JesseSutherland

Superior Hiking Trail Photos July 17, 2009

My wife and I took a backpacking trip to the north woods of Minnesota last weekend. We came away with some gorgeous Lake views, and sore backs. I took some photos along the way and posted the more artistic ones in the photography section. If you’re my friend on Facebook you can see some more of them with Andrea and I.

“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.

Two New Albums Posted October 28, 2008

I posted some new photos in the Photography section earlier today, so I thought I should share it here since I doubt ya’ll check out the photo section all that often. (I should do a photo a day thing for a month or something, ooh good idea!)

The first album is from our trip to Chicago a couple of weekend’s ago. We had some fun running around downtown and Millennium Park and I was snapping photos the whole time. The second album is from the last couple of months, a camping trip with some friends, a trip to the Little Farmer, and Fall Conference with the Navs. I love fall and the colors it brings.

New Photography Section August 13, 2008

I actually haven’t updated the photography section since I set up this website. It was too much of a pain to update so I just didn’t!

I have now completely changed it! It is now set up so that individual photos are stored in albums, and can be better organized. It’s also much easier to update as all I have to do is upload some photos in their large format, press a button to resize, add some titles/captions and wah-lah!

You’ll notice right away that some new photos are posted, there are a bunch from our recent trip to Door County, WI. I enjoyed myself thoroughly and the scenery was beautiful. There are also photos I took of my brother on his motorcycle, some photos from when we hiked around Devils Lake last fall, and some random photos from my last three trips to Colorado. And even a few more!

My hope is that with this new system I can upload some of my favorite artistic pictures from trips that I go on and then get them updated on the web right away.

New Content to Come April 3, 2008

I’ve been thinking a lot about what other kinds of content I’d like to see on this website. I think there are some changes to come in adding some minor things like more pages under the About Jesse section, with some more contact information and such. I’d also like to add a search bar back into the design, which I’ve been ignoring so far. Along with that, I have some friends around the web that deserve some linking to, so I should give them some props somewhere on the site as well (No site should be an island, you know).

I’d also like to add a section called Adventures. I got the idea from my friend Chris Dewan back in the day. I’d like to improve on it some more though. This would be kinda like a photo gallery of trips/excursions that I’ve been on, but with additional information about the location, the date, and a blog post about it. We’ll see how that all comes together. I think adding another section will also mandate changing the top menu a little bit to accomodate a fourth link.

As you can see, I’ve got some work cut out for me. I’m glad though that this new website is proving to me more flexible and more fun to update than the last one. Post more comments while you’re here!

New Work Already! March 5, 2008

Yes, I know I just launched the site on Monday, but I might as well get some more work up there! I’ve got three new things for you, all in the print design category. None of these things is new yet, but I still have some older work that can be put up when I feel like it. Two of them are invites that I did for Morsekode shindigs, and one is some CD art that I created for a Morsekode Mix CD. Check ‘em out.

New Website, Finally March 1, 2008

This new website is a long time in coming, in fact, I designed the last one in less than a weeks timeframe for a class in my junior year of college. It was pretty rushed and it was never fully thought out. After I graduated and had a bit more time on my hands I started to want to design a new site.

That was almost 2 years ago now! I’ve worked on this project on and off during that time, but its always a challenge designing for yourself. I’m never completely happy with what I’ve come up with. In fact, I think that I went through 14 designs to arrive at this one. (My wife thinks I’m insane!) At some point, I just had to say, “this is the one, be happy with it.”

My goal with this site is to keep it more updated. I’ve made it pretty easy on myself to add new content to it, so I have no excuses now! I’m hoping to be able to add new designs I’ve created, new photos I’ve taken, and some varying thoughts from time to time.

I call the blog section “thoughts” because I hope that it will be more than the occasional “Hey, I just saw the coolest website” or “I had Macoroni and Cheese for dinner last night, boy is that good!” I hope to bring something new to the blogosphere, from design commentary, to advertising ideas, to thoughts on Christian spirituality. Join in the conversation with me and let me know your thoughts as well, I welcome the feedback.

This is definitely a work in progress, I may add sections, or change how things work, so don’t be too surprised. Feel free to let me know if you have any comments, thoughts, or questions.