"What inspires us"…a notion that's recentered itself at the core of my creative thinking since working with Jaan Orvet over the past ~6 months. Sloughing off the impediments of design trends and shortsighted developmental band-aids, what it is that inspires us — culturally, geographically, philosophically, artistically — grounds and focuses our creative approach and way of thinking.

Arriving at the Nansen office in Stockholm this past September, I was able to ascertain some of what it is that inspires Swedes — and my friends Jaan and Andreas Carlsson specifically — via walking a portion of the islands of Södermalm and Djurgården. In absorbing the history of off the beaten path cobblestone streets, conversations in niche cafés, or taking in museum exhibits, a picture was beginning to form. Internalizing the impact of imparting personal creative inspiration to colleagues, I've begun a similar approach as I've started hiring for my creative team at Nansen Chicago.

As it goes when a wave of inspiration hits, the cogs began to turn on a pseudoroom redesign; in this instance, via turning inward to the core of what inspires me creatively. By reading this post situated within the new design, I'd surmise those inspirations are readily apparent. Additionally, in my time at Nansen, every project I've been involved with has gotten me deeper into mobile and responsive UX, and made me a passionate advocate for its tremendous value. Though you're ultimately doing double the UX work for desktop and portable interaction, the end distillation of pure content in an intuitive, cohesive experience is satisfying beyond words.

And so it went with this new design. After copious amounts of quick sketching, wireframing, and graphic design iterations, I had a functional, usable, and elegant experience. Cohesion of typography and visual hierarchy in this grid-based design, between desktop and mobile, settled out organically. As it is in advocacy of making sure no user is descriminated against via best practices in usability and accessibility, so it goes for those seeking content via their smartphones and tablets. Provide intuitively for all, alienate none. On the technical implementation front, I worked with brilliant front-end developer Giovanni Vivanco from the Nansen Stockholm creative team on the 6 core layouts that comprise the foundation of this site.

With the Dredd Soundtrack filling my earbuds over 3 months of wee-hour mornings, here we have it: a new year, a new pseudoroom design. There's Helvetica. Lots of Helvetica. This fellow likely wouldn't approve, however I've always found the typeface to be more beautiful than a tear on the cheek of a baby seal. In any case, I hope you will enjoy.