Design Intellection

David Yeiser

I’d like to extend a warm welcome to David Yeiser from Design Intellection.

About: Design Intellection is a blog focused on design and thinking. I’m a web designer who is trying to do his small part to make the web design profession better and more respectable. I focus on the usual suspects: typography, layout, colors, some marketing stuff, etc. I’m truly passionate about the process of design—the thinking in the beginning that boils the pot over into a fully-functional design. Now-a-days I like to say my design philosophy is “purpose follows form.”

I’ve already bookmarked his post Improve Your Typography with PHP, mainly to watch Jay cringe when I start messing with files.

Another post of interest is Questions to Ask a Web Designer. My favourite question on his list (and one I’ve never been asked) is ‘What’s your favorite part in the process?’

Also interesting are the WordPress Themes, now parked at Artisan Themes.

Enjoy…

Share this:

NEED MORE? Then get over to Designers who Blog to discover hundreds of blogs posting about graphic and web design, marketing, illustration, photography, advertising, branding, writing ...

Omega

Lady Omega

Last September, Omega contacted me about a feature on DWB, wanting to know if Lady Omega fit the criteria. And wow does she ever!

I’m a web designer working at- and co-owning Elune Art web design company. My blog is about various forms of art – computer arts, crafts, exhibitions, music events.

I write about what i encounter online and in different countries – i travel a lot. I also write about some projects i am working on, either music-related (i also sing in a band) or web-design related.

She’s creative, she’s diverse in her talents, she travels, and she’s zany. All, I like.

Enjoy!

Share this:

NEED MORE? Then get over to Designers who Blog to discover hundreds of blogs posting about graphic and web design, marketing, illustration, photography, advertising, branding, writing ...

Divya Manian

Nimbupani Designs

Ahhh… the storm is almost over (but not quite). Past time to get back in the saddle with Nimbupani Design.

Nimbupani is a freelance portfolio with attached blog. If you check out the portfolio, you’ll see that the clean design reflects her overall style. Nice.

Share this:

NEED MORE? Then get over to Designers who Blog to discover hundreds of blogs posting about graphic and web design, marketing, illustration, photography, advertising, branding, writing ...

Davor Peic

davor peic.gavran {new media designer}

While I’m out here celebrating Buddhist Lent (now designated in Thailand as No Alcohol Day, not to be confused with No Tobacco Day), I’d like to you enjoy the beautiful blog of Croatian designer Davor Peic.

Davor is biting off quite a huge chunk by writing a multi-language blog. I can barely handle English (although I am struggling along in Thai) so my hat goes off to him big time.

Share this:

NEED MORE? Then get over to Designers who Blog to discover hundreds of blogs posting about graphic and web design, marketing, illustration, photography, advertising, branding, writing ...

Dickson Fong

Dickson Fong

I’m not skivving off because it’s a wicked Friday the 13th.

I’m telling the truth here.

Dickson Fong is a site to be experienced.

By you.

So go. Drool even.

Change those wicked ways.

Share this:

NEED MORE? Then get over to Designers who Blog to discover hundreds of blogs posting about graphic and web design, marketing, illustration, photography, advertising, branding, writing ...

Paul Anthony

webdistortion

webdistortion not your average geeks. Great tagline. And kudos to Paul on the geeky photo used for the main graphic. It’s perfect.

Webdistortion is nutured and lovingly cared for by Paul. A twenty something, developer / designer / music junkie who likes to create. The blog contains digital musings about webdesign, marketing and other knick-knacky geek stuff.

Webdistortion presents serious information, and all at your fingertips. Glancing below the geek and to the left (scroll a bit), you’ll see where the site nav ends and the blog begins. No hunting around needed.

Blog >> Blogging >> Business >> Design >> Google >> Marketing … bingo … 6 quick steps to lowering your website bounce rate.

How’s your bounce rate? Are you worried? Do you know enough to be worried? I do worry so I followed his advice (what I had the time for anyway).

The first bit of advice brought me to browsershots.org. Great stuff. In a few minutes, I received screen shots of more browsers than I knew even existed.

Next we are asked to ‘pretend you are the visitor’. And he’s right, it IS difficult to do. I sat back and looked at DWB for minute, which reminded me of what I already knew was wrong. So, knowing that it’s not easy to find where to submit blogs for features, I pulled Submit out and added it to the top level of the nav. While there, I did a quick rewrite for clarity (is it clear enough for you?)

I also added the suggestion of leaving comments as I feel it’s important. It’s always been strange here at DWB because I get a TON of back and forth via email but not very many comments. And truthfully (as it’s all good stuff), the majority of the emails I do get would be helpful for everyone to read. Except for the juicy stuff of course (just seeing if anyone is paying attention …)

Do you see anything else I could do to improve? I’m open for suggestions. Honest. (Note: I’m having problems with cookies and comments, but I’m working on that particular snafu. Oh, and if anyone has the answer, I’d be ever so grateful).

Backing out and skimming down past the webdistortion’s blog nav and back into the site nav, I see there’s Articles on offer. Nice.

To educate our customers in things they should consider when getting a website developed, and to help separate good from bad developers we’ve put together some useful articles. Check back here often or check out our blog whilst we expand this section of our website.

Articles (in my opinion) are a must on a website [slash] business with blog combo. And both Ten considerations when developing a website and What makes a great website? offer great advice for clients, yes?

Articles are great for blog blogs too. But for DWB, that’ll have to come when I’ve decided just what I’m supposed to be an expert at. Or not.

Ah, decisions, decisions …

Btw, webdistortion was discovered via: edge3sixty

Share this:

NEED MORE? Then get over to Designers who Blog to discover hundreds of blogs posting about graphic and web design, marketing, illustration, photography, advertising, branding, writing ...

Jon Hicks

Well, it’s Friday night (out here). Time to party. And since Jon of the beautiful logo always seems to be in the midst, seems fitting, yes? It also seems fitting to finally feature Hicksdesign Journal. (Sigh) Yeah, it’s yet another in DWB’s blogroll without (but I’m working on it).

Hicksdesign Journal

For starters, let’s scroll right down to the bottom. To the footer. Down to where it says ‘You can also email Jon, but he may take a while to reply’. And I did (Hi Jon!) Only, I’m impatient with the possibilities and all. I’m ready for the party of Friday night NOW. While I’m writing this. On Friday morning.

In the footer is also where we find a short blurb about the who of Hicksdesign …

Hicksdesign is the creative partnership of Jon & Leigh Hicks, founded in 2002, after working with charities, government bodies and publishers. We build sites to web standards, as well as doing branding development, illustration and print design. If that’s too short, you can read more about us.

I don’t know much about Leigh (waving!) I remember when Leigh left her safe position to team up with Jon, but that’s about it.

Question: Where does she find the time to raise two kids and a Jon, run a household, work, AND have a hicksmade?

Then the piece is rolled, this can take up to 1000 rolls, depending on how well the fibres felt.

I find bread making taxes my wrists, so thinking of 1000 rolls, I’m impressed.

And although I’d love to see more of Leigh, it’s Jon I know more (of). Ever since I became interested in blogs, it was always Jon laughing and having a time around the Internet.

Hey, (while I’m at it) you too can laugh and have a great time with Jon and John at The Rissington Podcast ( featured on DWB here).

You do remember John of joshuaink. Right? With the tagline, ‘more love than a bus load of hippies’? Well, I’ll give you one guess where that bus ended up. Right.

Oh dear. Episode Eleven already? Now I know what we’re doing this Friday night. That’s right. American Idol stopped chewing on my evenings (it wasn’t me, honest) so I can finally get a night life. Oh! Oh! And I get to listen to Jon and John diss Paul. Too nice.

I realise I’m flaffing around, but let’s stay down on the footer and see what’s up. Let’s see what Jon and Leigh deem important enough to grace their place of Love.

>> The Omni Group Now this looks interesting. Because yes, I am a Mac fan. I’m also having browser problems (FF won’t refresh) so this is a good time to bring it on. But WAIT. The Omni Group is not just for browsers (ok, I’m slow. I write this stuff in the am before my caffeine kicks in, ok?) And WAIT, OmniWeb 5 is not free. But at that price, it’s as close to being free as can be.

>> Panic – Coda Ohhhhh, drool factor. I haven’t been crazy-active looking for a DreamWeaver replacement, but I am in the market so this just might be it (downloading now). Again, it’s a Mac product. And again, the price is great at US$79 (compared to DreamWeaver at around US$400).

>> Veer: Flont ‘test thousands of fonts online’. Slick. And one to remember when featuring typographers.

>> The Forgiveness Project (a Hicksdesign project) ‘The Forgiveness Project encourages and empowers people to explore the nature of forgiveness and alternatives to revenge’. A sweet concept, and one I’ll have to think about. In my way of thinking, there’s no point in gut-wrenching, time-wasting revenge. Life is too darn short and way too sweet to waste. And WAY too funny, even.

Getting back to the guts of the Journal, seems we get two choices for posts. Latest, where he shows five full posts. And Archives, by date. Clicking on Journal or Latest takes you back to the Journal homepage, but let’s poke around Archives.

2008 >> 2007 >> 2006 >> Explaining the new logo (Jon groans)

Now, I distinctly remember when Jon announced his new logo. Almost like it was yesterday actually. I remember the kerfluffle going around, and I vaguely remember Jon’s explanation at the time.

Dosh Dosh recently went through similar with his site and logo redesign. I didn’t read the comments Jon received, but from what he’s saying they seem equally painful.

So, what is it with communities and perceived ownership? Because that’s sort of what it boils down to. Jon’s public audience laid it on rather heavy, as did Maki’s (owner of Dosh Dosh). While David Airey’s community (logo designer for Dosh Dosh) were more open to understanding the design brief and the reasons for the submitted designs (ahhh hummm, although they did put forward ideas of their own).

And the reason I’m bringing this up after all these years? It’s my delayed and personal response to Jon’s logo. While I wasn’t too sure before (while it was all happening), I am now. I have Jon and his logo clearly connected in my mind with Jon of the beautiful logo.

And really, have you seen anything of the likes? I haven’t. And that’s exactly what Jon set out to do. And he did. And that, I like.

Now, how about you?

Share this:

NEED MORE? Then get over to Designers who Blog to discover hundreds of blogs posting about graphic and web design, marketing, illustration, photography, advertising, branding, writing ...

Meryl Evans

Depending on how you use it, Twitter can be a time waster. It can also be a rich resource. A resource where I met Meryl Evans.

I’m not a huge Twitter user (too distracting). But when someone adds me, I check them out before an add in return. And this is where the rich resource comes into play.

Twitter >> Meryl Evans >> CSS Collection. Nice.

Are you a frustrated CSS fan? Then you are sure to appreciate how CSS Collection is laid out. Clean and crisp, there are no frilly bits to distract. The gallery is to the left, categories are to the right, useful news in the middle. And I do mean useful.

CSS Collection

At the time of this post, in the news section Meryl has Veerle’s Starting with CSS and bug fixing tips and Stefan’s How to organize your css code: the ‘killer’ css structure.

I just came across Stefan’s structuring method last week when Bart-Jan Verhoef sent over his files. They totally blew me away.

And remember that part about being a frustrated CSS fan? Yes, that’s me. And yes, I can use all the tricks and tips I can get. And for me, assistance from the likes of the CSS Collection is where it’s at. It’s that current ideas without unneeded distraction combo fit.

So, what about Meryl? What drives her to dedicate precious time to keeping the CSS Collection current? Well, from what I’m reading, it’s her passion for web standards.

Meryl shares that passion as co author of Adapting to Web Standards: CSS and Ajax for Big Sites and Adapting to Web Standards: CSS and Ajax for Big Sites, Adobe Reader.

For online writing, she can be found at Digital Web, A List Apart, EzineArticles.com, and more.

A big part of the more is Meryl.net. But, I’ll save that for later. But not much more later. Promise.

Share this:

NEED MORE? Then get over to Designers who Blog to discover hundreds of blogs posting about graphic and web design, marketing, illustration, photography, advertising, branding, writing ...

Guilherme Zühlke O’Connor

Zo’C: The Science of Web Art, Design and Development

There I was at Facebook, when I received a message from Guilherme of Zo’C.

“Cat” he says. “Whoooh, what a big blog roll” he says. And he was right. My blog roll was tipping over and into and all over the place.

“Have I got a treat for you” he says. And he was right. He did.

Guilherme’s ZoC powerblogroll plugin for WordPress improved the new design for DWB immensely.

His plugin enabled me to take my honker of a blog roll and move it to an inside page, like so.

It also allowed me to put my links in tidy categories. Which I did.

Advertising Pros, Animators, Artists, Blog Designers, Book & Magazine Designers, Branders, Business of Design Conversations, Design Organisations, Designers, Graphic Designers, Green Designers, Illustrators, Logo Designers, Marketeers, Miscellaneous, Photographers, Podcasters, Programmers, Tutorials, Typographers, Web Designers and Writers.

And you know what? In telling this tale, I was going to rant on about the difficulty I had with choosing which category to put each blog. But I won’t. I was also going to tell you that at one point I threatened to create a category called mystery meat. But I won’t do that either.

I’d rather tell you about Guilherme. About how he generously came to my rescue when DWB was updated to WP 2.5 and I ran into difficulties. Thank you Guilherme, it works great.

And, yeah, well, ok, you can still say “Whoooh, what a big blog roll”. But WHAT a blog roll it is. Right?

Thanks again Guilherme. Without your talent and generosity today, I’d be on my second bottle of wine this Friday night.

Share this:

NEED MORE? Then get over to Designers who Blog to discover hundreds of blogs posting about graphic and web design, marketing, illustration, photography, advertising, branding, writing ...

Elliot Jay Stocks

Elliot Jay Stocks: blog

Elliot Jay Stocks is one of the beauties listed on Blog Design Blogs: 47 Must See Great Blog Designs.

Elliot Jay Stocks is a designer, writer and speaker. He has left Carsonified and is now running his own business and booking in new work from June.

And if you are also starting out in the business of design, Elliot is one to watch. Just check out Learning lessons filed under Life In The Real World.

And in fact it’s not just about things overrunning: it’s about affording myself a little time to wind down before rushing full-pelt into the next deadline.

Excellent plan! Having a business head on straight is must for alleviating start-up stress. I didn’t when I first began. Ah, the mistakes I made … there were more than a few. Ok, there are some things that come from messing up. Like, paying attention to your second sense when it comes to PITA clients (which now I do).

Getting away from the business angle and over to design, I give you Create the perfect logo feature in .net magazine where he interviewed: Shaun Inman, Dan Mall, Bryan Veloso, Jon Hicks, Dan Rubin, Ryan Singer, Nick La, and Ryan Nichols.

Yes, Elliot writes for .net magazine and others. How great is that?

I’ll leave Mac users with a handy tip found at Elliot’s: Things – task management on the Mac.

Sounds good. I’ll head over there now as I have a to-do list so long it’ll reach all the way from here to there. Easily. How about you?

Share this:

NEED MORE? Then get over to Designers who Blog to discover hundreds of blogs posting about graphic and web design, marketing, illustration, photography, advertising, branding, writing ...