Pixish gets a new more palettable coat of paint

February 21, 2008 at 4:43 pm · Filed under Design & Web Geekery + Blogging about blogging

At least now Derek is being clear about the purpose and mission of Pixish. He has come out to say that it is basically a contest site. In which case, it’s not a whole lot different than the design contest sites DesignOutpost and 99designs.

Some people feel that design/photo/etc. contests are just spec work in a friendly disguise; however, I’m not as opposed to them because they are at least up front about it. For the same reason, I feel less of a need to “spin my gragger” about Pixish.

I still disagree with commenters such as GregM who argue that “designers are empowered by Pixish: they get to pick and choose what they work on in a marketplace.”

If the Pixish interface is good and easy to use then yes it will allow them flexibility to pick and choose assignments, but this is offset by the fact that they are submitting to a contest. Pixish does a whole lot more empowerment for the clients who get to compare a bunch of submissions. Granted if people are just submitting whatever they have laying around it ain’t too bad of a thing.

This latter point is why Derek makes the distinction between designers and art content creators (i.e. photographers, illustrators), and I agree with him here. Designers don’t have spare logos or collateral designs laying around for any old company — everything is usually made to order. Art content creators on the other hand often have a bunch of flotsam and jetsam that they can use for submissions to Pixish.

Derek has also stated more clearly that people who submit their work retain ownership until a client actually chooses to use that work; at which point the rights are subject to the deal set for the project. Thus, art content creators can submit their flotsam and jetsam to anything again and again until it get’s chosen.

All that being said, I may be less inclined to shout “BOYCOTT,” but I’m still not in love with the idea of Pixish — or any generic contest site. As it is, Derek has basically just reframed his business model without actually changing the underlying business model. Granted just slapping on a new coat of paint is much easier since this way he doesn’t need to change actual functionality or recode the site.

It would be better if Pixish were to do something that truly interesting. Something more in line with the suggestion that I made in an earlier post. Something that truly empowered the designers and art content creators.

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Ow the resemblance it hurts

February 20, 2008 at 6:16 pm · Filed under Life, Meaning, & Selfhood + Blogging about blogging

I do this way too often.

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My Bountiful Bento

February 20, 2008 at 2:59 pm · Filed under Life, Meaning, & Selfhood

My wonderful partner Nifer got me a fabulous gift of a steel Zojiruchi Stainless Bento Lunch Jar. It’s pretty slick. It’s not something I ever asked for but it fits right into my desire to start bringing lunchs from home rather than buy the crap from the food court here at work.

To kick it off I picked up a Bento cook book over the weekend. Inspired by one of the recipes, I picked up some ingredients at the store and last night dove into making dinner with plans to leave some aside for lunch. My concoction differed from the actual recipe, and I don’t cook often (mostly I’m the prep cook/cleanup crew), so I was a bit crossing my fingers. However, happily turned out delicious! Nifer scraped her plate clean last night and I had more than enough for an incredible lunch today. I gotta say it was as good today for lunch as it was last night!

Papaya Ginger Beef with Sliced Daikon on Brown Rice and a Side of Sautéed Shredded Potato, Daikon, and Red Pepper.

Main Dish Ingredients

• 1lb - thin sliced beef (I sliced up an inexpensive tri-tip steak which turned out great)
• 1 1/2 cup - daikon radish sliced in long 3-4″ strips
• 2 tbl - soy sauce (I used a garlic soy sauce marinade but normal soy sauce will do)
• 1 tbl - sake
• 1 tbl - ginger juice from a freshly grated ginger root (it’s fine to have some pieces of ginger in there but avoid big chunks)
• 1/2 cup - pickled papaya (with juice)
• olive oil*
• sesame oil
• salt and pepper (I use a fancy white pepper but normal pepper should do)
• 1 cup - brown rice

Side Dish Ingredients

• 1/2 cup - potato (about 1/2 of a potato)
• 1/2 cup - daikon (about an equal amount of daikon to the half potato)
• 1 whole - red pepper
• olive oil
• sesame oil
• salt and pepper (I use a fancy white pepper but normal pepper should do)

*Note: all my oil measurements are approximations as I just kinda added what seemed right. When I saute I use oil kinda like a spice: add a bit at first then maybe more if it seems like it needs it.

Cooking Instructions

1. Make the brown rice; Don’t start the rest of the cooking till this is nearly done

Side Dish (it’ll keep so we make that first)

1. Shred potato and daikon into thin strips using food processor
2. Shove the red pepper though the food processor (it’ll just kinda grate it rather then make strips which is fine)
3. Mix potato, daikon and red pepper together and drain/squeeze most of the water out of it
4. Add ~1/2 tbl olive oil* and a drop of sesame oil to pan and heat
5. Add potato, daikon and red pepper and saute for about 10minutes
6. Add salt and pepper to taste

Main Dish

1. Pore about ~1/2 tbl of olive oil* and a drop of sesame oil into a pan and heat it
2. Throw daikon strips into the pan and saute for about 1-2 minutes (they should be only slightly softened)
3. Pore another ~1 tbl of olive oil* and drop of sesame oil into the pan
4. Throw sliced beef into the pan and cook till it’s about browned but still slightly rare
5. Pore in soy sauce, sake and stir
6. Add pickled papaya and ginger juice and stir
7. Cook for about 10 minutes till beef is fully done and all the flavors are nice and infused together
8. Add salt and pepper to taste

Serves enough for three, or in my case two people for dinner and enough left for a nice sizable amazing lunch.

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In Comic Solidarity

February 13, 2008 at 4:29 pm · Filed under Art Freak Culture + Politics

Yesterday, Danish authorities recently arrested three people allegedly plotting a “terror-related assassination” of Kurt Westergaard, the cartoonist behind the drawing shown below — one of several printed controversially in September of 2005. Today, newspapers across Europe have reprinted the cartoon to show support for Westergaard and for freedom of speech.

Representatives for the Danish newspaper, Berlingske Tidende, stated, “We are [reprinting the cartoon] to document what is at stake in this case, and to unambiguously back and support the freedom of speech that we as a newspaper always will defend.”

Sadly, Westergaard’s life has been completely disrupted by this simple little drawing. He states, “I could not possibly know for how long I have to live under police protection; I think, however, that the impact of the insane response to my cartoon will last for the rest of my life,” he said. “It is sad indeed, but it has become a fact of my life.”

I thought I’d show my own support by posting the cartoon and add a bit of equal opportunity blasphemy with this classic by Serrano Andres.

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Pixish is for spec work on pictures but not design?

February 13, 2008 at 12:15 am · Filed under Design & Web Geekery

Derek Powazek has probably been quite busy today reading all the commentary on his new endeavor Pixish. He already posted one response earlier today which I critiqued in a post of my own. Also, he has just recently posted another statement.

In his latest response, he states:

Pixish will no longer accept assignments for design work. That means no logos, no blog headers, no templates…. Pixish was always supposed to be about pictures - photographs and illustrations - not design work. So we’re focusing more explicitly on that goal.

This is getting ridiculous. Come on Derek! How is this any better? Sure so now there’s no design spec work.

But if you’re looking for design work, please do hire a designer.

Why is it that designers deserve a special pass, but plebeian illustrators and photographers still get the joy of battling it out like gladiators in the Pixish Spec Work Colosseum?

There are other and possibly better ways to fix this.

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How to fix the broken business model of Pixish

February 12, 2008 at 8:10 pm · Filed under Design & Web Geekery

In my last post, I complained about how broken the entire web2.0 spec work business model of Pixish was. And I stated how inadequate Derek Powazek’s response was to this critisim.

In this post, I’m gonna offer a couple of ideas on how to change it for the better. Actually, I’m just gonna offer one idea — it’s simple really:

1. Artists create portfolios/profiles, with pieces tagged for easy searchability.
2. Potential clients create an Assignment. Ask for what you want and state your price.
3. Get Portfolio submissions. Artists submit portfolios of their work and counter offers for payment.
4. Optional: Peer Review. Community voting helps find the best match.
5. Pick Winners. Select your favorite. Pay initial payment up front.
6. Client and Artist work together to develop final design/illustration/photo/etc.
7. Optional: Allow the comp process to be open and allow the community to offer critiques.
8. Artist gets published and paid.

See wasn’t that easy? It’s no longer spec work and it could even help both creatives and clients. You can keep your voting system (step 4) however frankly I don’t see much benefit there. The real benefit is to make it easy for designers to have their portfolio promoted and allow for them to quickly submit their portfolio to a project.

The open critique system (step 7), I just threw in. Don’t know if it would work but it’s an interesting idea. Might help designers and clients who feel like they are working in a vacuum and butting heads.

I hope Derek Powazek takes some of this and others advice on Pixish. I do think that designers could use a place to promote themselves better. Photographers have Flickr and other sites for promotion of their trade. Illustrators can use flickr too, but it isn’t as useful for them. Of course, illustrators who specialize in drawing furries have DeviantArt.

Designers often just build their own sites. This however makes it difficult for potential clients to find and compare designers styles and experience. It’s even worse for solo individuals, bands, non-profits, and the like who want a simple logo or graphic but don’t have much money. For them a small-time designer with little experience is great, but it’s hard to find people like that.

Connecting clients and creatives is a niche Pixish could fill, and unlike their current web2.0 spec work business model, it’s something I could support.

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