In 2010, when I decided to learn web development - one of the first courses I took was on lynda.com from this guy Chris Coyier*. He had this neat website where he collected all the neat little tricks and explained the quirks of CSS (which was pretty dang quirky at the time). It was called css-tricks and was a godsend. And he just seemed like such a nice guy.

Fun fact: When Jen Adam and I were first learning web development, we pronounced Chris Coyier's name like a fancy french painter until we heard him say it at a talk. hahaha. Anyone else do that?

Chris’s way of breaking things down and transforming a basic HTML page into a complex CMS backed dynamic website set the stage for my career.

Fast forward 10 years to 2021

CSS-tricks is about WAY more than CSS now, and I would consider it one of the most popular and important publications.

I’ve written an article and Chris has published it on css-tricks! Today!

HERE IT IS! “On Type Patterns and Style Guides”

https://css-tricks.com/on-type-patterns-and-style-guides

I’m super ultra proud to have that whole thing come full circle.

I even get a cool official author page! css-tricks.com/author/sheriffderek

It’s about CSS and typography - but it’s REALLY about tearing down the barrier between “creatives” and “coders.” It’s about changing the way we think about things - and sharing more of the design process across the team. It’s about saving time and money and having more time to focus on the humans.

It’s technical - but I tried my best to make it approachable. It should make sense even if you aren’t a developer. I would LOVE to hear what you think. (that’s what those comment areas are for 🤠.

My back story

I also happened to write up a quick (no so quick) backstory/outline of my learning journey here.

Sometimes people see what I look like and make assumptions that I went to school for programming, or I had technical parents, or that I’m just - who knows. I’ve had A LOT of wonderful education and opportunities and I’m super thankful. But everyone has a unique story. I didn’t write code for web pages (really) - until I was 29. I went to school for painting. hahaha. This is a loose rundown of my story.

What else?

Perpetual Education is going great - and I’m just focusing all of my energy on that all-day every-day.

We also started a discord called `boot-camp-rehab` for people who have gone through intensive “boot camp” coding schools and came out the other end with a lot of holes in their foundation. This way we can help steer them in the right direction - even though they didn’t attend PE. (because we need everyone on top of their game!)

Stay safe!