Subtraction

149 posts

Wed 24 Feb
2010

Layer by Layer

9:51 PM
Remarks (5)

A not-quite-instant replay of last week’s layer tennis exhibition match between Nicholas “Feltron” Felton and myself.

Wed 17 Feb
2010

Layer Tennis, Anyone?

9:08 PM
Add Remarks

Tune in Friday as I take on Nicholas Felton in an exhibit match of Coudal Partners’ Layer Tennis.

Tue 12 Jan
2010

Having Fun with Pains

11:53 AM
Remarks (7)

A step by step look at my illustration for Hype Machine’s thirteenth-best band of 2009.

Sat 14 Nov
2009

Introducing Basic Maths, a Theme for WordPress

10:58 AM
Remarks (87)

A beautiful, brand new blog theme based on Subtraction.com, designed by Allan Cole and myself.

Fri 24 Jul
2009

Tuesday at Galapagos

12:55 PM

Come see me speak next Tuesday evening at Galapagos Art Space.

Wed 04 Mar
2009

Really Simple Sending

10:45 PM
Remarks (10)

Now open for business: a daily, straight-to-your-inbox newsletter of Subtraction.com blog posts.

Wed 01 Oct
2008

Care and RSS Feeding

8:30 PM
Remarks (16)

Underestimating the importance of RSS in a redesign.

Mon 29 Sep
2008

Greatly Exaggerated

11:19 PM
Remarks (28)

A funny thing happened to me on the way to practically abandoning this blog.

Wed 06 Aug
2008

Four to Six Weeks

7:14 AM
Remarks (29)

Coming soon: fewer parts of this Web site.

Wed 30 Jan
2008

Revving Up ExpressionEngine

10:47 PM
Remarks (38)

First steps to a new publishing platform.

Sat 26 Jan
2008

The Host with the Most

6:23 PM
Remarks (81)

Looking for a new hosting provider. I think.

Fri 04 Jan
2008

Command Shift Me

11:55 PM
Remarks (4)

A little bit of video for Command-Shift-3.

Thu 03 Jan
2008

As Seen in Magazines

11:22 PM
Remarks (15)

The thrill of seeing one’s name in print remains undiminished.

Sat 24 Nov
2007

Fear and Hel’ for the Holidays

1:38 PM
Remarks (19)

Reprints for Hel-Fucking-Vetica and Fear of a Cooper Black Planet are now on sale.

Fri 16 Nov
2007

Testing, One, Two, Tees

5:31 PM
Remarks (45)

Test prints for my long-awaited second batch of Hel-Fucking-Vetica shirts.

Thu 01 Nov
2007

The Elements of My Style

11:05 PM
Remarks (23)

Five clichés I turn to again and again.

Thu 25 Oct
2007

The Long Haul of Public Speaking

12:08 PM
Remarks (8)

Resolved: more personal appearances in my neighborhood next year.

Mon 15 Oct
2007

New York to Boston to Denver, and Back Again

10:51 PM
Remarks (12)

A report from my three speaking appearances this weekend, including slides.

Thu 11 Oct
2007

Crumpled Up

9:26 PM
Remarks (13)

Extra-curricular work for Blue Eyes Magazine.

Thu 04 Oct
2007

Live and in Person

10:49 PM

Places you can find me yapping away this fall.

Tue 02 Oct
2007

Radio, Radio

11:50 PM
Remarks (4)

NPR puts on a good new show, and CBC puts on… me.

Fri 14 Sep
2007

Illustrate Me No More

9:08 PM
Remarks (7)

Bury bad news on a Friday after the market is closed, right? Illustrate Me is dead.

Wed 12 Sep
2007

From Me to You

11:06 PM
Remarks (21)

Sign-up now for the Subtraction.com Newsletter and work at home for big $$$.

Tue 11 Sep
2007

A Brief Message, Briefly

1:54 PM

A new Message on today’s anniversary, plus a chance to meet one of our illustrators tonight.

Sun 09 Sep
2007

Not Moving from Movable Type

7:31 PM
Remarks (36)

Eking out a bit more performance from this creaky old publishing system.

Wed 05 Sep
2007

Technical Brief

12:41 AM
Remarks (9)

Additional notes about A Brief Message.

Mon 03 Sep
2007

A Lengthy Message About A Brief Message

11:58 PM
Remarks (23)

A brand new forum for design writing that leaves time for You Tube.

Tue 28 Aug
2007

Now Fully Cooperating with Google

12:08 AM
Remarks (9)

What I did with the painfully slow site search on Subtraction.com.

Wed 22 Aug
2007

Mail Bonding

7:02 PM
Remarks (32)

Attention lazyweb: help me put more messages in your In Box.

Thu 21 Jun
2007

Seen in Seattle

12:20 PM

Heading out West for An Event Apart.

Thu 14 Jun
2007

Writing at No Great Length

10:30 PM
Remarks (15)

It’s really difficult to keep it short.

Wed 16 May
2007

Helvetica Hero Shot

10:15 PM
Remarks (15)

The author as a typographic super-hero.

Mon 09 Apr
2007

Illustrate Me for March

10:36 PM

Liz Danzico’s one-two punch for last month’s archives.

Tue 27 Mar
2007

Making Your Site Look Like Mine

9:02 PM
Remarks (30)

First in a series of F.A.Q.’s: can you use the design of this site for your own purposes?

Sun 18 Mar
2007

Oh Yeeaahh!

11:31 PM
Remarks (71)

The meat of the grid presentations I’ve been making recently, now available for download.

Thu 15 Mar
2007

Missing Class at SXSW

11:10 PM
Remarks (12)

How I blew it during one of my SXSW appearances.

Fri 09 Mar
2007

Offending Experts and Pleasing Everybody

11:18 PM
Remarks (14)

Who to favor when designing features.

Thu 08 Mar
2007

Shorter, Faster, Better

10:12 PM
Remarks (14)

A new era of short posts, in advance of South by Southwest 2007.

Wed 07 Mar
2007

A Commercial Message

11:27 PM
Remarks (55)

Interrupting this program for a word from your blogger.

Mon 05 Mar
2007

Illustrate Me for February

8:28 PM

Nicholas Blechman catches us up with an illustration for my archives.

Sun 25 Feb
2007

Back from the Future (of Web Apps, and from Paris)

2:48 PM
Remarks (5)

Out of my continental mind.

Sun 11 Feb
2007

Loose Comments Sink Ships

9:49 PM
Remarks (20)

The war on comment spam continues.

Tue 30 Jan
2007

Two or Three Things You Know About Me

10:37 PM
Remarks (6)

Things about me that seem very important right now.

Mon 29 Jan
2007

Illustrate Me for December

11:20 PM

Just under the gun, December’s Illustrate Me goes live.

Tue 05 Dec
2006

Illustrate Me for November

8:49 PM
Remarks (4)

A puzzler of a piece by Rob Giampietro for November’s Illustrate Me.

Tue 21 Nov
2006

Pardon Our Appearance

4:42 PM
Remarks (14)

Movable Type maintenance in progress here.

Tue 31 Oct
2006

Illustrate Me for Halloween!

5:40 PM
Remarks (1)

It’s no trick: an on-time treat for Illustrate Me fans.

Thu 19 Oct
2006

Illustrate Me for September

2:20 PM
Remarks (3)

Alissa Walker’s unexpectedly powerful illustration.

Wed 18 Oct
2006

The War on Error-ism

7:12 PM
Remarks (26)

Problems publishing this blog that shouldn’t require anyone smarter than me to fix.

Mon 25 Sep
2006

Selling Out and Selling More

11:17 PM
Remarks (34)

An update on tee-shirt-fueled support for Subtraction.com.

Tue 19 Sep
2006

AIGA Here and There

11:36 PM
Remarks (12)

Come see me at AIGA Baltimore on Thu, and then go see Jeffrey Zeldman at AIGA New York in Oct.

Mon 18 Sep
2006

Illustrate Me for August

6:05 PM
Remarks (10)

The August 2006 entry for Illustrate Me owes a debt to youth and talent.

Wed 13 Sep
2006

What Everyone’s Swearing This Season

8:08 PM
Remarks (27)

The long-awaited Hel-Fucking-Vetica tee shirts are available to buy!

Tue 29 Aug
2006

You Can Go Home Again

8:33 PM
Remarks (5)

Look for me in a speaking engagement in Baltimore on 21 Sep.

Thu 24 Aug
2006

Announcing Shorty

1:08 AM
Remarks (23)

A free link aliasing utility I built just for you.

Mon 07 Aug
2006

Veerle for Illustrate Me

7:15 PM
Remarks (4)

An interview with Veerle Pieters on the artwork she created for July’s Illustrate Me.

Wed 19 Jul
2006

Coming Soon to a Torso Near You

10:01 PM
Remarks (20)

A sneak peek at a chance to spend some money on Subtraction.com.

Tue 18 Jul
2006

Vinh vs. Veen at Signal vs. Noise

1:45 PM
Remarks (6)

An interview with me and Jeffrey Veen conducted by 37signals.

Mon 17 Jul
2006

Illustrate Me for June

10:54 PM
Remarks (5)

June’s art and an update on the project.

Thu 13 Jul
2006

Plagiarism in Our Schools

11:31 PM
Remarks (80)

Learning to deal with the sincerest form of flattery from an institution of higher learning.

Wed 12 Jul
2006

After An Event Apart

11:44 PM
Remarks (9)

Wrapping up my appearance and attendance at An Event Apart New York City.

Tue 20 Jun
2006

Illustrate Me for May

9:14 PM
Remarks (6)

A brand new illustration for all the blog posts I wrote in May.

Tue 23 May
2006

Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About My Day but Were Afraid to Ask

11:10 PM
Remarks (3)

Looking for input for my talk at An Event Apart New York.

Mon 22 May
2006

Get Your Swede On

6:37 PM
Remarks (23)

A shockingly large article and photo of me in a Swedish design magazine.

Mon 15 May
2006

The Illustrated Man’s Blog

9:07 PM
Remarks (8)

Debuting today: a modest little effort to bring illustration to the Web.

Sat 22 Apr
2006

State of Subtraction.com

7:21 PM
Remarks (21)

On blogging, changes to the comments policy, and calling special attention to me.

Mon 10 Apr
2006

Wrapper’s Delight

10:34 PM
Remarks (32)

A new links section raises some issues with CSS text control.

Sun 19 Mar
2006

I Am the Answer

12:22 PM
Remarks (9)

For once, I’m not the problem.

Wed 22 Feb
2006

Talk Amongst Ourselves

10:47 PM
Remarks (8)

Come see me talk about design at this year’s South by Southwest.

Mon 23 Jan
2006

Awards Season

10:49 PM
Remarks (13)

An unexpected honor from the Annual Weblog Awards.

Fri 13 Jan
2006

I Was a Twenty-something Print Designer

5:16 PM
Remarks (14)

Looking back at some design work I did in the mid-nineties.

Sun 20 Nov
2005

Away from My Desk Right Now

5:03 PM
Remarks (2)

A quick housekeeping post before I head to Newark International Airport.

Mon 14 Nov
2005

New Interview at Design in Flight

11:18 AM

Justin Goodlett asked me a whole bunch of tough questions recently.

Mon 07 Nov
2005

Interview at The Weekly Standards

1:36 PM

James Archer grills me on that one big project I worked on recently.

Tue 18 Oct
2005

Fame and Infamy

1:26 PM
Remarks (23)

Any publicity is good publicity, right?

Tue 13 Sep
2005

The Write Stuff: Paragraph

5:43 PM
Remarks (25)

New work for my old lady: an identity and Web site for Paragraph, LLC.

Sun 17 Jul
2005

Weekend Weblog Work

6:56 PM
Remarks (5)

A couple of housekeeping notes on Subtraction.com.

Sun 19 Jun
2005

Absenteeism & Apologia

4:03 PM
Remarks (3)

A long-winded excuse for an extremely busy period of not doing anything on this Web site.

Tue 17 May
2005

The Peacemaker

9:35 PM
Remarks (14)

Coming to terms with remarkable similarities which may or may not be intentional.

Un Rip-off

3:39 AM
Remarks (34)

When I wasn’t looking, someone stole my Web site.

Fri 22 Apr
2005

Imitation, Flattery, Coincidence

1:46 PM
Remarks (4)

Someone’s ripping off somebody’s design.

Tue 01 Mar
2005

Something to Blog About

8:54 PM

Don’t sit there trying to come up with something to blog about unless you have something to blog about.

Mon 28 Feb
2005

Word Processing for Fun and Profit

10:19 PM
Remarks (3)

Recent experiences writing stuff for other people.

Thu 24 Feb
2005

The Nav that Almost Was

10:36 PM
Remarks (6)

The navigation bar that I worked long and hard to perfect, and then gave up on.

Mon 10 Jan
2005

The Many Crimes of Internet Explorer

8:29 PM
Remarks (18)

Just to prove I’m not just being a jerk, here’s why I.E. gets second-class treatment.

Mon 03 Jan
2005

Dear Outdated Online Diary

10:41 PM

Looking back at an early, abortive attempt at keeping an online journal.

Sun 02 Jan
2005

New, Improved Original Flavor!

10:17 PM
Remarks (35)

Welcome to Subtraction Version 7.0.

How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love I.E.

9:10 PM
Remarks (24)

Users viewing Subtraction.com with Internet Explorer will now see a notice that says, effectively, that the site won’t work.

Fri 31 Dec
2004

Grid Computing… and Design

7:51 PM
Remarks (13)

A look at the layout grid behind the version 7.0 redesign.

Thu 30 Dec
2004

Back in the Saddle

6:21 PM

I’ve finally got version 7.0 of this Web site in a state where it’s practically ready to launched.

Sun 26 Dec
2004

Very, Very Soon

10:26 PM

Now Christmas is past, what’s left to look forward to but a long and lonely winter?

Sat 04 Dec
2004

More Delays on the Turnpike to Relaunch

11:23 AM

I gotta head to California today.

Thu 02 Dec
2004

Design into Production

12:20 AM

Quick update on the progress of the redesign.

Thu 25 Nov
2004

Gobble Gobble

11:05 AM

What’s happening with this site for Thanksgiving? Not much.

Wed 24 Nov
2004

Boxes, Arrows, Results

10:04 PM

Unfortunately, the results of the Boxes and Arrows competition are out.

Tue 23 Nov
2004

On Hiatus

6:51 PM

Fri 17 Sep
2004

Hit in the Temple

6:45 PM
Remarks (13)

Continuing headaches with my host provider.

Wed 15 Sep
2004

Back, Sort Of

10:51 PM
Remarks (1)

Tue 07 Sep
2004

Building the New This

10:25 PM
Remarks (7)

In the process of redesigning Subtraction.com, and dumping BBEdit or skEdit.

Thu 19 Aug
2004

No One Likes a Cheat

11:55 PM
Remarks (1)

Thanks and a very important correction on who’s responsible for that Boxes and Arrows entry.

Tue 17 Aug
2004

IE, That Is

8:52 PM

For Internet Explorer users, special accommodations are always necessary.

Sun 08 Aug
2004

Styled to a Pulp

4:19 PM
Remarks (5)

A Subtraction style sheet for the RSS aggregator PulpFiction.

Thu 05 Aug
2004

For a Better Tomorrow

11:52 PM

Subtle tweaks may indicate an impending redesign.

Tue 16 Mar
2004

Out of the Bay

8:05 PM
Remarks (4)

A brand new HogBaySoftware.com launched today.

Sun 14 Mar
2004

Board to Death

10:42 PM
Remarks (2)

Community building is messy business with phpBB.

Fri 02 Jan
2004

Work in Progress

7:05 PM

We’re at it again for the AIGA.

Wed 31 Dec
2003

End-of-Year Errata

12:29 PM

Errors fixed. Happy new year!

Wed 22 Oct
2003

October Backlog

10:27 AM
Remarks (2)

A mostly-Macintosh list of stuff I’m preoccupied with.

Wed 10 Sep
2003

To Sleep, Perchance to Dream… of Fixes and Tweaks

4:18 PM

Planned improvements to Subtraction.com

Fri 04 Jul
2003

Head in the Clouds

12:38 PM
Remarks (2)

Plans for the 4th of July.

Tue 17 Jun
2003

Five Oh Oh!

6:04 PM

500 posts is a milestone of some kind, right?

Tue 03 Jun
2003

Dead Letter Office

10:08 PM

An email blunder caused me to miss out on a year and a half’s worth of messages.

Wed 14 May
2003

Brief Hiatus

7:12 PM

No posts for a few days while I’m out of town.

Wed 07 May
2003

Long and Drawn Out

11:35 PM
Remarks (1)

Drawing used to be what I did, all the time, but it no longer seems the case.

Mon 28 Apr
2003

Six and a Half Posts About Six.5

12:33 AM
Remarks (1)

The latest iteration of this site, version Six.5, goes public today.

Sat 26 Apr
2003

The Last Mile

9:34 PM
Remarks (1)

As I prepare to officially release Six.5, a few words on what I’m looking to get out of it.

Thu 24 Apr
2003

Extracurricular Laughs

11:42 AM

I broke my moratorium on freelance work to do this quick postcard for a friend’s comedy show.

Blogger’s Toolbox

12:22 AM

For the sake of posterity, a few technical notes on how I built Subtraction.com version Six.5.

Tue 22 Apr
2003

A Hundred Words or Less, or More

5:32 PM
Remarks (1)

How redesigning my site has influenced how I write, and how I write has influenced redesigning my site.

Mon 21 Apr
2003

Immovable Parts of Movable Type

6:08 PM

Movable Type is among the best software packages I’ve ever used. It has its shortcomings, but you have to dig deep to find them.

Sun 20 Apr
2003

The Fix Is In

9:07 PM

Most of the major work on Six.5 is done, including transforming the site from fluid to fixed-width layouts.

Sat 19 Apr
2003

Pardon the Mess

7:03 PM

The version Six.5 redesign is underway, and here is an explanation of the rationale behind it.

Tue 15 Apr
2003

Head South, Young Man

2:45 PM

This afternoon I’m leaving on a train for Northern Virginia to kick off our first project with a brand new client.

Sun 13 Apr
2003

Building a Beta Mousetrap

10:48 PM

Expect some downtime while I work on getting version Six.5 up and running.

Tue 08 Apr
2003

I-E-ecchh

1:42 PM

It used to be that I hated Netscape, but now, after diving into CSS and XHTML, I realize how poor a Web browser Internet Explorer really is.

Sat 05 Apr
2003

8 Simple Rules for Dating My Blog

5:18 PM
Remarks (3)

The rules that govern this blog and the posts that I make to it.

Sun 30 Mar
2003

March On

11:44 PM

It’s the end of March, and all 200-plus of my old posts are now available.

Sat 22 Mar
2003

See CSS Run

9:24 PM
Remarks (1)

Eric Meyer helps you get your head around Cascading Style Sheets.

Tue 18 Mar
2003

Feeding on RSS

4:18 PM

RSS is fun, and NetNewsWire is a great RSS client.

Sat 08 Mar
2003

Getting Closer

7:02 PM

An update on porting Subtraction.com over to Movable Type.

Mon 03 Mar
2003

ICANN’t

10:21 AM

Damn expired email addresses! Through an oversight, the domain registration for Subtraction.com recently expired.

Thu 06 Feb
2003

Back to It

9:59 PM

Time to get back to blogging.

Thu 26 Sep
2002

Typist

11:22 PM

Just got Movable Type installed. Whee!

Wed 24 Jul
2002

Spam as Wallpaper

11:56 PM

Just posted a new Subtraction cover.

Sat 20 Apr
2002

Cover Me

9:31 AM

No site to launch today.

Wed 21 Nov
2001

Newstoday

11:10 AM

Thanks to Newstoday.

Wed 07 Nov
2001

Harnessing the Power of Atomz

6:54 PM

Subtraction now has search capability.

Wed 26 Sep
2001

Days and Hours

9:39 AM

Getting on with life after September 11.

Tue 31 Jul
2001

New Digs

7:04 PM

Moving over to Media Temple.

Thu 26 Jul
2001

Problems

2:14 PM

Problems with my ISP has messed up my email.

Wed 18 Jul
2001

And Then I Snapped Out of It

7:25 PM

Getting off my ass and doing some work on my own stuff.

Sat 26 May
2001

Much Later

9:40 PM

It’s so hard to maintain a blog, wah wah.

Thu 05 Apr
2001

Excuses, Excuses

5:57 PM

All of this is why I haven’t been posting to my blog.

Thu 18 Jan
2001

Blog Up Front

5:50 AM

Moving my blog up front.

Tue 16 Jan
2001

Journal: 15 Dec 00

9:27 AM

Being back in Singapore is weird, in unexpected ways.

Thu 21 Dec
2000

New Registration

8:14 AM

The world needs another Web site.

Mon 11 Dec
2000

Publishing and Procastination

1:58 AM

How to write about my life.

Sun 10 Dec
2000

To Begin With

11:01 PM

Getting turned onto Blogger for the first time.

Sun 30 Jul
2000

Dear Diary

12:00 PM

So I had an idea for keeping an online journal, see…