Blog Design Showcase Consider this a website field trip

1. Blog Design ShowcaseConsider this a website field trip

2. “the measure of intelligence is knowing how little you know”

3. transparency can lead to a more credible brand

4. A Blog is.. • a regularly updated site containing links to pages the author finds interesting, typically with commentary attached • Sheer egoism, aesthetic enthusiasm, historical impulse, and even a bit of political purpose

5. Do as I say, not as Rubel does • Be selective • You don’t have to link to everything.. • Try and make your own versions of icons • Use alternate symbols from everyone else • Especially for common things like PDF or RSS • Don’t use full color icons • Try grey scale

6. Wunderkammern and the birth of the museum as we know it • Cabinets of curiosities (also known as Wunderkammer or wonder-rooms) were collections of types of objects we now regard as quite separate, but whose boundaries were in the Renaissance yet to be defined.

8. A great blog is.. • Informative and sexy • Simple • Based on beautiful typography • At times, funny • Small pieces, loosely joined

9. Blogs are almost all about Typography… • Words are all that you have to work with (For the most part..) • Readability vs. Usability • Steal from the best • Look at great blogs, it will rub off on you • Keep your enemies close • Monitor your competition

10. shauninman.com

11. Website Field Trip • Make sure you have your permission slips signed!

13. Mp3 Blogs • a blog that hosts downloadable music in the MP3 audio file format. www.fzelders.nl/weblog

16. peel • It’s like an RSS reader just for MP3s.

18. Image heavy blogs • Advertising blogs • Photo blogs

19. sandeepmakam.blogspot.com

21. syndication • One of your goals could be to get featured by your local gothamist • How? • Contact the editors • Be persistent • Have good content to pitch • Don’t be annoying about it

22. Cameron Moll • Cameronmoll.com • Authentic Boredom is the platitudinous web home of Cameron Moll. Is it ‘Mall’ or ‘Mull’ you ask? It’s ‘Mall.’ The correct pronunciation, however, is actually ‘Mull,’ as the surname is Germanic. But for the love of Pete, please don’t pronounce it as ‘Mole.’

24. Daring Fireball • Simplicity is key. • Daringfireball.net

26. Use humor where possible • On DFs contact page • I encourage you to send me your comments regarding Daring Fireball. Unfortunately, I am at times a lousy correspondent — where by “at times” I mean “most of the time”. If I don’t respond to your email, or do so only after an inordinate amount of time has passed, please don’t take it personally.

28. The Contact page • It’s one of the most important things you can do for yourself • Think about it like a business card • Except you can have a form that collects data • So think of it as a better business card!

31. security • Display your email as an image • Use (dot) instead of your real email address • Get Creative! • Use humor.. • Be transparent about why

33. Jason Santa Maria • jasonsantamaria.com • Sexy and informative! • Jason Santa Maria is a Graphic Designer living in sunny Philadelphia, PA with his wife Liz and three cats. He serves as Creative Director for Happy Cog Studios, both in New York and Philadelphia. This status grants him access to most black-tie galas and groundbreaking ceremonies.

35. Drop caps • Create an image for each letter, a.gif, b.gif and put in a folder called “letters” www.yoursite.com/letters/a.gif • Switch the corresponding letter on and off.. • Build it in to your default post

36. kottke • What kottke.org might be, a list: • The personal site of Jason Kottke. But also his full-time gig. • A weblog, which is a frequently updated, chronologically ordered collection of hypertext fragments. You'll find the most recent posted stuff on the front page and many ways to get at the older posts on the archive page.

38. Etcetera • etcetera.com.ro/blog/ • This blog is called etcetera. And it’s ours as it is yours, also. If you are into graphic-design-post-consumerism-retro-futurology-how-it-looks-area, you’ll certainly like visiting us for your daily-design-dose!

40. Use your own screenshots • But stealing is second best.. • Steal from the best • You can always customize the stolen screenshot • That means you need to know photoshop • But just the basics are required

42. Screenshot mumbo-jumbo • Screenshot • Outputting the entire screen in a common format such as BMP, PNG, or JPEG. • Screen dump • The display system dumps what it is using internally upon request, PDF in the case of Mac OS X. As of Mac OS X 10.4, pictures are no longer saved as PDF. They are saved as PNGs. (which can be annoying) • Screen capture • Capturing the screen over an extended period of time to form a Video file.

43. Flickr feed • Get creative! • Know the boundaries • Include a link to your flickr rss • Know the sizes flickr automatically produces

45. Flickr natively supported blog platform • Atom Enabled Blogs • Blogger • Blogger Beta* • LiveJournal • Manila • Movable Type • Typepad • Vox • WordPress

46. Blogging flickr images

47. Lightbox • Take those flickr images and do something with them • I use lightbox on my portfolio site • www.jess3.com

48. Snap preview • I use snap on my blog • www.jess3.com/blog • You can preview internal and external links • Building this from scratch is untheisable • It would require you to cache all the websites in the world. • You can customize a little bit • Adding your logo aint bad

50. Google Analytics • It used to be called Urchin • Then google bought them and changed the name to Analytics • It’s free • It’s free and it looks amazing • By free I mean $0.00