50 Shades of Gray (the color)

Have you wanted your web designs to have more life and pizzazz? There are a few simple steps to follow that will help take a design to the next level. Today, let’s focus on using color.

The Perception

As a beginning designer tackling a new project can often seem daunting and overwhelming. There are lots of aspects of design to learn and grow – typography, layout and grid systems, color theory, balance, rhythm, marketing – the list could go on forever. But one of the most powerful, and subtle, is color.

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You May Be Using @font-face Incorrectly

When I discovered that I had been using the @font-face rule incorrectly (for quite a long time actually) I was floored. How could this have happened? I was working off of numerous tutorials and suggestions online and they were all saying the same thing. Just goes to show that the internet is not always right.

Anyway, there are two basic methods for using the @font-face rule, they both work but the first (that I was using and most people on the internet are also using) is like showing up to a volleyball game with a cast on your leg and the sun in your eye.

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Made by Hand

Making things by hand is a passion of mine. Generally I spend the majority of my day at a computer – at work and at home – so sometimes I need to get away and do something tangible. Bookbinding is a skill picked up in college and something enjoyable to me.

Bookbinding is fascinating because books are everyday objects that you never think about. Books are so common and we are so used to them it’s amazing to think, hey, this used to be pieces of paper and thread, and before that a tree, and now a tangible object. Before I was taught the art of making books I never even considered it something I could personally do, or even enjoy. I mean, who makes books anyway, can’t you just buy a book or notebook at the store? Yes, you can, but by making my own books from scratch created a bond with the item that normally would not have happened.

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Hello World or How My Career Started with a TI83 Calculator

The Hello World text is synonymous, for developers, with the start of a new project, and often a new technology. The simple phrase has a long history as a starting block for software development and testing.

A Personal Journey

My first experience with coding and development was in the fourth grade. Every month my school would hand out a short packet from Scholastic with books and other items for sale (a brilliant way for Scholastic and the school to make some money off kids, right!). In one catalogue I discovered a computer “game” which would teach kids the programming language BASIC while building video games.

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