web design news and style http://dustinbrewer.com web design news and style Fri, 20 Jun 2008 11:00:28 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.5 en The art of great customer service as a freelance web designer http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/dustinbrewer/~3/316134480/ http://dustinbrewer.com/the-art-of-great-customer-service-as-a-freelance-web-designer/#comments Fri, 20 Jun 2008 11:00:28 +0000 Dustin Brewer http://dustinbrewer.com/?p=158 Giving good customer service as a freelance web designer is paramount to the lively hood involved with being your own business. Providing that invaluable level of intimacy with your clients is what distinguishes you from the larger ad agencies. The bigger some companies get the more attractive a freelance web designer can be. In order to be good at what you do, it takes more than great design or meticulous CSS abilities, or even explaining to the client why web standards are so important.

(...)
Read the rest of The art of great customer service as a freelance web designer (530 words)

© Dustin Brewer for web design news and style, 2008. | Permalink | 3 comments | Add to del.icio.us digg
Who's linking ? Technorati BlogPulse Google
Want more on these topics ? Browse the archive of posts filed under freelance, web design news.

]]> http://dustinbrewer.com/the-art-of-great-customer-service-as-a-freelance-web-designer/feed/ http://dustinbrewer.com/the-art-of-great-customer-service-as-a-freelance-web-designer/ CSS fix for the double margin float bug in IE6 http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/dustinbrewer/~3/313780223/ http://dustinbrewer.com/css-fix-for-the-double-margin-float-bug-in-ie6/#comments Tue, 17 Jun 2008 13:01:41 +0000 Dustin Brewer http://dustinbrewer.com/?p=157 There are several well known bugs that affect only Internet Explorer 6 that can wreak havoc on your websites. One of the most annoying is the double margin float bug in IE6, simply if you float a block level element to the left it will double the margin you have applied to the element and most of the time break your site entirely in a strange way.

(...)
Read the rest of CSS fix for the double margin float bug in IE6 (213 words)

© Dustin Brewer for web design news and style, 2008. | Permalink | 6 comments | Add to del.icio.us digg
Who's linking ? Technorati BlogPulse Google
Want more on these topics ? Browse the archive of posts filed under CSS, XHTML.

]]> http://dustinbrewer.com/css-fix-for-the-double-margin-float-bug-in-ie6/feed/ http://dustinbrewer.com/css-fix-for-the-double-margin-float-bug-in-ie6/ Freelance web designer tools and productivity management http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/dustinbrewer/~3/310420209/ http://dustinbrewer.com/freelance-web-designer-tools-and-productivity-management/#comments Thu, 12 Jun 2008 14:00:59 +0000 Dustin Brewer http://dustinbrewer.com/?p=156 There are a lot of benefits to being a freelance web designer. The freedom to work your own hours (all of them) and the ability to choose what web projects you take on (how much you charge) and which you decline. However, with as much responsibility that a freelance web designer takes on there is a need for a lot of tools to manage it all. Being a freelance web designer is a lot of being an entire design firm, you have to take control of the sales, customer service, project management, design layout, web development and programming. There are a lot of these tasks that we can outsource but for the most part, a lot of our projects can consist of all of the above and so choosing the right tools for the job is a task that we don’t take lightly.

(...)
Read the rest of Freelance web designer tools and productivity management (1,618 words)

© Dustin Brewer for web design news and style, 2008. | Permalink | 14 comments | Add to del.icio.us digg
Who's linking ? Technorati BlogPulse Google
Want more on these topics ? Browse the archive of posts filed under designer tools, freelance.

]]> http://dustinbrewer.com/freelance-web-designer-tools-and-productivity-management/feed/ http://dustinbrewer.com/freelance-web-designer-tools-and-productivity-management/ Styling the first post of your Wordpress blog http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/dustinbrewer/~3/309682427/ http://dustinbrewer.com/styling-the-first-post-of-your-wordpress-blog/#comments Wed, 11 Jun 2008 15:00:16 +0000 Dustin Brewer http://dustinbrewer.com/?p=155 I got several emails when I had published my new site design about how to style only the first post of the blog in Wordpress. This tactic can be handy to call out the very first post so that the readers attention is on the most recent topic for your blog. It is actually very easy, and may not be the best PHP in the world but it works perfectly.

(...)
Read the rest of Styling the first post of your Wordpress blog (191 words)

© Dustin Brewer for web design news and style, 2008. | Permalink | One comment | Add to del.icio.us digg
Who's linking ? Technorati BlogPulse Google
Want more on these topics ? Browse the archive of posts filed under Uncategorized.

]]> http://dustinbrewer.com/styling-the-first-post-of-your-wordpress-blog/feed/ http://dustinbrewer.com/styling-the-first-post-of-your-wordpress-blog/ How to create a good looking form without tables, using CSS http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/dustinbrewer/~3/308890118/ http://dustinbrewer.com/how-to-create-a-good-looking-form-without-tables-using-css/#comments Tue, 10 Jun 2008 15:00:01 +0000 Dustin Brewer http://dustinbrewer.com/?p=154 There are a lot of different attempts that we have all made over the years to master the quirky art of creating an aesthetically pleasing form. The trouble is being able to control the form and have your labels and inputs match up nicely without going to too much work. We’ve all made a form in tables, regrettably. For some this has been the only option due to restraints from CSS or frustration with cross-browser compatibility.

(...)
Read the rest of How to create a good looking form without tables, using CSS (199 words)

© Dustin Brewer for web design news and style, 2008. | Permalink | 8 comments | Add to del.icio.us digg
Who's linking ? Technorati BlogPulse Google
Want more on these topics ? Browse the archive of posts filed under CSS, XHTML.

]]> http://dustinbrewer.com/how-to-create-a-good-looking-form-without-tables-using-css/feed/ http://dustinbrewer.com/how-to-create-a-good-looking-form-without-tables-using-css/ New site design is here, leave lots of positive comments http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/dustinbrewer/~3/308576066/ http://dustinbrewer.com/new-site-design-is-here-leave-lots-of-positive-comments/#comments Tue, 10 Jun 2008 05:32:34 +0000 Dustin Brewer http://dustinbrewer.com/?p=153 I have finally published my new site design, it is somewhat similar in layout to the old design but it has quite a bit more details to it. It is also much cleaner than the last design when it comes to over all look and feel. I’ve pushed some typographic styles on to the site to increase the readability of the whole site as well.

(...)
Read the rest of New site design is here, leave lots of positive comments (176 words)

© Dustin Brewer for web design news and style, 2008. | Permalink | 2 comments | Add to del.icio.us digg
Who's linking ? Technorati BlogPulse Google
Want more on these topics ? Browse the archive of posts filed under site update.

]]> http://dustinbrewer.com/new-site-design-is-here-leave-lots-of-positive-comments/feed/ http://dustinbrewer.com/new-site-design-is-here-leave-lots-of-positive-comments/ Site updates, new content and the future http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/dustinbrewer/~3/280277512/ http://dustinbrewer.com/site-updates-new-content-and-the-future/#comments Tue, 29 Apr 2008 19:25:00 +0000 Dustin Brewer http://dustinbrewer.com/?p=151 I have been busy working on projects outside of the blog lately and had to set several things on the side burner. I have created a new design for this site which is about half way styled out and should be a huge improvement once it is implemented into Wordpress. It may take a little focus away from the blog and focus a little more on my freelance web design here in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma and elsewhere. However, the blog will still be the primary focus of this site.

I’m also working on developing out articles for when the new version of the site launches. I know content has been lacking recently but I have some great stuff coming out soon. I’m also working on a few projects that I may be releasing before too long. Similar to designer text, my lorem ipsum generator for designers. Which is still in beta, and I plan to never put advertisements on it— unlike many of the other solutions available. I’ll also be implementing a very customizable generator to the site soon.

At any rate, keep your dial tuned to this site. As I have said before, you can follow me on Twitter to stay up-to-date on everything.

© Dustin Brewer for web design news and style, 2008. | Permalink | 7 comments | Add to del.icio.us digg
Who's linking ? Technorati BlogPulse Google
Want more on these topics ? Browse the archive of posts filed under blogging, site update.

]]> http://dustinbrewer.com/site-updates-new-content-and-the-future/feed/ http://dustinbrewer.com/site-updates-new-content-and-the-future/ CSS Naked Day 2008 http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/dustinbrewer/~3/267021211/ http://dustinbrewer.com/css-naked-day-2008/#comments Wed, 09 Apr 2008 13:36:02 +0000 Dustin Brewer http://dustinbrewer.com/?p=150 CSS Naked day is the day that sites shed their CSS that makes our sites look good to show how seperatation of presentation and structure is so important in web design. To find out more about CSS Naked Day visit http://naked.dustindiaz.com

© Dustin Brewer for web design news and style, 2008. | Permalink | 6 comments | Add to del.icio.us digg
Who's linking ? Technorati BlogPulse Google
Want more on these topics ? Browse the archive of posts filed under CSS, XHTML, web standards.

]]> http://dustinbrewer.com/css-naked-day-2008/feed/ http://dustinbrewer.com/css-naked-day-2008/ Creating a photo gallery in CSS without tables http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/dustinbrewer/~3/261070811/ http://dustinbrewer.com/creating-a-photo-gallery-in-css-without-tables/#comments Mon, 31 Mar 2008 15:00:08 +0000 Dustin Brewer http://dustinbrewer.com/?p=148 I have received several emails recently about creating galleries with CSS. Most people still use tables to create your basic image gallery in CSS. There is a much simpler way to do this with a list and some very easy CSS. Depending on what you want to do with your photo gallery you may want to have a caption or more information available on the page. This simple method can be expanded for use on staff pages or real estate sites to list houses for sale.

(...)
Read the rest of Creating a photo gallery in CSS without tables (186 words)

© Dustin Brewer for web design news and style, 2008. | Permalink | 12 comments | Add to del.icio.us digg
Who's linking ? Technorati BlogPulse Google
Want more on these topics ? Browse the archive of posts filed under CSS, XHTML, web design news.

]]> http://dustinbrewer.com/creating-a-photo-gallery-in-css-without-tables/feed/ http://dustinbrewer.com/creating-a-photo-gallery-in-css-without-tables/ Upgraded to wordpress 2.5 http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/dustinbrewer/~3/260391248/ http://dustinbrewer.com/upgraded-to-wordpress-25/#comments Sat, 29 Mar 2008 20:39:10 +0000 Dustin Brewer http://dustinbrewer.com/?p=147 Just upgraded to the newest version of wordpress, the admin is a much better than before. The options are much more intuitive and seems to give you more flexibility also. Happy Cog did a great job on the design and the wordpress community including Automattic, Matt Thomas and everyone else involved in the project. I didn’t follow the betas as much as I should so a lot of the 2.5 version is completely new to me.

I’m working on several articles for next week to get back into the swing of things. Getting back from vacation and catching up on work took more effort than I had thought it would. Look for some really great content next week. Also, if you want you can keep up with me on twitter— I’m always active there.

© Dustin Brewer for web design news and style, 2008. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us digg
Who's linking ? Technorati BlogPulse Google
Want more on these topics ? Browse the archive of posts filed under blogging, site update.

]]> http://dustinbrewer.com/upgraded-to-wordpress-25/feed/ http://dustinbrewer.com/upgraded-to-wordpress-25/