Design
The Origins of the Biohazard Symbol
An absolutely fascinating article about the design of the biohazard symbol
The only parameters that I set down for them to noodle through were, it had to be unique and something that would be striking enough that it would be remembered. We wanted something that was memorable but meaningless, so we could educate people as to what it means.
Redesign…Finally
I’ve finally started designing my Wordpress template for my site. It’s pretty embarrassing that I’ve been using the Wordpress Default template for so long but it’s a new year and I’m ready to get my stuff back online. One word to the wise, when you’re redesigning your Wordpress template, disable WP-Cache. I thought my head was going to explode when I started making changes to the blank template I was using. No matter what changes I made and uploaded to the server, it simply wouldn’t show when I refreshed my browser. I thought I was losing my mind until I discovered the WP-Cache plugin.
This site is going to be designed over the course of the next few weeks and it will undergo large changes. Today’s update is simply text and CSS. No graphics.
Firefox is Un-Mac
I know that Mozilla put out the call to Mac users asking them why they felt Firefox wasn’t a good Mac citizen. I’m sure they got their fill of complaints. But as is the case with many developers when it comes to design, as hard as they try they just can’t see the difference between their version and a professionally designed version. For instance, check out the photo of the Proto Theme for Firefox Beta 2. To me, it’s like a polished turd. It looks close to the Safari design but details (which aren’t the Proto developers fault but rather the Firefox implementation) are decidedly un-Mac. For example, why on Earth are Firefox tabs so damn wide? They’re that wide across the board, not just on Mac. And what’s with the site icon on the tab? Not only do most of these icons suck but if they happen to have a white background or other poorly-chosen design elements, you’re stuck having to look at it on your tab. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder I suppose but Firefox is just too clunky looking for me to use day-to-day.
WDW 2007
So I’ve been at Web Design World the past few days and I’ve handed my card out to a couple of people and realized that I’m rocking a pre-designed template for this completely dead site. Here’s the quick story about why that is.
I had a completely designed and functioning site with blog, portfolio, and service sections. I actually was starting to get a little bit of a following in the comments section too. Then I posted this video and it was Dugg. My old web hosting company pulled my site and demanded I move to their “enterprise-level” hosting plan. So they were asking that I went from $7.95 a month to over $300 a month. I am just one guy and without this video my site hits were in the 10s-a-day level. I took the page down and that didn’t appease them. They would not reactivate my account unless I went to an “enterprise-level” hosting plan.
This wonderful company was aplus.net hosting (no way I’m linking to them here). I would highly urge you to not consider this bunch of clowns when considering your hosting options.
Anyway I jumped over to Dreamhost and I simply haven’t had time to put my new design and portfolio up yet. I’m definitely reinvigorated after seeing some really good stuff here at the conference but I imagine it will be another month or so before I can launch my custom Wordpress template and portfolio work. I am a designer, I promise.