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I have started a San Antonio Design Firm called Bold Perspective in partnership with Sean McCabe. We are both extremely passionate about design, particularly Web design and Identity design. If you want to learn to learn more, visit Bold Perspective’s About Page.

If you are interested in keeping up with my writings, check out the Bold Perspective Blog, subscribe to the blog, and follow Bold Perspective on Twitter.

I will be moving everything over to my site Brian Purkiss .com.

It is currently under construction and is my priority for the summer, though it won’t take the whole summer. I will be moving my portfolio over there and will be posting every two weeks on the blog that I shall move over there. All of my important/popular articles will be moved over there with 301 redirects, so if you like what I’ve wrote for some reason, you won’t lose it.

Until then.

White Wallpaper – 256 x 1440
Black Wallpaper – 2560 x 1440

I have noticed viewing your work that you seem to copy and use a lot of other peoples stuff. To claim yourself as being a web designer I would second guess a lot of your work. You are currently using someone elses WordPress theme for your own site even. Also, your whiteboardframework.com website is using a ripped and stripped copy of WP-Coda theme… not even your own framework is being used on either of your sites…. That just plain looks bad… I am sure you really will not approve and post this comment, but you should at least read it and be aware that many others on other sites are talking about it as well. Figured I would be nice and give a heads up at least. Use your own stuff, make it and design it yourself. You will get further. I know your framework got made popular but in reality that itself isn’t even yours. It is a ripped down theme as well. Please be respective of other peoples work.
-Efril Mohgan
(who did not have the curtsey of leaving a valid email so I can discuss the issue)

First off, the theme I am using isn’t stolen.
It is a beautiful theme called Modern Clix designed by Rodrigo Galindez and is free for download on his Web site that I found via Smashing Magazine. I am by no means using a stolen theme for plainbeta.

The only reason I am using someone else’s theme is because I haven’t had time to make one, but I am trying to make time and am making progress – though it still needs a lot of work.

I am indeed in the process of building my portfolio and am trying to fill it with just my work and that is original as possible – which is why you won’t find the current plainbeta.com design or whiteboardframework.com design in there. They are both currently under development and will both be built on my Whiteboard WordPress Framework.

Yes, much to my dismay, whiteboardframework.com is a stripped down wpcoda theme – which I don’t believe to be a violation for a few reasons. It is a free theme and there is even a downloadable plugin for that pop up. The design is completely my own and I tried to use as much of my own mark up as possible; just a very small amount of the code was by wpcoda, which I point out again is free for download.

Yes, the Whiteboard WordPress Framework is a stripped down theme – but I built it from the ground up. The whole premise of it is a stripped down theme. My Whiteboard Framework is in no means violating any copyright laws in any way, I made sure of that.

If I am wrong in any of my reasoning, please point it out.
I want to remain above reproach and am working on my own themes as much as I can with my busy schedule.

Young writers who are striving to go pro are encouraged to write for at least five minutes a day. If the creative juices are flowing, just keep writing until they run out; if the creative juices never start, then stop after five minutes.

Why not do that as a designer?

I keep a actual paper sketchbook (yes, those things still exist) and try and draw in it for at least five minutes every day. However, the point of a sketchbook is to grow creatively in all areas; so as to not neglect the computer related skills that correspond with design, I shall be keeping this online sketchbk. Here I shall post whatever creative… thing… I may come up with – be it photo manipulation, paper sketch, wireframe, photo, or physical creation.

Keeping this online sketchbk will force me to think creatively wherever I go and whatever I do, which all serious designers must do. Don’t expect a particular genre out of this thing, ’cause who knows what will run through my strange mind.

For now, I shall post something new every Tuesday. In the future I hope to increase the frequency.

Enjoy!

The project was to be a three page web site for a popular modern artist that included a home page, an about page, and a portfolio page. I designed the site on paper, then in Photoshop, and finally coding the site using XHTML and CSS. It’s not much of a site, but here you go.

Not wanting to choose one over the other for any reason other than my own, I decided to investigate.

So here is Helvetica and Myriad Pro overlaid each other semi-transparent. Helvetica is red, and Myriad Pro is blue. When the two are similar, it forms purple. … Duh.

Larger .jpg Version  |  High-Res PDF  |  .ai File

Upon close inspection, I have determined that Myriad Pro and Helvetica are two completely different fonts. … Duh. But seriously, these fonts are very different. They are both solid, well-done, sans-serif fonts. Even though many of the letters are almost identical, the fonts are still very different – moreso in the uppercase forms than the lowercase.

Helvetica is a very Swiss font. Helvetica was designed for the space around each letter to hold the forms together, creating a solid block. It is an excellent font to create solid structures with type.

Myriad Pro is very similar to Helvetica… but very different. The space in between each letter isn’t as rigid as Helvetica, the letters allow more air to flow through each other creating a lighter font with a freer spirit than Helvetica. Furthermore, Myriad Pro 12pt is smaller than Helvetica 12pt, which I found interesting. I guess Myriad Pro has a greater cap hight, which can be seen in many of the lowercase forms, especially the lowercase f.

Comparing Myriad Pro and Helvetica isn’t like comparing Helvetica to Helvetica Neue (which I just read a great comparison on, but can’t find it), or even comparing Helvetica to Arial. Helvetica and Myriad Pro are to different solid sans-serif fonts that should be used in design for two different purposes.

For visually solid results, go with Helvetica.
For visually looser results (but still pretty solid), go with Myriad Pro.
There is no absolute answer here, just choose the right font for the job.

Which font do you prefer?

About the One Day Web Design Experiment

Today I am devoting my entire day to re-designing my blog, er, this site. I woke up ‘early,’ and instantly opened my sketchbook and got to work. I shall move into Photoshop and then into code as soon as possible. The purpose of this ‘Web design experiment’ is to see how far I can progress in one day on a single Web design. I hope to receive feedback on my designs and engage in discussion about the Web design trade through this experiment.

Contact & Follow Info

Twitter: @BrianPurkiss
RSS: plainbeta RSS feed
Skype: BrianPurkiss
Email: Contact Form
Gtalk: Contact Me to get it. I’m not overly comfortable with posting it where bots can find it.

Log

Thanks for those who retweeted. I am beginning now and will post updates as soon as I have them.

8:30 AM – Opening up Sketchbook.

8:59 AM – Done with short word list, onto site mapping and wireframes. I think I am going to try and merge a sketchbook with a ‘clean’ & ‘modern’ design – if those words aren’t too cliché enough at least.

9:25 AM – I have an idea that is a merging of quite a few old ideas. Even though this is in the early stages, I’m gonna open Photoshop and run with this, see what happens.

9:37 AM – Misc decision updates. I am using 960.gs, a Web Design Grid System, and SenCSs, a CSS Styling Framework

11:41 AM – Making progress on the design, the concept still needs a little work in order to be pulled off, but I think it still can be done effectively. Also, here’s a typographic mark I’m considering using, I’m a little unsure of it though.

Thoughts?

12:26 PM – Making progress… I think… Lunch break!

12:29 PM – Ok, the logo isn’t working for me. Crap. I was going for quirky/mischievous, but it is not happening, I’m not sure what I was thinking. Well, back to the drawing board, later though. I’ll stick with this mark for now, simply for the purpose of this being a Web design experiment. Maybe I shouldn’t have gotten so distracted with it anyways… Oh well.

1:50 PM – Too long of a lunch break. Pandora is failing. Had (too many) cinnamon rolls. Unusual for lunch? Yes. Feel slightly sick? Yes. Delicious? HECK YES.

3:36 PM – I’m considering turning this into a two day experiment and extending to Sunday…

4:20 PM – It has taken me longer than I had hoped. Had a little focus issues off and on, which I need to improve on. It’s strange, when I’m at the office, I focus tons better on work then when at home. Atmosphere probably? I really gotta work on that.
At any rate, here’s the first screenshot of the home page.

View Full Size

The ‘home icon’ will appear only when hovering over the logo. There will be some additional (really cool) functionality, but I’ll keep that to myself for the moment. I want to show it off, not talk about it. ;-)

Thoughts?

5:37 PM – Ok. Design break. let the head clear.

6:36 PM – Woah. That ‘break’ flew by. Maybe a little long… Oh well. Back to it.

10:04 PM – Dinner. Catching up on RSS feeds. Finally am pleased with a simple content page. Check it.

View Full Size

Thoughts?

10:28 PM – I think I’m gonna shelf it for the night. I am very pleased with this day, even though I didn’t even touch any code. It was slower than I had hoped, but I learned a lot, and made progress.

Depending on how the week goes, I may do the same thing next Saturday.