http://www.sketchee.com Ramblings of a Designer + Illustrator Sat, 06 Sep 2008 17:59:48 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en Some upcoming cover options for camp guide 2009. Its about summer camps for kids. http://www.sketchee.com/1142/camp-guide-design-mock-ups Google Chrome, a new web browser has been released in Beta. So far in my testing, it seems pretty fast although understandably unstable at times. It's based on [[Webkit]], the open source rendering engine that Apple uses in it's Safari browser with some code adapted from the open ... http://www.sketchee.com/1131/google-chrome-launches Ever see a youtube video and want to put it on your iPod or just keep it on your computer? Keepvid is a website that lets you do just that without installing anything. It converts the youtube videos into .flv or mp4 format. If you're a Windows user and ... http://www.sketchee.com/1127/how-to-download-videos-from-youtube Episode 20 of Sketcheebook: The Creativity & Productivity Podcast is out. It's filled to the brim with listener feedback. If you need help listening and don't have iTunes or an iPod, make sure to check out the article How to listen to podcasts without iTunes or an iPod Subscribe ... http://www.sketchee.com/1122/sketcheebook-podcast-listener-feedback-episode Puzzled Gamer by Sketchee http://www.sketchee.com/1117/puzzled-gamer-t-shirt Why should graphic designers care about the world of fashion design? Innovation in graphic design can't come from the bubble of self reference. While we can still get a few new and fresh ideas from looking at other graphic designers, we really have to look elsewhere for inspiration. ... http://www.sketchee.com/1111/graphic-designers-should-care-about-fashion If you want to get to the top headlines from the Washington Post, the New York Times or CNET's tech coverage you might turn to podcasts: free online video and audio entertainment. The problem is that most people don't even know what a podcast is. It has something to do with ... http://www.sketchee.com/1092/how-to-listen-to-podcasts-without-itunes-or-an-ipod Radiohead had a great show at the Susquehanna Bank Center in Camden, NJ just across the river from Philadelphia on August 12. This was my second time seeing Radiohead after seeing them at the Nissan Post Pavilion during some pretty rained out conditions. This time the weather was ... http://www.sketchee.com/1056/radiohead-in-technicolor-at-the-susquehanna-bank-center Twitter can easily be embedded into almost any site including Wordpress blogs, Typepad, Moveable Type and any site allowing for liberal handcoded html or flash (ie for MySpace). For those of you don't know, Twitter is a "microblogging" service; it accepts only small 140 character posts for quick dispersement ... http://www.sketchee.com/1047/embedding-twitter-in-your-wordpress-blog Uploaded my lastest designs, this time they're of the Back to School publication. It's a newspaper insert to several Maryland newspapers in association with Maryland Family which is produced by the same company and department as where I work, Patuxent Publishing. There were several original illustrations created as well ... http://www.sketchee.com/1014/portfolioback-to-school-designs With the launch of Zazzle's custom Keds print-on-demand shoe line, it seems like a good opportunity to talk about all of the different custom shoe options online. In addition to Zazzle, companies including Converse, Vans, Nike and others offer configurable customized shoes. Zazzle has teamed up with Keds to provide ... http://www.sketchee.com/974/designing-your-own-custom-shoe Wordpress Themes Director has launched as a new and official place to put those themes you designed or thought about designing since the Wordpress Spice Up Tips post a few months ago. If you've posted your theme on the themes directory, please post it in the comments here! If you haven't gotten ... http://www.sketchee.com/1001/post-your-wordpress-themes Want to easily hem your jeans, keeping the original seam? Originally posted on Fig and Plum's post Hemming Jeans Without Looking Stoopid, Redux was a Word document that had disappeared from Cavaricci's site. I had put up an html version just to make it easier to read a while ... http://www.sketchee.com/963/hemming-jeans-like-a-pro About four years ago, I shared a tip on using Gmail with Google Deskbar's minibrowser (DeskBAR not DeskTOP). Basically, you could get a small browser window right in your taskbar that would go away when you're done with it. The power of it came from the ability to ... http://www.sketchee.com/962/missing-google-deskbar Using Audacity this past week has inspired me to talk about the ugly open source programs floating around. Many great open source programs don't care about design. Searching about Audacity, many developers defend the look of the program as being usable. Usability doesn't make something well designed, ... http://www.sketchee.com/961/ugly-open-source-design With many young designers out of school for the summer, it seems like a pretty good time to talk about volunteering. It's not just for the new designer, an experienced designer can get to do things they can't do in their regular job. photo credit: lumaxart As you hopefully know, ... http://www.sketchee.com/959/why-youd-want-to-be-a-design-volunteer Edit: Sorry for the odd post. I forgot that I had to tag things properly to get it to format from my phone http://www.sketchee.com/958/live-from-the-field photo credit: bravenewtraveler Working in publishing, it feels there are always new terms to learn everyday. Here are some terms used for magazines, newspapers, books and other publications with definitions that are a bit more obscure to those outside of the business. There's a few about newspaper sizes which have ... http://www.sketchee.com/954/publications-vocabulary-you-might-not-know photo credit: 7son75 What is a [[microblog]]? At the time of posting this, I have an experimental microblog on my site powered by Twitter (I have the username Sketchee). Microblogs are just short posts and updates limited to a very very small number of characters. You can ... http://www.sketchee.com/956/microblogging-twitter-and-the-big-deal I don't know if I'd call it a perk of my job, but I had my hand in the last cover photo of Maryland Family Magazine. It's a pretty odd task, but when the art director asked for my help, I thought why not. Is it wierd that ... http://www.sketchee.com/951/lending-a-hand