Underground Graphics » Learn

Surviving Design School (via GoMediaZine)

Ryan Colgin — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 06:40:09 +0000

In design school, I wish I had known as much as I do now about building websites, typography, branding, packaging, RSS feeds and blogs, billing clients, presenting work, email and web campaigns, how to write a proper email to a client/vendor, how to prep things for print, how to properly research a project/client, how to keep my files organized and archived, and so on. That will be another article(s), but until then, Tom Faraci wrote a great article for GoMediaZine called Surviving Design School that’s 100% worth reading.

So what are your thoughts? What was most helpful? Do you already do those things or use those resources? Leave a comment on GoMediaZine and re-comment it here for other UG2 members. It’s not that much more work.

Epic Fail

Geoff — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 03:18:46 +0000

I’d like to apologize for the CSS tutorial tonight. I forgot to account for the varying levels of web experience/knowledge. And since the next tutorial was going to be advanced CSS techniques, I decided to cater to those who had no experience in web tonight. Even though, after the fact, it was probably way too much information for them to absorb regardless.

So to make up for the apparent boredom, next tutorial will be hardcore. All are welcome to attend, but I promise there will be material Berg didn’t cover in Web I.

Heck! If there’s something that’s been bugging you or you’ve always wondered how they did something, leave a comment and I’ll tell you how to do it next Thursday. Please leave comments before Wednesday so I can prepare.

Here’s the list of topics I was going to address:

Hover-crafts everywhere
Lists gone wild
HTML to PHP (includes)
Float is for boats
Hold that position
Transparency/PNG fun
Internet Explorer checklist
Overflow divs
Sexy descriptions
Abbreviations/acronyms
Multi-class divs
Elastic design
CSS shorthand
Z-index
I Spry with My Little Eye

Inspiring Typography Tales (Smashing Magazine)

Ryan Colgin — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 20:04:28 +0000

So, another great article from Smashing Magazine – hopefully this will be redundant to some of you (if you are subscribed to the RSS).

This one’s about ‘Inspiring Typography Tales’ and it is just that. In the article you’ll get a great little history lesson about a few typefaces, a look into the New York City Subway font choice (Helvetica), a bit about Zapf Dingbats, an awesome video collection of ‘opening titles’ from Kyle Cooper, AND…

wait for it…

…the history behind Comic Sans!

This was super interesting and quite the story I was not expecting. I’m not saying you don’t have to stop disliking it, just that you should have a better understanding of the reason it came to be.

And since I know you’re so interested, here’s what the creator, Vincent Connare says about his (mostly disliked) font.

Enjoy!

Oh, The World Wide Web & The Infinite Sourcecode

Geoff — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 17:19:01 +0000

I know some of you are taking Berg’s Web I class, and I thought this article may be of interest to you. It’s also a good read for any aspiring designer who wishes to work with websites.

Are You a Web Designer or Web Decorator? by Jens Meiert.

Email

Geoff — Fri, 19 Sep 2008 22:14:08 +0000

I’m always open to new features to bring to the site. Just now, I’ve implemented an emailing feature to your profiles so you can contact users through the site. Check it out, yo!

Website Update

Geoff — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 07:10:25 +0000

Alright, so the website, as far as I can tell, is complete.

Here’s a brief explanation of some things for all the noobies.

My Account

When you Login, you’re brought to the Dashboard; and on your far right, you’ll find your Profile. The Visual Editor preference is for when you compose Posts. It’s basically asking whether or not you want to compose (by default) in a Visual Editing Mode, or in an HTML Coding Mode.

I wouldn’t worry about your nickname, unless you want your Display Name to be something other than your username or real name. And I would advise against using your username as your display name, as it poses a potential compromise to the security of your account. I use my first name. If, at first, it does not allow you to change your display name, you may need to save your profile at the bottom of the page, then retry changing your display name. Your display name can be changed at any time, and all comments and posts will be automatically updated, appropriating your new name.

If you have a website, or even a MySpace page, you can enter it in the Website field. Whatever you put in this field will enable your Display Name to be used as a hyperlink to that webpage whenever you comment.

Biographical Info is used when you write a post. So think of it as a signature, but not really. Check out the bottom of this post for an idea of how it will display. Basic HTML is allowed.

The Avatar is the picture that will be used throughout the site whenever you write a post or comment. The highest rating allowed for this site is PG. This avatar, like your display name, can be changed at any time and will be updated throughout the site. Allow a few minutes for their system to refresh your new avatar.

Posts

The site shouldn’t be used as a Facebook wall, so write about design stuff. Or at least within the realm of art. If you have suggestions or requests about certain features, send an email to info@ug2.org.

Title. Whenever possible, use capitalization on either every word or the first word.

Remember to click close tags when you are done writing to ensure proper HTML rendering.

Various media forms may be uploaded and added to your posts.

Tags should be keywords, usually one word at a time, separated by commas. They’re a type of categorization used on the site. You can see the tag cloud forming in the sidebar on the homepage.

Categories. Most often you’ll be posting in the Design category. Try not to post in Uncategorized.

More. This markup, found in your post’s editing toolbar, will condense long posts, like this one. Place your cursor at the point in which you wish to continue the post on a new page, and click the more button.

RSS

If you wish to subscribe to the homepage, there is a link in the gray footer of every page. If you want to subscribe to a specific post, however, look for the light gray box between the post material and the comment area below.

If you have any other questions or concerns with using the site, leave a comment and I’ll get back to you asap.