Mirificam Press

http://mirificampress.com/index.php

Technique, business and worldview for web designers. Applying Christian worldview to a secular vocation, apparently. Whatever, there's some useful articles anyway.

ThinkGeek

My friend Kirsty posted this on her blog, but I had to share it too cause it's pretty awesome!

http://www.thinkgeek.com

Look at the background. Scroll all the way to the bottom.

Photoshop Mock-ups

Here's a couple of designs I've come up with so far. The first one is based off my original wireframe, and I don't like it too much now. I much prefer the second one.

Catteries are crap

I contacted loooooads of catteries and got only two replies, both of which just said rather plainly 'no thanks'. It's really annoying! I didn't even contact them asking if they needed a website, it was more asking if they would help me out by letting me make one. One which nobody would ever see. Hmph. Stupid..

Therefore I'm going in a different direction, since I have to. A nice leafy green park would be a good subject and I'm thinking one of the following:

• Titchfield Park in Hucknall
• The Burntstump Country Park
• Nottingham's Arboretum

The arboretum is the most interesting of these places I think, but I have more of a connection with Titchfield Park. As for Burntstump, how did the stump get burnt? I can't find out how...

It's a shame it isn't Summer, I would be able to take much nicer photographs of these places if it was sunny.

Only2Designers

I love the website for visual design agency Only2Designers. It makes amazing use of CSS with a design that is simple but looks so elegant and sophisticated. The only fault I can find is that when the design stretches as the content changes the image on the left side cuts off abruptly.

Edited Logos

Colour can greatly affect the way we perceive things and how we think about them. These logos have had their colours changed in order to affect their meaning.

Colour Theory

This colour wheel shows the spectrum of colours and whether they are primary secondary or tertiary.

From this you can see the following :

These are complementary colours, and are seen on opposite sides of the wheel from each other. When paired together they can look attractive or dramatic depending on how they're used.


I have always been a fan of the combination of purple and yellow, I don't really know why, I just think it's nice.

The colours on the right are harmonic or analogous colours, and sit next to each other on the colour wheel. They are similar shades to each other and so will go together well. When thinking about design, using harmonic colours can result in an aesthetically pleasant theme which will flow together.

Catteries

I'm pretty sure I'm going to make my wesbite for a cattery, but of course it has to be a real one, which is causing a bit of a problem for me right now. I've got in touch with some about creating a website for them and had no reply, which is pretty annoying. Obviously it doesn't really matter if they want a website or not since it doesn't have to used, but since I need to do research/take photos etc. I don't think they'd appreciate it if I just turned up and started snapping away.

It's funny, you think they'd be eager for a new one after looking at this or this. Ha.

HTML vs. CSS

I don't think it's too hard to guess who the winner will be. Click the link/screenshot to see the actual site.

Website designed using HTML with tables



Website designed using CSS



It's obviously an incredibly basic layout anyway, so neither of them are great, but the improvement from tables to CSS is pretty clear.

Wireframes

Even though i don't know what my wesbite is about yet here are some wireframes for what the design could look like.

my website...

I don't think I can do it about a toilet... Maybe one day a website about public toilets that isn't a directory can exist, but I don't think that day is today.

So yes buildings are boring. But maybe I could make one less boring by making a fabulous website for it. Shame we can't make it about an imaginary place, I would gladly make the website for my future comic book store/coffee shop.. But saying that, perhaps I could make one for one of my favourite shops in Nottingham, Page 45. They do have a website but its been under construction for a while. Another idea is to focus the project around something I love; cats. Of course... There are quite a few catteries in Nottingham, but most of them have pretty awful websites.

Whatever I'm doing I think I should make a decision about it sharpish.

Nick Joore

http://njoore.com
This website is really cool! It's the portfolio of a games progammer/3D artist, and the whole website is built like a game itself. This is a great creative way of showing off your skills to prospective employers who may be visiting the site. Rather than just listing things the designer has done like on a CV, you can see first hand what he can do incorporated into the design of the website. The site is built using Flash, and even starts off with a target shooting game for you to play while you're waiting for it to load. Once you're done with this you reach the main site, a 3D modelled airship which contains the navigation for the website within itself. The user can explore the ship by clicking on different areas of it, thus allowing them to find out more about the designer. To visit different areas of the site the user presses a map and chooses where to go, which results in the airship flying to different islands (accompanied by music a la Top Gun). The downside to this website is that I imagine it would take a long time to load on a slow connection, but I suppose this does not matter too much as the target audience for this site (employers, creatives etc.) will generally have a fast connection.