KIM IS GOLD

I’m constantly revising the wireframes portion of my workflow, and for last few projects, I alternated between InDesign and Fireworks. The hardest part of using either has been designing for different browser dimensions seeing as both programs are fairly inflexible in how much they allow the user to change the document size for different pages. Adobe caught on to ID’s rise in popularity for wireframing, and thus: alternate layouts to the rescue in CS6. I rushed to download the trial, but was met by an installer for the downloader for the actual InDesign CS6 installer… except the downlader installer didn’t work due a possibly Adobe-Air-related error. Typical Adobe fare. 

Newest revision to process: start wireframing in-browser. Try to cut Adobe out completely.

I’m pretty terrible at reading long-form non-fiction, but I at least managed to read Rob Sheffield’s Talking to Girls About Duran Duran. It’s very much an associative approach to music writing, where it’s less about the breaking songs or albums down for critique and more about the experiences in Sheffield’s life that could be tied to pop hits of the eighties. I loved it and would read more like it, but for the time being I want its opposite, a work that provides more historical context and details the evolution of a music genre. 

Jeff Chang’s piece on the new Kendrick Lamar scratches that itch for me, as it breaks down the narratives of both the album itself and the influences Lamar draws from without sounding pretentious. There’s pretty much a whole playlist worth of cited hip-hop tracks to listen to for reference. So yeah, totally buying Chang’s e-book.