Randy J. Hunt

On Design Matters with Debbie Millman

When when I was moving from Orlando, FL to New York City, I packed my bags to a special sound track: I listed to every episode (at the time) of Design Matters with Debbie Millman.

I feel very lucky to now be on the other side of the speakers.

Debbie Millman interviewed me for an episode of this season’s Design Matters. The interview went live yesterday, and you can listen to it here. The 45 minute interview touches on a whole range of topics, well described by Design Observer:

In this audio interview with Debbie Millman, Etsy creative director Randy J. Hunt discusses landing a job with Milton Glaser, his record label and the challenges and approaches of managing a brand as diverse as Etsy.

Debbie caught me off guard a few times, which always makes for a great interview.

Thanks, Debbie, for the invitation and engaging conversation.

You Can (Vicariously) Cheat at Scrabble

Hi Friends,

Randy J. Hunt & Kelsey Taylor Weireter here.

We’re raising money for one of our favorite charities, 826NYC*, and we’re asking for your help. You can help us with a tax deductible donation to our Scrabble for Cheaters team (named Word To Your Mother).

It’s a super-fun fundraising idea. We raise money, and then use that money to cheat during a Scrabble tournament. Everyone always wishes they could cheat at Scrabble, so live vicariously through us. We’ll knock down some joker who uses 8 letters each turn by pulling his letters right off the board.

We’re trying to raise $2500, and any amount from $1 to $100 will be hugely helpful and absolutely appreciated by 826NYC.

Here’s how to donate:

1. Go to the Scrabble For Cheaters site.
2. Look for our team, Word To Your Mother, click the link below our team that that says “Support Word To Your Mother”, enter the amount of support you’d like to give, click the button to submit it.
3. Complete your 100% tax-deductible donation with any major credit card.

Thank you, thank you, thank you!
— RJH & KTW

* 826NYC is a nonprofit organization in Brooklyn, NY dedicated to supporting students ages 6 to 18 with their creative and expository writing skills, and to helping teachers inspire their students to write. Their free services are structured around the belief that great leaps in learning can happen with one-on-one attention and that strong writing skills are fundamental to future success.

Etsy Talent Show

This is not open to the public. This is going to be awesome. A little teaser designed by Kim Bost.

Etsy Hudson in All Over Albany

I love a good local publication. Dedication to the small and large in a specific geography. Take All Over Albany for example.

Yesterday, the upstate New York journal published a photo gallery and story on the Etsy Hudson office which resides in a former cannonball factory.

Etsy Offices in Bloomberg Businessweek

The Etsy office space carries with it a reputation for being eclectic, fun, wild, and funky. Most importantly though, it’s human. It feels both magical and lived-in, and this week Bloomberg Businessweek captured and shared a little bit of Etsy HQ in Brooklyn.

It’s kind of crazy, even to me, to think that this is just a sliver of one of our offices. And we’re in the middle of some pretty incredible transformations of the space. The article doesn’t nod toward any of the soon-to-come, but it’s still a fun lens into one part of the Etsy day-to-day.  Also, they’re little caption format is great.

See more in the piece, Etsy’s Funky Brooklyn Headquarters.

A Site Reconsideration

I not happy with my website that lives at randyjhunt.com. It’s drab, uninspired, and lacking the attention to detail that I typically take pride in.

Last I’d addressed it, I left it as a shell I was “okay” with. I’d make tiny tweaks to content once or twice each week, mostly to the list of future and past events.

The Bad

The problems abound:

• the initial experience is more about navigation than content
• 4 different text styles (if you count link color changes, which I do)
• “things in streams” content is off-site on tumblr blogs. They’re updated occasionally, but the design is uncared for.
• it feels…well…boring

The Good

Do I see any redeeming qualities? The DOM structure was nice and tidy. And I quite like the color palette still:

Color by COLOURlovers

Most of all, I was happy with the language direction. A couple of notable examples as headers and sub-headers for views:

• Future Events page: “Events in the Future - I Will Participate In”
• Bio & Contact page: “You May Know This But Likely Not - Also, Ways to Get In Touch”

I’ll expand on the language topic another time.

Self-Diagnosis

Why did my little corner of the web end up in this state?

1. unclear goals
2. limited time
3. trying to find the (near) perfect tool

These are the same things I encourage my colleagues to be aware of and avoid all of the time. 

Looking for perfect tools means you’ll never get stuff done. No tool is perfect. Every new tool you discover will seem like a golden ticket until you try it. I got all wrapped up in the software[1]: playing to its strengths, then butting heads with it when I really wanted more structured data or a different way to organize. I’d resolve to “just clean things up” which would last for about 15 minutes, then I’d find other more exciting diversions.

A Path Forward

I enjoy setting constraints — even arbitrary ones — that help force decisions and drive a design process forward. There are the constraints I’m setting myself

• use HTML5 document structure
• design for mobile first and launch
• initially design and launch all content on a single view
• only means of navigating between content will be scrolling
• color palette will reference the current color palette (seen above)

So begins the tale of two text files. One lives on the left. The other, the left’s counterpart, lives on the right. What are the two text files? One you are reading. The other is a one-page site. I’m working on that now.

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[1] - No knock to to Virb. It’s great at what it does (and has some lovely design choices). It’s just not what I needed.

We are Sixty-Six Across

Etsy was the answer for 66 Across in the January 16th Washington Post crossword. We made it…now if only the clue didn’t limit us to “crafts”. I love me some vintage on Etsy!