HomeNathan McGinnessHomeI’m a freelance digital designer. My clients include United Airlines, Australian National University, AngelList, and Codecademy. I design websites and products. I build with HTML, CSS & JS. I strive for clarity. I lead small production teams and love organizations that are lean, nimble and responsible. I love writing, language & typography. My pencil is my favorite tool. I was the fourth team member and lead designer at Topguest (acquired by Switchfly in Dec 2011.)  Before that I worked for five years in Australia’s top digital agencies (Icelab and Digital Eskimo).Find out more about me.LinkedinTwitterTumblr   Delicious  DribbbleFlickrGithub    Last.fm12 November 2012Recent reads 7Woah, it’s been a while. Buying every album ever, iPad magazines, sleep, the peak of the social media party, Facebook’s new building, and more.08 October 2012External linkPermalinkOffscreen Travel NotesI wrote a few words in Offscreen – Issue 3. Buy it, it’s beautiful.04 September 2012Clients, Customers, and FansBuild a fanbase. Not a userbase.05 June 2012Recent reads 6An employee handbook, ‘rock star’ designers, front-end resources, a strangely thoughtful piece on the Instagram acquisition, ‘The New Aesthetic’, feeling light (getting rid of objects), fake authenticity in branding, and self-publishing resources.03 April 2012Having a baby (in California)I learnt a lot about babies in 2011. I read piles of books about them. I received advice from doctors, midwives, doulas, friends, relatives, strangers, and a hypnobirthing instructor. On December 14th a brand new baby entered the world, into my hands. Looking back there’s things I wish I knew at the outset and things I think are worth sharing.16 March 2012External linkPermalinkMost Web Design Agencies SuckMy biggest gripe with the agency model is well articulated by Andy Budd:So while clients buy into the seniority of the team, then end up getting none of the benefits. In many cases web design consultancies can be little more than employment agencies, hiring people in cheaply and simply slapping a margin on their day rate.I’m regularly disturbed when I get the opportunity to do a head count at an agency. Sales staff, project managers, account people, executives and administration staff commonly out-number the people producing the products paid for.We have the advertising industry to thank for this legacy. Right or wrong, this is how business was built. Landing the client was the biggest job. Finding and developing the idea a mystical process that justified the final whopping invoice. The eventual implementation (an advertisement) seems trivial once these two hoops have been jumped through.Agencies make software now, and software is never finished. Great software starts small, and requires ongoing iteration. Amazing software requires cross-disciplinary teams empowered to make decisions. The advertising business model is almost completely irrelevant. We need to find wa