Site Update Status - Looking At Layouts

This magician needs a name... any ideas?

So far so good!

Here's a funny image I found on a public domain site recently. I would love to use it in my site update, it's just so goofy! Maybe I'll replace the bunny with a steampunk iPad that has my face on the screen.

I found a very useful flexible grid system on which to layout my updated portfolio site. My favorite feature is it's flexibility. Hence the name. What that means is it adapts to any size screen. When viewed on a regular size computer screen it has a nice layout. When viewed on a smaller screen (like a smartphone), it rearranges itself to make more efficient use of the space available. It even adapts well to a very large screen.

It's based on this page I found. When you load it, re-size your browser window and you'll see how it adapts. Pretty cool huh! However, it's more difficult to work with and requires a lot of fiddling with the CSS to get everything looking good.

Another option is a fixed size grid system. There are lots of them available, mostly based on a 960 pixel width divided into 12 or 16 columns. I use a similar system with my existing sites, keeping them to 960 pixels (or is it 940, I'd have to check) which scales well on a smart phone.

If I stick with the 960 grid system I'm using now, it will speed up my work a lot. However, taking the time to learn the flexible grid will be a good step towards developing more skills to offer future clients.

I'll think about it tonight, play around some more with the various frameworks and figure it out.

My Portfolio Needs an Update

I'll be updating my portfolio
at www.GregMcMahan.com

I Can Do Better!

I've been looking at my design portfolio recently. It's a decent looking site, easy to navigate, but a bit boring and it contains too many samples.

My tagline is "The Magician Designer", but except for my top hat nothing really emphasizes the magician part. Being a professional magician and a designer is a good image to use for branding my services, so I'm going to re-design my site to take advantage of that.

When I create a new design, I prefer to start with the visual. I've been scanning as many images of "magic" and "magician" I can find, online and in my collection here at home and office. Lots of ideas, including some fun unobtrusive HTML5 animations to add a bit of fun to the site.

I've also decided to simplify the back-end procedure for updating my portfolio. Right now there's a lot of steps involved, and I want to make it much easier to do. Upload an image, update a file and I'm done. Let the coding take care of the rest, including the thumbnail creation.

The new site will showcase fewer samples of my work so I can focus on the ones I feel best show my strengths as a designer. Here's one I'm really proud of that I'll be placing up front: www.SunshineIslandShow.com. I was so happy with the way it turned out I used the same basic layout, with Mike's permission, when I updated my entertainer site. It may be best to stick with that basic design to create consistency. Or not. I'll research that.

My plan is to use PHP, jQuery, HTML5, CSS3 and Javascript. I like these languages and I'm comfortable with them. Not an expert by any means, but there are so many open source/public domain scripts available to choose from that I'm sure I'll find exactly what I want that require the minimum of editing. Why reinvent the wheel?

I'll keep you updated as the site is progressing... this will be fun!

Why reinvent the wheel

My web coding skills include
HTML5 • CSS3 • PHP • jQuery • Javascript

I learn what I need for that particular design project.

That's how I've taught myself web coding. I'm not college trained, but I am smart about it. Once I've figured out the basic outline of a website, it's features, user flow, interface and other logistical concerns, I make a list of the types of functions I'll need.

Then I go hunting. First in my local files, since I've saved all the code used in previous projects. Many times I already have the scripts I need. If not, I search for public domain scripts out there in the interwebz. And there are LOTS of them. It's much easier for me to edit a script that does close to what I need than it is to write it from scratch. Why reinvent the wheel?

Once I've got what I need, I start editing. This is my favorite part, because as I'm doing this I'm also learning more skills that will help me in the next project.