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My Sledge Hammer List

Published on: December 4, 2006 by Paul Boag

I got into a very strange conversation today on Twitter that resulted in Chris Heilmann suggesting I broke the hands of any designer I felt was more talented than me. With that in mind here is the list of people I intend to attack with a sledge hammer at SXSW.

Patrick Haney
John Hicks
Dan Rubin
Cameron Moll
Doug Bowman
Jina Bolton
Garrett Dimmon
Cindy Li
Andy Budd
Jeremy Keith (he isn’t a designer but while I have the hammer handy...)

Of course the list could have gone on much longer, but the sledge hammer is heavy and I have a feeling I might be tired by the end of the list.

Who would be on your list?

Comments

Comments are for the discussion of this post. If you have other questions / comments then post them to the forum or send me an email

Post by Jeremy Keith on December 4, 2006 8:13 PM

Who says I'm not a designer?

Find it hard to conceive of someone who is simultaneously a designer and developer?

Maybe I should give the developing a rest until I re-establish my design chops, which I've clearly been neglecting if this "not a designer" tag is anything to go by.
Post by Paul Boag on December 4, 2006 8:16 PM

Oh its so easy :)
Post by Mark on December 4, 2006 9:41 PM

Be careful where this leads Paul, remember you don't need hands to do the podcast ;)
Post by Mads Kjaer on December 4, 2006 11:11 PM

I have Paul as a friend on Twitter, and I hadn't turned off notices on my cell phone. So today, I got like 20 messages from him.

Paul - you killed by battery :P
Post by Patrick Haney on December 5, 2006 3:32 AM

I find it funny that I'm at the top of the list despite the fact that my site currently is almost completely unstyled (unless you call the Sandbox theme for Wordpress "styled"). But I do accept your glorious compliment and plan on bowing rather than shaking hands when we meet again.
Post by Ross Johnson on December 5, 2006 4:47 AM

Beyond the names you mentioned/linked

Brian Veloso
Derek Ashauer
Andy Clarke
Shuan Inman
Veerle
Post by Eric Meyer on December 6, 2006 11:59 AM

I've never been so happy to not be a designer.
Post by Paul Boag on December 6, 2006 1:08 PM

Oh I haven't even got to coders yet Eric. I am a crap developer so my list there will be REALLY long.
Post by Nate K on December 6, 2006 1:56 PM

See, the thing is, some of those on your list could probably design things without your hands - they are THAT good. ha.

I don't think Eric needs arms, or legs for that matter - you should take other appendages as well.
Post by Saad on December 6, 2006 3:57 PM

There are so many good designers out there, you might have to go on a maniacal serial axe-ing spree. Or, admit that you are also on the list of those web design honchos :).
Post by Paul Burgess on December 19, 2006 9:38 AM

Hmmmm, time to open my new Iron Glove shop
Post by JD Graffam on December 19, 2006 3:58 PM

It's neat how designers change their style the more familiar they are with the development side of things.

Oh, and Michael Carpenter is a designer whose work I like.
Post by William on December 23, 2006 6:24 PM

No offense Paul, but your Headscape portfolio is disappointing to say the least. Sure it might be accessible and all the rest, but your design skills match that of a 15 year old kid designing back in '99.
Post by Ross Johnson on December 23, 2006 7:22 PM

That is a pretty ignorant thing to say. Design is subjective, and those who are uneducated often look at sites and judge them based on "flashiness" rather than quality design.

Why do you think 99.9% of all sites admitted to CSS galleries (which are supposed to be considered the best designs being created right now) all receive less than 3 out 5 stars?

With a large enough audience, no one can decide if a design is good or not and they end up averaging out to the dead center.

do you have a portfolio that is worthy of awe?
Post by JD Graffam on December 24, 2006 1:29 AM

Actually, I disagree with one thing you said, Ross. But only because your statement left out one step: at a certain level, design is not subjective. Once you get to a certain level it becomes about taste. I just hate the free-luvin' idea that design is totally subjective...

That said, William, your post was just nasty. The design of Paul's site is fine.
Post by Ross Johnson on December 24, 2006 4:22 AM

Show me a site you think breaks every design rule, and has horrible taste and I assure you I can find ten people that think its "cool." ;-)

But I do agree on some level.
Post by Scott on December 29, 2006 7:40 PM

I think the site is fine. I also think you should acknowledge the fact that the site obviously reflects their personal taste and is probably a reflection of the things that they find to be most important.

In regards to criticizing the group's design skills, you should look at the gallery and see that there are a lot of really great designs. I think you will also notice that those designs are significantly different than the Headscape site. I'm willing to be it because those sites are based around what the people for whom the sites are being developed find to be important.

in closing, you should probably acknowledge that boagworld.com is pretty fun and cool.
Post by Tim Berman on January 18, 2007 12:17 AM

The homepages of no's 2 & 3 on your list don't display correctly in IE at 1024x768.

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Speaking and writing

Paul speaks at this years Institutional Web Managers Workshop on the subject of battling bureaucracy in order to launch your web project.
Chapters from Paul's upcoming book (website owner's manual) is now available through an exclusive early access program.
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You can now access the slides from Paul's presentation at Fuel here.