You are here because you wondered what 'Left Hand' is, am I right? Well, if
you took the time to find out what something you did not already know then you are here for the right
reason! The Left Hand is for YOU, the client, the fellow designer, the
curious. Here, I will share some of the rules, techniques and general information that I already
know and/or also continue to learn with you! For my clients, the more you know, the easier it is
for us to communicate and develop an even richer and experienced web site. For other designers,
learning new shortcuts and skills is an never-ending job in itself. So, I urge you to stick around
and subscribe, even if you don't think you need to! Extra knowledge is on everyone's to do list!
This web site will undergo a major redesign scheduled for released in March of 2010. The web site will reflect the new changes in my business model, as well as, an opportunity to see more of who I am as a person and what drives my passion in design. Luckily, I have always been close to my clients and once they get to know me they usually stay with me for all their design needs. I really appreciate this and thought it would be smart for the new web site to convey the same thing with emphasis on my portfolio.
Meanwhile, I will be ending this blog, Kev’s Left Hand, and focusing more attention over to a new service that I will be using called Posterous. It will be more efficient for me to share information about design, web development and also random tidbits about myself. In addition, I recommend following me on my Twitter account where I current do the same, yet in more frequent and smaller bites (bytes).
Thank you for all the support over the past decade and look forward to the future of design in the next upcoming years.
Celebrating 10 years of freelance creative design. My renewed passion in design is your renewed passion for your business!
One thing I’ve noticed over the years is my introduction to people from friends and clients as ‘the web guru’ or ‘webmaster’ (yes, people still say that). Though I’m not necessarily complaining of the title in itself, it is not exactly accurate. I’m a front end web developer, but also a graphic artist. Furthermore, as a hobby, I have been dabbling in video production, editing and motion graphic design, as well. I find that my passion for all things video has greatly increased over the recent years. To help me fill some of this passion was to create a personal video blog. The LimeBlog, is a collection of random videos from the day in the life utilizing current video that I shoot and past video that I have been taking since 1993! For the most part, these are not the usual face in the camera shot talking about what I ate for breakfast, rather little compressed stories from my life that are to be told within a 4-6 minute window. It has been delicious fun creating these videos to share with friends, family and even complete strangers from around the world via the web and receiving their constructive feedback.
Though I am still in the amateur phase of video production, I am very excited to take on any video projects with the understanding of the phase I currently am in. Every project will push the limits of what I have already done before, ensuring you that my work will always be evolving forward with a goal of constant innovation.
Help me get my foot in the door by letting me assist you with any aspect of the video realm that you may be interested in. Whether, you are a non-for-profit needing a short company video shot and edited or someone who wants to start their own video blog, feel free to give me a shout to discuss possibilities!
A few years ago another major change happened behind the scenes in the web site developing process. This was the implementation of CSS into the basic HTML code that we all have learned and loved for years and years now. CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) greatly improves the load speed of web site, improves compatibility across all browsers (though Internet Explorer 6 still loves to kick you in the pants sometimes) and many more customizable benefits. I dragged my feet on moving to all CSS based web site for a couple years for a couple reasons. Using the old standard ensured me that the web site design would work on a larger number of browsers and their older versions. Second, I personally developed quite fast, as I knew it like the back of my hand. However, we have reached that point in browser statics that there is no reason not to being using CSS in all web sites developed moving forward. I have been learning and developing in all CSS lately and have sped up my ability to the point where we are ready to move forward at the same rate that I used to develop, if not even faster now!
I wanted to bring this subject up to my clients, as it will not effect web sites that have been built a over a couple years ago. Those web sites are still fine just the way they are and no need to worry. However, any future redesigns would automatically include the recoding process to CSS inclusion.
Where it is still good to have strengths in good ole HTML, is when developing template layouts for email newsletter designs. Most mass email delivery services, such as Constant Contact, iContact and MobileStorm, strip out any CSS code submitted for deployment. This usually renders the client helpless with a broken design. Knowing how to position without CSS is very important in preventing doing your eblast design twice! So, always feel free to contact me if you need any help with this!
Let me know if you have any other questions with the difference in developing your new or old web site into the new CSS standard!
A question that I DO NOT get asked enough is if I have any suggestions for backing up the friend/client’s computer. This is common sense of something that needs to be done, but people still do not treat their data like their family photos, but they should. Finally, after all these years, I find that a service called Mozy is one of the best solutions to this problem for one main reason. You set it up and then forget about it. Remembering to back up is usually the number one issue of backing up all together. Also, it works in the background, so you can continue to do ‘your thing’ without being bothered. Their services start with a free 2GB plan and then can go up from there. I HIGHLY recommend that you check out this service, you will be thankful when that unfortunate day comes… and it always does eventually.
Another thing that I have noticed among friends and clients, is their incredible time spent going through their spam email every day. I had this issue too and before moving to Gmail, I found and used a service called Spamarrest. Spamarrest acts like a middle man… a very alert middle man! As like Mozy, once it’s setup with your custom rules, you can basically forget about it and notice that your email box is full of only relevant emails. It’s really a great service especially when you are using your personalized email within Outlook and Entourage.
For some people, their solution to spam is to create a new email address. This is never a good idea for three main reasons. One, you have to let everyone know of your new email address in which most people do not update. Two, when signed up to many online services, such as Facebook, you used your old email address. You would need to go through and change all those and that is if you are lucky enough where they allow you to change your email address. Not all serviced allow you to do so. Three, your spam amount will be probably back within a year. So, if you are having spam issues that are not controllable, then Spamarrest is a must!
Hope these two suggestions are of a help to you! Let me know if you have any questions about either, otherwise give them a try today!
I really hope to do some fun stuff in this new section of the web site. Part of my daily work flow is keeping up on the latest trends, technologies and experiences via some of the best RSS feeds out there! So, today, I add yet another RSS feed to subscribe to! Here I will collect the things that I have learned to share with my clients and fellow designers and developers. The nice thing about RSS feeds is that you can skim through them with ease. If something catches your eye, you can learn more, otherwise you can keep on going and get just the information that you want. If something doesn’t apply to you one day, it may the next! So, take a chance and subscribe today and see what comes about in the next few months! You have nothing to loose!
A few years ago another major change happened behind the scenes in the web site developing process. This was the implementation of CSS into the basic HTML code that we all have learned and loved for years and years now. CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) greatly improves the load speed of web site, improves compatibility across all browsers (though Internet Explorer 6 still loves to kick you in the pants sometimes) and many more customizable benefits. I dragged my feet on moving to all CSS based web site for a couple years for a couple reasons. Using the old standard ensured me that the web site design would work on a larger number of browsers and their older versions. Second, I personally developed quite fast, as I knew it like the back of my hand. However, we have reached that point in browser statics that there is no reason not to being using CSS in all web sites developed moving forward. I have been learning and developing in all CSS lately and have sped up my ability to the point where we are ready to move forward at the same rate that I used to develop, if not even faster now!
