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Wednesday, December 31, 2008

Bowin and I just finished this website for The Nehemiah Group. He brought me on to help develop a new site and in the midst of it I was given task to redesign it entirely. It’s simple, built on WordPress, showing overviews of the company and allowing them to publish example projects to each department of clientele (data centers, healthcare, commercial).

Wednesday, December 31, 2008

I just came across something that isn’t especially amazing or new, but I thought clever enough. I think Zeldman or ALA mentioned a technique like this some time ago for alternate img:hover states.

Google’s search pages load this 1 single image for their logo and all the UI parts and pieces, using CSS to crop the images as needed, which seems to me as 100% more efficient than managing a pool of tiny images.

Would’ve, should’ve, and likely will. Thanks Google.

Update 1/1: Google has a few more image sets, here, here, and here. I’m not sure if these are used somewhere else, or are just old sets.

Update 1/27: Dave Shea has more info and a few more examples of other sites that use this CSS sprite method with comments discussing pros and cons.

Wednesday, December 31, 2008

Here it is, the last day of the year and all, and I guess I’m one of the few left without some sort of list summing up my year. Actually, I rather enjoy such summations. I have a few things I’d like to share in reflection, but I haven’t had the time to put it together. Maybe next year (in the next few days, I mean).

I will say, however, that 2008 entailed something of a wintry mix of ups and downs for me. This was my first full calendar year of freelancing full-time.

I bombed a few pursuits and had some otherwise successful moments with my work. I learned and struggled through a lot and have likely opened up many more questions that I began with.

And so, I’m proceeding into 2009, and continuing my goal of stirring design thinking & dialogue (especially amongst fellow Louisvillians) through this journal, and adding a few new goals. No public resolutions, just a few personal resolves. I’ve also got some extracurricular projects to keep busy with.

Please do keep in touch.

Tuesday, December 30, 2008

Garbage like this drives me crazy. This from an ad on Craigslist:

I’m looking for raw freelance talent in a graphic design artist.

Currently, I have one project that will pay $200 to design the look-and-feel of a Small IT Company including logo and business card design. The look will be minimalistic and sleek, but I ensure creative freedom with colors and font style. If you’re good, this may take 30min. If you’re slower, it still pays the same.

Raw talent, as opposed to skill acquired through education and thousands of hours of hard work. Yes, and if you are one blessed to have such intuitive, supposedly natural talent, in which you can craft a design program, corporate identity, and stationery in one half hour (or else as long as need), you can earn $200!

: (

Friday, December 26, 2008

I received an email today from Ira Glass:

As I’ve been mentioning on our podcasts, our home station, Chicago Public Radio, like all non-profits, is struggling in the current economy. It faces a $1.5 million dollar deficit. A dozen of our colleagues were laid off.

Which brings me to our podcast. It costs Chicago Public Radio over $150,000 each year just for the Internet bandwidth to get you our free podcast and free streaming of our show. They don’t need to make a profit on the podcast but they can’t afford to have it cost them money. It would be horrible if they had to lay off more of our friends and co-workers so we could have a free podcast. So I’m turning to you again to ask for your help in covering that cost. Whatever you can afford, $1, $5, or if you’re still doing well in this economy, $20 or $100. Here’s the link to do that.

My wife and I love This American Life (although I think she has a bigger crush on it than I do), who doesn’t? Can we even begin to imagine life without Ira Glass’ …

Monday, December 22, 2008

Thursday, December 18, 2008

I promise I won’t make habit of this, but I’m here again linking you over to a Broken Sidewalk article. I think this one is important. We hear a lot of boohoo and nonsense about the proposed revised highway system downtown, and the wonders of 8664, but this is the first time I’ve seen and really understood the ugly impact it will really have. This is a serious design problem.

If you care about or love Louisville even one ounce, you should read this article and consider what might become of it.

Friday, December 12, 2008

Photo: Broken Sidewalk

The folks at Broken Sidewalk have exposed an interesting design problem. Oblivious non-design. Sidewalks with pedestrians not in mind.

It’s not just the pole (although that’s a huge part of it), its the rest of the sidewalk, too. The 3-4 foot wide sidewalk most commonly built today is really only wide enough for walking single file. At most you could try walking with a friend, but it can be tough sometimes. Nevermind groups of pedestrians walking in opposite directions. (And forget the handicapped population.) This is one pedestrian lane. There’s a 4-6 lane vehicular road right next to it. How about a 4 lane sidewalk?

[…]

Sidewalks are where city life happens. Louisville must pay more attention to its public infrastructure and not pull ridiculous stunts like the pole in the road.

The street we live on is over 100 years old and, in the last century of development, you can see all sorts of poor decisions made, favoring the automobile over pedestrian mobility. When I walk our dog around our neighborhood there are a number of poles to go around. To make things …

Wednesday, December 10, 2008

December is always a crazy month for us. It was always bound to be. My wife is a teacher, so she will be wrapped up in the frenzy at school just before Christmas break. And then, of course, there is Christmas and all the friends and family get-togethers. But, before that happens, we celebrate our wedding anniversary (4 years!). And then after all that, the new year celebration. And for us, many additional, beautiful church services.

I’m also finding myself trying to see the end of unfinished projects before all this truly begins, which is right about now. I’m overwhelmed by it, and I can never seem to escape it.

Now that you feel sorry for me, the rest of this is a lame attempt to get something I cannot afford. :)

If you have ever found anything worthwhile, encouraging, or otherwise valuable among the pages of this website, please consider gifting me anything on my Amazon Wish List, particularly a subscription to Baseline or Cabinet magazines. Don’t worry, I have it setup to not notify me during the month of December. Ha!

Well, thanks if you’re even considering it. And thanks for reading. Merry Christmas! …

Tuesday, December 02, 2008

Server upgrade
Last week I upgraded my web hosting server from MediaTemple’s Grid-Service to their Dedicated-Virtual (VPS). It is amazingly fast, and although I’m not hitting it heavy at all right now, it is very stable (compared to their lousy-of-late Grid-Service). I am super happy about it. Hosted client sites will benefit from this soon, too.
WordPress upgrade
Last night I upgraded this website to WordPress 2.7-RC1, which has the new fancy interface. I’ve withheld until now to try it out. It’s pretty impressive. In terms of interface, it is leaps and bounds beyond anything you’ll see for Textpattern. It’s definitely faster to navigate, and seems more fun to use. It feels a little more bulky than prior versions of WordPress, especially for such a simple website as this, but, nonetheless, this is a really nice upgrade. 
Magazine subscription
I ordered a subscription to GOOD Magazine recently, and today I received my first copy in the mail. I’ve only flipped through it so far, but it looks good, smells good, feels good, and I’m excited to read it. You can pay whatever you want for a subscription, and I …