(I just looked it up, to make sure there wasn’t any secondary meaning that I could be embarrassed about later. There isn’t, but I was reminded that it doesn’t mean ‘for free,’ but rather ‘for good,’ which makes more sense in the full pro bono publico, ‘for the public good’).

I enjoy pro bono work, or at the very least I enjoy the idea of it. And my idea of it generally goes like this:

• I respect the person/organization that needs my help.

• I respect their mission and what they do.

• I’m happy that they’ve thought of me with mutual respect.

• What the job lacks in monetary compensation can be made up for in press, good work, and good karma.

• The press, in addition to cosmic karma points, leads to new, paying work.

I’ve had this happen once or twice. I’ve helped another designer work on something similar once or twice. But as I try to grow more independent and manage more clients directly, I’m increasingly aware of the pitfalls of poor time management. Work performed needs to be compensated for. A good portion of it does, anyway. Over drinks, thinking about great ideas, it’s easy to fit new ones into the schedule without thinking about what gets bumped out of the schedule. The next morning, with a blank sheet of paper in front of me, waiting for the great (pro bono) ideas to flourish, a to-do list looms, waiting for me… swelling with every hour of inaction.

Is it my inherently giving nature? Probably not. Is it a desire for new projects, at any (or no) cost? That’s probably closer to the truth. But whether it’s naiveté or hopeless designer-brand optimism, I think that I envision every pro bono job following that list of bullets up there. I imagine that course of events and I get excited.

The truth is that those jobs have to be managed so carefully, from the very inception. Perhaps even more carefully than paying jobs. Because if someone is writing a check at the end of this, then sure, I’ll let my font choice be swayed a little. I’ll make that logo bigger. I’ll let this project go 12 hours over budget. Hell, I’m getting paid, right?

But if the job isn’t paying, then pride in my work is really the first goal. After solving the design problem, of course, but pride is what it comes down to. Can I send this work out to gain more clients? Was the work satisfying for me? Was I chosen as the designer because my design skills were respected, or because I knew how to use InDesign and you thought I’d change the typeface to Papyrus if you wanted me to? Chalking them up to learning experience, I have had a few of these bad pro bono experiences as well. Pro mal, right?

I write this as I have a couple of pro bono jobs in my hopper. So far, I know that I was chosen for those jobs because my design was respected. One is for an organization I have great respect for, working as advocates in the commercial lobster industry. Another is a poster for a Haiti benefit. Meanwhile, there are two other jobs on the table that I have to regretfully decline. Not because I don’t respect the clients or the missions, but because of time. There just isn’t any.

Even if some of it isn’t paying, there’s no shortage of interesting work lately. And there’s definitely something to be said for that.

That was ten years ago. Someone just posted a #10yearsago meme on Twitter and it got me thinking. What everyday technological things was I living without ten years ago? Granted, I was on a tight student budget then, and I’ve turned into a bit of a tech-nerd early adapter, but I lived perfectly happily without some things that I consider vital these days.

— iPhone (mobile phone in general)
Nevermind the amazing and gorgeous computer in my pocket that I call iPhone. I didn’t even have a Nokia brick phone ten years ago. Sometime that year I got a wide, weird Qualcomm phone. I ended up ditching it because I couldn’t afford the service on my student budget and I had a land line. A land line. Weird.

— MacBook Pro
I didn’t even have an Apple of my own. My cohabitant and I shared a shitty Dell PC. I was only using it to write papers and occasionally check email or chat. I was in the design program at MECA then and had access to Macs in the studio.

— Adobe Creative Suite
Sweet merciful Jesus. Goodbye, Quark. Goodbye, Pagemaker. Goodbye, Freehand. Goodbye, clunky, crashy Photoshop and Illustrator 8.

— iPod A. this won’t become a list of Apple products that I lived without ten years ago. I swear. This is the last one. But seriously… I was walking around with a walkman ten years ago. Not discman, walkman. I had a discman, but I also had a lot of great mixtapes that I listened to on the way to work/school. The first iPod I bought allowed me to bring a giant swath of my music collection with me everywhere. I take that for granted every day. It’s amazing.

B. This also raises a reminder for me that the iPhone has taken on so many tasks. Pocket computer, email, phone, portable music library, tide chart, camera, etc… This whole list is becoming a list of things I can’t believe I take for granted every day.

—the internet
At least as we now know it. Back then 50% of it still looked like this fan forum. People were vehemently arguing in web design classes about whether Flash would be around for any significant length of time. What was once an occasional resource is now a constant part of my day, for better or worse. Just the introduction of the “social media” hubs has been nothing short of revolutionary. Not to mention the dawn of reliable web apps and online media storage. This year especially, I’m moving more of my data and my daily functions online. My day revolves around a computer, so it’s easy (and the iPhone fills in the gaps when I’m not next to a computer). When Google Wave finally catches on, I think it will make the online work flow even more streamlined and centralized. While I never liked the names Web 2.0 or 3.0, they were only trying to label change, and the internet is definitely a changed animal.

— digital camera
I didn’t get a digital camera until I moved out to Seattle in 2001. I take a lot of pictures, and I used to spend a lot of money processing film. I don’t really miss that. Especially now that I have a decent DSLR and I can actually take photos that look better than anything I shot on my Minolta x700.

I was expecting to feel nostalgic about tech of yore, but that’s sort of been overtaken by a desire to go tech-less for a week (or a month). When I started thinking about how much I sit at the computer every day, from email to twitter to writing this blog, my gut reaction was to be a little ashamed. My rationalization is that the progress of an increasingly technological and networked world will make my work easier and more convenient for fitting my own schedule. This summer, in a brief window of hacked iPhone tethering, I spent a glorious day at Kettle Cove,

working remotely from a sunny spot on the beach. For all anyone would know, I was sitting in my office. If more technology can make more of those days happen, I say bring it on.

See also: YouTube, Bluetooth, WiFi, 3G, MagSafe, The iTunes Store, and Affordable LCD Televisions.

So… Coffee.

I’ve always appreciated the aesthetics of a good old French press, as well as the strong-as-you-want-it coffee it makes. But when I go to a coffee shop, I order espresso. An Americano to be exact. And I’ve never wanted to drop the cash it takes to get a home espresso machine with the aesthetics and quality that match the price tag.

Randomly, some time last year, I read an article that mentioned the AeroPress in a blurb on home espresso. It looked like it might fit the bill for clean, simple design, and at $25 the price was right, so I ordered one. I made a cup of coffee with it the afternoon it came in the mail, and I haven’t used the French press since.

Every time I use the AeroPress, I appreciate the simple, efficient design. And it makes an extraordinary cup of coffee. A cup of espresso that is, without exaggeration, tastier and smoother than probably 9 out of 10 café espressos I have ever had. With another 6 or so ounces of water added, it’s the best Americano I’ve ever had. I tell people about this thing on a regular basis. It’s simplicity meets design meets coffee.

It’s just a simple acrylic tube with a filter cap on one end, into which you insert a paper filter disc. There’s a matching acrylic plunger with a rubber gasket end (this is where it starts to make sense that the product is made by the people who make the Aerobie flying disc). You add coffee with a measure scoop, add water to a fill line, stir for ten seconds with a stirring paddle, and press with the plunger. That’s it. You’ll see in the picture, it makes a beautiful frothy-topped cup of espresso (what’s that called? The crema?). And when you’re done, you remove the end cap, push the plunger through to eject the coffee plug into the trash, rinse the end, and pull the plunger back out, which simultaneously wipes the interior of the coffee chamber clean.

Simple, clean, well designed. There’s nothing extraneous here. And most importantly, it makes a damn good cup of coffee. Which is helping me write this blog right now.

Simple tools for the best espresso I've ever made at home.

Adding coffee to the AeroPress.

Adding water and stirring with the paddle.

Plunger in action.

Here you can see the compressed coffee, the filter end cap, and the foamy head on the coffee.

The neat little coffee plug (which usually goes in the trash).

A perfect Americano.

And now this. Two blogs.

Sure, for the everyday cocktail recipe, strange adventure, or funny story, head on over to the old blogger blog. But I’m trying to keep this one design-related. I’m not going to lay out the laundry list of possible design related posts here, because I’ll likely just jinx  and disappoint myself. Instead, this vague warning:

Now there are two.

-s