Something New

Last weekend was a new experiment.

For the most part, when I make websites, I do all the planning, graphics, and markup myself. I’m normally a one man shop (although I’m actively looking for new people to collaborate with), writing most of the (X)HTML and CSS by hand. That control is very important to me.

However, while writing everything by hand plays well to my OCD desire to have control over everything, it takes time, and I’m limited to only the things I know to do. So, naturally, a quality CMS would be a great next step. It would allow me a little more power, and hopefully remove some of the time to write markup.

Enter the CMS search.

I have looked around and haven’t really found much that I was pleased with. However, about a year ago I was introduced to Squarepace.com. I looked around and it claimed that you have control over the whole process and that it would be easy for you to move modules around, edit them, and delete them. After a year of curiosity, I finally found an appropriate project to start last week.

So I met with my client, got everything planned out, and explained that it would be an experimental process, but we were hoping to get the site done and live pretty quickly. And we did it. AmyLashelle.com launched within a week of me starting the design process – by far a new record for me.

The Rundown

I’ll start by saying that, by using squarespace, I was able to make a somewhat powerful front-end experience with very minimal effort. The site has a nice (although not fully customized) contact page, a jquery shadowbox slideshow, an integrated blogging engine, and another slideshow on the home page. Nothing too fancy, but keep in mind, I built the whole site in a little under three days worth of work. I felt pretty good about what the site can do.

Here’s where it gets a little rocky. The user experience of building this site was frustrating at best. To the best of my knowledge, Squarespace is aimed at “designers”. It appears to me though, that those would be graphic designers, and not web designers. It seemed that almost every step was just a little harder than it should have been.

Messy Markup

Control over styles is supposed to be easy in their interface, but some key features (like width) are not editable there.

Once or twice, I wanted to wrap something in a div tag and couldn’t do it because their editor only lets you add HTML inside specific places. I upgraded so I could have “code injection points”, but it turns out that those points are very specific, I still cannot access all the HTML. The points also weren’t where I really wanted them. For instance, some things like Cufon and Google Analytics are supposed to be right before the end of the body tag, but their interface made me put it inside a nested div somewhere near the bottom of the content.

While I can appreciate that a template gives me all the markup I will need, it really needs to be flexible so that I can cut out unnecessary markup. This was a big issue on this site. I was incredible unhappy with the final markup. It is incredibly cluttered, messy, and non-semantic.

It also only allowed me to edit some commonly editable styles. The main page styles were not accessible. For example, I could not change the font stack for the whole site. I could change one main font in their interface, but not the whole stack.

Here’s the one that got me the most. You can export the styles… in an XML file. And the main page styles are minified! It’s as if they were trying to make the process as hard as possible for me.
Little things like this meant that I had to relinquish control over the markup – something I didn’t want to do.

User Experience

As far as the Squarespace interface, it did a couple things that made me use a lot of hacks to present the page well. I could not add a class or change the ID of page links, which meant I had to inspect the code with Firebug, find the randomly generated ID, copy it, paste it in the custom styles section, and create a new style – which was overriding current styles, instead of just editing them.

I suppose I could go on, but I don’t think it’s necessary.

What to do?

So essentially, I’m still looking for a quality CMS designed for front end web designers like me. I can’t imagine I’m really that much of a minority. I’m looking for something that gives me complete control over the markup without making me wade through piles of PHP.

If there is a CMS out there like this, I would really appreciate hearing from you. Otherwise, maybe this means I need to work with someone to make this type of product. I know I would love to use it.

recalcitrant

Today’s word of the moment is Recalcitrant.

According to Dictionary.com (our always loyal friend), Recalcitrant is something like this:

\rih-KAL-sih-truhnt\ , adjective;

1. Stubbornly resistant to and defiant of authority or restraint.

If they lingered too long, Clarice hurried them along in the same annoyed way she rushed recalcitrant goats through the gate.

- Kaye Gibbons, On the Occasion of My Last Afternoon

Image via Flickr.

Font used:  Droid Serif.

For years the complaints have been filed about fonts on the web. The limitations are strong which leaves only a few typographic choices. This is nothing new. When I first started designing websites, I remember being shocked by the constraints. MS Word could use many more fonts than the web could, and I felt like the internet was a much more evolved place technologically. This was backwards.

As the complaints continue to mount up, various options have slowly started to break down the barriers in recent years. SIFR and Cufón have recently been seen as a solid replacement to the somewhat bulky and antiquated (although not even close to obsolete) method of image replacement.

Enter Typekit (and a whole bunch of other great technologies outside the scope of this article).

Typekit

There have been a few major issues that have prevented us with limited web font options until now. One is the (in)ability of browsers to support something like the @font-face CSS declaration, which is now garnering a lot of support from modern browsers. The other major concern has been font foundries coming to agreement on the best way(s) to license their fonts on the web. Typekit is bridging that gap by hosting fonts from a growing number of foundries. Many of the foundries have been smaller ones until FontFont joined this week. I heard about this from an understated twitter message, but this is huge news.

There has been talk of more fonts on the web, but we are finally reaching a point that may be pivotal. It is already starting, and within a (relatively) short period of time, we could have a rather large set of fonts to choose from when designing new sites.

A landscape of chaos

So where does that put us?

Unfortunately, along with this freedom come a sense of chaos, driven largely by “designers” that don’t know anything about typography and abuse this newly found typographic “ability”. With this new power we, as designers, will need to exercise large amounts of responsibility. Choosing the font that is right for the project will become much more important that it has been in the past.

I agree with the sentiments of Jason Santa Maria in that we are going to see a great abuse of this new ability. However, I am optimistic. The chaos will reign for a period of time, and designers will do all kinds of new tricks, just because they can (does anybody remember the blink tag). I predict though, that when the dust has settled, the good designers will be even more apparent. You will recognize them as the ones using decent typefaces in their design.

The day is coming when fonts on the web will serve to further distinguish great designers from those that don’t know what they are talking about. Typekit is leading the way in what will hopefully be a future full of visually rich websites.

I guess it’s time to really hit the books and start learning about these typefaces and their best uses. We’re gonna need it.

I’ve been challenged by a good friend to combine my love of words, phonetics, and typography. I am going to start taking a word of the day from around the internets, and translating it into a “visual” work of art. Ok, work of art might be stretching it, but I’m trying. I hope it will spark conversation, or at least help my vocabulary.
They are words.. for the moment. So I call them “word of the moment”. Creative… I know.
Here is yesterday’s word of the day from Dictionary.com.
PERSEVERATE

Today

It was another Friday evening, straight after one of those full on corporate mumbo jumbo weeks. You know, the ones where you spend all week being productive and making people happy, but really, you look back and you didn’t make a single creative move all week.
That’s where I was.
Cue the beer.
And the Nikon.
I started walking from our house, camera in hand, looking for something to capture, but seriously, there’s not too much that is overly compelling about completely middle class houses built in the early 1900’s. We’re not talking about gems here, just your normal bungalows.
But right about the time I got to Coatsfield, I began to think it would be interesting to take a picture of every house number on one street- not just the nice looking ones – every single one. So I did.
I was a little timid, so I didn’t get too close. I guess some people think it’s strange to point a camera at their house, snap a shot, then keep on walking- only to do it again. A little over halfway through, one concerned citizen approached me and started his interrogation (quite politely I might add). He said they had three break-ins over the last month.
Um. Sorry good citizens of Coatsfield Ave. I was unaware.

The fruit of my voyeurism? This series of photos. I am still amazed at how diverse the house numbers can be on one single, (seemingly) homogenous, neighborhood block.
Any you particularly like?

803

804

808

814

817

821

826

831

854

867

871

872

Anytime I get a chance to see type in new languages, the letters take on whole new meanings. I’m no longer seeing them as a part of a word (which inherently has a meaning), but rather as pieces of art themselves. Moscow did this through using a lot of letters I am familiar with, but using them in strange ways.

These are some photos of found type in Moscow. I hope you enjoy. You can see a whole bunch in my typography set on Flickr.

A simple Metro stop in Moscow

Mosco(nian) bank. (I think)

A Banner over the Street in Moscow

Store Signage in Moscow

We don't have to many signs on buildings like this where I'm from

Simple Cafe near Red Square

I started at a new company over 6 months ago and from day one my primary job description was to create a new website for our company. It is finally done.

It took about 6 months to wait on content, and then when I finally got permission to write it myself, it took about two more weeks for it to launch. Such is life. (This is also my disclaimer for the quality of copy writing).

Orchid Event Solutions

Being a company that focuses on excellent technology, reporting, and other pretty cold elements, I chose to highlight our more friendly side – our full service solutions. The main point here was to connect with the site users and convey a message of simplicity, competence, and confidence. I did this with images of nature that were meant to convey a much more casual environment- one where our clients are free to talk to us about any need they have.

The copy is also very casual and conversational. I really wanted to stay away from any type of dry corporate language or technological verbiage that could be distracting. The whole site was designed to be forward thinking but light and simple – not bogged down with any extra baggage.

There is still some work to be done, and the site will constantly be evolving, but I think the initial goals of upgrading our site to something more modern has been accomplished. Here’s the previous version – as you can tell- outdated, cold, corporate, and overall disgusting.

Orchid Event Solutions (before)

The keen reader may have noticed that the new site also includes a new brand. Good eye Magellan. There will be more about that an upcoming post.

Feltron Annual Report 2008

Insanity may be a bit of an exaggeration. A little OCD maybe, or somewhat neurotic. Whatever it is that drove Nicholas Feltron to keep detailed records of seemingly mundane facts about his life for the past four years, I am in love with this!

Feltron has published his fourth annual Feltron Annual Report about his life – miles traveled (through 15 different modes), reading and drinking habits, hours of music listened to, and more. This is a beautiful example of information design. Feltron has designed a beautiful report, regardless of the content. Of course, what sells this report for me is the attention to detail in creating excellent content.

I wonder if keeping this detailed of a record would change my habits.

Soon may be relative. I just wanted to point out that I am aware that this blog site could use a redesign. This is a template, a fact that makes me somewhat nauseous. As soon as I get a spare minute, I will be changing this. Until then, you’ll have to wait in dire anticipaiton.