Jim Nielsen loves food & websites.

I’m a web generalist — a designer who codes.

I’m skilled in:

Design (Figma, Sketch, Photoshop)
Code (HTML, CSS, JS)
Writing (blogging, education)

I’m on:

Below are some personal projects, or jump to employment.

My blog (2012–Now)

I write to seek clarity and improve my thinking–a form of QA before my thoughts go to prod as words out of my mouth.

Praise:

Jeremy Keith: “damn, do I enjoy reading [Jim’s] blog. Last year alone, I ended up linking to [his] posts ten different times.”
Sara Soueidan: “I, for one, love seeing [Jim’s] posts in my RSS reader.”
Dave Rupert: “I love the frequency and depth of Jim’s thoughts, he uses his blog really well.”
Chris Coyier: “Jim Nielsen was blowin’ minds the other day when he blogged…”
Om Malik: “A fantastic read from one of my favorite bloggers/web-technologists, Jim Nielsen.”

iOS, macOS, and watchOS Icon Galleries (2010–Now)

For over a decade I’ve been designing, developing, and curating a gallery of beautiful icons from Apple’s ecosystem.

Praise:

Brian Lovin: “Love [these icon galleries]. Nicely done @jimniels”
Smashing Magazine: “Not a fan of showcases, but iOS icon gallery looks great”
Michael Flarup: “Neat little curated collection of great icons”

Latest writeups:

Launching “The iOS App Icon Book” (2021-11-09)
Courting WEBP (2021-06-29)
SVG Stroke Positioning, iOS Masks, and the Browser (2021-04-12)

The App Icon Book (2018–Now)

With the world-class iconist Michael Flarup, I helped create this book to celebrate the history and art of iOS app icon design.

Praise:

John Gruber via Daring Fireball: “Take my money — I can’t wait to devour this book. It looks so good.”
Khoi Vinh: “[The App Icon Book] looks amazing.”
Mike Stern: “I’m looking forward to getting a copy”
Jason Snell via sixcolors: “It looks to be a gorgeous art book/coffee table book that preserves the history of iOS app icon art.”

Writeups:

A Short History of iOS App Icons (2022-06-08)
Exporting and Parsing Emails for “The iOS App Icon Book” (2022-01-18)
Talking App Icons on the Postlight Podcast (2022-01-11)

Podcast:

Postlight Podcast #314: (Icon)ic Design (2022-01-11)

Flying J Pies (2017–Now)

I love a good pie.

Like anything you care about to a level others might deem absurd: if you want it done right, you’ve got to do it yourself. So I make my own pies and document each one.

Go salivate.

canistilluse.com (2021)

A satirical website made to illustrate the problems of a world where habitul breakage on the web platform becomes accepted as the price of progress.

Praise:

Jeremy Keith: “It’s weirdly gratifying to see a hastily-written sarcastic quip tuned into something real.”

Writeup:

canistilluse.com (2021-08-16)