The wifey and I are playing softball this fall on the Chiefs, a new team started by some people in my hockey league. It’s co-ed, close to home, and we hope it to be loads of fun like the last co-ed league we were in.
I’m pricing jerseys (t-shirts) and based the design on the jerseys from Slapshot:
Man I need to own that movie.
“Thing took my quarter!”
I used to think that I made purchases based on very rationale decisions. And for some things, I do. Like food – I know what I want and is good for us, I find it at a decent price and I buy it.
But I own three custom bikes, all with special paint jobs that I directed – not the norm. I use Apple products because I love the way they look and feel, even though they cost almost double the PCs. I buy cars based on their appeal to me, which is always based on design (my fav was a 1980 Scirocco S designed by Giorgetto Giugiaro).
So the other day I had a decision to make, albeit a very small one. It was for espresso. I could have jumped on the $9 can, but recently I bought some Illy espresso and I loved it. Partially for taste – it wasn’t the best, but it wasn’t bad either.
The packaging, however, is something else altogether. The canister is metal, and looks smashing on a shelf. The kicker is in the lid – it’s a twist top that is super easy to use (quarter turn) and fits perfect in my hand. No more popping plastic tops to see espresso fly all over.
Worth $13? Questionable. But not to me. I get pleasure every time I twist the lid.
First impressions and quality product design mean a lot. More so than most people (like me) like to admit.
What are your guilty design pleasures?
I’ve been getting emails about the weird things going on with my blog. Keep ‘em up, please – they all help as I re-design this thang.
As you can see (on the actual site, if you RSS), I’ve moved forward with the new theme I wrote about a couple weeks back. It’s called THESIS by DIYthemes, and so far I like it.
I’m getting help from this guy and even this guy, but my objective is to learn all about the code and get to a point where I’m writing it myself. So far, so good.
Next I plan to:
• change fonts to a san-serif
• add a background image border
• move the header and include a new design
• add social networking links, a portfolio page and fresh blogroll
• upgrade to the latest WordPress version
WEEK IN CHICAGO
Last Tuesday night I arrived in Chicago for a working session with new clients, a visit with family and friends, a Stalelife-sponsored White Sox event and games versus the Cubs.
I posted a bunch of new images on Flickr. They tell a quick story, but here are some impressions:
• The Garcia’s baby girl Cecilie is as cute as reported. Strong, too.
• Sadly, I missed seeing two other new friends, Rylan Soble, Matt and Amy’s boy, and Wil Salihar of the Warren and Lisa Salihars. Next time…
• You forget how much advertising there is on the streets of Chicago until you get back
• Great weather – I even wore a jacket one day.
• The Sox can beat NL teams, apparently just the last-place ones.
• Cubs fans are even more obnoxious after a twelve pack. Ugh – worst fans in baseball.
• Working with my partner Kurt is much easier in person.
• I missed my family every day, and that feeling got stronger the closer I got to home.
There’s more images at my Flickr account. Even ones with people nowhere near as uggo as that Cubs fan above.
I feel it’s time. Hell, it’s been time for at least a year.
So this weekend I’m hoping to re-launch this bitty with a new, evolving design.
The WordPress template I settled on is called Thesis, and it appears very versatile. Users are “open sourcing” their code for all to pilfer, and the support looks great.
Time will tell, but that’s all we have in this blogging world. Lots of time…
Check out this site’s past designs on the Wayback Machine. Scary shit, given what I know today.
Here we are in 2002, after a friend mistakingly deleted the wrong files on my site. No worries, the old one needed to go. This placeholder lasted a long, long time.
