10/2008 Article Archive

  • October 31, 2008 in Friday Blog Clips

    5 for Friday | The Week's Best Blogs (10/31/08 Edition)

    I'd like to start out this week's 5 for Friday by thanking Jason Santa Maria for his list of design book resources. As modern designers we tend more and more toward the bite size information chunks found in blogs and other online resources. But when it comes to truly increasing knowledge and ability, you just can't beat the comprehensive nature of a full-length book. They provide the systematic frameworks that are necessary to achieve greatness in the field. Jason's list is solid and a great starting point for any aspiring designer.

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  • October 29, 2008 in Web Design Culture

    Andre Braz, The Experience Design Manifesto, and the State of Design

    Recently, I've run across several references to Andre Braz's Experience Design Manifesto. His short manifesto is apparently being welcomed and applauded by the design community in general. I, on the other hand, found the document to be poorly planned, poorly executed, and riddled with cliches and pop-philosophy. On the positive side, this is a perfect opportunity to turn deconstructivism against its master (postmodernism) and discuss a rare modern attempt at defining purpose.

  • October 24, 2008 in Friday Blog Clips

    5 for Friday | The Week's Best Blogs (10/24/08 Edition)

    This Friday is special for me, and it's not only because I found some great designer resources this week. My little sister is getting married tomorrow. I couldn't be prouder of her. So I'd like to take this little space before my 5 for Friday to congratulate her and offer up a thankful prayer to God for all his blessings on our family. And now, here's 5 for Friday:

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  • October 22, 2008 in Web Design Culture

    Interview: Stephen Olmstead of Sonata Creative

    This week Mirificam Press will be taking on a slightly different form. It's my pleasure to introduce my readers to Stephen Olmstead, owner of Sonata Creative in Phoenix Arizona. Stephen and his wife Celeste have recently launched Sonata Creative as an independent design studio—quite successfully, I might add. Stephen is also a blogger and a reformed Christian. We met just a few weeks ago through Mirificam Press and I was immediately impressed by his grasp of Christian worldview concepts as they relate to design. I'm sure you will feel the same.

  • October 17, 2008 in Friday Blog Clips

    5 for Friday | The Week's Best Blogs (10/17/08 Edition)

    It really has been an exciting week for web design articles. You'll notice that quite a few of the links in this week's 5 for Friday are pointing to new or rarely used sources. Hongkiat has a very helpful list of tooltip scripts you will find handy if you can forgive the poor English. Also, Cameron Moll, who hasn't appeared on Mirificam Press in quite a while wrote a great guide for CSS beginners (Veterans might want to check it out as well). Here is this week's 5 for Friday:

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  • October 15, 2008 in Programming & IT

    Saving a File Directly Into a MySQL Database

    In cases where file security isn't an issue, it's easy to save web form file uploads into a public directory on your server where they can be accessed by all. You can do this with just a few lines of PHP code, and it works great for public photo galleries, or avatar uploaders, etc. But what if you need to limit access to the files your users are uploading? Let's say, for example, you have a client that needs to be able to upload sensitive company files that can only be accessed by certain employees. This is where the MySQL longblob field comes in handy. In this tutorial, I'll show how to get a file from a web form into a MySQL database and out again.

  • October 10, 2008 in Friday Blog Clips

    5 for Friday | The Week's Best Blogs (10/10/08 Edition)

    Over the years I've run into this situation time and again: A client needs to be able to edit/resize photos on their own but they don't have any image editing software. In the old days, I usually ended up doing the work for them and billing them by the hour. Honestly, though, what web designer wants to spend all their time resizing photos? We want to think, create, design. Fortunately, now days we have slew of free online image editors to point our Photoshop deficient clients to. A wonderful list of online image editors has been provided by Six Revisions this week, and I suggest you bookmark it and use it to your benefit. Here are this week's 5 for Friday:

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  • October 8, 2008 in Web Design Worldview

    I Design Websites, Therefore, God Is

    The majority of the most exceptional men and women in the historical landscape of philosophy have acknowledged the absolute necessity of a supreme being. Those who did not and were honest with the implications of their conclusions were forced into absurdism. But today, in a culture that is increasingly shallow and intellectually lazy, you'd be hard pressed to find an individual (educated or not) who knows anything of Thomas Aquinas' five rational proofs for the existence of God or has any concept of Aristotle's "unmoved mover". The words of these great thinkers are most often used by quote miners looking for nuggets to rip out of context and paste together into warped shadows of what once was. And fortunately for them we're none the wiser. We gained a little bit of knowledge about how this universe works and became so obsessed with our discoveries that we stopped asking why. We are not unlike Haley's man who, after stumbling upon a pocket watch in the forest, declares himself to be the master watchmaker (or that there must be a blind watchmaker).

  • October 3, 2008 in Friday Blog Clips

    5 for Friday | The Week's Best Blogs (10/3/08 Edition)

    As some of you already know, I recently changed the name of my design studio from Liquid Design Media to Six House Design. For the most part it's been a smooth transition and I'm already seeing great benefits from my new website. But I'd like to take a moment and warn any independent designers thinking about making a name change that lack of planning can really eat your lunch. I recommend making a general timeline and checklist to guide you through the process. It's not nearly as simple as it seems up font. And now, this week's 5 for Friday:

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  • October 1, 2008 in Design Inspiration

    Simple and Stunning (Part 3): 10 Website Designs that Inspire

    This is the third installment of Simple and Stunning on Mirificam Press. In case you're new to Mirificam Press, Simple and Stunning is an ongoing list acknowledging excellent website designs that combine the simplicity of a great user interface with stunning layouts and color schemes. I've made a noticeable change in this edition, though: Instead of capturing only the initially visible area of each site, I included the scroll area below. My purpose in the previous method was to present a kind of first glance presentation. But with increasingly sporadic monitor sizes and resolutions, I think my new method will give you a better feel for the whole design.

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    • 4941 Views