I have moved... Farewell Blogger!

Unfortunately I have just outgrown what I can achieve with blogger. As I have plans to begin blogging on a more frequent basis, I have installed Wordpress on my server. The process was quite a challenge as I am only moderately skilled in php and do not claim to be a programmer, however the features and power of Wordpress have been extremely fun to play with.

I am branding my new blog "Positive Space" which is a reference to the content being the key factor. I will be holding a high standard of topics for the posts.

To view Positive Space please visit: http://www.zinnidesign.com/positivespace/

How to Be a Rockstar Freelancer

Freelanceswitch.com has been a great resource for me over the past couple of months when I first noticed it through a design inspiration site. Every article that they have posted has always served as a great resource, and now they are putting that knowledge into an amazing eBook. The book covers every aspect of freelancing, from establishing yourself as a brand, to setting your hourly rate. I would recommend this book to anyone who is looking to get started in freelancing, or even be more efficient and profitable if they already freelance.

Click here see the official product page and find out more!

The IE6 Deathblow, a Study

Earlier on this month I posted about the IE6 Deathblow and how we should stop supporting older non standards compliant browsers in an effort to motivate users to upgrade their browsers. While the idea was to relaunch your sites on May 1st along with the CSS reboot. Since I am currently on schedule for a January 1st release of my new blog, I will be using it as an opportunity to perform a study. I will study the amount of users visiting my site and the overall traffic using google analytics and see how the the results change over time.

I believe that by the number of users using IE 6 or below should shrink by time the May 1st reboot arrives. IT is worth noting however that I have the luxury of doing this do to the limited risk in my traffic. Currently due to the nature of the advanced web users and creative professionals that visit my site, only 22% of my sites traffic comes from a Microsoft browsers with only 23% of those users having IE6 or below.

Best Holiday Gifts for Creatives (and Geeks) Part Two:

Toys & Games:

Lego Star Wars: The Complete Saga
It's legos (the most creative toy ever), Star Wars, and Video games all in one how could anyone ever object?

Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock Bundle & Rock Band
Always wanted to be a rock start playing in front of a crowd, ever wanted to be it without all the practice, fame, and money? Either way both of these games offer some of the glory without any of the drug addictions, although you may have a hard time stop playing and going to work.

Nintendo DS Lite Gold with Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass

Imagination Set 1200 Blocks
These may be the second most creative toy ever, second only to legos. I fell in love with pixel block a couple of years back when I first saw them at Urban Outfitters. I love creating intricate mosaics with the blocks and hanging them in the window. They are also pretty awesome for creating you favorite 8-bit heros from the past like Mario!

Pee & Poo Plush Dolls - Set
Everyone poops, and well pees too. Why not educate your children with the lovable pee and poo plush doll set, or let them live in your office...

Scrabble
The game that designers know all too well, limited resources, fixed restraints, a desire to "win" and limitless possibilities. Scrabble is a game that we know all too well...

Futurama Bender Wind-up Robot Action Toy
Everyone's favorite evil metal man, in sweet desktop wind-up form.

Aqua Teen Hunger Force - Meatwad Plush

R2-D2 Interactive Droid (HB450)
He's (or It's?) everybodys favorite robotic sidekick. R2-D2 is even more loveable than Bender, and you too can have him following you around, without the need for a totally weak gold bodysuit.

Office Space Crystal Award
Every office has one, a no-talent ass clown. This amazing laser etched acrylic award will say ass clown like never before, illuminated with the bright blue glow of a LED. Whether you are deserving or not, this award will sure bring humor to the office.

Dead Links on my Custom EEE Interface Skin

I want to give a personal thank you to eeeuser.com member marf for informing me that my links were dead for the download. I was hosting the files on some shared hosting that my college had supplied me with back when I was an undergrad. It appears that I had got enough bandwidth off the files that they realized I graduated a year ago and turned off my account. I have moved the files to my personal web server for right now and will make sure that this does not happen again!

I am Moving to Wordpress

As I have stated in the past, I have been toying with the idea of moving my Blog over to Wordpress. As this site has seen more and more traffic lately I am finding more and more features that blogger just cannot offer me. With the recent article / how-to posted by designerfolio detailing the process of creating a wordpress theme I have finally made the decision to make the move.

the reason I am stating this is because the necessity for the move has been taking up a lot of my time and thus putting some of my other projects on the back burner a little. I just wanted to let all of my readers know that I am still making progress on all my projects including the ASUS EEE PC Interface design.

The Email Standards Project

While I have not been designing a great deal of HTML emails lately, I have been periodically checking the status of the email-standards project. I am happy to announce that the project has been launched and we now have a great resource for standardization of email design and development practices. As listed within the "what can you do" section of the site, I am using my extremely small portion of the Internet to raise awareness for this project.

the project takes a two prong approach to creating standards for HTML email. The first is to educate designers about the importance of standards in email design. Secondly is to provide assistance to the email client providers to create a compliant piece of software. This is no easy task, and without the support of the community this project may fall behind the pressures of bureaucracy faced by the software developers creating our favorite email applications.

Any designer who has been commissioned to create a HTML email for a client has undoubtly run into the issues this project hopes to resolve. This is especially true since the unveiling of Office 2007 and the infamous Word based Outlook rendering engine. Which has according to some web professionals "Thrown HTML emails back into the dark ages of tables and spacer .gifs." (Shudders)

I am whole heartedly suggesting that every web professional visit the site to find out more and spread the word!

Best Holiday Gifts for Creatives (and Geeks) Part One:

Books, Magazines, & Journals:
This is part one of a four part series detailing the my picks for the best holiday gifts for creatives. I am picking my most wanted items for this holiday season.

I'm a Lebowski, You're a Lebowski: Life, The Big Lebowski, and What Have You
What is the to say other than "The Dude abides."

How to Win a Fight with a Conservative or
How to Win a Fight with a Liberal
No matter what political party you belong to, it never hurts to be right (or at least appear it).

Moleskine Small Squared Notebook Writing Journal
All creatives need a place to store their sketches and thoughts. However not all journals are made alike, nothing has the geek-cool factor and quality of a Moleskine.

Cabinet Magazine
Art & culture magazines are a great source of information for creative professionals, and Cabinet Magazine is no exception.

Graphic Design: A New History
A solid knowledge of design history is an essential for any designer. Whenever a new book can give a new spin on Design history it is always worth a read if not only for a refresher.

Graphic Artists Guild Handbook: Pricing & Ethical Guidelines
Knowing how and what to price for your services as a graphic artist is an important thing to know and get right so that you may prosper as a business. There are numerous sources of information on this topic, however none as complete and straight-forward.

Dead Children Playing: A Picture Book (Radiohead)
Radiohead is in my top 10 bands of all time, their music and the album artwork has always been a huge source of inspiration for me. This book showcases the work of Stanley Donwood and Dr Tchock the duo that creates their amazing cover art.

Futurama Conquers the Universe
Futurama is in my opinion one of the best written animated shows of all time, with the deepest and most developed story lines ever. This new book should serve as a great hold-over until the alleged new season begins.

How to Think Like a Great Graphic Designer
I am a huge fan of "Design Matters" with Debbie Millman, and I can't wait to read this book. Her comments on design practices have inspired some of the deepest thoughts I have ever had about the profession.

New Vintage Type: Classic Fonts for the Digital Age
Finding new fonts is always a great way to find inspiration for your projects, especially when they are not new at all. This book serves as a great resource for breaking that Helvetica, Garamond, Futura funk

Sleevage.com: Cover Art Disected Through Discussion

Sleevage.com is a relatively new site that I happened to stumble upon today that is based around discussing album cover art. Art is categorized by the Musical Artist, Record Label, Cover Artist, Genre, Design Studio & Era. This makes it extremely easy to find links between your favorite designers, and artists. Even though this site is relatively new, it appears that there is already a large user base and a decently sized number of articles. I wouldn't be surprised if this really takes off, as music fanatics and creatives can both find the topic of discussion very interesting.

Open letter to developers: The IE6 Death Blow

I was perusing designfloat.com today when I came across this great article. In "Open letter to developers: The IE6 Death Blow" by mentallyretired.com James Thomas proposed this first really interesting idea regarding the abandonment of IE6 that I have come across to date. He suggests that everyone stop supporting the IE6 on May 1st 2008 along with the css reboot. The reason this is interesting however, is because it allows for a defined date, and web designers will place a link informing the user that they are seeing the site still just not in a supported browser and that by upgrading they can view the site as intended. This is a lot less harsh than most of the articles I have read where people are asking web designers/ developers to just forget about the browser starting today. For the full story please visit: http://www.mentallyretired.com/2007/11/23/open-letter-to-developers-the-ie6-death-blow