Hosting changes, etc.
This was posted on Wednesday, April 9th, 2008 at 3:34 pm.
Big Sweater Design is now hosted with MediaTemple. I'd had some problems with my old host, specifically with my site taking forever to respond. When I called support about it, they basically said "Sorry, we can't do anything about that right now." If it had been a one time occurrence — any shared server setup is bound to get slammed at some point, rendering sites on the server slow or unresponsive — that would be understandable. But it's happened several times, and I can't afford for my site to be inaccessible.
It doesn't help that they made no offer for reparation — no offer for credit, nor any offer to move my site to a more responsive server in their cluster. They were aware of the problems their servers were having, but could give me no answer in the way of when they'd be fixed.
So I'd read great things about MediaTemple, and decided to host it there. So far I couldn't be happier.
In other news: welcome, noupe.com readers!
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In the way of updates
This was posted on Friday, April 4th, 2008 at 6:15 pm.
I haven't updated the site in about two months, so I figured it's time to add a spot of news to the site.
A lot has happened since January!
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Planning Your Site's Content
This was posted on Tuesday, January 22nd, 2008 at 8:39 am.
A recent article at Tyssen Design really reinforced a lesson I've been learning lately, through various client projects: know what your site is going to say before you take it to a designer.
It's easy to get carried away with the design of a site. One would think that the site's design is the first thing most users see when they visit, so surely, the design should be the first thing to consider when building a website.
While this may be the case for something that must immediately grab attention and leave an impression on the viewer's mind, such as a billboard or a magazine ad, the fact is, the Internet has vastly different requirements than more traditional forms of advertising. On the Internet, your content must come first. Read the rest of this entry »
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Graphic Design and Hubris: Why it's Sometimes Merited
This was posted on Thursday, January 10th, 2008 at 8:47 pm.
Graphic designers (and "creative types" in general) are sometimes accused of thinking a bit too much of their profession. In design school, in reading about design, and in talking about design, we're convinced that we're learning a craft, that in our schooling, we're allowed knowledge of secrets that not just anybody can possess. We're convinced that graphic design can affect societal change, that it's an integral part of modern society. Without the talents and skills of creative professionals, the world would arguably be a much more bland place.
There are some that call this point of view hogwash, that it's just arrogance and hubris and ultimately, designers fill a niche in the capitalist world just like any other profession: we're there to feed ourselves and maybe make a buck or two in the process, so don't attach any undue nobility or respect to a service and skill that isn't too vastly different from anything less cerebral or artistic.
Normally, my inclination is to agree; I'm not designing for higher ideals, I'm designing to pay the rent and to add to my savings account. I certainly love design, and wouldn't be doing it if that weren't the case, and while some designers actually do affect serious societal change, they are surely in the minority.
That is, until I read this presentation (PDF link) over at Netdiver.
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Tips on Improving Search Engine Ranking
This was posted on Monday, January 7th, 2008 at 12:46 pm.
This was originally a comment on Eric Terry's blog, but it got too long for LiveJournal to allow it, so I'm posting it here.
A little background: Eric owns and operates the very awesome Linty Fresh online teeshirt shop, where he designs and sells all of his shirts. By hand. His work has gotten more attention recently, having been featured on the inimitable shirt.woot, and otherwise gaining recognition. He asked for some tips on generating more traffic from search engines without spending a ton of money, and here, more or less, is my response: Read the rest of this entry »
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