Frank Chimero’s Personal Website| frankchimero.com
Frank Chimero’s Personal Website| frankchimero.com
Every once in a while you come across a fact that is so sumptuous it begs to be considered a metaphor. And then, there are other facts that are so perfectly just-so that they need to be viewed as apocryphal. I have read about the monkey trap in multiple places, from Tolstoy to Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance to your run-of-the-mill self-help books. Some say it’s from South India, others assign it African origins, possibly Namibia, some don’t even bother with origins. Regardless,...| Frank Chimero
A few weeks ago, the folks at Milanote asked to interview me and brought along an unexpected brief: “let’s sit down and talk through the process of one of your projects.” As someone who is consistently banging the drum about the importance of a diligent process, it was a good chance to step back from the day-to-day workings of the studio and get a better perspective on what’s changed in my creative process in the last few years. The most important change, I think, has been a commitmen...| Frank Chimero
This talk was given on February 15, 2018 at Substans Conference in Bergen, Norway. --- I’m a designer, but writing is another important part of my practice. Most of what I’ve written focuses on making the case for a cohesive and generous philosophy for how we design technology: it must not only look good and feel good, it must also be good. Today, I’ll be focusing on the other side of how technology gets made. I want to talk about ways to find a clear path through how we use technology ...| Frank Chimero
This talk was given on October 12, 2017 at Mirror Conf in Braga, Portugal, and again on February 9, 2018 at the Awwwards Conference in Berlin. --- This past summer, I gave a lecture at a web conference and afterward got into a fascinating conversation with a young digital design student. It was fun to compare where we were in our careers. I had fifteen years of experience designing for web clients, she had one year, and yet some how, we were in the same situation: we enjoyed the work, but wer...| Frank Chimero
Frank Chimero in his most desperate state is Frank Chimero writing a talk. Each time I go through the process, I swear I will never do it again. Then someone invites me to speak at a conference about innovation in a hot air balloon over Catalonia, so I say yes, then end up in the same desperate position. One of my tricks is to start a new Keynote presentation and drop in images and quotes that feel loosely related or simply ones that I feel drawn to. Images can speak to me on this cryptic lev...| Frank Chimero
I was commissioned to write the foreword to SuperHi’s first publication, Learn to Code Now. If you’re interested in boosting your HTML, CSS, and Javascript skills, go check them out. --- The house where I was raised was an ideal place for our family, except one serious flaw: the house did not have my parents’ fingerprints on it. So began the constant construction project that lasted almost a decade. Bathrooms were moved and walls knocked down; skylights were installed, had their leaks f...| Frank Chimero
Frank Chimero’s Personal Website| frankchimero.com
Frank Chimero’s Personal Website| frankchimero.com
Last week, early morning, the sky flushed that fuzzy summer cirrus peach: I wake up inspired to send a brief newsletter with one nice idea. An admirable goal—let’s finally get to writing! But of what? I walk to get coffee, and before stepping in to the coffee shop, a maintenance guy asks for help. He is painting over bad graffiti and needs assistance picking a paint swatch that will match the color of the wall. He is colorblind—could I help him pick? Yes. Absolutely. I am eager to help ...| Frank Chimero
When is tricky these days, but it’s the only question my expectant monkey mind can ask. Time feels especially squishy this year, as my daily schedule drifts further and further away from the traditional 9-5 work window and months slip by and weeks drag on. It’s been hard to get my arms around time, but my best estimate is that I do this thing every other week or so, and I want to tell you about it. Whenever I When? myself into agitation; whenever an iffy day gets its claws into me in a pr...| Frank Chimero
Last week, I shared some thoughts on creative dispositions. I personified two attitudes, architects and gardeners, to show how a writer’s inclinations produce a certain kind of text, thus affecting the design. But the gardener and the architect are ripe metaphors that can be carried other places. Jeremy Keith picked them up and applied the scheme to design systems: It’s not just me, right? […] I think you’ve got an interesting analysis of the two different approaches to design systems...| Frank Chimero
