Tag: design

Lorem Ipsum :: Today’s random bit of worthless news

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit. Donec ipsum. Sed erat metus, laoreet sit amet, accumsan sit amet, accumsan sed, ante. Nullam lacus quam, imperdiet a, viverra in, pellentesque tempor, est. Morbi interdum commodo eros. Cras et neque. Etiam placerat, magna sit amet euismod faucibus, lectus sem rutrum dolor, quis ultrices nisi nisl nec urna. Proin fermentum nisi eu magna. Nulla facilisi. Sed tristique interdum neque. Nam risus tortor, semper ac, pharetra nec, sagittis vel, leo. Fusce varius dapibus urna. Suspendisse non dolor a augue congue ultricies. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit.

Donec leo. Maecenas interdum, eros vel lacinia nonummy, leo purus varius eros, id semper libero nibh quis augue. Quisque pede magna, mattis ultricies, vulputate sodales, mattis placerat, neque. Ut est pede, gravida id, rhoncus ac, ornare eu, pede. Etiam sem justo, scelerisque ut, semper sed, congue ac, purus. Vestibulum gravida nonummy tortor. Curabitur ut dui vel neque pretium lobortis. Nullam non magna et odio ultricies sodales. Donec et leo nec est congue egestas. Nam nulla odio, pretium posuere, interdum nec, sodales in, lectus. Maecenas vestibulum nulla id turpis. Duis velit. Nullam convallis vehicula odio. Donec vel tortor vel ante tristique bibendum. Sed viverra scelerisque quam. Phasellus pharetra cursus odio.

Yes. Latin. I know. I’ve always wondered where this Latin text comes from – found out today thanks to Flickr. You may not see it very often, but if you’re ever looking at a website design or a mock-up design for a project, chances are you’ll run across some of this text.

So what is it?

Lorem Ipsum is simply dummy text of the printing and typesetting industry. Lorem Ipsum has been the industry’s standard dummy text ever since the 1500s, when an unknown printer took a galley of type and scrambled it to make a type specimen book. It has survived not only five centuries, but also the leap into electronic typesetting, remaining essentially unchanged. It was popularised in the 1960s with the release of Letraset sheets containing Lorem Ipsum passages, and more recently with desktop publishing software like Aldus PageMaker including versions of Lorem Ipsum.

Where does it come from?

Contrary to popular belief, Lorem Ipsum is not simply random text. It has roots in a piece of classical Latin literature from 45 BC, making it over 2000 years old. Richard McClintock, a Latin professor at Hampden-Sydney College in Virginia, looked up one of the more obscure Latin words, consectetur, from a Lorem Ipsum passage, and going through the cites of the word in classical literature, discovered the undoubtable source. Lorem Ipsum comes from sections 1.10.32 and 1.10.33 of “de Finibus Bonorum et Malorum” (The Extremes of Good and Evil) by Cicero, written in 45 BC. This book is a treatise on the theory of ethics, very popular during the Renaissance. The first line of Lorem Ipsum, “Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet..”, comes from a line in section 1.10.32.

The standard chunk of Lorem Ipsum used since the 1500s is reproduced below for those interested. Sections 1.10.32 and 1.10.33 from “de Finibus Bonorum et Malorum” by Cicero are also reproduced in their exact original form, accompanied by English versions from the 1914 translation by H. Rackham.

I also just discovered that there is a Firefox Add-On for my favorite browser that will generate the text for you in sentence or paragraph form. Greatness.

Otherwise check out www.lipsum.com and generate all the dummy text you need. Might give you a good indication on whether or not people are paying attention to your emails or class projects.

Nerd olympics

A Minnesota tech company is hosting the F1 Overnight Web Site Challenge, where teams of geeks will create fully functional web sites for Minnesota nonprofits in only 24 hours.

One part nerd Olympics, one part community service project and one part race-against-the-clock — Sierra Bravo’s F1 Overnight Website Challenge will partner deserving Minnesota non-profits with teams of talented web developers for 24 hours of fun collaboration culminating in a fully operational website for each participating non-profit.

Love it! CMS suggests this could work for churches too. I agree. What non-profit website would you upgrade/change if you could?

Woah! New look

Welcome to SSL 3.0.
I’ve been playing around with Websites and WordPress themes for several weeks now and thought I’d go ahead and give my own site an Extreme Web Makeover. Still getting used to it. Not sure if I’m a huge fan yet – but we’ll see how it goes.
Let me know what you think.
There’s still a couple other things I’d like to try and implement this year but it probably won’t be right away.

Steve Jobs buys a washing machine

Day 64: 03-04-08
Doing the laundry | Photo by Jonathan Blundell

Wired News has an interesting article on Steve Jobs buying a washing machine. The college drop out and Apple Computers Founder and CEO got his entire family envolved in discussing the design of their new washer and dryer.

In a 1996 interview, Steve said, “Design is a funny word. Some people think design means how it looks. But, of course, if you dig deeper, it’s really how it works. To design something really well, you have to ‘get it.’ You have to really grok what it’s all about.” (A geek’s word, to grok is a coinage of science-fiction writer R.A. Heinlein, meaning to understand something thoroughly by having empathy with it.)

I think we miss that many times in designing things and communicating messages.

I’ve designed websites in the past that really jump out at people because they look great, but in all reality they suck as a website, because they don’t work well. You can’t find the pages and information you want quickly.

A well designed newspaper is the same way. Not only does it look good, but the information is organized in a way that people can pick it up every day or every week and know exactly where they need to go to get the information they need.

One Idea is Better than Three

GarrettDimon.com has a great theory about presenting ideas to clients. I think he may be on to something. In his article, One Idea is Better than Three he wrote:

If you present clients with multiple ideas and expect them to choose one, invariably, the end result is muted and diluted as the message of the different ideas gets blended together. This is what happens when you approach the situation with an offering.
Instead of spending time creating 3 differnt comps, ideas, or concepts, take aim at that one that’s great and make it amazing. Blow them out of the water. Leave them speachless. That’s guiding.
It’s really about taking them where you feel and know they need to go. You may be a little off course and that is to be expected. Believe it or not, your clients are looking to you for answers, and they want to help you find those answers. They are looking to you for guidance to the best solution.

While I really haven’t purposely tried this, I know from past experiences that presenting one plan or design to someone and then letting them see why you’re passionate about it tends to get them on board with whatever your idea is.
When people see that you’re passionate about something they tend to want that same fire and passion in their own life.
I can’t recall who said it, but they were right, “Preach always, use words if necessary.”
If people see a passion in our lives about Christ or life or a silly computer game, they will want to be a part of it.
So be passionate and live hard and strong.
Let the grace of God shine throughout your life.