My name is Carly, and I am addicted to computer magazines.

I might of mentioned here before that I’m slightly obsessed with going to Borders and buying magazines (.net/computer arts/web designer) and 9/10 they don’t have the slightest thing in them that actually helps me, I mean whilst the magazines can be full of inspiring images, I feel the articles themselves are usually below or above the level I am at. But this doesn’t ever stop me from buying them. I waste pounds and pounds a month on them!

But looking back in a magazine today (I wanted to look at the CSS navigation tutorial featured on this site) I found an Illustrator tutorial I could look at, concerning masking. I wouldn’t have dreamed of looking at the tutorial when I bought the magazine, but now - I might be able to try it.

Do any of you subscribe to any magazines? What are your favorites? Are there any good online mags I should look at?

  All About Me

  computer magazines

Color, colour however you spell it, I’m guessing that at one time or another you’ve been stuck for inspiration with a new layout? We have all sat with Photoshop/Illustrator/Paint Shop Pro etc open and a great idea in our mind for a new venture, only to be stuck there picking swatch colours and moving the sliders around with no real idea of what to choose. Anything you pick feels ‘too normal’, or ‘everyone uses it.’ Well that is where this entry comes in to help - I have compiled a list of my favorite colour/color scheme websites for you to browse at your leisure. There’s quite a few out there… So here we go:

First of all, the old favorite. ColourLovers.com - I find this a little slow at times, and a bit crazy to use. It can feel like there is so much to look at on one page: a little cluttered if you will. However the pages on website and magazine trends are always handy for picking colours, and for seeing what’s in fashion this month. The tabbed navigation at the top can be a little irritating at times, as when I am dragging my curser over to a link it might flip to another topic if you’re not careful. This still remains to be one of my favorite sites.

Color Schemer Online allows you to either pick a colour or enter a hex value and using a sort of wheel method, it chooses matching colours for you. A little basic, but gets the job done. A tutorial on how to use this site is here, or try this: Color Schemer Schemes.

Another of my favorites is Color Hunter. This works by inputting a photograph and the color hunter chooses a scheme for you, based on the photo. I’ve never done this as there are plenty of schemes on there already to look at. I like to choose a category, for example, ‘vintage’ and then find a scheme I am happy with.

Lastly, we have Color Combos. I prefer to browse the library, and choose by tag name. There seems to be a lot of ads to scroll down past, but then there are a lot of combinations to choose from under those ads. There are lots and lots of helpful articles to browse here to.

Related: Twisted Barfly - Picking Colour Schemes For Your Site.

  Resources

  Colour, design, Resources, Web Design

I wanted to cover two things in this blog post. I guess I could have actually done two separate posts and saved one subject for another day. But I just didn’t want to. So now you can read both! But don’t worry; they do both tie in together..!

Yesterday: I went to see Ratatouille! I had a great day in all. It all started off with my boyfriend (James) coming over to my house with some milk (for cups of tea) and some scotch pancake things to eat, which I thought I wouldn’t like but they were yummy.

Then we went out and had a pot of tea and a scone in a very posh cafe near to the Minster in York, and James stole the pot of jam, which isn’t a very posh thing to do.

Next we wondered over to Borders (which has to be my favorite shop, I love wondering in and looking at the magazines and books. I can’t help myself when I’m in there. I HAVE to buy something.) On this particular occasion, I purchased a book called ‘Design Elements - a Graphic Style Manual.’ It looks like a typical course manual from the cover, something that you’d have to buy if you were studying graphic design. Inside it is quite amazing. I’ve only skimmed over some of the chapters and I have only read half of the first one, but everything does make sense. Some of it I feel like I already know, (maybe it is common knowledge?) but other stuff makes sense, and I am wondering why I have never thought of it before…! I’m going to finish reading it in more detail as it is really interesting, and I intend on making notes along the way to help me in the future.

My plan is to read as much as I can before I apply to do a Masters Degree. I am going to apply for two at York University, one at Hull University (Scarborough Campus) and one at Liverpool John Moores University. They are all different courses, but all with one thing in common: they feature the internet or web design/development in some way. So I am planning on buying a couple of books here and there all in different areas and joining the local library as well, so that I actually have things to talk about in interviews and when I come to doing a course, I’ll have lots of books for reference. I am looking forward to applying. I am so unhappy in my job at the minute and can’t wait to get out!

Anyway, back to Ratatouille, I did enjoy the film, but I don’t think I’d have paid to see it if I was better informed. It wasn’t wonderful, it was just good. The sort of film that your Aunt would buy for you as gift at Christmas, and you would sit with your Mum, Dad and Brother and watch after stuffing out on Turkey. Ooh… I do I love Christmas - but I guess that’s a whole other post.

  Put The Kettle On

  design, Web Design

I think that statement is a little dramatic, but it’s how I am beginning to feel. I have had an awful headache all morning and afternoon so when it finally went away I decided to play with the design of one of my other sites. Now Internet Explorer is starting to give me another headache trying to work out why certain things aren’t displaying correctly!

It all started when it occurred to me that having a portfolio web site in flash isn’t very clever, as nobody will be able to search for it, and besides that I just wanted to design something in valid strict XHTML and CSS for a change. I wanted a design and more importantly, some coding that I could be proud of for once.

So, I started by visiting fantastic sites like CSS Heaven and CSS Princess and find some lovely sites for inspiration. Now, I don’t want to rip off every detail of a design I see, but looking at how other people put together a horizontal menu or how they present their information on their front page provides me with ideas of what I’d like to see on my own web site.

With a few ideas in store, I decided to create a horizontal menu using an inline list. I chose some basic colours for my site, trying to set up the menu before using any images. But everything I try doesn’t work in Internet-nightmare-Explorer. I’ve never really had troubles with it before, but then I do tend to stick to boxy two column layouts. Attempting something a little more technical, I start to experience problems.

I’ve been on A List Apart and found some good menus, but I want to find some more interesting styles. Does anyone have any good sites to recommend?

**Update!** Now I have played around a bit more I am finally happy with my menu! I shall reveal all soon…

  A Little Rant

  css, design, html, Web Design, website, xhtml

Learn how to create a pretty vector flower with Adobe Illustrator. This tutorial uses version 10, but it is a simple technique so I’d be suprised if it didn’t work with other versions…
Stage: Beginner
Time: Around 10mins
What you will be learning to draw:

Create a new document and draw a rectange any shape, with a fill of any colour and no outline:

Using this tool: (the rotate tool) click under the rectangle and the little shape that appears underneath with be the central point for your rectangle to rotate around. Now, click up at the top of your rectangle (your curser should change into a small black and white arrow) and hold down your alt key now drag your shape to the left, this may take a few practices but you should end up with this:

Next press ctrl & D, which will duplicate the effect of the rectangle and create the basic flower shape, see below:

Next press ctrl & A to select all the rectangles and go to: filter –> distort –> zigzag.
Set the options as follows:

If your flower has more or less petals then mine, you may wish to set the size or ridges to 1. Keep playing around until you have a petal-like shapes instead of rectangles:

Next, add a center to your flower, resize or move the petals until you are happy or add more flowers until you achive something like the following:

I’d like to credit this tutorial, as it is where I learnt the rotation technique. If you visit be sure to check out all the other illustrator tutorials there!

  Illustrator

  flower, Illustrator, simple, tutorial