JeffCroft.com

Future of Web Design, New York

After speaking at the first Future of Web Design in London, I was compelled to attend the second one, this time in New York City. Between not having to spend that much to go and my never having been to New York, it was a no-brainer. The conference was good — but I’m not sure it was as good as the first one. There were a few terrific talks (Joshua Davis, Jina Bolton, and Elliot Jay Stocks come to mind — and I hear D. Keith Robinson and Ryan Sims were great to, although I had to miss it), and there were some so-so ones, as you might expect. A few logistical problems really hurt the overall impression of the conference (notably, the fact that we were in a sun-filled room and, while beautiful, it was damn-near impossible to see anyone’s slides). Still, it was an incredibly great time. The conference party, sponsored by Media Temple, was off the hook — definitely amongst the best I’ve been to. I enjoyed a marathon (six-hour!) karaoke session in Midtown with Keith, Jina, Kevin Tamura, Jason Garber, Cindy Li, Doug March, Alisa Schadt, Andy Clarke, Noah Larsen, Bryan Veloso and his lovely girl Jenn, Patrick Haney, Jenna Marino, and Jonathan Snook. It was definitely one of my favorite nights in a long, long time — so thanks to all of you guys. We also went to MoMA, saw an incredible jazz combo at 55 Bar, and did a few good touristy things in the city. All in all, an incredible time. Thanks to my friends at Carsonified and everyone I met and talked to in NYC!

Django/Journalism Jobs

My old job at World Online — the one I had before I joined Blue Flavor — is now open. I talked more about it here, or you can pop straight over to the job description at Authentic Jobs. Mediaphormedia (World Online’s new name) is a wonderful place to work — I highly recommend it to any designer interested in editorial design and journalism.

Along those same lines, the Spokane, WA Spokesman Review is undertaking a complete re-working of their site and basing it on Ellington (World Online/Mediaphormedia’s Django-powered CMS). They’re looking for a well-rounded Web Developer with Django/Python experience to help them out. I’ve met the team in Spokane, and they’re definitely a great bunch of folks. If you’re interested, check it out on AuthenticJobs.com.

That’s all for now. I promise to get back into blogging here regularly as soon as I catch up with everything!