So I had a short conversation with a client of ours today and it went something like this: “Hey you guys make some great looking sites; why don’t you design some templates and sell them. You’d make a ton of money!” Naturally I had to agree that we make pretty decent looking sites, but that was beside the point (insert deadpan look here).
From a business perspective this makes perfect sense, and it’s been done quite a few times before. But here’s the problem. That’s not who we are. Money’s all fine and good, but at the end of the day we all have to remember who we are and what we believe in.
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If you have ever had to submit anything creative to the review of a committee, this is for you.
Via Graph Jam.
I love having a digital camera, but it is definitely lacking in the vibe department. Old school film camera’s like the Holga and the Diana have a great feel to them, especially when they are cross processed. So I’m going to show you some ways to fake the funk and give your digital images a healthy dose of awesome sauce. (I’ve been listening to Fundamental Elements and I blame them for making me say things like “Fake the funk” and “awesome sauce.”)
Let’s start with a picture I took of Mr. James.
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Web Designer Wall has a great collection of web design trends for 2008, and we just happened to make the cut! Actually the 47m site and the EdgePoint Church site are both listed. So we’re pretty psyched, to say the least. It’s been a whirlwind of a year so far, and it just keeps getting more amazing everyday.
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I will readily admit that I am a total nerd. I was totally psyched about the new Indiana Jones movie that came out a few weeks ago. I went out and bought the first three and watched them in like two days. Watched all the extra stuff on the DVD’s. I can’t even tell you how many childhood memories those movies brought back. It was great!
But when I finally went to see the new one, I found myself a bit disappointed. Some of the scenes were so ridiculous that I just couldn’t get past the impossibility of them. The atomic refrigerator? The monkey vine-swinging thing? Three ginormous waterfalls? I mean, seriously! Yeah I knew the first three had implausible moments, too but not like this! Or were they?
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I’ve been looking for a higher quality alternative to YouTube, and have really been digging Vimeo. So while I was there, I did like any other self respecting web designer/developer would and had a look at the source code.
It was there that I found this:
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Non-profit organizations have a special place in our hearts here at FortySeven Media. We love it when people decide to change their world for the better, and do our best to help them however we can. Several months ago we completed the Knoxville Leadership Foundation's new website. Shortly there after Dan Myers, the Director of Communications and Operations at KLF, asked us to be part of a seminar for non-profit organizations to better equip them to use their websites. The following is a condensed version of that session. We had a grand time chatting with everyone there and hope you enjoy the information! The slides of the presentation and the handout companion are available in PDF format at the end of the article.
1. Evaluate Your Current Website
Before we jump too far into this, let's take a moment to think about your current website. Are you excited about it? Do you tell people about it or do you try to not bring it up? When was it last updated? These are great indicators of the current condition of your site. Most organizations can answer these questions instantly. The short version for most, is “No, we aren't excited about our site, it's awful!” The good news is that it doesn't have to stay that way. Let's look at a few ways to get your website tuned up and working for you.
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Ever wanted your logo hand carved from a massive piece of wood by natives of Papua New Guinea? Ok, so maybe it wasn’t the first thing on your list, but dang it’s cool. My wife’s sister and her husband are missionaries in New Guinea and are back in the states to make the rounds to all their supporters and show them what they’ve been up to. Too many “and’s” in that last sentence? Probably. Regardless, we just got this in yesterday and had to share.
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The following is a true story.
I had picked up Thrice’s new album and we had been listening to it yesterday while we were working. It is one of those albums that you immediately know is good, but need need a few more listens to really grasp its depth. So when I left a little early to move a piano, Jon decided that he would borrow it and return it today, which is totally fine by me. But what really struck me was the note he left. Well, not really the note itself, but its typeface. Instead of the completely dull and lifeless default font that Stickies uses, I saw this:
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If any of you good people out there don’t read the insightful Daring Fireball, you might have missed The Rather Difficult Font Game, which is aptly named. I normally consider my type-fu to be excellent, but I too was humbled. 33 out of 34 for this type ninja.
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I don’t know when The Committee For Establishing Rules sat down to dictate that businesses must be staunchly boring and devoid of personality, but I’m glad to see that Veer missed the memo on that one. They are one of a few a larger companies we do business with that have managed to keep their charm. More than that, they know how to have fun.
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Thought we’d share just a few tips we’ve come across as we design each day. Seth Godin says lists are cool so I’m going to try one.
1. Think like a website. Try to keep in mind the limitations and strengths of the web when designing. For example, look for backgrounds that can repeat easily, or avoid designs that have a lot of overlapping transparency (at least until IE6 isn’t on so many computers).
2. Web typography. Your web typography will set your design apart from other studios. Study optimum line heights, widths and look for inventive ways to guide the viewer through your layout only using CSS rules. There’s something refreshing about only having 3 or 4 good fonts to work with. Flash replacement (sIFR) is alright, but don’t overuse it.
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Fadtastic.net has put out their “HOT TIPS for Your Website in 2008.” Remember the date here friends. 
Anyhow, check out the Universal IE Hack, it’s the CSS I wish I could put into every site we code. Just kidding; we love you IE6. Except we’d rather gouge our eyes out with a spoon than “fix” another site for you ever again 
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I was just informed that Smashing Magazine is using the EdgePoint Church site as an example of great grid based design. Awesome! Kudos to EdgePoint for giving us the freedom to give a church such a kick awesome design. We’re honored that Smashing magazine would include us as one of only 3 case studies. Kind words, for sure: “The grid is escaped with the use of angles and placement of the illustrations and photography that surround the layout. The header has a free flow design that opens up the top as a creative space.” Thanks, guys!
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Here’s a little goodie for you ExpressionEngine developers on Leopard. A pretty folder icon to put all your plugins, modules, extensions, etc… in.
Quick rundown for those who don’t know how to change folder icons:
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I meant to post this earlier, but we were nominated for the month of March by Unique CSS. Basically, they pick only 8 of the best sites they find and let people vote for the winner each month. Now, I know we’re halfway through March, but there’s still time! We need your help to win this thing. Do I sound like a politician yet?
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Well, our boys over at Less Everything have done it again. They’ve just released an open source social networking program called Lovd By Less. Frankly, I’m not sure how they manage to write app so fast, let alone make them this good. They must be eating their Wheaties. If you’ve been looking to put together some kind of social networking site and want to save some time developing, you should definitely check it out. Keep in mind that this is built with Ruby on Rails, so you’ll need to have some experience there. Here’s a list of features:
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Microsoft has listened to the web community and reversed its decision to make IE 8 behave like IE 7 unless specifically told to do so. As I’m sure most of you have heard, there was much debate over this, with some big names in the web community actually backing Microsoft on this one. It never made sense to me, so I’m glad to see common sense won out this time. I just want my time back from all the things I’ve had to “fix” to make display properly in IE 6. You listening, Redmond? Eh, I didn’t think so.
So I got these in the mail the other day (see picture). They were both roughly the same size, had big weird pictures on the front and were supposed to be cool, I guess. I glanced at them and noticed they both had the exact same offer. 25% off! That’s kind of strange. Oh wait, apparently Getty Images and Punchstock are located in the same building! Same return address! What do you know? I think someone is trying to pull a fast one on me!
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We’ve all probably used Google Docs or Zoho Writer. The new crop of AJAX based online word processing applications surely have Microsoft scrambling over in Redmond. Not to say any of those options is bad; in fact most of them are quite nice. But I found something completely different. BuzzWord.
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