We can do much better than that...
Yet another witty line—just for you.

Its been a blast!

The day has finally arrived and I must pack up my things and say farewell.

Two and half years have now passed since I began at Nichiai. Its been a pleasure working here and being part of something that I’ve seen grow in countless ways.

In the early days I saw myself getting to grips with the clients that we had and figuring out simply how to get the work out quick enough for mere client satisfaction. This was fine in the beginning, but then as products and projects came and went I decided that, to not just stay in the game, but expand and broaden, adding value to the client, getting the right mix of quality and quantity was going to have to rely on something else.

I poured myself into the job, fueled by my passion to make an image of the company that we’d be proud of, not just on a designer-aesthetic level but also making the money work. By reaching for the best in every possible project, and attempting to bring the best out of the client each time, I felt that this was the method to success. By utilizing great talent and know-how with a positive attitude and inquisitive spirit each project continues to receive excellent analysis and direction. Sometimes we didn’t produce material we were always proud of; such is the nature of the beast – Trying to bring together sometimes disparate ideas while protecting unrealistic or impractical objectives was always something that I felt obliged to warn of at the beginning of any project. Its amazing to see the different perspectives held by clients and third parties towards the designer and the industry in general, and I’m happy to look back over the jobs and say that everyone of our clients got excellent work, truly representing the effort put in by both sides of a contract.

My decision to move on was not an easy one. Having put so much into the department and having been at there at major decision making times its hard to leave something that has grown on you and that you’ve become so much a part of. That said it was at this point that I realised I had succeeded in bringing the image and quality of Nichiai Creative to the level I had envisioned at the time of entering the company. For both myself and the company to grow, fresh ideas and challenges need to be fostered. Despite the satisfaction and success I felt, I feared that I may enter a comfort zone and this, as we all know in 2009, is neither the time, nor creatively a wise move for the future.

The world is in a very bad situation and most people I’ve talked to are hurting from the effects of the recession, looking forward to 2010. Its been a struggle and all the while industries are changing. These are indeed interesting times, and those capable not only to make bold decisions, but also see that their execution of them, is true will indeed prosper. That said there is now a level of flexibility required in any one single position, no matter what the responsibility, job, department, company or organisation.

Its been a ride and one I’ve thoroughly enjoyed and gained immensely from. In turn I hope that I’ve given something back and that my influence was positive and nurturing for those that I worked with. I wish nothing but success for Nichiai and all her staff, vendors and of course clients, without whom nobody can prosper, and lastly as the new year is fast approaching I wish everybody health, wealth and happiness in 2010.

-Raymond

Android

It’s been ages since I last dabbled with mobile application development. I can still remember creating various custom applications on a Windows Mobile 2003 Pocket PC that I used during my university days. How things have changed since then! With the emergence of powerful mobile programming technologies from the likes of Apple, Microsoft, Google and Palm as well as the increasing sophistication of mobile phones, it’ll be interesting how things play out over the next few years. While every Japanese cell phone has served me well, there has always been software that don’t work the way I want it to or functionality I wish it had. I guess this is where smart phones come in. Although I haven’t quite explored all the different technologies thoroughly (yet!), I have been impressed by what the Android platform by Google has to offer.

Watching the Android Developer videos and reading through the SDK, it sounds like Android will give a developer like me the power to create not just useful applications but interesting mash-ups using other applications. For instance, I quite enjoyed this video where a Google engineer is showing off his bar-code reader application. Another engineer than utilized the bar-code reader as part of his application which upon scanning books, the application would automatically retrieved book information off the internet and add it to a personal list complete with pictures and information. Additionally, the fact that the platform is open-source, customizable and applications are easily replaceable means I’ll be able to customize and fine-tune my smart phone to my specific needs. My dream is to have some kind of smart application that would not only transcribe voice calls but also analyze and parse the data accordingly, so that for example, it can automatically input a meeting in a calendar or a location on a map.

Before making any decisions though, the only thing holding me back are the Android phones out there. The Xperia X10 looks ideal but unfortunately a bit pricey at the moment. Rumor has it more phones will be released early next year so I shall wait and see. Until then, I may find myself playing around with the emulated developer kit on my desktop.

How Apple ruled over my files

Whether you are using a Apple branded computer, or not, it is true that there will be a moment when your computer will refuse to cooperate. Sometimes it happens early on, sometimes after long years of dutiful service. It can be software- or hardware-problems causing these issues, but – as a matter of fact – it happens.

Unhappy macbook, authors rendition.

So once the realization has sunk in – it usually leads to nervous breakdowns, deadlines crushing you, spontaneous hair loss, sudden Tourette’s and manical laughing fits amongst other symptoms, that are not really the point of this post.

So, after picking yourself up you realize that you have bought some sort of extended warranty. (You have – do you?) Phew! So you go on and take it to the next store, not before making a reservation though. There you will be greeted by slightly overworked but nice personnel which will take note of your machine’s status… “Oh it’s not working…. at all.” and ship it in for repairs.

You also get to sign a nice little death waiver. Death what? Ah. Whatever – I sheepishly filled in my name, telephone number and my favorite pet’s name, amongst other things.

Then, four days later, you get a package expedited – containing your repaired machine. Looks like new, smells like new, too. Except for the ugly crack at the bottom, which they didn’t mind to fix. Well, let’s put it on the desk, plug it in and start it up. It boots up to…

… reveal the “Setup Assistant”. That’s the program that runs the first time you purchase a new machine to ask for your name, address and other details. But – this machine is not new – there’s still the crack at the bottom!? What?

Slowly the realization sunk in. They wiped the drive. Boom, just as Steve likes to say. “Boom.” They did this to help the fact that the machine was not turning on, something that was obviously a hardware fault. And I had waived any right of complaint by signing the above mentioned “Death waiver”. Except that, when bringing it in, they had failed to notify me of this little .. ahem .. detail.

Hmm… I also put my telephone number and mail address on there. Would it have been hard to give me a ring, or shoot an email my way? “Mr. van Dyck – we’d like to erase your harddrive as a last ditch effort to get your machine back into working order. Is that OK?”

To which I would have replied: “No, thanks, just fix the hardware. I know how to reinstall OS X myself. Cheers!”

But I guess, they would rather have the Apple Care operation going smoothly. And I was the obvious roadblock – data be damned. I mean, like the name implies – they care for the Apple — not you.
Fair call, then.
Thanks guys!

Tokyo Design Week 2009

The culmination to the recent flurry of design events was the Tokyo Design Week. I managed to spend some time at Midtown’s Design Tide and also the larger event space at Gaien Mae, 100%. Both events were full of creative and talented individuals and businesses from various parts of the world, and it was a great opportunity to see people coming up with new and interesting designs in a whole range of design disciplines. I have to say that spending a whole day at these events can be quite a tiring  endeavour especially if theres been any drinking the night before (!)…

I did find that different nationalities brought their own flavour to how they design and what impressed me most was the participation from the Korean contribution. I felt they were really the most creative and exploratory in most of their designs, however if they were to be successful in Japan the level of execution would need to step up to another level. The event allows me, as a graphic designer, feel previliged enough to directly compare product and architectural design from one country to another and I thoroughly enjoyed this. Having it all laid out in front of you and also having the designer right there to talk to about how they got to their conclusion is an exceptional benefit of events like these. I look forward to the next one.

Here are some of the snaps I took over the weekend:

Busy boy

The entrance to Design Tide

A 2-way drawer unit

Flower holders

Jewelry box

Paper light

Net bonding tape

Sore ass

100% Tokyo

Tokyo Design Festa

Everything that’s weird and wonderful in craft and hobbies, cottage industry up to larger enterprise was on exhibit in the Odaiba district at Tokyo Big Sight over the last weekend (24th/25th October 2009). Nearly every form of art and design was on display and available for all to see.

A view of the gate on the way out.

The range of talent and interest and sheer ability in areas of illustration, fashion & accessories and costume, graphic design, painting, textile art, dance, song, tattoos, animation and many more was quite a sight. the two days of visual and aural extravaganza pulls in all sorts of contributors, and not simply from these shores. Often foreigners get involved in the exhibition as well and on the same basis as the Japanese – for either fun, interest, or business.

It had been a number of years since I had visited last and I was keen to see how my memory of the event would compare to the current fads and trends.  My initial response was to take in all that I could but after my 20th or so jewelry stand and cos-play fanatic my interest and energy level started to wane. The distraction and all encompassing wealth of activity was still no match for a pachinko parlour however I did feel that there seemed to be a certain sameness that permeated throughout the event. The general numbing effect of this was on occasion rattled from me when I saw some really fantastic skill and professionalism on display. Among the normal day to day manga fanatics and goths there were really some great illustrators with really strong ability for life drawing from their imagination. As I come from this type of background seeing people doing it with greater quality AND quantity with multiple media was a real thrill. Nowadays there are so many people out there who can think creatively and apply themselves to their work with amazing design sensibility, but have almost no ability to physically make a mark on a surface.

Here are just a few snapshots of the best that I found. I hope I can get an opportunity to work with talent like this in the near future.

Moriyasu Kowase: excellent vector graphics of daily Japanese streetlife.

‘Shimadat’: Multiple sketch and life-drawing styles and beautifully put together.

Beautiful pencil and ink work. I just love this stuff.

An interesting illustrative approach to cereal packaging.

Simple and fun – The polar bear, drawn by an 11 year old, was snapped right up!

And for those people who wanted to see some of the more fantastical creativity that was there on the day, have a look at this!

Don’t ask me why… Japan – Gotta love it!

Holiday Graphic Injection

A little later than I had hoped, however after getting some business put to bed I have uploaded this report of my weekend’s graphic interests.
I also have some short entries into the upcoming creative feast of activities in the run up to Tokyo’s Design Week at the end of the month.

The Good Design Awards Exhibition (Visit website)
The Design Hub in Tokyo Midtown
Naturally the awards cover a whole range of design fields and not simply graphic design.
Taking a visit to the venue alone is a very pleasant experience; not only is Midtown a very plush site, but also it is one corner of the Roppongi Art Triangle. The others are the Mori Arts Center Gallery, located at the Roppongi Hills Complex and The National Art Center, Tokyo. Download this pdf for a detailed map of the area. There are a huge amount of places to visit.

I have a particular fondness for Midtown as it has a concentration of venues within the vicinity and it was just built when I first moved to Tokyo so I became attached to it very quickly. As I will detail later there are a number of events being held here as part of the Design Week and I also appreciate the fact that the area has a mild-mannered mood by day and then by night… well, Roppongi by night – I hardly need to go into too much detail.

The Design Hub has always a relaxing and settling environment to enjoy the exhibits on display. There are also a lot of finely produced fliers and advertisements to keep art-lovers and those interested in the creative circuit to keep in the know. While I won’t go into my opinion of the awarded designs there were two particular winners that appealed to my graphic side. One was the small “Starter Kit” for airbrushing, and of course the traditional stationery staple of Yamato glue products.

The exhibition goes onto the 8th November.

Tokyo Graphic Passport – International Magazine Conference (Visit website)
Kudankaikan 12th October 2009
This event was great! Not only was I able to receive a huge amount of material from the +81 magazine team, but I was also able to have seriously creative individuals go through the thought processes and goals behind their publications, one after another, in front of me. The event space itself was great too. Very western in its design and traditional in its architecture that after a while I was ended up thinking I was at home listening to visiting experts. It was only when the Japanese presenters came on stage without any translators I came back around and had to pay attention to the Japanese.

I’ve also always been interested in how certain styles exist among presenters and of course among different nationalities when speaking publicly. That aside the presentations were from 11.30am to 7.30pm, featuring speakers from the Purple Prose magazine – Art Director, Cristophe Brunnquell; 032c Creative Director, Jorg Koch; Newwork Creative Directors, Studio Newwork, Fantastic Man’s Creators, Jop van Bennekom & Gert Jonkers; Intersection Art Director, Yorgos Tloupas; Art Director and Graphic Designer, Hideki Nakajima; and Werk Creative Director, Theseus Chan.

I was blown away by the quality of the material of these publications and despite a tiring day sitting on my back side, I felt incredibly enriched from the experience. Suddenly I’m considering doing something similar myself. Anybody want to start a magazine with me?

Its funny how work can impose itself so heavily on your own time and personal schedule, that doing anything but sitting in front of a monitor can seem like a far-fetched fantasy. However, once you can get out and about, even just once or twice, to see what else is going on, can be such a refreshing experience invigorating  your own creativity. This is definitely the time for it too. With October at mid-point its high time that people take advantage of the oncoming plethora of activities in and around Tokyo for Design Week.

Design Week & Upcoming Events
DESIGN FESTA (Visit Website) (English Website)
Tokyo Big Sight
24th, 25th Oct.
International Art Event
Admission – 1 Day: ¥800/1000 – 2 Days: ¥1,500/1,800

DESIGN TOUCH (Visit Website)
Tokyo Midtown
23rd Oct. – 3rd Nov.
Theme: ’shaping a dream into a design’
Admission – Free

TOKYO DESIGNERS WEEK 2009/100% DESIGN TOKYO (Visit Website)
Jingu Gaien Aoyama
30th Oct. – 3rd Nov.
Theme: ‘Love Green’
Admission: ¥2,000

DESIGN TIDE (Visit Website) (English Website)
Main Site: Tokyo Midtown Hall
30th Oct. – 3rd Nov.
Trade Show that mainly centres on product design
Admission – ¥1,000

CREATOR’S PARK VOL. 1 (Visit Website)
Claska Gallery
22nd – 24th Oct.
Subsidiary event of Japan Fashion Week
Admission – Free

Just a little something I saw under the Yamanote bridge in Ebisu. Great illustration!

Congratulations Rio!

I think Rio is an excellent choice for the 2016 Olympics and I’m sure they will be a great host.

Although in a purely hypothetical exercise in which the winner was determined by their bid website, I would pick Tokyo.
Here’s why:

- Use of open source technologies: L.A.M.P. with MovableType as their CMS. The other sites are using ASP.NET which is a great technology but based on personal experience, require more time and costs (licensing fees) to develop.
- I quite like the main navigation bar. Hovering over the menu item changes the background to a different color. The different color scheme is also utilized on each of the pages which works well.
- The use of Flash at the top to present another tier of menus is pretty effective and clever. The Flash makes some use of animation which is subtle enough to not distract the user from the rest of the website.
- The restaurant page is wonderfully presented. The layout is well-structured, the top page is sleek and the placing of images on the individual restaurants are well done.

But don’t take my word for it; the other candidate websites are pretty good as well:

Rio
Spain
Chicago

Ebisu's cheeky underbelly

Living in Ebisu is usually a very relaxed and somewhat sedate experience. Having been here for two years now I no find myself wanting to go further afield for my weekend activities. That said when I do decide to wander about I rarely go beyond the places that I’ve already made my favourite spots.

This weekend I pushed the boundaries! (He said knowing that he barely drew the curtains, never mind pushing any boundaries.)

The following two images were a little on the cheeky side. One of which is probably illegal and the other should be. You can make your own minds up as to which is which.

The Blogs have arrived!

So after our release of the site last month we have pushed the boundaries once again with the addition of our blogs!

From here on you will find all our musings on our professional and personal lives (I know I have no life so I’m still thinking of something to replace that with), and of course you will be able to see what makes us tick, what we get up to when not cracking the whip, reading other people’s blogs or bashing our keyboards in frustration.

Stay a while and read some of our useful hints and tips on sales, working with creatives or simply checking whether we’ve finished your design that should have been at the presses an hour ago.

Looking forward to see what comes next,

- Raymondo

Useful iPhone / iPod productivity apps

1. Evernote (Free)
Evernote is, like the name suggests, a memo – and notes kinds of applications that allows you to jot down quick reminders on the go. Recently the ability to retain and sync notes offline has been added. What really sets it apart from others or even the built in applications is the fact that your notes can be accessed everywhere, as the app is basically a front-end for the web based service. Take screenshots of websites, make sketches, or type down some quick to do list and have it ready at the go at all times. Cool and helpful.

2. RssRunner (Free)
Don’t know what to do on your commute? How about keeping up to speed with the world’s latest happenings? This is where this handy little app comes in. It allows you to download RSS feeds from websites you specify for later offline viewing. While it is not as feature-rich as the excellent Newsstand app ($2.99) it still gets the job done and makes lengthy commutes a lot more worthwile.

3. FileAid (Free)
Want to copy that PDF or Word document for later reading or even editing on your iPod or iPhone? No problem with FileAid, which lets you copy and open all kinds of files on your device without resorting to hacking. Simply start the app, put it into transfer mode, and access your device via FTP and get copying. Then you can edit or view all supported files on the go and even copy them back to your computer later. Not as smooth as Apple’s own implementation could have been, but worthwhile none the less.

4. MonoSpace ($0.99)
Well… Okay I said productivity apps – and this is obviously a game. But, but this is not only a relaxing puzzle game, but it is also a very good one at that! Twist a cube that contains a subset of smaller cubes in three dimensions and condense them down into two dimensions to make pathways for you to follow. The levels get more and more mind-bending as the game progresses. Great puzzle fun. Still in the dark? Check out this video.

Midnight Soul Searching

I spent another long night working on some drawings and what not at home. There was nothing abnormal about this, except that I hadn’t done this for an extremely long time. I realised so many things as I watched the time change steadily go from 10pm to almost 2am… (Damn I did it again! Gonna be tired tomorrow!”)

The more that I got into my drawings and started to finally make some breakthroughs it dawned on me how accessible information really is on the internet. I must have had about 30 browser windows open full of articles and resources for designers and creatives. I realise this sounds fairly daft to the vast majority of you, but sometimes standing back from this resource and thanking modern technology is a must (especially when I find myself shouting and cursing at my computer in the office).

It was here that I realised that despite the tough times of economic depression and being out and about all of the time networking and striking new leads and accounts etc, that behind it all I want to create great visual stimuli and design. Illustration or graphics or web or print, its all about how interested you get and about forgetting the environment for a time while you obsess about the geometric curve that you want to integrate into some typographic draft, or how the sketching that got me into graphic design at the very beginning would still grab my interest for hours. The short term, other world that you can manifest while focusing on the page, scribbling and making marks that seem pleasurable not only to do, but to look at and adjust again, is so very exciting and seems to enrich the soul. An incredibly difficult emotion of joy and entertainment and satisfaction, all mixed into one.

Then there are certain little breaks in it that let you change the pencil for the keyboard to search for other terms and imagery and histories and meanings within meanings, all for that spark of possible interest to further the design.

Its at this specific point that I came to the AIGA (American Institute for Graphic Artists) site. I had always known about this and seen it many times but the more I read it the more I wanted more of this bonding and supporting network. Its not just American. In case you don’t know I’m not American… but this was great stuff for everybody, and when I say everybody I mean clients and non designers too. Its all about demystifying it and supporting the understanding of the profession. This I feel is always a major obstacle with clients and then I saw this document.

If you are a client or a designer this should be read!

Anyway I best get to bed!

- Raymondo

Essential tools used on a daily basis

Here is a list of tools that allows me to work quickly. These are programs that I am constantly using at work.

- Notepad++
Simply the best text editor for Windows. If only they had one for OSX!

- Launchy
Since I tend not to have many programs open, I find myself always constantly opening and closing programs for small tasks and such. I don’t think anything can beat QuickSilver for OSX but Launchy is good enough to get the job done.

- Paint.net
Though I have PhotoShop, it takes quite a long time to load up on my computer. So, for small tasks such as re-sizing, cropping, etc.., I use paint.net for quick edits.

- SQLyog
When I first tried out this powerful MySQL GUI, I immediately switched over. With so much functionality and an easy to use interface, I find myself using this tool quite a lot. It also comes in handy for making quick database backups, queries and other database related tasks.

- q10
On my main work computer, I have a dual monitor setup. On the secondary screen, I have q10 running. Basically, q10 is a completely full-screen editor which allows you to hide any distracting stuff on screen and in theory let’s you focus on work. I use it as a pseudo notepad and text clipboard and when I really need to concentrate, I’ll turn off my primary screen and use only q10.

- Effective File Search
The native search capability of Windows have long been slow, ineffective and clunky. While I’ve tried many 3rd party solutions out there, I found that EFS does the job quickly and as advertised, effectively.

As a web developer, I spent a LOT of time with my browser open. For development purposes, my main browser is Firefox. In particular, there are a few extensions that are essential to my day-to-day work:

- Firebug
Figuring out a CSS style sheet was a pain in the past but with a tool like Firebug, it’s easy. Quick CSS tweaks with instant preview makes this tool a must.

- Colorzilla
Something like “Stan, can you change the color of the title so that it matches the background color of the image in the sidebar?” crops up quite a lot at work. In the past, I would have to dig into the CSS or image file to find the color. Then write down the hexadecimal color code and make the change. Colorzilla saves time by allowing me to hover over the element and instantly displaying the color.

- MeasureIt
Working with designers, it’s crucial to meet design specifications down to the correct pixels width and height. Essentially a digital ruler, I find myself using MeasureIt whenever I’m given a mockup and needing to implement it.

IFJT Website Renewal

After a long and windy road we completed the Institut Franco-Japonais de Tokyo et Yokohama website. I must say that the team pulled in so many hours to get this complete and after the hard month of August this was by no means an easy task. Hats off to Manuel and Stan for their perseverance.

Looking through the bi-lingual site you can see just about anything you need to do with studying French, enjoying French events here in Japan or just being involved in the community.

This is our largest site to date and we worked with a large number of staff over at the Iidabashi insitute, making sure that all desires and prerequisites were catered for. For me this once again shows our ability to deal with even the largest of projects, and thanks to our small size makes us a great choice for all those organizations wanting to seek the best work without inflated agency expenses.

If only I could now get the holidays in July and August that our clients had…

- Raymondo

Handy Photoshop website mockup habits

This is intended for experienced Photoshop users. For a better idea how to get started using Photoshop – read here.

As you can see – I like lists, so let’s get started:
1. Always group your layers into folders. Sounds mundane but saves you a ton of clicking around. This is especially true, when you want to show different alternatives to someone.

2. Agree upon common sizes for imagery, especially thumbnails and previews. Then – religiously re-use those. This will make your designer’s life a little harder maybe, but your programmer will thank you, as will the web standards. Consistency is key.

3. Save a file for each version, allowing you to trace back to earlier versions with ease. Yes I know Photoshop allows you to store all versions in one file. But did you ever open a 400MB Photoshop file? Not fun, let alone the fact that it becomes cumbersome if you want to take it home to work on it.

Must have WordPress plugins

While Drupal has its place among the most powerful CMS solutions out there, WordPress too has a number of interesting plugins that gives developers the framework to make beautiful small/medium sized websites. Like my earlier blog entry, every client is different but here are ones I find myself utilizing quite a lot.

- Contact Form 7
This remarkable plug-in is highly customizable and allows you define contents in an intuitive way. The contact pageon our website is an example of this in action.

- More Fields
This plugin enables you to define various input boxes for custom fields in the CMS and therefore, making the custom values functionality in WordPress a lot easier to manage.

- Adminimize
Working with clients that may or may not be familiar with some of the more technical aspects of WordPress, this plugin helps hide unnecessary functionality that may confuse them.

- qTranslate
Multilingual content can be tricky at times but this easy to use plugin has immensely helped. What I like most are the functions available for developers and the fact that you can directly embed short-code in posts and such.

- All in One SEO Pack
Having a great website means nothing if no one is reading it. This plugin is easy to use for anyone while also giving advanced users the ability to fine-tune a lot of settings.

- NextGen
One of the most popular plugins out there. Works quite well out of the box but offers a lot of options in the way of customization. In conjunction with NextGen, the NextGen smooth gallery is also a fantastic plugin.

- wordTube
From the author of NextGen, the wordTube plugin is a great media player that is easy to use and of course, highly customizable.

On meeting deadlines

“I love deadlines. Particularly the whooshing sound they make as they pass by.”

- Douglas Noel Adams

Who doesn’t know this scenario? It is a little past the point where you could have easily done it and now it is approaching the point where it gets uncomfortable. If only the computer would start up faster you could surely make it on time. While you stare at the screen you notice a tiny icon in the tray telling you that it will start UPDATING your software in two three… too late. With a sigh of resignation you ponder the possible results ranging between a good firm talk and having to flee the country…
I’ve been there. We’ve all been there.
But, believe it or not – there are ways out of this misery!

R & R

Well one week surely goes by quick these day! Here I am back at my post manning the hotline ready for the call… Or more often stated as, “I’m back at work”

Select your fish and wait for it while on the beach looking at the night sea…

I’ve posted a few snaps to introduce something different into the blog. Its not all work and no play. After the work that was done for the promotional package we put out recently it was really great to relax in the sun and not have deadlines badgering you, or lists of tasks and people to get in touch with. Unfortunately it was just a little too short in my experience. It was over a year and a half since my last trip away so 6 days was fairly quick in all honesty. – Better start searching for my trip home in Christmas.
In the meantime its back to the drawing board. Mata ganbarimashou!

Simple Grand Hyatt Logo on the coaster. Localized and slick!

A local street theatre play in mid session.

- Raymondo

Must have Drupal modules

While working on projects using Drupal CMS over the past year or so, I’ve learned quite a lot about the incredible versatility of the CMS which includes an extensive library of customizable modules. It’s the community that drives this awesome framework. So far, the specifications for every Drupal website has been different but there are a number of shared modules that are utilized. Here are the ones that I think are very important:

- CCK
CCK’s ability to define new types of content to the pages that are created is nothing short of amazing. For example, if I were building say a website about cars, I could use the power of CCK to create a “car” content type. With that, I could then define field such as manufacturers, model numbers, etc.. Not only that, the user friendly interface would allow me to easily enter data for the newly define content type.

- Views
Combined with the above CCK, the Views module offers endless amount of customization. Whereas CCK allows you to define new content, with Views, I’m able to customize how the content is presented to the end-user. I’d like to think of it as a very glorified database query builder.

- Contemplate
While Views allows me to build listings, summaries, RSS feeds and other goodies; contemplate helps define the layout of a a particular page. In essence, contemplate allows me to define templates for particular types of content.

- Pathauto
There’s been over the last few years to have websites that have links that are more user friendly (and presumably SEO friendly). With Pathauto, it’s easy to manually or automatically create link aliases for created pages. So, instead of having something like “cars.php?id=232837″, “cars/honda” is more SEO-friendly and easier for humans to understand.

- Boost
There’s no doubt static hardcoded .html pages are served faster than dynamic website pages that read content from a database. But, obviously the advantages of a CMS for re-usable content outweighs the hassle of completely static html pages. With a module like Boost or even the native cache functionality of Drupal, it’s easy for the CMS to automatically create and manage non-dynamic pages. Therefore, speeding up websites and reducing the CPU burden on a server. I’m a big fan of the Boost module because it adds a LOT more functionality to the native cache capability.

- Vertical Tabs
To be honest, when I first started with Drupal, the user interface of the back-end CMS wasn’t that good. My main complaint was that there was simply too much information on the screen at any given time. If it’s a bit overwhelming even for a technical guy like me, imagine what it would be like for a client. The “Vertical Tabs” module came to the rescue and with it, the UI is a lot more cleaned up.

- WYSIWYG
Online WYSIWYG editors have generally come a long way and while there is still no perfect solution that would satisfy even the most non-technical person, there are editors that are very capable. We use the fantastic TinyMCE and the WYSIWYG module helps with the installation and management of the editor.

There’s probably a LOT more Drupal modules I could have mentioned but I shall save that for another time. Also at a later time, I’d like to focus on some of the modules more extensively and to provide some tips and tutorials.

Resources for creative stimulation

Sometimes the idea, that vital spark won’t just come. Now while trying to force it is generally a bad idea – there are some ways around a creative roadblock short of packing up and leaving work. I usually check out some websites or even (gasp) games to get my creative gears grinding.

A small selection:
bestwebgallery.com
A gallery of various Flash and CSS based web-designs as well as other design tidbits. Not super-regularly updated but worth a look every now and then.

webcreme.com
More good website designs and techinques in a comprehensive listing.

designflavr.com
A hand-selected and maintained gallery of all kinds of good design ranging from print, typography to web-design. I especially like to be inspired by non-topical designs. E.g. drawing inspiration from a video for a website. Recommended!

csszengarden.com
A well known classic. None the less this gave me some good ideas for workarounds to CSS problems, as well as showing off some refreshingly un-pretentious and unassuming designs.

smashingmagazine.com
Your one stop-shop for design advice and good articles on all things design. If you just visit one of those pages listed here, make it this one.

flabber.nl
Dutch weblog, not exactly work-related and may not be viewed safely at stricter workplaces. Fun links and topics – ranging from the plain weird over design to geek gadgets. Nevermind the language barrier. I don’t speak dutch either, nevermind my name.

Self promotion versus promoting the self

Well it was finally good to get the huge and seemingly unending production finally finished, on time, for our website newsletter and portfolio. A lot of blood sweat and tears went into its production and I must say what an experience! Not only is the work so darn good that I occasionally find myself perusing over it ogling at work that we’ve all had so much input in, but I can rest easy now that we have finally an identity and presence worth its weight in gold. (Was going to say worth its salt, but went for the bling approach.)

At any rate the self-promotional build was an experience that I won’t easily forget. Handling busy client work and all the day-to-day management of people and the office along with making sure that our own deadlines are being met, as well seeking new work was indeed an unusually difficult feat, however here I am at the end of it.

I love the sense of joy and accomplishment in producing great things but there’s always the slight concern about the subsequent void that arises afterward. Often this is more pressing than the accomplishment of the project immediately preceding it.

Anyway its time for a much needed break and so its enough self-promotion and more promoting of the self! See you in a week!

- Raymondo

Taken for a ride...

Now reading this formidable website you probably know that we’re located in Tokyo, Japan. So whether you are here in the long term, or, just looking around, you probably know there are lots of interesting places to see.
I’d like to add one more: Niijima.

Now some of you surfing gurus may know Niijima for its beautiful ocean and nice waves. But there is more to it. The island is heavy with a nice Mediterranean flair – the pressing humidity so well known in Tokyo is pleasantly absent. There are lots of small shops, almost no people and the aforementioned inviting ocean. A word of caution though, as you won’t find the classical hotel on this island – most accommodations here are family-run and rather small. But I found this to be quite nice, but depending on your tastes you might want to check in the one and only hotel on this island.
If that is not enough, take a boat trip to the neighboring Shikinejima for a song and rent one of those electrical bikes and explore the natural onsens and the variety of different archipelagos and beaches this island has to offer.
Thusly refreshed, work goes double as easy.

Good riddance IE6

With the upcoming release of Windows 7 in October, I hope that all users will finally make the move to upgrade Windows XP. Unlike the disastrous Vista, there are many solid reasons why Windows 7 is better (more on this later!) but from a web developer’s point of view, I can’t wait to see Internet Explorer 6 finally being phased out. I’ll admit IE6 was useful when it was released back in August 2001 but with the advent of various web technologies over the years, IE6 is simply outdated. The problem in the past was that because IE6 had such a commanding market-share, websites needed to be compatible with IE6 which often meant limitations, work-arounds, hacks, etc.. in order to accommodate features on the website.

Looking back at IE6, here are some of the quirks that I’ll (not) miss:
- PNG transparency
- :hover in CSS for all tags
- underscore CSS hacks
- fixed width centering alignment
- border, padding width inconsistencies
- absence/broken of CSS elements such as first-letter, first-line, vertical-align

It looks like IE6 has dropped 5% this year to 13.6%(as of August) and hopefully by year’s end, it’ll be at a point where we can definitely remove support for this aging browser.

My first anniversary (at Nichiai, of course!)

Wow. Has it been one year already? That’s right – I have been working for Nichiai Creative for a little over a year now. Looking back I can say that I’m happy to say that I made the right decision when I had to make a call between two companies and chose Nichiai. It surely has been a learning experience, both on a personal and professional level. And naturally I will continue to strive to share my experience with clients and colleagues alike. Thank you for making this possible!

Getting to Know Ireland

Today I was given the honour of earning a seat at the selection committee for the ‘Getting to know Ireland’ scheme. The Irish Embassy scheme is to “encourage JET and FÁS participants to organise events in their localities to promote Ireland. The ‘Get to Know Ireland’ scheme will make available grants of up to JPY 60,000 for events promoting Ireland from an economic, cultural and tourism perspective.”

When your country calls!…
I look forward to seeing what JETs and others are cooking up these days to promote our wee patch of the world.

- Raymondo

Hello World!

Thanks for reading my first blog entry. While I do maintain a personal blog, this is actually the first time I’ve kept a journal for work so this will be a whole new experience for me. I hope to write on various topics such as technology, programming, geeky stuff and anything else that seems interesting.