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- Pixar Almost Lost Toy Story 2
- Web Tips 2: JavaScript – The Drama Queen
- An Honestly Good Time
- Web Tips 1: I’ll Have a Sprite.
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- Acid Drops
- Folklorama Behind the Scenes
- Flying like a bird with “Human BirdWings”
- Design Matters
- Lightning and the Milky Way from Space
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Web Tips 2: JavaScript – The Drama Queen
Today I'm going to talk about an easy, 10 second change that might be a little bit more common but maybe not totally wide known. This tip comes from the book Even Faster Web Sites by Steve Souders. It's definitely an interesting read as it dissects (and sometimes even casts a light of shame on) some of the biggest websites like Google, Facebook and Wikipedia. What is this wonder cure? All of your JavaScript <script> tags should be placed just before the closing </body> tag instead of in the <head> tag. How can this make such a profound change? Part of it is perception but it also has a simple technical explanation. Script tags are blocking and as soon as the browser encounters one, it stops what it's doing to process the JavaScript. It does this on the assumption that JavaScript dynamically changes the website document (which is usually true), so <script> tags get some of the highest priority. Placing Facebook's JavaScript for the Like button(s) at the bottom also works despite what their developer instructions say. As for the perception bit, the browser encounters your CSS at the top, parses your HTML and applies styles to it immediately, then blocks to load the JavaScript at the bottom. It is faster, but it also makes it seem even faster than the actual performance gains.
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An Honestly Good Time
Joanna Bulowska
2nd year Graphic Design student from Red River College
3-week internship at Honest Agency
It all started on a crisp Monday morning. The elevator opened and I found myself in a beautiful, bright and modern office. And that’s when the fear set in... there I was wondering what the day might bring, and what kind of initiation there might be. But of course my imagination likes to be wild and silly. No cute puppies were slaughtered and no tightropes were walked. In fact, my first day was very pleasant. I got to meet everyone at the office and was excited to sit by the new employee Jadyn, who started that same day. Right off the bat I noticed how much creativity is encouraged and expressed at the office. From cardboard deer-heads to colorful posters to a room divider made of birch trees (which I had the pleasure of sitting by); the space is filled with things to inspire creation. The first thing I created was a logo for Handemonium—an upcoming rock-paper-scissors tournament. I’m super excited that Kerri and Callum had faith in me to work with a real client. My idea was received well and I got to design a brand package around the event. I can’t wait to stumble upon my design in the future. Other great highlights included going to my first press check with Charity, who gave me generous tips about the printing process. Then there was Kings Head Friday—which entails sharing stories over beer and lunch, followed by a slightly tipsy afternoon. And of course we had a pot-luck, which meant that everyone brought delicious snacks to stuff our faces with. (And did we ever!) Just like that my three weeks at Honest flew by, and it was time for me to go home slightly sad. (Partly because I had to hang my head in shame after the “spin 'n slap” parting gift, but mostly because I will sincerely miss the great experience and great people. To everyone at Honest, Thank you dearly for opening your doors to me and letting me sit in on a bit of genius. I miss you guys!
*Joanna forgot to mention that she brought a basket full of delicious strawberry and plum cookies on her last day (see photo below). Bribery will get you everywhere my dear!
POSTED IN: Uncategorized 1 Comment »
Web Tips 1: I’ll Have a Sprite.
To get in the habit of blogging more, I'm going to share some tips I use to develop better performing websites. This might be a little technical for the average person but anyone who has dabbled in HTML and CSS recently should be able to follow along just fine. Today I am going to cover CSS sprites—a simple way to consolidate template images to reduce requests to the server. They are used by the biggest websites and I first learned about them 2 years ago by studying Facebook's HTML code with Firebug. I tend to take frequently used images such as the logo, icons, ribbons and shapes, and I lay them out in Photoshop in one image using a grid. My grid is usually made up of 5px squares with 25 or 50px divisions. I have a CSS class, usually titled .main_sprite, that contains my sprite as a background image and other classes for each image on the sprite such as .logo. My logo class would contain my normal rules, such as the width and height of the element and also the position of the logo image on the sprite. I simultaneously write the CSS code as I create the sprite so that I can lock down the co-ordinates. Here is an example:
.main_sprite{background-image:url('sprite.png');background-repeat:no-repeat;}
.logo{width:200px;height:100px;display:block;background-position:-100px -50px;}
In the HTML, I would create my logo like this:
<a href="index.php" class="main_sprite logo"></a>
That's all there is to it! You now have one large image that you might be using in place of 20 different images, but the server isn't opening and processing 20 different connections. You also have the benefit of more effective browser image caching as the image was loaded via CSS which leads to all around gains.
TAGS: programming, web design
POSTED IN: Technology, Tips, Web 2 Comments »
Project Glass
The future?
Project Glass
TAGS: Explore, Future, Google. Project Glass, Share, World
POSTED IN: Technology, Video Leave a comment »
Acid Drops
Hello, nice to meet you!
This is an interesting video and the second in a series of hand painted studies that aim to psychedelically capture the individual styles of influential skateboarders. Animation by Matt Box. Enjoy.
TAGS: Animation, Illustration, Painting, Skateboarding, Watercolour
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Folklorama Behind the Scenes
Friday morning I woke feeling equal parts nervous and excited, My name is Raelene Dziedzic and I am a 3rd year graphic design student at Red River College. The reason for my excitement Friday morning is because I was about to sit in on my first ever professional photo shoot. I was going to get to see for myself how it all comes together. The morning was so exciting that Roberta (a friend and classmate) and I ended up at the wrong location. After a confused email and some guidance from Charity we soon found ourselves at Honest’s office. The place where all the prep work was about to begin.
Walking into the office excitement was in the air, it seems that I was not the only one who woke up feeling that way Friday morning. Erin was hard at work on her first masterpiece while her first model sat patiently. Kerri was making sure everything was going smoothly while taking cinnamon buns out of the oven, The boardroom was full of snacks and friendly faces. All in all everyone was in a great mood. As the day progressed, Roberta and I took pictures and observed the paint markers being put to use. Nearing the end of the prep morning, Kerri got started on prepping me. I had known the night before that this might happen but was a little nervous all the same, I am not used to being a “model” and having my picture taken.
Not long after, we were on our way to Jerry’s studio, just a short hop skip and a jump away across Main Street. Once we were there the shoot went by fairly quickly. All in all everyone was really friendly and excited about the concepts for this years campaign. My only complaint of the day is that the paint was much harder to get off then I first anticipated. Thanks guys for including me in this day, I had a great time and learned that with the Honest staff, work is not work because you are having fun while doing it.
POSTED IN: Design, Photography Leave a comment »
Design Matters
I thought this video was relevant to Winnipeg for a number of different reasons. First, we have some great designers (and champions of design) here that are looking to do some amazing things for both our city and the design disciplines studied here. Second, we have a lot of great capital projects that are either underway or about to be announced that will add excitement and life to our city. Coincidentally, many of them are museums of some sort or another. But the definition of museum is changing. They are no longer static exhibits that merely educate. They are interactive experiences that entertain as well. The success of these new institutions rely on the ability to draw back visitors several times a year. They need to educate, entertain, inspire and relate to their audience. We can no longer think of museums as places that preserve history. We need to think of them as places where we can celebrate history and anticipate the future.
TAGS: Capital Campaign, Design, London, Museum
POSTED IN: Design, Inspiration, Video of The Week, World News Leave a comment »