Posts tagged as:

design

Random thoughts and a new site

by Joe Doyle on June 23, 2008

I’ve been getting emails about the weird things going on with my blog. Keep ‘em up, please – they all help as I re-design this thang.

As you can see (on the actual site, if you RSS), I’ve moved forward with the new theme I wrote about a couple weeks back. It’s called THESIS by DIYthemes, and so far I like it.

I’m getting help from this guy and even this guy, but my objective is to learn all about the code and get to a point where I’m writing it myself. So far, so good.

Next I plan to:
• change fonts to a san-serif
• add a background image border
• move the header and include a new design
• add social networking links, a portfolio page and fresh blogroll
• upgrade to the latest WordPress version

WEEK IN CHICAGO

Last Tuesday night I arrived in Chicago for a working session with new clients, a visit with family and friends, a Stalelife-sponsored White Sox event and games versus the Cubs.

I posted a bunch of new images on Flickr. They tell a quick story, but here are some impressions:

• The Garcia’s baby girl Cecilie is as cute as reported. Strong, too.

• Sadly, I missed seeing two other new friends, Rylan Soble, Matt and Amy’s boy, and Wil Salihar of the Warren and Lisa Salihars. Next time…

• You forget how much advertising there is on the streets of Chicago until you get back

• Great weather - I even wore a jacket one day.

• The Sox can beat NL teams, apparently just the last-place ones.

• Cubs fans are even more obnoxious after a twelve pack. Ugh - worst fans in baseball.

• Working with my partner Kurt is much easier in person.

• I missed my family every day, and that feeling got stronger the closer I got to home.

There’s more images at my Flickr account. Even ones with people nowhere near as uggo as that Cubs fan above.

{ 4 comments }

New look for this old blog.

by Joe Doyle on June 12, 2008

I feel it’s time. Hell, it’s been time for at least a year.

So this weekend I’m hoping to re-launch this bitty with a new, evolving design.

The WordPress template I settled on is called Thesis, and it appears very versatile. Users are “open sourcing” their code for all to pilfer, and the support looks great.

Time will tell, but that’s all we have in this blogging world. Lots of time…

Check out this site’s past designs on the Wayback Machine. Scary shit, given what I know today.

Here we are in 2002, after a friend mistakingly deleted the wrong files on my site. No worries, the old one needed to go. This placeholder lasted a long, long time.

{ 4 comments }

SXSWi p1

by Joe Doyle on March 10, 2008

It’s been two days, and overall, SXSWi has been pretty eventful.

Three general themes that I’ve seen so far:
1. Design is alive and well and encompasses more than pretty colors;
2. Good design is all about human experience
2. Social Media is transparent – don’t even think about fake campaigns.

Saturday I went to:
• Design is in the Details – a session by Naz, a friend from Chicago. It was a beginner-level course, but that’s OK.
• Suxors – It’s always fun to critique the social media campaigns that flopped hard.
• Expression Engine – Why not? This blog is on Wordpress, but I thought I’d check out the competition. EE’s back-end looks nice-ish, but that’s about it.
• Blood, Sweat and Fear – We’re always defending our design and these guys were going to give a full house some meaningful tips. Not so much.

Then we hit some parties – Bike Hugger and Avenue A – followed by home. Long lines and a babysitter on the clock helped with that decision.

Sunday we were back at it, ready for more revelations:
• Responsible web design – the guidebook said intermediate, but this was so basic even I understood the code. The description was off base and they used zero samples (but talked about them). BO-ring.
• Lunch at BD Rileys (Irish music to remind me of yesterday’s Southside Irish Parade) and the tradeshow – Kurt rocked the drums.
• Does tomorrow’s world need designers? – apparently someone is arguing that it DOES NOT. I only look back to our forefathers who designed tools and houses and clothes every single day. It’s about living - that can’t be automated.

I’m thankful that they’re offering podcasts on some of the panels I’ve missed. At least the Meebo conversations kept me entertained.

Funny moment (that I didn’t see), the keynote interviewer was anything but professional and Mark Zuckerberg (Facebook) and the
audience turned on her.

But it wasn’t her fault (uh huh):