St. Petersburg Web Design Blog

Archive for the ‘Graphic Design’ Category

A lot of graphic designers and web designers have been thrust into the video editing arena lately with the rise in popularity of video viewed on the web. While most of them just say “I don’t edit video” (I even heard one say that videos can’t be edited by anyone except a film studio or TV studio – liar!), others are willing to learn. I’m fairly good at it myself, but it’s always a complicated procedure and there are no shortcuts. Here’s a perfect example of how not to edit a video to remove something you’d rather not have the viewer see.

Again, there are no shortcuts. It takes expensive software, patience, alot of tedium from someone willing to spend the time on it and lot’s of computer processor time.

Everyone who’s been embedding flash into a web page for a while remembers last year when Microsoft changed their browser in response to loosing a patent -infringement lawsuit. And then they changed it again soon after because the first change was so awful (Warnings everywhere!). What they ended up with – that white border that appears around a flash object when it is hovered over and must be clicked on before the movie can be clicked on – isn’t very graceful, but it what it is and there’s no way around it for a web designer.

It may seem like, or even be, a blatant and desperate attempt to get people to stop using the non-microsoft technologies like flash, java, etc. But yet we as web designer must come up with a Internet Explorer Active Content Fix. You could choose to follow the instruction from the new owners of Flash, here’s a link to Adobe’s Active Content Update Fix. But dues that’s like 6 long scripts that you need to choose for your particular

You could write your own solutions. In theory it’s pretty easy, for JavaScript writers, just document.write your normal code in. For php programers just echo it in. etc.

But here’s what I’ve been doing lately. Since I almost always use DreamWeaverMX 2004 on web sites, I found a nice Dreamweaver extension called the Softery IE Flash Problem Solver. It inserts a command that works simply. It only has two options, Fix the IE Active Content Update Problem on the current open document or on all pages with flash in the current local site. It works quickly and perfectly every time.

Don’t ya love it when something works just like it should?

Why would someone want to put plain text over an image? For the search engines! They treat any text near the top of the page as far more important and far more telling when it comes to determining what a page is actually about. Therefore in struggle between search engine optimization and web design or the battle between eye appealing sites and sites that get indexed properly by the search engines, every one wants their targeted keyphrases at the top of the page in a heading tag and they want a nice image at the top of the page as well.

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Bob Sobczak works to translate raw data into easy-to-read graphics

Today, a complex system of spillways, levees, pump stations and canals controls where, when and how the water flows. As the keepers of the new order, the South Florida Water Management District and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers meticulously have tracked the water’s journey for several decades.

A few years ago, a federal scientist with no prior Web-designing experience got the idea to put the information at the public’s fingertips. The result, www.fgcu.edu/bcw/hcu.htm, has evolved into a weekly peek inside the rarely seen — and even more rarely understood — world of water management.

Just in case the complicated, multi-colored data-filled maps aren’t quite easy enough for you to interpert without a mastrers degree in hydrology, they prominently display a link to the SFL Weekly Watersheds Summary blog which contains update narrative summaries of the data.

We’ve all heard the rumors. They’ve working on the “Holy Grail” of the computer world. Pieces of inexpensive paper-like material that are disposable and reusable and can display digital content. They’ve come close several times and there are a few projects out there that could, if successful, change the world.

Now they’re saying ¹ they almost have ready something that’s going to do it. It’s the newspaper and magazine people that seem the most interested in it for right now. Without have any real idea what the demand for a product like this the newspapers and magazine publishers have made it clear that they are interested. It seems they feel (or are being led to believe) that using this content delivery method instead of paper will save significantly on the 70% of production costs that are paper related.

I don’t know if I’ll prefer reading my newspaper on a piece of electric paper that can be easy stuffed in a pocket (I’m not fond of newspapers that don’t fold easily and leave ink on my hands), but I do know I’m rooting for this technology.
It’ll create more demand for web designers and computer graphics design.

Here’s a list of some of the sites I’ve done for superpages.com Please remember that these are all editable by the client with a web based tool. The appearance could have been changed drasticlly since I designed the web site.

• Tampa’s Gold Club Gentlemen’s Club
• Anglin’s Landscaping
• Couture Painting
• Shapes Fitness for Women
• A Mobile Break Service
• Cunningham’s Pump and Well
• Insurance Marketing Specialists
• Gulf Coast Surplus
• Anteres Diamond Company
• JMI Mobile Detailing
• J. Michael Conaway – Attorney
• James Thomerson Attorney
• Collins And Hensley, Law Office
• Terrence L Ivey, Attorney and Couselor at Law
• AccessIT

Compared to my regular work I consider most of these sites to be sub-par. At this former employer of mine, site quality is not prioity one. Getting as many web sites out as quickly as you can, being nice on the phone and making more “up-sales”.

Service at my own Florida Web Design is far beyond what I could give the clients at superpages.com (they don’t even do photography). And my prices still beat them by a long shot.