January 2011
1 post
12 tags
A Happy New Year from Pixelvetica, Predictions, &...
Firstly, big news: Pixelvetica is migrating to Posterous! The full change will be completed within the next week, but until then, please continue to enjoy Pixelvetica as you normally would. More about the migration in a later post.
Also, congratulations to @zaksoup for winning the Pixelvetica promotion on Twitter. In return for spreading the word about the charitable cause, Pixelvetica randomly...
December 2010
1 post
9 tags
Detailed Review: Humble Indie Bundle 2
Back in May 2010, the good folks over at Wolfire Games (creators of Lugaru & Overgrowth) sponsored an unprecedented multi-platform indie games bundle with a name-your-price business model, raising over 1.2 million US dollars to benefit the Electronic Frontier Foundation & Child’s Play charities.
Imagine my excitement then, when, amidst trying to grab one of my DRM-free downloads...
July 2010
2 posts
9 tags
Feedback: Not just a kind of loud noise
As designers and developers, we have to give and get feedback on things we’ve made, perhaps even more often than we actually create things. There is one cardinal rule of giving feedback, no matter who you are; plain and simple: if you give good feedback, you will get good feedback. What is “good feedback?” It is constructive, it is specific, and it is actionable.
However,...
6 tags
A Note to Loyal Followers
To those who used to access Pixelvetica via a sub-domain of tumblr, we are glad to announce that we are now located at pixelvetica.com! Feel free to get to us from there, on twitter, facebook, or anywhere else you’d like.
Moreover, blogger in chief here at Pixelvetica, Carson Kahn, is now employed doing UI design and copywriting at Design Vetica Interactive studios. Accordingly, he (that...
June 2010
1 post
7 tags
An interview with developer and designer Kyle...
Most recently, developer and designer Kyle Bragger, the genius behind Forrst.com, was kind enough to grant me an interview. As the homepage pronounces, Forrst is a “place for designers and developers to share inspiring code, screenshots, links, and other work with their peers.” What follows is my transcription of some of the questions I asked Kyle and the answers he so kindly took...
May 2010
11 posts
9 tags
Tangling the Truth
Some designers seem to feel it’s okay to alter what they say to a client just to save themselves. “Sorry, I didn’t meet the deadline for the third logo option yet because Photoshop got corrupted.” You know what? Use Gimp or Pixen then. As a designer, you haven’t got any excuses.
Developers also take advantage of the rest of our general lack of knowledge of the...
5 tags
Come say hi... or don't, actually
I kind of forgot about this, but a few months ago, Engadget turned off comments on its posts — a move which, ironically, reignited discussion about the value of blog comments in a world pulsing with social media.
Some sites I’ve worked with have inspired commenting that I could only describe as pitiable drivel; others seem to inspire respectful, well-thought out opinions from informed readers....
8 tags
Why Google Is Loosing My Interest
I used to be a Google fanboy. Search has always been great, always getting better. When Google launched Gmail in March of 2004, I was positively hooked. When the it’s stock (NASDAQ GOOG) just wouldn’t go down, in fact, shot up to 600 from an opening count of 70 USD, it floored me. And when Google started taking over, well, everything, I was happy because it was just awesome.
However,...
7 tags
Examine Your Own Junk, I Don't Really Want To
First off, sorry about the title of this post. It’s provocative, is it not? But in all sincerity, here’s what I mean:
We all have them, those designs or applications we just want to get done and release so people will see it. “Meh, I can just add a drop shadow if anyone notices, but they won’t. Meh, I’ll release it on Twitter now. Meh.” Or we post our design...
6 tags
Didn't see that one coming
Google just acquired Bumptop. Bumptop is a desktop environment designed to enhance traditional computer desktop functionality by more closely supporting the behavior of a real-world desk.
This makes it more suitable for touchscreens and tablet computers. Or, say, they iPad. But the iPad doesn’t run an OS that supports Bumptop, so how does it figure in? Maybe it’s pretentious to...
5 tags
Important Announcement
But not yet, actually. A very important announcement is coming in a few days, and you don’t want to miss it. Over the next 96 hours, be sure to check Pixelvetica frequently. Something you should see awaits you…
2 tags
Everybody knows that Bird is the word... HTML5,...
This awesome presentation has examples of HTML5, which includes HTML, JS, and CSS components, in an interactive, power-point style demonstration. I enjoyed it, anyways. It’s here: http://cl.ly/o3Y
It’s meant to be viewed in Safari or Chrome if possible.
8 tags
Design and Development Synergy
I think that sometimes we web, graphics, and UX designers and developers forget how important each is to the other. In a world where all of our media seems to be a collaborative effort— heck, if you post a youtube video, it’s not just you; other people can make comments and record feedback vids too— we take it for granted that everyone else is symbiotically doing their job properly. For...
4 tags
5 tags
Pushing Pics the Right Way
I’ve noticed a lot of bad graphic design circulating lately. And thus, I present to you my favourite theorem:
Graphic design is a creative process with a few tools, a few rules, and lots of freedom.
In essence, graphic design is a visual representation of organized thoughts and a form of communication through layout, colour and organized elements such as images and words.
Basic graphic...
April 2010
1 post
4 tags
First post.
Wow, that’s cliché. Nonetheless, it’s epic, in a mediocre, nonexistential sort of way. And it’s not even my first post; I ran a blog like this one at this URL for a long time, but I’ve gotten rid of it and started over. Basically, I’m Carson. What follows are my musings. Awesome.