redesign

As a part of this new redesign I ran across what seems to be a very common, yet seemingly frustrating problem with setting your sidebar to the full height of a page (not just the screen). It made sense in my mind to simply set the height of the sidebar div to 100%. But oh no, all that gets you is a headache and a pocket full of lint. I tried everything from setting the body and html tag height to 100% to using a min-height of 100% on the sidebar as well, but no luck. I'm still not sure whether this is a browser problem or a CSS problem. In either case I knew I was going to have to do my homework.

Type the words "full height sidebar" into google and you'll get over 300,000 results. With that many pages staring you in the face it can seem a little overwhelming. But I knew I wouldn't have to look that hard, what with Googles superb job of site indexing and all. After reading through a few forums I started to realize the problem I was having. Since my sidebar is floated right it sets the height according to the content that is inside of it, not to the height of the page itself. So for example, if I only had three lines of text in my sidebar it would only span the height according to those three lines of text. I think that worked fine in my old design, as seen below,

but with my new design using a dark background and a light grey sidebar it didn't look so pretty. And sure there are those out there who may say they like the sidebar to be cut short, but I think they're just being lazy.

Enter our hero, the magnificent, super-duper wrapper div. To be honest I don't know why I didn't think of this sooner, at work I always wrap my content. But in this case it hadn't occurred to me. But low and behold, as soon as I wrapped my content and my sidebar and set the background color to match that of my sidebar and set the height to 100% it worked like a charm. That is to say on some pages. You see the next problem came when my sidebar would extend pass the content, then my content would have this ugly grey area underneath it. And that wasn't going to work since I'm using #ffffff as the background color for my content. But even if I changed the wrapper background to white my sidebar would end up looking cut short when the content extended longer than the sidebar, which was my original problem to begin with. UGH!

Cue sound of angels singing. While taking a break from the code, washing my face to be exact, it clicked in my brain what needed to happen. It was so simple. Why hadn't I seen it before? All that was needed was a simple background image repeated on the y-axis that matched my sidebar and to set the background color to white. Now it didn't matter the length of the content or the length of the sidebar, all my pages were covered. Yay!

So what do you think of the new design? Do you like it better than my previous theme? Would you like to see it in the WordPress theme directory?

a shared culture

If you're not already familiar with creative commons then I recommend you check them out. I first learned about them last year in a web design class when my teacher referred them as the best source for using photography in your projects without infringing on anyone's personal copyright. I use Creative Commons all the time on my flickr account. It's wonderful too because it opens the door to the whole creative community to take what another person has done, whether it be a photograph or a movie, and build upon it and transform it into something else. And it is this focus on community that really draws me in to help support them.

Communities that develop around content and the sharing enable these communities to come together.

Creative Commons is in the midst of its 2008 fundraising campaign. If you would like to find out how you can support them please visit their support site. To celebrate the campaign, Creative Commons has released “A Shared Culture,” a short video by renowned filmmaker Jesse Dylan.

3 sexy journal designs

In light of my recent contest to win a set of FIELD NOTES notebooks, see here, I've been inspired to pick up my journal once again and keep daily notes. Everything from simple to-do lists about work that needs to get done, to doodling, all the way to my next great idea that will change the world forever. So when I got word this morning from friend and fellow twitterer, Aaron Irizarry, about the "Design and designers you love" writing contest going on over at Designer-Daily I thought I'd show you my list of the top three sexiest journals you need to own.

"The Legendary Notebook"

First off we have the classic Moleskin journal. This finely crafted beauty is one of the top selling journals worldwide. It's sleek, simple design is what first lured me in, as it has it's own gravitational force. But you can't judge this journal by it's cover alone, no you must own one to unveil the real beauty inside. The moleskin will always hold a special place on my bookshelf. And the best part about them is they are offered in a wide variety of styles, to suit anyone's wants or needs.

• Ruled
• Squared
• Plain
• Sketchbook
• Japanese Accordian Album

I have personally owned a few Moleskin journals over the years and they never let me down. Their durability and sleek design make it easy for me to carry them along with me wherever I go. The solid hardcover puts me at ease when it's squashed by tons of books or when my dogs try to get a hold of it. And the pages are of such fine quality that it makes me nervous to jot something down. I know that must sound weird, and maybe it's my OCD showing, but I'd rather preserve the beauty of it's blank pages than scribble something of no use. But that's what a journal is for, to get those thoughts, sometimes useless, out of our heads and on to the paper so we can get onto more productive thoughts. And the Moleskin let's you do this with ease and beauty.

"I'm not writing it down to remember it later, I'm writing it down to remember it now."

As the official quote for Field Notes journals you can rest assured that they aren't skimping on their quality. These little guys remind me of what an archeologist or detective from the mid 20th century might have used. They sport a very simple design and a rugged three-staple saddle-stitch binding. Not to mention that they are all made here in the U.S.A.. When you order off their website they are prompt to get your order out as soon as possible. (I received mine in less than a week.) And when it arrives in the mail in it's beautiful cardboard envelope you can find the following goods awaiting you:

• Three 48-page memo books.
• Each 3-1/2″ wide by 5-1/2″ tall.
• Perfect 1-pica-graphed paper.
• Pencil, Bic Clic Pen & other goodies.

Update: Since writing this post a month ago I have grown to love and adore my simple little Field Notes. They travel with me wherever I go, riding in my back pocket, just waiting until I get a new idea that I need to write down. And when I'm at work they sit patiently in front of me, waiting for the right time when I'll take a break from my computer, and commit to using pen and paper for a few moments. They hold up extremely well and the graph paper makes it great to keep lists and other to-do items. So far I'm still on the first of three notebooks, but I'm already excited about ordering more.

"The French Orange (& Black) Notebooks with a Cult Following"

I must be honest, I've never actually owned a Rhodia journal, at least not yet. But just look at them. The iconic cover with it's boldface font and two fir trees screams "BUY ME!" to any self-respecting designer. Each notebook is filled with 80 sheets of 80 g acid-free white vellum paper. And the unique scored cover allows you to neatly fold your pages over the back. If you have ever used one of these before I'd love to hear your personal feedback on them.

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Well there you have it. That's my list and I'm sticking to it. But please, if you know of any other great journals out there that you like I'd love to hear about them. Surely this isn't the end-all-be-all list of sexy journals. Or is it?

the quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog

The Pangram, or "pan gramma" from the Greek meaning "every letter", is a sentence using every letter of the alphabet at least once. Pangrams are most commonly used to display typefaces. The most popular pangram in the English language would probably have to be the title above, but to my surprise today there are tons of pangrams available.

After combing through piles of pangram junk, I finally put together a short narrative with all 10 of my favorite pangrams.

I sat quietly nervous on my first day of class. First days were always my worst.

“Who am taking the ebonics quiz?”, the prof jovially axed. I looked around wondering if I was the only one hearing correctly. But before I could answer my own question I saw the lazy major was fixing Cupid’s broken quiver in a day-dream.

Suddenly I awoke to the sound of my name and quickly gave the first answer that popped in my head, what is "amazingly few discotheques provide jukeboxes." The whole class sat silent for a moment, than erupted in to laughter like a bomb going off in my ears. My face fell flush with embarrassment.

After class my professor stopped me, and with his slow southern drawl said, "playing jazz vibe chords quickly excites my wife." But you don't want to hear that, and I don't want you sleeping in my class. If I catch you sleeping again I'm going to ask you to "Quickly, open your jaw and guzzle this laxative before me," understood?

Well I think that went well.

On the way home I saw that a crazy biker roughed up Steve McQueen’s flexed jaw. Not his actual jaw, since Steve McQueen is dead, but rather a billboard of him. Too bad, I thought, I always liked that picture of Steve.

My stomach growled, food is what I needed, and the sign up ahead read "Pablo’s dazed Mexican taqueria: just take Highway Five." Lucky me, the first and only time I tried Pablo's tacos I was sick for the next three days. I hated tacos anyways, so home cookin' it is.

I think my sister gets paid to watch MTV, she never turns the damn thing off. To my dismay I am stuck hearing what goes on in the world of pop-culture. "Joaquin Phoenix was gazed by MTV for luck" I heard the talking head exclaim. And funny, I thought, since he seems to be doing fine on his own.

Finally some peace and quiet, time to hit the books. My first test in my typography class was over kerning. A case study in my book said that AJAX and AVEDA labels require much of a type kerning wiz, seeing as how they both use the diagonal letters A and V. But the thing I found most interesting was how Macintosh used the pangram "cozy lummox gives smart squid who asks for job pen" in post-System 7 computers for font sampling.

References:

• The Daily Pangram
• Pangrams on Wikipedia

web vs print

There seems to be much debate these days between web and print designers. Not that this is anything new to anyone working in the field, but an important topic nonetheless. As someone who works hand-in-hand with both print and web I've had a small glimpse in to both worlds. But why should I choose sides? If you lay aside the degrees, the associations, the requirements, aren't we all the same underneath? Creative people all looking to make the future a more aesthetically pleasing and usable place to live?

One of the biggest divisions I think between the two is experience. Traditionally, if you wanted to receive recognition as a designer you earned your degree and worked your way up from intern to director. Building a strong portfolio of work along the way. But now with the web it's possible for anyone to make a name for themselves. Notice I said it's possible, not guaranteed, because more often than not the average Joe who makes a website will very rarely receive any type of recognition. And this goes without saying of course that for all the millions of blogs available today, maybe 5% of those are worth reading. Yes the rules of time still apply to the web.

In his article "Dear AIGA, where are the web designers?" Jeffrey Zeldman addresses the American Institute of Graphic Arts (AIGA) with an important question in regards to their upcoming Business and Design Conference.

... I can’t help noticing that for all the brand directors, creative directors, Jungian analysts, and print designers, one rather significant specimen of the profession is missing. Where are the web (or if you insist, the interaction) designers? I am probably missing someone, but I count two people with web experience, and neither gets more than 60 seconds of stage time.

For "the oldest and largest membership association for professionals engaged in the discipline, practice and culture of designing" this is a sore mistake. It doesn't make sense to me that an organization like AIGA still refers to web designers as "interaction designers". And why the delay with welcoming in the new breed of designers who are blending, cutting, pasting and pushing the limits of design? The web should not be thought of as a passing fad but embraced for what it is, the new printing press.

Now more than ever are we able to produce information at an amazing rate of speed. But even more than that we are able to present that information multiple ways on a single page. But you could say the same about print. And of course you would be correct. However I've never had the ability to look at a piece of printed material and been able to change the layout of it on the fly. But then again, there is something beautiful and delicate about a printed piece of work.

So why all the fuss? Why all the title divisions and disputes over what medium is best? It's like fighting a reflection, you can't win when the other person follows your every move. We must become willing to accept what the other does if we want to be respected in our own field. Or as Mr. Zeldman put it:

"If you exclude us from the conversation, the conversation may end up excluding you."

julia hoffmann

"I believe in Simplicity."

Originally born in Frankfurt, Germany, Julia moved to London to learn English and study media studies at the University of East London. Not long after she moved to New York and enrolled at SVA to study graphic design.

Since graduating she's had an impressive incline of client work ranging from The New York Times, Burger King, The Metropolitan Opera and ,my favorite, the new identity for Criterion (pictured left).

Visit her website [at] www.juliahoffmann.com.

Or watch her on Designing Minds.

olive

My Mom recently told me a story about the death of her friends dog Olive. Even though it's just a dog, they are very much a part of our families. I know when my two dogs die I will be an emotional mess. So when my Mom emailed me last week asking if I knew how to crop people out from photos I responded with confidence, knowing that I've only done this once or twice before. But I love a photoshop challenge and a chance to expand my skill set. Below you will find the altered photos I created in photoshop followed by the original image. Olive is the yellow lab in the middle.

The feedback from my Mom's friend was very positive, and I have to say I'm pleased as well.  But above all I was happy to create these images to help a family in a time of their loss.