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	<title>Design by Fire</title>
	<link>http://www.designbyfire.com</link>
	<description>The musing of Andrei Michael Herasimchuk</description>
	<pubDate>Mon, 17 Nov 2008 18:00:18 +0000</pubDate>
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		<title>This page intentionally left blank</title>
		<link>http://www.designbyfire.com/?p=35</link>
		<pubDate>Fri, 31 Oct 2008 08:09:36 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Andrei</dc:creator>
		
	<category>Design</category>		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.designbyfire.com/?p=35</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[While it's been forever and a year since I've written a new blog post, I do want to let folks know I have been writing.

In case you've missed it, I'm the new Desktop columnist for PRINT Magazine. You can always find my articles at their website or better yet, go buy the magazine since it's one of the few design publications that's worth paying a subscription for in my humble opinion.

My most recent articles:

	Open Range (Aug 2008)
	Click to Run (Oct 2008)
	Coming Interactions (Dec 2008)

I'll update this list as articles are published. And while I'm proud of the final results, I ...]]></description>
		<content:encoded><![CDATA[While it's been forever and a year since I've written a new blog post, I do want to let folks know I have been writing.

In case you've missed it, I'm the new Desktop columnist for PRINT Magazine. You can always find my articles at their website or better yet, go buy the magazine since it's one of the few design publications that's worth paying a subscription for in my humble opinion.

My most recent articles:

	Open Range (Aug 2008)
	Click to Run (Oct 2008)
	Coming Interactions (Dec 2008)

I'll update this list as articles are published. And while I'm proud of the final results, I ...]]></content:encoded>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Keeping up with the Joneses</title>
		<link>http://www.designbyfire.com/?p=33</link>
		<pubDate>Fri, 17 Aug 2007 03:59:24 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Andrei</dc:creator>
		
	<category>Design</category>		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.designbyfire.com/?p=33</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Very Important Note: At the time I wrote this, I did so without consulting anyone at Adobe about it. I did so for a couple of reasons, but mostly because I didn't want anyone to get in trouble in the event any of my legal eagle friends at Adobe felt I shouldn't have posted it. However, I felt this article was an important piece of Adobe design history that was better served by being out there in the world than not, so I went ahead and posted it anyway without consultation. 

Since then, I've spoken to a few folks and ...]]></description>
		<content:encoded><![CDATA[Very Important Note: At the time I wrote this, I did so without consulting anyone at Adobe about it. I did so for a couple of reasons, but mostly because I didn't want anyone to get in trouble in the event any of my legal eagle friends at Adobe felt I shouldn't have posted it. However, I felt this article was an important piece of Adobe design history that was better served by being out there in the world than not, so I went ahead and posted it anyway without consultation. 

Since then, I've spoken to a few folks and ...]]></content:encoded>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Introducing Spivot</title>
		<link>http://www.designbyfire.com/?p=32</link>
		<pubDate>Mon, 05 Mar 2007 17:34:41 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Andrei</dc:creator>
		
	<category>Design</category>		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.designbyfire.com/?p=32</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Well, the downtime on Design by Fire was unexpected. I have been wanting to post this particular message for quite some time, but have had to hold off due to a number of delays that simply couldn't be avoided.

But that's all done now. I can now announce the latest project myself and other folks at Involution Studios have been working on recently.



What is Spivot? Simply put, its an RSS reader at its core. But don't let that part fool you. It's also much more. My hope is that with the design and implementation we chose, Spivot will actually wind up ...]]></description>
		<content:encoded><![CDATA[Well, the downtime on Design by Fire was unexpected. I have been wanting to post this particular message for quite some time, but have had to hold off due to a number of delays that simply couldn't be avoided.

But that's all done now. I can now announce the latest project myself and other folks at Involution Studios have been working on recently.



What is Spivot? Simply put, its an RSS reader at its core. But don't let that part fool you. It's also much more. My hope is that with the design and implementation we chose, Spivot will actually wind up ...]]></content:encoded>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>The unfortunate death of Helvetica</title>
		<link>http://www.designbyfire.com/?p=31</link>
		<pubDate>Mon, 23 Oct 2006 21:18:44 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Andrei</dc:creator>
		
	<category>Design</category>		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.designbyfire.com/?p=31</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[I've been holding off a while now writing a follow up to my Open Letter to John Warnock. Partly because I've been hemming and hawing over what topic to write next. But also because I've been waiting for a response from Warnock himself.

That finally came this past weekend.

John Warnock and Chuck Geschke were spotlighted and interviewed by the San Jose Mercury News. In the interview, which you can read online (account required), Ryan Blitstein asked Warnock directly about my open source font request.


Q: Last summer, Andrei Herasimchuk, who spent eight years at Adobe, generated buzz among designers and programmers with ...]]></description>
		<content:encoded><![CDATA[I've been holding off a while now writing a follow up to my Open Letter to John Warnock. Partly because I've been hemming and hawing over what topic to write next. But also because I've been waiting for a response from Warnock himself.

That finally came this past weekend.

John Warnock and Chuck Geschke were spotlighted and interviewed by the San Jose Mercury News. In the interview, which you can read online (account required), Ryan Blitstein asked Warnock directly about my open source font request.


Q: Last summer, Andrei Herasimchuk, who spent eight years at Adobe, generated buzz among designers and programmers with ...]]></content:encoded>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>An Open letter to John Warnock</title>
		<link>http://www.designbyfire.com/?p=30</link>
		<pubDate>Mon, 28 Aug 2006 20:42:09 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Andrei</dc:creator>
		
	<category>Design</category>		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.designbyfire.com/?p=30</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Attn: John Warnock
c/o Adobe Systems
345 Park Avenue
San Jose, CA 95110

John,

I am writing this to you because of all the people on the planet, you are quite literally the only person I know of who could make what I am about to ask for a reality. But before I get to my request, let me please start with a few words of thanks. 

I hope I speak for all designers when I say that without question, your contributions to the world of design through the technology of PostScript and the subsequent business you built in Adobe Systems, has quite simply changed ...]]></description>
		<content:encoded><![CDATA[Attn: John Warnock
c/o Adobe Systems
345 Park Avenue
San Jose, CA 95110

John,

I am writing this to you because of all the people on the planet, you are quite literally the only person I know of who could make what I am about to ask for a reality. But before I get to my request, let me please start with a few words of thanks. 

I hope I speak for all designers when I say that without question, your contributions to the world of design through the technology of PostScript and the subsequent business you built in Adobe Systems, has quite simply changed ...]]></content:encoded>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Convenient Lessons from An Inconvenient Truth</title>
		<link>http://www.designbyfire.com/?p=29</link>
		<pubDate>Wed, 02 Aug 2006 19:30:58 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Andrei</dc:creator>
		
	<category>Design</category>		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.designbyfire.com/?p=29</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[If you have not yet seen An Inconvenient Truth, then I highly recommend that you do. It's a compelling film and one that deserves to be taken seriously, regardless of what your opinion of anyone with a (D) in front of their name might be. However, I'm not going to get into the science or politics of the movie, which I admit I found quite convincing. I want to examine a few issues more closely tied to my profession.

As a designer, I found the presentation of the information in the movie thoroughly engaging. The slides that Mr. Gore used -- ...]]></description>
		<content:encoded><![CDATA[If you have not yet seen An Inconvenient Truth, then I highly recommend that you do. It's a compelling film and one that deserves to be taken seriously, regardless of what your opinion of anyone with a (D) in front of their name might be. However, I'm not going to get into the science or politics of the movie, which I admit I found quite convincing. I want to examine a few issues more closely tied to my profession.

As a designer, I found the presentation of the information in the movie thoroughly engaging. The slides that Mr. Gore used -- ...]]></content:encoded>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>The kids aren&#8217;t alright</title>
		<link>http://www.designbyfire.com/?p=28</link>
		<pubDate>Mon, 17 Jul 2006 23:46:13 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Andrei</dc:creator>
		
	<category>Design</category>		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.designbyfire.com/?p=28</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[I was flying on a business trip some ten years ago. As the captain announced over the intercom that we were cleared for takeoff, I went through my usual ritual of grinding my teeth to powder, taking excessive deep breathes and generally attempting to obliterate the seat handles into dust like I was Hulk. 

At that inopportune moment a young boy probably no older than four or five years old began kicking the seat behind me. Not soft love taps either. I mean all out foot in the spine muscle spasms. After 30 seconds of this torture during the preliminary ...]]></description>
		<content:encoded><![CDATA[I was flying on a business trip some ten years ago. As the captain announced over the intercom that we were cleared for takeoff, I went through my usual ritual of grinding my teeth to powder, taking excessive deep breathes and generally attempting to obliterate the seat handles into dust like I was Hulk. 

At that inopportune moment a young boy probably no older than four or five years old began kicking the seat behind me. Not soft love taps either. I mean all out foot in the spine muscle spasms. After 30 seconds of this torture during the preliminary ...]]></content:encoded>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>The Culture of Fugly</title>
		<link>http://www.designbyfire.com/?p=27</link>
		<pubDate>Mon, 26 Jun 2006 03:53:14 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Andrei</dc:creator>
		
	<category>Design</category>		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.designbyfire.com/?p=27</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Paul Rand famously wrote:

The public is more familiar with bad design than good design. It is, in effect, conditioned to prefer bad design, because that is what it lives with. The new becomes threatening, the old reassuring.

In the context of web and high-technology product design, this observation from Mr. Rand takes on special import. For those that doubt this, please consider the evidence:



eBay. Garish colors, poor composition and a mixture of poorly rendered aliased type in an apparent attempt to make eBay feel homey, like a garage sale. One has to wonder though why you would copy K-Mart when it's ...]]></description>
		<content:encoded><![CDATA[Paul Rand famously wrote:

The public is more familiar with bad design than good design. It is, in effect, conditioned to prefer bad design, because that is what it lives with. The new becomes threatening, the old reassuring.

In the context of web and high-technology product design, this observation from Mr. Rand takes on special import. For those that doubt this, please consider the evidence:



eBay. Garish colors, poor composition and a mixture of poorly rendered aliased type in an apparent attempt to make eBay feel homey, like a garage sale. One has to wonder though why you would copy K-Mart when it's ...]]></content:encoded>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Welcome to the new school, same as the old school.</title>
		<link>http://www.designbyfire.com/?p=3</link>
		<pubDate>Tue, 20 Jun 2006 06:00:10 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Andrei</dc:creator>
		
	<category>Lifestyle</category>		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.designbyfire.com/wordpress/?p=3</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[I've gotten a few emails over the last year asking me why Design by Fire fell by the wayside. The answer to that question is fairly simple, even though I'd rather not admit it.

First, I got fed up wrestling with layouts and designs that looked or behaved differently across the various browsers. To put it bluntly, I have better things to do with my time than sit around and wonder why the fuck the Microsoft engineers left out "position: fixed;" while supporting "position: absolute;" Or wonder why the Firefox team decided to implement what easily constitutes the ugliest set of ...]]></description>
		<content:encoded><![CDATA[I've gotten a few emails over the last year asking me why Design by Fire fell by the wayside. The answer to that question is fairly simple, even though I'd rather not admit it.

First, I got fed up wrestling with layouts and designs that looked or behaved differently across the various browsers. To put it bluntly, I have better things to do with my time than sit around and wonder why the fuck the Microsoft engineers left out "position: fixed;" while supporting "position: absolute;" Or wonder why the Firefox team decided to implement what easily constitutes the ugliest set of ...]]></content:encoded>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Please make me think! Are high-tech usability priorities backwards?</title>
		<link>http://www.designbyfire.com/?p=10</link>
		<pubDate>Sun, 10 Oct 2004 20:00:31 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Andrei</dc:creator>
		
	<category>Design</category>		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.designbyfire.com/wordpress/?p=10</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[[Note: This is an updated and edited version of the original article that appeared on Design by Fire. This version was edited by Linda Jorgensen of The Editorial Eye and appears in the April 2006 issue.]

A few simple questions: Should designers be bound by some ethical mantra to make their work deeper, more thoughtful, and more complex rather than to aim for the lowest common denominator of a user base?

Should designers require  users to think instead of allowing them to  glide thoughtlessly through  Web sites, software, or other electronic products ? 

Should every control and widget be ...]]></description>
		<content:encoded><![CDATA[[Note: This is an updated and edited version of the original article that appeared on Design by Fire. This version was edited by Linda Jorgensen of The Editorial Eye and appears in the April 2006 issue.]

A few simple questions: Should designers be bound by some ethical mantra to make their work deeper, more thoughtful, and more complex rather than to aim for the lowest common denominator of a user base?

Should designers require  users to think instead of allowing them to  glide thoughtlessly through  Web sites, software, or other electronic products ? 

Should every control and widget be ...]]></content:encoded>
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