Quick SEO for My Wedding Site Ranking
March 4, 2010
TJ and I realized tonight that there are several other TJ and Erin s getting married who have websites. We’ve spent the evening adding a sitemap, meta titles, descriptions and keywords. We’ll see if our minimal effort puts us above what our web illiterate competitors are doing.
Check out our site and help out our ranking www.tjanderin.com
Placeholder Image generator
February 3, 2010
“Sometimes you just need a placeholder image right at your finger tips.” According to www.dummyimage.com
This site, as reported on LifeHacker, is IMAGE “lorum ipsum” for designers.
“Just enter the width + x + height at the end of this URL and off you go!”
All you have to do is use this model http://dummyimage.com/640×480 and put in the x and y numbers you need!
The site also recommends this other site rndimg.com which will give you a colored paint glob like image at any size you type into their control.
enjoy!
Super Slick Gradient Maker
February 2, 2010
Today I came across a really neat time saver. I often have conversations with people who say they want to make their site “just a little better”. They’d love to do a re-design, but it is simply out of their budget. I tell them there are several simple things they can do to make their site look more current. One of those things is to add a gradient to the background. And simplify the rest of the colors they are using. This alone can transform a “homemade” site into a site that has a tad more credibility. The problem with that is they don’t have the software to do gradients and to hire a designer to do it would cost so much more than it should (especially in PM time).
This site http://gradient-maker.com/
allows you to set 2 different colors (gradient start & gradient stop) and set a height and width. When you click “Make Gradient” the background of the entire site changes so you can see your gradient.
Even though I feel this is the best it is slightly limiting in that it works mainly for vertical gradient images, There are other sites out there that do similar things that allow you to have more options:
http://tools.dynamicdrive.com/gradient/
http://www.grsites.com/generate/resultbyid/6139406/
http://gradientgenerator.com/
New Markers!!
December 23, 2009
It has been a long time since my last Prisma Color phase. Tonight I was gifted with some then immediately dug up my blender (conveniently an arms length away) to have some fun on an envelope that was lying around. Of course the first thing I thought after adding the ultramarine blue to my navy bird was “Apple Z!!!” or Tap the bottom left corner (iphone sketchbook ap).
One could argue that computers have made it easier for artists, I argue differently. The fact is… Most people can come up with more ideas when they sketch out an idea then refine it later on the computer. This process, which I am sure has been driven into every graphic designer since birth, is lost somewhere after graduating and starting our first job. The computer works as a barrier sometimes and It is not that often that designers have the time at work to complete the sketches - many employers expect them to go immediately to the computer and puke their ideas onto the screen.
I guess what I am trying to say is that I am excited to use my new markers and “doodle”. There is a very real aspect to the fact that every line counts - you cannot go back to change a mistake - it may actually make the drawing stronger.
Perhaps something I doodle with my new markers will find a home in one of my designs.
Tj - My Fiancé
December 12, 2009
Well, I found out that if I send my posterous Illustrations to just post@posterous.com It sends the post to all of my websites. But that is ok.. Because I figure this is a great way to announce that I am engaged!
The Saturday after Thanksgiving my incredibly wonderful boyfriend proposed to me right after we got back from our out of town family festivities.
Tj Mapes is a fellow web designer. And we’re geeking out all the stops with this -
- Setting up a wedding Basecamp (37 signals) to organize our plans. I definitely recommend it to other people working on their nuptial plans
- Looking for a quirky domain for to develop/design our wedding info site on.
- Moleskin Journals
- Last night we bought paper samples to get textures from. I’m surprised I haven’t bought my dark purple pantone pen yet…
Stay tuned -I’m sure it will only get crazier, as it has only been 2 weeks since the ring.
Above image sketched with iPhone
Posterous: Testing new autopost!!
December 11, 2009
For the last month I have been using www.posterous.com to manage artwork that I have been doing on the go.. created entirely with my iPhone.
Previous to today’s new exciting news, I would email my image to post@posterous.com. This would post a link on my twitter (and other online aps- had I set it up that way…) and create a blog post on my www.erinhupp.posterous.com -If there was one drawing I wanted to share on my blog, I couldn’t do that without setting my posterous to share EVERYthing with my blog.
NOW.. I can specify where I want each post to go. For instance if i want the artwork to go to flickr, my blog and facebook, but not twitter.. I can email it to flickr+blog+facebook@posterous.com.
If you’re interested in finding out more, check out their FAQ section. This is a really wonderful system for the lazy blogger!!
Design on RIPTapparel.com
July 29, 2009
Starting at Midnight Central time, RIPT Apparel will be selling my Oppidan Owl Tee Shirt design.
RIPT Apparel features a teeshirt a day, each tee sold for only 24 hours. They only print the number ordered so if you want the adorable Oppidan (Urban) Owl, get it while you can!
Or, if Oppidan Owl isn’t your style, be sure to check back another day.. RIPT has a great array of designs!
More Sneak Joint Designs
May 30, 2009
I’ve been working on a number of changes for Sneak Joint’s menus over the last several weeks. Many of these changes have been text related, however, many of these text changes required a new format to display them in. The back of the main menu was added and the breakfast menu became 4x larger. Which means: New Designs!
Avatar Builder - Stage 2
May 28, 2009
The avatar builder project has started to grow legs. I am proud to say that there is now a small team of individuals who are going to make this as wonderful as I dreamed.
Sneak Joint Flag
This week I designed my first flag… Betsy Ross, move over!
Sneak Joint, a San Diego Bar contacted me with a need for a flag to advertise their Full Breakfast menu. The flag is designed to contrast with the blue sky and pull the green from the palm trees that will surround it to make it pop.
Taking a Photo of a TV
April 6, 2009
Have you ever tried to take a photo of a tv?
I recently tried with my iphone and it resulted in these creepy black lines. My first thought was that there is radiation and electromagnetic poisoning my brain from my CRT TV. I thought… maybe I’m so smart because I have a crappy tv in my room which is mutating my brain like the Teenage Ninja Turtles. Then I thought, wow… If I am some mutant brain I should make sure I can back it up with some research. Once I find that I’ll donate my tv and myself to science and go hang out with some monkeys for the rest of my life.
Unfortunately I found out that the lines you see have to do with 2 things. And neither of them have to do with bananas. First, to see this effect your camera must be set to a shutter speed at or faster than 1/30sec. The CRT tv displays the image by projecting RGB (red green and blue) beams coated with rgb phosphors. These individual beams are fired from top to bottom with approx 500 lines to complete a picture. Our brain can’t see the individual beams and therefore interprets it as the picture we see.
Read more about it here
Yay! iPhone
March 14, 2009
First blog from my new iPhone- yay. Rip samsung juke- I wish you worked with my mac.
Updating My Wordpress
March 3, 2009
So, if you know me well, you have probably heard how strangely stressful the last few days has been for me. After my incident - finding out that my car is NOt a boat (believe me, I was shocked too) and the amazing chain of events that occured from that point on (you can read it a bit here www.TJMapes.com).
It is sort of surprising that I am daring enough to update my wordpress. I figure since the check engine light went off tonight there is a good chance things will be looking up. So… after spending over a half hour reading and re-reading the instructions telling you to back everything up, I decided: eh.. I wont mess up - I think I have it all. Once I started deleting all the files I started getting worried when I saw the “your database needs to be updated” I started freaking out. Fortunately after I pushed the “go” button wordpress did it all for me.
Everything worked out perfect! And all the content that the wordpress instructions held that stressed how important it is to do it the right way were perfect! AND.. The new interface seem just as great as everyone who wasn’t nervous about updating claims it to be.
Nice Job Wordpress!!
Let me finish with these pointers:
- Don’t drive through big puddles
- Read and re-read signs
- Got to the bathroom before attempting to rescue your car from the pound
- Midas in Chicago (4200ish W. Irving Park) is worth the drive for good trustworthy auto service
Savo Conference Rooms Get New Signs
For the last few months I have been contracting at a place called The Savo Group. Recently, my daily duties of being a CSS Monkey for the web 2.0 sales enablement site were interrupted by the request for new conference room signs. The rooms are named after the US Presidents and were previously clad by pictures of these “dead presidents”. The idea presented to me was to do something more fun - such as an image of Marlyn Monroe for the Monroe room and perhaps using the Addams Family for Adams.
After struggling to come up with a character for Washington and Quincy, I decided to take another look at coming up with a more interesting solution. The name Washington reminded me of a computer game I played on my Grandparent’s computer with the cousins. This PC game - designed to be just like NBC’s longest running gameshow - Concentration - had what are called rebus’s or phrase puzzles made up from images. Immediately I knew this would be a great way to tie in one of Savo’s slogans “I See Smart People” with the culture of the office.
Coming up with the correct images to create the names wasn’t the easiest part, but once I got them down… I added a candy shell to tie in Savo’s branding, mounted them on foamboard and put them up. The feedback from my coworkers showed that it was a success. The only flack I got was that there were a few people could not think that creatively. Luckily I factored that into the solution and was sure to print the name clearly below for those in a hurry or those who may need to spend a little more time with the puzzle.
See them all on my flickr.
