I’m at home now. Well, not “home” home, but with family. I suppose after moving to Sacramento, I found myself making a new “home” home for myself.

It feels strangely, mostly because it feels as though I never left in the first place. I suppose that’s what “home” should feel like – a place you return to that feels familiar. Home base, home page, whatever – the word “home” I suppose has become synonymous with familiarity. Read more »

The essential energy of a design is created through the spacing. Spacing is not only important for defining elements and setting them apart, but also for creating the overall tone and energy of a piece; unequal spacing catches the eye, and adds the general flare to a design. With this in mind, it is essential that even the most novice designer learn the importance behind placement in a design, and through practice, develop an understanding that placement cannot just simply happen, just like good design doesn’t simply happen. Through nature and experimentation, the novice can best learn to use the placement and division of a piece in order to convey a proper message, and understand how it is used in the media around them. Read more »

Gradients is perhaps part of what defines “web 2.0″, or rather, the current trends in web design as per the last few years. The problem that I’ve seen thus far is the abuse of gradients – while it’s fine to use them (I, after all, use gradients on my own site design), it’s not so fine to over use them, or to use them improperly.

Gradients can create a very visually appealing site which pulls the audience in – or they can be overly distracting and cliche’d. So let’s take a look at a few sites which use such gradients. Read more »

Today, I am trying something a bit different. I’ve put up a premade site under my portfolio; depending upon how much popularity this theme and the others I plan on posting receives, I will be considering creating a page dedicated to premade web templates.

Normally I charge $20/hour for a project; for a full project, this amounts to around $400+, though I’d say my average is around $500 depending on the amount of programming and changes requested. I allow clients to have an unlimited amount of requested changes, but at the same time, I do not work for free.

This theme in question is very flexible; its navigation can be requested to be placed anywhere (though I would suggest horizontally), and it can have contact information placed opposite of the logo. The image can be edited or left as-is, and because it is content rich, not only will it have a greater amount of SEO, it will also show flexibility for what one might wish to put in there; RSS feeds, social networking links, or even just more content about your company in general. Read more »

One of the biggest sins our society has made is its creation of lies. Lies and slander, even, concerning the educational system in particular. We tell our students that they are preparing themselves for life by getting their college degree, and that by getting this slip of paper after four years of work they will be able to step out immediately into the real world. Just check out the University of California sites – their way of enticing students to pay a higher price for their education is to show very exceptional students who are being hired right out of school.

The problem I have with this is my own experience. I have already learned for myself that the world does not work this way. Part of why I have chosen to attend college in a field other than design is that I know that yes the degree helps, but I also know that design is a very difficult field to enter into, especially without a very strong resume. Read more »