Shawn's blog

Theming a Simile Timeline

Shawn — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 05:39:55 +0200

When my employer asked that I investigate how to theme and style a Simile timeline for an upcoming project, I was really excited to jump right in. Before I got started, I reviewed the available live examples showcased on the Simile website, which as a web designer I would describe as interesting content, with less than inspiring presentation.

JavaServer Faces

Shawn — Thu, 29 May 2008 06:18:34 +0200

Once again I find myself working on a new web project which presents the opportunity to learn yet another IDE and new java technology :) The project requires an UI design created with JavaServer Faces (JSF) technology.

Working with Sound Files

Shawn — Sun, 03 Feb 2008 13:18:38 +0100

I'm working on a website that will feature sound clips from old movies. Here are a few examples from the movies 1) Which Way Is Up, 2) Car Wash and 3) The Wiz respectively.

Mallorca

Shawn — Mon, 12 Nov 2007 07:26:16 +0100

I recently returned from a vacation on the Spanish island, Mallorca. Photos of my trip can be seen here in my newest image gallery.

Mallorca has beautiful landscapes, beaches and architecture, however the island is teaming with German tourists. There are also some parts of the island with a high number of British tourists stumbling about. To that end, I'll share with you a reliable way to distinguish the German tourists from the British: When a tourist accidentally bumps into you, and he says "Excuse me.", then he is British. If he, however, says nothing and continues on his merry way, then he is German :)

Fun with Photoshop Shapes

Shawn — Sat, 29 Sep 2007 10:54:01 +0200

This tutorial will show you how to use digital photos and Photoshop shapes to make a personalized baby mobile. This idea comes from an office card that I made for a collegue who recently had a baby boy.This tutorial is written for intermediate users of Adobe Photoshop.

Amazon Associates & XHTML Validation

Shawn — Tue, 21 Aug 2007 07:54:25 +0200

I recently added Google and Amazon advertisements to keelingdesign.com. This is quite simple to do with the Drupal modules Adsense and Amazontools. Setup and installation not only requires configuring ones's Drupal site but also requires that one join Google Adsense and Amazon Associates respectively.

Swift 3D

Shawn — Thu, 02 Aug 2007 09:09:57 +0200

I plan on using Swift 3D in an upcoming Flash project that will feature a few simple 3D animations. This particular 3D application is especially appealing because it claims to be "the industry-leading tool for quickly and easily creating high quality 3D vector and raster animations for Flash". But what's the learning curve for a designer like me? Well, It turns out that it actually isn't so bad.

Qumana 3.0

Shawn — Sun, 01 Jul 2007 17:36:32 +0200

Choosing an offline publishing tool for this blog wasn’t as simple as I had assumed. The choices seem adequate enough upon first glance, however there are a few personal requirements that substantially reduced those choices.

The offline publishing tool for KeelingDesign.com must…

Moving to Germany

Shawn — Sun, 01 Jul 2007 15:15:31 +0200

Three years ago this month I moved from Boston, USA to Bonn, Germany. The move required substantial preparation and was stressful in many ways. Prior to the move, language was the least of my concerns, although I had begun classes at the Goethe Institute in Boston. The challenge at the time was deciding on an international moving company.

The German Consulate at Copley Place provided me with a list of credible firms to choose from. They also, however, disclosed the Consulate’s preferred moving company for its own employees. That company is Deutsche Möbelspedition (DMS) and it is the company I ultimately chose. They weren’t cheap. I spent €5.250 which at the time equaled well over $6,000. So what did I receive for this amount of money? DMS international moving services includes basically 3 things:

Keeling Design Logo

Shawn — Sat, 09 Jun 2007 13:56:55 +0200

Font selection is critical when designing an identity, and accordingly I exhausted several fonts before finally deciding on Lacuna for the Keeling Design logo.

Peter Hoffmann of Glashaus designed Lacuna. The font features nice clean lines and a distinct, modern appeal. I especially like the looped descender of the lower case "g" which strongly influenced my decision to select Lucana.