
Self-Motivated.
Team oriented, willing to work in a highly collaborative/flexible environment.
Appreciate the ancient art of Karaoke.

All interested individuals should email a copy of their resume (PDF is always nice) and a link to their Website* to jobs [at] sevnthsin.com
We will contact you to arrange an interview time, please do not email more than once.
Please no phone calls.
Do not “pop-in” †

* Website absolutely necesary.

MORE: HTTP://JOBS.SEVNTHSIN.COM

On the book:
We discussed several useful aspects of the book. In general the consensus was that it would be a book we would keep on a nearby shelf for reference. It has lots of good reminders and several pieces of advice that could be boiled down to useful checklists. The details were popular, things like forms are very relevant to a designers daily life and Hoekman has some solid and thoughtful advice, especially his advice on making the forms more friendly and human. The simple things we forget when in the middle of a project are listed in black and white. People also remarked on the usability of the book and how that contributed to the likelihood it would be kept handy. You could find information based on the book design. It had easily identifiable chapter cover pages with large lettering. It also included a great index and clear chapter titles. The size and form factor were easy to physically manage and allowed for quick access to content.

On our discussions
Other than the book, we got into a discussion about wireframes. An ongoing dilemma for the UX designer, we discussed the appropriate level of detail for a wireframe. I recommended a post by Will Evans of SemanticFoundry that talks about them as Thinking Device.

Resources
We shared some additional resources:

Yahoo Stencils for Visio and Omnigraffle
EightShapes Unify Design System
Userability Design Frameworks podcast with Robert J. Hoekman Jr. (our book author) and Jared Spool

We discussed Hoekman and Jared Spool’s thoughts around design frameworks and systems in general. We also talked about prototyping. In the end it all gets very specific and contextual. We then discussed next steps for deciding a June book. I have two thoughts. Since wireframes came up and we spent some time there, Communicating Design by Dan Brown seems like a nice next book. The second thought, Seth Godin came up several times because 1) Hoekman references him frequently and 2) he is the keynote speaker at the 2009 MIMA Summit. So his new book, Tribes, is also a good one for the group this year.

Maybe we do both in that order. Let me know your thoughts in the comments on this page.

Big Thanks!
A big thanks goes out to Ivan Stegic of Ten Seven Interactive, maker of Periscope Gadget – the first ever app to integrate multiple Basecamp and Highrise account into your homepage, directly in Gmail and on your Windows Desktop using Google Gadgets. Jennifer Bohmbach was the very lucky winner of the Wilde Roast gift card.

Considering Amazon doesn’t have a retail store front where physical products – the product’s packaging doesn’t need to be marketing or theft-proof.

A round of applause for Amazon for coming up with this innovation and for having the pull with manufacturers to implement it.

Not only does this save frustration, it also uses fewer materials, less ink, is easier to dispose of. Overall less energy across the board. It’s also a fantastic example of how Amazon is completing with physical retailers by not replicating them.

“Aaron Weiche of Five [Technology] wanted a home for the great web design work close to home here in Minnesota.”

There are only 14 designers listed in their directory, so, I encourage all of you to add yourselves and those designers whose work you love, same for blogs².

1. I’m hoping this isn’t just part of their heavy SEO campaign visible on the fivetechnology.com site, e.g. linking the phrase ‘Minneapolis, Minnesota area web design’ to yourself….yeah, um, could you at least link it to Websota. kthxbye.

2. Cullect – one of my projects – has an number of reading lists aggregating Minnesota-based blogs in a number of categories. Minnesota Design, MN Local, Twin Cities are just a few.

In it Cooper promotes the use of archetypical descriptions of people, Personas, to keep the software development team focused on the customer.

That was 10 years ago.

This was before Twitter, Flickr, Facebook, Amazon reviews, WordPress.com. Before so many people began publishing their experiences, wants, desires, and honest feelings online publicly.

Today, we don’t need to make up people (even if they’re a composite of real), real ones are easy to find. For example, H&R Block is on Twitter currently with 346 followers.

Not frozen urban beasts – living, breathing, complex people with continually updating timelines.

People. That use software.

Here’s an example:

“On Sun registration form: “Company/Organization (Please, no abbreviations)” – but it allows only 30 chars, too short for my employer name.” – afongen

Can’t make this up.

Contact Jonathan Dahl for more information.

Or, more likely, it can be explained via the second interesting number: 28%. That’s the number of people that reported that they’ve calculated their hourly rate via an actual formula. The rest appeared to either ‘guess randomly’ or based it on the rest of the folks out there (which is a bad idea when a majority seem to guess randomly).

This is scary. Graphic Design is a business, and, ultimately, while we all may want to change the world, we’re really doing it to make a living. And if we ever hope to change the world via graphic design, we better stay in business long enough to do it.

Many years ago, I volunteered for the AIGA’s Portfolio One-on-One event as one of the event planners. During the actual event where students got to ask a panel of professional designers questions (a group of people I either knew personally, or had great respect for), we ended up with the inevitable nervous lull as the students ran out of questions. I figured I’d help things move along by tossing out a question about salaries. I was immediately rebuffed by the panel for being so uncouth as to mention things like ‘getting paid’ as being a concern that recent grads should be worried about.

Which was a bit of a shock.

Ultimately, there seems to be a huge gap in design education these days. I don’t recall having one single business class requirement. Which is a bit ironic, as graphic design, for the most part, is about serving business.

So, if you are a new graduate, or even a long term professional that just hasn’t gotten around to it…be SURE to site down for a half hour with a cup of coffee and run the numbers to find your hourly rate. Until you do so, you really have no idea if you’re making living at it. ;o)

www.cva.edu/gallery/gallery_shows_coming.htm

Coinciding with that will be the AIGA Annual Design Exhibition at the CVA Gallery thru November 24, with the opening reception on November 2. (anyone know the gallery hours?)

The family headed out to their favorite place the other night…B&N. I usually hang out in the kids section where the Thomas the Train set is while the missus does her thing.

Which is just fine, as any graphic designer knows that the ‘cool’ books are all in the kids section.

A few new ones that caught my eye the other day:

Star Wars: A Pop-Up Guide to the Galaxy

My 6 year old is now getting into the whole Star Wars thing (the ORIGINAL trilogy, mind you…not that crappy thing that came out a few years ago). As such, this book caught both of our eyes. This is perhaps the most complex pop-up book I’ve ever seen. Each page consists of an elaborate, highly engineered pop-up, along with 5 mini-pop-ups of equal complexity. A bonus is the lightsabers…they actually light up! A fun book for a Star Wars fan and a must-have for anyone fascinated by the ‘paper arts’.

Artist to Artist: 23 Major Illustrators Talk to Children about Their Art

This is a great book for any graphic designer/artist to have on their shelf. It’s an anthology of 23 children’s book illustrators (such as Eric Carle and Maurice Sendak) with each artist describing why and how they became an artist along with sample of their work throughout their career (including from when they were kids). The book is aimed at the readers of these books…both kids and the parents alike.

Barista Strategy Game

Not for the kids, but this was just outside the kids section and looked like a fun game. It’s ‘Magic The Gathering’ for all of us that just can’t quite relate to the trolls and ogres and feel a bit more at home at the Coffee Shop.

Paula asks “What do you have to say?”

All I can say is ‘huh?’