// 15.Jan.2009

Murphy’s Graphic Design Laws

The client’s disk won’t run on your equipment. If you purchase new equipment to read your client’s disk, it will be the last disk of that type you will ever receive.

No Comments


// 05.Jan.2009

DWotW #3

Desktop Wallpaper of the Week: This week’s image is one of a set of themed desktop wallpaper’s by photographer John Carey of fiftyfootshadows.net. The vintage microphone photographed with a sepia tint evokes images of a bygone age and I love the simplicity of the composition too.

You can download the full-size version here (1,920 × 1,200 pixels).
Continue Reading…

1 Comment


// 26.Dec.2008

DWotW #2

Desktop Wallpaper of the Week: Yep, sorry folks - I know that I suggested I’d publish one of these every week… but… look I’m a busy guy okay? Anyway, without further ado, let me offer this stunning new wallpaper for your desktop - it’s a post-apocalyptic view of the city of London including such famous landmarks as Tower Bridge, St. Paul’s Cathedral and the Houses of Parliament. Once again I have absolutely no idea where I got this… I’d love to acquire details of the original artist so that I can credit him/her accordingly.

You can download the full-size version here (1,600 × 1,000 pixels).

Continue Reading…

4 Comments


// 01.Dec.2008

DWotW #1

Desktop Wallpaper of the Week: The first in what I hope to make a regular feature. Unfortunately I have no idea where I downloaded this image from, what it is titled or who the artist is but I think it is simply stunning and thought I’d share it here. You can download the full-size version here (1,680×1,050 pixels).

If anyone has any idea of the origin of this image then please let me know in the comments so that he/she can be properly credited.

6 Comments


// 19.Oct.2008

Replicating Rapid Prototyping Machine

The promise of advanced fabrication technology that can copy itself is a truly remarkable concept with far reaching implications.

- Sir James Dyson, 17th April 2007.



Continue Reading…

No Comments


// 13.Oct.2008

10 Autumn Website Reboot Essentials

It’s that time of year when the trees turn golden, the sun stays close to the horizon and the early morning mist rolls down off the hills. That’s right folks, autumn is here again (fall for our American friends). The days are getting shorter and the nights longer and you’re likely to spend more time indoors than out.

In short, it’s the perfect time to “reboot” your weblog with a new design or feature set. Why not take inspiration from nature’s glorious autumnal colours and refresh your website. To help you along the way, I’ve put together this little list of website design “thingies” that you might want to integrate into an autumn reboot.
Continue Reading…

No Comments


// 21.Sep.2008

The Sorry State of Browser Rendering

I’ve made some (more) tweaks to the design of this website over the past few days. They’re mostly little things and, unless you visit the site often, you probably wouldn’t notice them unless I were to point them out. In fact, in comparing the design today with the template I relaunched with on the 28th June, 2008, it’s amazing to see just how much the design has changed — while still sharing a common overall aesthetic. But then this is how web-design should be isn’t it? A website evolves with small, subtle, incremental changes, yet retains its “brand” by remaining true to its original design.

While I was applying the revisions I started thinking about web-design. I considered the current state of the art, how far we’ve come (I started building websites right back in the beginning when IBrowse on the Commodore Amiga really was cutting edge), standards compliance and the W3C, etc.

The catalyst for these thoughts was my adoption of a simple little CSS3 property known as border-radius, which is used to produce the RoundRects that, depending on which browser you’re using, may or may not be visible to you when you visit this website. If you’re using a Gecko or WebKit based browser, then you’ll see this website exactly as I intended - complete with RoundRects. With other browsers you’ll only see an approximation of the design I intended.
Continue Reading…

1 Comment


// 07.Sep.2008

5 Tutorials to Web Design, the apple.com Way

Apple is one of the coolest brand names in technology, so no wonder their site should adhere to modern web design standards. Divs, classes, no tables, media types, ajax libraries, separated stylesheets, extensive code organization, interesting varying layouts, it’s all there for you to learn from.

1 Comment


// 26.Aug.2008

10 Sexy Macintosh Workspaces

I want to remodel my rather drab and cold computer workspace1 but I’m not quite sure what I want to do with the small amount of space my Macintosh lives in. And so I’ve spent a few hours browsing through workspace photos on Flickr for inspiration and, adopting ideas from a variety of home and office photographs, I think I’ll be able to create the perfect workspace for myself.

What follows is a gallery of those workspaces I found most appealing, with a concise commentary on what qualities appealed to me.

1. I love the simplicity and warmth of this workspace. The lighting here looks absolutely perfect for long hours in front of the computer. I think the desk lamps are gorgeous2 and the lack of visible cabling is very appealing.

Continue Reading…

  1. Actually I want to redecorate and refit my whole house, but that’s another story. 
  2. Where do these come from? Make, model, supplier anyone? Let me know in the comments. 

5 Comments


// 24.Aug.2008

10 Futuristic User Interfaces

Good user interfaces are crucial for good user experience. Ten recent developments in the field of user experience design are presented here. Most techniques may seem very futuristic, but some of them are already reality and in fact, they are extremely impressive. Keep in mind: they can become ubiquitous in the next years.

No Comments