August 31st, 2006
In a recent article on 9rules.com, Mike Rundle lays out how to make a great looking gradient using Photoshop. As with all tools in the designers toolbox there is definitely more than one way to end up with the same effect. On that note, I’m going to lay out my method for creating subtle, realistic gradients using Photoshop.
July 10th, 2006
James Mathias has a post about some questionable tactics being employed by Unmatched Style — which frankly doesn’t deserve a link due to these shady methods.
As the story goes, Unmatched Style held a design contest with a cash prize of $1,500. The requirements were very minimal and not very complicated.
Posted in Business
June 18th, 2006
Prompted by the countdown on the teaser website for the new Transformers movie I decided to develop a super simple countdown plugin for Wordpress.
This plugin, aptly dubbed Simple Countdown, lets you pick a title for the event or time you’re counting down to and merely displays the title along with the remaining days, hours and minutes until the event occurs. The great thing about Simple Countdown is that you can use a plain english date and time, e.g., “next tuesday” or “july 23, 2006 noon”.
Posted in Web Development
June 13th, 2006
Quoting is one of the toughest things to do. This is especially true when you’re starting out on your own for the first time. A lot of times new freelancers will start dropping the prices of their quotes in order to get their business rolling. What happens when you’ve been around for a while, your time is getting shorter as your client list grows?
Most web designers and developers raise their rates at this point. Excellent idea. This is also a good way to drop the bottom portion of your client list — the bottom portion consisting of the lower paying clients or the clients that give you very little work. The trouble happens when you’ve got a good client that gives you regular work and has been around for a long time.
Posted in Business
May 25th, 2006
Scope creep is probably the worst thing a designer or developer can deal with. The unfortunate thing is that a lot of freelancers deal with it, complaining along the way. Why the complaining? Because the general majority of clients don’t realize they are doing it.
In the mind of the client, once the quote or estimate has been accepted the dollar amount is set. Anything and everything they can think of after that is just a bonus for them, and some clients want or even expect a lot of bonuses.
Posted in Business
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