As you can see, I changed the WordPress theme. Still fiddling, but since this site is rarely visited, I figure it wouldn’t really matter. As in previous versions, the CSS and page structure is mine, while the PHP is a mish-mash of the two default themes and some of my own work. Hope you like it.
My thoughts and prayers are with the families of those involved in the shootings at Virginia Tech.
In a flurry of activity I finished up my latest web design project.
It’s not an original design on my part. I did some significant work on the CSS, but it is otherwise a standard university template. Most of the CSS work was in two areas. The first was a color scheme change, removing the template’s blue highlights and replacing them with Orange. This was more difficult than you might think. The second part had to do with integrating the online event registration system of the site with the modified templates. Standardizing a site of this size, +900 pages, isn’t a small undertaking, but I’m very pleased with the results.
While my keyboard is still cooling off from the last project, my newest challenge is already underway. This also won’t be an original design. I’m restructuring an existing site. To begin with, this involves some streamlining of the CSS, making it more cross-browser compliant, and adding a little more usability. Then we’ll see where it takes us.
Douglas Karr is linking to a John Chow post called My Name Is My Domain List. Interesting, why do some people choose to use their name as their URL? My reason was similar to Mr. Karr’s.
“My companies, jobs, and websites might come and go - but I’m sticking with my name.”
I work on a lot of other people’s sites, and I wanted some place to be just me. To say what I thought about graphic design and web design, with no association to a business or organization. I thought it was only appropriate that I use my name for it. Since my last name isn’t easy to spell or remember, I simply went with my last initial instead. Am I a narcissist? I think all designers have to have a little of that in them, but I do think Douglas T dot com has a nice ring to it.
I had a little difficulty coming up with adds for my list. Most of the ones that I thought of were blogger.com, wordpress.com, or typepad.com sites. For now I’ll just add Andy Rutledge who I only recently discovered.
***Start Copying Here***
My Adds:
Andy Rutledge
Douglas T - mine of course
The Originals:
Chris Baggott - Email Marketing
Pat Coyle - Sports Marketing
Ade Olonoh - Software Entrepreneur
Bob Buskirk
Jon Waraas
David Lithman
Gary Lee
Ed Lau
John Chow dot Com
Nate Whitehill
Stephen Fung
Michael Kwan
Jeff Kee
Stuart Hanning
Hannes Johnson
Nomar
Nathan Drach
Saman Sadeghi
Douglas Karr - On Influence and Automation
***Stop Copying Here***
Results of a survey I took part in are now available. Here is a list of the other bloggers who participated.
Dude you of people shouldn’t be lecturing anybody about design.
Inspired by this comment on yesterday’s post, I thought I’d address, who I am, and why I feel qualified to talk about design.
I’m a professional graphic designer with almost fourteen years of experience, and I’ve been doing web design to some extent for more than five years.
I started my career at a small chain of sporting goods stores in Washington and Idaho. For four and a half years I worked under the very talented designer who ran their Advertising and Visual Merchandising department. It was the best education I could have gotten. The department of two produced weekly newspaper ads, radio spots, TV commercials, and in-store displays and merchandising. This included the design and construction of some display fixtures.
I then worked for six months for a carpet company, designing high end custom carpet. An odd job, but very interesting. It involved the design of custom one-of-a-kind rugs, which were then hand-made from our designs.
This was followed by more than six years with a national commercial real estate publisher. For most of that time I was responsible for the training of production editors and designers. When I left I held the position of art director, though the actual job title they used was different. The last complete year I was there my department of three (including myself) was responsible for handling just over 2,300 ads. This included minor edits of existing ads , pre-press processing of client supplied ads, and creation of new advertising. While I was there I initiated a major revision of the production workflow, including a change in the brand style templates and software used.
For the last two and a half years, I’ve been working for a major university in SW Virginia doing both print and web design work.
Other random facts:
So yes, I do believe that I am reasonably well qualified to speak on the subject of design.
Your should keep in mind though, that this is not in any way a business website. As I say on my homepage “This site is my online sketch book. A place to try new ideas, collect resources for my work, and write about design.” This site is not now, and never has been intended to promote me as a freelance designer. It’s a place where I try out ideas before I place them into the higher traffic sites that I maintain. The PHP scripts for RSS for instance, that I tried out here not too long ago has since been used in several other places with very good effect.
I make no promises that this site will be in perfect working order with a high quality theme at any given time. Sometimes it will, and other times, maybe not. My only real long term goal is to promote discussion about graphic and web design among designers, people who work with designers, and people who should be working with designers. If, in the end, all I do is make people think about design, I’ll be happy with that.
I’ve updated the theme on this site. The original theme I used was an experiment of sorts. I wanted to build a site with page edges that weren’t straight. As you can see in the picture below, all four edges of the page in that style were jagged.
An interesting experiment, and I’m glad I tried it, but it was a little distracting. This new style is a lot cleaner looking.
Welcome to my new site. I’m going to be using this site as a repository for online resources and news about the interrelated fields of graphic design and web design. I’m a professional graphic designer with thirteen years of experience in print publications. I started to add web design to my repertoire about five years ago, and for the last two years have been doing forty to fifty percent web design work.
I’ll also be writing about photography, computer, and design software. These subjects are dear to my heart and integrally linked to my design work.
Thanks for stopping by. Before you go, please check out the links on the sidebar, there are only a few now, but they’re good ones. I’ll be adding to that list and to this site as time provides, so please come by again and see what’s changed.