Welcome to Dracula Vs. Eisenstein.
If you like what you see, please subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks!
If you are a fan of the Favourite Website Awards, you may interested to know that its founder Rob Ford has recently compiled a list of dos and don’ts of web entrepeneurship in a book aptly titled “Guidelines for Online Success“. Ford offers advice and lots of real-word examples of successful and award-winning websites to help you improve your personal or business website. The book is co-edited by Taschen’s Julius Wiedemann.
One of my interactive design projects, a video microsite for the UK band Spiritualized, was recently selected as Communication Arts’ webpick of the day. The site acts as a retrospective for the band as well as a promotion for their new album, tour and video. The main objective of this project was to introduce their music to a younger audience while providing an online experience for their die-hard fans to enjoy as well.
Many graphic designers who do not regularly do web design work may overlook the importance of web standards and this can potentially harm the durability and life of their websites. Sites that are built to meet current standards increase accessibility and long-term viability, which in turn provides a better experience for the user. If you are interested in reading more about the history of W3C validation and its importance, I recommend Pamil Visions’ article on the topic.
The best resources for these standards are the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) and W3 Schools where you can find specifications, guidelines, software and tools. If you are more of a visual learner, another way that you can learn CSS compliance that is by looking at website templates. Studying premium quality templates that are CSS and W3C compliant and that have been tested and proven compatible with all major browser environments and operating systems can help you identify mistakes that you are making in your code.
There has been a lot of talk and complaints about the new Google favicon lately. I’ve found it to be both too indistinguishable and unfamiliar to be able to recognize it immediately as Google.
One of the main purposes of the favicon is to act as a shortcut icon that will help you find a saved bookmark in your browser or an application on your desktop. Such a change of this icon completely disrupts what users are comfortable with and familiar with, which is extremely important when it comes to any interface or application.
Luckily, Google listens to its users and has decided not to close the door on the issue. And now if you have an idea for updating the Google icon (or gcon! no?) then now you can submit your favicon design to google and have your celebrity forever cemented in 16 pixels of stone, or at least until the next update. Beyond that, don’t expect to be compensated for fixing Google’s branding problems. Seems a little like spec work to me…
While I prefer not to use TrueType fonts, building your own over at FontStruct can be extremely fun. The tool lets you build fonts using geometrical shapes arranged in a grid pattern, save them as high-quality TrueType fonts, which in turn you can use in any Mac or Windows application.
If you’re feeling short on inspiration, you can browse the user gallery and download a wide variety of fonts. Digital fonts certainly have their limitations, but it doesn’t mean they can’t be creative and useful.
I am a large proponent of creating all designs, whether it be print or web, from my own code and image resources. However, I also have to be realistic with business deadlines becoming increasingly strained both in full-time office environments and the freelance world.
As a designer, is it right to purchase images or code to use in your own projects? After dealing with many different types of clients and designing a vast variety of projects, I have to say, “yes, but…”. And it is a very important “but”. If you are going to purchase code or stock resources, do so for the right reasons. Use the functionality that you need and then make it your own.
I’ve had some recent conversations specifically about Flashden. The site allows users to sell and buy stock flash, video, audio and font files. There are some extremely high-quality files and some not-quite-so-good files, but all are priced accordingly by Flashden. Have I ever downloaded anything from Flashden? Yes, I have, but…I also have made sure that I only use the code if it complements my own existing files and that I have left all credits to the coder intact. In no way, should these downloaded files replace your own work. Passing someone else’s work off as your own, even if you paid for it, is deceiving and is not representative of your personal work.
I liken the use of stock flash files to stock photography and Drupal/Dot Net Nuke modules, but the main difference is that while some stock photography and Drupal modules are allowed to be used as is, I highly recommend using your own design for the face of your flash projects. Your designs will only be better if you alter your photos or actionscript specifically for your project and put your personal design stamp on it.
Designers are encouraged to use all of their own code and image resources for their projects, but Flashden is a great resource for learning actionscript and for pleasing that one client that only wants it one way. I have found their forums and blog to be helpful at times as well. There is only one catch with using Flashden…you have to be honest about it.
So what is Hyper Island? It may not be a physical place, but the two-year university course in Sweden has created a fully interactive and creative learning environment for students focused in digital media and business management. It is one of the most credible schools for Digital Media, Interactive Art Direction and Business Management in Sweden and they’ve recently opened their doors to the English-speaking population.
Their students constantly prove why the program is so successful by winning the latest digital media competitions. I’m certainly interested in how developed the projects are and it is evident that the projects make an immediate impact on the community around them. For example, in the video below, a Digital Media student discusses her latest project - Arvika DJ Camp. Arvika Music Festival is one of the largest music festivals in Sweden and the students were asked to create an intensive, interactive site that is a great example of real-world experience.
Here is the DJ Camp site for you to experience first-hand.
This video is one of ten videos being streamed across multiple blogs as well as on Hyper Island’s blog. I recommend checking out the independent student blogs as well which utilizes Yahoo’s Pipes.
Hyper Island is now recruiting to their Diploma Programs for English speaking people. You can visit their homepage and blog for more information.
There are a lot of lists of color tools out there, but how many turn out to be of any use? The best tools are user friendly, easily customizable and provide you with every code or file format that you need. Below is a brief list (in no specific order) of color palette tools that I find the most useful for creating web, print and video projects and that I have actually used.
- Kuler
Adobe’s color theme tool includes a large collection of community-created color themes that you can use for your creative projects. The most useful aspects of Kuler include the search feature by which you can search by hex color code, tags or theme title. The tags are great because you can find all of the themes related to a specific keyword. Kuler is an Adobe Labs application so you can download themes to use with Adobe Creative Suite applications, making integration with your designs a cinch.
- COLOURlovers
A similar community site as Kuler, but with a bit more community. There are also a few differences that could be key to finding the perfect color theme for your project. The main focus of Colourlovers is color trends. So while you can browse community member themes, you can also check out the latest color trends found in popular and successful websites and magazines.
- Colorcombos.com
Also has user-created themes and its combo tester application can be useful but nothing extremely different here except for usability preferences. However, the one thing that I really enjoy using is their tool that allows you to enter a website url and pull all of the colors used on that site. Really love the colors I use here on Dracula Vs. Eisenstein? Go to Colorcombos.com to find the color codes I used.
- ColourMod
A dynamic, DHTML color picker that you can use for your site (small fee) or, more importantly to me, can be downloaded (for free) as a widget for Mac or PC. I have the Dashboard widget and I use it constantly when working between design applications. I used to need photoshop open to grab a swatch hex code to use in Flash or Dreamweaver and it was not fun, even when using Spaces on my iMac. I save time and RAM which makes life a little less stressful.
- Dhtmlgoodies.com Color Schemer
You might take a look at this and wonder why this is on my list. Because its simple. Very simple. And quick. When you need a suggested complimentary color in a matter of seconds, this is a reliable tool. You click on a primary color or type in a hex color code and it generates suggested complimentary, split complimentary, triade, tetrade, analogic and monotone color schemes for you.
- Colorjack
Like ColourMod, Colorjack offers a OSX Dashboard widget as well as a website color picker (this one is free!). You’ll have to compare the two color pickers to see if they are worth what they say. The site also has a color theme generator that you may prefer to others. Colorjack’s homepage is a huge block of random color themes, which on its own can offer some inspiration.
I certainly don’t use all of these sites for one project and I usually find one more useful depending on the individual task or project. If you have any color palette tools or sites that you find extremely useful, please add them in the comments below.
