I’m making some slight changes to the design and layout of this site over the next few days. If you come visit and something looks whack, that’s most likely the reason.

That, or I just happen to have some whack-looking thing on my site.

Great interactive design quote from SXSWi -

“I was at Microsoft for a long time and I watched them continue to pack features into products that nobody wanted.

In fact, they packed so many in that they innovated by hiding a lot of the features so you weren’t so confused about them.”

It’s from Jamie Monberg’s panel, “Interactive Beyond the Screen: Branding in Four Dimensions.” Download the full session mp3 here. The quote is at about 37:20 into it.

On a related note, Rube Goldberg’s “Self-Operating Napkin:”

(image credit: Wikipedia)

”We have to continually be jumping off cliffs and developing our wings on the way down.”

- Kurt Vonnegut

“To be creative is to make something from nothing.
To make something small and harmless into something great and feared.
To be creative is to be brave.”

- Jessica Hagy, “Creative = Brave,” Age of Conversation 2

Hi. I’m working on a series of posts on ideas, and I have three questions for you:

1) How do you spark ideas?

What inspires you? What wakes you up and puts you in your most creative place? Do you have a conversation, doodle, space out, write everything down, go jogging or take a shower?

2) How do you capture ideas?

When ideas happen, how do you grab and retain them? Do you carry a notebook, write on your hand, write on a friend’s hand, leave yourself a voicemail, or use some online tool? What does your knapsack of inspiration look like?

3) How do you implement ideas?

This might be the hardest part. An idea is only a colorful vapor until you do something with it. How do you take your ideas from haze to reality?

You can either respond in the comments, or email me at hi [at] itsjustbrent [dot] com.

I can’t wait to hear from you.

Lots of months ago I - along with 237 other writers from 15 countries - contributed an essay to the book “Age of Conversation 2″. Since then, I’ve been squirming in my chair like a hyperactive five-year old waiting for it come come out. Well! This week it’s here, and is available for purchase at Lulu.com.

Here’s Lulu’s description of what we made:

This book is a daring challenge to the business community. Gone are the top-down, command and control messages that held sway through the 20th Century. In are a raft of new techniques that start with listening, responding and action that set the scene for a continuing and evolving dialog about brands, experience, business and community.

Like the first Age of Conversation, all proceeds go to Variety Children’s Charity. So when you buy, you’re also doing a good thing.

Enormous props to Drew McLellan and Gavin Heaton for orchestrating this whole thing and putting up with all of our nonsense.

Here’s a list of every author you can expect to love in the latest AofC:

A Adrian Ho, Aki Spicer, Alex Henault, Amy Jussel, Andrew Odom, Andy Nulman, Andy Sernovitz, Andy Whitlock, Angela Maiers, Ann Handley, Anna Farmery, Armando Alves, Arun Rajagopal, Asi Sharabi

B Becky Carroll, Becky McCray, Bernie Scheffler, Bill Gammell, Bob LeDrew, Brad Shorr, Brandon Murphy, Branislav Peric, Brent Dixon, Brett Macfarlane, Brian Reich

C C.C. Chapman, Cam Beck, Casper Willer, Cathleen Rittereiser, Cathryn Hrudicka, Cedric Giorgi, Charles Sipe, Chris Kieff, Chris Cree, Chris Wilson, Christina Kerley (CK), C.B. Whittemore, Chris Brown, Connie Bensen, Connie Reece, Corentin Monot, Craig Wilson

D Daniel Honigman, Dan Schawbel, Dan Sitter, Daria Radota Rasmussen, Darren Herman, Dave Davison, David Armano, David Berkowitz, David Koopmans, David Meerman Scott, David Petherick, David Reich, David Weinfeld, David Zinger, Deanna Gernert, Deborah Brown, Dennis Price, Derrick Kwa, Dino Demopoulos, Doug Haslam, Doug Meacham, Doug Mitchell, Douglas Hanna, Douglas Karr, Drew McLellan, Duane Brown, Dustin Jacobsen, Dylan Viner

E Ed Brenegar, Ed Cotton, Efrain Mendicuti, Ellen Weber, Eric Peterson, Eric Nehrlich, Ernie Mosteller

F Faris Yakob, Fernanda Romano, Francis Anderson

G G Kofi Annan, Gareth Kay, Gary Cohen, Gaurav Mishra, Gavin Heaton, Geert Desager, George Jenkins, G.L. Hoffman, Gianandrea Facchini, Gordon Whitehead, Greg Verdino, Gretel Going & Kathryn Fleming

H Hillel Cooperman, Hugh Weber

J J. Erik Potter, James Gordon-Macintosh, Jamey Shiels, Jasmin Tragas, Jason Oke, Jay Ehret, Jeanne Dininni, Jeff De Cagna, Jeff Gwynne & Todd Cabral, Jeff Noble, Jeff Wallace, Jennifer Warwick, Jenny Meade, Jeremy Fuksa, Jeremy Heilpern, Jeroen Verkroost, Jessica Hagy, Joanna Young, Joe Pulizzi, John Herrington, John Moore, John Rosen, John Todor, Jon Burg, Jon Swanson, Jonathan Trenn, Jordan Behan, Julie Fleischer, Justin Foster

K Karl Turley, Kate Trgovac, Katie Chatfield, Katie Konrath, Kenny Lauer, Keri Willenborg, Kevin Jessop, Kristin Gorski

L Lewis Green, Lois Kelly, Lori Magno, Louise Manning, Luc Debaisieux

M Mario Vellandi, Mark Blair, Mark Earls, Mark Goren, Mark Hancock, Mark Lewis, Mark McGuinness, Matt Dickman, Matt J. McDonald, Matt Moore, Michael Karnjanaprakorn, Michelle Lamar, Mike Arauz, Mike McAllen, Mike Sansone, Mitch Joel

N Neil Perkin, Nettie Hartsock, Nick Rice

O Oleksandr Skorokhod, Ozgur Alaz

P Paul Chaney, Paul Hebert, Paul Isakson, Paul McEnany, Paul Tedesco, Paul Williams, Pet Campbell, Pete Deutschman, Peter Corbett, Phil Gerbyshak, Phil Lewis, Phil Soden, Piet Wulleman

R Rachel Steiner, Reginald Adkins, Richard Huntington, Rishi Desai, Robert Hruzek, Roberta Rosenberg, Robyn McMaster, Roger von Oech, Rohit Bhargava, Ron Shevlin, Ryan Barrett, Ryan Karpeles, Ryan Rasmussen

S Sam Huleatt, Sandy Renshaw, Scott Goodson, Scott Monty, Scott Townsend, Scott White, Sean Howard, Sean Scott, Seni Thomas, Seth Gaffney, Shama Hyder, Sheila Scarborough, Sheryl Steadman, Simon Payn, Sonia Simone, Spike Jones, Sreeraj Menon, Stanley Johnson, Stephen Collins, Stephen Landau, Stephen Smith, Steve Bannister, Steve Hardy, Steve Portigal, Steve Roesler, Steven Verbruggen, Steve Woodruff, Sue Edworthy, Susan Bird, Susan Gunelius, Susan Heywood

T Tammy Lenski, Terrell Meek, Thomas Clifford, Thomas Knoll, Tim Brunelle, Tim Connor, Tim Jackson, Tim Mannveille, Tim Tyler, Timothy Johnson, Tinu Abayomi-Paul, Toby Bloomberg, Todd Andrlik, Troy Rutter, Troy Worman

U Uwe Hook

V Valeria Maltoni, Vandana Ahuja, Vanessa DiMauro, Veronique Rabuteau

W Wayne Buckhanan, William Azaroff

Y Yves Van Landeghem

Something I’ve come to realize, but have a hard time wrapping my actions around, is the hardest part about doing a thing of significance is the mental pendulum leading up to that decision. The back and forth, second guessing, and “what-ifs.”

Making the decision - doing it - is easy. You make the call and you operate.

I wouldn’t mind carrying a midget around that constantly reminded: “It’s simpler than you think.”

Last night (bleeding into early this morning) I made some big fat changes to my site. What do you think?

I’m really excited about the new banner, because it gives me a legitimate excuse to doodle now. Hopefully I’ll be switching out new sketches every few weeks or so.

After many requests, I’ve finally added a portfolio (albeit a miniature one) directly to the site. Click it! Fun things happen.

As the title mentions, this new design is a first step. Over the long haul, as time allows, I’ll jazz up the site’s design below the navigation to be just as organic and hand-drawn as the banner. Right now I feel like there’s a slight disconnect. But I’d rather launch now than wait until it’s perfect. It’ll never be perfect, you know.

There’s also lots of content to beef up - including adding more design and commentary to the little portfolio on the right.

My goals with the site are twofold:

1. To be a place for good conversation, and
2. To showcase my design business. Since leaving Trabian in April to go independent, I’ve relied on handshakes, cups of coffee, and pints of beer to be my business cards and marketing. It’s worked well enough so far - I’ve been able to eat at least one whole packet of Ramen a day - but this will help.

Speaking of that, I have a couple of posts in the cannon about kicking off a small business. It’s been a ride. I have a lot of questions for some of you.

So that’s that. As always, I covet your feedback and comments.

I’m completely enthralled by the work of Barcelona-based graphic designer Máximo Tuja, aka max-o-matic.

(via we-make-money-not-art’s review of “ESC: Enter Spanish Creativity“)

A few months ago, in a conversation about the role of design, my friend and co-worker Brandon Ferguson laid it out like this:

[Designers are] both working to build and for the system, and simultaneously subverting it. They’re the mouth pieces, and the destroyers.

I kind of love that. So much potential in the artful communication of messages.

And that’s why we love Brandon.

Fast Company, a business magazine with a heavy lean towards design and innovation (and a personal favorite of mine), has relaunched their website as a social network. Edward Sussman, President of Mansueto Digital, says this about the new FastCompany.com:

Starting today, we become the first major media website to tackle the following problem: Can a business publication blend journalism and online community to create something better than either by itself?

We think so. If done right.

For a publication who’s brand is ideas, I love this. Users who join the network can blog and comment, “befriend” other users, post videos, or even suggest questions to Fast Company. In opting to play equal parts mouth and mouthpiece, the new site is a big, fat, fascinating conversation. I’m looking forward to seeing how the user-generated commentary is used in the the printed magazine.

Conversations in motion include:

• Can good design save a bad product?
• How Social is “Social” Media?
• What is the role of the individual in corporate social responsibility?

Join the conversation by creating a profile here. And if you want, add me as a friend.

So I lied. I moved my portfolio from Coroflot over to Carbonmade. Check it out here:

» Design by Brent Dixon

Why’d I switch? Because Carbonmade…

• …is a much simpler presentation. In viewing designs, context is important. Coroflot’s busy-ness distracted from the actual design work. My Carbonmade portfolio is unbranded and the only strong design elements are found in the work.
• …is faster. Coroflot kept locking up and taking for-doggone-ever to load my images. Because of my self-diagnosed A.D.D, this stressed me out.
• …allows you to install Google Analytics on your portfolio. Coroflot had some built in stat tools, but nothing like Google Analytics. Instead of trying to reinvent the wheel, Carbonmade just opened themselves up to an awesome tool that already existed. Good call.

What do I miss?

• Coroflot’s navigation is better. It’s much easier to hop from section to section (Web vs. Print, etc) in Coroflot’s interface.
•  I wish Carbonmade had some heirarchy built into the blurbs associated with each design. As in “Title” and “Description,” that’s it. Right now all of my text is slapped in one place, and can’t be formatted. It’s not very scannable, and just looks messy.
• Coroflot lets you customize icons for each design, and that was nice.

There’s a list of several more design portfolio hosts on Listible.com.