blog

Day 1/2: What my dog taught me about freelancing

Blog Post

If you know me in real-life, you probably already know that I love my dog, Abby, more than anything. She is a member of our family and truly is “man’s best friend.” Well, the other day, I was thinking about just how amazing Abby is (as I often think about) and I realize I have actually learned a lot from her and her simple lifestyle. She has taught me many life lessons on how to be content as well as a loving person. I took those life lessons she taught me and realized they go hand in hand to being successful in the freelance world. It may be a first to compare a dog’s lifestyle to freelancing but I think after you read each lesson, you will agree, dogs really do exhibit the ways to rule at freelancing. Day 1 of this two part series will cover lessons 1-5.

Disclaimer: Poor/cheesy puns will be throughout the lessons! Watch out! ;) haha

Read more →

Is a college degree necessary to succeed in the creative world?

Blog Post

Recently, I’ve had lots of friends graduate college and complain. Complain about how they can’t seem to find good jobs in the creative world or how they don’t understand newer languages like CSS3 or HTML5. All of this really got me thinking why? Is a college degree really that necessary to succeed in the creative world?

Before I give my 2 cents on the question at hand, you should really check out this Wikipedia article that has the ‘List of college dropout billionaires’. On that list, you will find names like Steve Jobs (Apple), Mark Zuckerberg (Facebook), and Bill Gates (Microsoft). And for kicks, I will also throw out a name of my personal favorites not on that list, Tom Hanks (famous actor). haha

Now my argument isn’t necessarily only going to be “Hey, look at that list, should I even say more?” No, I will tell you a bit about my personal history, then base my case mainly on that. However, I do like to throw those names out there mainly to show that just like my story, there are many others out there that have had tremendous success (far beyond me) without ever getting a college degree….

DISCLAIMER: This is my 2 cents based on my experience, take it or leave it.

Read more →

New Site Design

Blog Post

I finally took the time to redesign the look of iamzachreed.com (and matching blog)! It looks much more clean now and has a responsive layout (so it looks and works great on a mobile device)! I’m also doing this because I’m going to make a big effort to start blogging again more regularly! Wish me luck! :)

Let me know if you find any site bugs! Enjoy! :)

Custom form select using CSS3, jQuery, and DropKick

This is a cool little code project you can check out that I posted on Forrst. More details ande everything on Forrst.

I suck at blogging.

Blog Post

I always have high hopes of writing awesome blog posts about the projects I’m working on or the awesome inspiration of other sites I found all over the web but I honestly just suck at “writing it down” to this blog. I mainly suck at this because I feel like no one cares or my time is better spent doing other things. haha

What do you people REALLY want to see from my blog? Do you want to see code or inspiration or what? Or nothing because no one cares. I’m just curious and want to see the feedback if it’s worth my time because people want to see X from my view or something like that. Please let me know what you prefer or I will just take the silence as an obvious “we don’t care”! haha

What are your 2 cents?

Design Quote

Take a walk. Dance a jig. Get some sun. Don’t take yourself to serious. Cook something ethnic. Play the 3 chords you know on guitar. Go get coffee. Tell a bad joke, to yourself, and laugh. Look at the way a leaf is made. Overhear someone else’s conversation. Write it down. Remember it later. Get some sleep.

Kyle Steed

Design Quote

Let the design team be the design experts. Your job is to be the business expert. Ask them how their design solutions meet your business goals. If you trust your design team, and they can explain how their recommendations map to those goals, you’re fine. If you neither trust them, nor can they defend their choices it’s time to get a new design team.

Mike Monteiro

Design Quote

IF YOU MAKE EVERYTHING BOLD, NOTHING IS BOLD.

Art Webb

Design Quote

Good art inspires; Good design motivates.

Otl Aicher

Design Quote

All of the buildings, all of those cars were once just a dream in somebody’s head.

Peter Gabriel

Design Quote

Instead of searching for inspiration, how about you search out someone to inspire.

Tony Kim

Design Quote

We are all designers, the difference is that only a few of us do it full-time.

Sabo Tercero

Design Quote

When a company gets to certain size, it’s easy just to let things happen. You have to constantly craft and nurture a brand. You can’t just let it be or it’ll fritter away to mediocrity.

Fiona Morrison

Design Quote

Design is intelligence made visible.

Alina Wheeler

Design Quote

Design is the conscious effort to impose a meaningful order.

Victor Papanek