A web designer with an attitude (he did his site while drunk)

http://www.alittlebitofsomething.co.uk/

by cpg • 15 years ago

184 72 15 years ago

alittlebitofsomething.co.uk

paradox95• 15 years ago

I hope someone creates another site from the perspective of the engineer who has to implement his outlandish designs. The first sentence: "If it were as simple to do on a website as it is in Photoshop, I would have done it". Followed by: "I'm paying you so do what the fuck I want."

k33n• 15 years ago

The only "engineers" that complain about implementing "outlandish" designs are ones who don't understand HTML/CSS/JS as much as they say they do. Literally anything is possible on the Web.

petervandijck2• 15 years ago

The entire Kamasutra is possible, it doesn't mean you should necessarily be doing it all.

hardy263• 15 years ago

Depending on the design, some would require some sort of ugly hack and a lot of testing to get it to work in all browsers consistently. Sure, anything is possible on the web, but it'll probably require flash or use a fixed position layout.

kstenerud• 15 years ago

Because we all know that engineering doesn't exist outside of building web apps.

crikli• 15 years ago

Agreed. Back in the bad old days of table-based layouts it wasn't always possible but in the modern age of CSS2+3, HTML5, and sweet libraries like jQuery it's the rare case where the site can't be bloody close to the design comp (unless you're in IE 6/7, in which case it'll still look good but won't have all the roundy corners and font shadows and such).

jdietrich• 15 years ago

I'd hire that guy.

rch• 15 years ago

I'd work with him.

Mz4• 15 years ago

Some of the samples are compelling and beautiful. I'm annoyed they are not clickable.

But the rest is kind of "meh". Like I've never heard a talented, intelligent professional whine before about this type thing. My advice: Put some of that intelligence towards learning how to better market yourself or some such so you make better money and have less to kvetch about.

CamperBob• 15 years ago

He made the front page of Hacker News, didn't he?

amr2• 15 years ago

Not all publicity is good publicity.

ForrestN2• 15 years ago

An edgy package for conservative, second-rate work. Not surprised you can't click on the thumbs.

tomelders• 15 years ago

Maybe, just maybe, a really really talented designer can get away sounding that cocky, but I doubt they would.

Taste is subjective, but this is my area of expertise and I'd say he's middle of the road, so his attitude comes across as plain old arrogance to me.

I also think that web designers should be able to code, but that's a whole other debate.

nathanbarry• 15 years ago

I like the attitude. Should resonate with the type of client he is looking to get. At least then he avoids working with people who are too uptight for him to get along with.

PelCasandra• 15 years ago

Agreed with ForrestN. I don't see anything special about this. That guy is not a designer himself. He just mere know how to use the tools yet he thinks so.

jonmc12• 15 years ago

tldr version: this guy is not a horse, clearly a human, but possibly has fantasies of being a grizzly bear.

DanBlake2• 15 years ago

That guy sure is cocky, considering his profile consists of run of the mill/average website designs. Half of his portfolio looks like it could be from templatemonster.

petervandijck2• 15 years ago

Agreed the examples are mediocre. I don't mind the attitude at all though.

DanBlake2• 15 years ago

The attitude is fine and refreshing- But please, be able to back it up :)

If you can, it makes it all worth while. If not, you come off in the wrong way.

mkrecny• 15 years ago

Personally, I'd describe it as a healthy serving of a type of British humor!

sjs3822• 15 years ago

I recognize the one in the 4th column, 3nd row from themeforest.net

sjs3822• 15 years ago

Found it! Here it is on his site: http://i.imgur.com/9rFCs.png

And here it is on themeforest.net: http://themeforest.net/item/business-solutions/152308

wisty• 15 years ago

At ~$2000 / site (which may be negotiable), I doubt he's doing them all from scratch. It seems he does the graphics, text, and setup.

He might be more run-of-the-mill than brilliant. But then, he probably knows a lot more than his client, and he's trying to drive that point in.

sliverstorm• 15 years ago

Being cocky is one way to try and sell yourself if you don't have a particularly impressive portfolio yet.

Considering everyone has to start from square one at some point, I hardly blame alternative tactics to "Look at these sites I designed, aren't they awesome?". Not everyone can have designed... whatever sites you think are good.

csomar• 15 years ago

Well. This guy seems to be good at doing graphics. I like the graphics in the thumbnail he put. I don't like the sites design in the portfolio thumbs, but I need to get the full site URL and display it on my screen to be sure.

I like how he presented himself and the website coding. There are two points, though:

1. Don't use images for Text. He can use cuffon or font-face

2. I need to click the thumb. Since the page doesn't showcase any particular design and coding skills then I need to check the websites he made.

Why the site is good, in my opinion? Because it's unique. Good designers now focus on clean and well designed portfolios with JavaScript effects and little text and information. This is something unique and original. It's different. If I want to hire the guy, then I'll check his portfolio (that's why I need to click the thumbs) and decide.

codingthebeach2• 15 years ago

The industry's not quite to the point where you can get rid of text-as-images. @font-face is supported in maybe 50% of browser versions, requires several different font formats, and even if you get it to work uniformly, you still have to deal with licensing issues.

http://caniuse.com/#search=font-face

I agree you should prefer text to images of text, but sometimes you can't escape it. EDIT: And I agree that in this particular case, he could've just used appropriately-styled text. :)

JoelSutherland• 15 years ago

@font-face actually has pretty incredible browser coverage:

Safari 5.03, IE 6-9, Firefox 3.6-4, Chrome 8, iOS 3.2-4.2, Android 2.2-2.3, Opera 11 (http://www.fontspring.com/blog/the-new-bulletproof-font-face...)

It does require different file formats, but these can be generated trivially:

http://www.fontsquirrel.com/fontface/generator

ddagradi• 15 years ago

@font-face is pretty widespread, but licensing is a many-headed beast, it's true.

Typekit, however, has really extensive browser support (http://help.typekit.com/customer/portal/articles/6786-browse...) and, of course, appropriate licensing built in.

There's too many great solutions for web typography to have images be an acceptable solution these days.

pxlpshr• 15 years ago

Unimpressive portfolio. All too common of an attitude in both creative and engineering oriented industries. The greatest things are built through collaboration, and the most brilliant people are generally the most humble — their work speaks for themselves.

The markup isn't great at all, and the overall usability and typography choices suck. Get over yourself, millennial.

andrewcross• 15 years ago

Fully agreed that the greatest things are built through collaboration.

What if the customer didn't want that tricked out design you made? Are they going to get made fun of for having a simple website that people can understand and use with ease? Probably not.

The designer and customer need to work TOGETHER to get something great. The designer doesn't know the ins and outs and the passion behind the business, the customer does.

Work together and get something that looks pimp but is still in line with what the customer wants.

jc4p• 15 years ago

Definitely agree with you about the usability, the giant header cut right at the bottom of my 1600x900 screen, I had to look at the source of the page before I realized I was supposed to scroll down to see more.

jgmmo• 15 years ago

Your not the only one, caught me too.

Jasber• 15 years ago

I was with you until you threw in millennial.

eulo• 15 years ago

I lol'd, he wrote it drunk after all. This is how all developers feel on the inside about their work. And I think it works great for showing that he isn't a boring neckbeard behind the computer.

Down with corporations! and stuff...

brimpa• 15 years ago

I'm not sure about you but I definitely don't show my humble side when I'm drunk.

In all seriousness though, I appreciate his attempt to be avant-garde. If it backfires, we know why. If it gets him a few jobs, we know why.

olliesaunders• 15 years ago

> and the most brilliant people are generally the most humble

So he’s not one of the most brilliant; he’s just good. You can also be humble and rubbish.

ristretto3• 15 years ago

How come designers can have an attitude, but developers can't?

cpg• 15 years ago

uh? Many many developers have an attitude. many many do, like dhh, zed shaw and many others. They can be engaging.

There was something about the copy of this guy that was both repulsive and engaging all in the same serving ... like a train wreck you can take your eyes off.

ristretto3• 15 years ago

Not so directly: "I make programs, not shit programs, good ones, you're not the programmer, so shut up". This guy tries to come off as edgy but sounds more like someone who beats his wife.

inarru• 15 years ago

"And yes I'm the same idiot that sold a used wetsuit on eBay for £9,000."

Ah, I remember this!

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=160...

very similar, but an ebay listing not a portfolio website. he certainly knows how to copywrite in a way that gets him traffic.

craigmc• 15 years ago

If you've ever had to do a website for a small biz, you typically find that either a) you end up doing the copy or b) the site never gets finished (and you don't get paid, or if you do get paid, you get to put an empty site in your portfolio). Good copy-writing is thus very handy skill to have (and this guy, in his eBay listing at least, absolutely nails it... the £9k bottom line speaks for itself).

codingthebeach2• 15 years ago

Truer words were never spoken. "What's that, you expect me to produce 40 pages of technical-but-intelligible copy for procedures on your plastic surgery website? But that's why I gave you [insert CMS of choice here], so your people could log in and edit that themselves...my god man, I'm a web developer, not a medical research technician...what's that? You don't have people? Sigh."

lhnz• 15 years ago

The attitude is more compelling than the work. But, in a group of candidates of similar quality, I would be more likely to hire the guy with a sense of humour.

ristretto3• 15 years ago

Another company with an attitude: http://gandi.net : "No Bullshit" (they have a trademark sign on it, but i doubt they 've actually applied for it)

burgerbrain• 15 years ago

He lacks standout skill, but he sure has moxie and that counts for a lot.

oldstrangers2• 15 years ago

His websites look like every cookie-cutter wordpress "business" theme out there... Horrible, to put it nicely. His "graphic design" is no more than a few mouse clicks in illustrator on someone else's photographs.

Not even sure why we're talking about this.

jcc803• 15 years ago

Because it makes people feel better about themselves to knock someone down who dares to stand out. I say good for him.

oldstrangers2• 15 years ago

I wasn't concerned with his marketing approach.

flocial• 15 years ago

This reminded me of the flipside of doing everything the client wants:

http://theoatmeal.com/comics/design_hell

jasonkostempski• 15 years ago

I would have chosen the fax machine over Billy Joel in 1991. The fax machine at least has the potential of being useful.

mannicken• 15 years ago

Hilarious.

unshift• 15 years ago

everyone wants to rag on the portfolio (fine, go ahead) but the long-form copy on that page is great. it's really well laid out, easy to read, and got probably everybody to scroll from top to bottom and read almost the whole thing.

as someone who's unsuccessfully been trying to coax something similar out of a designer, it's refreshing to see. my product requires a bit of convincing and explaining, so the standard business type website with a couple pictures thrown in isn't as effective. long copy is hard to get right and this guy nailed it.

ForrestN2• 15 years ago

Getting someone's attention is only one objective of a portfolio site. The most important one isn't as easy: convince people to hire you. Sure, many people are likely to scroll down. But his "argument" isn't compelling, nor is his work. He just comes off as difficult, arrogant, and not very good at design.

Maybe he has potential as a copywriter, but if he's going to use it, he needs to keep his eye on the objective for which he's writing.

singingfish• 15 years ago

Actually this is very British humour. It may not work well for everyone, but in Britain, it's likely to be memorable in a positive way for many people who read it.

jcc803• 15 years ago

If you try to appeal to everyone you might end up appealing to nobody. Some people will respond very positively to his message - and that's all he needs.

rglover• 15 years ago

Alright, so, there are good and bad things about this. First, the good. The copy is pretty solid and for someone with a sense of humor, it's quite charming. It's not too rude and for the person with a decent head on their shoulders, it shouldn't upset them. The bad, however, is the quality of work that rests on the shoulders of that brass copy. It's not necessarily bad, but it doesn't muster up to the talk that's going on. Not to mention, you can't even click on anything in the portfolio so it sort of makes the work worthless. Cute, but the whole thing should be put back in the oven for a wee bit.

wallflower• 15 years ago

This guy knows how to market. He's like Zed Shaw

http://techcrunch.com/2011/03/16/ebay-wetsuit-bear-urinal/

poink• 15 years ago

It's better to be controversially beautiful than universally cute. Well done, guy.

sistersue• 15 years ago

I'd be intimidated to work with him (due to the snarky attitude) if I weren't comfortable with technology stuff. But otherwise he might be entertaining to hire.

pawelwentpawel• 15 years ago

He managed to get some publicity, so I guess he reached the goal. I wouldn't hire him though, he gives the impression that he is a pain to work with.

koanarc• 15 years ago

Anyone else notice an annoying horizontal scrollbar (at 1024x768) due to the unnecessary 10px body padding?

To me, that simple detail alone belies the second statement of his copy.

_pcpe• 15 years ago

This guys website stinks, ending up with positive response from most of the peoples.

ck2• 15 years ago

Too bad that "professional expert" website designer doesn't even follow 960px width, the entire right side of that page is cutoff in my browser.

Maybe it's because I use windows large fonts but a pro would have considered that. Actually it seems he uses 1000px image width so right there is a lack of understanding that 40px makes a big difference in adapting design to what the market will accept.

A web designer with an attitude (he did his site while drunk)

Related Stories