Design – Page 11 – all said and done

Published June 25, 2009 by Rebecca Matheson

New Look!

If you are viewing this by RSS you will not have noticed that All Said & Done has a shiny new look. It has been very long coming and has morphed entirely. I gave up on creating my own theme (I was nearly there) when I found this nice one typographywp and adapted it to look a little like what I was making in the first place. Why? Well, it’s got some cool little things going for it and is probably safer in IE than mine ever would’ve been.

Along the way I have discovered some lovely new plugins and better ways of doing things. You’ll notice that there is now a quotes (entirely self satisfying) widget and the good-reads/currently reading is lots cleaner. Unfortunately the whiz bang archive method I was going to use couldn’t cope with the oodles of backlog and so is currently not working. It’s a rather large disappointment really as it was quite nice.

So a few minor things to sort out, would appreciate if you notice any bugs/inconsistencies if you would let me know. Which you’ll have to do by commenting because I haven’t re-implemented the contact form yet.

…I’m a bit suspcious the feed itself has changed, which’d be a pain to you all. But better in the long run.

Also interested to know what you think, would you change anything?

Things not working:

Gravatars seem to be misbehaving
Favicon issue
Archives Page
List on the Categories page is a bit odd

To add:

Twitter status
RSS photo in sidebar (once I make photoblog!)
Working Archives page
Contact form

Blogging Design

Published June 22, 2009 by Rebecca Matheson

Painted

painting

Shock horror, I can paint. Yes I cheated and used a technique from a book called The Weekend Artist, but I needed something to kick me up the bum and suggest again to myself that I could.

I’ve never really done abstracty stuff before with paint, nor have I ever used gel medium. Infact for a while it looked like there was snot all over the top section of the painting until I bought a little more red paint to the rescue, dont’ think I’ve quite got the hang of using it properly. Gel medium can be used to make acryllics looks a bit more like oils and it took freaking forever to dry in this lovely cold Melbourne – I might as well have used oils. In this photo the varnish on the lower half is still drying.

It’s no masterpiece, but it sure was fun!

Design Experiments Holidays

Published June 6, 2009 by Rebecca Matheson

Hans Christian Anderson

cvr I did a publication design class this semester. Probably not quite as much info on being exuberant within the book space as I would’ve liked – they talked far more about magazines. I’m interested in book design and I’d love to be more experimental rather than conventional but I am hesitant probably because I value the integrity of the text… which is why I don’t like David Carson (Typographer). You see these marvelous book designs but the book becomes a work of art (or a mess) and no longer a book and I kind of don’t see the point… So, the assignment option was either a book or a magazine. My 10,000 words was a selection of Hans Christian Anderson stories. I also chose to generate my own images – you didn’t have to. Thought I’d have some fun with photography – some of which you have seen previously. Anyway, below are a few of the book spreads.

I had an awful experience with printing in that they made a bit of a mess in trimming my book so some of the white edge is now… erm, closer to a bleed and was rough. But the bookbinder I tracked down was lovely and next time I would get any trimming done only through him (you live and learn) – he at least fixed the rough edge, was VERY reasonably priced and even gave me some gold leaf on the cover for free – very tasteful I might add! So the printing wasn’t overly beautiful (along with the cover sleeve) but digital printing is a little limited in many regards especially if you go through someone cheap and quick. All the imagery is my own.

sprd1

sprd2

Books Design Uni

Published June 1, 2009 by Rebecca Matheson

A few little lessons (about finishing things)

No, I am not way behind on my homework. I am talking about finishing in terms of printing.

a) it is a sad fact that block colours never come out super wonderful when you digitally print

b) binders care more about cutting precision than cheapo printers do (die Dinkums die, I paid you $65 for a print which you then proceeded to very badly trim!)

c) cheapo printers probably aren’t the best option… but I’ve made that mistake before

d) VERY cheap printers who will print A2 colour posters at $15 on 80gsm are worth avoiding at all costs! (That and fine text over a photo is entirely absorbed at 80gsm)

e) Amendola bookbinders in Blackburn are lovely, as is the guy at Print Express who knocked heaps of my more successful A2 print (on better stock, with a better printer.)

but hey… the big evil things that need printing/binding are now out of the way. Just have to deal with double sided A3 and long edge wire binding. I hate this point in semester, the printing places are ridiculously busy because no-one ever finishes that early to beat the rush and it’s so much to-ing and fro-ing.

Design Uni

Published May 29, 2009 by Rebecca Matheson