Category Archives: Posts

Catching Up

Haven’t been blogging in a while but I wanted to mention a few things, and try to get back in the swing of it.

Work

Since October I have been working at Stevens-Henager College. Had some great experience teaching there. Due to the four week class schedules, I got to teach a lot of different classes namely: Web Design, HTML+CSS, Flash, Logo Design, Package Design, and Flash Animation.

A few months ago, I started working at the WordPress HelpCenter. The HelpCenter is a great facility helmed by Alex King and a child to his company Crowd Favorite. At the HelpCenter, we do WordPress theme support, and plugin support. After almost three months, I have worked on a ton of projects, everything from plugin support, theme hacks, all the way to theme design and full site builds. If you are a WordPress developer, if you are ever in a pinch, the HelpCenter is a great place to go for help. One phone call gets you years of WordPress experience and likely a quick fix to whatever ails you.

I have wanted to be able to work both jobs, as I really like teaching but something had to drop, (either my sanity, or one of my jobs…) so this week I will be leaving Stevens-Henager. With much coercing, I am going to stay at Stevens-Henager on an advisory board that will assist the faculty in developing curriculum in the web program at Stevens-Henager.

Family

Last Friday was my five year anniversary. Hard to believe six years ago I met my wonderful wife. I feel so blessed, happy, and fortunate each day that I get to spend with her. And everyday that she puts up with me. 😉

Rush is doing well, growing everyday and finding new ways to test his Mom and Dad about what is right and wrong. Over the last few days we have seen some big advances as he has started walking more. What was a cautious shuffle of the feet has moved into multiple big steps. He loves the attention that we give him, and will be running in no time.

Colosseo

So, I didn’t win an iPad as part of the SEO contest but Cameron sent one of his Colosseo prints as a gift anyways. Namaste to you Cameron.

Cameron Moll’s Colosseo Letterpress Poster

Just wanted to take another opportunity to talk about Cameron Moll Colosseo iPad Martian Giveaway.

Cameron has created a stunning work of art out of typography. For those that look at text as letters, rather then an art form, these typography posters will knock your socks off.

Of note, if you are interested in the glyphs (the individual letterforms) of the Colosseo, you can purchase an .eps version from Cameron here.

These glyphs are based on the work of master Italian calligrapher M. Giovambattista Palatino (ca. 1515–1575),as featured in Libro di M. Giovambattista Palatino Cittadino Romano, published in Rome around 1550 AD.Several of the glyphs featured in the book were recreated by Cameron through hand-tracing, then as vectors, and then incorprated into the Colosseo.

So, thanks for sticking around with me while blathering on about the Cameron Moll Colosseo iPad Martian Giveaway. It has been a fun little test to see if I can try to work some SEO magic. Kudos to Cameron on building such a successful marketing plan with hundreds of inbound links… 😉

Cameron Moll Colosseo iPad Martian Giveaway

Well, now that I have your attention… 😉

Just wanted to let you all know about the Cameron Moll Colosseo iPad Martian Giveaway.

Salt Lake Temple - In TypeCameron Moll is one of my favorite designers, creating the prominent typeset edition of LDS Temple that I am proud to hang in my home. In addition to hanging this in my home, it has also made the rounds at Stevens-Henager college to all of my classes, all the while sharing the video of the creation at the same time. (embedded below)

I first met Cameron two years ago at a dinner for speakers and sponsors of the WordCamp Utah. I had been following the blog NorthTemple.com for a while and new some of the names of the authors. After doing a little bit of digging around, I stumbled on to Cameron’s site, Authentic Boredom and became an active reader. It was exciting to get the chance to have dinner with him that night.

I didn’t think that our paths would cross again, but I was excited to see that he needed some help done a WordPress site last October. I jumped at the chance to help. I was chosen, and as a result, I can claim that I did the WordPress theme for AuthenticJobs.com/blog/. It was a fun project, one of the coolest designs that I have ever done.

So, now that the pitch is over, I wanted to mention colosseotype.com. This is the new letterpress poster of the Roman Coliseum. It was modeled from a photograph that was taken while on a trip there with his wife. I don’t own this yet, bet already have a spot reserved above my desk for it.

On a slightly nerdy note, I love the design of colosseotype.com. It is built using HTML5 and some kewl things using CSS3.

Love it…

So, if you looking for a smashing gift that will really leave an impression, check out Cameron’s fantastic letterpress posters. You will be amazed at the craftsmanship.

How to tell the difference between Helvetica and Arial

I like to think that I love good design. Part of that, over the years has evolved into a fair bit of font snobbery. I may have even blogged about fonts before. So, when I saw this comic today, I had to pipe up about a battle Melissa and I have been having. I am totally unabashed in my love of Helvetica. I use it in design, on the blog, and even have watched entire movies dedicated to the typeface.

Melissa, (whom I would also call a font snob) doesn’t like it much because she said, and I quote, “It just looks like the default Excel font.”  (Arial) I mentioned that I liked it still, told her that Arial was a ripoff, and Helvetica had been around for a long time. I followed that up with how I couldn’t tell the difference, but great designers use Helvetica, and accountants use Ariel, because they don’t know the difference.

Well, this has caused a bit of a debate, so I want to pose a few tidbits of information about how to tell the difference. BC, everyone needs to know.

From Wikipedia:

Generic versions of Helvetica have been made by various vendors, including Monotype Imaging (CG Triumvirate), ParaType (Pragmatica), Bitstream (Swiss 721).

Monotype‘s Arial, designed in 1982, while different from Helvetica in some few details, has identical character widths, and is indistinguishable by most non-specialists. The capital letters C, G, and R, as well as the lowercase letters a, e, r, and t, are useful for quickly distinguishing Arial and Helvetica. Differences include:

  • Helvetica’s strokes are typically cut either horizontally or vertically. This is especially visible in the t, r, and C. Arial employs slanted stroke cuts.
  • Helvetica’s G has a well-defined spur; Arial does not.
  • The tails of the R glyphs and the a glyphs are different.

Nimbus Sans, another similar font family that incorporates fonts designed in 1940 (Nimbus Sans bold condensed, Nimbus Sans bold condensed (D)) and 1946 (Nimbus Sans Black Condensed, Nimbus Sans Black Condensed (D)), is produced by URW. Nimbus Sans L fonts were released under the GNU General Public License.

“Helv”, later known as “MS Sans Serif“, is a sans-serif typeface that shares many key characteristics to Helvetica, including the horizontally and vertically aligned stroke terminators and more uniformed stroke widths within a glyph.

When you get to know this font, you really start to see it everywhere. Snowbird, the bank down the street, American Airlines, NASA, and many others.

What are some of your favorites?

April WordPress Meetup

Wanted to invite everyone back down to my house for another WordPress Meetup this week. We had a great turnout last time, and though my basement might be busting at the seams, we will do it there again.

Details:

When: Wednesday, April 15th, 2009 7:00 pm – whenever
Where: My house, 549 W. Goldenrod Way Saratoga Springs

Topics: Like last time, anything that you want to talk about. I just got a new TV that we can hook up laptops too, so bring your lappy, and examples of what you are working on.

Below are a some of the people that came last time, I hope that you all come again, and bring some friends too!

Feel free to bring a snack to share, I am thinking about looking for some exotic beverages… If you want to RSVP, just leave a comment letting me know you are coming. Then I can know how many chairs to steal from the church… Spread the word!

PhotoCamp Utah WrapUp

I have to give a major digital pat on the back to all of those great people that put on PhotoCamp Utah this last weekend. The event was huge, exceeding my expectations with membership, the quality and caliber of speakers, and the interaction with fellow photographers. Well done all.

With that great event, I had the great pleasure of sharing some thoughts in a presentation that I called PhotoBlogging with WordPress. From the course description:

Do you take awesome pictures and want to show the whole world? Learn more about how to showcase your photos with using blogging software by WordPress.

This will showcase tips for anyone from beginner to advanced. No need to understand photography, just a basic knowledge of web tools. General overview of topic will be presented, with a few ‘hands on’ examples.

PhotoBlogging With WordPressView more presentations from whyisjake.

With this topic of blogging, I was a little nervous that: 1. a lot of people might be blogging, but not using a hosted version of WordPress making themes and plugins difficult. 2. Might be using other software like TypePad/Blogger/Tumblr.

So, with that being said, at 9:30 Friday night I started to build a new site that would remedy both of those problems. I built a custom tailored WordPressMU/BuddyPress/bbPress site that had themes and plugins that would appeal to a photographers that were looking to get into blogging.

So, here I am announcing Photo-Bloggers.com. If you have wanted to get a rich, photoblog, and wanted to tie into a network of other photographers, now you can. There is a rich gallery of themes, some premium photo themes, and plugins to improve the experience. If you have  a theme or a plugin that you would like to see added, let me know and I will toss it in the pot.

If you are interested in WordPress development, integration, or have other questions, feel free to contact me through the comments here, email (whyisjake {at} gmail dot com) or through Twitter.

Once again, thanks to all of the conference organizers, volunteers and sponsors for making this a great event.

Utah WordPress Meetup

WordPress Logo A few weeks ago at the January Geek/Blogger dinner Thom Allen, Joseph Scott, Spencer King and I were all talking about how cool it would be if there was a time when WordPress developers/users/designers could get together and hash out whatever they were working on with the collective body of users. So, in the community nature of WordPress, I decided to put something together for next week. If you are new to WordPress, a seasoned vet, or somewhere in between, you would likely get something out of this meeting. If anything, come for the snacks. I am going to commit my wife to making some delicious bananna bread. (Will you honey?)

Details

Location: Casa de Spurlock (My House)

Time: Wednesday, 18th of March 7:00pm – 9:00pm

Topics: Anything that you want to talk about. I just got a new TV that we can hook up laptops too, so bring your lappy, and examples of what you are working on. If we do have a good response, I will see about moving to a larger location, but we should be ok… (I know, famous last words…)

Event Registration on Upcoming.org

Twitter hash tag: #utwordpress

WordCamp Denver Wrap

Just a quick post to say what a great time I had out at WordCamp Denver. The Crowd Favorite Guys put on a great party, and I was glad that I got the chance to present. For those that don’t know, I presented on BuddyPress, an up and coming open source framework for developing social networking sites like Facebook or MySpace. BuddyPress is what we use to power Petomundo!, the social site that I am developing. If you are interested in learning more about BuddyPress, feel free to contact me, or jump into the forums.

Another link to a kid that is doing a lot of good with BuddyPress, Nicola Greco is a 15 year old kid in Italy that is doing a lot of BuddyPress plugin development in Italy. Thanks for all the hard work over there.