JesseSutherland

Is Another CMS Worth It? June 26, 2008

Lately I’ve been pretty fascinated with Content Management Systems. For those not “in the know”, its basically a program that allows a website’s content to be editable through a web browser. As a web designer, they’re pretty addictive to play with and see which ones would be best for client projects, and for my own projects. The idea of them is great, you can design a website, handling all of the big picture stuff, and then let the client deal with all of the nitty gritty details that they want to change later on down the road.

But I don’t feel like I’ve found the perfect one so far. I’ve played with so many different ones on the website Open Source CMS, and I’ve installed a bunch to experiment around with on my own server. (To be exact I’ve tried Wordpress, Drupal, Joomla, CMS Made Simple, Expression Engine, Frog, Website Baker, and MODx… phew!) I have some individual critiques of each one, and some critiques of all of them as a whole, but I’m not going to get into that right now. (Maybe in another post down the road)

I’ve had a few ideas of my own for how I would create a CMS, and I would love to think through and design a CMS the way clients and designers would want to use one, instead of the way a developer or coder thinks about one. What designer wants to teach their client HTML just so they can update their website? That never works. I feel like there is a large gap in all of the CMS offerings out there right now that could be filled.

But is it really worth the time? I mean first of all I don’t even know how to program more than a simple if/then statment, so I’d need to coerce a programmer to help me out. And really, even if they did the coding and I did the designing, would it be worth the investment of time to work on yet another CMS? Is there room in the market for just one more? Is it already oversaturated?

If anyone even knows what I’m talking about, and has any suggestions or words of advice, please let me know. If you’re a programmer with a lot of spare time on your hands, you should let me know that too.

Web 2.0 Design Trends May 22, 2008

I swore to myself that this would never happen, but after looking for inspiration on too many CSS Web Galleries the style has kinda gotten into my head, and I’m not sure how I feel about it.

In many ways, I feel like the style trends of what many are calling Web 2.0 are getting boring and overused.  When I browse around these CSS galleries, I feel like many are simply copying each other and not actually putting any thought into their designs, only reusing “cool effects” that others have discovered, and already tired out. And yet I find some of these styles creeping into my own designs. Agh!

In an effort to figure out what I like and dislike about some of these new styles, I’m going to try and sort out the things that I feel are worthwhile from the things that I feel are merely trendy.

Merely Trendy:

• Glossyness and glows: It seems like every design element has to have a curved glossy line that came straight off of a 90’s iMac computer. And it has to glow as well. Where does this fascination with shiny objects come from?
• Gradients everywhere: Some designs are so filled with gradients that have absolutely no point. The gradients are so obvious and annoying that they have no point than to fill space.
• Reflections: Yes, Apple has used this effect well in the past and it was cool then. That does not, however, mean that every logo, photo, product, or whatever needs to look like its reflecting on some mysteriously shiny white or black background.
• Illustrated comic-style icons: I’m not sure how to describe this, but why does every new Internet startup have to have an illustrated logo, or describe their services with kiddie comic-style icons that don’t really fit them at all?

Actually Worthwhile:

• Adding Depth: I’m not totally against gradients and drop shadows, they can certainly serve to create a sense of depth in the design and layering that draws the viewer in, feeling like they could almost pick up some of the elements instead of only looking at a flat screen.
• Using textures: The internet has been flat color for far too long, I enjoy the use of creative textures and that help the design communicate, not distract from it.
• More Interactivity: New technologies like AJAX are great and help the viewer feel like the website is much more alive and interactive than before. I especially like interacting with elements that aren’t even clickable.
• Creative, but simple Navigation: I’m so tired of the normal left-side navigation. I’m loving new designs that show simple, yet creative navigation that’s obvious to use.
• Bigger Photos: I love seeing large photos that immediately draw you into the design.
• Breaking Boundries: We’re so used to boxy designs that keep their content self-contained. I enjoy designs that set up these boundries and then purposefully break them with photographic or design elements.

So yeah, I wouldn’t call that a complete list either way, just some thoughts on my part. I think my biggest thing is really just that I want to make sure that I’m staying original, and that I’m not just following the crowd like I see some designers doing. Each design is for a unique person, organization, or company, so how can so many end up looking the same way?

Spiritual Clarity April 21, 2008

One thing I have noticed in my Christian life is how rarely I see my life with the kind of clarity that I wish for, and how short of a time it lasts. I often find that I am reading a book, or listening to a sermon, or talking to a good friend during the evening and all of a sudden this big-picture, large scale view of my life, God, and the people around me comes into focus. It’s like realizing that you’ve forgotten to put on your glasses in the morning and you hadn’t noticed it up to this point.

I feel like this tonight after finishing Velvet Elvis, a book by Rob Bell. In his last chapter he paints a big-picture view of Christianity, and of the Gospel message. You know what? It’s really attractive! I want to be the kind of person that is humble, serves others earnestly, gives generously, lives vigorously, and deals with people honestly. I want to be real with people, stop being scared of what they think of me and just love them for who they are. Really the Gospel isn’t as much about telling people about Jesus, as it is showing his love to them. How much more attractive is that? If you could do that really well, people would be banging down your door asking about Jesus.

Yet my challenge is always remembering that clarity that I had the next morning, when all is foggy again and I stumble into my everyday routines. How can I change? How can I stop living selfishly and start living for others? What steps can I take in that direction? What is God calling me to?

If no one else, maybe I can inspire myself with this post tomorrow…

New Content to Come April 3, 2008

I’ve been thinking a lot about what other kinds of content I’d like to see on this website. I think there are some changes to come in adding some minor things like more pages under the About Jesse section, with some more contact information and such. I’d also like to add a search bar back into the design, which I’ve been ignoring so far. Along with that, I have some friends around the web that deserve some linking to, so I should give them some props somewhere on the site as well (No site should be an island, you know).

I’d also like to add a section called Adventures. I got the idea from my friend Chris Dewan back in the day. I’d like to improve on it some more though. This would be kinda like a photo gallery of trips/excursions that I’ve been on, but with additional information about the location, the date, and a blog post about it. We’ll see how that all comes together. I think adding another section will also mandate changing the top menu a little bit to accomodate a fourth link.

As you can see, I’ve got some work cut out for me. I’m glad though that this new website is proving to me more flexible and more fun to update than the last one. Post more comments while you’re here!

I Have 284 Friends March 14, 2008

…at least according to my Facebook profile. I looked through all of them the other day as I wanted to send out a message about this website. You know what? There are people in there I can’t even remember, I have no idea how I know them! And there are a lot of people who I haven’t talked to in years. We were acquaintances at best.

Social networking websites like MySpace and Facebook came about so that you could connect with people. I certainly see some amount of value in keeping up with people from far away; it’s not a bad thing. But it’s interesting to me that as we’re able to connect with people easier and easier, it gets harder to maintain all of those friendships that we now have the ability to keep up. Could I realistically keep up friendships with 284 people? Yeah right.

Sometimes I wonder (and I’m sure I’m not the first) if all of these friends, if all of this “easy contact” I have with people all over the world enabled by the Internet, email, instant messaging, and social networking sites has actually made it harder to maintain a real friendship with anyone?

Instead of telling people about an important event in our lives, we post it on Facebook. Instead of calling someone to see what they’re up to, we just Facebook them. Instead of stopping by someone’s place, it’s much easier to send out a Facebook invite.

It’s all about convenience and making communication easier. After all, how often do you have a meaningful conversation through these sites? Even our face-to-face conversations may change; we are so used to having these little snippets of friendship that we are not used to conversing about the deeper and more important things in life.

Friendship is a two-way street, giving and taking. These sites are all about the taking, we post only what we want to post, and we read only what we care to read. When all we do is take, we find that no one wants to give back. I’m not sure I believe that you can maintain a friendship through a social networking site, at least, not fully.

Why am I dissin’ these sites? I have no idea, truthfully, I have nothing against them. I’ll continue to use my accounts and talk to people through them. I guess my challenge is to continue to build real friendships with those around me and to not let the “bad habits” of online contact seep into my everyday life.

New Work Already! March 5, 2008

Yes, I know I just launched the site on Monday, but I might as well get some more work up there! I’ve got three new things for you, all in the print design category. None of these things is new yet, but I still have some older work that can be put up when I feel like it. Two of them are invites that I did for Morsekode shindigs, and one is some CD art that I created for a Morsekode Mix CD. Check ‘em out.

New Website, Finally March 1, 2008

This new website is a long time in coming, in fact, I designed the last one in less than a weeks timeframe for a class in my junior year of college. It was pretty rushed and it was never fully thought out. After I graduated and had a bit more time on my hands I started to want to design a new site.

That was almost 2 years ago now! I’ve worked on this project on and off during that time, but its always a challenge designing for yourself. I’m never completely happy with what I’ve come up with. In fact, I think that I went through 14 designs to arrive at this one. (My wife thinks I’m insane!) At some point, I just had to say, “this is the one, be happy with it.”

My goal with this site is to keep it more updated. I’ve made it pretty easy on myself to add new content to it, so I have no excuses now! I’m hoping to be able to add new designs I’ve created, new photos I’ve taken, and some varying thoughts from time to time.

I call the blog section “thoughts” because I hope that it will be more than the occasional “Hey, I just saw the coolest website” or “I had Macoroni and Cheese for dinner last night, boy is that good!” I hope to bring something new to the blogosphere, from design commentary, to advertising ideas, to thoughts on Christian spirituality. Join in the conversation with me and let me know your thoughts as well, I welcome the feedback.

This is definitely a work in progress, I may add sections, or change how things work, so don’t be too surprised. Feel free to let me know if you have any comments, thoughts, or questions.

I Haxored Wordpress February 12, 2008

One of the things I’m proud of in this new website is the technology behind it. It represents a couple of steps into new grounds that I haven’t made before. First off, the website is based on a simple XHTML skeleton, and then is styled using CSS. This method has been around for a while now, I’ve waited for a while for technology to catch up, and then I also got lazy and just didn’t want to learn it. It was a good challenge and I certainly see the flexibility and the wisdom in separating the design and the content.

Second of all, this website is completely based on the Wordpress blogging platform. Now, running a blog off of Wordpress is easy, and doesn’t take much. But after trying out a billion CMS’s out there I finally settled on simply using this system. It took a bit of haxoring, and a little PHP programming on the way (scary!) but it was actually relatively simple and I’d consider recommending it for clients and friends. Each item in the Portfolio is actually a post with some custom features, this makes adding new stuff really easy. (The idea being that I update this website more often!) Plus, those designs can be sorted any number of ways, by discipline, campaign, or any other way I want.

McIntyre Library “Off the Shelf” November 11, 2006

Heya, this will probably be my last school post, as I hope to change this site up completely soon, and I am now graduated from Eau Claire. As I mentioned in the last post, The McIntyre Library has begun using the logo that Seth, Dave, and myself designed. They have posted the newest edition of Off the Shelf and it has a featured article about us on the second page. It’s exciting to see that some of our work is going to good use. Enjoy.