Casey's Multicolored Blog

Do You Recognize the 7 Early Warning Signs of SEO Success?

cp5263a — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 16:05:37 +0000

Because I don’t!

I have registered my website with Google. I have tried to come up with a very specific website title and metatitle and description. As far as I know there is only one Catherine Pallenik on this planet. And yet, Google can’t seem to find my blog.

I suppose I’ll take the road less travelled: viral. I added my website to my Facebook profile under the Favorite Website section. I also made a post on a blog called Photojournalism From The Student’s Eye. My comment is under my name, Catherine Pallenik. Fortunately, there was a section in the post where I could write my website, which made me feel a little less like I was self-promoting. I chose to post on this blog because the guy who writes it is a photojournalism student and uses the blog to display his work, as well as what he’s been up to lately.

Hopefully the word gets out.

PING!

Plug-Ins Galore!

cp5263a — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 15:06:41 +0000

I’ve installed my first plug-in!

I chose to install NextGEN Gallery to help me simplify the photo portfolio aspect of my blog. I liked the clean and simple look of the pop-up gallery function. The plug-in seems to work intuitively from the user perspective so whoever is looking at my photos should have no problem using the gallery. The plug-in should also simplify my job of creating the gallery through a program rather than from scratch. I’m very excited.

If you want it too!

Ready for the PING?!

Multimedia Experiences!

cp5263a — Sun, 16 Nov 2008 04:15:36 +0000

YouTube!!!

Twitter!!!

Flickr!!!

I hope I didn’t have to write a lot of descriptions!

PING!

Some Design Influences…

cp5263a — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 01:57:17 +0000

1. Lift Design Portfolio has a very clean, minimalist design. While I enjoy this type of design and hope to create my website in a clean style as well, I do not plan on imitating those design elements from this website. Instead, I liked this website because of the style of navigation it uses for visual portfolio elements. It uses pictures of the portfolio pieces as buttons that link to the individual portfolio elements. The buttons have a rollover element which gives a brief title and description of the portfolio element. I think this design successfully utilizes both visual and text elements to navigate. This method of navigation is especially appealing because I am using my website to showcase both my written and visual work for both marketing and design. Because I will be showing this website to future marketing and business professionals, I do not want to make my website ultra-stylized. However, because I will be showing this website to future design employers, I do not want to make my website too boring. I must find ways to strike a balance between business and design in my website and I believe these navigation elements achieve that balance.

2. Wonderful Union’s website also has the minimalist style I hope to emulate. I like their horizontal main navigation bar. It is simple but clear. I also like the typography Wonderful Union uses. Their mixing of two styles of basic sarif and san-serif fonts keeps the text simple but interesting. I particularly like the serifed font choice for the main navigation and hope to use a similar one in my website. The serifed font seems to emulate the type of fonts generally used in resumes. For this reason, I think it would be a good choice for me to use in my personal portfolio site, which is essentially a large resume of my work.

3. Danny Blackman’s website is another version of a minimalist portfolio site. I really like Danny’s use of color in the heading of his website. He manages to use bold colors that are modern and fun but do not overwhelm the page or make it seem to busy. I want to incorporate color into my website but have not known how to do it well and still maintain the clean and streamlined look that I am going for. Danny’s website is a great example of how to achieve this balance. I also like the “awards” that Danny includes in his website, such as the first one which says “Employ me! Graduating 2007! Contact Details Below.” These awards and stickers infuse the website with a sense of humor and give Danny a personality. I don’t know if I will use a similar method in my website, but I would like to make sure that my personality comes across somehow in my website, hopefully with a touch of humor

I think for my website I may use a lot of original materials which I scan into the computer. I love all of the Marc Jacobs ads that mix minimalism with polaroid photos of opulent and sun-drenched scenes. I would like to recreate the mood and feel of these ads in my website. To introduce myself to the visitors, I am thinking of taking a photo of myself with a polaroid camera, writing my name on it and scanning it in to the computer. Besides a few photographic elements like this, the rest of the site will use basic colors and CSS, though I will be adding lots of photos that I have taken to the portfolio section, all of which are digital already.

PING!

My New Themes!

cp5263a — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 02:27:27 +0000

I chose two themes, neither of which I’m 100% in love with, but which I am willing to give a shot. I’m finding that I’m having a hard time looking past the color/font/photos to see the basic design structure and subsequent potential for a lot of the blog themes. The themes I chose are very simple, with a large main section and only two sections. The navigation is mainly horizontally aligned, though there are secondary navigation elements vertically on the right side of the page. Both themes also have set widths, which I felt was important in maintaining any design elements that I include.

1. Professional Property Theme

2. Magicblue

PING!

My Future Blog!

cp5263a — Sun, 02 Nov 2008 23:19:31 +0000

In the future, I plan to create a blog that has two columns. Because the nature and style of my blog will be simple, clean, and streamlined, I have decided that the fewer columns, the better. I have also decided to use horizontal navigation. Though Smashing Magazine made the argument that 70 to 95% of people are right-handed, which makes right aligned navigation more natural, I have decided to make my navigation horizontal to make my blog look less like a blog, and more like a complete website. My blog will also have a centered layout, which is now the norm for websites and blogs. Because my website will have so much visual content, I have decided to have a fixed width, somewhere between 900 and 1000 pixels. Finally, my search box will be included with my horizontal navigation at the top of the page.

PING!

Design Inspiration

cp5263a — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 21:00:02 +0000

I intend to make a personal portfolio website as my final project. Here are three examples of blogs with similar concepts.

1. Charlotte Kesl Photos and Writings

The blog’s subject matter is Charlotte Kesl’s personal photos and any thoughts or information that she feels should accompany them or update readers on her life, however the main focus is on the photos. The photos’ focus is generally on portraits and pop culture, all of which is captured in a candid, photojournalism style. The content of the blog is almost 100% original content. She seems to create new posts in bursts. For example, she has multiple posts from October, September and May, but very few in between. Unfortunately, no one seems to be commenting on Charlotte’s posts. There are also no ads on the blog because she uses WordPress to publish her blog. The author does not seem to make use of categories or tags.

2. I (heart) Photograph

While this blog is not a personal portfolio blog, I like how image-centric this blog is. The blog’s subject matter is other photographers’ work. It posts a few photos from various photographers daily, as well as includes a photograph of the day. The posts generally lead to outside artists’ work. The photographs tend to be done in a fine arts style. Some of the posts have many comments, while others have none. There are no ads on this site. There are hundreds of tags, yet no categories.

3. Jerry Yoon Photography

This is a wedding photographer’s blog. Jerry Yoon seems to specialize in modern, sassy wedding photography, including engagement photos. The posts are composed completely of original material and feature a short written description, but focus mainly on displaying photographs. Posts are published whenever Jerry Yoon attends a wedding, which seems to be every weekend. Each post tends to have a few comments and the blog contains no ads. The blog also seems to make use of both categories and tags.

Check out the rest of my class’ super work!

Test Post!

cp5263a — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 19:06:30 +0000

This is my first post…I’m so excited I can barely stand it.

This is my first post…I’m so excited I can barely stand it. This is my first post…I’m so excited I can barely stand it. This is my first post…I’m so excited I can barely stand it. This is my first post…I’m so excited I can barely stand it. This is my first post…I’m so excited I can barely stand it. This is my first post…I’m so excited I can barely stand it.

Hello world!

cp5263a — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 18:47:38 +0000

Welcome to WordPress.com. This is your first post. Edit or delete it and start blogging!