Friday, September 3, 2010

12 Standard Screen Patterns

A little on the technical side, but seems like some pretty useful stuff.

"Wow, This Is Trippy" or "Flash? What Flash?"


The song: "We Used to Wait" by the Arcade Fire

This interactive music video uses only HTML5 - no Flash whatsoever! Follow the instructions and prepare to be transported back in time and (virtual) space....

Oh, and you'll probably want to make sure you're viewing this on a reasonably powerful computer.

Tuesday, August 24, 2010

Most Useful Cheat Sheet For HTML, CSS And Javascript

My wife actually found this while surfing the Intertubes. Haven't had a chance to try it out yet, but looks as though it could be useful...

Web Design Blog: Website Design articles & news

The not very imaginatively-named Web Design Blog functions as a portal to all sorts of web design-related stuff, including interesting web page design, tutorials and articles.

Tuesday, August 17, 2010

Nellie McKay sings "Clonie"

Okay, so it's not exactly design-related but I just couldn't resist...

So anyway, I just finished viewing David Kelley's 2002 TED presentation on human-centered design and I happened across this link to a performance by Nellie McKay of her song "Clonie", a song about, in Nellie's own words, "...the evils of science".

Without going into a ton of detail, Nellie is a fantastically talented jazz pianist with a penchant for writing cutting, acerbic and frequently hilarious ditties about society's ills. If you're like me and generally find jazz impenetrably dull, then you owe it to yourself to check out Ms. McKay.


"Clonie" lyrics
(WARNING: contains a four-letter Anglo-Saxon word which colloquially describes the act of procreation)

My oh my
Walkin' by
Who's the apple of my eye
Why it's my very own
Clonie
Oh if I should stroll the 'hood
Who knew I could look so good
Just talkin' on the phone to
Clonie
We are pals
It's cool 'cause we're not lonely
Shallow gene pool
There's nothing to my only
Clonie
Me and you, hustlin' through
Holdin' on through thick and thin
Just day by day our DNA
'cause the Olsen twins got nothin' on us
We'll survive
Side by side
Mother Nature, don't you call her phony
She's my clonie

Was wealthy
But not healthy
Had no one to dwell with me
So look who I got born
Clonie
Far from broke
Bored rich folk
We don't need no natural yolk
Our babies come full formed
Clonie
We'll be huggable
Get a publicist and show them
Be the most lovable thing
Since fucking Eminem
Oh my friend
Multiply, we're a franchise
Like Walt Disney or Hannibal Lechter
We can tell our cancer cells
Are more benign than old Phil Spector
We'll survive
Side by side
Should have signed with Verve instead of Sony
You're my clonie

Oh Clonie, how I love you
Huh, I'm the only person I ever loved
Gee, that's swell
I guess you're just my fatal attraction-y
You're my clonie

Tuesday, August 3, 2010

Design Shard Web Design Blog

I just discovered Design Shard, a resource for creative inspiration which features free downloads and tutorials, among other things. Aside from cool resources, the site has a nice, intuitive layout and feel.

Sunday, July 25, 2010

Ryan McMaster: Holy Crap, This Guy's Awesome

Now this is what I aspire to as a fledgling web designer. I absolutely love this guy's use of texture, most obviously his choice of background imagery but also in the various graphics used throughout the site, such as buttons and rollovers. Everything has a chiseled or embossed feel to it, which Ryan pulls off without it looking cheesy or overblown. And, because I'm a complete sucker for rollovers, I especially adore the treatments Ryan's given his rollovers, particularly on his personal site which, if anything, looks EVEN COOLER than his portfolio site!

Saturday, July 17, 2010

Digital Blasphemy

I forget how I first became aware of this site's existence, but if you're looking for some killer wallpaper for your computer desktop, then check out Digital Blasphemy.

Download wallpapers from the Free Gallery.

When One Word is More Meaningful Than a Thousand

Quite a bit to digest for us web design novices, but some interesting stuff nonetheless. I found the following passage interesting in light of the way I approached building my Jump Page:

"I know that many people like to mix wireframing, HTML and even design into one organic and homogeneous process. The downside to this is that you will have a hard time not compromising your work. When you’re designing, writing HTML and CSS is not priority number one; and once the design is done, you’ll find it tough to go back and rework your code to match HTML and CSS standards.

It’s also refreshing to try to build a website based purely on a set of wireframes, without the slightest notion of design. It helps you focus on meaning and makes it easier to spot components that are actually the same but could differ wildly design-wise. And if you’ve done it right, you’ll find that during CSS development, you don’t have to adapt the HTML at all, unless the design calls for major structural changes.

Try to build your HTML templates based on wireframes, and save the design and CSS for when your static HTML templates are completed."
Read the full article