The A-frame is an architectural style that needs little explanation, aptly named for its high peak and steep angles. A-frame popularity can be attributed to a convergence of factors. The post-war housing boom led to the creation of inexpensive and quick-to-build homes. A-frames were popular in the late fifties and sixties when the middle class had enough money for recreational properties, often next to lakes or as ski cabins. (The style is commonly attributed to the latter, as snow slides down the side instead of weighing heavily on top.) They are an efficient use of materials as they’re almost all…

Dialect is a small design studio based in the Comox Valley (British Columbia) that was created by Alex Dunae and Nik Szymanis in 2008. The duo behind Dialect builds websites, and shapes visual identities to tell clients’ stories, grow their businesses, and strengthen their brands.

Almost 30 years ago, Tim Berners-Lee launched the World Wide Web in a bid to better share information. Since that time the web has become integrated into our everyday lives. As this happened, the technology behind the web has also evolved. The Internet revolutionized communication, to the extent that it’s now our preferred medium of…

A Comox Valley Motion Graphics Company

You see their work in commercials and movies but you never know who they are or how they do it. They represent the hard working studios which give you those incredible broadcast motion graphics and animations you love.

Wikipedia describes motion graphics as graphics that use video footage and animation technology to create the illusion of motion or rotation, and are usually combined with audio for use in multimedia projects.

The introduction of the graphical user interface (GUI) was the first major advancement in engaging the senses through a screen. …

Silent Season — Audible Inspiration

Silent Season is a music label born in the Comox Valley. The sound of the label grew out of the connection between deep ethereal music and the rain forests of Vancouver Island. A soundtrack to some of the most radiant and aural beauty in the world. Listening to Silent Season is like floating in space, adrift from the earth, with all the beauty and melancholy that Mother Nature delivers.

Silent Season was founded by Jamie McCue, a Courtenay music collector and DJ who seeks a deep personal connection with the great outdoors. The early days of Silent Season…

This is helpful advice that I can attest to and how it helped me become a better designer and coder. In grade school I had a terrible time learning from watching the teacher write notes all day on the chalkboard. I would much rather be getting my hands dirty in woodwork, metalwork, or drafting. Where I am physically making things rather then simply reading or talking about it.

When I first started with web design it was dismantling websites that I liked to learn how they were built. …

I’m a big fan of sketching and whiteboarding while considering new features or rethinking existing page components. Sketching outlines the big idea of the product, it allows for different solutions to be shared quickly without a big investment of time.

Its important for product teams to sketch together. With a developer, a designer and project manager discussing and whiteboarding everyone can have their say and leave the meeting more confident about where they’re headed.

“Group sketching allows a team to get on the same page very quickly. In addition to preventing confusion or conflict, group sketching can circumvent the need…

For me, using Twitter is an important tool for learning and staying in tune with what’s happening in the startup/tech community. I get professional enjoyment following along with interesting design conversations. I feel it’s the continuum of learning day-in-and-day-out from other professionals on the successes and failures of products and features. It’s one of many ways and tools I employ to engage in lifelong learning.

Lifelong learning is my self-motivated pursuit of knowledge for personal and professional development. I relate this notion of learning to getting regular exercise which increases my general focus and clarity. Some days it feels like…

This piece was originally written in 2011 but never saw the light of day. I found it in my Evernote archive the other day and figured it might be worth sharing. The term essential ambient albums is a pretty bold statement of which I'm not defining ambient history here, simply some albums I was enjoying at the time of writing.

I have a really hard time writing about music because so much of the enjoyment of music is how it makes me feel. It’s like a soundtrack of day-to-day life that changes from season to season. The emotions and tones…