Propaganda Party: The Pop Stalin Design Manifesto

04-05-07 ‹› Design

Creating Design Concepts: How Do You Start?

I recently began a project that needs to be completed by May 1. The problem with the project is that I don’t have a logo. I’ve gotten into the habit of starting projects with the logo and I am now finding myself in a bit…

03-19-07 ‹› Design

According to the Seventh Annual Weblog Awards…

The best designed blog out there is Gizmodo. First off, I’d like to congratulate Gizmodo for this achievement because, in my humble opinion, it is, in fact, quite an achievement. How they achieved even being considered as a contender for the “best designed weblog” is…

03-02-07 ‹› Design

Logo Pond Logos I Like

I was recently checking out the logo galleries over at Logo Pond and thought I’d post some logos I think are well done and that I like. You may notice that none of these logos are “Web 2.0-style” logos (well, one could fall into that category…

02-28-07 ‹› Design

Making Wireframes Even More Useful?

I was reading Justin Kistners’ blog, Metafluence, and came across his post “In search of a better way to design.” He makes the argument that wireframes are bad when it comes to creating interactive design. He then introduces the idea of page description diagrams originally introduced…

02-27-07 ‹› Tips, Tricks & Tools

John Chow Dot Com: Review My Blog Linkback Program

John Chow wants you to review his blog (note: this page is currently not showing on his site). In return you get a linkback from the “459th most popular blog on the Internet, according to Technorati.” In 200 words here’s what I think of John’s blog:

John seems…

‹› Design

Are You Still a Web Designer If You Don’t Design Your Own Site?

It’s a dog eat dog world out here in the web design world and lots of time is spent checking out the competition, especially sites that outrank you in the SERP’s. Yesterday I was checking my ranking on a search term and came across Aetomic.…

02-13-07 ‹› Design

SEOmoz Says, “Design can be Link Bait too!”

Designers, myself included, are always trying to prove that good design is worthwhile—I may do it too often here making myself sound like a broken record. When I visit a site to purchase a product, if the site looks like crap, I’ll look elsewhere for…

02-12-07 ‹› Design

Why You Should Create a Wireframe First

Before I started working at my last full-time gig, anytime I would design a website I’d start off with the design and almost always found myself wondering what I would do with the navigation. The sites didn’t always provide the best user experience and I…

02-09-07 ‹› Design

Aww shucks, I’m Blushing

I was checking my referrer logs, ’cause I’m a dork like that and noticed that Devlounge.net was linking to me. I immediately thought to myself, “Oh no! Are they making fun of me?” So I followed the link and to my surprise, what I read actually…

02-05-07 ‹› Design

SalesGenie: They Shot Their Wad on a Commercial

Apparently after Sales Genie spent the entire marketing budget on their Super Bowl commercial, there wasn’t much left over for their website design. I know I’m partial because I am a web designer but come on folks… What were you thinking? The site fails validation with…

01-26-07 ‹› Design

Logo Design: Studying the Competition Doesn’t Mean Stealing from the Competition

In any kind of design work an exploration process takes place. To achieve good design designers need to work with the client researching other companies’ brands. Often you’ll ask a client to show you what they like about other logos to get an idea visually…

01-22-07 ‹› Design

Free Wallpaper

So I created a wallpaper for myself and decided to offer it to my visitors. Enjoy!

01-19-07 ‹› Tips, Tricks & Tools

Discovering Cool Things a Mac Can Do

Want to know how to cycle through a folder without having to use the aliases in the sidebar of your Finder window? Just “Command+Click” the folder’s name at the top of the window.

Maybe you’d like to open a new Finder window from a sidebar item—just…

01-18-07 ‹› Tips, Tricks & Tools

Add Flare to Your Feeds: Creating a Feedburner FeedFlare

After reading Pronet Advertising’s post “Making Your Content Del.icio.us” I wanted to place an “Add to Del.icio.us” link in my feeds. It took some searching but I finally found out how to add it to my Feedburner feeds. I also noticed that Pronet Advertising had a link…

01-14-07 ‹› Tips, Tricks & Tools

Aligning Items in Photoshop with Smart Guides

I’m quite certain most people know about this handy little trick in Photoshop CS2 but for those of us discovering it late in the game, it can be a god-send. I’m referring to “Smart Guides.”

To enable “Smart Guides” navigate to “View > Show > Smart Guides.” Once…

01-11-07 ‹› Design

A Rebuttal to “Web Standards Don’t Matter (As much as you think)”

Over at Modern Life, a recent “article” was written stating standards don’t matter to the end user. I’ll go as far as to say, I agree. Does that mean it shouldn’t? No, it doesn’t. What the author of the piece doesn’t seem to get is…