I’m sorry about the mess and severe lack of updates.
I’ve been busy as of late, and haven’t had much time to sit around and do much with Ca9ine.com. My job as well as Feed The Gamer is demanding most of my attention these days.
I’ve started on yet another redesign, and as you probably notice, it’s quite half-arsed at the moment. A lot of planned features like some Twitter goodness and Google+ stuffles, and other social stuff isn’t implemented yet, and most of the design I need to polish and optimize for future awesomeness à la R3t@rd. I made it live because the old design irritated the crap out of me.
I’ll try for my sake to write some posts more often.
You’re of course welcome to have a read.
I’m suffering a little from “designer’s block”.
As I wrote earlier, I’m currently building the Norvard WebMedia company website and I’m planning to completely overhaul Feed The Gamer to take it out of BETA. I also want to do more to this site, or do yet another redesign (I see my blog as my “practice space”).
But, the thing is: as I’m close to finishing Norvard WebMedia’s site, I suddenly find myself completely out of inspiration. The site is done. It’s fully functional and the main content is in place, but it’s the tiny details I want done that I just can’t find any inspiration to complete.
This results in Feed The Gamer and Ca9ine.com also getting pushed back. Which is bad.
Luckily, Feed The Gamer is live and enjoying frequent visits. I just want to launch it fully.
Got any recommendations for me?
Websites to visit for inspiration, or good articles to read could go a long way.
Here I am again! Just sitting here.
Oh, how I enjoy the peace and quiet of my throne.
You may have noticed yet another redesign of Ca9ine.com
If not, that’s most likely ‘cos you’re not paying attention!
Or have ever read my blog..?
Well, I got fed up of the last design, so I redesigned.
I don’t think it’s finished, though. I think I’ll be HTML5′ing it up a little with some CSS3 and maybe completely overhaul it to fit the new standards. But, all in good time.
I’m also thinking of making a statement towards Microsoft and their “Beauty of The Web”, Internet Explorer 9; the new browser which really doesn’t do anything of what modern browsers are supposed to do these days. I simply won’t be coding with Internet Explorer in mind. So, all in all, Internet Explorer users won’t be able to see any of the delight I’ll be adding to the blog (eventually). .
Colour me unprofessional.
However, this is my personal blog, not Norvard WebMedia.
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What is the Bog Blog?
The Bog Blog entries are random entries regarding everything and nothing. The entries are always written when I’m on the toilet doing number two, and the content can consist of various thoughts, rants and shorter entries I need to get out of my arse off my chest. Often combined into one entry …Smells in here doesn’t it?
I’ve compiled a list of my favourite most awesome websites, where combined they provide absolutely everything web designers need to create just about anything their twisted minds can spawn. With these websites and their content available, the only limit is the mind itself.
Many of these websites I still visit daily, but at some point I’ve used all the applications, downloaded the software and been inspired by various tips & tricks from all of them.
The following list includes websites containing downloadable open source software,
complete online design suites; great tutorials, references and articles.
Blogs:
Smashing Magazine – www.smashingmagazine.com
The ultimate designer blog. You’ll find tips, tricks and great articles on everything remotely related to modern web design and development. The Smashing Shop also offers books and ebooks on design and development.
Cats Who Code - www.catswhocode.com
Part of the Smashing Network, maintained by coder Jean-Baptiste Jung; very much focused on WordPress. You’ll find great tutorials and recipes on various useful and stylish design elements for your projects.
Web Designer Wall – www.webdesignerwall.com
Resources:
Premium Pixels – www.premiumpixels.com
Website focusing on design freebies in the form of PSD’s. Many nice elements like buttons, sliders, icons etc. is freely available for download. Run by designer Orman Clark.
COLOURlovers – www.colourlovers.com
Fantastic website for people who have a passionate interest for colours. This website will help you discover colour variations for your every design. Find, create, vote and comment on millions of palettes.
FontFuse – fontfuse.webink.com
Another fantastic website. This time for the lovers of typography. Typography can be alpha-omega in a design, so use this website for all its worth. Explore, create, vote and comment on various combinations of fonts.
Tools:
GIMP – www.gimp.org
Open source image editing software. Think Photoshop, only free. Good user interface, and comes with the ability to expand the software with plenty of plugins.
Aviary – www.aviary.com
Aviary is a complete design suite -online. It has most of what you’ve come to expect from the large and costly suites from the likes of Adobe and Corel, only it’s all free and it’s browser based.
Inkscape – inkscape.org
Open source vector graphics editor, available for download. Great software for logo designing amongst other things. Inkscape is also the choice of many professionals in the design industry.
NetBeans - netbeans.org
Open source integrated development environment (IDE). Code your heart out, it’s free. Great substitute for Dreamweaver and other commercially available IDE’s.
Springloops - www.springloops.com
Project management at its very best. Create an account, start adding your project, set up steps and add more users/collaborators to your projects. Gratis awesome!
Launchlist – lite.launchlist.net
Great checklist to help you decide if your website is ready for launch. The Lite edition is totally free. You can go Pro if you need to add several projects and manage them privately.
Dropbox – www.dropbox.com
Cloud sharing/file hosting/backup space for the stuff you really don’t want to lose. Like your design and code! You shouldn’t be without and account on Dropbox.
If you’re interested in the design business, there are other great blogs and resources available to you. Below you’ll find my favourites, very much dominated by Behance.
The 99% – www.the99percent.com
Action Method - www.actionmethod.com
Behance Network – www.behance.net
I’m in the process of building my company website -Norvard WebMedia.
The process has slowed down a bit as I’ve headed into busier times, and need to relax a little more in the evenings. After all, this is all happening on my free time as I have a day job “technicianing” things up. But its all coming along nicely. A total redesign of the logo is complete and already up on the “Under Construction” splash page currently displayed on the website.
I’m undecided as to wether or not I’ll go full HTML5 with the site, or if it will suffice with some CSS3 trickery. For now, CSS3 is the only “modern” code on the site, but I may change my mind on this and go all in. After all, I do intend to take the whole “Creative Entity” thing as far as I can with Norvard WebMedia. Meaning, not just have the company be a “holder and owner” of Feed The Gamer, but rather a web oriented company; design, development -maybe for hire; the works.
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Feed The Gamer is also seeing good times. A new regular writer, Luke Dicken, came on board to write for the site, and one of my closest friends and partner in weirdness (read. retardation), author Grant McMaster also joined for the odd editorial when he finds the time. So that’s two more staff providing quality content.
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On a side note,
I’ve not been doing much on my blog here. It’s not my first priority, as the above probably would suggest. But, I’ll be doing things here also later on. So keep your eyes open if you’re interested.