Insanely Awesome ExpressionEngine Tools You Can’t Live Without
Recently, some people have asked me how we build ExpressionEngine sites. Although how we build a site varies with each project, there are definitely certain add-ons we find ourselves using all the time. There are so many great ones out there (and new ones being released all the time) I thought it would be cool to share some of them in a blog post. Feel free to add your comments about the ones you like to use.
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Making It Work : 7 Things I Learned About Design From Project Runway
After an agonizingly long wait, Project Runway is finally FINALLY! back on the air. That means a whole new season of tight deadlines, crazy challenges, and design drama. Sounds more than a little familiar. Although it's about fashion, designers of all make and model can identify all too well with Project Runway. There's a lot of real life mirrored in the reality show: you get a project and you need to hit the ground running with an idea, you then have a limited time and budget in which to realize it, and before you know it you're presenting something that you hope is presentable. Over the years Project Runway has inadvertently illustrated a number of lessons that apply to graphic and web design just as much as they do fashion. Here are a few that have stuck with me:
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Viget Design Mob: Fabric, Patterns, and Spoonflower
Do you ever get the itch to try something new? Maybe it's something outside of your comfort zone stylistically or maybe its taking your well established style into a new medium. These kinds of things are exactly what we try to do when we have our Viget design mobs. Back in July we carved out an afternoon to work on some fabric and pattern ideas that we could host on Spoonflower, a custom fabric web site (and Viget client). With limited time (4 hours) and preparation (1 week) each designer brought their own unique approach as explained here:
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You Should Know: Charley Harper
To get my lazy blogger butt moving, I decided to start posting a monthly series introducing artists and designers everyone should know. I couldn't think of a better place to start than with my current obsession, Charley Harper. This prolific artist used abstracted geometric forms and bold colors to render wildlife in a way no one else had ever done. His work is simple and elegant, and although much of it was created in the 50s and 60s it looks modern even now. Todd Oldham and Old Navy brought him to the masses, and his work is showing up in all sorts of new places. He's someone with a minimalist style worth studying, especially for vector artists and illustrators. If you're not already a fan, trust me, you will be.
Palm Pre WebOS Apps: My First Look
Viget does mobile apps. I don't (yet), but I've been chomping at the bit get into them. We all know the big name in mobile apps right now, however, that way of developing apps is too complicated for a front-end developer like myself. This June I was pleasantly surprised when I picked up a new phone called the Palm Pre that runs mobile apps made entirely in HTML/CSS/Javascript on an operating system called WebOS. Recently, I had my first chance to dive in and take a crack at building an app.
The App
To get my feet wet I didn't want to start with something too complex like Koi Pond or Fantastic Contraption like the iPhone has(and which are probably too complex for a javascript app). As a runner I started with a simple stopwatch. The app consists of a large digital clock with start/stop, lap split and reset buttons. The lap split buttons will take splits which are displayed in a list below the time. The workouts themselves can be saved and retrieved for more detailed information like "best lap", "average lap" and "total time" as well as all the individual splits.
Save For Web, Simply
Since "The Mysterious Save For Web Color Shift," I've received 200 comments and weekly emails about the theory. Thanks to readers, I've learned a lot about the original issue, and (perhaps, more importantly) how to explain it.
TO RECAP: In the post, I suggested dumping some of Photoshop's color management settings (by choosing your monitor profile in Color Settings) and saving without ICC profiles. These settings make it hard to predict how your final colors will appear on the web, or even between browsers. The strongest responses pointed out that, in fact, ICC profiles are awesome, and they do a great service for photographers and illustrators who want to faithfully present their colors. I countered that from a practical web-design standpoint these profiles do more harm than good — and, well, things just kept going and going for a while.
I wanted to post a follow-up consolidating all knowledge on the subject and declaring my Lofty And Supreme Rightness (and perhaps immediately turning off comments, thus securing said Rightness), but the emails we've received have led me in a different direction. Most referenced difficulty applying the settings, testing them, or even understanding the original mechanics of the problem.
In writing my responses, I found myself testing more and explaining less, trying to show a simple list of results to clarify the problem. I started sending PSDs for readers to poke around with, then refining these into a single chart. The chart attempts to explain what differences the settings make, and what their advantages/drawbacks might be.
2009