January | 2010 | Tim Murtaugh

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Surrounded by Giants

Jan 29, ’10 11:01 AM

On Monday I talked to designer Roger Black about the projects he’s working on, including a few that we may be able to work on together.

On Tuesday I met Jeff Veen and Bryan Mason for the first time — both formerly of Adaptive Path, and who are now inventing the future of font-delivery with TypeKit.

On Wednesday I met two gentlemen who once managed the publication of Newsweek, and talked to them as they discussed a new venture that’s trying to figure out the future of content.

Yesterday and throughout the week I’ve been acting as a sounding board for Jeffrey Zeldman, on ideas for his multiple successful businesses. At this moment I’m listening to him be interviewed for the inaugural podcast of Dan Benjamin’s new venture, 5 by 5.

I may be slightly at loose ends at the moment, and uncertain about the future, but I’m not sure I’d trade it.

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Micro-Blogging vs. The Real Thing

Jan 28, ’10 2:23 PM

Over past couple of years I’ve tried most of the new methods of communication on the web. I had stopped blogging, but I started a Tumblr blog, and kept at it for a little while, thanks to Tumblr’s interface and ability to make pushing content onto the web just about as easy as it can be.

Then Twitter came along, and (while I initially resisted it) once I started I all but stopped any other kind of blogging. Twitter is great for simple thoughts, quick links, and staying in touch with your circle of friends. It’s also, thanks to one of any number of mobile apps, dead simple to both consume and create Twitter content while on the go.

(As an aside, I have found that I usually re-assess the list of people I follow every few months, and the people I don’t know personally are usually the first ones to go; what they’re writing about is usually uninteresting to me, even if topically you’d think it would be.)

Now I’m trying full-on blogging again, mainly because I need to engage my brain a little more significantly. I think that while Twitter is great, it doesn’t inspire any thoughts or actions that are actually constructive to me. It’s like watching TV â€” it’s passively consumed and almost as passively created by me.

Taking the time to write, even if I’m not thinking about what I’m writing ahead of time (which clearly I’m not), engages me on a different level, and I think, for me, it will provide benefits beyond what you’re seeing on this page.

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Waiting to Write (or: things not to do)

Jan 27, ’10 1:16 PM

As I emerge from being the client to working for clients, I’ve known that I would need to take to blogging again at some point. So, as we wait for Steve Jobs to announce his next Greatest Thing Ever, I guess it’s as good a time as any to stop with the procrastination. Writing something, even if it’s not worth writing, is better than nothing.

I’m sitting in Happy Cog’s New York office, with a 23rd floor view that overlooks the east side of Manhattan. I feel very lucky to be here (thanks to the kindness of the great and powerful Jeffrey Zeldman), and doubly lucky to be sharing space with Roger Black, the incomparable print designer who keeps approaching us with project ideas, large and small.

This week I’ve read quite a few RFPs, some small, some large, some baffling. Choosing one’s next project is always dicey; the first instinct is to run toward the money, any money, but you have to find a way to temper that with the realities of the project:

Is it interesting? Is the client excited about it? Are expectations about scheduling and future goals realistic?

It’s easy to invent possibilities in your head, but you need to make sure that the things you don’t know wave as many flags as the things you hope you do.

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Tim Murtaugh

Month January 2010

Surrounded by Giants

Micro-Blogging vs. The Real Thing

Waiting to Write (or: things not to do)

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