Hi, I'm Manning Krull.
I've been making websites and other digital media professionally since 1997, if you can believe that! In my career I've been a web designer/developer, a technology director, a creative director, and an all-around digital consultant. The majority of my career has been in healthcare advertising, aka pharma. These days my main interest in the world of digital is accessibility and ADA compliance; I'm passionate about ensuring that the work we create is useful and engaging for all kinds of people, and that it meets our ethical responsibility to people with disabilities. I recently acquired my CPACC credential to better position myself for a role in this kind of accessibility consulting.
A big part of my job is writing and talking about digital best practices for creative and tech — as well as accessibility, user experience, etc — and, most importantly, how they all intersect. I believe understanding this intersection puts us in the sweet spot that allows us to do great digital work.
In presenting to clients and colleagues about all these different aspects of the digital landscape, my focus is always on maximizing the success of any piece we create — not just to produce spectacular creative that thrills our clients, but to make sure we're bringing real value to users and keeping them engaged. That engagement translates to tangible, measurable success for our clients. Their success is our success.
When I write about digital best practices, I'm writing from a place of experience — my career has allowed me to work as a consultant for dozens of brand teams every month, and that has afforded me insight into literally thousands of digital projects over the years. I've had the luxury of being able to see the very distinct patterns of what works, and what doesn't.
Believe it not, I started most of the articles on this site, in some form or another, back in early 2010, when I'd just moved to NYC from Paris and was trying to establish myself as some sort of digital opinion-haver. I've periodically updated all of these articles from there, and added more. Technology changes, but human beings remain human beings, and a lot of these principles never change.
A lot of the guidance I give comes down to philosophy — hence the title of this site — and I really believe that the way to do our best work — our most successful work, our most empathetic work, our most ethically-minded work — is to become digital philosophers. It's much more than just art and copy and code. It's communication; it's connection with other human beings.
Besides my writings about digital best practices, I have a ton of other personal creative projects that keep me busy. Please check out manningkrull.com to see my paper maché sculptures, my illustration work, some writing projects, and a lot more.
Get in touch! manning@manningkrull.com
– Manning
Questions/comments? Feel free to contact me at manning@manningkrull.com. I update these articles pretty frequently — best practices evolve over time as the world of digital quickly changes, and I always welcome insights from others.