Studioblog (n): a blog by Studiobanks about design, marketing, internet, business, Charlotte and more.

iSight Jamboree

Robbie 2 Comments

The Survey, 2008

Robbie 2 Comments

A List Apart has kicked off the second annual Survey For People Who Make Websites. The call to action:

Calling all designers, developers, information architects, project managers, writers, editors, marketers, and everyone else who makes websites. It is time once again to pool our information so as to begin sketching a true picture of the way our profession is practiced worldwide.

If this applies to you, you know what to do.

The Return of Webmonkey

Robbie 1 Comments

Back in 1998, I started learning HTML one summer afternoon after visiting Dave's HTML Code Guide. It didn't take me long to exhaust that resource and I was ready for more. Webmonkey was my next stop in the wonderful world of web development and I learned the lion's share of my early HTML and JavaScript knowledge from their articles and tutorials. With that said, I'm happy to see the relaunch of Webmonkey by Wired.com. They've definitely stepped up their game and incorporated a wiki-styled approach to their tutorials. Anyone with a free Wired.com account can add or edit tutorials, but there are some editorial guidelines and the community is moderated by the Wired staff. Nevertheless, Webmonkey has reintroduced itself as a great resource for web developers. If you haven't checked it out yet, definitely bookmark it or grab a feed. You're bound to learn a thing or two.

Service is Good

Robbie 0 Comments

We talk to clients occasionally about pulling in content and data from various, popular services across the web (e.g., Flickr, YouTube, Twitter). Most of the time it stays in the conceptual realm and never makes it to the finished product. Perhaps it never makes the transition because we don't use real-world examples to illustrate our ideas.

Ser-vice is "a lifestyle brand focusing on clean aesthetics and modern lines." Their shirts and products sell directly to folks in the creative industry and to people who use the aforementioned services. Case in point, their home page pulls in photos through the Flickr API tagged with "serviceisgood." Not only does this involve their customers beyond the initial transaction, but it shows new visitors there are actual human beings buying their wares.

All said, this isn't anything that new and I'm sure we could scrounge up dozens of examples of this type. However, it's a great example, in my opinion. We should look to this as a reminder that we've barely tapped into the potential of all the free services available on the web.

Adobe CS File Corruption on OS X 10.5.3

Robbie 8 Comments

A little warning for anyone out there running OS X Leopard 10.5.3 and using any of the Adobe CS products to edit files on a remote or network server: beware of file corruption.

Folks started picking up on this last month when the 10.5.3 update was released. According to AppleInsider:

When users attempt a save command, the file on the server becomes unusable, even when copied and opened locally. The issue occurs regardless of the format and doesn't appear to occur for locally saved files, which can still be uploaded to the server afterwards. The corrupted files appear to have a modified header that prevents them from being recognized properly.

We all work off of a file server in the office. Unfortunately, this bug reared its ugly head and rendered a few Photoshop documents useless. Luckily, we pulled files off our daily backup, so not all was lost. However, we're anxiously awaiting the fix from Apple included with OS X 10.5.4, which should be released in July prior to the iPhone 3G launch. Until then, to all those working with said configuration: copy your files locally before make any changes.

Update: Apple has released the OS X 10.5.4 update, which should resolve the issues described above. Upgrade your OS today.

Dairy Today

Robbie 2 Comments

Earlier this year, Pentagram redesigned the trade publication Dairy Today. While not the most interesting topic, Pentagram did an amazing job. Not only did they introduce a strong logotype, but the cover features a new dairy cow portrait each month. You really need to see it in person, but even on the web it's easy to see the cover's potential impact.

Every now and then I come across a designer who doesn't see what's so great about Pentagram. It's true that they get overhyped occasionally, but the Dairy Today cover shows their strength. They can tackle virtually any topic with ease. Nothing they do is overstated, but instead strives to set a new visual standard. In that way, the intention is to be timeless, which is lacking in most design today. Rebrand your company to the hot new trend and you'll be back to square one in two year's time.

IE 8, HTML 5 and Web Standards

Robbie 3 Comments

Back in March, Microsoft finally caved under the pressure of web designers and developers and announced Internet Explorer 8 will render content in the most current standards-based mode by default (currently, it must be forced out of "quirks" mode by specifying DOCTYPE). In addition, there will be two other rendering modes that are enabled through meta tag declarations—one comparable to IE 7 and another dating back further. Being the behemoth, corporate entity that they are this is understandable, as they can't ignore businesses locked into previous versions of Internet Explorer. Despite my distaste for most of Microsoft's actions, this is a great decision.

With the release of IE 8 Beta 1, the development team at Microsoft is beginning to release details regarding improvements. The most exciting news I've heard on the IEBlog is the HTML and DOM Standards Compliance in the new beta. It appears as if the team is working with the new HTML 5 specification. As we mentioned around this time last year, there a lot of improvements on the way in the new version of HTML. With IE 8 already in its first beta, the WebKit project churning along and the speed at which Mozilla can kick out new versions of Firefox, it's realistic to think we may be able to utilize many of the proposed HTML features in in the next few years. While that still sounds like a long time, the HTML 4.01 specification was recommended as of December 1999 (XHTML in the following year). The HTML 5 specification was just adopted at the end of 2007 and the first working draft published in January. So, the pace is quickening, even though HTML 5 reportedly won't be "recommended" by the W3C until around 2012.

Shenanigans: Book of Lists

Robbie 13 Comments

A little late to the punch on this one, but I couldn't let it slide without offering up my two cents:

In Charlotte Business Journal's 2007 Book of Lists, the listing of Web Design Companies ranked Charlotte companies by number of websites designed locally in 2006. Quality is purely subjective, so that's really the only quantitative, non-biased criteria by which Charlotte companies can be ranked. I get it.

That said, I call shenanigans on pretty much the top four companies, based solely on their reported numbers. For brevity's sake, I'll just break down the numbers for the company ranked first on the listing—I'll refer to them as Company X.

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CommandShift3

Robbie 0 Comments

CommandShift3 is a new site created by Jelly in New York. In short:

You are presented with the screenshots of two websites side by side. If you click the screenshot of the site you think looks best, the page reloads and you start all over again. It never ends.

Basically, it's Hot or Not for websites.

We've submitted the Studioblog and the Studiobanks website (they just recently added the ability to thumbnail Flash sites) and they've had their fair share of victories. Regardless of the outcome, it's good clean fun.

Grid Layout on the Web

Robbie 2 Comments

More and more, web designers and developers are coming to the realization that many of the established guidelines set for traditional, print design can be applied to the web.

Typography seems to be getting the most attention these days—for good reason, as the web is mostly text. Richard Rutter did a great service to web typography and transposed Robert Bringhurst’s typography bible, The Elements of Typographic Style, for the web and published it online.

However, defining areas for the placement of type is achieved through layout, which is equally as important. Specifically, grid layout is something every designer should know. Photoshop facilitates the usage of grid layout when designing, but there’s no simple answer for web developers. Thankfully, Teevio has created a Javascript include that works with jQuery to toggle a grid over any design without affecting the existing code. Use it next time you need to markup a site under a strict grid layout.