Final Draft Design

McCain Vs. Obama Dance-Off video

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Ryan Leslie Makes “Addiction”

Singer/Songwriter/Producer Ryan Leslie is a genius! I never really like dude because he discovered singer Cassie on youtube, and I don’t like her. Plus I’m a hater. But he really is a talented dude, and watching him work is amazing. (pause)

And for those that may not be familiar Leslie’s story, he skipped his senior year of high school and graduated a junior. Went straight to Harvard in the fall of 1994 at 15 years old, graduated at the age of 19 with a degree in Government and Economics. So its safe to say dude’s a prodigy.

Get familiar!

For my iPhone users: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Ix5dicdL7c

More on Leslie, Grinding at the age of 15, in 94′ (youtube)

Creative & Interactive Outdoor Advertising

These are always good to see. Shows just how creative ad agencies and designers can be. Incredible stuff that I probably would not have thought of [YET]. Imagine what they charge for something like that!!!!!!

I’ll be there in a minute.

Share your thoughts!

Here are a few of my favorites from the post: (After the jump)

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iPhone Web Apps that I still use (Regularly)

I don’t know any one with an iPhone that hasn’t jailbroken in to run 3rd Party Apps. And now, since Jailbraking has become so easy to do and with iPhone 2.0 on the way, people have forgotten about the wonderful little web apps that excited us and held us down from the beginning of iPhone time. Web Apps need love too!!!

So here’s my dedication to the useful iPhone Web Apps that I still use regularly. (after the jump)
I’m sure there’s a ton of them out there that I may not even know about, or just forgotten, but feel free to suggest.

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Life As A Web-Worker - Are You Disciplined?

Another great read! Its funny because my wife and I were just talking about some of these same points. Specifically, the point about Deciding Work Hours. For me, there’s has been plenty of times when I can be doing something with my family, at church or just out and about on a Satuday morning and I’d get a call. Because I never set a time for when I can be reached, the client did nothing wrong,. So in the near future, I will be giving myself work days and work hours so clients will know what days I will be in the office working on projects and know the best time to reach me. And this will help me develop better time management techniques. But of course, if something need my immediate attention, make sure you give me a call!

So my office hours will consist of NO WIFE (my wife’s understanding), NO TV, NO PS3, NO BLU-RAY and NO FACEBOOK. Just a cup of coffee, my laptop and a locked door. I’ll call this my black out time.

So here’s some good pointers about staying motivated and productive from a write at the Freelance Folder, after the jump.

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How Much Should a Web Design Cost?

GREAT READ for those who want to get a better understanding on why web design can be expensive, or don’t believe that our prices are more the reasonable. Maybe too reasonable.

Every week, I get emails from potential clients who all want to know one thing: How much for a design?

Nine times out of ten, my answer causes them to run for the hills. Scary thing is, based on industry buzz, my prices could actually be considered totally reasonable by comparison. Don’t believe me? Well, today you get the whole scoop - my prices, their prices, and my always-priceless editorial commentary on the subject

My Prices
For the sake of argument, I’m going to constrain today’s post to blog design only.

When people email me and ask for a quote, I always follow the same process. I visit their current site and determine the following:

The current CMS platform (WordPress, MovableType, Drupal, etc.)
The scope of the site - how many unique styling elements will be required for specialty pages?
The perceived complexity of the re-design. Does this person want a graphical masterpiece with all kinds of bells and whistles?
Generally speaking, there’s not a whole lot of variance in these areas from blog to blog, so after checking out the site in question, I usually have a good idea of how much to charge. Now, to answer the question you all want to hear…How much is all this gonna run ya?

At this time, blog designs start at $1500. This price is for a blog that has minimal graphical complexity, no customized icons, and no logo production. What you do get at this price is rock-solid, hand-crafted, browser-tested CSS, XHTML, and simple (but striking) graphic design.

In most cases, bells and whistles like plugin support, unique page designs, and extra graphics push the price up into the $1800-$2000 range. From there, the price is largely dictated by page-specific CSS/XHTML production and custom graphic design. It’s totally conceivable that a pimped out blog could run as much as $3000. Rest assured, though, that it would be totally badass, and the recipient of the design would receive mad props for having such a killer online abode.

Full Article

The web 10 years ago

Wow. Its still hard to believe that the World Wide Web isn’t that old. Its feels like it was just yesterday when I was introduced to Prodigy and AOL. Then came Yahoo, Google, Myspace, etc. And don’t forget the ones that are barely still with us. (Excite.com )

But we can all remember when Yahoo was just a directory of words on a page. We’ll they’ve come along way. Through the advancements of web browsers, companies and designers are able use different web technologies and languages that obviously didn’t exist and weren’t supported years ago.

It is interesting to see how web design has developed over the years. 10 years ago web design was a basic form of delivering information in an organised way with tables and the odd animated gif to catch the users eyes. Now it has become an art.

In this article I will look at how 3 of the biggest websites (Microsoft, Yahoo and Apple) have developed over the past 10 years.

Read Full Article here

Website updates

I’ve made a few minor updates to my website.
1. On my blog, I’ve added all the social networking sites and links to me profiles. So feel to add me, follow me, be friend me, etc.
2. And I now the rss feed installed on my homepage. So now clients can stay up to date with the latest Final Draft News and just see what I’m up to.

Wow….1st entry since Dec. 07.

I’m back. So you can now look forward to design/industry news, Final Draft updates and news and just things that strike my interest! Talk to you soon.
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20 Horrible Habits of Clients

I stumbled across a great article that I thought I’d share. Here are a few items that I found most interesting. The full list can be found after the jump, or by visiting youthedesigner.com.

Below is a common list of issues designers have to deal with while working with clients on projects and how to avoid or solve those issues in a professional manner.

1. Wanting Great Designs for Cheap Prices
3. Slow Payments
4. Not Planning out the Project Upfront
5. Not Giving you all the Copy and Images Needed up Front
7. Forcing you to use Poorly Designed Logos and Other Elements
9. Asking for Way too Many Revisions
10. Asking for Additional Work on top of the Original Agreement
14. Canceling Projects
15. Returning Many Months Later for Login Information
16. Asking for Files Years Later
20. I Know Everything

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