So I recently updated my YSLOW and Firefox and kept having these ridiculous crashes.
Quick fix ... disable YSLOW until they release a patch. (Patch released today Jan 27) So hopefully all is good!
Michael
Tuesday, January 26, 2010
Friday, January 15, 2010
Favicons and Apple Iphone Icons
Pretty easy to create. Here are the basic steps:
- Open your favorite image editing program (photoshop for me)
- Create a new document 64x64px (creating at this size will save you a step later when making the iphone icon)
- Design your graphic - This needs to be a very simple icon as the final image size is only 16x16px or 64x64px (for the iphone icon)
- Apple-touch-icon - File --> Save for Web --> set to .png and save file as apple-touch-icon.png
- Image --> Resize --> 16x16px
- File --> Save As --> favicon.ico (please note the ico extension)
- You may need to download the .ico plug-in for photoshop.
- If this isn't an option for you save the image as a .jpg and use an favicon generator like ... favicon.cc
- You now have both graphic files
Now we need to get it online:
- Upload the favicon into your /root directory of your website (make sure that it isn't buried in any subfolder but resides freely in same directory as your index file)
- Put the following code on the pages that you would like the icon to reference.
<link href='http://yourdomain.com/favicon.ico' rel='shortcut icon' type='image/ico'/> <link href='http://yourdomain.com/favicon.ico' rel='icon' type='image/ico'/>
- Upload the new pages with the additional code to your web site.
For some sites like blogger or wordpress the position of the code on your pages is relatively important and needs to be placed right before the opening tag.
Other Great Resouces:
http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2007/01/31/inspire-yourself-50-remarkable-favicons/
http://www.photoshopsupport.com/tutorials/jennifer/favicon.html
http://www.favicon.cc/
Monday, January 11, 2010
I should be a spokesman for Adobe!
So last week I was sitting in an interview with a design firm that is looking to outsource some projects to local freelancers. Of course the typical question of how familiar are you with Adobe Creative Suite question came up; having used Photoshop for over a decade now, and Illustrator, InDesign, Dreamweaver and most of the rest of the creative suite for almost as long I'm extremely familiar with these programs.
I went into detail about how I tend to use Illustrator for most of my logo designs because most logos should be drawn in vector format. I explained that I use Photoshop to add "flair" and "finish" qualities to images. InDesign is THE only page layout program to use anymore and DreamWeaver is my go to web layout program.
This company was using older versions of CS and asked me what I thought about them upgrading their software ... THIS IS A MUST ... I tell them. Quickly I pulled over one of the laptops on the table and open Photoshop and began giving them a demonstration about the "new" features in each of these programs and how they will not only save time (i.e. money) but how their designs will benefit from the upgrades as well. Although I'm still working off of CS3 mainly due to a slower 4th quarter I plan to upgrade my entire Adobe Creative Suite to CS4 asap!
Especially after seeing this sneak peak about CS5 on Nettuts+.
After that a photographer friend of mine sent me over a few images from a wedding that she had shot to get my opinion as to what to "DO" to the images to give them that "dreamy" wedding portrait feel. I popped the images into Adobe Lightroom and sent them back to her. She was like "OMG, how did you do that so quickly!" Luckily, she is on a mac as well and I gave her a 45 minute tutorial about all the great features of Adobe Lightroom. She said that she needed to get this program asap. Lightroom is the program that I do most of the post production work in for j. mathew buter photography and really it is a simple easy to use tool ... for even those that don't understand Photoshop.
The husband of the photographer that I was talking to was asking me how much commission I make from pedaling Adobe products and I was like ... "Ummm ... none ... but I should!"
I went into detail about how I tend to use Illustrator for most of my logo designs because most logos should be drawn in vector format. I explained that I use Photoshop to add "flair" and "finish" qualities to images. InDesign is THE only page layout program to use anymore and DreamWeaver is my go to web layout program.
This company was using older versions of CS and asked me what I thought about them upgrading their software ... THIS IS A MUST ... I tell them. Quickly I pulled over one of the laptops on the table and open Photoshop and began giving them a demonstration about the "new" features in each of these programs and how they will not only save time (i.e. money) but how their designs will benefit from the upgrades as well. Although I'm still working off of CS3 mainly due to a slower 4th quarter I plan to upgrade my entire Adobe Creative Suite to CS4 asap!
Especially after seeing this sneak peak about CS5 on Nettuts+.
After that a photographer friend of mine sent me over a few images from a wedding that she had shot to get my opinion as to what to "DO" to the images to give them that "dreamy" wedding portrait feel. I popped the images into Adobe Lightroom and sent them back to her. She was like "OMG, how did you do that so quickly!" Luckily, she is on a mac as well and I gave her a 45 minute tutorial about all the great features of Adobe Lightroom. She said that she needed to get this program asap. Lightroom is the program that I do most of the post production work in for j. mathew buter photography and really it is a simple easy to use tool ... for even those that don't understand Photoshop.
The husband of the photographer that I was talking to was asking me how much commission I make from pedaling Adobe products and I was like ... "Ummm ... none ... but I should!"
Sunday, January 3, 2010
What's in a name ...
Okay ... open a new browser tab/window and go to your favorite search engine ... Type in your name and hit the search button. (don't forget to come back to the rest of this article silly :P )
Are you in the top 5 of searches listed? If not why?
Scenario:
You've recently been to a slue of holiday festivities and had the opportunity to network yourself to a large number of people outside your "inner circle". You've met the CEO of your dream job or found a client that you would love to do work for in the future, but all you can remember about them is their name. Like most of us, the first thing you do is get online and look them up.
Were you able to find the person you were looking for?
What information is there?
Did they have contact information that was easily accessible?
Now put yourself in their shoes ...
The CEO of your dream job remembers meeting you and discussing having a conversation about some work in the future but all he can remember about you is your name and that you are a Financial Analysts in the DFW area. He takes a stab at looking you up online.
What does he find?
Did he find you at all?
What information is there?
Did you have contact information that was easily accessible to him?
I suggest to all of my clients to purchase a domain name with their name in it. This does not have to be a full blown web site. It can easily be a one page site with some information about you and your contact information. If you already have an online presence with your company ... have the "yourname.com" site redirect straight to your business site, myspace, twitter, or facebook page.
Think of your web domain "yourname.com" as your online business card and use it like you would a business card. In each email that you send set up a digital signature with your name, email, and web site addresss, so people know how to get in touch with you or refer you to other clients/businesses.
Defining your web presence and controlling that information is an inexpensive yet effective marketing tool. I understand that many people have qualms about putting to much information on the web, especially considering identity theft. But one of the easiest and safest ways to assure your safety is to control the information that is put out on the web.
Don't know how to set all of this up?
Check out my online portfolio and send me an email and we'll get you up and running!
michael albee
freelance graphic designer
... a team of creatives in just one guy!
214.578.4017
http://michaelalbee.com
Are you in the top 5 of searches listed? If not why?
Scenario:
You've recently been to a slue of holiday festivities and had the opportunity to network yourself to a large number of people outside your "inner circle". You've met the CEO of your dream job or found a client that you would love to do work for in the future, but all you can remember about them is their name. Like most of us, the first thing you do is get online and look them up.
Were you able to find the person you were looking for?
What information is there?
Did they have contact information that was easily accessible?
Now put yourself in their shoes ...
The CEO of your dream job remembers meeting you and discussing having a conversation about some work in the future but all he can remember about you is your name and that you are a Financial Analysts in the DFW area. He takes a stab at looking you up online.
What does he find?
Did he find you at all?
What information is there?
Did you have contact information that was easily accessible to him?
I suggest to all of my clients to purchase a domain name with their name in it. This does not have to be a full blown web site. It can easily be a one page site with some information about you and your contact information. If you already have an online presence with your company ... have the "yourname.com" site redirect straight to your business site, myspace, twitter, or facebook page.
Think of your web domain "yourname.com" as your online business card and use it like you would a business card. In each email that you send set up a digital signature with your name, email, and web site addresss, so people know how to get in touch with you or refer you to other clients/businesses.
Defining your web presence and controlling that information is an inexpensive yet effective marketing tool. I understand that many people have qualms about putting to much information on the web, especially considering identity theft. But one of the easiest and safest ways to assure your safety is to control the information that is put out on the web.
Don't know how to set all of this up?
Check out my online portfolio and send me an email and we'll get you up and running!
michael albee
freelance graphic designer
... a team of creatives in just one guy!
214.578.4017
http://michaelalbee.com
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