Design

WordPress, technology, and miscellaneous thoughts.

Communities Design Development Kate's Updates Non-Technical Search Engine Optimization Social Media Webdev 101 WordPress Workflow

FOLAS Gets a New Website

Happy to announce that one of my local animal shelters has a new website! FOLAS has a complete site redesign live as of today. I created a new custom WordPress website for them after their old site was hacked. Read more in my portfolio!

Read More

Working with Mock-Ups and Web Graphics

As a front end web developer, you may not necessarily have to create mock-ups. By the time you see the design, it may be finalized already. The web designer is usually the one to make and work with mock-ups heavily. In larger team environments, you might never touch a mock-up aside from slicing it up and turning it into code. However — you will almost certainly have to work with mock-ups in some capacity as a front end web developer, even if you aren’t creating mock-ups. On the other hand, as a freelancer, or working in smaller teams, or as […]

Read More

Getting Stock and Project Photos

A common question I see is, “How do I find images to use on the Internet?” Whether you’re looking for something to just play around with and learn the basics or you’re seeking non-copyrighted images for use in paid projects, there are lots of places to find free images on the Internet. My aim here isn’t to create any kind of comprehensive list. I’m giving a list of the sites I tend to use more frequently than not, and what I tend to use them for. All freebie sites are not equal; you’ll have a better time searching if you […]

Read More

Monoprice Digital Drawing Tablets

Why not add my voice? This isn’t an in-depth review by any means — if you’re looking for that, I recommend this review of the 12×9 tablet by deviantART user draw2much, one among many I read before purchasing this tablet. It includes pictures!

Read More

Nexus Font Manager

I was yowling with someone (Kiriska? Iversia?) over Twitter over fonts and software to manage fonts. I don’t think we knew of any that weren’t super expensive. I recently found Nexus Font Manager and I’ve been using it long enough (a few weeks) that I feel comfortable recommending it. It’s pretty nice, and only took me maybe two or three minutes to figure out the essentials. Why bother? Tons of fonts can slow down your computer (SuperUser source). It’s usually minute, but still. The bigger issue: it’s a giant pain and repeatedly wastes your time when you pick through many hundreds (or thousands) […]

Read More