Category: Design, Art & Photography

My interest in photography started back in elementary school, and I studied it all through high-school. The shift from analog/film to digital changed so very much, yet so much remains the same.

Today’s Dad Joke

Carl Setzer2 Comments

How do you fix a broken pizza? With tomato paste.

Crafted this one up on Canva, which lately is my go-to for quick graphic needs. Whether YouTube thumbnails, a quick poster (like this one), or to add text of a haiku to one of my images, Canva is solid. It is very powerful, with lots of templates, lots of fonts…you get the idea. Of course, it’s nowhere nearly as powerful as Photoshop, but most folks never need that kind of “umph”.

Another Project Complete!

Carl Setzer
apple laptop notebook office

I just finished, and uploaded, the “Theme Clock” project, part of my 50 Projects in 50 Days course. With this project, first we created an analog clock with ticking hands! That was pretty awesome. Also, we are able to switch from Light to Dark mode. A pretty popular feature right now. Everyone seems to love dark mode.

I had a few challenges with this one. First, getting the hands centered took me a few minutes. This was an issue with CSS. It also was challenging to get the date information to load correctly. That was due to some mis-typing in the JavaScript code.

I’m enjoying these projects. However, I’m still working on understanding code enough to be creative. Currently, I still need a LOT of coaching to get these complete. I realize that I need to grant myself some grace. Yes, my degree had a “lot” of coding, but it was pretty high level. My main focus was on design. For programming, over the past two years of my degree, we spent a quarter each on:

  • HTML
  • CSS
  • JavaScript
  • JQuery (a JavaScript library)
  • PHP
  • Visual Basic

Edmonds college had another web developer program with a more solid focus on coding. In that one, you covered a year a Java programming, but wouldn’t get to take any design courses. I’m sure there were other differences, but that was the main one. I was very deliberate in my choice: I wanted the design classes. It’s a long-standing interest and a passion of mine.

So, I’m left to wonder. How badly do I want to master coding? It’s really cool, and quite fun, but it seems like I have a lot of work to do in order to be able to think in code. And I’m not entirely sure how much more I want to learn. Currently, I’m working as a communications coordinator, where I’m spending time creating things like thumbnails, editing videos, creating posters, editing email newsletters, and updating websites (there are examples of my work in my portfolio). I have done that kind of work for years, and I find it fun and satisfying. I see web technologies to be a massively central part of communications type work going forward.

When I started on this journey of web development, I mainly pictured myself “building websites”. I mostly pictured static sites, blogs, things like the real estate sites I built. The past two years have opened my eyes to a lot of possibilities, though. Sifting through them all is challenging. But, really, it’s great to have a huge array of options.

Function over Form?

Carl Setzer1 Comment

In the great debate about which is more important, form or function, I prioritize function. Ultimately, I don’t think “important” is the right word. Form, style, design must support and enhance functionality. Then the overall experience is better.

The user experience is what’s most important. “Form” takes functionality higher, makes it better. When done right, it turns users into fans. Neither is more important. Form and function are both critical to creating quality. And that should be the goal.