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Archive for the ‘Design’ Category
The Quick Brown Fox Jumps Over The Lazy Dog
Wednesday, July 29th, 2009The Wearable Internet Makes the iPhone Look Like a Toy
Tuesday, July 21st, 2009And further demonstrates my love for TED and the genius people who speak there. The idea of being able to make it even easier to learn about products you’re purchasing, take photos among a myriad of other benefits just gives me a warm fuzzy feeling.
Reservation: not into the idea of putting a chip into my brain as stated at the end of this talk. It short circuits enough on its own.
Trent Reznor Talks Band Sites
Thursday, July 16th, 2009
I’ve recently discovered Stereogum’s site, and found they had a great article wherein Trent Reznor talks about good things to do when you’re creating your band’s site and marketing your upcoming record. Among other things, he mentions the benefits of giving away free downloads of your music as a way of building your fanbase and email list, and that you should understand and take advantage of all the social media sites you can.
There was one thing in particular which is worth restating when it comes to bands’ sites:
…Have your MySpace page, but get a site outside MySpace – it’s dying and reads as cheap / generic. Remove all Flash from your website. Remove all stupid intros and load-times. MAKE IT SIMPLE TO NAVIGATE AND EASY TO FIND AND HEAR MUSIC (but don’t autoplay). Constantly update your site with content – pictures, blogs, whatever. Give people a reason to return to your site all the time.
The whole article’s really worth a read, especially if you’re an indie musician who’s trying to get their music out to everyone.
Using CSS Transformations: A How-To
Wednesday, July 15th, 2009Lately I’ve been using more advanced CSS3 transformations in my design—both for Webkit and Mozilla—and I wanted to share some of what I’ve been doing.
I’ve launched two sites in the last little bit that take advantage of those: a site for musician Brooks Wood and a site for Houston-based Leyendecker Landscape. In both of these, I’ve tried to take advantage of some great CSS features for those browsers that can handle it and just letting those that can’t ignore it. In this demo, I’m focusing on the form elements since they’ve always tended to be boring.
I’ve attached a link to a working demo of the forms with a brief explanation of how I did what I did. Read on for more. (more…)
Writing Agreements
Monday, July 6th, 2009If you’re a designer or other creative professional, you shouldn’t ever be without an agreement between yourself and your client. Even if your client is the cat’s pajamas, things could get ugly and it’s always best to have something to fall back on if they do. Even if you’re not planning for worst-case scenarios, it’s always helpful to be able to refer to something that details everyone’s responsibilities. We do tend to forget things. Here we’ll cover the basics of a good agreement, and I’ve got a few good links to share on where you can go to get some help.
Blogger to Wordpress Import Workaround
Wednesday, May 13th, 2009I’ve been working on a project for a new client and was asked to move their Blogger entries to the new Wordpress installation. While there is an option to do this directly from Wordpress, it does not currently work with version 2.7.1. To make it work, here’s a solution I found and wanted to explain a bit more:
- Open your favorite FTP program and navigate to where you host your Wordpress installation.
- Once you’re there, navigate to wp-admin/includes/blogger.php and edit that file.
- Look at line 918. It should say
$parser = xml_parser_create_ns(); - Change that line of code to the following:
$parser = xml_parser_create();(You’re basically removing the_nsfrom there) - Save your changes and try to import your entries again. Should work like a charm!
Want a Screensaver?
Tuesday, April 7th, 2009
I’ve always loved the RSS Screensaver for OS X. But I wanted to have a version of it without any of the text, so I went in and made one and came up with a slightly different color scheme.
If you’d like it, you’re welcome to it. Below are both the link to download and some brief installation instructions.
Here’s how to install in a couple easy steps:
- Download and unzip the sphere.zip file
- Open Macintosh HD » Users » Your User Name » Library » Screen Savers
- Drop the unzipped file into that folder
- Open System Preferences » Desktop & Screensaver
- Look under “Other,” find and select “Sphere”
- Enjoy!
General disclaimers: I’m not responsible if this murders, maims or otherwise does something damaging to your computer (it won’t, I’ve been using it for a while!), and this screen saver requries OS 10.4 or greater to work. Sorry Windows and Linux folks.
A Few Fun Things
Monday, March 23rd, 2009It’s looking to be a busy week here, so posting might be a little more sporadic. That said, I’m trying to get you a little more to look at here!
An interview Spicy Web Designer did with me for their site went live over the weekend. In here, we discuss the latest fashions, give hair tips and talk about juicy gossip! Or, we might’ve just discussed a few geeky things and how I got to be where I am today. You’ll just have to see for yourself.
I keep wishing that I’ll find more games that are fun and meaningful that aren’t your typical run/shoot/level up/save the girl/die games. Don’t get me wrong, those are a great time. But after playing the same formula for years and years, it’s great to find something different.
That said, I found one after listening to a segment on indie game developers on NPR’s “Future Perfect.” The game’s called “Passage.” The entire game is maybe 2 minutes long, and is probably just as powerful a game as I’ve ever played. It’s a simple premise, you’re a guy walking through life. You can pick up a wife or go it alone. And you get to see the impact of the choices you make. Bonus: it’s free!
Fun illustration by Rosa Pomar.
I found an interesting article on Techmeme this weekend too, entitled “The Australian cancer that will kill the internet.” The article focuses on Australia’s attempt at censoring the internet for their users, the people’s endeavor to block it and why it matters for the rest of the world.
My two cents on the matter: despite all the bad things that are and will be on the internet, having a third party mandate what I can and cannot do or see is a terrible and slippery slope. I fully support the idea that the Internet should be uncensored and unfiltered by any government or company. If anyone wishes their internet to be censored, rather than enlisting their government why not look into something like Net Nanny or Cyber Patrol?
5 Album Covers
Tuesday, March 3rd, 2009Last week I discovered the album cover project where you find a random Wikipedia article, random quote and a photo from Flickr’s Explore and put them together into an album cover. I made one and loved the idea—I thought it would be a great creative exercise to do every day. So every day last week I made one album cover a day, and gave myself 15 minutes to do it. You can read on for all 5 I made this week with details about each. (more…)
Are you looking for work?
Wednesday, February 25th, 2009There’s no question that this economy is making it tougher on designers to get work. Everyone’s tightening their belts and shoving their money in mattresses and banks. Designers have been laid off, clients are reducing budgets, hellfire, brimstone, etc., etc. Hopefully we’ll see improvement soon.
But in the meantime, I keep on the lookout for ways to grow in our current economy, and I’ve seen a few posts with good ideas on how to do it. I’ve read about keeping your current clients very happy, improving your game while you’re not doing client work and lots more. The ones that have hit me most are the ones though were ones about sharing and passing on work to other designers.
Airbag’s “Goldfish” article really sums it up:
To those who own their own business: I challenge you to push harder. If you need $50k to keep your family under house and home then do everything you can to bring in $150k. Chances are you won’t make the larger goal, but you’ll do far better than selling yourself short and it’s likely that you’ll need extra resources to finish all the work, help from people who are looking to supplement lost income. I’m not talking about going through the process and stress of actually hiring more people (there is a good reason why the IRS created the 1099 form). Don’t turn away any work that comes through your door. Get it. Grab it. Take it—as much as you can— and network with the people who are ready and willing and have the skills you need. Team up, and conquer.
Another good read is A List Apart’s “Filling Your Dance Card in Hard Economic Times.” Have a look at this excerpt:
If your agency or company is doing well, do your best to help unemployed colleagues get new jobs or freelance work. Make introductions within your network. Help job seekers with their curriculum vitaes (CVs) and above all, show a little love. (Just dropping someone a line to say “hi” can make all the difference.)
With that said, if you’re looking for work, please send a link (either in the comments or by email) to your portfolio. I’m going to try and pull in as much work as I can and I’d be happy to pass along work to other designers. And yes, I’ll still throw in a reward if you send someone my way.