Web Development

For the new website I've been developing and finishing up some "final touches" on the design to make the experience just a little bit better (before I can delve into the out-dated content after launch), one of the last things that was needed was to speed up the efficiency and download of assets - this included CSS and JavaScript files for the most part. I made the sIFR flash files as small as possible and my PNG images were compressed (and fixed for IE color rendering) using PNGGauntlet (which uses PNGOut). Until I can figure out ETags, a proper time for an Expires header, and GZip to work on CSS/JS files on our hosted server, this should suffice. It loads amazingly quick on my iPod Touch.

Continue reading "Compare your Minimized JavaScript"

Posted by Brendon Kozlowski

I know I've read this article about 10 times over, and yet I always seem to keep forgetting about it. Everyone always suggests, "in order to keep a floated image from floating over its containing box, add a 1px DIV, or BR tag that uses a style of clear:both". This is what I always remember, simply because it's the most prevalent solution.

However, thanks to my CSS love in Paul O'Brien at SitePoint, there's a much, much simpler solution. Apply overflow:auto; to the containing element. That's all there is to it. I love that man!

Source: http://www.sitepoint.com/blogs/2005/02/26/simple-clearing-of-floats/

Continue reading "Simple Solution for Encapsulating a Floated Image"

Posted by Brendon Kozlowski

It's mind boggling to me how often I see simple errors on prominently displayed advertisements for a web-based (or other) firm.



Now, although I can possibly understand why the text in the bottom blue area isn't centered in a symmetrical manner, how rushed could it have been to completely miss a spelling error? Even for a one-man operation, which I would imagine this is not, for something as important as an image that's to be shown across the world, wouldn't you check and double check everything? Obviously some time went in to the design of the art, so why sloppily supply the text within the graphic? Sheesh...

Posted by Brendon Kozlowski

What do you do to get yourself over a hump? I develop web applications as a hobby when I'm not working and at home. But as with any application, there are portions that are much less desirable to work on than others that still need to be done (such as documentation). How can you get yourself over the hump when there's little to no incentive other than being able to continue on with the project? I'd rather go run...10 miles...and I usually only do 2 miles, so, yeah...

I can't seem to make myself do it, I keep procrastinating. There always seems to be something else just slightly more interesting that I "will only spend x minutes on and get right back to the project". Just looking for what you more experienced people do when you come to these things.

Posted by Brendon Kozlowski

I've found that when I need to be inspired when coming up for an organization's (or website's) logo graphic design, it's hard to find examples. Going from site to site simply looking at how each website integrates their site with a graphic can in fact be inspirational, but only to a point. It's somewhat confining in the broad spectrum of things. Like the web design review websites, it's great to have an overview of hand-picked websites for their sheer brilliance in design, color coordination and artistic balance and symmetry...and it looks good too.

Thankfully, there is a website that does this, although since typography and logo design are a little obscure nowadays in favor of total website design (although typography is making a comeback as of late), I only know of one. The downside is that we must accept their professional wisdom without any second opinions. The upside is that we don't have to visit multiple sites to get some great inspiration.

Logo Lounge's Logo Trends is a yearly roundup of logos from the world-wide-web that attempts to see what the current trend in overall logo design is for the year. There are archives going back to 2003, and are current (as of this writing) to 2007. Each year's archive contains a decently sized showing of fascinating, trendy, and colorful marketing imagery to help you on your way. Keep in mind though, whilst getting inspiration, don't mimic too deeply! We are all artists afterall, and should use our own ingenuity and imagination to power our creations.

Posted by Brendon Kozlowski