I'm still alive, just have been really busy with commuting and house hunting. I'm getting out of Barrie and back to Toronto next month and cannot wait. I am going to launch a new website this summer, I think in Joomla but am still just thinking about the design at this point. And Joomla. I just taught myself Joomla last month and have been creating a monster site for my work, Bang Creative Communications: http://doc.creativitygoesbang.com/index.php . I'm almost done but it has taken so long to create that I am still not confident that this is the way of the future with web design. I could have whipped up the same design in HTML in like a week. This mofo has taken 4 weeks at least. Maybe it will be easier to maintain. I like that people can comment and share content easily. See, I'm torn. Anyways, I am using Twitter a little more these days so if you'd like you can follow me at https://twitter.com/ElaineStam Check back in August for a new, way more awesome site! :)

Excerpt from article "Black in the Visual Arts" as found on Paul Rand's site: In nature, black and its companion color white are dramatically juxtaposed in the contrast between day and night. The monotony of uninterrupted darkness or light would be intolerable. Black in the trunks of trees subtly sets off the brilliance of green or autumn- colored leaves. Throughout nature we find the equivalent of black and white in shadow and light—there are caves and canyons as well as fields and meadows. Man as a rule does the least violence to nature when he uses either natural materials, such as stone or wood, or black and white for the objects he places out of doors. Natural colors are integrated, white participates by reflecting its environmental color, and black modestly provides perfect background for the riotous nature colors. Certainly those people who observed with pleasure the old-fashioned black steam engine wind its way agreeably through green fields and forests, have watched with a kind of horror the orange or blue streamliner that now streaks garishly across the countryside. http://www.paul-rand.com/index.php/site/thoughts_black/ It occurs to me that I don't really use the colour black with my designs unless I'm using it for a font. I guess I usually think it's too strong. Why not make a statement?!

http://www.instantshift.com/2010/03/17/40-fresh-free-fonts-for-your-next-designs/

Clean and 'grunge' versions. I've been looking for a basic halftone set for a while..

 

thinkdesignblog.com/free-vectors-28-halftone-vectors-clean-grunge-versions.htm

www.youtube.com/watch

Thanks Jo- yet another reason why PCs are a joke.. messing with the perfection that is Helvetica!

So there's all this buzz about the oympics and quite frankly I could care less. I love Canada but sports do nothing for me. Watching someone else play sports does even a little less. This year I am actually mildly into the olympics due to my love for their mascots. My boyfriend bought me a little Quatchi to cheer me up when I was having a rough day and he is awesome! I want his friends too.

 

After telling my friend Johanna about my love for Quatchi she pointed me in the direction of 

www.meomi.com/, the website for the company who created the Vancouver 2010 mascots, a design studio in Vancouver & Los Angeles. I haven't had the time to really explore the whole site yet but I encourage you to if you have the time! :)

 

At work we have a client who is committed to having drop down menus (not my preference as it does not allow for me to control the user flow and it is too much work to browse a website with drop downs if you ask me) so I searched online and tound this little gem. This webpage has an index of various styles of drop down menus (vertical, hortizontal) and they even show examples of their usage on popular websites. I am using the MTV menu and it's really easy to work with. If you're a web designer I suggest you download this package as I assume it won't be online for too long..

 

www.lwis.net/free-css-drop-down-menu/

 

 

 

I discovered this website yesterday, you can buy items on it and also use it to sell your own merchandise (over 89 items you can personalize!). I believe you just send them your design and they impose it on the products, you link the page to your website and voila!

 

www.cafepress.ca

 

I bought the pot, sand and succulents at the garden gallery. I plan to keep my eyes open for pots when I'm out antiquing so I can collect a stash of neat pots and then just need to buy the plants. I'm going to start cloning the succulents I already have too, I just bought a book all about it and am pumped to start playing god with my plants.