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 »
Generally speaking, Wordpress doesn’t like to create two post pages. It takes getting the platform out of its comfort zone to force it to make it do something it doesn’t like.
Technically, my own site has two post pages. It displays the first few characters of a post (first one thousand characters, to be exact) and displays them on the home page, and then takes the rest of my posts (all content included) and displays it on my Blog page. However, to be really savvy, it just takes a little bit of PHP plus maybe a plugin, and your web site’s guests will never know the difference! Read more »
There are a few fundamental features in a Wordpress theme. To create a custom theme, a developer must simply have a functions.php, a stylesheet, and an index.php with the loop in it. However, the Internet is expanding, and not only are themes becoming more and more complex with a greater amount of options, but further additions are being added to the amount of files included in your average theme.
This post, however, is not directed at the aged Wordpress designer who has been churning out themes since 1.5. This post, instead, is directed at designers which are simply just beginning to explore the possibilities of Wordpress.
I was one such designer not too long ago. I became acquainted with Wordpress through a job opportunity – I was hired by a company to create and edit Wordpress themes. I received a day or two of training learning the needed PHP and other tidbits – such as what certain files did, and how to install themes. To date, I have been programming Wordpress themes for about a year now – whether editing them for SEO, or creating completely new themes, or even redesigning other themes. Through my work, I have discovered the power behind not just the CMS, but also through the lesser-known power of index.php and hierarchy. Read more »
Life is a river; it is always changing and moving with rhythm and time. It’s not always refreshing, but it certainly has plenty of rocks along the way.
Lately I’ve been looking back a bit, at the same time as forward. I’m enjoying the present one day at a time, but there are moments during which I am reminded of something from childhood. Today, someone I’m following on Twitter linked some older pictures from the original (and best) Star Wars. What a great piece of history, I thought to myself. I remember watching the original movies when I was really young. At the time, we didn’t have DVD players, and music came on casette tapes. We didn’t have Black Eyed Peas, and rock was still the major form of music style – there wasn’t really much in the way of “rap” that took the mainstream until much later.
I remember that my mom practically raised my brother and I on real originals. Things like The Neverending Story, The Labyrinth, and a mess of other Jim Henson movies – and alongside those, like a great sage in and of itself, the original Star Wars trilogy. What she didn’t realize at the time was that she had just made the recipe to create a daughter who grew to be an absolute technology junky and a geek to the core. I bear these titles with pride. Read more »
