# Jan Persiel's Blog
> Follow along when I share knowledge about design, tech, working in teams and share experiences made while working on small and large projects.
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## Pages
- [About Jan](https://www.janpersiel.com/about-jan.md) - Zur deutschen Version. Pleased to meet you. Let me introduce myself and tell you a little bit about myself, since that seems to be the thing you are here for, right?! I started to do something like graphic design in 1989 when I fell in love with a Letraset catalogue. But instead of ordering the she…
- [Contact / Imprint / Impressum](https://www.janpersiel.com/contact.md) - Pleased to meet you! Art Director & Designer Jan Persiel Persiel Designstudio c/- Ribbon Johannisbollwerk 19 20459 Hamburg Postanschrift Eppendorfer Weg 264 20251 Hamburg E-Mail: studio (ät) persiel.com Web: www.persiel.com Tel: +49.40.18206119 Mobile (Telekom): +49.163.6970976 Fax: +49.1803.622229…
- [Datenschutzerklärung](https://www.janpersiel.com/datenschutz.md) - Meine Datenschutzerklärung
- [Hey! Psssst, let me email you a secret …](https://www.janpersiel.com/publickey.md) - EN: Feel free to grab my public keys to email me encrypted messages. This block contains my commonly used email addresses. DE: Meine Public Keys für verschlüsseltes E-Mailen sind in diesem Block hier. Darin sind meine gängigen E-Mailadressen enthalten. -----BEGIN PGP PUBLIC KEY BLOCK----- mQINBFpxv…
- [Über Jan Persiel](https://www.janpersiel.com/uber-jan-persiel.md) - Schön, dass Sie vorbeischauen! Man könnte sagen, dass ich seit der zehnten Klasse Grafik Design betreibe. Zu diesem Zeitpunkt habe ich meine erste komplette Schrift entwickelt, weil im Letraset-Katalog nicht die passende war, und für andere habe ich kleine Aufträge ausgeführt (Einladungskarten zeic…

## Posts
- [Setting up a design system – Part 4: Budget for a design system](https://www.janpersiel.com/setting-up-a-design-system-part-4-budget-for-a-design-system.md) - What is needed to get started Nothing really. The will to get something set up is the first and foremost need if you ask me. A lot of things speak for a design system of some kind and that is why there will always be a chance to get the budget for it. But there is none such thing as a "motivation g…
- [Setting up a design system – Part 3: Who needs to be involved](https://www.janpersiel.com/setting-up-a-design-system-part-3-who-needs-to-be-involved.md) - Part 3 of the Setting up a design system series. The initiators In the previous article I hinted at the fact that design systems often get initiated by a single person or a small group within a team. Often this is due to the fact that something triggered the wish to create a design system. I have s…
- [Setting up a design system – Part 2: Do you need a design system?](https://www.janpersiel.com/setting-up-a-design-system-part-2-do-you-need-a-design-system.md) - Part 2 of the Setting up a design system series. You need a design system! And a Pattern Library! A Living Styleguide is a must have! Today, one cannot work without one … That's how many design systems, Pattern Libraries, and similar principles get pitched. Now, as much as this is typical, this is…
- [The pain of choosing a CMS – Ghost vs. CraftCMS vs. Statamic vs. Wordpress vs. HUGO](https://www.janpersiel.com/the-pain-of-choosing-a-cms.md) - In a previous article I wrote about my rough idea to take my publishing to the next level when it comes to my websites gingingin.de and liquorlabs.tv. One of the things on the task list is to fid a content management system (CMS) which I can use to do what I want to do. The easy way out When I star…
- [Setting up a design system – Part 1: Overview](https://www.janpersiel.com/setting-up-a-design-system-part-1-overview.md) - Some changes take time Working with design systems is slowly becoming a more mainstream thing. When we created the uiengineering initiative back in 2016, almost four years ago as of this writing, some leading teams and companies had already embraced the ideas of design systems, Pattern Libraries, a…
- [How to take an influencer brand to the next level](https://www.janpersiel.com/how-to-take-an-influencer-brand-to-the-next-level.md) - This is a repost of a post I have published on GinGinGin.de and which will be continued here on this blog. There is no defined end to it, there will be many open questions, it is a log of the things I am working on and decisions I will make. However, beyond making my intentions clear and openly acc…
- [Responsive Design is hard! How to prepare for a relaunch.](https://www.janpersiel.com/responsive-design-is-hard-how-to-relaunch.md) - Nowadays pretty much every website comes as a responsive design website. Despite the fact that responsive web-design (also known as RWD) is a term that to some extent is flexible, some people still use it simply as a replacement term to say, that they want a mobile site. I am not going into that di…
- [Help! I am drowning in brush script fonts!](https://www.janpersiel.com/help-i-am-drowning-in-brush-script-fonts.md) - A few posts ago I was writing about the problems one can run into with design asset bundles. These bundles, as I explained back then, cover many different areas or bring you vast amounts of the same or nearly the same fonts, Photoshop Actions, Lightroom filters, icons, you name it. Same same but di…
- [Creative briefs, visual trends and starting a design project](https://www.janpersiel.com/creative-briefing-and-the-design-kick-off.md) - As a designer you have a very simple yet challenging task every single time. Some might say you are supposed to make things pretty. Well, it is a good idea to cover that base as well ;) But, however, the main task you are working on, is to get a message across. What is the thing you need to achieve…
- [Form fear - Why filling out forms sucks](https://www.janpersiel.com/form-fear-why-filling-out-forms-sucks.md) - Everybody hates them: forms. But why is that the case? So why is it that such a small thing can be so unbelievably annoying? I guess it is two things: Work and work. Why so much hate? The problems with forms is that they often times sit in the way of getting something done. You want to leave a comm…
- [Job applications: What a recruiter wants to read and know (and what not).](https://www.janpersiel.com/job-applications-what-a-recruiter-wants-to-read-and-know-and-what-not.md) - Applying for a job is always an exciting thing. Usually one does this because it sounds like a fun thing to work at that company. Nice prospects, great salary, wonderful projects etc. Of course you want to be there and make a living at exactly that place! Try walking in my shoes I have been involve…
- [Design trends and their caveats (part 6) - Icons without cause](https://www.janpersiel.com/design-trends-and-their-caveats-part-6-icons-without-cause.md) - Where ever you look, icons. Bold icons, tiny icons, icons on your home screen, icons on t-shirts, icons, icons, icons. People love icons, and so do designers. But how can we use them more appropriate? Millions of icons Today there are many icons and icon sets available. You can choose from a vast v…
- [Design trends and their caveats (part 5) - Adopting UX flaws](https://www.janpersiel.com/design-trends-and-their-caveats-part-5-adopting-ux-flaws.md) - After our trip through boring responsive land in the last part it is time to take a look at some things which are commonly misplaced, misused or simply applied in the wrong fashion. Let me point out a few things to give you an idea what I mean: Forms Form follows funtion, or was it the other way ar…
- [Design trends and their caveats (part 4) - Boring responsive design](https://www.janpersiel.com/design-trends-and-their-caveats-part-4-boring-responsive-design.md) - In the last post I talked about frameworks and how they speed things up, and how they make designs and layouts generic at times. To be honest there are times when we are not as creative as we would love to be. In cases like that it might make sense to take a break, step back from what we are doing,…
- [Design trends and their caveats (part 3) - Framework vs. Design](https://www.janpersiel.com/design-trends-and-their-caveats-part-3-framework-vs-design.md) - Today I have to look at something both great and unpleasant at the same time: frameworks. There are a million frameworks out there and I am totally over-simplifying with my little article but hopefully you will get the idea. Frameworks are good Frameworks in software development and design are prob…
- [Design trends and their caveats (part 2) - Bad font decisions](https://www.janpersiel.com/design-trends-and-caveats-bad-font-decisions.md) - After having talked about a literally moving topic like Parallax effects in web design it is time to pay attention to typefaces in part 2. In general typefaces are a very opinionated thing to discuss but I will keep it to the facts (isn’t that what everybody claims to do?) as good as possible. Play…
- [Why 'open' does not mean 'exposed to attacks'](https://www.janpersiel.com/why-open-does-not-mean-open-to-attacks.md) - During the last few years I have noticed something I would like to write about today: The fear of opening up your company and communication to the public. I am not talking about showing everyone on the planet your bookkeeping or the deepest company secrets, let alone the really valuable stuff from…
- [Design trends and their caveats (part 1) - From parallax to vertigo](https://www.janpersiel.com/designtrends-and-their-caveats-part-1.md) - By popular demand I would love to share a few thoughts which keep moving me for quite some time now. Actually It is not by popular demand that I am writing but I am writing about popular design trends/decisions/patterns. Many of these are so extremely common and popular that it makes me wonder why…
- [Do it once. Fine. Do it twice – document it!](https://www.janpersiel.com/do-it-once-fine-do-it-twice-document-it.md) - We have all been there: There is this job we are working on. Something needs to be done to get it off of our table. Like converting a few videos to be used on a website. So we quickly do it. Done. Great another thing ticked off. But after a few weeks we get a new video to convert and upload. But ho…
- [When style guides are documentation done wrong](https://www.janpersiel.com/when-style-guides-are-documentation-done-wrong.md) - If you would ask me which topic I would recommend to get an article written up for your blog which people might ignore right away I would probably think for a moment and recommend something like "anything about documentation" along with half a dozen other topics as well I guess. So why the heck do…
- [From hero to zero - tales from above the fold](https://www.janpersiel.com/from-hero-to-zero-tales-from-above-the-fold.md) - It is no secret: Heroes are everywhere. In Marvel films, in comic books, in newspapers, and yes, on websites. The huge images with a bit of text on them. So are they serving website owners well in their function as super heroes? Who doesn’t like a good hero? They are everywhere indeed. Since the fi…
- [Why bundles with design assets are worthless after a while](https://www.janpersiel.com/why-bundles-with-design-assets-are-worthless-after-a-while.md) - The internet is full of sites selling bundles with design assets and fonts. It is an amazing thing to watch how these sites crank out deals every week or so and chuck more and more assets in a bundle. And these cost you only as much as two lattes. But are these bundles worth the money? Which bundle…
- [The blog which got neglected culpably](https://www.janpersiel.com/the-blog-which-got-neglected-culpably.md) - Today I would like to write about the fact that I have not been writing for quite some time. As a matter of fact I am by far not the only one to stop writing after a while. Blogs tend to get ignored and forgotten When you surf the web you come across them all the time. They lay at the side of the b…
- [Why designers and frond-end developers should talk more often](https://www.janpersiel.com/why-designers-and-frond-end-developers-should-talk-more-often.md) - Learnings from 3 years of working on major shop relaunches Try walking in my shoes Imagine you are a designer Here is a typical situation designers come across: They have carefully designed and crafted layouts, polished buttons, took care of shadows and many other tiny details. After these designs…
- [Do I have to have my steak and blog "Medium"?](https://www.janpersiel.com/do-i-have-to-have-my-steak-and-blog-medium.md) - It feels like ages ago that I discovered Medium and thought to myself that this is different. I was not quite sure whether this platform would succeed but until then I would read the good stuff I could discover there. As I have just started blogging again, I am wondering whether I should rather pub…
- [Death by sketch knife](https://www.janpersiel.com/how-bad-software-ruins-your-brand.md) - This post is a post I hate to write: When you decide to use something instead of something you have used previously, and you think that the decision you made is reasonable because it saves time, makes your work better, simply put helps you to get your stuff done quicker, you do not want to be find…
- [Open the floodgates: Protonet's comments](https://www.janpersiel.com/open-the-floodgates-protonet-comments.md) - In my recent post on my new data vault, the Protonet Maya, I offered you an insight into my shifting data storage from dropbox to my Protonet server. The server's operating system Soul OS offers a great web interface to get things done. But it comes with a flaw which one really needs to be aware of…
- [RWD-Pad: The fastest way to sketch web and app interfaces](https://www.janpersiel.com/rwd-pad-the-fastest-way-to-sketch-web-and-app-interfaces.md) - As a designer and a content developer or concept developer you can choose between a multitude of tools these days to get your ideas visualised, from Balsamiq to Omnigraffle, from Sketch to plain paper and pen. I felt that something was missing in the range of tools so I came up with the RWD-Pad. To…
- ['In Progress' a book by Jessica Hische](https://www.janpersiel.com/in-progress-by-jessica-hische.md) - For a few years now I have followed the work and art of Jessica Hische because I love the way she presents her work and let’s people in on how she achieved what and why. If I had to choose only very few books to take onto the deserted island (I could never settle for one) one would be In Progress.…
- [Next year’s (data) homecoming queen: Protonet MAYA](https://www.janpersiel.com/next-years-data-homecoming-queen-protonet-maya.md) - Working as a freelance designer and running a design studio at the same time demands a lot of flexibility when it comes to juggling your data and making them available to the respective team members or clients. Is there another option beyond email and Dropbox? Data, data, back and forth The simplic…
- [Sign painters Movie](https://www.janpersiel.com/sign-painters-movie.md) - One of the nicest documentaries of the last few years is the Sign Painter Film. Well at least to me since I totally admire the guys being portrayed. And I am pretty sure you will love then as well! The Sign Painters film Personally I bought the Premium Edition with additional interviews which is to…
- [Developing a versatile info screen for our co-working space](https://www.janpersiel.com/developing-a-versatile-info-screen-for-our-co-working-space.md) - Back in June we joined forces with a few people in the quest for finding a nice office space. By September 1st we moved in and we thought about how to organise a few things. One of the ideas, inspired by the original panic blog post about their status screen, is to have a screen in the kitchen wher…
- [ActiveCollab: The problem with "ugly" software](https://www.janpersiel.com/the-problem-with-ugly-software.md) - For over a decade I have been using various types of groupware and/or collaboration software. From Lotus Notes to Wikis, from Basecamp to ActiveCollab. Some of them did suck, some were great. Sometimes it was easy to use them, sometimes it was barely possible without having a PhD in Weirdthinking.…
- [I am a Ghost writer](https://www.janpersiel.com/i-am-a-ghost-writer.md) - I have started many blogs. Actually too many. I am not sure whether this will be the last one, but this time I hope to be a bit more organised and potentially bring more writing stamina to the table. What is different from my last 20 blogs In the past I have noticed that my writing and posting was…

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