Next in the series of photos used for header images on Stopdesign is a candid photo I never would have expected to make use of in any kind of design, let alone Stopdesign’s Company pages. There’s nothing spectacular about this photo at first glance. Maybe even at second and third glances. In fact, any other designer probably would have passed it over. This… is Office Shopping.

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Picking up where we left off a couple weeks ago, I direct your attention to the header for the Examples section. (And no, you’re not just imagining a drastic shift if you looked at it soon after the redesign. I did change the background of the page from dark to light.) The original photo for this header image was taken during a recent trip down to San Diego, where good friends, Jason and Megan, took me to one of the best barbecue spots in the country… Phil’s BBQ:

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The second of a series, the header image from the Articles section originates from a photo that conjures up great memories with international friends. This is Café en Madrid…

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In the first of a series, I present the original, undoctored photo used for one of the header images on Stopdesign. This one: the home page. There’s a story behind each one of them, which will help humanize the abstractions I’ve used for each header. This photo was taken while I was visiting Miami in November 2002 for the AIGA I|O: Interaction Only Conference. I dubbed it… The Drive-By.

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This year is certainly my “coming out of the office” year in terms of public speaking. With three events down, and four more on the schedule so far, the year holds lots of opportunities to meet new people.

A big, huge thanks goes to the Sonoma County Web Developers SIG for hosting me on Tuesday night for a talk titled, Beautiful Interfaces with CSS. Except for getting out of the office late that afternoon, and getting stuck in over 2 hours of traffic on the drive up from San Francisco, it was really an enjoyable evening with a lively crowd. The smaller setting provided lots of opportunity for interaction and a good amount of questions mixed in throughout from the audience. continued

If you followed my recent mention of the installed wifi at SBC Park, you’ll also be interested in Michael Myser’s interview with Bill Schlough (the Giants’ Chief Information Officer) just published at Wired News. In the interview, Schlough discusses the decision to install wifi in the park, its effects, and their past and future implementations of other technologies. Apparently the relationship with SBC benefits the team and the stadium in more ways than one. He makes a statement that the Giants have the largest IT staff compared with other baseball outfits, and added that the fans in the Bay Area are not only comfortable with more embedded technology in the game-going experience, they expect it.

Benny Evangelista writes an interesting article for the SF Chronicle on the recently installed wifi at SBC Park. I read about the new wifi several weeks ago before opening day, but this is the first I’ve seen public mention about it in local media. Note: “SBC Park has been outfitted with 121 high-speed wireless Internet access points, making the ballpark one giant Wi-Fi hot spot.” continued

Luck and some last-minute arrangements have me on the opposite coast right now. I’m in New York, in the middle of a whirlwind trip which only removes me from San Francisco for a span of about 48 hours. You do the math. Figure about a five hour direct flight each way, and time to get in and out of each city via train, and it doesn’t amount to much time here.

Trips to New York are always like this for me. This is only the third time I’ve been here, but each time, my visit is extremely limited, no doubt confining my experience of the Big Apple to portions that I can see in such short time. continued

Yes, that’s a reflective self-portrait of me, with the mountains of the North Shore in the background and the trees of Stanley Park off to the right. So far, we’re extremely lucky that the enormous amount of rain Vancouver received lately has given way to this kind of weather.

More to come later, but as a teaser: I think the crosswalk signal icons are wonderful here.

In two days, I’ll be heading north to Vancouver, B.C. for the AIGA National Design Conference, the power of Design. (Ironic that an American org is holding a national conference in Canada, eh?) This year’s conference will focus on the role of designers in the 21st century, in terms of culture, economy, and environment. Registration is still open if you’re up for making last minute plans. Be wary though: nearby hotels were filling up quick when I booked a month ago. GDC members are also eligible for the AIGA member rate. continued