Concept Fail. At least for me. It wasn’t 5 days before i felt the pressure of “I gotta design something, i gotta design something”. But what am I designing? I immediately realized that I wasn’t designing, I was pixel pushing.

Design solves problems. It informs. It teaches. This? This was design for the sake of design. I had a hard time feeling like i even learned anything. If you show me something, 95% of the time I can recreate it in Photoshop. I’m pretty good. Compound that with no clear goal, no problem to solve and well, It was just a waste of time. Hours that could be spent doing something more productive, something with monetary gain, or something with my family.

So that’s the story. I wish all of you still out there designing every day the best of luck. I’ll see you on the next fad. Maybe.

This is a good one though. Design something every day. Something. Anything. Logos, cd covers, typographical posters… you name it. Just design something.

Practice makes perfect, so here’s the opportunity. With most things in life, challenges are done better in pairs. Working out, climbing Mt. Everest… so i need a buddy. Someone who will commit to this with me. I’ll push you, you push me, and we’ll design something every day.

Leave a comment if you’re willing to do this. I plan on setting a theme for each month of 2010, and posting to either this blog or an even simpler one (e.g. http://365.jackmcdade.com). Let’s go.

So now that i’m back, i’m laying down the trail on where I’m headed. I’ve launched a couple of sites at the ol’ day job (FingerPaint Marketing) since I’ve been back: Radiant Pools and Lemery Greisler, as well as a small freelance site that had been kicking around for a while: Visual Planet. All ExpressionEngine. Some really great projects on the horizon including a revamp of our corporate site as well as some high-traffic medical and insurance sites. Good stuff.

Now for the main stuff. There’s a few great things coming down the pipe that may benefit more than just myself. I’ve joined forces with the guys from the Build Guild to officially start the New York Capital Region [Albany] Chapter of the Build Guild! This is pretty exciting as it’s a great way to get to know other web designers and developers in the area, network, swap tips and stories, and plain old have a good time with people who have like interests. The Albany Chapter will have the same focus as the original in Boston. So check out their site to see what’s in store. http://albany.buildguild.org will be coming soon.

Also I have some tricks up my sleeves with my ExpressionEngine work as well. I’ve been working on a quick site deploy framework and my partner in crime, Tom Jaeger, has been eyebrows deep in some custom addons as well. I know you’ve all been waiting to hear about Boomerang and Bullseye and whatnot, i promise– they will be released sooner rather than later! Keep an eye on SmoothFunction.com for more details.

And last but not least…

I’m gonna be a DAD! That’s right, my awesome and beautiful wife Jen (who is a web dev too, by the way) is carrying a little McBaby right now. She’s at around 15 weeks or so at this point, so another month or month and a half and we might know if it’s a little-Jack or a mini-Jen.

That’s all for now!

So there you go. I do what I have to, to get it done. Stop on back sometime! Also check out SmoothFunction in the near future as I work with my buddy and co-worker Tom Jaeger to launch that bad boy and offer up some sweet ExpressionEngine addons (Boomerang anybody?).

I have something different planned. What might that be? I’m unsure. I plan to just share my knowledge. Anything unique I feel I have personally to offer. I suppose it’s possible that may be a link or two, but you won’t see “The Top 97 Web Designer Resources You’ve Never Seen!” — my subtitile: “and You’ll Never Use.” I know ExpressionEngine. Web and Interface Design. XHTML/CSS. PHP/CodeIgniter, Analytics and measurements. Strategy. Those are my things. Sure it may be a wide range but hey, most of you do even more.

I’m here for questions, I’m here to chat, and hell — hit me up on Xbox Live, I’ll even go a few rounds in whatever you want (handle: Whitepatch…haven’t forked over the $$ to change my old nickname). You’ll find me regularly in Ryan Irelan’s EEchat on Wednesday nights. I’m on the ExpressionEngine Forums almost every day. I twit. Or is it tweet? I never had the time to figure that one out. I end up spending it trying to make insane deadlines, which either make you look like a hero or a failure. Gotta love win/lose situations!