blog.dzyn.me

Dzynspiration - 15th Feb 2009

2010-02-16T06:07:00.000-08:00

A great proportion of my day is spent browsing through the dozens of new items cropping up in my feed reader each day. In one way, it's a useful method to ensure I stay up to date with the latest design trends. But my main reason is to find inspiration.

Documenting the articles which hold my attention is as much helpful for me as it is to offer insights into what inspires me from one week to the next. After all, a set of bookmarks stored on my own laptop provides neither visual nor temporal information as to the creative finds I've enjoyed!

Here are the sites and articles which have inspired me this week:

Applying Mathematics to Web Design - Smashing Magazine

This article explores the notion that "mathematics is beautiful" and how the principles of the Golden Ratio, the Fibonnacci sequence and Kundli may be assist in the creation of beautiful, balanced web design layouts.

View article

A Compilation of Retro Fonts for Designers - Naldz Graphics

Font showcases are undoubtedly inspirational. As designers we need them for a multitude of purposes, from logo design to blog post images and everything between.

This compilation showcases over 40 retro fonts which we can download for free - an added bonus for any designer working to a budget!

View article

Tips for designing unique and attractive blog posts - Line25

I love the recent trend swaying towards "blogazines" - where each individual post of a blog is uniquely styled, in the manner of a magazine page.

This article showcases some examples of blogs which utilize this trend, while also explaining some methods of how this may be achieved.

View article

CSS3 examples and best practises - WebDesignerWall

CSS3 is a hot topic. This article from Web Designer Wall outlines some examples of how CSS3 can be used to enhance our web designs, while pointing out some pitfalls we can hope to avoid.

View article

20+ design blogs that release quality freebies - Designm.ag

A great article for finding new bookmarks or sites for your feed reader. Here you can find a list of resources offering freebies for designers, from photoshop brushes to templates, icons and more.

View article

Amazingly scary portraits by Jorge Miguel - FrancescoMugnai.com

Francesco Mugnai's blog is always a wonderful source for inspiration, but I was particularly taken by this article which showcases rather disturbing portraits by Jorge Miguel. Creepy, and well worth a look!

View article

Image credit: mantis by woodleywonderworks, via Flickr

Freebie - Quotes on Dzyn Typographic Wallpaper

2010-01-28T06:50:00.000-08:00

Sometimes the tedium of everyday work leaves us feeling dull and somewhat uninspired. I love Chris Coyier's "Quotes on Design", so during a particularly awkward creative block I fired up Photoshop and used this tutorial to create a typographic wallpaper filled with quotes on design.

Like it? Feel free to download, use, modify and share! I've adapted it to fit most screen resolutions, so hopefully you'll find the size to fit your own desktop screen.

Download:

800x480 | 1024x640 | 1280x800 | 1680x1050 | 1920x 1200 | 2560x1600

45 Stunning Street-Art Samples

2010-01-21T06:48:00.000-08:00

When searching for inspiration, the city can be a place of illumination and discovery.

For those of you who don't have the time, means or inclination to immerse yourself in the world of breathtaking street art, here's a compilation of amazing pieces (sourced from Flickr's Creative Commons pool) to fuel your creativity.

Be warned - you may find yourself spending hard earned cash on a commissioned piece to grace your office wall!

Swoon on Blue - Via Lunapark

Ill Colors - via PixelJuice23

BTOY ans Miss Van - via justin_case

VSP Visual Street Performance - via Graffitiland

Urban Camouflage - via gaspi *your Guide

Nonchalance Auto-Killing - via Smeerch

Catwoman - via Caneles

Untitled - via Jakedobkin

TLP - via Sky

Monkey Hand - via Pixeljuice

Sombrero on the Right - via Shapeshift

The Owl Tree - via Slightlynorth

Untitled - via Jakedobkin

Untitled - via Akbar Simonse

Taureau - via gillesklein

3d graf - via gillesklein

Viewmaster - via geoftheref

Let's Face It - via What What

Burner, Bum City - via funkandjazz

el niño de las pinturas - via Gabirulo

Death - via Vasta

Untitled - via Shiratski

Graffiti by "The Mac" - via Threcee

VSP 2007 - via Graffitiland

Near Miss - via Daliborlev

Mario - via sensesmaybenumbed

Haircut - via What What

The Dark - via kk+

Untitled - via Diodoro

i swoon for swoon - via lunapark

Girl Face - via Dr Case

El Bocho goes Neon - via nolifebeforecoffee

Untitled - via Jakedobkin

Banksy Hoodie - via mermaid99

Eelus at Leake Street - via Mermaid99

Ego Detail - via Slightlynorth

Hey You - via Darwin Bell

Untitled - via Brocco Lee

Os Gemeos @ Quayside - via apwbATTACK

The Mac - funkandjazz

Jaen, Espana - via Bit Ramone

Hi Dad - via tashland

Mural - via Akbar Simonse

Some of these designs truly take my breath away, and I contemplate how inspiring they would be to see full-size, in person. My hope is that all who read this article will find at least one piece to inspire them for the design of their latest project, so be sure to leave a comment and share your thoughts of which provokes you most!

Easy RSS Autodiscovery to Promote your Blog or Tweets

2010-01-20T15:36:00.000-08:00

So you've built a killer website, filled it with wonderful content, developed your portfolio and have designed a fantastic blog to bombard a plethora of potential visitors with status updates and news of your latest ventures...

But there's a problem: for whatever reason, you've decided not to use a complete CMS for your website and blog. You may have decided to use Blogger's free service, for example, or prefer the minimalist approach of Twitter for micro-blogging bliss.

Of course, you could link to your blog (or Twitter) RSS feed and promote this through innumerable eye-catching banners, links and screaming fuchsia pink headlines, but what about that useful orange icon to the right of your browser's address bar?

For many of us, it's the first point of call when checking for subscription links!

Here's what I did

Since Google's Blogger platform is my blogging poison of choice, I decided to host my portfolio and blog on separate subdomains. Which led me to this problem of promoting my blog feeds in conjunction with my HTML-based site.

To ensure visitors to my portfolio are easily able to subscribe to my blog (and Twitter status) feeds, I added just RSS auto-discovery links to the <head> section of all pages in my site:

Blogger automatically generates autodiscovery feeds for post and comment updates, so for this section of the site I merely added the snippets required for Twitter updates to show up too.

How to add RSS Autodiscovery to a static site

Copy, paste and edit - in just a few moments your static website or portfolio could be subtly enhanced with autodiscovery of your blog updates, Twitter status feeds or indeed any RSS/Atom-based feed from the social networking phenomenon you've developed as an avid user of the world wide web.

So open up your favorite text/html editor and start by pasting the following code somewhere between the <head> and </head> tags on each page of your side where you want the feeds to show up:

<link rel="alternate" type="application/rss+xml" title="Subscribe to My Blog - RSS" href="http://address-of-your-feed.com" />

Change the title and feed URL as required, and save. Now open up your site in a web browser and look for the RSS icon in your address bar. Nice, huh?

You could add your Twitter updates feed like so:

<link rel="alternate" type="application/rss+xml" title="Subscribe to i.dzyn.me - Twitter Updates" href="http://twitter.com/statuses/user_timeline/105751843.rss" />

(Simply visit your Twitter status page to find the URL for updates using Twitter's own RSS autodiscovery system!)

Or even your Feedburner syndicated content:

<link rel="alternate" type="application/rss+xml" title="Subscribe to i.dzyn.me - Twitter Updates" href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/idzynme" />

If you prefer to link to an Atom feed, change "application/rss+xml" to read application/atom+xml" instead. This ensures browsers detect the correct type of feed.

You can add as many of these lines as you need to - they'll show up in a list ordered by their appearance in the document you've edited. Add just a single feed or go wild and add every single RSS/Atom feed you're linked to, and ensure your readers can easily find the means to subscribe to as many of your updates as you choose.

And there we have it: a subtle yet satisfying method of providing easy RSS discovery from a static site.

Photo by Thomas Hawk, via Flickr

blog.dzyn.me - Now Broadcasting!

2010-01-01T00:00:00.000-08:00

As with any new blog, there must be an introductory first post!

So here it is, my enthusiastic introduction to blog.dzyn.me, where I - Amanda Kay - will write periodically about my exploits, passions and adventures in the formidable field of front-end web design.

Thank you but no congratulations are required. At least not until my face graces the front cover of .Net magazine!

And yes, I did schedule this post to appear at the stroke of midnight, New Years Day. There;'s a very good reason for that. I'll let you figure it out on your own...