July 2, 2007 | Filed Under Design, Personal, Culture | No Comments
I recently needed to shop for a couple of greeting cards, and was reminded of how much shopping for greeting cards pisses me off. To buy a card that is at all appropriate for the intended recipients, it’s necessary to browse and read a number of cards. Invariably I walk out of the card shop or pharmacy brushing glitter off of my hands. Invariably, I find a spot of glitter on my shoes, or shirt, or nose hours later. I’ve vowed to never again purchase cards with glitter - and if I see a particularly shimmery card, I won’t even pick it up.
Nevertheless, with each passing holiday, there seems to be another pound of glitter distributed among the cards. I can only assume that the majority of men, and probably some women have the same reaction I have to the glitter. I never had such intense negative feelings toward glitter when wearing it was optional - but now that it’s become mandatory for card shoppers, it rubs against my grain more than a little bit.
I’ve done enough design that I know that it’s tempting to be self-indulgent, and easy to forget some elements of the experience of the user/consumer/target market/human at the other end of the chain. But reel it in with the glitter already - or suffer the devestating embargo that you will otherwise be forcing me to organize.
March 8, 2007 | Filed Under Design, Technology, Personal | No Comments
I’m spending the little time I have available for this site scrolling repeatedly through the same pages of code, trying to tweak a series of templates into the design I want. It’s not the fault of WordPress (WP) — it works really well at what it does after a simple installation. The problem, I’m beginning to see, is that you have to either be content to use a template (again, there are many great free templates available - but I want my own design), or know PHP, and understand the WP structure.
I seriously considered both WP and Movable Type (MT) initially. I went with WP because it seemed more configurable, had a great support community, an enthusiastic development team, extensive documentation, and was free. MT seems cool also, but the array of similar products the parent company has available, and the pricing structure (free, unless you want support, or multiple users) led me to choose WP.
I’m rethinking that, but I still like WP for all the same reasons - and if weren’t for wanting my own design, it would be a cinch. At any rate, please continue to excuse the frequent (and often unpleasant) changes to the site, and the infrequent posts until I’m able to muddle through this process.
February 28, 2007 | Filed Under Design, Technology, Personal | 2 Comments
I’m in the process of teaching myself WordPress (WP),and consequently, PHP. Not to mention brushing up rusty HTML and CSS. I’ll begin to add posts about things other than the process of building the site in the near future. For now, that’s what is consuming much of my free time, so it’s what is on my mind. There are some really great WP themes, but art and design are my area, so I’ll be changing the look here frequently as I learn to incorporate my own visuals via the aforementioned WP/PHP.
Of course the design is just the presentation, and once that is settled, or perhaps before - the site should start to gel in terms of content and non-visual identity as well. So come back. Say hello.