thinkgeek.com
I’ve worked with Chris Stein and his team at Urban Insight for the past 5 years at the old office. I would have gone through life not knowing about Drupal if it wasn’t for these guys.
What’s Drupal? Drupal is an open source content management system that is gaining popularity these days for its functionality and flexibility. FedEx, the White House, and even the Onion use Drupal.
The UI gang is presenting a webinar on May 6: Introduction to Drupal for Designers. And I was invited to their office today as the test audience.
You see, my first parlay into Drupal was a bit of a disaster. With all the good intentions to introduce me to Drupal, UI got me into a crash course class which was more for developers (read: folks who code…and stuff) than a little geekling like myself. My brain couldn’t grasp all those back end things, so I was giving up on it altogether. Fortunately for me, the fabulous Rain Breaw took the seat next to me and helped me through the day. She also showed me that Drupal can–and will–produce gorgeous and powerful website for whatever it is that you need.
Chris knows this story as I won’t let him forget it. (“Dude, my brain exploded all over the place, man!”) And I’m sure he also hears it from others as well.
Hence, this Drupal webinar focusing on the front end.
And boy did I learn a LOT today! Not only about Drupal but the design process, and what’s new in web design in general. No codes. (Well, just a smidge.) No database. All design.
As a byproduct of the Drupal presentation test run, I got to have a few minutes with CTO Abhijeet, who gave the presentation, operations manager Kate, and developer Ron to talk about coding tools (like Firebug) and all the things HTML 5 and CSS 3 can do now.
After all these years of being the only geek in the office, I never had anyone to talk to about what’s been going on in the design world. I am ashamed to say that I’m a little bit behind right now. And I have almost forgotten how fun it is to learn new things and share information in your fields with your colleagues.
For a few minutes in UI’s conference room, I nerded out. And it was glorious.
I don’t think Chris and team’s purpose of having me there today was to inspire me to get back on the web design horse. But they did.
The awesome feeling I’ve felt after having redone OakMonster.com is also a confirmation that I’ve come back to my elements at last.
Now, with nothing on my hands but time, bring it on, Drupal 7!
(And if you hear the mewling of defeat coming from this corner a few weeks from now, please send rescue team with chocolate chip cookies and a copy of “Tangled”. Thanks.)