Entries Tagged as “Design”
Donating to Homeless Women and Children
I'm not one to volunteer all to often. There are however a few times when I set some time aside for a worthwhile cause. Like helping homeless woman and children get back on their feet and turn their lives around.
I recently offered up my web design services to help Women's Empowerment, a local not for profit organization that does just that. Help Homeless women and their children get back on track.
Many who know me well, know that I am fairly critical of the homeless. So it may at first appear odd why I decided to volunteer my time to help them. The whole answer can be a long one, however the short and possibly surprising answer is that I spent most of my childhood and teen years being homeless or forced into a less than normal living arrangement. My brother's and I were casualties of a lifestyle that we had no control over. Like I said, it could be a long story. One that I will spare you from here.
My motivations to help were based largely on helping the children. In this case, to help the children you have to help the mother's too. So it just made sense to me to support the group.
Project Background
When approaching a project like this, I wanted to make sure the members at Women's Empowerment could update the site without knowing HTML or have additional software like Dreamweaver or Contribute. Instead I opted to use the free open source web software called Mango Blog. It's a great blogging tool that I have been involved with for the last few months. Using software like Mango Blog, I was able to quickly develop a simple website and push the limits of what I know about the software to do more than it was intended.
It was a fun challenge to undertake. Especially doing the design and code in just over a week. A true testament to the speed and flexibility of a great application like Mango Blog. I think the end result turned out quite well despite having to cut a few corners in order to make the launch deadline.
Have you donated your services to a group you feel is worthwile? If so please leave a comment below, and If you donated a website please leave a link. I would like to see what others are donating to.
→ Respond NowTags: Design · General · Mango Blog
10 Pixel Grid System
950 Pixel BlueTrip Grid:
Since publishing this article, I have since moved to the BlueTrip CSS framework and modified my original 10pixel grid to work with the 950 pixel grid layout used by BlueTrip. It's a minor change and you can do it yourself easily. However I just thought I would make it available for download to make your life easier. Download the BlueTrip 10 pixel Grid Photoshop Template
960.gs 10 Pixel Grid System
David Perel and I share a common thought process when it comes to creating layouts. Keep it simple and keep it flexible. We both believe in a 10 Pixel Grid System. For some time I have thought about writing a framework similar to 960.gs, but have determined that it's just too much work, and I am not that motivated. So instead I thought I would just share my Photoshop template with you.
Once you have the file open you should see the Guides, if not, press cmd+; to turn them on. If you want to add some additional structure to your design, then you can also turn on the Photoshop Grids (cmd+') The default grid overlay does not work al to well with our template so open up the photoshop preferences (cmd+k) And go to the "Guides, Grid, Slices & Count…" tab.
In the Grid section change the Gridline to every 60 pixels and the subdivisions to every 6. This will give you a nice 10x10 pixel grid for your document.
→ Respond NowTags: Design · Freebies · Photoshop
25 Unique Gift Ideas For The Person That Has Everything
Christmas is around the corner, it will be here before you know it. Sometimes finding the right gift can be really difficult for those on your list that already have everything. Here is a list of 25 truly unique (downright odd) items that are I am sure they do not have.
→ Respond NowTags: Design · Inspiration
ColdFusion Auto Gallery
Creating a photo gallery can be time consuming for even a handful of images. Auto Gallery is a quick and dirty photo gallery tag meant to solve one problem. Automatically generating photo galleries from a folder of images and thumbnails. Team up autoGallery with Photoshop's Batch automation tools and you have a very quick gallery of images!
If your the type of person that just can't wait, here is a demo and download link.
→ Respond NowTags: ColdFusion · Design · Freebies
Straighten your horizons in just a few clicks
It's pretty common to to be given a tilted photo to use on a project. I find the tilted horizon to be distracting so a straightening is in order. Most of the time I see people placing a line or rule over the photo and straightening a photo by sight. This may be adequate for some photos, however, if accuracy and speed are are necessary this trick will allow you to straighten photos like a pro.
This is old trick to fix photos with slanted horizons. I think Scott Kelby demonstrated this technique way back in photoshop 5 so it's not a new trick by any stretch of the imagination. Designers today are still amazed when I show it to them. This trick is so simple and so easily overlooked that I just had to put it out there one more time for anyone that might be newer to photoshop or work infrequently in the program.
→ Respond NowTags: Design · Photography · Photoshop
