Design Entries ~
Tips for Freelancer Websites - Making Your Site Awesome
Once you've laid the groundwork for your freelancing website, it's time to make it produce some income! Read on for a few tips on how to make it awesome.
Be Personal
I can't count the number of times I've come across a designer's site and couldn't find any information about them. No picture, no bio. Maybe a twitter account with some non descript avatar. Your clients want to know if you're …
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Tips for Freelancer Websites - The Groundwork
We have a lot of designers email us and ask for advice. One common thread lately seems to be "How do I get my freelancing career going?" Well, thanks to the Internet there's lots of ways! First let's talk about your website. Are you getting traffic? What happens when users get there? Do you even know? If you're having trouble making your website work for you then read ahead:
A Solid HTML Foundation
Obviously, if you want people to actually …
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The Kick Awesome Show: Episode 1
Welcome to The Kick Awesome Show! That's right, Nate and I have decided we need to hang out more, so why not in front of a camera? We're going to attempt to talk about cool and interesting things every week so go hit that subscribe button now.
Being that this is our first shot the format's still up in the air a bit. But that's ok, we know you'll tell us what you love and don't love …
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CSS3 Buttons with Icons
During the process of coding a web app we've been working on for a client, I decided that was time to go CSS3 with their buttons. After using the accessible CSS button technique for a while, it still felt really complicated and maintaining all those images was a pain if you had different sized buttons throughout your site.
So I started coding them up and realized that all the examples I had run across didn't …
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EECI2010 Presentation Notes - The Power of ExpressionEngine’s Dynamic Templates
Greetings from San Francisco! Nate and I are having a great time meeting up with old friends and making new ones at this year’s ExpressionEngine and CodeIgnitor conference.
I had the pleasure of doing a MasterClass on “The Power of EE’s Dynamic Templates” yesterday and wanted to get the slides up for everyone to check out. It was 4 hours long, so there’s quite a few 
. Several people asked for the slides with the …
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It’s Conference Time!
Hey Everyone! How’s it’s going? It’s been a while since we’ve posted as things have been silly crazy awesome busy, but we wanted to let you know about some of the super sweet conferences we are speaking at and/or just going to. Check the video:
Links to things in the video:
We are very excited to be speaking/attending these events and we would absolutely love to meet you there. Let us know in the comments if …
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Five Days of DesignHope
I’ll just come out and say it. DesignHope has taken way too long. What started as a great idea with support from some of the coolest companies out there turned into a long drawn out process that still isn’t finished. Scott, we’re sorry, man. I hope you haven’t minded being the guinea pig. We still have big plans for DesignHope, but obviously we need to get …
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Visual Recipes Design Process
After a long wait; we're excited to be able to show you a really cool project we worked on several months ago. Visual Recipes is a site with a great idea: Take pictures for each step of your process when making a delicious dish and post it online. Great for visual learners (like myself) and great for the users who get to share their recipes.
The site already got quite a bit of traffic, but it's age was starting to show. They were ready to overhaul it inside …
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Three Years and Thank You’s
I have often heard people say, “She’s got a case of the Mondays.” Meaning of course that that person might be a touch grumpy because the work week has come around again. Today, I find myself with a case of “The Thank You’s.”
I woke up this morning nearly in a panic because I wanted to make sure that one of our client’s new campaigns launched successfully. I exchanged a few emails and made sure things were running smoothly, which they were. And as I settled into my morning routine, …
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DesignersMusic.com: Find & Share Great Music with Other Designers
First off, let me say that we're psyched to finally be able to share this project with you. We believe that side projects don't work unless you're passionate about them. Well, guess what? We love music and we love design. They go hand in hand, really. So we decided that there should be a place where designers can find new music recommended by other designers: DesignersMusic
Go play with it now …
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What Happens When We Try to Make a Video
One of our super cool secret projects is very, very close to launching so we decided we would make a short video promoting it. The problem is that we can’t keep our lines straight for more than two seconds, especially me (Nate). I am pretty sure I screwed up every single line I had. We thought it would be fun for all of you to see the stuff that doesn’t make the video.
Design Hope - Homepage Design
Now that we’ve finally have a logo, it’s time to get to the fun part, the design! Scott had given us a solid direction for the look and feel. He wanted a clean, simple design that showcased a current app and also provided a few more options for people to jump into the different content areas of the site. We went with a mono color scheme in order to really showcase the app and make the different headers and content launch points stand …
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Creating a Tell-a-friend Pop-up Form with jQuery and ExpressionEngine
I recently had a reader ask about the pop-up contact forms and lightbox scripts we've used on some of our client sites - were they built into ExpressionEngine and how did we get them to work? Well the answer to the first question is generally no. EE lets you setup whatever js effects with whatever libraries you want. So can choose exactly how you use it. It really is a different way of thinking about putting together dynamic websites, especially if you're used to most of the other CMS's …
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Do We Serve Ourselves or Our Clients?
I fired one of our first clients last week. It was messy and no fun for everyone involved. I also managed to get a lecture from the president of that company on how to run my business and better serve the needs of my clients.
While the initial reaction for any of us would probably be thoughts of a Chuck Norris roundhouse to the face (in slow motion, of course), the whole incident made me think hard about what 47m is at it's core, and what it truly means to serve …
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EECI2009 Slideshow and Presentation Notes - From Design to Dynamic, Rapid EE Development
Hello from the Netherlands! The EECI2009 conf is in full swing, and we're having a great time! This entry is more of a companion piece to my presentation (you can check the slides out below). So if some things don't make sense, read through it. Someday when I have time I hope to write a more detailed version, but for now this is what we've got! For those on the fast track, this is how we setup EE …
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Design Hope: Final Logo
Folks, we have a winner! Scott has officially declared the final logo to be Number 3 from the last round minus the tilting. Though not apparently obvious, this version was completely redone, ensuring spacing and alignment was perfect and optimized where necessary. The Solutions font was beefed up a bit, too. Good call on that one, loyal readers! Not much else to say here, really. Since we’re starting from the ground up and have such a strong and simple mark, …
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Dear Small Businesses: Some Advice
I would wager that the majority of web designers end up doing work for small to medium-sized businesses. And I'm sure we all have a fantastic story of how ludicrous they can be sometimes. After a few "interesting" experiences, I've had this one rolling around in me for a while. Small business people; we love you, but pay attention, alright?
We Understand it's Your Baby
If anyone can sympathize with a small business owner it's a small web design shop. We know you busted your tail, working night and day to …
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Speaking at the ExpressionEngine and CodeIgniter Conference
I’m pleased to announce that I’ll be doing a workshop at the ExpressionEngine and CodeIgniter Conference in Leiden, Netherlands October 22-23, 2009. I’m really excited about this trip because 1.) I’ve never been out of the country and 2.) The group of people at this conference are amazing. Honestly, I’m quite humbled by the lineup. How did I get to be invited again? I can’t even list them all here, but include household names …
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Design Hope: Logo Design Round 3
Welcome back everybody! I have a good feeling about this round. Like we might just have a winner. Lots of great input from everyone on the last round. Except for that one guy. Sigh. There’s always one isn’t there? Thanks to those of you sticking up for us and keeping things positive. Moving on!
The first version was still the favorite, with some requests to stack it as to cleverly put the dog “under” the under. So I tried a few versions of that. Scott liked #2 from …
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Design Hope: Logo Design Round 2
First of all, I’d like to thank everyone for their input on the last round of logos. While I’m not usually a fan of designing by committee (as in I’d rather impale myself on a pumpkin), the observations and general consensus were positive, well thought out and very helpful. Bravo! Version No. 2 was the resounding winner, but still needed a little love. As such, I’ve re-worked the dog head a bit so it looks more like a “G.” Although I’m not too concerned about …
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- The Kick Awesome Show: Episode 4
- Tips for Freelancer Websites - Making Your Site Awesome
- The Kick Awesome Show: Episode 3
- The Kick Awesome Show: Episode 2
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Popular Articles
BestChristianDesign is helping give churches inspiration for their next project. Good call, guys.
Seth Godin reminds us to enjoy and take advantage of the uphills.
Stop announcing your new project. Just do it.
Rock and Roll people, Rock and Roll.
To all you staff designers out there, here’s a link for you. (via @ryanlascano)
Fascinating look into the music business.
Derek Sivers posts some great advice about balancing your life.
Heroes or Ghosts
Little Rooms
@ryanirelan Hate that, too. Was hoping it would grow on me but too many panes all over the place. Too much like my desktop :D
I've noticed I'm not noticing my spelling errors. I need more sleep.
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