Jim Barraud » Design http://jimbarraud.com web designer Tue, 22 Nov 2011 18:00:17 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 Responsive Design Presentation http://jimbarraud.com/2011/11/17/responsive-design-presentation/ http://jimbarraud.com/2011/11/17/responsive-design-presentation/#comments Thu, 17 Nov 2011 13:48:16 +0000 Jim http://jimbarraud.com/?p=1218 Last night I had the pleasure of giving a presentation on Responsive Design to the Jersey Shore Tech Meetup group at Cowerks in Asbury Park, NJ. It was my first formal speaking gig and it went better then I expected. There were lots of good questions and I hope I was able to provide some good answers.

Here are the slides I presented.

Download the PDF

]]> http://jimbarraud.com/2011/11/17/responsive-design-presentation/feed/ 0 Rob Sheridan : Fan The Fire : Page 15 http://jimbarraud.com/2011/04/21/rob-sheridan-fan-the-fire-page-15/ http://jimbarraud.com/2011/04/21/rob-sheridan-fan-the-fire-page-15/#comments Thu, 21 Apr 2011 14:13:44 +0000 Jim http://jimbarraud.com/?p=1089 “Worry about getting people interested in your work before you worry about them ripping it off.”

]]> http://jimbarraud.com/2011/04/21/rob-sheridan-fan-the-fire-page-15/feed/ 0 Mike Monteiro : How To Pick the Right Clients http://jimbarraud.com/2011/02/25/mike-monteiro-how-to-pick-the-right-clients/ http://jimbarraud.com/2011/02/25/mike-monteiro-how-to-pick-the-right-clients/#comments Sat, 26 Feb 2011 02:39:19 +0000 Jim http://jimbarraud.com/?p=1055 “Working for portfolio fodder is the same as dying young and leaving a good-looking corpse.”

]]> http://jimbarraud.com/2011/02/25/mike-monteiro-how-to-pick-the-right-clients/feed/ 0 Media-Hive Company Site http://jimbarraud.com/2011/02/24/media-hive-company-site/ http://jimbarraud.com/2011/02/24/media-hive-company-site/#comments Thu, 24 Feb 2011 16:30:45 +0000 Jim http://jimbarraud.com/?p=1017

A little over a year ago I did a refresh of the Media-Hive company site. Based on the original design direction by Greg O’Keeffe, I set out to tie together loose ends of the previous site and simplify some of the information architecture. This resulted in redesigning the homepage to give more prominence to our recent work; re-architecting the About, Team and Contact pages into a single cohesive Company page; updating the layout of the Work page and creating a more user friendly layout for the individual project pages.

In addition, design flourishes were added to the navigation that utilized jQuery and CSS transitions. Restructuring of the WordPress templates and organization of content was also performed to provide easier site administration.

Visit the site

]]> http://jimbarraud.com/2011/02/24/media-hive-company-site/feed/ 0 LiveView for iPhone and iPad http://jimbarraud.com/2011/02/22/liveview-for-iphone-and-ipad/ http://jimbarraud.com/2011/02/22/liveview-for-iphone-and-ipad/#comments Tue, 22 Feb 2011 12:46:48 +0000 Jim http://jimbarraud.com/?p=989 LiveView is an essential tool for designing interfaces for your iOS device. Comprised of software for both your desktop and iOS device, LiveVew allows you to work on your designs and view the results in realtime on you iPhone or iPad. Best of all, it’s free.

]]> http://jimbarraud.com/2011/02/22/liveview-for-iphone-and-ipad/feed/ 0 David Sykes Print Store http://jimbarraud.com/2011/02/21/david-sykes-print-store/ http://jimbarraud.com/2011/02/21/david-sykes-print-store/#comments Tue, 22 Feb 2011 02:10:46 +0000 Jim http://jimbarraud.com/?p=973

Renowned British photographer (and friend) David Sykes has branched out from client work and has begun selling prints of his personal projects. His Faux Food project has garnered attention from popular online sites such as swiss miss as well as several print publications. David decided to utilize Big Cartel to sell a limited run of his Faux Food prints, but wasn’t happy with the default template options.

David approached me for help in updating the existing template, but he didn’t want anything too drastic. He was looking for enough of a change so it didn’t resemble a cookie cutter ecommerce template and complemented the presentation of his prints. After a couple hours of CSS updates I was happy to present David what I thought was a good solution given time and scope of the project, and he agreed.

If you’re looking for some great prints to hang in your home or office, I highly recommend these (or anything David produces for that matter). As of this writing he’s currently running a Spring sale for 25% off all of his prints. Take advantage while you can.

View the site

]]> http://jimbarraud.com/2011/02/21/david-sykes-print-store/feed/ 0 Manifest – Two Months Later http://jimbarraud.com/2009/05/19/manifest-two-months-later/ http://jimbarraud.com/2009/05/19/manifest-two-months-later/#comments Wed, 20 May 2009 01:46:27 +0000 Jim http://jimbarraud.com/?p=839 It’s been two months since I released my first WordPress theme, Manifest. And in those two months the response has far exceeded my expectations. Since it’s release, Manifest has been listed on various WordPress theme blogs and used on countless personal blogs. It’s also enjoyed over 1100 downloads. Which still boggles my mind.

I’d like to say Thank You to everyone who’s commented, downloaded and enjoyed Manifest. I really do appreciate the support.

That being said, I’m considering making some updates to Manifest based on how I’ve seen it being used in the wild. While I have my own list, I’d like to hear from you as to what you would like to see (if anything) in an updated version.

]]> http://jimbarraud.com/2009/05/19/manifest-two-months-later/feed/ 71 Manifest : A WordPress Theme http://jimbarraud.com/2009/03/19/manifest/ http://jimbarraud.com/2009/03/19/manifest/#comments Thu, 19 Mar 2009 18:30:48 +0000 Jim http://jimbarraud.com/?p=746 I’m proud to announce my first publicly available WordPress theme, Manifest. Manifest is based on a previous design of my personal site. It’s a theme I rather liked and didn’t want to see go to waste. So instead of letting it die off in a folder on my hard drive, I decided to clean it off, polish it up and release it into the wild.

My goal with Manifest was to create a clean and streamlined theme that focused on the content and not the distractions. It utilizes a single column, 500 pixel wide layout. No sidebars. No widgets.

Manifest

Some highlights:

  • Valid XHTML Markup. It currently validates as XHTML Transitional. That is until you start embedding all those crazy YouTube videos and Google Ads ;)
  • Microformat support. The posts are marked up using the hAtom microformat. Which an increasing number of search engines (like Yahoo!) are beginning to support and index.
  • 404 page. I’ve included the standard WordPress 404 template, which in addition to a nice “not found” message, it provides your readers with a list of recent articles.
  • Archives template. An archives template that supports categories, tags and monthly views.
  • Links template. A basic links page template. This isn’t a standard WordPress template so you’ll need to add it as a new page. But it will pull in any links you add to the Links section in the admin.
  • Google ad (sorta) support. There a designated spot on the single post pages for Google or any other type of text ads. Commented out by default, but there if you want it.
  • IE6 unsupported. This is a feature, not a bug. If a user attempts to view your site in IE6, they’ll be presented with an unstyled (but perfectly functional) site. Along with a friendly message suggesting they upgrade their browser.
  • Some webkit visual candy. It’s minor but hovering over the buttons will provide smooth rollover transitions in Safari 4 and Google Chrome thanks to their new CSS based transition properties.

Feel free to use as you please, I just ask that you keep the Manifest link at the bottom. Thanks and enjoy.

Demo and Download Info

]]> http://jimbarraud.com/2009/03/19/manifest/feed/ 179 New Site Design http://jimbarraud.com/2009/02/17/new-site-design/ http://jimbarraud.com/2009/02/17/new-site-design/#comments Wed, 18 Feb 2009 03:36:48 +0000 Jim http://jimbarraud.com/?p=690 It’s been a while since my last major redesign, so I figured now was as good a time as any to launch this one. I’ve ditched the single column stream of news format for a more traditional approach. With this design I was aiming to get a bit more organized in how I’m presenting content on the site. Two sections in particular that I wanted to break out were my photography and projects I’ve worked on. Each of these now have there own separate sections on the site.

I’m not going to go too much into detail with what’s changed visually or technically. I’ll just invite you to check it out and let me know what you think. I’m still cleaning up a bit of the code and will probably be making tweaks over the coming weeks, but overall I’m pretty happy with this one.

One thing I will mention though is that I’ve completely dropped support for IE6. So the 36 of you out there who are still using it to visit this site will get a completely unstyled experience. It’s time to upgrade people.

]]> http://jimbarraud.com/2009/02/17/new-site-design/feed/ 1 Office of the Tooth Fairy http://jimbarraud.com/2009/02/11/office-of-the-tooth-fairy/ http://jimbarraud.com/2009/02/11/office-of-the-tooth-fairy/#comments Wed, 11 Feb 2009 12:13:22 +0000 Jim http://barraud.local:9030/?p=468 Beautifully designed letterpress Certificate of Record for filing with your local Tooth Fairy. I wonder what the ROI is on this.

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