Text — Stephen Caver

Happy Cog West and Airbag Industries

2009-08-03T18:00:44-08:00

In October of 2007 I graduated from the Art Institute of California — Orange County. Graduates are obligated to attend a portfolio show, where displays are set up and industry professionals are invited to view the work of graduating talent. A lot of networking is done and some people even get jobs through the experience.

Before my portfolio show my career advisor asked me if there was anybody in the local industry that I would like to invite to the show. I immediately asked her to contact one person, Mr. Greg Storey.

I had been reading Greg’s blog since I was in High School, and have always big a huge fan of Greg’s work. I wasn’t looking to get hired on at Airbag, but to get advice in person from someone I had admired and respect for as long as I have been doing this. I was thrilled when Greg accepted the invitation.

Meeting Greg for the first time was truly a thrill, and he was kind enough to answer my questions and give advice. I thought that was all, and I was happy with that.

A few months later Greg contacted me looking for someone to do some contract work. Eventually this lead to a job offer at Airbag. I instantly took him up on the offer and within two weeks I was coming into the Airbag office and working with people I had admired and looked to for inspiration. For the past year and seven months I can’t imagine doing anything different. Working with the Airbag team is a privilege and a daily pleasure. I’ve learned a huge amount in the time I’ve spent here.

Last year I attended An Event Apart San Francisco. The thrill in San Francisco and buzz around the event was intense. And for the record, you cannot do any better than An Event Apart. One evening I was invited to a dinner with the Airbag team and some others. Those others include Eric Meyer, Dan Cederholm, and Jeffrey Zeldman. All people I have looked to for guidance but had never met in person. After dinner myself an my co-worker Drew waxed poetic about the thrill of meeting our heros.

At An Event Apart San Francisco as well as the most recent South By Southwest I’ve learned just how awesome everyone at Happy Cog are. Today, everything seems to have come full circle. My heros are now my co-workers. You can read about how this all came about in Greg’s fantastic post. As Ryan said in his post, this just makes sense. Our company culture, our passion for creating beautiful web standards based design and even our senses of humor are all in sync.

Within the next few months I’ll be moving to San Francisco, where the new Happy Cog West office will be. I don’t know what the next year will bring, but I’m sure excited.

An Open Apology to Facebook on Behalf of the Internet

2009-02-18T17:29:54-08:00

Dear Facebook,

On behalf of the sane on the internet, I want to extend an apology. You were strong armed by the jobless herd that use your service. Those with no clear concept douche-bag lawyers and their special language. They don’t seem to understand that TOS were not meant to be read by real human beings and is only around to save your asses in court.

And I know there are those who are upset and get over-excited by nothing. They have no job (and not because of the economic downturn. I’m not talking about steelworkers, here). They smoke way too much pot and read way too much BoingBoing for their own good. They are, as one blogger put it, “over-curious and under-informed.”

It is that bizarre cocktail of conspiracy-theory-nutjobs (I personally blame Oliver Stone for that) and the self-indulgent bloggers that created this perfect storm of idiocy and over-reacting. It is the internet’s version of a Muslim protest over cartoons.

And the sensationalism! Blogger hacks who are writing these days have nothing on the “if-it-bleeds-it-leads” attitude of the mainstream media! Headlines are designed by bloggers to stir the passions. Posts with headlines that feed traffic, not information. And people complain about over-zealous journalism in the mainstream media! They obviously haven’t read Boing-Boing!

I know we’ve had our ups and downs, dearest Facebook. You were a beacon in those dark times. Full of potential and hope. But then you changed, and you let your place get a little messy. I turned on you.

But dearest Facebook, despite all that, you didn’t deserve what you have received. Just feel better in that this is the internet. And next month nobody will ever remember anything of this “controversy” and you’ll continue to pull in the bucks and sucking time from the American populace.

Best,
Stephen

Starting New

2009-02-08T22:13:54-08:00

I think I’ve redesigned this blog at least twenty times in the past two years. My personal website has taken on many forms and has taken aim at many goals. Nothing has really stuck long enough for me to keep at it consistently.

When this space was a portfolio website exclusively, there was hardly any work pieces on it that I wanted to show. When I put up a blog, I found that I didn’t really have too much to actually say. Much of the time all that was up was my name and a few links to other places, or a notice to check back soon for a redesigned and refreshed site.

But through all its uselessness and lack of drive, this website has always been something I have enjoyed doing. In a time long ago, this is where my fascination with the web began and, by extension, my love affair with designing for it.

I learned more about HTML and CSS working on the futility of this website, in all its various incarnations, than I ever did in the classroom. Not that it was my instructors fault — I had learned what was taught in class long before I stepped foot on campus.

When Wilson Miner wrote in Excuses, excuses that, “some people might suggest that it’s hardly worth redesigning a site I’ve only posted to twice in the last year. I say those people are missing the point,” that sentiment rang true to me when thinking about my little slice of the web.

No matter how neglected or ignored, or short or long sighted, this website has always been a learning experience — even when I didn’t think of it that way. I owe my website a lot for where I am now; and it deserves much more love and care than I commit to it.

That said, here I am. Another new design with new goals and new aspirations. None of them particularly grand or extravagant, but with a lot of love. That said, I humbly present you with the latest reincarnation of my personal web space.

A New Look, Inspired By The Old

The design you see before you is a not-so-subtle mixture of the blog and portfolio site I built in my last quarter of college and a somewhat inspired yet unrefined temporary tumblr blog I had put up.

My college years site, from this point referred to as version one, was designed to convey my personality. It had a creamy color palette that still feels fresh a year and a half after its introduction. The tumblr blog was an attempt at making sense of the stream of content. Instead of a single column of links, blog posts, videos, and all other web tidbits, I split them into separate columns, but also reserved each their own spot in the horizontal plane of the site.

The effect was to break apart content into digestible modules, but retain — I think — the inspired concept that tumblr does so well: a steady stream of web-bits from blogs entries to videos of kittens riding a roomba. If nothing else, it’s unique and solely my own (insofar that I haven’t seen it done anywhere else), and I’m proud of that.

A Note On Browsers

I’m going to be up front here — I spent exactly zero time testing this site in Microsoft Internet Explorer 6 or 7. Obviously, this is not something that I would ignore on any of the client projects for Airbag.

Browser testing is a high priority at Airbag, of course, but for my personal site I purposely overlooked it at least for the initial launch. Frankly, it’s not much fun to debug in Windows and this site is all about fun for me. So for now, IE users will have to suffer through whatever rendering errors and CSS bugs that pop up.

Looking Forward

What you see now is not all the work that went into this blog. Not everything I had envisioned or even put down in Photoshop has yet to make it live. I have ideas kicking around in Photoshop and in my brain for expanding the scope of this site in various ways. This thought brings me full circle; I’ve learned a lot over the years from this little piece of web real estate, and here is to learning so much more.

Letters & Ligatures

2008-12-02T20:49:57-08:00

One thing about designing for the web is that there is no physical artifacts of our work beyond the computer screen; our work exists in a cloud. And while Airbaggers will sometimes lick the screen when we’re looking at particularly hawt web design, there is an eternally intangible aspect to a designed website.

Which is why I have a fascination with physically produced work, particularly typographic work. I was fortunate enough to visit, along with Mr. Dorny and Mr. Shea and their significant others, Shepard Fairey’s Subliminal Projects gallery to see House Industries exhibition Letters & Ligatures. While the gallery description on the Subliminal Projects website will speak of the importance and context that language plays in our society I find it much more interesting to see the physical manifestations of the type.

At the gallery type is displayed in a wide array of forms, from mounted on the wall, hanging from the ceiling or displayed on blocks. The variety of physical manifestation also spanned the spectrum: Rusted metal plates, cast iron sculptures, wood cutting blocks, and fabric. Each material imparts to the type it’s own characteristics and flair. Web designers often try to reproduce the effect of tangible materials, but nothing comes quite up to par with the real thing.

I was also reminded that design work does not exist in a bubble. Interestingly enough, Subliminal Projects is located very close to one of my favorite spots in LA — Dodger Stadium. And guess whose type was being used on the Dodgers billboards across the street from Subliminal Projects? That’s right, House Industries Type.

Letters & Ligatures will remain open through to the fifth of December, so if you’re in the Los Angeles area I highly recommend checking it out.

‘08 — A Collection of Thoughts Regarding the Election, in No Particular Order.

2008-11-04T22:02:28-08:00

I’m glad it is finally over.

Sitting in my living room with the CBS news turned down low, Obama has just finished giving his victory speech to the fine folks in Chicago. It was a wonderful speech, for what it was, and I am not going to pretend not to be impressed by Mr. Obama’s oratory skills.

I live in the great state of California where, from day one, there was no question who was going to get our 55 electoral votes.

I never like elections, I have a distaste for the negativity that surrounds them. I cannot get excited by them because what I have come to care about is never questioned during our American elections. What I believe strongly — the opposite is simply assumed by both major parties.

This doesn’t bother me as much as it used to. It is certainly something that you learn to live with. But when I look at an election between Democrat and Republican, it is hard to see why both sides get so worked up as I see essentially no difference between them. But then again, my political priorities are not the mainstream.

I voted today. My choice for President never had a prayer. I seriously considered not voting at all, as a protest. What I went into the booth to vote on were the ballot measures that California has and, as ballot measures are one of the worst ideas in the history of government, I voted no on nearly every single item with pride. I continue to question how something as important as an amendment to the state Constitution can be voted on as a ballot measure.

Like many, I have Hope that Obama will take the country in a positive direction. And in certain areas I think he will. In others, I think he will be taking steps, while not necessarily backwards, in the wrong direction.

Thanks for reading. Good night, America.