August 6th, 2009, by Scott
Ok, so I’ve failed miserably so far this year to keep the site updated, but I have some good excuses! Designing, building and looking after paying clients websites is a full time job!!
Also, I’ve been working on a nice Web App built on the Twitter API with my good friend Steve, which we hope to launch in the near future… keep a look out. I’ve also been working on some jQuery plugins that I’ll be releasing under open source licence soon as well.
Going to make some fundamental changes to the blog part of this site too, partly because I seem to find it hard to update, but also I’d like to change the emphasis & purpose slightly, but more on that later…
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March 10th, 2009, by Scott
Well.. seems as though I’ve been having some technical difficulties with my email over the past few days. I may not have received your message, so if you did email me and sent me anything you’d like me to respond to, please try again!! Sorry!
Tags: contact, email, tech support
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February 13th, 2009, by Scott
A builder wouldn’t put up a house without a set of architect’s blueprints. An engineer wouldn’t build a pipe system without a schematic, so as web designers why are we any different? A decent foundation of a solid grid, or lack of, can make or break a web design.
Grids on the web are not a new concept – back before the semantic web and table based layouts were the norm, websites were built in varying degrees of complexity with nested tables inadvertently creating a grid system. Many of the earliest web designers were dabbling print designers and designed the way they were used to. In design for print, the grid is the work surface. With the rise of CSS and standards based layouts (and for a while, Flash websites) and the flexibility that they offered, these grids seemed to go out of fashion with the tables as designers took up these newer methods.
I became very aware of the return of the grid (and you must realise, I’m of the Web Designer generation that is proud to say I’ve never built a table based website) when The New York Times design director Khoi Vinh used a grid system in the design of the publication’s online version, and wrote an article about the process in 2007. Other newspapers around the world were soon to follow. Personally, I prefer the layout of The Guardian online edition. Designers like Mark Boulton and websites like The Grid System have also been evangelising the use of grids for years.
When the BBC relaunched their main & news sites in 2008 and the style guide complete with the grid system used was released as the “Visual Language 1.0 (PDF)” document I, and many others, was impressed at the level of detail it allowed for despite its simplicity. Instead of hindering, it enabled a much more creative use of the space. I immediately adapted it and began to use in my everyday work flow.
There are many different grids, systems and layouts out there and everybody will have their favourite. Whether its the 960, the BBC grid or your own custom system, a decent grid opens up the space and unifies things like whitespace and margins / padding, so you can get on with making everything look great. Which is never a bad thing.
Tags: design, grids, layouts
Posted in Articles | 1 Comment »
January 26th, 2009, by Scott
Like a new pair of shoes or an awesome t-shirt, a new website is never a bad thing. A new year (ish… its still only February and snow on the ground) felt like a good time for a new website and a chance to really use it better.
I’ll be updating with new work, articles about the web, beer, coffee, music and anything else that is keeping me interested.
I’m working on some interesting projects with some interesting people at the moment, so I’ll be posting updates about progress and news when there is something to tell.
Tags: mintelligence, tshirts, updates, work
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