Archive for April, 2007

A new and fun blog, Growin’ Up in Maine, was launched officially yesterday with stories about small town life in Maine. After 3 months online with my commercial blog, it was time to continue on the learning curve with a personal blog.

Here’s a screen shot of the newly released blog:

The focus is my home town of Derby, Maine which I left in the early 1970′s. The new blog gives clients an opportunity to see the human side of my personality apart from work. Mainers are invited to tell their stories by emailing me from the site, also.

Recording artist Monk contacted me for a 4×6 flyer announcing the album debut and official release party of the Thugology MD All Black Album at Club51 in Rockville MD on April 20. It was a rush job and took less than a week from concept to finished print.

The specification for a 4×6 post card size design was black background and simple plain white text. The Club51 logo is red and white, so Monk agreed to allow red and some creativity. Here’s a look at the front artwork that I created shown smaller than actual size.

Official Thugology MD All Black Album Release Party Ad

The back (not shown) includes admission, contact phone information, and a list of performing artists: Lil Buck, Twisted Mindz, Mo. Co finest Monk & Tha Don. Keeping the original concept of white text, the illustration of this ad shows how white text on black can jump off the page with simple shading.

Do you have a challenging design or deadline? Let me know what you need and how quickly.

Text editor freeware from GridinSoft deserves a closer look if you have an interest in hand coding website design. Some things never change like Microsoft® NotePad. As the default word processor for viewing text files it has remained pretty much the same for more than 10 years. Fortunately more intuitive freeware options like GridinSoft Notepad Lite are available. Some things age gracefully while others are long overdue for a makeover.

One of the problems in the current NotePad is solved in GridinSoft’s version with a left gutter and line numbers. If you are coding HTML and need to refer to specific chunks of code, it’s much easier to make reference by line number. Here’s a screen shot of a portion of this post being composed in GridinSoft Notepad Lite:

The line numbers down the left hand side numbered 1 through 7 illustrate how much easier it is to discuss a file. This is especially true for HTML code with 100′s of lines of code. It is just as practical for word processing projects if you are emailing and sharing text files and need to review or comment on specific sections.

Download GridinSoft Notepad Lite here. Scroll down their page under freeware for the free version and no time limit. For high end edits with more functions they offer a professional versus home version, also.

If you choose to direct the design of your small business website, please consider dated content and the possible impact on future costs. Much dated content like coupons or copyright dates are unnecessary. If your site has an obsolete date your credibility may suffer. Plan ahead and you may save money with a few simple tips taken from a published article I wrote earlier.

Some small business owners pay $1000′s USD per year for their domain, hosting, and maintenance when in fact their site is static and nothing is ever added. A monthly fee based on the contingency that something might need to be changed in the future is a waste of money if your website is launched and just gathers dust. If it is dynamic adding content frequently and you receive value for money, monthly fees are practical.

You do NOT have to include the copyright date on your web pages. Using the copyright symbol and the year means you have an obsolete website a year later. The cost to change the date each January hardly justifies paying thousands annually in monthly fees. Published material is covered locally and internationally by copyright law without specifying the year or including a copyright statement. The fact that content is published on your website means you own it. My advice is avoid dated material and simply state “Copyright Material – All Rights Reserved”.

View details on this plus the full article on free ad supported website hosting here.