Ragnar Freyr - Personal blog
Some of these Photoshop actions by bjango are rather helpful. I’ve already used Enlarge Canvas two times today.
I’m pleased to announce that yesterday my print, titled Fauna, was selected to be included in the Society6 Shop. Check it out!
Eating my vegetables
Today marks the one year anniversary of the day I decided to stop eating animals.
If I think about it, I’ve never really been that fond of meat. Sure, I like the taste of bacon but the general meat texture and the fat has never been my thing. I’ve eaten meat most of my life more out of habit than love. The meat just had to be a part of my dish somehow and be the main course. That is how I was brought up. By my parents, by “experts” and the society.
This habit seldomly led me to think about where the meat was coming from or how it was produced. I just ate the spicy pepperoni and never gave thought to the cow or the pig in it. Of course I knew where the meat came from but somehow, in my head, the cognitive and empathic link between the source and the product didn’t exist.
Then I got a dog and everything changed!
Through my love for her I became aware of how fantastically brilliant and beautiful creatures all animals are. I started feeling a stronger sense of empathy for all kinds of animals, big and small. And then I started thinking about why we don’t eat dogs…
These thoughts inspired me to dig deeper and research the food industry, food production and animal welfare. What I found was absolutely horrific. And it changed me.
Becoming a vegetarian has been the biggest and most positive transformation I’ve gone through in my life.
- I breathe more easily knowing that I am not directly responsible for killing (and sometimes torture) of animals.
- Overall, I feel much better and healthier.
- I’m a better cook. This change has really inspired me to improve my culinary skills. It’s fun to cook.
- I eat more varied. I try different things. Before, I just had to have one of the few kinds of meat on my plate and maybe some potatoes on the side. Now, everything can become the main dish if I prepare it right.
- I’ve learned more about food in a year than my whole life.
- I’ve become more aware of how my body reacts to what I consume. I feel a lot lighter after a good vegetarian meal.
- I know there are various environmental benefits to not eating meat.
- I’m leaner. Being a vegetarian has helped me loose some of the extra weight, especially around the belly area.
- I have more money. Being a vegetarian (at least in Iceland) is much cheaper. Meat is expensive.
Yet, it was all so simple!
I wanted to write this post to celebrate and just maybe inspire someone to at least give the vegetarian lifestyle a chance. Even though you choose to eat meat, I believe you can go far by being a conscious consumer, ethically inclined and more aware of animal cruelty, factory farming, dodgy food processing and the health of your own body.
If you are up for it I highly recommend that you read this article about why Michael Natkin is a vegetarian.
Sarah Parmenter finally made what all of us have been thinking. A pack of avatars for web and PSD mock-ups. Lovely!
The thing about effort is that effort is its own reward if you allow it to be.— Seth’s Blog: Worth it?
So I would advise that you orient your UI around the job to be done - around the problem - and not the person. Then people who have that problem can fall in love with your product because it makes the problem go away, whether they are the first in line or the last person to hear about it.— Ryan Singer’s answer to What are the key differences between “Normals” (normal mainstream users) and tech early adopters? - Quora
On Rails
Today I decided to go on a mission: I’m going to slowly learn enough programming to build a simple user based web application from scratch, on my own. The framework of choice is Ruby on Rails. I’ve heard many good things about it and its active community will surely be a supportive boon to my learning experience.
Why am I on this mission? Well, for starters, I believe knowing just a tiny amount of programming will make me a better web designer.
My casual dabbling with HTML, CSS and Javascript (admittedly hack-stabbing at js) has already helped me immensely when working with professional front-end engineers and programmers. The more I know, the better I am equipped to engage in technical discussions on projects with specialized engineers and programmers.
Knowing web programming will also empower me in prototyping, making and shipping my own ideas in a self-stustainable way. Being able to plan, design, program and even copywrite my personal (and simple) web projects without external aid is a very exciting thought. That doesn’t mean I won’t work with people ever again. I love a good collaboration as much as the next guy and I am a of the belief that specialization is better than being spread too thin. But sometimes you just want to get things out fast and entirely your way.
It won’t happen in a day. I will slowly keep at it. I’ll most likely never be a professional programmer or a front-end engineer. And I don’t really want to. I leave that to my super talented and geeky friends. But it’s good to be familiar with it.
I will post updates on my learning curve and project status in the near future, most likely starting with Ruby resources I’ve found useful.
Man. Because he sacrifices his health in order to make money. Then he sacrifices money to recuperate his health. And then he is so anxious about the future that he does not enjoy the present; the result being that he does not live in the present or the future; he lives as if he is never going to die, and then dies having never really lived.— Dalai Lama when asked what surprised him most about humanity.
This is a simple poster I decided to make after reading the UnAmerican Dream essay on The Minimalists blog. I asked Joshua and Ryan permission to use their words on the poster and they replied almost immediately with a yes.
The reason I decided to do the poster was because the words of the essay stuck with me a long time after I read it. Something resonated. Maybe not literally but more as a feeling. I think a lot of people can see themselves in these words just like I did. The white picket fence (whatever that might be a metaphor for, in regards to your material dreams) will not necessarily make you happy. Especially if you have to exchange your freedom, your time and even your health for it. Undreaming is a part of accepting that you already have all that you need to be happy. And you can even live happily with less.
There’s now a fun contest being held around the poster idea. You download the poster, print it and post it where you like. Then you send pictures of where you posted it to The Minimalists through Twitter, Facebook or Google+. The best picture will receive a free advance copy of their new book, Minimalism: Live a Meaningful Live, which will be published in late November 2011.
View the original essay.
See the contest information and download the PDF.
Been spending this evening watching talks from the recent HIVE 2011: Design meets Tech conference. Some very interesting and good talks. Especially this one.
Baseline shifting and size adjusting. Robert Bringhurst doesn’t talk about rules of baseline shifting parenthesis in his The Elements of Typographic Style. I, personally, find them better looking when vertically and/or optically centered around their content.
Change
A recent downsizing at a company I worked for full-time presented an opportunity to me.
The option was to either go find another job, doing things I don’t particularly like or go do what I’ve always wanted to do:
Be my own boss!
So. I’ve started my own official graphic and digital product design studio in the heart of Reykjavík. The studio will operate under my own name for now but that might — and probably will — change in the future. It’s just me at the moment but I am fortunately equipped with a close network of insanely talented people from all fields of creativity and technology.
I’m keeping things relatively small and agile for the time being so that I may be open to new opportunities and even more changes.
With that being said, this is the current focus of my practice:
I will be assisting (and/or participating in) local and international start-ups on their digital products by offering design and consultancy.
I will be spending more time than ever on my own digital product ideas and build small teams of talented people to develop, ship and maintain them.
And lastly, I will be offering traditional, quality graphic design services and consultancy for web and print to clients of my own choosing.
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I am now accepting new projects.
Write me at r@ragnarfreyr.com
Great tip from Glen Elkins on how to use your work breaks in a more creative way.
