Thursday, December 30, 2010

The Holidays

Not much has gotten done with the holidays in full swing. About all I've gotten done is some work on a site design for a photography company, work that I don't like and am planning to scrap though. I did get a site mockup done in conjunction with a job I interviewed for. Nothing I plan to post here thought.

Today is my birthday, 29th, and as a present my wife took my son to the babysitter's house on her way to work so I could have the day off! So, what do I plan to do with the time? Um.... prolly work. So I hope to have a new site mockup for the photography company by the end of the day.

-Jake

Tuesday, December 14, 2010

Fast Five

So I haven't done any design stuff since Saturday... really. But I did happen on this trailer for 'Fast Five', the fifth installment of the 'Fast And Furious' franchise. And I have to say, this is probably gonna be a crappy movie... but I still wanna see it!



The cars get me every time! I will admit to having watched the last one more than once!

Say what you will about me but I love cars and I love a good chase scene. In fact I will admit to digging through my dvd collection, pulling out 'Bad Boys II', putting the disk in my Xbox, and promptly skipping to the chase between the muscle cars, the Ferrari, and the big rig ("They throwin' cars! How am I not gonna see that!").... then turning off the movie and putting it away. I have done the same thing with 'Ronin' for the same reason despite the fact that the cars used in the chase are lame. 'Gone In Sixty Seconds' and the Steven McQueen classic 'Bullit' are also fav's.

-Jake

Saturday, December 11, 2010

Creekside Interiors - Site Mockup #1 (with business card example)

Ok so as promised here is my initial site mockup for Creekside Interiors a interior design firm out of Preston, Idaho.














The site design is a continuation of the business card design and logo design which I did some months back.

Here is the business card design:














Creekside Interiors is about classic design ideas and styles that are made modern. To emphasis this the logo was designed around the classic and beautiful shape of the Greek Amphora, a silhouette recognized world-wide. Added to this shape was a traditional river bank scene with the tall blades of grass and Cattails, a scene carefully chosen to bring this traditional and beautiful shape of the Amphora into people's homes. The grass/Cattail scene was also chosen because the owner was concerned that the idea of a "creek side" might incorrectly convey a "western" or overly "country side" design aesthetic which the owner wanted to avoid like the plague.

Here is the logo sheet:














The tag line "Experience Based Design", additionally emphasized by the partially painted wall on the card, was chosen to convey that while ideas and concepts sound great on paper the owner has actual experience with interior design knows how to guide the client to a visually stimulating solution for their interior spaces.

-Jake

PS: The domain has been chosen and purchased for this project already so as soon as I have the finished the revisions process I can jump right into creation and hosting of this site at which point I will add a link to the site. In the meantime watch for updates on this project along the way.

Friday, December 10, 2010

Zoomed through it...

*cough*dork*cough*

In spite of the lame post title, I did just crank out a website design and partial coding for a company called ZoomLm, you can find them by clicking here.

I designed the logo and the site and, as I mentioned, I also code the basic site. This project, from start to finish took just over a week including waiting for approval from the various business partners. 

Here is a screen shot of the site mockup done in Photoshop:












ZoomLm provides lead management for small business.


Other note, I'm working on a site for an interior design company called 'Creekside Interiors'. I will hopefully post a screen shot of my initial design when its ready for submission to the customer so look for that either later today or tomorrow.

-Jake

PS: I made some homemade fudge... and it is awesome to have a whole pan of fudge in your fridge for consumption at will!

Tuesday, December 7, 2010

Domain name Transfer: Complete

During the construction of the new site I was investigating subdomain names for the site and found that my current, at the time, domain hosting service didn't include that for free where GoDaddy.com did. So I made the switch but it took five days for the domain to officially transfer. While I was at it I also purchased the .net and .org extensions as well in an effort to control more fully my brand.

Now that the .com domain is moved over to GoDaddy, I am setting up some subdomains, one for each of my sub pages. In association with that I am going to be updating my links within the site to follow these new changes. So if a link doesn't work right now please be patient while the changes filter down.

Also, I've setup Google Analytics for the site. Since I'm not selling anything on the site nor am I really pushing the site for search engines, I will be using Google Analytics mostly for traffic information and also to start getting familiar with the service for future projects.

-Jake

PS: I ate a bunch of Oreo's last night.... mmmmmmmm.

Friday, December 3, 2010

The site is 'Hotrod Done'!

What is 'Hotrod Done' you ask? Hotrods are never done, they are just done for now. Hotrods are a continuous project that a true hotrodder never finishes simply because the spirit of hotrodding is about creativity, improvement, personalization.

So the site is 'Hotrod Done' with only a few minor styling changes that I'd like to make in the near future and also I'd like to include a contact form but for now it will be just fine!

With the finishing of the site it is time to start applying for positions a process that kinda sucks.... but the possibility of joining some companies is quite thrilling at the same time. Also with the finishing of the site, I will be able to shift gears over  to some side projects that need completion... or starting in some cases!

-Jake

Wednesday, December 1, 2010

Gallery Done... for now

The 'Portfolio' gallery is done for now and ready to introduce my work to the world. (That was dumb).

Current projects will be posted on the blog before making it into the portfolio... if they ever do.

-Jake

Tuesday, November 30, 2010

Txt message to post test.

inaugural post

With the implementation of my new site, Lunacium.com, it is only appropriate that I also host a blog. As I have now finished customizing the template so that it mirrors the look of the mother site, I am ready to begin my blogging life..... but I really don't have anything to say at this point so this post will really function as a 'test' and a 'Welcome' (though nobody is listening yet).

-Jake