alan crissey
graphic + web designer

I‘ve been saying I was going to do this for almost a year. Finally, I have gotten around to setting up a functional, expandable, and community-inclusive website for myself. It’s about time. I am so indecisive when it comes to designing for myself that it is absolutely ridiculous. This layout was design number 18. And that’s not including the sketches I have laying around. I’m still not completely happy with this, and I’ve still got some things to tweak, but at least it’s up. I will probably be changing the look every once in a while. It’s built on Wordpress, which is a lot more powerful than I ever thought it could be.

For those of you who don’t know, Wordpress is a great little invention. Originally designed for blogs, it’s matured into a full content management solution which makes the lives of people like me a bit easier. Learning it on the level that was necessary for me to customize it like this was a bit difficult and time consuming, but it was worth it. So if you’re a web designer and you have yet to learn Wordpress, I highly encourage you to bite the bullet and learn it.

A few days ago, I was flipping through my latest issue of HOW magazine and saw an ad for a Photoshop plugin called Permanent Press. I looked it up and it turned out that this thing did exactly what I had been trying to accomplish in Photoshop for about the past year – make things look PRINTED. I often get tired of things looking too normal and perfect. I love bleeding edges, offset plates, screen dots and paper textures. The plugin costs $100 and I couldn’t resist – so I bought it. And I love it. If you like making things look like they were printed thirty years ago, then you have to get this plugin. It makes what would otherwise be a very difficult and long task a very simple one.

Anyone with any interest in photography has probably heard about the new Nikon D90 which, for the price, is one awesome little camera. It not only shoots incredible pictures, but it can film in HD. The price point is $1000 which, as cameras go, not bad. It makes me want to pick up one of these things but, at the moment, that wouldn’t be a smart thing.