The Archives

Everything I've written about realted to "design"

1. I dislike the new Walmart logo

   Tuesday, July 1st, 2008 | 14 Comments

   The new Walmart logo has a Kmart and Payless visual feel to it; a sense of cheapness. Not the low price type of cheapness; but the sticky floor, strange smell, unkempt employee type of cheapness.

2. 37signals loves Photoshop and won’t admit it

   Wednesday, June 4th, 2008 | 48 Comments

   Today Jason from 37signals posted a ridiculous piece titled, “Why we skip Photoshop”.

3. Upgrading to Web 2.5

   Tuesday, January 29th, 2008 | 27 Comments

   I am ready for a redesign of my own personal site. This has been a long-time coming, especially as I’ve been recently debating the form and function of this site. I am moving to a web2.5 look and feel; this more of a design satire then a reflection of personal taste.

4. Is Unique Creativity Dead?

   Monday, January 28th, 2008 | 58 Comments

   I wonder, in this post Web 2.0 world we design in – is there room for creativity or have all the good ideas been thought of and now we are tasked with just recreating the same? I came across six logo designs recently that really got me fired up as a designer and prompted this rant.

5. Motley Fool Redesigns Fool.com

   Thursday, December 6th, 2007 | 2 Comments

   The good ole’ boys and girls at The Motley Fool launched their most recent redesign of fool.com yesterday afternoon. This redesign comes almost exactly one year after the last aesthetic update to the homepage.

6. HolaNeighor; a creative experiement

   Monday, November 5th, 2007 | 3 Comments

   Hola chaos, adios productivity – that is the true tagline of DC’s social experiment, Startup Weekend. But it was a great time none-the-less and much was learned; just not what I thought I would have learned. DC Startup Weekend was more of a crash course in living the life of a start-up than it was […]

7. Designers are Obsolete

   Friday, November 2nd, 2007 | 2 Comments

   Have you ever been in a client meeting or within a design review among your co-workers where the comments really made you as a web designer feel obsolete? They say “everyone is a designer”, but Agency Fusion has really
   taken that concept to the next level in their hilariously accurate satire on non-designer/designer interaction.

8. 10 Ways to Become a Better Designer

   Tuesday, September 25th, 2007 | One Response

   Doug Dosberg is at it again; his recent blog post is right on point and is a must read for all aspiring designers and a nice reminder as well for industry veterans.
   Doug says:
   I believe great designers not only have good design chops, but are also aware, fast, and intuitive. Although there are several ways to […]

9. 5 Web Design Subtleties Often Overlooked

   Monday, September 3rd, 2007 | 38 Comments

   It has been asked and answered by many, “What is design?” My simple response would be, “design is attention to detail”. I came across another interesting response to the design question that I loved, “design is knowing when to stop”. But this got me thinking … it addresses the wild designer who over-designs, but forgets […]

10. I used to work “for” this guy; the sad realities of your talent-less boss

    Thursday, August 16th, 2007 | 4 Comments

    The Denver Egotist recently responded to a young designer seeking advice on his “Creative” Director. The response was ten sad realities of a creative director. I am sure many of you will agree that this rings true for your current and/or past experiences. The article is hilarious – I couldn’t stop laughing as with […]

11. Logic Based Design - Design is 50% Selling

    Tuesday, August 14th, 2007 | 13 Comments

    Imagine a world were design wasn’t subjective; imagine a world were design intentions were in-sync with design executions. A design’s worst enemy is not the input of a non-designer – a design’s worst enemy is when its designer can’t sell it. Design is only half the process, being able to sell that design is where […]

12. Horizontal Navigation; nine ways to skin a cat

    Thursday, May 3rd, 2007 | No Responses

    In an attempt at being unique and innovative, deciding on your navigation structure and presentation can sometimes seem like the most challenging. If content is truly king, your navigation is your knights of the roundtable – it is the driving force for how users find information and ultimately interact with your site. So, in this […]

13. Don’t be a corporate web design bully

    Friday, April 27th, 2007 | 6 Comments

    The corporate web design bully is the organization to which takes and takes and who selfishly refuses to share and contribute. The web has undoubtedly gone social; especially within the community building this Web 2.0. Many of my previous employers love to utilize frameworks and JavaScript libraries but in that one-off chance they themselves […]

14. When those without the internet get it, will they get it?

    Tuesday, March 27th, 2007 | No Responses

    The nclud team recently attended the Refresh DC meet-up this past week and it got us thinking – do we really care about the global impact of the mobile web? Should we care? Or, when should we care? As strong supporters of Refresh DC, we showed up in force and the presentation was terrific. Wayan […]

15. Six most uniquely creative business cards of SXSWi 2007

    Sunday, March 18th, 2007 | 9 Comments

    We all love the web, but are often given the pleasure or forced into designing outside that medium (depending how you look at it). Brand logos and business cards are of the most common tasks given to the traditional web designer – right or wrong, amazing things can come from the truly creative. At nclud, […]

16. Introducing nclud, a new and very talented creative web design agency

    Monday, March 5th, 2007 | 12 Comments

    It is SXSW week and I am sure everyone is eagerly awaiting their flight out. However, that anticipation aside, I have something very exciting to announce myself; the launch of nclud, a creative web design agency. Co-founder, along side Alex Giron, and senior consultant for nclud, I am very pleased and very proud […]

17. The Web Design Refrigerator Metaphor: finding and understanding innovation within your design

    Monday, February 19th, 2007 | 15 Comments

    Innovation and design can be a difficult thing; simply being creative in itself can be a challenge. How do you do it and where do you start? Well, I thought I’d ask and answer the question as it seems to be a popular one these days. Now that “web 2.0” seems to be behind us, […]

18. Why designers are romantics by nature

    Wednesday, February 14th, 2007 | 2 Comments

    So, it’s Valentines Day, and most of us should be experts of the day; we are creative by nature. We strive to produce thoughtful creative experiences tailored specifically for our audience with the end result of evoking an actionable emotion. I just took all of the romance out of it, but isn’t that what being […]

19. Refresh DC gets a redesign as it turns a year old

    Friday, February 9th, 2007 | 5 Comments

    Last week Refresh DC had its one year birthday. To compliment that, the group’s site has a new design up, brought to you by yours truly. I just offered to volunteer to design the new site, Jason Garber is to thank for brining that to life. I am a bit late in posting this as […]

20. Can you over-design?

    Wednesday, February 7th, 2007 | 24 Comments

    While attending a design presentation a little while ago a very interesting question was posed, “can you over-design”? The speaker used a great analogy that really got me thinking; can a great design be un-confrontational? Are we designing for ourselves, other designers or truly for our audience? What are we really trying to accomplish when […]

21. Untapped Creative Talent in Washington DC

    Tuesday, January 30th, 2007 | 6 Comments

    Washington, DC isn’t known for its large and talented design community – but there is a strong force here and I think it has gone rather unnoticed. The DC metro area is comprised of some of the largest brands in the country and there is amazing talent behind each of them. I often hear how […]

22. Interview with the creative mind behind "design fckr"

    Thursday, January 25th, 2007 | 9 Comments

    He has done it again! Recently the creative mind that brought us CSS Beauty launched another online community and resource. Dfckr.com is my latest daily addictive community based source of inspiration, news and resources – this one with a ridiculously creative focus on design. Dfkcr is a publication created with the intention of keeping track […]

23. The 8 types of bad creative critics

    Wednesday, January 24th, 2007 | 6 Comments

    I was forwarded this hilarious illustration today that highlights the eight types of bad creative critics. This is such an exciting industry to be apart of – however, one of the obvious downsides is that since everyone uses the internet, everyone feels justified in being a critic. If you’ve been working in this industry long […]

24. Web Design Freelancers: The Psychology of your Rate

    Monday, January 15th, 2007 | 43 Comments

    The question I get asked most from fellow freelancers is, “how do you determine your rate”? It is a tricky question with no direct response that is appropriate for anyone one person in any one area. There is a lot of that goes into determining a rate – a lot of personal questions need to […]

25. 10 days of freelancing – creating a firm one day at a time, one client at a time

    Sunday, January 14th, 2007 | 2 Comments

    It has been a wild ride and I love every moment of it. I’ve connected with old clients, made new clients and seem to find myself networking even at 3:00 am during last call. My calendar has never been fuller and it seems as though I’ve got a client call scheduled daily. My fears of […]

26. You’re Time’s Person of the Year and no one seems to care!

    Tuesday, January 9th, 2007 | 16 Comments

    I subscribe to a lot of industry feeds and I am baffled by the lack of coverage on this years’ Time Person of the Year. For those out of the know, the person of the year this year is you! While Time described the person as generically as “you” — it is more specifically, “us”. […]

27. Talking with Dan Rubin of Pro CSS Techniques

    Monday, January 8th, 2007 | 4 Comments

    On Thursday Dan Rubin, of superfluousbanter.org and recent co-author of “Pro CSS Techniques“, came to Washington DC to speak to our local Refresh group. I had the privilege of meeting with Dan at the meeting and then later that day and the next over some drinks. Dan being a designer at heart and a fellow […]

28. An interview with Brian Suda of "Using Microformats"

    Tuesday, January 2nd, 2007 | 7 Comments

    Microformats: you’ve heard about them, you’ve seen them and you may even be using them – what are they, what are they going to become, where are they going and why do I care? I recently had the privilege of interviewing someone extremely knowledgeable on the subject to answer just those questions, Brian Suda of […]

29. A Little Less Foolish in the New Year

    Monday, January 1st, 2007 | 9 Comments

    Another year past and it seems as though so much has changed and so much more is to come. Starting the New Year with a fresh start is always rather refreshing – it seems as though “refresh” is going to be my theme for 2007. This year I will no longer be working with The […]

30. The greatest design tool is customer service

    Thursday, December 28th, 2006 | 4 Comments

    Regardless of how powerful, persuasive, influential or informational your design is; it will mean nothing if you’ve ignored well designed customer service. I’ve been touting the concept of Business-Oriented-Design for a while now and customer service is very much apart of that larger idea. Whether you consider yourself a designer, developer or artist – you […]

31. Interview with Crazy Egg Founder and CEO, Hiten Shah

    Tuesday, December 26th, 2006 | 7 Comments

    I’ve recently been focusing a good majority of my attention on web analytics – both the science behind the numbers and the applications that deliver. All of this in a pursuit to deliver a better user experience through design and development – anticipating user expectations, testing results and implementing changes for success. I recently had […]

32. Thank you Andy Budd – an unexpected Christmas gift

    Sunday, December 24th, 2006 | No Responses

    I woke up this Christmas Eve to see to my delight that I’ve won a copy of “CSS Mastery“, by Andy Budd. I entered Andy’s “Letter to Santa” competition earlier this month. I didn’t expect to win, but thought such a creative contested deserved an entry. I really enjoy contests such as these; promoting great […]

33. Every Designer Needs a “Personal Board of Directors”

    Monday, December 18th, 2006 | 7 Comments

    We are creative designers; most everything we do is subjective and easily critiqued or criticized. Most of us know where we look to for inspiration, but do we know who we look to – do we even have someone, anyone, we can talk to or share ideas with? Some may say our co-workers; others may […]

34. Hello 9rules Network!

    Friday, December 15th, 2006 | 9 Comments

    I am proud to say that as of about 4:45pm yesterday evening I was admitted into the 9rules Network. I’ve been a long time reader and it is a privilege to now be a contributor. So, for all you first time readers, hello! And to the team over at 9rules, thank you for your consideration […]

35. Designing outside of your text editor

    Thursday, December 14th, 2006 | 6 Comments

    They say those who can’t do, teach. Do you suppose those who can’t design, develop? Now that is a pretty harsh statement and I don’t mean to imply that designers are better than developers or that all developers can’t design. It does seem as though, those more focused on the technical side of the […]

36. CSS Mastery iPod Giveaway

    Friday, December 8th, 2006 | 6 Comments

    Dear Santa,

37. Time Breakdown of modern Web Design

    Thursday, December 7th, 2006 | 28 Comments

    This pie chart will prove as a nice little break from your Thursday grind. I was forwarded this design break down earlier this morning and found it hilarious! I personally am frustrated by the “time spent actually designing anything” – sad but true in this rapid development world we are working in.

38. Did you know Photoshop could …. underline text and spell check?

    Monday, December 4th, 2006 | 6 Comments

    There are two must-know Photoshop techniques that every designer should be aware of, especially those of us working in the web space. Content is said to be king and thus designing for that content is all essential. For those of you out-of-the-know, since at least Photoshop 7.0 you’ve had the ability to underline and spell […]

39. Connecting the Metrics to Web Strategy & Design

    Friday, December 1st, 2006 | No Responses

    Today I sat among an intimate group of web managers in Washington D.C. to discuss web analytics and their impact on strategy and design. I recently wrote about where to start building your website, but what next? Once we have an understanding of our audience’s expectations and desires, we need to start watching their behavior […]

40. Will video kill the editorial star?

    Tuesday, November 28th, 2006 | 5 Comments

    Many of the companies I’ve worked with on the web have depended highly on editorial content for survival. The golden rule has always been, “content is king” – but ‘content’ was always silently understood to be written content; should it be? Since its mass adoption, people have been trying to figure out how to relate […]

41. An empty design portfolio, where to start?

    Monday, November 27th, 2006 | 12 Comments

    As a hiring manager and creative director, I’ve often been asked by young talent, where do I start? Everyone wants to see a portfolio and no one will hire you without one; so how do you get a portfolio if the only way to build a portfolio is by having a portfolio? My advice is […]

42. Contributing to the community – blogs, photos, comments and news!

    Wednesday, November 22nd, 2006 | 6 Comments

    Staying active in this industry is something I view as important, fun and down-right necessary. We are a community and many of us get much value from those who contribute to it. Many of you probably started reading my blog from a community site such as CSS Beauty, Flickr or Newsvine. Now you will be […]

43. Where to begin building your website – answer these three questions first

    Tuesday, November 21st, 2006 | 17 Comments

    When creating a website, I often get asked, where should I start? Everyone has an answer; some say they start coding, others open Photoshop and those with a bit more patients will proclaim that wire-framing is the first step. Information Architects and User-Experience Designers will all have different answers as well – however, I feel […]

44. Web Designers, Photoshop and the Missing Link

    Monday, November 20th, 2006 | 13 Comments

    Most of us learned Photoshop much the same way we learned HTML; we went in knowing nothing and played around until we figured it out — in my opinion, the best way to begin learning anything! However, there is one fatal flaw that I am guilty of not rectifying; staying on top of enhancements created […]

45. Stock Photography: A designer’s best friend or worst nightmare?

    Wednesday, November 15th, 2006 | 14 Comments

    To use stock or not to use stock, that is not the question. What we need to understand is how to use stock photography responsibly. We need to utilize our creativity to ensure the purchased elements are appropriate and elegantly integrated into our designs. Just because anyone can purchase stock photography doesn’t necessarily mean anyone […]

46. Why the internet is an amazing place to work

    Thursday, November 2nd, 2006 | 5 Comments

    The internet is the best place to work simply because of its infancy and extreme potential to mature. It is a unique time in our industry and the simple fact is that while everyone races to produce the next big thing, no one has yet to perfect anything. From writing e-mail to buying movie tickets, […]

47. When websites attack! Worst website ever; hands down!

    Wednesday, November 1st, 2006 | 25 Comments

    If content is king then Robert Falls is the farthest thing from Royalty. Mr. Falls has created dozens of “landing pages” for editorial content that are nothing more than links to Google Ads. He has touted the Google links as his “Top 4 … picks” of the day for a variety of different market segments.

48. Add to my RSS reader – Add to my Website clutter!

    Tuesday, October 31st, 2006 | 24 Comments

    RSS feeds are gaining extreme popularity and are unstoppably close to appealing to the mass market. They are everywhere we look and undoubtedly synonymous with “Web 2.0”; they are an older technology who clearly represents the future. However, feeds are still an untamed beast let loose in the wilds of the internet with little control […]

49. Creativity and Innovation – is there a difference?

    Friday, October 27th, 2006 | 2 Comments

    I was looking through my site stats last night and came across an interesting search query that lead to my site; “difference between innovation and creativity”. That really got me thinking – is there a difference? We throw around both words rather frequently in this “Web 2.0” world and I wonder how many of us […]

50. Well Designed RSS feeds – Would all web designers please stand up?

    Monday, October 23rd, 2006 | 26 Comments

    In 1997 Dave Winer developed what is known today as “RSS”. As quickly as RSS was introduced to the world, Atom was released – XML feeds have been evolving the web ever since. RSS was developed and quickly took the world by storm, but was it ever “designed”? Why are web designers around the world […]

51. A little JavaScript to stop the spaming of your blog comments and forms

    Thursday, October 19th, 2006 | 19 Comments

    We all love spiders when they are used for good like the indexing of our sites for Google. However, spiders can be the demise of any open form element when being overwhelmed with automated spam. My recent post on “Hacking Blogger” provided a method for creating custom comments, with one minor flaw! I needed a […]

52. Why every web designer should have a MySpace account

    Wednesday, October 18th, 2006 | 14 Comments

    It is said that statistically, every 300th web visit is a MySpace visit. When you have sites that are redefining the web, not by design or technology, but by popularity — must we pay attention? Sites such as MySpace that are taking the web by storm are inherently changing how users understand and react […]

53. Introducting FeedJs – RSS feeds delivered for everyone, everywhere

    Monday, October 16th, 2006 | No Responses

    FeedJs was created to feed the world. It is a simple JavaScript based RSS delivery utility. The concept was to give everyone the ability to display RSS feeds everywhere — completely environment non-dependent. If you can copy-and-paste into an HTML document, you can now display any RSS feed anywhere you choose.

54. Hacking Blogger: Creating Customized Comments for "Your" Blog

    Monday, October 16th, 2006 | 20 Comments

    It’s your blog and it should behave as you want it too. Blogger is the obvious choice for most when choosing a blogging platform; however being apart of the Blogger family often means being limited to the Blogger family. For those wanting to add customized comments to your Blogger blog, there is now an […]

55. Personal Reflection: why blog, why question, why communicate?

    Friday, October 13th, 2006 | 4 Comments

    Recent events had me questioning the objective and purpose of my blog. I started this blog last January with no idea of what it would transform into; do I even know today? Why do I write, what do I write about and, most importantly, who do I write for? I’ve got two objectives with this […]

56. Why I am Never Happy at Work

    Thursday, October 12th, 2006 | One Response

    I came across a comic strip the other day and it really hit home for me; especially with my work these last few months. It is a “Web 2.0” world we live in and our work is often forced to reflect it.

57. How to include script tags in your Blogger post

    Tuesday, October 10th, 2006 | 2 Comments

    For those using Google’s “Blogger” you’ve probably noticed several limitations. One of the largest limitations is its inability to include script (<script></script>) tags within your post. Well, I’ve decided to be a little creative and come up with an easy to use, easy to implement solution!

58. JavaScript is the new black – Why JS is hot and CSS is not

    Monday, October 9th, 2006 | 13 Comments

    Wow, how time flies. It was just a year ago when table-less web designers were rare and in extreme demand; anyone who had advanced knowledge of CSS could get any job at almost any reasonable price. Those times are officially behind us. The hot new trade, even though its technology is old, is JavaScript. XHTML/CSS […]

59. What do you believe is the role of design?

    Tuesday, October 3rd, 2006 | 5 Comments

    The team over at Webreakstuff prompted the question; what a great question to be asking! How many of us “design” in one way or another and never stop to think about the role of design? I am sure selfishly we’ve asked and answered the question, “what is our role in design”, but have we stopped […]

60. “I want to be like Mike” – Who is the Michael Jordan of web Design?

    Thursday, September 28th, 2006 | 39 Comments

    Another frustrating day as an in-house designer is typically attributed to the constant and unstoppable comparison of your work to “industry leaders”. It isn’t a project that goes by that a perfectly good brainstorm is inappropriately interrupted with the comment, “lets just see what Yahoo! is doing” or “how does Amazon handle this?” Why do […]

61. The Reflection: In defense of a Web 2.0 Design Trend!

    Tuesday, September 19th, 2006 | 21 Comments

    Yesterday an interesting topic arose among my co-workers based on a Signal vs. Noise recent post, “Reflections are the new drop shadows”. I’ve been notorious for using “reflections” around the office on some of our more high profile projects – is this wrong? Am I a trend whore whose designs will date themselves almost instantly? […]

62. Web Design Freelancers – how important is maintaining your client list?

    Monday, September 18th, 2006 | 11 Comments

    They say, statistically it is seven times harder to get a new client than it is to maintain an existing one. I’ve often wrote about the uniqueness of this industry at our present point in time – I wonder if we work in an environment that is an exception to this age-old rule of thumb? […]

63. Stock Market Goes Web 2.0 – Social Networking, Stock Ratings and More! - Motley Fool CAPS

    Wednesday, September 13th, 2006 | 16 Comments

    Late last night The Motley Fool released its beta version of “CAPS”; a free community based stock rating service. It seems as though every industry has been jumping on the “Web 2.0” band wagon; where there is a niche there is a way (so seems the slogan). The Fool on the other hand has […]

64. The reshaping of an industry: Legal precedence set for web accessibility

    Monday, September 11th, 2006 | 9 Comments

    A handful of Unites States court rulings throughout history have proven to reshape and completely transform American culture and its way of life. It appears as though on Thursday, a federal district court out of California may have made such a ruling for two very small, yet very important communities. It was ruled late last […]

65. Web Designers, how much experience is enough experience?

    Thursday, September 7th, 2006 | 41 Comments

    As a young designer I often cringe when I hear experience only being expressed by years worked. This is a wonderful industry – one of its perks is that a 20-something can bring just as much to the table as a 10 year veteran (which crazy enough can sometimes be a 20-something). If you know […]

66. Freelancers, how to determine our rates?

    Monday, August 28th, 2006 | 18 Comments

    I’ve been asked on several occasions how to determine a freelancer’s rate (with respect to web design). I’ve always given sort of off-the-cuff responses; however, how do we determine legitimate rates? I believe, like most things, it all comes down to supply and demand. We have to evaluate the need and compare that will the […]

67. 800×600, should I really care?

    Friday, August 25th, 2006 | 46 Comments

    Screens are getting larger and resolutions are adjusting accordingly. The days of the 640×480 screen resolution are behind us; are we at a stage that we can begin ignoring the infamous 800×600 screen resolution?

68. Why web developers love Internet Explorer

    Thursday, August 24th, 2006 | 37 Comments

    At the heels of the latest and greatest CSS changes announced by the IE7 development team Tuesday; a flurry of positive discussions were circling the web from standards advocates. But I wonder; as the more compliant Internet Explorer becomes, are we truly going to be happy, are we going to miss our old non-complaint IE […]

69. Microformats: A topic of much intrigue with an audience to match

    Tuesday, August 22nd, 2006 | 2 Comments

    A topic of much intrigue with an audience to match: a perfect summation of Refresh-DC’s Microformats presentation last week. Almost as impressive as the topic and discussion was the audience; including industry leaders from such companies like AOL as well as industry authors and influencers such as Eric Meyer and Cindy Li.

70. Three General Questions about Web Development

    Wednesday, August 16th, 2006 | No Responses

    Today on the CSS Beauty’s Skill Share forum, three “General Questions about Web Development” were raised. I found the questions basic and obvious – yet I realized their answers were crucially important.

71. Creative freedom and respect – if you can answer “yes” to three questions

    Thursday, August 10th, 2006 | 20 Comments

    There is only one thing harder than managing creative designers; being managed as a creative designer. By nature we are artistic types whose work is often subjective, independent and fueled only by inspiration and a creative-friendly environment. Micromanagement has a negative association in most professions – it is however just about the most unproductive, inspiration-depriving, […]

72. Web Standards – an unnatural feeling!

    Monday, August 7th, 2006 | 13 Comments

    Will we ever have complete web standards? Probably not, and I am willing to bet we won’t ever see a mass-adoption and adherence towards whatever becomes of “web standards”. It isn’t that web standards are flawed – it just isn’t natural! We have, as a species, been predisposed to ignore convention and standards during development; […]

73. Web 2.0 Design Trends – Do they exist?

    Wednesday, August 2nd, 2006 | 5 Comments

    Looking at “Web 2.0” leaders such as “upcoming.org”, “flickr.com”, “del.icio.us”, “digg.com”, and “corkd.com” – you don’t see exact visual replication; really there are only slight similarities (which is probably going to be true with most social-networking type sites). So, if all of these sites are undoubtedly considered “Web 2.0” sites and none of their design […]

74. A Case for Web Accessibility – it’s not just for the disabled anymore!

    Wednesday, July 26th, 2006 | No Responses

    Times-are-a-changing and accessibility adoption on the web is going to have an impact of enormous proportions. There was a time when accessibility was a word far removed from the web design community (in the US at least). More recently the term has transformed into ‘Section 508 compliancy’ – branding it primarily a concern only for […]

75. Adam Bosworth, Chief Architect for Google, on Innovating in Real Time

    Thursday, July 20th, 2006 | 2 Comments

    Last week Adam Bosworth, Chief Architect for Google, spoke at the DISA Customer Conference. Mr. Bosworth’s topic, “Innovating In Real Time”, a truly inspirational insight into how Google works.

76. Web 2.0 redefined with one word — responsibility

    Friday, July 14th, 2006 | 2 Comments

    The term “Web 2.0” has been overused and has unfortunately oversaturated conversations to the point of being synonymous with industry ignorance. Like many leaders and followers of innovation – we role our eyes at the mere mention of the idea of the existence of such a term. Whether you like the term or not […]

77. The first CSS World Awards

    Friday, July 7th, 2006 | 5 Comments

    CSS Mania (www.cssmania.com) announces the first “CSS World Awards”. The CSS World Awards were created to “recognize the work done by developers that build websites using CSS”. A most impressive roll-call of judges, including Andy Budd, Cameron Moll, Molly Holzschlag, Roger Johansson, Sergio Villareal, choose ten websites in ten different categories. The categories include: associations, […]

78. Microformats Cheatsheet Download Available

    Friday, July 7th, 2006 | 3 Comments

    Brian Suda of http://suda.co.uk has created an extremely helpful “Microformats Cheatsheet”. For those new to microformats or actively implementing them – this is an amazing resource. The cheatsheet is currently available for download in PDF form (72.93 KB). The original and most up-to-date PDF is available on Brian’s site.

79. The Webmaster/Office Assistant – A Death of a Profession

    Wednesday, July 5th, 2006 | 2 Comments

    I’ve been watching for this day for sometime now; be prepared as the role of the web designer is going to change as corporate culture is reshaped. The growing concern we should all be aware of is the slow demise of the web designer and its roles’ future and inevitable merger with the front-desk. The […]

80. WashingtonPost.com on the 21st Century Newsroom

    Wednesday, June 28th, 2006 | No Responses

    Early this morning two senior editors of WashingtonPost.com spoke to a small intimate group of web professionals on creating a newsroom in the 21st century. Jim Brady, Executive Editor, and Tom Kennedy, Managing Editor, labeled their presentation, “Creating a converged newsroom”. Together they focused on four key areas of convergence:

81. Microformats – should I be focused on tomorrow’s technology today?

    Monday, June 26th, 2006 | 6 Comments

    Microformats are here to stay, or so it seems with the announcement of Yahoo! Local’s support. However, should I care about Microformats right now? This was the question of debate among my colleagues today over lunch. The concept seems to make sense, but does this mean we all go back and correct the mark-up around […]

82. Designers – Stop, Drop and Roll! Take back your creativity

    Sunday, June 25th, 2006 | 2 Comments

    Every designer faces the same predicament, controlled creativity. Sort of an oxymoron don’t you think? How can you control creativity, is it even creativity if it’s being controlled? Others of you may be calling this something less dramatic; ‘creative limitations’, creative obstacles’ or maybe you’re so dejected you’ve simply learned to accept this and call […]

83. Flickr and Lightbox — a Perfect Combination

    Thursday, June 22nd, 2006 | 4 Comments

    I was fiddling around with Flickr today and decided to start using the “Blog This” function as an alternative method to post to this particular blog. For a long time now I’ve been utilizing my Flickr account as an image server of sorts (much like Akamai). What I’ve done now is take this a step […]

84. What about ‘Match Color’; a PhotoShop technique forgotten?

    Friday, June 16th, 2006 | 5 Comments

    I was sitting in an Adobe presentation during the HOW Design Conference in Las Vegas, NV when the audience shocked themselves. Standing in front of hundreds of some of the top design talent in the country; the adobe reps asked for a raise of hands for who uses or has even heard of the “Match […]

85. Raising the profile of your in-house design team (HOW Design Conference)

    Friday, June 16th, 2006 | No Responses

    Jeni Herberger, principle of business consulting firm DesignMatters, spoke at the HOW Design Conference on the topic of “Raising the profile of your in-house team”. She focused on the many hurdles that in-house design team’s face – especially when attempting to be recognized.

86. 14 Tips for a Web Redesign (HOW Design Conference)

    Thursday, June 15th, 2006 | 4 Comments

    Kelly Goto, of gotomedia.com, spoke on the topic of web redesigns; titled, “Behind the Wheel of Web Redesign: What Drives Success”. Kelly highlighted fourteen tips for designers to keep in mind when approaching web redesigns. Kelly was by far one of the greatest speakers at the 2006 HOW Design Conference – I wanted to ensure […]

87. Innovation & creativity as drivers for design (HOW Design Conference)

    Tuesday, June 13th, 2006 | No Responses

    Andy Stefanovich, in charge of “What’s Next” at Play in Richmond, VA, in my opinion started the HOW design conference this year in Las Vegas, Nevada. He challenged everyone to ask, “What are you thinking about?” This is a question everyone should be asking themselves and those around them – it’s a unique and powerful […]

88. Introducing ConceptPreview

    Monday, May 22nd, 2006 | One Response

    ConceptPreview is a simple CSS based navigation tool. It was created primarily for web designers to quickly, effortlessly and subtly integrate a utility to present multiple design concepts. Often times web design concepts are required to be presented within HTML to help give accurate visual representation of the intended design.

89. Resumes Frozen In Time – How lack of self-exploration will decrease productivity and retention.

    Wednesday, March 8th, 2006 | 2 Comments

    Far too often do I come across organizations that force their talent to freeze their resumes in time; keeping them from expanding their knowledge and skill sets beyond that from which they started. Usually this cannibalistic act is in an effort to increase productivity and diminish non-authorized projects completed within the workplace. However, ironically, these […]

90. Web Standards [The Basics Part Four] - Accessibility

    Friday, February 10th, 2006 | 2 Comments

    The objective of accessibility is to ensure that our interactive properties will be usable and available to the largest possible number of readers, visitors, and customers. Section 508 requires that many sites accommodate people with disabilities ranging from limited mobility to a vast range of visual impairments. By conforming to basic accessibility guidelines we not […]

91. Web Standards [The Basics Part Three] - The Checklist

    Thursday, February 9th, 2006 | 4 Comments

    By complying with XHTML, CSS, and basic accessibility standards; Interactive Properties ensure their long-term viability as browsers and standards evolve.

92. Web Standards [The Basics Part Two] - XHTML

    Tuesday, February 7th, 2006 | 5 Comments

    The difference between HTML and XHTML
    XHTML stands for Extensible Hypertext Markup Language. XHTML is HTML as defined through XML (Extensible Markup Language). XML allows progammers who understand it to write their own markup commands, or modify current ones, increasing the flexibility of a language such as XHTML.

93. Web Standards [The Basics Part One] - CSS

    Monday, February 6th, 2006 | 4 Comments

    CSS, Cascading Style Sheets, is a breakthrough in Web design because it allows developers to control the style and layout of multiple Web pages all at once. As a Web developer you can define a style for each XHTML element and apply it to as many Web pages as needed. To make a global change, […]

94. Net Trends: 6 things to expect in 2006

    Friday, February 3rd, 2006 | 4 Comments

    Early yesterday morning, in Washington DC, a small group of about a hundred ‘web managers’ gathered together to discuss “Net Trends”; more specifically, what to expect in 2006. The topics of the morning included: Web 2.0, mobile/ transportable content, e-commerce, interactivity, privacy and security. These topics were obviously not discussed as new topics, merely as […]

95. Great Job Posting for Design Types

    Thursday, February 2nd, 2006 | No Responses

    I came across this job posting today and found it hilarious. I think it is always great when a creative company can have a little fun with their job postings. Do apply!

96. Valentines Day – A How-To for the Procrastinator or Non-Romantic [Six Simple Steps]

    Tuesday, January 31st, 2006 | 5 Comments

    Gentlemen, tomorrow is February 1st– which means we have only 14 days left to prepare for Valentine’s Day. I’ve prepared a quick and dirty 6-step process to help you out and hopefully keep you out of the dog house.

97. Business Oriented Design – A Redefinition of the Web Designer

    Monday, January 30th, 2006 | 2 Comments

    The internet is rapidly changing and designers are going to have to quickly adapt to the business-centric visual evolution. It is a buzz-word world we live in and specializing in it all is going to limit our ability to truly excel.

98. A Loving Philosophy – How to know when you’ve met ‘the one’

    Monday, January 30th, 2006 | 8 Comments

    On a cold Washington D.C. day in December, nothing is more tempting than a forceful dinner invitation with your significant other’s new found friends. I say ‘forceful’ rather candidly only because my girlfriend does not yet read ‘Creative Refresh’ – consider this an exclusive as you won’t find this on my personal blog.

99. Starbucks CEO: Six easy steps to build and sustain an organization

    Sunday, January 29th, 2006 | 6 Comments

    Last week Jim Donald, CEO and President of Starbucks North America, spoke to a private audience in Washington D.C. on leadership;‘six easy steps to build and sustain an organization’. Mr. Donald stresses that a great leader will adhere to the following six steps to keep their organization energetic and operating towards future success.

100. A New Year’s Resolution of Bloggish Proportions

     Saturday, December 31st, 2005 | No Responses

     I’ve always been one to keep up with innovations on the web; the blog was just one I had always passed off. I tend to get less excited about something as the subject becomes overly popular with the mainstream. I’ve made a personal New Year’s resolution to finally get my blog up and running; I […]