ZacParker.com
Design. Music. Art. Portland.
March 13, 2007 at 7:15 pm · Filed under design
Over at Computer Arts, You can potentially win yourself a snazzy new Epson Stylus Pro 3800
printer just by clicking a button! This contest ends however on the 15th, so hurry up and get to the contest page, so you can lower the probability of me winning.
The next contest going on is a logo design contest at smashing magazine. What are the rules?
In order to participate, design
- a distinctive Smashing Magazine logo for our header.
Max. height: 65px.
Max. size: 20 Kb.
Format: .gif or .png.
- a Favicon.
Size: 16×16px or 32×32px.
Format: .ico.
The logo has to be related to the topics we cover in Smashing Magazine. Take a look around and select themes you think are most appropriate.
You can use whatever color you’d like to use. Just to give you some idea about designs we might possibly prefer - you should probably take a closer look at some creative logos and remarkable favicons we’ve selected recently.
Send your designs via e-mail at office at smashingmagazine dot com with subject “Logo Contest”. Mention your name, your URL and the country you come from. If it’s possible send us also a brief description of your design and the theme you’ve selected. We’d like to know, which idea has been the driving force behind design. We’d like you to be creative. We’d like you to get really excited about it. At least as excited as we are.
And just what is up for grabs for winning such a contest?
The winner gets the SimpleTech SimpleDrive 250 GB External USB 2.0 Hard Drive
. It’s a stylish, quick external hard drive with 250 GB capacity and Hi-Speed USB 2.0. Besides, winner’s name will appear in the footer of every Smashing Magazine’s web-page - as long as we use it, of course.
Not such a bad deal if you ask me. The hard drive isn’t the most exciting thing in the world, but with all the readers smashing magazine has, thats an awful lot of free advertising, and definitely worth a shot.
If you find yourself stuck while trying your hand at the logo contest at smashing magazine, you don’t have to go far for some refreshing ideas. They just posted 58 creative logos to help get your mind exploring other avenues. Now, not all of these are really that great, and some of them are certainly not very creative, but there are some nice ones, and it’s a good place to start, to get your brain thinking outside of it’s comfort zone. Now hurry and finish that logo, as the deadline is March 31st!
March 12, 2007 at 4:09 pm · Filed under design, development
Think code sucks? Me too. Rather, I design. I don’t program, and I don’t code. As many of you in the design field have likely experienced however, there is always that guy that wants to hire one person to create the design AND the code. This ends up with a lot of web pages looking really good, but having shit for code, and a lot of web pages that are coded really well, yet look like a middle schooler was trying to redesign his MySpace page with the latest version of Tom’s MySpace Generator. For the designers out there who are strictly designers, but find themselves needing to code on occasion, or anyone that is looking to simplify the coding process, you need these 42 faux-column CSS layouts from Code-Sucks.com. They also offer another 53 fixed-width CSS layouts on their site as well. All of the layouts are totally free, and all are validated against a strict doctype.
March 12, 2007 at 1:20 pm · Filed under design
I don’t know about you, but I always am looking for new works to inspire me. Some huge inspirations for me have been the teams at Nero (it looks like they’re recreating their website right now, no content), and Addikt in the design field, and O. Isaac White’s twisted photography. While poking around over at Computer Arts today, I came across a new inspiration. It’s Art Dammit. While his photography doesn’t really do an awful lot for me, the illustration and design sections of his portfolio make me want to open up illustrator and create all day. His more recent projects seem to be much much more developed, and evolved, but his work as a whole is great. If you’re stumped, or have an extra minute, or just want to see some good design, go check it out. Additionally, for more of O. Isaac White’s photo sets, as well as some tutorials, and photoshop tips and tricks, check out his blog.
March 11, 2007 at 4:19 pm · Filed under music, portland
When Menomena’s new album Friend and Foe came out, I didn’t like it. 
I didn’t like it because I loved the first album so much, all I was looking for in a follow-up, was more of I am the Fun Blame Monster!. I immediately discarded it and never came back to give the album a fair analysis. That all changed today, when I saw Menomena’s new video for Wet & Rusting over at Subterranean. A cool video, directed by Lance Bangs, who has done videos for band such as Sonic Youth, Belle & Sebastian, Pavement, and The Shins. Watching this video really got me into the song, and the song really got me into the album, which is actually quite enjoyable, by the way. I owe a big apology to Menomena for auto-trashing their album when it wasn’t just what I wanted from them. Sorry Menomena.
March 11, 2007 at 3:27 pm · Filed under design
There are plenty of design websites out there offering tutorials, news, hints and tips. We’ll never be lacking there. Two websites recently however have stood out from that crowd, as really exception sites offering relevant tools, links to other excellent resources, and tons of freebies!
The first site I stumbled across was TutorialBlog. I came across this website while Googling for a vector graphic of an American flag, and came to their article Free Vector Downloads. There I found not only the flag I was looking for, but a link to another site with vector graphics for flags of nearly every country in the world, and many US states. In addition there are a heap of beautiful glossy buttons and bars and badges, and a plethora of other great, usable vector graphics. The rest of their site is full of equally and exceptionally relevant articles for bloggers, designers, developers, programmers and photographers. Not to miss.
Secondly, I believe in the same search, I came to bittbox, an excellent site, especially for designers like myself who are of the camp that Illustrator is every bit as powerful as Photoshop, which seems to have the world hypnotized. Lots of Illustrator tips, and some great freebies. A real dream for the vector designer.
March 10, 2007 at 5:23 am · Filed under words
So, with my last post… I made a claim of a fresh new look, when in actuality all i had done was created a new banner graphic. This time around, I have changed the whole look and feel of the place. There are still more changes on the way in the coming days/weeks. Hopefully some pretty exciting stuff. Along with changing the look, I am changing the direction of the writing. Previously this blog had been about my travels through Mexico and Guatemala. I have been back in the US for almost 10 weeks now, and its time for something new.
In the Fall, I will be returning to Portland State University to pursue a degree in Graphic Design. This makes since to me, seeing as its what I started going to school for in the first place, and because its something I have been doing and enjoying for years now. My world from this point on is going to revolve around design, computers, and art. That being the case… those topics will take over the vast majority of posts here. I will also include postings about music, and local Portland news. A lot will change, and it will take time to develop into something solid, but I look forward to the transformation. I also look forward to hearing your thoughts and ideas on the future of the site.
December 31, 2006 at 3:31 am · Filed under words
Or, really just a fresh new banner. I made it while sitting in the cafeteria of the airport. It consists of a few photos I took while in Mexico, with some horrible blending, and cliché drop shadow. Enjoy.
December 31, 2006 at 2:02 am · Filed under words
In the Mexico City International Airport (I don’t think it’s actually called that) at 1:31am. I have 3.5 hours until the gates open and I can check-in. Lucky for me, there is plenty of coffee, and I have enough pesos left after changing 52$ to buy a couple more. Also I’ve got some oranges and bananas in case I get hungry. Sitting next to me, is a security guard. Actually hes sleeping. I hope hes getting paid. There seems to actually be several tables full of security guards. All sleeping. Looks like a killer job to me! Anyhow, I’m writing because I’m bored, and I can. I need to keep myself occupied to pass the time. If I sleep, I’m sure to miss my flight. Sure of it! This is how my luck works. However, I’m looking forward to sleeping away my time in LA. If it’s possible. Maybe I’ll opt for S(p)eedy Tim’s Plastic Surgery (financed, of course), to pass the time. Get that true Californian experience. Or perhaps I should release the bad feelings I have for Californians in general. It’s just that they come to Oregon… and live here. Tom McCall may have been a republican, but I can say he is one of the first republicans I’ve ever liked. He of course is dead, like all the good ones are. Not to say that the only good republican is a dead one, though I’ve probably said something to that effect in the past. He has said some things which I thoroughly enjoy. Let the quotations begin. Read the rest of this entry »
December 22, 2006 at 10:28 pm · Filed under words
That for approximately three days, anytime my page was viewed with Internet Explorer, the sidebar was moved from its home on the side of my webpage, to the very bottom of the webpage. This is not a very effective location to have a sidebar. Especially one serving advertisements. I found this to have something to do with the way my Google Search was coded. I have for the time removed it, and will not replace it until I can come up with a way to make it work universally. Anybody who cares to take a look at my code, and give advice is certainly welcome.
November 21, 2006 at 11:12 am · Filed under words
Five days later and I’m still here. I’d expected to be gone by now, but will stay yet another night. On arrival here in Livingston, we were greeted by an old Garifuna man, offering to show us a hotel just around the corner. No pressure, if we don’t like it, we don’t have to stay. It was cheap, at 25Q per person. It had a kitchen, showers, bathrooms, hammocks to hang out in.. it was perfect. As we were being shown the room, I heard from the next room over two voices speaking Japanese. Two very familiar voices. I shouted “Akira!?” and sure enough, Akira and Takara come out of the room. Two Japanese kids I had met and lived with for almost a month in San Cristobal, Chiapas. I had known that at some time they would be in Livingston, but never thought we would be here at the same time, let alone in the same hotel, in the next room over.
This of course led to a huge reunion party which required a complete day of recovery. Read the rest of this entry »
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