Jonathan Dayley

I’m pretty sure my friends get tired of hearing about my family.

Of course, they’re all too nice to tell me. But if anyone talked to me about their family as much as I talk to my friends about mine… I wouldn’t have any friends.

Really, the fact is that I have an awesome family, and that’s why jonathan.dayley.co exists. For one, the domain itself a gift. Most people give books, toys, or chocolate for Christmas. My older brother’s a tech consultant. He gave me a website. It’s easily outlived all the Christmas chocolate (which was gone before the 26^th), and it’s a lot more portable than books and toys.

I’ve got my family to thank for the content on this site, too:

Models

My uncle got my siblings and I into Legos before I could count, and they were a staple of our childhood. We shared designs and inspired each other until we were the best Lego builders on the block (which wasn’t tough; I don’t think anyone else was into it). Every model here is a product of techniques I learned at home.

Music

My dad is a musician, and his dad started the community orchestra before I was born. My mom is musically inclined, too, so when I started into music, I got nothing but support from both sides of the family. Theory and composition are my strong suits; my formal work is what’s posted here.

Gallery

This is about as close as I come to photography. To be honest, BrickLink Studio‘s renderings are just too perfect not to post. My brother introduced me to the program sometime back, and I’m constantly amazed at what it can do.

Software

I’m a productivity nerd, and in my family, you can’t talk about productivity without talking about software. I’ve been through plenty of software through the years, and I’ve found that most are programs that I use for a month or so before either losing interest or finding something else. A few core applications form a part of my daily identity, though, and those are the ones I post here.

Books

Admittedly I’m not a book person; my sister’s the only reader in my family. To me, books are great, but reading them takes a lot of time, and that’s something I seem to never have. If I’m totally honest, though, I have to take out of my sister’s book: there’s a lot of great reading out there. It’d be a shame not to share some of my favorite books.

So in few words, I have a great family, and that’s why you’re on this site. Have a look around. If you see something here that you’d like to learn how to do (right down to the JavaScript), don’t hesitate to contact me. In the meantime, feel free to stay as long as you’d like; parking’s free!

Best,
Jonathan Dayley

My siblings and I grew up on Legos, and our collection grew as we did. My mom is about as extraverted as they come, so I imagine it must have driven her crazy to watch us pass entire afternoons working on our Lego projects instead of playing outside with friends (don’t worry; we did that, too). At any rate, we invested hours into our designs and builds, and I can’t help but call those hours practice time as I look back.

Somewhere in my teens, Lego building stopped being a pastime and turned into an art. I only learned about design software a few years ago, so most of my models are only memories, but a precious few are digital and won’t be going anywhere soon. You can see those here or take look through my gallery.

My plug for Lego design is that it’s therapeutic. It’s not as serious as writing music, it goes fast, and there’s no ceiling on what you can do with them. With programs like Stud.io and LDD (which are both free), you don’t even need a collection. If you’re intrigued by either of those programs or would like to get into Legos in general, shoot me a message.

Music composition is one of those arts that’s easy to learn but difficult to master, and that’s partly because it’s so different from everything else in the music world. When you and I think music, we think about performing. Everything we perform has to come from somewhere, though, and that’s where composition comes in.

I was 12 or so when I started into writing music, and since then I’ve learned a lot about what it takes to do it well. It basically boils down to three things:

1. Patience
2. Discipline
3. Way too much confidence in your work

My parents raised me with all three.

That said, everything I know about music theory came from a piano, a MIDI notator, and Wikipedia (that’s about as formal as it gets in my hometown). I had the advantage of great choir and orchestra directors and a musical family, but the take-away here is that you don’t have to have a bachelor’s to write music. Give my work a listen and see what you think. If you’d like to learn to write your own music, let me know; I’d be happy to help you get started.