Design Blogs

  • Our Artwork Featured on MTV's Real World: San Diego
    December 11, 2011 by Ryan

    If you've watched the latest season of MTV's Real World, you've seen a logo in the fish tank created by yours truly. I've been designing for Reliant Aquarium since they first established themselves as a business about 5 years ago and have had the pleasure of watching them grow into the business they are today. Reliant prides themselves on a professional image and I've been happy to help them achieve that.

     

     

  • Designing Creatively in a Fast-Paced Work Environment
    August 11, 2011 by Ryan

    Maintaining creativity in a fast-paced work environment can sometimes be akin to a doctor performing an operation, on a plane, in severe turbulence. For most, creativity doesn’t subscribe to the “9 to 5” and certainly not in situations where time is of the essence.

    Aside from brainstorming practices, here are a few things I’ve practiced over the years to help me avoid creative doldrums at the workplace:

    1. Take Notes:

    Ensure you always have the ability to take a note at any time. I’ve found it very useful to keep a notepad or phone near my bed; I’ve had a lot of ideas come to me when I can’t seem to catch any Z’s. Most importantly, have these notes accessible when you’re working – which brings me to number 2...

    2. Organize your inspiration:

    Organize all your inspiring websites into a single bookmarks folder and keep all of your design books, magazines, print samples, etc within arm’s reach of your workstation. The more time you have to spend looking for inspiration the less time you have to work.

    3. Get some fresh air:

    You may be surprised what a quick 5 minute walk could do to clear your head and get you thinking more creatively. Plus it’s nice to see the Sun, sometimes.

  • A Few CSS Snippits That I Can’t Live Without
    August 11, 2011 by Ryan

    CSS snippits are a great way to save time while developing CSS on your site. If you frequently find yourself using the same batch of CSS, it’s probably a good idea to save them to some sort of snippit library. If you don’t already have a library of CSS snippits, here are a few to get your collection going:

     
    1. Rounded Corners:
    Standard:
    -moz-border-radius: 10px;
    -webkit-border-radius: 10px;
    border-radius: 10px; /* future proofing */
    -khtml-border-radius: 10px; /* for old Konqueror browsers */
     
    Individual Corners:
    -moz-border-radius-topleft: 10px;
    -moz-border-radius-topright: 20px;
    -moz-border-radius-bottomright: 30px;
    -moz-border-radius-bottomleft: 0;
     
    -webkit-border-top-left-radius: 10px;
    -webkit-border-top-right-radius: 20px;
    -webkit-border-bottom-right-radius: 30px;
    -webkit-border-bottom-left-radius: 0;
     
    2. Box Shadows
    .shadow {
      -moz-box-shadow: 5px 5px 5px #ccc;
      -webkit-box-shadow: 5px 5px 5px #ccc;
      box-shadow: 5px 5px 5px #ccc;
    }
     
    3. Text Shadows:
     
    p { text-shadow: 1px 1px 1px #000; }
    Multiple shadows:
     
    p { text-shadow: 1px 1px 1px #000, 3px 3px 5px blue; }
     
     
    3. Text Rotation:
     .rotate {
     
    /* Safari */
    -webkit-transform: rotate(-90deg);
     
    /* Firefox */
    -moz-transform: rotate(-90deg);
     
    /* Internet Explorer */
    filter: progid:DXImageTransform.Microsoft.BasicImage(rotation=3);
    }
     
    4. *BONUS HTML SNIPPIT* Make IE6 Crash (My favorite, even though I've yet to use it):
    <style>*{position:relative}</style><table><input></table>
     
     
     
    What are some of your favorite CSS snipits? Feel free to share!
     

     

  • Great 404 Page Not Found Pages...
    May 11, 2011 by Kevin

    OK, so what is a page 404 error. You've seen them before. The website you intended to go to comes up but instead of the content you were expecting in the content section you get a cryptic message that say something similar to Page Error 404. Page Not Found. This is a page that is set to automatically display if someone tries to access a link to your website that does not exist. Most reputable website design firms will create this page for their client website. Well here is a great article from the Wall Street Journal that talks about 404 pages and some creative fun with them. Good read.

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