Super Ginormous

Category: Design

Posts on graphic and web design.

  • Mastering Photoshop CS2

    Mastering Photoshop CS2

    I’ll be attending the “Mastering Photoshop CS2” seminar in Atlanta on August 21st. It looks to be a pretty cool mix of classes. It’s been a while since I attended a seminar specifically on Photoshop, so it’ll be nice to be able to “sharpen the saw” with tips and tricks learned from this seminar.

    Learn the ingenious techniques that experienced Photoshop professionals use every day to accomplish amazing effects with a minimum of effort. Discover a faster, better way to use Photoshop®. No hyper-technical jargon, no beginner basics – just class after class of “real-world” techniques that will advance your skills and make you more productive than ever before. After an enlightening day with Deke McClelland, your confidence in your Photoshop skills will be at an all-time high.

    The last Photoshop seminar I attended was several years ago. It was geared towards users of all levels, but without fail, it seemed like all of the advanced sessions I attended had beginners in them that monopolized all of the speaker’s time with question after question. Hopefully this seminar will work out better than that…

  • MySQL and Site Stability Issues

    I’ve been having some technical issues with the website over the past few days. If things are acting up for you, please let me know. I had to repair the MySQL database today and that appears to have resolved part of the problems I was having, but time will tell whether my site will remain stable or not. If you happen to notice any issues with the site in the meantime, please send me an email at: chris ‘at’ cdharrison ‘dot com or IM me on GoogleTalk using ‘chris at cdharrison dot com’. Thanks for your help and your patience.

  • Adobe Lightroom Beta Available for Windows

    If photography is your thing, you might be interested in Adobe Lightroom.

    Project: Lightroom™ is Adobe’s effort to engage the professional photography community in a new way, giving you the opportunity to kick the tires and shape the feature set of a new tool being created just for you. Ultimately, we want Lightroom to be truly built from the ground up by photographers, for photographers, helping solve your unique workflow challenges.

    Adobe Lightroom Beta is now available for Windows – snag it here.

  • Better Living by Giving

    Better Living by GivingLet’s face it, most greeting cards aren’t that great. Better Living by Giving aims to change that, with a twist. They’re looking to make a difference:

    We started this company with passions for great design, art and music, nested with a need to make a little difference in this big world. We looked inside to see what made us happy. It was actually very simple. Helping make others happy made us happy. And so this became our mission.

    Designing cards and getting to work with talented creatives are just icing. The best part is knowing someone will help someone else feel better. That’s the beauty of giving cards.

    What an awesome concept! It’s hard to believe that something like this came out of Augusta. But then, the two people behind it – Linda and Brent – are stars in the Augusta design community. While I was with The Alison Group, I worked under Linda’s supervision – and she is one of the most talented designers I’ve ever met.
    So, if you feel like helping out a great cause, and would love to get some very well-designed greeting cards in the process, check out their site: http://www.betterlivingbygiving.com

  • SlideShowPro Director

    SlideShowPro DirectorTaking SlideShowPro a step further, DomineyDesign just released SlideShowPro Director, a browser-based application that let’s you manage slideshows. It installs on any Linux server with PHP/MySQL, has an intuitive Ajax-driven user interface for managing all your photos, creates thumbnails in a snap, plus a whole lot more. The demo is quite impressive. I hope compatibility with Windows servers comes soon. I’d love to incorporate it into a few projects I have coming through the pipeline.

  • Live Redesign

    Nevermind the mess. I’ll be updating the look and feel of the site live over the coming weeks. I’ve been toying with a few concepts in Photoshop, and have finally decided on a direction to take. I had hoped to just unveil a new design, and I certainly still could… but I feel like this route is the saner way for me to go. (Plus, it fits into my schedule better, which is entirely too hectic sometimes.)
    (more…)

  • Cork’d

    Cork’d is a delightfully refreshing niche site devoted to reviewing and sharing experiences with wine. Developed by Dan Cederholm (SimpleBits) and Dan Benjamin (Hivelogic), Cork’d allows you to rate the wines you’ve tasted, keep track of the wine you own, and shop for the wines you’d like to buy.

    Cork'd LogoI’m going to be honest here: I don’t drink a whole lot of wine these days, but I will enjoy a glass or two on special occasions. I don’t think you have to be a hardcore wine afficianado in order to use Cork’d. Quite the contrary, actually. I think this is going to be the perfect site for people who have been a little afraid to try out new wines, because they didn’t know what to expect of them. (I’d tell you about the time I first sampled a Pinot Grigio, but I’ll refrain. It’s just too painful a memory.)

    I have bought wine in the past that I truly enjoyed, and forgotten what it was. I have bought wine, based on the design of a label, or the uniqueness of a bottle… only to be completely and utterly disappointed by the taste. Now, I can see what others think about wines, before I bite the bullet and buy a bottle.

    If you sign up, add me (cdharrison) as one of your “Drinking Buddies”!

  • Change is Coming

    Inspired by the amazing redesigns of Bryan Veloso (AvalonStar) and Jeff Croft I am more motivated than ever to do something about my site. I had hoped to have something ready in time for the Spring CSS Reboot, but the May 1st deadline came and went. So now, I’m being a little more realistic and I’m giving myself more time to plan and execute something new and different.

    Goals for the Redesign

    • Improve overall organization of the site.
    • Better showcase my design and coding capabilities.
    • Give people a reason to come back.

    Personal Goals for the Site

    • Post on a more regular schedule.
    • Improve the quality of posts.

    Color Palette

    This is the new color palette I am considering, but the final design may deviate from it somewhat:

    New CDHarrison.com color palette

    So, stay tuned…

  • Reboot

    Not yet. Maybe not for several days. Not enough time over the past few days… I’ll keep ya posted.

  • Seven

    Internet Explorer 7 Logo

    Microsoft just released Windows Internet Explorer 7, Beta 2.

    I’ve had some issues with past releases, so I am going to approach this latest release with a bit more caution… I can’t really get away with a statement like that without clarifying, can I?

    I installed IE7, Beta 1 and a subsequent candidate release… It worked great, for the most part. My problems with it started when Network Neighborhood in XP started to crash every time I launched it. Then other things tied in with the browser started acting buggy… xml rendering, printing, etc. I finally decided to remove it. Had a heck of a time doing so. After two unsuccessful uninstallation attempts I was able to get it off of my machine. I’ve still had some issues with my system ever since IE7 left its mark… but it’s at least been more stable.

    So, as I said earlier, I’ll approach this new release with some degree of caution. Beta software means not ready for primetime. I gotta remember that :)

    I am certainly intrigued by what’s being offered now… Microsoft has setup a site devoted to IE7 Add-Ons, with plugins galore to help you extend Internet Explorer. CSS rendering was improved in the last release candidate… but that enhancement should be present in this latest release – and probable refined even further. Add to that tabbed browsing, web search right from the toolbar, advanced printing, easy discovery, reading and subscription to RSS feeds, and much more and IE7 is quickly becoming the browser most of us had hoped it would become five years ago.

    I won’t bash Microsoft (much) for slacking off of IE development for as long as they have. I’m sure they had their reasons. I’m glad they’ve decided to refocus their efforts and truly make IE7 a better product than its predecessor.

    Will I switch back to IE from Firefox? I dunno. Not any time soon. (And definitely not on my Mac.) But I can sleep better at night knowing that IE7 is going to be better for all of us.