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An eclectic list of design resources this week!

• Looking for design inspiration? Learn how to Destroy Web 2.0!
  
• Adding a “tabber” to the sidebar of a WordPress theme. 
• 10 WordPress plugins for Flickr
  
• Fonts for Web 2.0 logos
  
• Adding thumbnails to a WordPress post using custom fields
  

Here is a great Photoshop tutorial covering water and ripple effects.

Lots you can learn — some excellent keyboard shortcuts and masking techniques.

I used this as inspiration and guidance for a theme customization project in which water was the main design metaphor.

http://fredricschwartz.com/

Click the image to to see the tutorial for yourself!

Why start with a premium theme when there are so many free themes available?

WordPress uses PHP, CSS and XHTML to separate content from design.  This allows users to switch themes and make site wide style changes with the CSS stylesheet. 

Your theme is the basis of your unique WordPress setup and design.  Because what your site is built on matters, consideration of a quality and professional design is highly recommended.   Any theme you are considering  deserves a serious and in-depth look.  It is difficult to find free themes that offer the value of a quality premium theme. 

And prices are reasonable — $20 to $100+ gets you:

• Valid CSS and XHTML
• Cross-browser optimized:  IE6, IE7, IE8, Firefox, Safari and Chrome
• optimized for multiple screen resolutions:  1024 and 1280 px screen widths
• expandability and customization
• innovative designs and functions
• unique menu navigation
• professional support and documentation
• upgrades

Here are some of the premium themes that we use and suggest here at YourCustomBlog.com.

Slurpie Theme from blogohblog.com

“Slurpie is a Grunge-styled, artistic premium theme that comes packed with features that will give a brand new face to your blog. The theme comes with both Grunge and Non-Grunge styling options, a customizable featured post section, RSS subscription options, 125×125 banner ads and a content-rich layout.”

Portfolio Example: http://www.sfweddinggiveaway.com/

ephoto theme from elegantthemes.com

Elegant themes offers the most cost effective licensing option.  $20 a year gets you access to 24 unique themes. 

“ePhoto was created for those looking to turn their blog into a photo gallery. While the theme was created with photographers in mind, it can certainly be used to display any type of digital imagery. While the main content of the theme is image based, there is also the ability to create separate blog pages where normal blog posts can be integrated with your photos.”

Portfolio Example:  http://www.im-brue.com/dev/

This is the test site for a new project — a customization of the ephoto theme from Elegant Themes.

wp remix

yourcustomblog.com is built using the wp remix theme.

http://wpremix.com/demo/

revolution code blue from studiopress.com

We have done many customizations of revolution themes — now from studiopress.

http://www.studiopress.com/

Portfolio Example:  http://www.fredricschwartz.com/

Work in progress — customization of revolution code blue theme. 

I was approached by Packt Publishing (UK) several months ago with an offer to author a technical manual on WordPress and Flash. I am pleased to announce that we are now in contract — and really excited to be making this contribution to the WordPress community. My co-author is Sarah Soward, a designer, Bay Area Video Coalition instructor and fine artist.

A heads up to all in the Bay Area this Friday. Indy Arts and Media,along with the Society for Professional Journalists is hosting the 2nd annual Innovations in Journalism Symposium at University of San Francisco. The all day event is a chance for journalists, techies and media professionals to get together, commiserate on the changing industry and hear from the industry innovators that are changing the way we think about media, collaboration and communication.
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I created this Photoshop collage on 2.18.2009 as part of a class "PhotoShop for Artists" taught by Liz Hickock @ the Bay Area Video Coalition.  It was a lot of fun –  I learned all sorts of great ways to work with masks and brushes and how to do photo touch ups. 

The web’s ever changing and the action never stops.  Here’s a few of our favorite recent links from around the world courtesy of our media network.  This week’s links run the gamut from finding VS funding for your social enterprise to the importance of “reputation grooming” to resources for writing website copy, marketing your business online and paying attention to your customers.  Plus a special lesson from Trent Reznor.  Check everything out, but be careful-you just might learn something! continue

Alright class pay close attention.  This is exactly WHAT YOU DON’T DO with a Twitter account, or with any readily archived, publicly accessed social platform.  To be honest, hopefully you don’t do anything like this at all.

So the Twitter echo chamber started buzzing a couple days ago about a very public meltdown by a very disgruntled reporter, namely David George Cosh, tech reporter for Canada’s National Post.   

Apparently Cosh was upset that a potential source for a story he was working on didn’t jump as high and as quickly as he would have liked.  Cosh was apparently upset because the potential source, marketing consultant April Dunford, had not returned a phone call in time for him to make his story deadline.

When Dunford, who had no other involvment in the story says she didn’t know Cosh before the event, returned the call a couple of days later all digital hell broke loose.  Apparently the exchange was pretty heated, and resulted in this Twitter post from Dunford:

“Reporter to me “When the media calls you, you jump, OK!?” Why, when you called me and I’m not selling? Newspapers will get what they deserve”

Oh, baby.  Hell hath no fury like a reporter backtalked.   continue

Here’s our weekly list of the hottest, most interesting and most useful news from around the ‘net in the last week.  Everything from South By Southwest Tech news to Daily show ranting.  Check ‘em out.  You just might learn something. 

Growing up online-

• The Digital Natives are here.  The first generation of childredn born into a wired world face a rapidly changing world of technology and information.  But to them it’s just the same ol’ same old.  John Palfrey’s new book (Growing up Digital) explores the way these plugged in youth see things differently from the rest of us. (On the Media) continue

For all you sync happy Wordpress/Twitter junkies, Tweetsuite has the integration cure for what ails ya’.

Tweetsuite, the new Worpress plugin by Dan Zarella lets you fully integrate Twitter into your Wordpress blog in pretty seamlessly.

Think of Tweetsuite as a supersized version of Zarella’s Tweetbacks plugin. Not only will the plugin display all tweets that reference a particular post, but it feeds posts directly to your Twitter account and automatically adds buttons for Tweeting, Re-Tweeting, and adding to your favorite tweets.  There are also side bar widgets that display your latest, favorite, and most popular Twitter feeds. Twitter Overload? Pretty close.

So far I’ve installed the plugin on all my sites and it’s working fine. While it would be easy to OD on this feature heavy plugin I’m using it primarly for the Twitter auto post and Tweet this features. continue

By now this video by Gary Vaynerchuk, WineLibrary founder has become the stuff of internet cult legend, and for good reason. In a down economy companies big and small are asking themselves how to stay afloat, how to make a profit and the best ways to position themselves for the upcoming years. It’s a strange time for the force, folks. Yes, the economy’s in the tank. Yes it’s becoming harder to make it as a start up, small business/business/idealistic entrepreneur. But on the flip side, now’s the time to get everything together-what’s that crazy business idea you’ve been mulling over? Do it. That new direction you’ve thinking of taking? Now’s the time.

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It always takes a lot of work to redesign a site.  YCB wants to take this opportunity to thank the following people and sites that made it all possible.

flickr:  creative commons

orange diamondplate:

Diamond Plate Sunset Reflection by glocinsgrel

red tread:

red tread pattern by meek rgt

diamondplate:

hatch by christian jackson

waves:

~ Water ~ by tomhide

sand and water:

Water on Sand at Avila Beach, California by brainwidth

shells:

She sells sea shells by the sea shore by annfrau

Sand and rocks.3. — Three is a good number. by SleepyOwl

Public domain images (from google image search):

wordpress icon:  http://www.techknowl.com/2009/01/download-web-20-wordpress-icons.html

earth day image: http://www.myspace.com/lastinternationalplayboys

green business: http://www.ecosherpa.com/green-business/eco-labels-100-green/

honor labor: http://blogs.zdnet.com/open-source/?p=2839#comments

lgbt flag: http://www.colourlovers.com/blog/2008/02/15/colors-of-the-cause-lgbt-movement

immigrant rights: http://portland.indymedia.org/en/2007/06/361000.shtml

city of oakland: http://www.abetteroakland.com/things-that-are-lame-about-oakland/2008-10-01

electronic frontier foundation: http://eff.org/bloggers
colors from adobe kuler
http://kuler.adobe.com/#themeID/439373
organic pull 2
by:  su11y_

theme:  WP Remix