What’s cookin’?

Hi. If you didn’t know already and haven’t seen my project on here, I make music under the name ‘Maffiss’ and I’m currently working on a new website for that. It’s going to be a really cool one-page site (but it will actually have quite a few pages… I’ll explain later). I’ve always been a little unimpressed with music websites on the whole and this is my chance to go crazy and make something really fun, different and risky! The Maffiss artwork is quite simple and so I’m taking the coloured strips at the bottom of the album cover and using those colours to be solid background colours for each section of the site, with big, bold typography in each section. There’s a quick snap of the header icons doing their thing. The idea is that people will click the icons and the page will scroll down to a different coloured section, while the white bar remains in place. Here’s a snap of the red area (or the news area) which uses a large speech bubble type thing with the three latest posts and a link to view the rest. Clicking the downward arrow will take you to the next … Continue reading →

Posted on January 15, 2011 by admin | 2 Comments

Custom Made Avatars That Aren’t Rubbish

I have one rather large issue when it comes to designing blogs, which is that commenters often haven’t signed up to Gravatar. Which I would encourage you all to do, by the way. Therefore they have the boring default avatar which isn’t very colourful or exciting. There are some alternatives, with various random shapes, patterns, monsters and triangular things being generated for users that have no avatars. These are an acceptable solution but from a design point of view, I don’t really like them! They’re often jagged and unattractive and wouldn’t fit in to the overal aesthetic of many of the sites I design. Therefore I decided to take the task upon myself of creating a series of really simple avatars that all have the same theme but all look different enough to add a bit of personality to the comments section. And I came up with these: Simple cartoon faces on a plain coloured background. These aren’t anything particularly new or different but they do the job. They have enough character to bring some life and personality to the comments section, without being distracting or unsightly. One suggestion from George Woodliff-Stanley on Forrst was to change the face depending on … Continue reading →

Posted on January 4, 2011 by admin | 7 Comments

My Thoughts On Stacey

Stacey is a content management system by the way, not a person. Just to get that clear. Although I’m sure there’s somebody called Stacey out there, and I’m sure they’re very nice. With the updated version of my website I moved from Stacey to WordPress. The main reason for that is because of the blogging functionality of WordPress, but I did really enjoy using Stacey and so I felt compelled to point out some of my favourite features and maybe encourage people to use it. Who / What Is Stacey? Stacey is ‘a lightweight content management system‘ and it’s a great solution for anyone running a portfolio website. Unlike other content management systems (CMS), Stacey doesn’t have a back-end interface that you can navigate through and create posts, pages etc. Instead it uses a simple file based system, as you’ll be used to with your documents and files on your computer. Let’s take a look at how the old Ogvidius website was set up: This is the design page. With each portfolio piece having it’s own folder. Simply name the folder with a number followed by the name, and it automatically organises it into the correct order on the design … Continue reading →

Posted on January 3, 2011 by admin | Leave a comment

Why Ampersands Are Awesome

Ampersands. Those squiggly things that designers seem to have a mild obsession with. Most people know them to be a short form of ‘and’, but what is it about the ampersand that makes us tick? Is it one of the rules of the designer’s handbook that we all have to love ampersands? (just underneath “thou shalt own a moleskine“)? The History The ampersand symbol (&) is actually a combination of the letters e and t. And it was used as a short hand symbol for latin scribes. A bit like modern day journalists use their own form of short hand to be able to write quick enough to keep up with the speed of speech. The ampersand symbol (& or et) was short for “et, per se and” which is where we get the word ‘ampersand’ from today. That’s all very nice, but why do we love them? It is true that designers do have a thing for the ampersand. There are numerous websites, blogs, competitions and t-shirts completely dedicated to the symbol. I wouldn’t be surprised if somebody has written a song about it too. Bad hair day for Claude. The reason we love it so is mainly because it’s nice. … Continue reading →

Posted on December 29, 2010 by admin | Leave a comment

Message Creative

Greetings fellow internet people. Just to update you all on what I’m doing and where I am. My Ogvidius website is a bit of a portfolio site which shows the work I’ve done in animation, film, graphic design and web design. I’ve had a few requests for work come through the website and I’ve done a few project for people: logos, brochures, websites etc. It’s been great doing that alongside my Graphic Design course and other things. Now I’m in full-time employment with a Christian organisation called The Message who are awesome. Like cakes. Look them up! I’m part of the creative department there, called Message Creative, doing web design from Monday to Friday. We also work for external clients so if you like my work, specifically websites, then get in touch with Message Creative and we can sort you out good and proper with some awesome design. I’m the web designer, and we have a web developer, plus Graphic Designers and Video guys who are brilliant! So if you’re looking for me to do some freelance work, I won’t really have much time to do it, but get in touch with Message:Creative and I’ll be able to work on it in … Continue reading →

Posted on December 24, 2010 by admin | Leave a comment

The New Ogvidius Website

Why hello there! If you’re a new visitor to my website then you probably won’t notice much of a difference. If, however, you’ve visited my site previously you’ll notice that there have been some rather large changes. The big change is that I’ve switched from Stacey (which is awesome) to WordPress (which is also awesome). The reason for this is simply because of the blogging functionality of WordPress. Stacey is a brilliant content management system if you’re running a portfolio website, which is what my website was. It is still is a portfolio website but with a slight change of direction. I’m now in full time employment so there isn’t really much need to be running a freelance website (although do feel free to get in touch with Message:Creative if you want some work doing!). Instead, my website is now a two-part site. Ogvidius is a home to my creations in web design, graphic design and motion graphics. These are designs that I do either for personal projects, or in spare time just for fun. The other part of the website is the blog! If you’re reading this you’re probably on it now. The blog is going to be a … Continue reading →

Posted on December 23, 2010 by admin | 4 Comments
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