Category: Random Thoughts

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Pixel Perfect Coding

Two of my projects last week moved out of the design phase and into the coding phase.
It is during this phase that the non functional design created are sliced up and reconstructed into into fully functional web pages albeit void of content. Content population comes next.

During this intial coding phase our pages are tested, tested and tested again to ensure they perform well across all user platforms and browsers. In a perfect world all browsers would render a coded page exactly the same way …but this is not the case. Browsers can introduce gaps and spaces into a design. A web design which displays seemlessley when viewed with internet Explorer can have gaps and spaces when view with Firefox.

We employ a standard of pixel perfect coding …a design will display seemlessly whatever browser it is viewed on. We achieve this though the slicing logic used in cutting up our designs and careful coding with hacks where necessary.

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Fox2’s Great Garden Contest: Call for votes

Those of you who are regular visitors to this blog, will know that my rest and relaxation away from my computer is to be found in my garden.
I recently saw a call for entries for a Great Garden Contest on STL Fox 2 News so took a few pictures and emailed them in.

To my delight my garden has been selected as one of the top 20 and is currently featured in the Viewers Choice category on their web site. I need your votes!

To vote visit
http://ktvi.4wmt.com/packages/templates/anonymous/simple.aspx?pageid=2cc6cd24-f3fd-44a7-8a75-108e7d0e21df

Login or create an account if you dont have one and select Entry #18 : Zoe Feast. You can vote up until June 27th.

I promise to go back to writing about web design soon. My next post will be about pixel perfect coding.

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Support for Small Business in Wildwood, Mo

Starting a new business is an exciting process and small business owners need all the support they can get.

A new Pediatric and Adult Massage practice has recently opened in Wildwood. Owner, Wendy Godwin, is currently offering 50% off your first massage.

The business is located close to the Wildwood town center:-

Wildwood Heath & Wellness Center
1617 Manchester Road,
Wildwood, Mo.

Email Wendy here to find out more

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Our web and graphic design blog

We started our blog in June 2005 and nearly three years later are still going strong.

You may find this blog intresting if you are looking to hire a web or graphic designer, you are interested in web site usability and search engine optimization or are a web/graphic designer looking for some tips and tricks.

Today I am going to talk a little about the sort of subjects we cover here for any of our new readers. Each of our posts are given one or more label to categorize them so I thought it would make sense to talk about our categories:-

  • Design Snippets
    We cover subjects here that are useful to graphic and web designer. For example Meaning and associations of color, What is Ipsum Lorem and Favicons.
  • Eye of the St Louis Web Designer
    A picture speaks a thousand words and most of the photographs we feature in this section are of something that has given us inspiration, from a fabulous natural color palette to a great texture or pattern. As mentioned thoughtout these posts a designer’s eye never sleeps
  • FREE
    Who doesn’t like free stuff. We cover everything from free custom i google designs, the free definition phase or our projects to our much visited recipe for a garden deer repellant.
  • Graphic Design projects
    A showcase of graphic design projects, from brochures, letterheads, banners, menus, logos, newsletters, greeting cards and packaging.
  • Indigo Tips
    Tips to improve your productivity and internet experience
  • Internet marketing
    The ever changing world of  Search engine optimization.
  • Logos
    A showcase of our logo design
  • Project Progress
    We multi task big time and this section illustrates the current projects we are working on
  • Random Thoughts
    I think everyblog needs a section like this..a little bit of everything here..and as the title suggests …random
  • STL Marketing executive
    A category written by our guest writer. He shares perspectives drawn from his experience of branding, global business management and marketing in a B2B environment.
  • Web design Projects
    A showcase of our web design projects
  • Web Site Usability
    Considerations for giving your site visitors the experience you want them to have.
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iGoogle Theme: showcase

One of the best places to find quality themes for your iGoogle home page is at www.inthemes.com. Every week they feature one of the themes from their directory on their site; this week it is one I recently created called The Boffins


Here is what they have to say

Theme of the Week: The Boffins
Every week here at inThemes we like to showcase one of our favorite themes by applying it to our own homepage. This week it’s The Boffins by Zoe Feast, but why does it always make me think of Dr. Bunsen Honeydew?

Like it? Get it!

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Web Site Spring Cleaning

Maybe it is the sudden “greening up” here in St Louis or the fact I actually had a couple of free hours yesterday begging to be filled … there was a sudden urgency that my web site needed a “spring clean”.
I made a list of the things I wanted to rework and tackled just the first yesterday… updating our web design portfolio. This has tended to take a back seat with our recent volume of work and I have been relying on our blog to announce new projects. Our web design portflio has now been updated with a 7th gallery.

My next step is to tackle our graphic design portfolio which I plan on re-organizing …when I have time!

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St Louis After Shocks

Some pretty decent after shocks felt in my office at 10.15 this morning following the earthquake in the early hours. The power of the earth is really quite amazing.
It was my first experience of an earthquake but I knew instantly what is going on.

Excitement over…back to work now! I am currently working on a new web site for Hotshots, a logo for an investment company, navigation re design for a local small business portal and branding elements for a St Louis construction project.

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Job satisfaction

As a web and graphic designer I love my job and am passionate about what I do.

This week I took a little time off and joined my daughter on a “Heritage Day” field trip. We were treated to eight presentations by local experts on everything from candle making to “Toys enjoyed by pioneer children”. I particulary enjoyed the presentation by a blacksmith who was very also passionate about his trade. He made a nail and an artistic rendition of a leaf.

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Dynamic design for i Google.

A couple of months back I wrote a couple of posts on i Google, Google’s approach to personailzing their interface
Are you using i Google?
New Themes for i google

Google have taken the theme approach one step further and now it is possible to create your own theme to share with the world.

A blogger client recently asked me to create an i google theme to compliment his web site. I put together a dynamic theme which features “Mr Bison” at his computer oblivious to the happening around him. The theme changes 5 times during the day.

I have had some great feedback from users who have installed this theme

“THIS is the kind of creativity we should see in these themes! Thanks for putting some thought into & taking the time to *create* something original! Nice use of colors, too. Outstanding!”

“Great colors . . . easy on the eyes. A super creative theme. Thanks, Zoe Feast, for making my Google a happier place!”

To customize your i google page Click here for the “Mr Bison’s Day” theme.