Kupatrix » design

Cringe-Worthy

Nick — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 10:31:55 +0000

I just put up a portfolio of my most recent — and distant past — projects. As I was nearing the end I started to debate whether to include certain designs I worked on. On the one hand they ARE my designs, but on the other hand they’re very… well not bad, just amateurish at this point in time. Some of the designs I actually cringed when I dug up some of my old screenshots. You know that saying that goes “people are their own worst critics” (or at least that’s the gist of it)? I’m a very harsh self-critic. I’m never happy unless things are just perfect, so seeing my old designs like that was, well not torture, but not fun either! It was all I could do to not open Photoshop and start redoing the layouts!!

It’s amazing how much of my time is spent online, but how little I utilize my website. I always say how I’m going to post more often, but we see how that goes. However I’m going to print out a big ol’ message that says “POST AT LEAST ONCE A DAY” and I’m gonna pin it to my bulletin board (which I’ll move to be right over my desk).

RAWR.

Off by a Pixel

Nick — Tue, 30 Mar 2010 15:16:35 +0000

There are times when coding a design goes from being fun to being an exercise in what feels like futility. It came to my attention that there was a positioning error with my new layout. Yes, it was off by 1 pixel. One measly little pixel and it ruined my morning. I searched around for awhile until I came across some really dirty CSS Hacks that addresses the bug in Chrome, Safari, and even Firefox. After tweaking the CSS I finally fixed it! …Almost. Now it’s Opera throwing a fit. As much as I am obsessive about this sort of thing, I also know when enough is enough. I would prefer to avoid loading my CSS up with various hacks because of a 1px deviation, that may or may not even rear it’s annoying head! So instead I’ll just apologize to those browsing with Opera who notice a 1px glitch with the design and ask that you not hold it against me. At least I’m nice enough to not to force you to some page demanding you use Firefox or some other equally stupid tactic.

I’ve been busy lately with a smaller project for someone, so have not had enough time to toy with my design and finish the remaining areas up, especially in regards to comments, though I wonder how many people read the site, much less feel the need to comment. Though I suppose I could always go on some political rant and piss a bunch of people off!

A Clean Slate

Nick — Tue, 23 Mar 2010 15:45:30 +0000

I’ve not used my website much over the past year. At times I wondered if I even needed a website anymore, even considered closing it down. However this seemed to be part of an overall “designer’s block” I was having in regards to designing anything. Whether it was a signature for a forum, or a full blown layout, I just couldn’t seem to get into it anymore. But like most “blocks” it eventually lifted.

Late last year I worked on an international website project with members all over Europe. I spent a lot of time working on that site and learned quite a bit about WordPress, and even more about CSS then I thought possible. It was then I started to consider my own website again. After the project was finished it was made clear to me I should get a portfolio up, to show my work. I knew this, and in some form or another I’ve had portfolios up. It was a few months before I made any substantial progress in a design for myself, however. Why so long? Well it was difficult to settle on what exactly I wanted to do. It didn’t help that I was depressed because of the weather. You would think that it couldn’t get grayer, right? Well you’d be wrong! A few weeks ago the weather here started to improve, the sun came out from it’s seemingly months-long vacation, the temperatures started to approach “mild” as opposed to “frigid”. Boy is it nice to see the sun… even if I’m sleeping during the day!

Suffice it to say I was finally inspired to redo my website, which I decided out of the blue to do one day. I even went so far as to delete the old content system, along with any files on the main domain (after making a backup of course). It’s taken me a few days to finish coding my new design, and I’ve to say I’m rather happy with it. It seemed like whenever I redesigned my site I also had it in my head I should do so “for others”. Who these “others” were I couldn’t tell you, but I’d never really done a design completely for me, ignoring “others”. This is what I came up with. I know it’s not very Web 2.0-ish, but I like it dammit.

So I start the new year, a few months late, with a ‘Clean Slate’. Which is what I’ve decided to name this particular version of Kupatrix.com’s design. Expect to see me post regularly every few days from now on, including quite a bit centered on Druids from World of Warcraft, Movies or TV Shows (Thanks Netflix!), some inane geeky thing, or a rant. I’ll also be adding a portfolio-like section to the site, though I feel hesistant to include any of my old work, since nowadays it seems rather “noobish”, to coin a phrase from gaming.