At one point, people could only get a glimpse into a celebrity’s life when some trashy magazine published some photos of celebrities shopping. THEY’RE JUST LIKE US! I know… I was surprised too. But now… we have Ashton tweeting pics of Demi’s butt. Yay? Yes, the internet and social media has given fans an insight into to the world of celebrities that at one point they would have never had access to. The same is true for comic book creators… many of which have embraced the always-changing world of internet and social media trends to engage their fans and promote their personal brand. Read more…
As I venture out onto the Internet to learn more about my favorite comic book artists, I keep coming across websites that look unprofessional, outdated, or some that are just plain terrible. (Say what you will about Rob Liefeld’s artwork, but he at least has a pretty professional looking website — pictured above.)These artists clearly have more talent in their little finger than I have in my entire body and I think that they should have a web presence that appropriately showcases their talents. This could be something as simple as James Jean’s minimalist portfolio, in which he lets the work speak for itself, or something more like Marvel or DC‘s sites, where they have the art take up the majority of the page. After the jump is a list of some of my favorite comic book artists and screenshots of their websites. Are there any that I missed?!
Read more…
Earlier this year, Google introduced the Google Font Directory, which offers users a selection of open source fonts to use online as web-friendly fonts. I finally set aside some time to find out more about it… only to realize that it takes about 5 minutes to integrate the fonts into your site! I used the Reenie Beanie font on some of the headers throughout my site. I initially was using it on more text, but quickly realized that getting too crazy with some of these fonts could result in very unreadable text. So, while this new free resource is very cool, best usability practices should still be kept in mind when designing your site!
Has anyone seen any other websites integrating these fonts?
Resources:
Where to download the Google fonts to use in Photoshop comps
After nailing down the scope and requirements of a project, I always start my designs with a wireframe of the homepage. In the past, this usually started with some dry erase markers on a whiteboard and then I would recreate those drawings using Photoshop. This is not always the fastest and most efficient way to work. My friend @schusterbauer, however, recently introduced me to Mockingbird, an online wireframing application, and it has completely changed the way I work.
Mockingbird’s simple UI and library of web elements makes it easy to rapidly mock up your designs and outline the basic functionality of the site or application. The user’s ability to quickly update the mock ups make it an ideal tool for brainstorming and “sharing” your projects is a great way to collaborate and get feedback from clients. I would highly recommend using this tool to anyone!
Other wireframing tools worth checking out are Hot Gloo and Balsamiq. Are there any others worth checking out?
It was Doppelgänger Week this past week on Facebook and people really got into it. Little known fact: I have always been a big proponent of doppelgängers. I guess it’s because people have always seemed to think that I had so many. Or, maybe it’s because I look kinda weird. Either way… it’s a fun game. I actually offered my Google-image-search services over the weekend for people who were having a hard time finding their own (this occasionally backfired on me). Here are my five doppelgängers:
1. Sean Lennon
This one has always been my favorite and was the one I used as my Facebook profile pic. Sean’s a stylish dude.
See the rest after the jump. Read more…
