About three weeks ago, my fiancée (Emily) and I bought a puppy and named it Chanel. She’s probably the cutest dog that has ever lived, but she is also a huge pain. She poops everywhere, chews everything, and barks constantly. I decided to make an iPhone app called Is Chanel Being Good? so that I can let Emily see what she’s missing out on while she’s gone.
This weekend I really wanted to design a quick site and try out some new CSS techniques I’ve been learning, so I made a sandbox site. What’s a sandbox? Basically it’s a place where I’ll post my experiments and little projects that I’ve been playing around with.
It seems like rounded corners are everywhere these days; they’re quickly becoming one of the main ingredients of a lot of sites. I suspect that CSS3’s new border-radius property has something to do with it, but whatever the cause, I think we’re starting to go a little overboard. It’s starting to feel like a fad on the same level as overdone gradients and drop shadows.
A couple of days ago Elliot Jay Stocks posted a tweet about his feelings on web designers who can’t write code. Since then, the web design community has erupted into a debate on whether or not designers should be able to code. I can see valid points on both sides of the argument and I must admit I’m not totally sure where I stand on this subject.
A few months ago I came across a site called Simple Desktops – “a collection of desktop wallpapers curated by Tom Watson designed to make your computer beautiful without distraction.”
The thing I love about Simple Desktops is that all of the designs featured are beautiful without being overly complicated. A lot of them are really inspiring. The site has guidelines that need to be met in order for a desktop to be considered for addition to the collection – no gradients, no lens flares, and no drop shadows are a few of the rules.
As my days as a college student draw to a close, I find myself looking forward to beginning my career in the web. I can’t wait to start designing websites for a living, but finding a job is proving difficult. Here’s a rundown of my current experience:
I’ve been offered a contract position at Mighty, a small web design agency in downtown Grand Rapids. Right now, I’m waiting to hear if it’s going to work out and if so, when I can start.
I’ve been learning web design for a couple of years now. Up until recently, though, I never really understood how important specialization is. For the last few months, I have been moving from one language to another, learning bits and pieces. As a result, I have a pretty basic knowledge of many different web technologies.