Over at WPWebHost they are searching for the best designed site supported by WordPress. Now, I know my site isn’t perfect. And really the new version is not completely solid, but I have decided to throw my hat into the ring.
However, I have a bit of a problem. I am unsure as to which category to submit my entry. The five options are:
Well yesterday I finally was satisfied enough with the updated version of my site to upload. Of course, the result was not the nice and easy transfer that I was expecting since I decided to transfer my site to using WordPress as a CMS. All archived blog images broke, none of my links transferred, permalinks weren’t working; it was just an irritating time sink.
Obviously there is still work to do, such as adding my portfolio pieces, but what became most irritating was the fact that Safari was ignoring font-family, background, well generally everything on the body styling, when it appeared quite fine in Firefox, and Opera.
I spent the morning searching for a solution. I could find nothing about Safari ignoring font-family, which for me was the more important issue. I should have considered that the problem stemmed from the fact that all body styles were being neglected.
After a little experimentation, I found the root of the problem. WordPress’ theme information in style.css.
As mentioned before, I have an iPod Touch. Since I use it practically everywhere, I wanted a nice sturdy case to protect it while in transit, via my pocket, a purse or backpack. A simple Google search brings up oodles of shoddy plastic techinicolored containers that offer minimal style and functionality for far more than I was willing to pay.
So I took a cue from crafty site and sought out information on hollowing a book:
http://how2dostuff.blogspot.com/2006/02/how-to-make-secret-hollow-book.html
I’m rather pleased with how it turned out, click the image to view larger:
One color and Two color versions
During the fall I worked with a local firm to create or refresh logos for area merchants.
My first project with the organization was to create a new logo for a well established florist keeping future printing budgets in mind, thus I had to keep to a minimum of colors.
When I develop a logo, I begin the piece using only black so I know it will work well in one color rather than the other way around. There is nothing more heartbreaking than coming up with a slick multi-color logo that falls apart when displayed with one color. By following this process, I was able to restrict the pallet to two colors providing a simple accent to the flower and hummingbird.
I have always wanted to create my own font, and have always planned on learning the software to develop various explorations in typeface design, but also for the vain purpose of having a typeface of my own handwriting.
In keeping up with the practices and various coding languages used in web design, I have had little time available to hone such a skill set. Fortunately for me, YourFonts.com provides exactly what I was interested in without needing to investing all the time, the opportunity to create a unique typeface both quickly and cheaply.
As soon as I stumbled across the site, I eagerly printed out the template. For my first attempt I chose to stick with my own handwriting and quickly scratched out the alphabet and headed to the scanner. I had a little trouble uploading a PNG, so I would suggest saving your file as a JPG. After a few minutes I had created “Sam’s Scrawl” and began playing around in Illustrator. As I tested out my new font, I discovered that I was a bit to hasty with writing out the characters. I then tweaked my initial scans in Photoshop and began the uploading process anew.
I am pleased with the final result, however, the typeface would not be suitable for large size uses as it it is comprised of sharp vector shapes rather than organic curves.
Download Sam’s Scrawl for your own personal use.
A Little Bird Told Me is the home base for the work and thoughts of Samantha Armacost. This site was developed using XHTML, CSS, and PHP, all wrapped up in some WordPress. All work on the site is © 2007-2012 Samantha Armacost, Some Rights Reserved unless otherwise noted.