Nerdview

• Posted by Stacey on 10 June 2009
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We have a word in dutch ("beroepsdeformatie") which means "psychological or physical deformation caused by working a specific job for a long period of time". 'Vocational deformation' is about as close as I can get to translating it. Sounds like a horrible disease when you put it that way, but I definitely have it.

This 'nerdview' starts with innocent things like seeing a design or a new ajax-trick on a non-technical site and thinking "Cool, I gotta remember that". Or, without realizing it, filling an entire text block in Photoshop with "Lorem ipsum"..... from memory (number 10).

Then it starts creeping into offline things like recognizing the font used on the backdrop on the stage of the presidential debates. Mind you, the backdrop is not exactly in focus, and still "Vivaldi" automatically pops into my head while I'm trying to concentrate on what's being said (number 17). The font-recognizing thing is really annoying when it's Comic Sans..... ugh! (number 4)

It really starts messing with your head when you realize you recognize someone in an ad while browsing through non-work-related magazines. Nope, not a friend or family-member. I actually recognized her as a stockphoto model. She's popping up all over the place. And it gets really creepy when you actually start looking for her; she's everywhere!

Everyone, meet Sofie.

She's a much sought-after stockphoto model, lives in Denmark, her favorite color is blue and she enjoys long walks on the beach.

Just kidding.

For a designer, this should be a horror-scenario: finding out you were not as creative as you thought. This is exactly the reason I'm not a fan of plain ole stockphoto's. Designers need to be a little more creative than typing "business woman" in a stockphoto search and going with whatever you find on the first page of the results.

Anyway, keep an eye out for Sofie. Now that you've met her I'm sure you'll see her more often. If you do find her, let me know. In the mean time, the nerdview isn't going away anytime soon, unfortunately. I guess I'll just have to learn to live with it. For now, I'll just continue with number 7....

• Tags: nerdview, beroepsdeformatie, comic sans, geek, design