ASK A 3rd WARD TEACHER: John Gruen, web developer, interactive videographer, Gnostic text expert

(c) Matt TaplingerIf you're a designer, artist or thinker, chances are you need a website as your calling card. Meet 3rd Ward instructor, John Gruen, who can help you put the best foot forward in the wild and wooly interwebs. In his class, Intro to Web Design: HTML/CSS, John teaches the essentials of HTML coding and DIY internet success. In just four sessions, you'll unlock the power of those magical scripts and give yourself a professional leg-up.

We caught up with John to hear more about the surprising projects of his diverse student base, using math to create images, and the enormous benefits of learning in class rather than on your own. Ready to get started? Intro to Web Design: HTML/CSS begins on September 13th, sign up today!

3rd Ward: What do you teach here at 3^rd Ward?

John Gruen: I teach HTML, CSS, and Processing. I’m continually teaching this Intro to HTML/CSS class, which is intro to web development. It seems really popular because a lot of people want to have that little edge. A big part of the class is basically what is HTML, what is CSS, how do they work, how do you design a site, and then what are things like jQuery and PHP and the next level to make you a decent web developer – to make you more than just a beginner.

3W: What sort of student work comes out of it?

JG: Well one kid does package design for toys and conceptual design for film and video game stuff and he just wanted to make his own portfolio website that he could add to, update, and change. It was [a concept] I would have never thought of on my own. One student made a huge website for a wedding announcement, with directions, a link to a site where you could RSVP and stuff like that. There are a lot of people who are also in print media, like writers and journalists, who want to have some kind of online presence where they can put their material and customize it more than just a Tumblr feed.

3W: Do you teach anything else?

JG: Yeah. Processing, which is another programming language.

3W: What’s the difference?

JG: Processing is based in Java. It’s designed with people in the arts in mind to have the ability to make really complex computer programs, essentially. It focuses on data visualization, drawing, interaction… I have used it for a lot of interactive video stuff, where it’s very good at doing motion detection. If you're using the camera on your computer, for example, you can make a program that detects your face and you can use the input of your face to control certain images on the screen. It’s very good for imaging and for drawing through programming, but also for drawing through interaction. Generally, people who are interested in it are people who work in graphic design or architecture.

It can be used with randomized mathematics to create really complex images, like creating textures. There’s a really nice example on the Processing website of tracking flight paths. It’s just good at rendering data into a visually intelligible format.

3W: How did you get into this? Did you study it in college?

JG: I studied religion in college. I like religious history, or specifically Christian history.

3W: You were just fascinated by it?

JG: Maybe it was that I always enjoyed history and that particular moment of Hellenistic and Roman history – the birth of Christianity – is really interesting. After college, it was sort of hard to get a job talking about early Gnostic texts and stuff like that...so I started doing websites for people and realized I could do them and sustain a living.

Part of the reason I’m so interested in teaching people with that is because I wasted so much time learning that stuff as I was teaching myself. One of the curses of doing freelance is that you're not necessarily surrounded by mentors or people that are better than you. You’re relegated to figuring it out on your own. One of the good things about classes is that you don’t have to do that; you can have someone say that if you have this problem, this is a solution.

3W: Are you doing anything else that you’re really into?

JG: Well actually, I'm interested nowadays in the stuff that’s coming out of this Processing program. There’s another program that I’m learning, which is called openFrameworks, which is similar to Processing but based on C++. You can check out my website and current work at http://johngruenprojects.com.

I’m working right now for a headhunting firm in Rockefeller Center and then also just finished a job for a project based out of Southern Mexico and the Yucatan that does work with indigenous Mayan people.

3W: Wait, so you're designing a website for them?

JG: It’s still being finished, but it’s really different. It [embodies] really different needs for really different people and it’s fun to meet the challenges simultaneously. You do meet and interact with a lot of different people, for sure.

3W: If you're teaching classes, you're also interacting with people in your role as a teacher.

JG: Teaching this class keeps me honest because I have to keep reminding myself of very basic concepts. Even trying to explain it to you… it’s a challenge to verbalize these things because they're their own language with their own rules. The best way to teach is by example. So I start out with a blank screen in class, and on the computers everybody’s got the same thing I do, and then we all type everything together. It’s the start of muscle memory for students; they need to learn the order of which to do things. We start out like that and then we get a little bit more freeform toward the end of the class. It’s a good way, I found, to force them to do a certain set of things rather than just show them what is possible, because there is a right way and wrong way, especially regarding efficiency. So just having everyone typing together is a really good way to build that foundation.

Space is filling up for John's Intro to Web Design class, enroll now!