I’m alive!

I’ve been sick for over a week. I’m finally feeling well enough to get out of bed, but I am seriously behind with design homework so I will be neglecting the blog and CSS studies for about a week.

On a good note I got into some higher level classes that technically I am not allowed into quite yet. I’m a waiver king! Unfortunately I am still locked out of all Web design classes until the Fall term so I am on my own until then which is fine with me.

On a side note I got to wrap up most of a logo project for libSIEGE. The site is live now. We still have a nav icon and some file icons to finalize. libSIEGE is an open-source game engine.

 

libSIEGE.org Website

 

 

Sick Days

I’ve been sick for a few days. Can’t wait to start feeling better. In the mean time I will be reading my book on CSS and drawing a few more layouts. Will post again tomorrow.

Web Design Study

Today I have been perusing graphic designer and photographers websites looking for great examples of CSS design gone wild.

Here is what I found:

Mark Weaver – Graphic Designer

I attended a video cast with Mark Weaver and found that I was already an admirer of his artwork for the album cover to Trent Reznor’s latest band How to Destroy Angels. Marks website has a very clean minimalist design that functions well and works well on most display sizes. One question I have is if it will translate well to a handheld device display.

Mark Weaver - Atlanta, GA

Jessica Hische – Graphic & Type Designer

Jessica is a young extremely talented typographer that draws all of her type by hand. I attended a video cast with her last year and she is very fun and inspiring. She said she has been drawing type since she was in grade school.

Jessica Hische - Brooklyn, NY

Giang Nguyen – Graphic & Interactive Designer

I found Giang’s website yesterday while looking for good examples of CSS usage. He has won a few awards for his easy to use and clear to understand website designs. You have to see this one to believe it.

Giang Nguyen - Vietnam

Racket -Art & Design Studio

Racket is an Australian design studio that has implemented a visual thought bubble layout for the menu system. Usually I tend to not like websites that use images in the background but Racket uses an interesting collage that is uniquely Australian and a solid floating background for the body type.

Racket - Australia

Rich Brown – Interaction Designer

Between freelancing as Zaum & Brown and acting as joint director of Brown & White Creative Ltd. I’m not sure how Rich Brown has time for a life outside of work. His website caught my eye because it is very simply laid out in blocks and it still works on many small device displays because the boxes conform to the window size. Adjust the browser window to see what I mean.

Rich Brown - England

Process: Layout Sketches

I didn’t have much time to devote to sketching yesterday; here is what I have. I did a bit of reading on the bus but it was hard to concentrate because a couple of guys were tickling each other and laughing loudly. I think they were happy.

Web Site Layout Ideas

On a side note and unrelated to my web site design, today I finalized 3 logo designs for Tim, a CS major in Slovenia. He is making a cross-platform game engine called libSIEGE.

The Missing Manual

The last couple days I have been reading CSS: The Missing Manual on my Kindle. I don’t know how it compares to other books but I bet this is much more clear and answers more questions for beginners than a really techie (is that a word?) book. I got to know The Missing Manual Series by being recommended, by a good friend Denzil, the Mac OSX Leopard book. The explanations are fun to read because they are spiced up with a little bit of humor while maintaining the professional feel and respect for you as a beginner. They really try to not talk over your head if at all possible. If you want to learn without feeling overwhelmed by jargon this is the way to go. I hope to have more layout drawings up by this weekend.

Process: Sketching

I started sketching layout ideas and navigation elements last night. I am in the very first stage of the project so things will change and the final web site might not have much of these elements.

I know a lot of designers that wouldn’t dare show their process work, but I am trying something new, which is to make the design process transparent. Hopefully others may learn something from it. I am no expert so I may fumble and that is part of the process.

Portfolio w/ Lightbox Gallery

I have a pretty basic understanding of CSS, HTML and Java now. I will not have a portfolio website ready for prime time until March or April. Today I am in the trenches with a Lightbox Java script learning the ins and outs of using it effectively.

Lightbox Javascript example

Lynda.com FTW

I know I risk sounding like a commercial, but I don’t care.

I’ve mentioned lynda.com before, but in the last two days I have fallen madly in love with this resource. The video tutorials are very high quality, clear and concise. For ~$25/mo video only and ~$35/mo video and example files you cannot go wrong. The true value of the content is much higher than they charge. They have a video series for every level of computer user and for almost all the main software titles. I even found one on how to use iTunes, which seems absurd but there are people who are new to computers and have no idea what is going on with that interface.

I unofficially endorse lynda.com and hope you check it out. You should be able to get a 30 day free trial on the web site if you are a first time customer.

Back to filling my head with knowledge.
-Landon

Web Design Gurus

Where are all the G33K’s that know web design? I’ve been asking around and very few people even know where to start. I only found two people that had any experience with web design and they really didn’t know much more than I did at the time. I feel like I have opened Pandora’s box on this one.

New Learning Objective

As a G33K I constantly find myself drawn to computers, programming, hardware and software that lets me do things that other people cannot. Since I find my station in life constantly revolving around computers and the internet I think it is time to revisit web page design with an emphasis on design aesthetics. My goal is to gain an in depth knowledge of web design, specifically CSS in the coming weeks. My college will not let me into the web design classes until I pass the portfolio review so I will be teaching myself with the help of web resources and lynda.com.

This is an example of the web site I created in 1997 for my High School. Remember this was created when most people had Geocities websites and gif images.