“In matters of principle, stand like a rock; in matters of taste, swim with the current.” ~Thomas Jefferson

Now you’ve got to admit when a web developer sees a statement like this, he can’t help but nod his head in agreement. I’ve been thinking about this for a while.

People relate to art in many ways, some more positively than others. In the respect of web design, its a whole new ballgame. From outright lack of understanding/respect/priority by clients to the latest in Web 2.0 designs, it really pays to understand how you can deliver the product that catches the customer without bending beyond breaking point. Graphic Designers must improve their current skills and learn new ones to stay relevant in the industry. In other words, if design is like swimming in the ever changing currents, be a slick salmon.

Developement on the other hand, is rock solid. Provided you have an understanding of what needs to be done (and how to tell the computer to do it), you can more or less do anything.  Years and years of experience isn’t something you wake up one morining and throw away. Instead of completly new technologies (though this is still the case) we are seeing more revolutionary ways of solving problems using  currently existing languages and technologies (an example of such a case is Web 2.0). If you make an error that evaded being red-flagged, it’s only a matter of time before it manifests itself in a 1000 size version. As a friend of mine said, “evolution, not revolution” - meaning? Get your code right the first time and spent the rest making it better.

It just goes to show how Code and Design are much more similar to a 2 faced coin - both sides are too important for one to play tail.

In the earlier days of learning CSS, I was stumped by a constantly nagging problem - why can’t one have an equally simple means of deploying a 3 column layout without using tables? Two columns are easy using the float attribute left and right, but things got tricky when it was 3 and above. After a brainstorming session, I found an efficient way to do this.

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Yes, that’s the question I believe everyone at some point in their lives ask themselves. Sometimes, by virtue of asking that question, the individual has, either through external or internal events, come to some form of proverbial “fork in the road”. Chances are if you know who you are, you know what your want to do with your life, and will know what choices to make. Hence the fork in the road - do you know who you are?

There was a period in my life I was so confused as what step to take next simply because I hadn’t resolved this issue within myself. After some serious soul searching, like everyone should in a while, I found it!

Read below and see how it applies to you. I hope you are inspired. Read the rest of this entry »

As a web designer/developer, one of the most important (and equally frustrating) aspects of the web is your project to conform to the most ubiquitous browsers. Internet Explorer 6 (Win Xp), Internet 7 and Firefox come to mind. While Firefox is perhaps the most popular standards compliant browser, Microsoft’s buddies still have a quirk or two. So when I read about Google’s chrome, I just had to see for myself, besides being on the lookout for new trends. Read the rest of this entry »