One of my favorite web designers that I draw inspiration from is OMSH (Oh My Stinkin Heck).  She wrote this wonderful article called “Throwing reason to the wind is..” which succinctly puts into words  what I have so often encountered when designing websites for clients.   She hits the nail on the head when she says to clients that a website “is an investment of yourself.”

Putting Time and Thought Into Your Website

Putting thought into your websiteA designer designs based upon the information provided by the client conveying their ideas or vision for their site.   Sometimes a client will want a website but will not have put any time or thought into the goal of the site, what they want to say about themselves,  their site content, or have any idea of what their  sense of style is.  They just know they  want one.   It’s a good start!  But, if you don’t provide the designer with any information for your desired site the designer will likely design a site that appeals to the designer and not the client.   In order for a designer to project your ideas for your site you need to pull together information and provide them with what best describes the essence of  what you want for your website.   The more information the better.  Information such as providing links to other websites that appeal to you and convey a sense of your style.   Other methods  have been conveyed to me by clients showing me imagery they created on their laptops.  Some have provided spreadsheets, others  have shown me ideas hand-drawn on paper or in written detail.   Providing the designer with a sense of direction to go in will eliminate the unenviable position of them having to become mind readers spending unnecessary and costly time guessing a clients wishes.

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From Smashingmagazine.   How to permanently delete your account on popular websites such as Facebook, Twitter,  LinkedIn,  MySpace,  Google,  eBay,  Wiki, Flickr,  Windows Live,  Stumbleupon, WordPress.com,  Amazon, YouTube,  and  PayPal.

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I love mechanical pencils.  At any given time you can usually find a half dozen of them strewn across  my desk.    I also have a love-hate relationship with them because I usually buy the inexpensive half-dozen to a bag variety and I end up regretting it because the lead breaks easily under pressure or I can’t advance it. Now my regrets have come to an end because I’ve recently found the most wonderful pens and mechanical pencils at the Tokyo Pen Shop

You probably think that Tokyo Pen Shop is located in Japan, right? Well, they are located right here on the west coast in the San Francisco bay area.  Their pens and pencils are high quality from Japan including some hard to find pens like the Hi-Tec C.   Anyway, I just got my order today and I’m ecstatic.  I got the super duper “2020 Super Grip Shaker Pencils”  in pink and blue.  I love them.  They have a nice grip and write smoothly, almost like a gel pen.  The lead doesn’t break either because of a metal sheath that protects it, and the lead advances with some kind of sophisticated shaker mechanism.  While I was ordering I grabbed some of those hard to find Hi-Tec C gel writing pens that have fine writing points and also grabbed some gel-tip Uni-ball Signo RTs for heavier writing.   I showed my pens and pencils to my husband and I now have three less than I started with but if I ever need to order more I now know where to order them from.

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I don’t think a designer can ever have enough images in their repertoire. Enjoy these links.
Texture Palace:  Premium free textures.   Grunge, concrete, metal, ink, stone, textile, and others.
Bgrepeat:  Free repeating backgrounds.
Squidfingers:  Free repeating backgrounds.
Dinpattern:  A great variety of repeating backgrounds.  Be sure and read their usage policy.

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Rod Serling on Ideas and Writing

February 1, 2010
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Ouch!

December 13, 2009

Ha ha, jokes on me for not posting more often. Seems that when I stopped posting I really got sidetracked with things happening on the home front and the seemingly never ending stream of family that have been coming and going for the last 2-3 months. Husband’s large family reunion held here in October, huge [...]

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