Part 1 of 2 Creative director Sol Sender tells the story of conception and birth of the Obama 08 logo, including the strategy behind it, developmental concepts and finalist designs for the identity not chosen by the campaign. …

It is safe to say that most designers grew a quick fascination with the Obama campaign. I found this video very inspiring and I loved seeing the development of this successful symbol. Enjoy!

Tables existed in HTML for one reason: To display tabular data. But then border=”0″ made it possible for designers to have a grid upon which to lay out images and text. Still the most dominant means of designing visually rich Web sites, the use of tables is now actually interfering with building a better, more accessible, flexible, and functional Web. Find out where the problems stem from, and learn solutions to create transitional or completely table-less layout.

My goal here is not to point fingers at those sticking to what they know - but more to show you some other areas of a CSS compliant website that help your business out in ways you don’t necessarily realize. The facts are clear, a table-free website will:

• Make your pages load faster
• Lower your hosting costs
• Make your redesigns more efficient and less expensive
• Help you maintain visual consistency throughout your sites
• Get you better search engine results
• Make your sites more accessible to all viewers and user agents and give you a competitive edge (that is, job security) as more of the world moves to using Web standards.

Some people have seemingly valid arguments against CSS, but rest assured, modern browsers are much better at rendering Web standards and we don’t need to use these archaic methods any more.

Instead of nesting tables within tables and filling empty cells with spacer GIFs, we can use much simpler markup and CSS to lay out beautiful sites that are faster to load, easier to redesign, and more accessible to everyone.

Everyone wants control. Everyone wants cost effective. Lately I’ve been telling lots of clients about a great solution called Wordpress. Ideally, everyone would be able to afford the biggest and best content management system (CMS) that looks, feels and acts as big as the dreams of their company. In these times, some small business owners are so broke that they can’t even afford to pay attention. Sorry, bad joke, there will be lots of those in my columns.

Why Wordpress? Wordpress is a state-of-the-art publishing platform with a focus on aesthetics, web standards, and usability. In other words, WordPress bridges the gap between the boring static website on the early 2000’s and a full, robust CMS while giving you key areas that you have complete control over, all within a WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) editor. Think of it like a car, all you have to do is put gas in it and it’s ready for the information superhighway. Once again, bad joke. In the typical Uniglory/Wordpress setup we’ll get to know your brand, mock up what the site will look like (just like any website we do) build it for you, and give you the reins. No html, just a log in and a blog style editor. Simple stuff! You get a smart, low cost, effective, google compliant website - and noone knows that it’s Wordpress!

Sometimes, you have to pay a bit less, but I assure you - It’s worth it.

Bloggers spend time and a ton of effort writing entries to their blog. The frustration builds when one realizes no one is reading it. We have put together some ideas to help market blogs.

UniGlory Studio designs and programs custom blog sites. If you are interested please submit a request for quote.

Ways to Reach Readers

• Search Engine Optimization (SEO).
• Use keywords and tag your entries.
• Marketing: give your blog a title that draws people in and customize the look of your blog.
• If your blog is associated with a business make sure to link the blog from the business site. Incorporate some of the branding from the business into the blog theme.
• Comment on competitors blogs by viewing your opinion and talk about the issue.
• Join social networks: Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn, ect…

Understand the nature of the way people read on the internet

• Keep paragraphs short: split sections up into different entries.
• Lists are a great way to write posts….top 10 this or that.
• Use video, images, and color to keep people interested in your post.

When writing

• Be an expert on one topic.
• Be passionate, honest and sincere about your subject matter.
• Get to the point.

Read the rest of this entry »

In just a couple days we will be attending GodblogCon in Vegas! We are very excited to meet everyone and learn about peoples visions. UniGlory was privileged to be able to sponsor this event by designing and building the GodBlogCon website.

GodblogCon 2008 fosters community and learning through a combination of plenary sessions, table-talk sessions with web media experts, and meal-time fellowshipping.

Attendees should expect to meet and converse with fellow Godbloggers, form friendships and grow communities, learn from experts to improve their web media knowledge and ability, and participate in vision casting for Christian use of web technologies.

My Dad always quotes a professor named Dr. Meade who told him “Half of knowledge is knowing where to get the other half”. Words to live by, I always thought. With the widespread certitude that Google brings, we can all feign intelligence every now and again. When you fuse the iPhone with Google, you have quite the combination. Case in point, the other day I heard a reference to a word “Paramour” while watching a murder mystery. Great band name, I thought, but what does it mean? I leisurely borrowed Lauren’s iPhone, and googled the meaning of the word without missing a beat. Apparently it means “lover”, but I don’t think I ever really cared what it meant, I just wanted to prove that I finally knew where to get “the other half”.

My purpose for writing this isn’t to praise google, but more about how in our professional lives we also need to search out “the other half”. Some of the great synergies of our time come from this philosophy. Come tax season, I’ll hire an accountant. When my car needs fixin, I’ll take it to a place I trust. When someone hires me for a service, I expect they’ll trust my judgement. Let’s all take a lesson from Dr. Meade… Rather than branching out into unknown territory, let’s all stick to success in the arena of our choice!

I feel like the first entry is always the most awkward. It is kind of like going on a first date, but you can’t see the person you are talking to. I am a little nervous about how my personality is going to come across in writing. Most people think I am a little quirky because I love to make people laugh. I am also known to say out of the ordinary phrases such as AwesomePants, JerkPants, Balls, LameBalls, Tabadda (to bother), and sometimes speaking in a lisp gets a good laugh. I will point out that saying “Balls” is a good replacement to most swearwords. Give it a try, you won’t regret it, potty mouth.

Anyway, down to all seriousness, I am looking forward to adding entries to Bloggy Blog World. LOL, that name is amazing! No seriously, I plan to keep updates on all the things UniGlory is doing as well as documenting inspiration, helpful facts and other stuffs.

Oh shoot… put in the ear plugs! Dan just decided to plug in and play guitar, welcome to my life ☺