Mariam Aldhahi:

The blend of impatience and insecurity that has pushed Heller throughout his career hasn’t stopped, but it has matured. Heller now has a vision for how things could and should be.

An overview of the basic concepts of CSS grid layout written by Rachel Andrew for MDN. Bookmark it for future guides.

I have not been keeping up with the latest web design and development in the past year. Many years ago, I stayed up-to-date with my RSS reader, but web designers and developers don’t blog much anymore. Then Twitter became my source for design and development. Unfortunately 95% of my Twitter feed is now about politics. I rarely find tweets about web design anymore. I used to read technical books on web design and development, but those books are also not being published as much as they used to.

Then again, my design and development approach is pretty old school. I don’t use any frameworks. I try to write clean HTML and as few CSS lines as I can. I only use JavaScript when I absolutely have to. I still prefer clean, simple design over parallax scrolling and complex layout. Typography matters the most to me. The text has to be readable. I don’t set out to create cool, hip, and trendy sites. I create long-lasting web.

Because of my design sensibility, I don’t need to learn every new framework that comes out. I don’t need to keep up with every new tricks and techniques. I just have to keep my eyes on new CSS development to do more things like typographic controls and grid layouts.

Rob Walker:

Like “writing,” design can be done well or poorly, or done brilliantly to dubious ends, or done awfully but somehow be successful anyway. If the first season of “Abstract” settles the question of design’s cool cultural status, maybe it can also lead to a new version of the conversation (in Season 2?) about what design is, and why we should care. Instead of merely seeking to have the design idea appreciated and applauded, advocates can start talking, instead, about the opportunity to have it taken seriously.

Last night I spent two hours editing and redesigning my résumé. I wanted to detach it from the ON Designs look and feel. I wanted my résumé to stand alone rather than being part of my portfolio.

In addition, I wanted to move away from creating two separate print and web versions. They are a bit of a pain to update. I eliminated the Illustrator version by generating a PDF from the webpage.

I wanted my résumé to be clean, simple, legible, and readable. I went back to a two-column design with a 960-grid layout. The types are set in Mr and Mrs Eaves, designed by Zuzana Licko. Take a look.

Are you designing a new typeface or subsetting your existing fonts to support Vietnamese? I would love to help. I am offering advising Vietnamese typography as a service. For a small, one-time fee, I will review your Vietnamese characters to make sure they are properly positioned, legible, and readable. I will also provide suggestions on how to make your typeface feels natural to Vietnamese readers. Learn more.

Came up with 10 principles for ON Designs.

1. Simplify without sacrifice
2. Eliminate distractions
3. Optimize for fast performance
4. Deliver unobtrusive experiences
5. Focus on core values
6. Enforce accessibility
7. Establish trust
8. Design for inclusion
9. Build for resilience
10. Enhance with care

Inspired by Jeremy Keith’s collection of Design Principles.

The chapter on Type Recommendations has been revised and updated. I replaced a small illustration with a full type specimen for each typeface. Because of my limited access to typefaces online I only create specimen for fonts that I can access. I have to leave out typefaces that I don’t have license. On the other hand, I always wanted to add new typefaces to the list including Alda, Skolar, and Alegreya. With the addition of type specimen, I wanted to provide type designers more details about Vietnamese typography. If you would like to see something more added to the specimen, let me know. I also made some updates to the Samples.

My entry for the 10K Apart is now in the gallery. I entered the contest to solve a technical problem for myself rather than to win the contest. After I made my submission and changed my website, I changed my mind. Without a custom for this site, it does not feel inspiring. I wanted to withdraw my entry, but they have already spun up the server for it. According to the rule, I can submit up to three entries; therefore, I am in the process of working on another project that is more inspiring. So stay tuned. I’ll release it in the next couple of days or so.

So I went from Hypatia Sans to using system fonts to Alda and Acumin in one week. The system font is simply not cutting it. I am keeping the minimal WordPress theme, but pulled out of the 10K Apart contest. Again this is my personal site so I get to play with it as much as I want to, but I think this is it for the moment. I’ll do a major redesign in early 2017. Richard Fink’s “Webfonts on the Prairie” resonates with me and brings me back to using webfonts again even though the file size is tremendous. Then again, typography is the only design element on this site so I am OK with making the investment in fonts.