Design at its Best

I stumbled upon Phire Branding while researching design in my area. There is not a day where I am not researching design and absorbing all I can. By saying that I research on a daily basis, when I take the time to focus in on a particular designer or firm, it certainly means that I have found something valuable. Phire Branding's web-site makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside. It is so intuitive, as I feel completely in tuned while it displays its contents. It moves from left to right, from top to bottom, supporting my natural instinct to absorb information.

Phire Branding is Flash at its best. Their usage of the program is exactly why I am learning it. The site is so organic and seems to have a life all its own. With every click there is something new and compelling, while maintaining the consistency that is so essential in design. This site is fantastic, so much so that it must be shared. Here is an article about the firm if you would like to know a little more about them.

Time for Flash

I have been struggling to catch up with the web world lately. I made it my goal to learn Dreamweaver, but all along I kept hearing that I really needed to know HTML and CSS. I wanted to learn correctly, and work correctly, so I strove to learn. I have been dabbling with code even though the designer in me wants to just work away in Dreamweaver, referring to the code only when there is trouble. Even though I thought I had come so far, I kept feeling as if I was still behind because I had not learned Flash.

Well, this is going to change. I finished my last Dreamweaver/CSS course and now I looking to Lynda.com for lessons in Flash. As of right now I am learning the drawing tools, which are already really cool. Flash is like Illustrator with some extra gadgets. Not to mention the way Lynda offers the information is extremely effective. The courses are ideal for a designer since they are all video, therefore visual. So here I go..

CSS Issues

When starting a style sheet everything seems to go fine. One thing I have to watch carefully is to connect each page to the same style sheet, so that's easy enough. However, an issue I am finding is sometimes I will try to set a style and it will not work. This dilemma leaves me guessing over and over again for long periods of time. I fool around with making the style external and even internal to get it to perform. This trial and error can leave me with repetitive and even useless code in my style sheet. So, these are the cliches I need to work out. When this happens I look in the code and I just can't figure out why it is not working. I am guessing there must be a style already defined that conflicts. I know the rule of thumb is "work from the outside in." That might be my problem too.

826michigan

I donated a piece to 826michigan. Although it did not sell at their silent aution they are now trying to sell it on their ebay auction. The details of their auctions can be found here.

"826michigan is a non-profit organization dedicated to supporting students ages 6 to 18 with their creative and expository writing skills, and to helping teachers inspire their students to write. Our services are structured around our belief that great leaps in learning can happen with one-on-one attention and that strong writing skills are fundamental to future success."

If you have never stopped by 829michigan, you really should. They have turned the front half of their building into Liberty Street Robot Supply & Repair - which is way cool. They even have a 2-XL robot in there!! Does anyone remember these guys? Stop by there some Friday night, its a blast.

Flash...yes I know..

No, I have not forgotten about you my dear Flash. I just want to give each and every vehicle of my design the attention it deserves. I have dabbled in animation years ago in a college course. I also used to be addicted to Final Cut Pro for a few years, and that program is similar to the setup of an animation program. I have used sound software as well, so I am not completely ignorant to Flash's infostructure.

I am going to learn Flash as soon as I am finished with handy dandy CSS course. These days a designer needs to know everything. It seems like there was once upon a time where everyone had their responsibilities. There was a designer, an illustrator, an animator, a web designer... Nowadays you have to be cross platformed, no doubt about it.

Anne Mondro

Here is a video featuring Anne Mondro. I consider Anne a mentor, a professor and a friend. She is amazingly talented and detailed.

New Site!!

Okay, after viewing the traffic of my fine art site I decided to redirect all my attention and focus solely on my design for now. The new site Ann Arbor Designs showcases my graphic and web design portfolio. Once I feel comfortable with the success of this site I will rework my fine art in later. I am still in the process of completing my last CSS course and then it is on to Flash! Then perhaps I can add some more pizazz to the new site.