So, I stumbled upon a read that allowed me to view the new google. I have a feeling that its been around a while but, I thought it was interesting to see some of the new search features they are going to include. Im assuming only if this version makes it to final release. I am going to talk about a couple of the features that I like, but first let me show you how to access it.

1. Go to Google
2. Once you see the Google logo, insert the following code in your URL bar and hit enter

javascript:void(document.cookie=”PREF=ID=20b6e4c2f44943bb:
U=4bf292d46faad806:TM=1249677602:LM=1257919388:S=odm0Ys-53ZueXfZG;path=/; domain=.google.com”);

So now you have accessed the new Google search. Lets do a quick overview.

Basically, it is Google. You still get a sense that you are browsing with the old version. The results basically are the same although there seems to be a difference in the font used to display the results. One cool feature is that you can do a keyword search and then sift through the results based on what you want to see, on the fly.

Most of this stuff was easily accessible through the old version but I think they did a good job in highlighting the different sections to view results. Color coding always makes for a quick identifier.

My favorite feature is that you can sift through your results based on the time it was indexed. It seems as though this may allow you to rank higher than some of the larger sites on some recent search results.

Anyways, I just thought it was cool to tap into this beta version of google and mess around with it. Hope you can do the same, enjoy!

I work for a marketing company that has a lot of back-end php developers and lets face it, these guys & girls are serious. Thats all they do, code all day. Me being a web designer, I only focus on front-end coding like css / html but also work in Photoshop, so I’m not always coding. But as I walk around the office they all had some pretty sweet looking code with neon colors and what not. I was like a kid in a candy store, I needed it!

I got back to my desk and started Googling, and let me tell you, it was tough finding an easy solution. I knew that I could go into my preferences and change each specific type of code color myself, but I knew that would take forever and I needed it right then. Eventually, I came across a site that provided an XML file that I could replace in my default Dreamweaver files, restart and it was good to go. Luckily it was the color scheme I wanted. I’ll share the file with you guys as well as the steps to install it. Enjoy!

The following steps are for installing on a Mac although I would assume the installation on a PC would be similar. Please be sure to backup your old file, we are not responsible for anything that happens to your application.

1. Quit Dreamweaver and download the file here.
2. Navigate to Application Support > Dreamweaver CS4 > en_US > Configuration > CodeColoring
3. Inisde of this file is a Colors.xml file, rename this to Colors-old.xml so you have a backup
4. Paste the downloaded Colors.xml into this folder
5. Open Dreamweaver and go to Preferences > Code Coloring and set your background to #242424

It’s been quite some time since I’ve posted on this blog. You would assume I have been lazy but actually, it is just the opposite. Here are a couple of things that have been going on since I last posted.

1. I have been hard at work as a Web Designer in my local city working on sites that generate leads for large brands!
2. I started a small business selling skins for iPhones, iPods and Laptops. It’s currently about 2 weeks old. Check it out!
3. I am now a featured Author on the blog for Francesco Mugnai, a great design blog!
4. I have gotten married, 3 months in now, to a beautiful woman!
5. Who knows whats next….but I do plan on getting back into the swing of things here.

So, I say welcome back, um…hmm, that is until I get back from Cancun on Sunday! Here are a couple more photos to keep you occupied until I return.

Even though I have never jumped on board and designed my own pair, the design your own shoe fad has been around for a while. I think I originally remember Converse doing it with the Chuck Taylor a while back. I have been a fan of it for sure, especially since it allows you to create a shoe around your personality or style.

I came across the Nike Air Troupe Design Battle while browsing the FWA site. It is definitely a fun site to play around with. A lot of smooth scrolling and colorful shoes flying around, a nice hip hop beat playing in the background, attractive break dancers, grabs the attention of any MTV – Americas Best Dance Crew fan (fist pumps for the JabbaWockeeZ and Kaba Modern). Basically the site allows you to design a shoe and then have it judged by other viewers of the site. The judging process consist of ten 3-second rounds where 2 shoes are presented and you choose which one you like the best. Once you have chosen a shoe another shoe is shown and you decide if you like the one you just chose or if you like the new one. It’s pretty fun because it is fast paced and the shoes bump to the music.

The overall design is clean and simple with a slight touch of grunge in some instances. The colors are reminiscent or the 80’s with bright yellows, teals, pinks, etc. popping off the black background. All the shoes are very large and colorful as well which will definitely draw the shoe lover out of everyone.

Lets face it, everyone is all about straightforward content these days. We like it short and sweet and right to the point. Well Nike has not strayed far from the path with this site. Everything is short and simple and can keep the attention of a two year old for sure, even when it comes to the break dance bios.

Overall, I think it is a great micro site to promote the Nike Air Troupes. It also promotes individuality which I am a huge advocate of. Thanks for stopping by, I am off to play around with the site some more and maybe design my own pair!

So lately, all I hear about and I am sure you too, is Twitter! There are a lot of people that despise twitter and there are a lot of people that use it every minute, literally! I am a big fan of twitter but I think it is only fun to follow people that you are really interested in communicating with or keeping tabs on. Some of the people that I follow are real close friends of mine like, Shaq, Steve Nash, Ashton Kutcher, etc…….heh yah right!

Lately I have been thinking about different ways to use twitter and how it could tie in to what is already widely followed.  One of the first items that came to mind was tabloids. People are soooo interested in following what is going on with each celebrity, however when you grab it off the shelf it is already a couple days to a week old. Since celebrities are so “in to” tweeting now, why not build a site that pulls all celebrity tweets into one place.

There has been a site created that does exactly what I am talking about (Celebrity Tweet) but there are so many things that could be built into the site and it seems as though it could be a major revenue generator. Unfortunately I don’t have the time to create a site like this so I figured I would share the idea and maybe it would spark something for someone else.

What do you guys think? Could it work?

When I graduated in 2004 I was hired at an Advertising Agency right outside of Charlotte NC. At this point in time it seemed as though flash was on the rise and it was all over the place. It was very intriguing to me and I quickly adapted it as a useful medium. I started off doing full flash sites such as Splash Zone USA and some of my older personal portfolio sites. It was fun at the time but I seemed to migrate back to static sites with dynamic elements. Now, I hardly use flash unless its for special one off projects but I still love to browse full flash sites because they seem to engage the viewer more since there is a higher level of interactivity.

Some of my favorite flash sites to look at are Photography sites. Most of them seem to be very simple and dedicate 98% of the site to viewing the image. I recently came across a website for a photographer, Anders Bergh. Not only is his site very clean and simple but it showcases his unbelievable talent.

The site displays all the images in rows and columns and makes use of the scroll wheel on your mouse if you have one by allowing you to scroll up and down with ease. When you click on a photo it zooms in, allowing you to either view the image in extremely clear detail or view the image as a whole. I personally think this feature is useful on landscape photos not “Mug Shots”, no one wants to zoom in on someones nose hairs, do they? If you are zoomed in you can navigate left or right by clicking on either side of the photo and you can zoom back out by clicking on a menu that appears when you hover over the center. The personal info is tucked away neatly at the top and only appears if your cursor gets about half and inch away from leaving the browser window.

Overall I think APT Copenhagen did a great job on displaying this photographers work, you almost forget that it is a website because it is so different than you basic static site.  What do you guys think?

Hey guys, just wanted to give you a link to download a set of brushes that I have collected over the years. Some of them I use more than others but they are all nice brushes. Some of them are very large and can probably be used for some print work but most of them are ideal for web related designs.

One of the best places I have found to download Photoshop brushes is Brusheezy. But there are many sites out there such as PS Brushes and Deviant Art who just have tons to offer.

If there are any brushes that you would like to share feel free to send them my way or post a link so others can download.

Download 25 of my most used Photoshop Brushes

I am a huge fan of music. I listen to music every single day and I like to specifically listen to it when I am doing certain tasks. For instance, when I am cleaning up the house I like to crank up some Phil Collins or some type of 80’s mixture because for some reason gives me energy to knock out the stuff that I keep putting off. When I am driving, long or short distances, I usually listen to BPM on Sirius which is like a mixture of Dance / Techno Music and that keeps me from falling asleep. And when I design I usually go for some Hip Hop or Techno, it is just really inspiring to me. So here is my question.

Does music directly impact the design you are working on at the moment?

Is it possible for you to listen to some Rob Zombie while designing a piece for your local symphony? Sure, but I would think it would some how directly affect the overall design. Although you may be the type of person that can concentrate and keep the audience in mind while listening to your own choice of music. I like to think I can do that….. but then again a lot of my work has similar effects and design styles to it…hmm.

Thoughts? What do you guys listen to?

Man, I am happy to announce that I have finished my first custom WordPress theme – Cloud Nineteen. It was a task but I used the Rockstar WordPress book and followed their instructions. It seemed to go smooth but I ran into a couple of problems. Overall, I am happy with the outcome and I hope it helps Braille and S1 reach their goals.

If you don’t have the book already I highly recommend that you pick up the How to be a Rockstar WordPress Designer PDF book. It has a step by step tutorial on how to implement a basic design into WordPress. You need to know a bit of code to accomplish this but for the most part is was very simple.

Anyone have any WordPress guides or sites that they use to help build custom WordPress sites? Let me know!

Update with link is coming once official launch date is announced.

1. In-line CSS is probably the best way to describe it. It is where the CSS is written like this:

2. Dreamweaver CSS is the only other way I know to describe it. CSS looks like this:

My question is which one do you prefer to look at or program with? Does it really make a difference? Is one easier to do than the other?