Design Thoughts
“Open Sourcing” my CMS Idea July 7, 2009
About a year ago I decided that I didn’t like any of the content management options out there, and I wanted to create my own. As a designer I was looking for a system where I could handle more complicated content without getting my hands too dirty in programming.
Not being a programmer myself I just started concepting around how I wanted it to work and function, and eventually came up with an initial idea. It ended up taking inspiration from both Frog and Wordpress. I showed it to a few programmer buddies, but when we considered the whole gambit of competing CMS’s, we decided there wasn’t a market, nor a need for another one.
The idea has sat dormant for awhile now, and as I was digging around cleaning up my web server tonight I ran into it again and thought I’d share it with the world.
I gave it an initial name, Flext. You can check out some screens from the beginnings of Flext CMS if you want.
Here’s the rundown of what some of the terminology means, I’ll admit that some of it got a little confusing:
Pages: Groupings of content in a hierarchical order.
Components: A way to define what kinds/types of content the CMS should ask for. Including what it should be called, how it should be entered, and how it should be formatted.
Filters: A way to look through multiple pages and pull certain types of content into a separate page.
Blocks: Groupings of content separated from the normal hierarchy of pages.
Code: Or “Code Blocks” would be PHP code that could be added anywhere in the layout.
Templates: CSS and XHTML layouts that define how pages will look to the viewers of the website.
Regions: Areas that are defined within templates to store blocks or page content.
Modules: Additional bits of programming that can add specific functionality to the CMS.
Feel free to diss it, ask any questions, steal the idea, whatever. Its now open sourced. =)
Some New Work May 22, 2009
It’s been awhile since I got around to posting some of the projects I’ve been working on over the last year at Morsekode. Here are three of my favorite projects:
To kick things off I posted the SAP E-Learning Elevator, which was an interactive demo to give people an overview of what SAP does. I also posted the Audio-Technica packaging project that has been a long time in coming, but might be out on store shelves soon? Finally, I posted the Heroic Productions website, which was for an audio and lighting production company here in Minneapolis.
I’d love to know what you guys think, leave me a comment and let me know!
My new website for designers March 16, 2009
Ever since I started messing around with designing this website, JesseSutherland.com in Wordpress, I’ve been enjoying playing around with and learning about all sorts of different content management systems, a.k.a. CMS’s. (which is basically just a dorky way to saying “a program that creates websites on the web”) I’ve also had the pleasure of working with several while at my job at Morsekode.
The tricky thing is, each one is totally different, and each of them have different strengths and weaknesses. Its hard to tell if one is going to work well for a website or not until you’ve really spent a decent amount of time learning about it.
Awhile ago I decided it would be a great idea to create a website for designers like myself who want to learn about these CMS’s themselves. I also wanted to make this into a website that could display advertising and potentially create a bit of income for myself, since it is such a niche market.
What was born out of this idea was the aptly named CMS Design Resource. After about a year of building this site on and off, I am finally launching it to the public. It’s not the first in its market, but I think it is unique in the market the way it sorts the systems, and allows users to leave reviews about them.
Check it out, and let me know if you have any feedback about the site.
New Website Launched January 29, 2009
Yesterday I had the pleasure of launching Phoenix Endeavors’ new website. It feels good to launch it after starting on the project about eight months ago! The company is an SAP software consulting firm here in Minneapolis who came to me for a complete website, wanting to be able to update it themselves after it was completed.
I’m pretty happy with how the design turned out. It’s clean and simple, with a lot of white space. The design has some nice dimension, where the photo feels like its coming off of the page. I like how the menu is a bit unique from other drop down menu’s, and it makes use of some cool transparency.
It was hard to nail down exactly what type of photography should be used, I was really trying to steer them away from the typical “business people shaking hands in a conference room” sort of imagery, as is common on a lot of consulting websites.
They told me that they wanted to be perceived as experts at what they did while working in partnership with the companies that hire them. At some point along the way I stumbled on the analogy of fighter pilots, or Blue Angel type of guys. They’re experts, and they have to coordinate everything they do as partners.
Overall, it was a fun project to work on and I’m proud to add it to my portfolio. Let me know what you think about it. Like it, love it, hate it?
Church Website Designers January 19, 2009
I don’t tend to post a lot of links to offsite articles because I’d much rather write and publish things that I’ve written and created. But today I was browsing Darren Hoyt’s blog, a designer who I respect on the web and I came across his most recent article that I thought was a great collision between my two passions: Design and Christianity.
In his article he interviewed several key designers who have played big roles in redesigning church websites. He asks some great questions and their responses are insightful
It’s a lengthy article, but worth the read if this sort of thing interests you. Generally, what do you think, where is the line between a good professional website for a church and something that is too glitzy and glamorous?
New Ideas December 29, 2008
Working in the advertising and design industry makes me try and think up new ideas all of the time. The creative process is challenging and oftentimes hard to come up with ideas that are unique and relevant to the audience.
I noticed something this weekend as I was playing a Scrabble-type game with my family. As I tried to form my individual letters into words I would try to come up with long words at the beginning of the game. (You know, like “antidisestablishmentarianism”, just kidding) but I found that I sat there trying to think of long, complex words to no avail. When I would finally give up on that and focus on getting 3-4 letter words that I could put together quickly, I had much more success getting rid of my letters. My Scrabble board would spiral in complexity and often I could form shorter words into longer ones.
I think this is a good example of things I’ve found to be true about coming up with good ideas:
Just get started. I find that I rarely think of anything decent when I wait until I have a “good idea”. Instead, just get started, brainstorm everything: Even the silly, impossible, already-been-done ideas. Put time into your decision process, but don’t wait for the “perfect idea” to get started creating.
Ideas start as simple, and become complex. I am never able to come up with good complex ideas right off the bat. No one sat down and thought “I’m going to design a car, here’s how the carburetor is going to work…” Start with a simple idea and complex systems will evolve from it. Don’t jump to the specifics quite so soon.
Just some thoughts for you today the next time you have to brainstorm some new idea. I’m sure I’m not the first to come up with these things, but I decided to just post instead of overthinking. (That was the point, wasn’t it?)
Attack of The Blur! October 21, 2008
I had a chance to work on a fun project for work over the last few months to promote the MN American Marketing Association (AMA) and their upcoming fall conference. We decided to create 5 super heros dubbed “The Focus 5″ that would represent the 5 different tracks that could be taken at the conference. We also decided that we just had to create a Microsite and videos to carry the idea.
For the videos, my creative director Paul Afong created and drew the characters, and then they were scanned and colored on the computer. Other members of the Morsekode team did the voiceovers. Finally, I took the drawings and animated parts of them in Flash. I also got to put together all of the sound effects and music to create the final soundtrack.
While we realize that we’re not exactly an animation house, we had a lot of fun with this project and are proud of what we accomplished. You can check out the videos below:
Is the Anticipation Always Better? September 9, 2008
Today was a sad day, Ok, not really that sad… Not like seriously sad, just kinda a little sad! Over the last few weeks I’ve been anticipating two things. They may be dorky, but it’s true, I’ve been looking forward to them.
The first, is a new MacBook Pro from Apple. I’m in the market for an Apple laptop. As a designer, it’d be really nice to have a Mac at home. Since it’s been widely rumored that there may be new ones coming this fall, I’m waiting before buying. Today they announced all sorts of new things including new iPod Nano’s, new iPod Touch’s, new iTunes, but no new MacBooks. Oh well, I guess I still have a bit more to save anyway.
The second, is an upcoming content management system that a lot of web professionals are into called Expression Engine 2.0. The company producing it has been saying all along that it will be out the summer of 2008. Well, it’s just about Fall now, and they finally announced that it has been officially delayed. Sadness.
So there you have it. Geeky stuff, but it’s part of my job as a web designer. What can you do?
A Couple of New Websites July 11, 2008
I’ve recently been working on a few projects both at work and in my free time, and I finally get to show them to you guys! This is the first bit of new work I’ve been able to post on the website in awhile. There’s a lot more coming that I’m really proud of, but I haven’t been able to post it yet for various reasons. Alas…
The first project was through my job at Morsekode. One of our clients is Minnesota Teen Challenge, a faith-based drug and alchohol residential program. This year to raise some money they are sponsoring the Twin Cities Freedom Ride. It’s basically a motorcycle ride where you can raise funds and then all meet at the metrodome for a rally. My art director, Paul Afong, did the logo. Then I started on the website, but he finished it and a programmer helped us get it online. As the final touch I worked on the flash intro that you see at the beginning when you first visit the website. Overall, a very fun project. Check it out.
The second project was for an organization that my sister-in-law is helping to start named Oasis for Orphans. A group of people from their church has paired together with an orphanage in Keya, Africa. They came to me with a half-completed website design which I took and improved upon, mostly only keeping their banner graphic and structure. In order to take them to the next level and help them to not depend on me for changes to their site I set up Frog CMS, and Zenphoto to manage their photo gallery. They’re very excited about it. Check it out.