July SYSTEMS

Posted by kbs

Another July deadline was completing the redesign of the SYSTEMarchitects.net website before the opening of the Home Delivery exhibit at MoMA on July 17th. This was an exciting challenge. Jeremy Edmiston is a talented architect, who does brilliant work and is the principle of SYSTEMarchitects LIc. Several factors fascinated me about this assignment. First, I graduated from the University of Minnesota with a major in architecture and worked for a number of architects in Minneapolis before I was sidetracked by the other muses. But my design foundation was most certainly laid back then. My professors used to say that architecture is the mother of all arts. Let’s just say that it is a “culture” I am familiar with and love. This was a wonderful opportunity to reacquaint myself while working with a visionary in the field.

Second, Jeremy had unique demands. He showed me some sites that he liked and told me he wanted his site to be “an experience.” This would be a test of my design methods. Generally, my approach to site design is Continue reading →

July Trek

Posted by kbs

In June I commented on my work with Margaret. Since then I have designed a book for Ellie McGrath at McWitty Press. The book, titled TREK, is a memoir about an American woman, married to a German, fleeing the Russians and Germans with her two children at the end of World War II. The publication date is set for October. I built the 264 page book with InDesign. Always enjoy working with Ellie and adding to my InDesign skillz.

The Future is Now

Posted by kbs

Yesterday WordPress made note of awaytogarden.com, saying “a beautifully designed new WordPress powered blog.”

This is fantastic. I had put blogs on Kurt’s and Jamie’s sites, but there I adapted their blog to the site design. Awaytogarden.com was to be only a blog. There are thousands of blog templates out there and Margaret’s friend Kit had short listed about forty of them, but I had my own idea about what functions best for reading that kind of information. So I adapted. (note to self: make blog entry listing my skill levels in various software. ie: HTML = expert. PHP = copy & paste)

Long Story Short: for WP to say “beautifully designed” is, well, personally thriLLING!!!

Margaret, Me and Blogging

Posted by kbs

Last December Margaret Roach contacted me about doing four websites for her. She was leaving Martha Stewart after twenty some years to get back to her roots. Roots, as in gardening. She is an amazing gardener and garden writer. You can read all about it here: www.awaytogarden.com.

That is the blog that I set up for her. She had not blogged before and we set out to learn together. She is a master now. As you know (or more likely have heard/read) the blogoshere is vast, complicated and growing. (yes, i am going to say it: Viral.) Margaret is smart, hard working and a very good writer. She is my source for blogging needs. Not that I need them, but my clients will.

I expect to be designing more sites with blogging software (right now WordPress) because it allows the client to manage/edit his own site through his/her browser: Safari, IE, Firefox. Tip: check out the browser Flock. If you are into Web 2.0 and social networking (Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, etc.) this browser wants to be your tool.

That is why you are reading this, right? You are thinking about your website? You may not want to blog or even hate the idea of blogging, but you would like to edit your own text, yes? I do have clients using Adobe Contribute to edit their sites now. Foremost all of this depends on the client’s level of digital savvy. Just knowing how to do email and surf is probably not enough. But close.

Why am I moving from Contribute to blogging? Mostly because WordPress offers so many add-ons. They are called plugins: guest books, mailing lists, photo galleries, newsletters. Maybe too many. Part of what can be annoying about blogs. But I am on a quest to make websites with WordPress that doen’t look like a blog. I want your site to have your identity when a visitor arrives, not the feeling you are coasting in the blogosphere slipstream. (I couldn’t help it. I get a metaphor in my head and I just can’t trash it)

That is the beginning of my journey with WordPress. Next I want to add more about the WordPress theme Revolution.

Keepin’ it Real

Posted by kbs

I have a lot to learn about WordPress. I may use blog and WordPress (WP) interchangeably because WordPress is the OpenSource blog software that I am using. I first put it on Kurt Andersen’s site and then Jamie Malanowski’s. But when Margaret Roach asked me to make three blogs for her, I knew I would be scaling the learning curve. Fortunately Margaret has done her homework and has a network of friends who are also into WP.

I put a blog here about four years ago using Blogger, the software that is now distributed by Google. But this week I finally loaded WP to use this a place to write about my commercial work and share my web learning experience. And right now that is about blogging.

My goal is to set up sites for clients that they can control the content from their computer. I have been doing that by using Adobe Contribute software. But I think WordPress will prove to be a worthy content management system (CMS).

Funny Title Goes Here

Posted by kbs

Lumpen PortraitsInstead of dummy copy, I will write here that we are now in the Eliot Spitzer downfall news cycle. So much buzz. Yesterday was the zenith. Or at least I assume it was. Today I want to know more about the high priced hooker. To me, this is all playing out like something from Law and Order.

What will be the tag line for the Spitzer Downfall? It needs a title or a Seinfeld catagory, because this has strangers talking to each other in Manhattan. Each year there are only one or two events that reach that level of buzz. Today I was in the hardware store looking for some halogen bulbs when I heard the manager answer the phone, “Eliot Spitzer’s office, he can’t come to the phone right now.” All three customers started laughing and shared their opinions as they checked out. It was the manager’s opinion that since his mother-in-law had forgiven him, he didn’t need to resign. I agreed.