trip

Front-End Design Conference

abduzeedo — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 11:08:30 +0000

The Front-end Conference is over, and it was a blast! I had such a great time, meeting guys that I really admire and have been following for quite a long time already through their sites, blogs and twitters. Guys such as Chris Coyer, John Ashenden, Grant Friedman, Jonathan Longnecker, Andrew Maier, Kevin Hale.... and of course Dan Denney aka @webdesignfanboy, the mind behind the event.

Flying to Tampa was really cool, great view from the plane.

I arrived on Wednesday with my cousin Amanda AKA @amlight and we started our journey through these great experiences in Tampa, first with a good indoor surfing, where I almost broke my neck twice. You can check out the video below.

Following my preparation for my speech, the last day before the event, we went to Busch Gardens where we rode some crazy roller coasters. It was very refreshing for my mind. After that, back to the hotel we had a nice time at the pool chatting with Grant Colorburned Friedman. The day ended in a beautiful restaurant with all the speakers together.

Some of the Rides

Myself (@abduzeedo), Grant Friedman (@colorburned), Dan Denney (@webdesignfanboy), Chris Coyer (@chriscoyer), Jonathan Longnecker (@necker47), and John Ashenden (@ashenden) after the speaker's dinner on Thursday night.

The event was fantastic, I was the first one to speak. My speech was about Abduzeedo and the lessons I have learned from it in finding and selecting the right type of inspiration for my work and some of my influences. You can check out the slides below.

Design Inpiration - Fabio Sasso - Front End Conference 2009 from Nate Croft on Vimeo.

All the speakers rocked, Grant Friedman (http://www.colorburned.com/) showed us how to create brushes and design resources, amazing technique. After the lunch break we had Jonathan Longnecker (http://www.fortysevenmedia.com/) talking about Expression Engine and how it is really good for designers. Chris Coyer was the next and made as laugh with his keynote transitions, but of course showed us his mastery when it comes to CSS and jQuery. Andrew talking about usability and how important it is to follow patterns and keep it simple and usable. Following Andrew Maier (http://www.hashrocket.com/), John Ashenden (http://www.grooveshark.com/) talked about Design Techniques to make a killer app. To wrap up the night Kevin Hale (http://www.wufoo.com/) delivered a fantastic speech about how to design web apps people love. For the slides visit http://www.frontenddesignconference.com/

The event ended at the after party having fun and talking with such incredible guys.

Some Photos

About the author

Abduzeedo is a blog about design. There are all sorts of articles for those who want to look for inspiration. Also you will find very useful tutorials for the most used applications out there, with a special selection of Photoshop Tutorials and Illustrator Tutorials. You can get in follow us via Twitter at @abduzeedo

Sponsored Links:

Summertime on the Road #1

amanda — Sun, 05 Jul 2009 16:24:33 +0000

Summer is upon us and there’s nothing like a road trip to kick start the season. As many of you may already know, I am Amanda, abduzeedo’s cousin. I live in Raleigh, North Carolina and for the past two years my cousin has been staying here with me during the summers.

Last year we ventured to the great city of Chicago, but this year we had so much more on our agenda. Fabio arrived June 8th, and as the morning of June 9th neared, we took off. We visited our nation’s capital, the city of brotherly love, and the big apple – Washington D.C., Philadelphia, and New York City. During our stay in New York, we had the pleasure of meeting fellow designer Grant Friedman, most commonly known as Mr. Colorburned, and we also hit up the streets of Brooklyn with BK native himself, Tarek Ahmed, or Mr. Joomp.

Mr. Colorburned and Abduzeedo

Mr. Joomp and Abduzeedo

We are now back in Raleigh but you can rest assured we’re not done yet. The summer has just begun and we have a lot of ground left to cover! Next on the agenda is a quick jump to St. Petersburg, Florida. Fabio will be speaking at the Front-End Design Conference on July 31st, and I, of course, will be going with for moral support… and so he won’t have to ride the roller coasters at Busch Gardens alone ;) There is still time to buy tickets and trust me when I say that this isn’t something you’d want to miss out on… a little birdie told me there will be some abduzeedo freebies given out during the conference ;)

Tickets can be purchased here: http://frontenddesignconference.com/I’m looking forward to meeting lots of designers and Abduzeedo readers so I hope to see you all out there!

Some Photos from our summer so far...

About the author

Amanda Macedo is a designer and blogger by passion and profession. Living and working out of her backpack, she can now be found in San Francisco, CA, biking, writing, dancing, and tweeting .

Sponsored Links:

Getting Ready for the Front-End Design Conference

abduzeedo — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 12:54:11 +0000

It’s been two weeks since I arrived in the US where I will stay until August. I’m still getting used to my new routine but it’s been great, I’ve already visited New York where I met Grant Friedman from Colorburned, very cool guy by the way. Also I visited Washington D.C and Philadelphia. Now I’m in Raleigh, NC, and I’d love to meet up with some local designers ;)

Grant Friedman and I in NYC

The main reason I came to the US however is that I was invited to speak at the Front-end Design Conference that will take place in Tampa on July 31st. I will be talking about Abduzeedo, Design Inspiration, my influences and a bit of my design process.

Single-Day Web Design Conference
The Front-End Design Conference will be a single-day event featuring presentations that cover details of the web design process. The discussions will begin with inspiration, progress into creating and managing content, discuss usability theory, teach how to put on the finishing details and introduce attendees to designing web apps. The presentations will be performed by industry leaders and the day will feature licensed product giveaways from our generous sponsors.

I’m very excited not only because I will be speaking but also because of the other speakers, guys that I’ve been following and admiring for quite a long time.

Check out the speakers and what they will be talking about:

Andrew Maier of UXBooth and Hashrocket

Andrew is a professional front-end developer with interests in interface engineering, usability, and human-computer interaction. He has worked both independently as a freelancer/entrepreneur and as a member of highly focused teams. When he's not blogging about user experience at uxbooth.com, he can usually be found at the local independent coffee shop, reading books on the subject and sippin' the good stuff.

Affordances in Modern Web Design

Andrew Maier will be covering the "action possibilities" in the web environment that are objectively measurable and independent of the individual's ability to recognize them.

Chris Coyier of CSS-Tricks

Chris Coyier is a mild-mannered web designer by day. Long hours of helping clients with their website needs keeps lots of ideas flowing for CSS-Tricks, his web design blog and community site. In addition to client work, Chris has built a number of other sites aimed at aiding the web design and developer.

Using jQuery to Pick Up Where CSS Leaves Off

If you are already fairly comfortable with HTML and CSS the learning curve for getting into jQuery is deliciously small. That's a great thing, because jQuery extends your toolbox as a designer and makes some amazing things possible. In this presentation you'll learn how to accomplish things that CSS is notoriously bad at, do things that CSS just can't do, and see a variety of practical solutions to real-world design problems.

Grant Friedman of Colorburned

Grant Friedman is a design enthusiast, author and blogger with a wide range of experience in the design industry. His work has been featured in many popular websites and publications. Grant has a degree in Telecommunications from the University of Kentucky with a background in graphic and web design, advertising and communications.

Techniques for Creating and Using Design Resources

In this presentation you will learn how to create your own Photoshop/Illustrator brushes and patterns. You will then learn how to combine those resources with textures to create your own unique design.

Jonathan Longnecker of FortySeven Media

Jonathan Longnecker has been living and breathing design since he graduated back in 2001. Well, actually before that but he didn't know it yet. He and Nate were rocking out in their band and needed a website and some t-shirts. Cue the "ah-ha!" moment. Yeah, he started then and hasn't stopped yet.

Why ExpressionEngine is Great for Designers

If you're a designer who wants to create awesome websites without worrying about the restrictions of layouts, functionality and templates, then you should give ExpressionEngine a try. It's the most flexible publishing system you'll ever use, and it puts the visual and code power back in your hands. Join us as we take a look at how you can get up and running with ExpressionEngine.

John Ashenden of Grooveshark and JohnwithanH

John Ashenden bathes daily in a pool of creativity. Living in Gainesville, FL, he is, among other things, an experienced web designer and developer. John's work has been featured in a number of distinguished periodicals and design showcases. His day's are currently spent as Creative Director for Grooveshark, a free-music streaming service, which has quickly become one of the world's leading resources for free and on-Demand music.

Customizing Elements for Maximum Effect

John Ashenden will be showing how to "make it better"! Design is in the details and this presentation will show how to use customized elements to capture the attention of your visitors and maximize their experience.

Kevin Hale of Wufoo

Kevin Hale is the Co-founder of Infinity Box Inc, a Y Combinator seeded company. He is responsible for safe guarding and designing the user experience of their online HTML form builder, Wufoo. Kevin writes about interface design issues for the web development blog, Particletree and served as Editor-in-Chief of the web development magazine, Treehouse. As a child, Kevin was the kid in class who who ate a box of crayons for a dollar.

How to Design Web Apps People Love

As part of the Wufoo team, Kevin Hale is no stranger to creating wonderful web apps. In his presentation, Kevin will be showing how to focus on user interaction in order to create an experience that users will love.

For more information visit http://frontenddesignconference.com/

So, register now and you will get a really nice discount.

About the author

Sponsored Links:

Back from Vacations

abduzeedo — Sun, 10 Aug 2008 21:42:01 +0000

After almost two months of vacation, I'm back. Even though I was away I still kept working on personal and even some professional projects and blogging when I had free time.

These two months were incredible. I have to thank everybody who received me: Patricia and Amanda in North Carolina, Terry in NYC, and Chris and all CSNGlobal team in Jupiter, Florida. Also I had the opportunity to meet some friends and readers such as Tarek from Joomp, Andrea Martins, Francisco Gutierrez, Elena, Chris, Jeff...

Aside from all of that, I had a tutorial published in Digital Arts Magazine for their July issue, the Creating Fireballs and Explosions in Photoshop and I did my first magazine cover for a Brazilian magazine called Super Interessante. They saw one of Abduzeedo's tutorials and wanted to use it for the cover. Sweet :)

Anyway, I'm back now and I will try to keep up with the Photoshop tutorials, some new features for the blog and the Abduzeedo’s t-shirts from Spreadshirt.com. I'm really sorry if some of your emails went unanswered or if I took a while to respond.

About the author

Sponsored Links:

Lost in Chicago eating Chicago-style pizza

abduzeedo — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 21:17:34 +0000

Last Sunday I arrived in Chicago and had the opportunity to visit one of the coolest cities I’ve ever been to. It was a very short trip, only 2 days, and I will definitely go back to Chicago again in the future; hopefully the near one

Walking around Chicago was great: the skyscrapers and all the history behind them and their architects such as the well known Mies van der Rohe. Also some famous movies shot there like: Batman Begins, The Dark Night, The Blues Brothers, Road to Perdition and the Ferris Bueller's Day Off historic parade scene.

The first skyscraper was the ten-storey Home Insurance Building in Chicago, built in 1884–1885. While its height is not considered unusual or very impressive today, the architect, Major William Le Baron Jenney, created the first load-bearing structural frame. In this building, a steel frame supported the entire weight of the walls, instead of load-bearing walls carrying the weight of the building, which was the usual method. This development led to the "Chicago skeleton" form of construction. After Jenney's accomplishment the sky was truly the limit as far as building was concerned. Wikipedia

In 1885, the first steel-framed high-rise building rose in Chicago ushering in the skyscraper era.[18] Today, Chicago's skyline is among the world's tallest.[19] Downtown's historic buildings include the Chicago Board of Trade Building in the Loop, with others along the lakefront and the Chicago River. Once first on the list of largest buildings in the world and still listed thirteenth, the Merchandise Mart stands near the junction of the north and south river branches. Presently the three tallest in the city are the Sears Tower, the Aon Center (previously the Standard Oil Building), and the John Hancock Center. Wikipedia

Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, along with Walter Gropius and Le Corbusier, is widely regarded as one of the pioneering masters of modern architecture. Mies, like many of his post World War I contemporaries, sought to establish a new architectural style that could represent modern times just as Classical and Gothic did for their own eras. He created an influential 20th century architectural style, stated with extreme clarity and simplicity. His mature buildings made use of modern materials such as industrial steel and plate glass to define interior spaces. He strived towards an architecture with a minimal framework of structural order balanced against the implied freedom of free-flowing open space. He called his buildings "skin and bones" architecture. He sought a rational approach that would guide the creative process of architectural design, and is known for his use of the aphorisms "less is more" and "God is in the details". Wikipedia

I really enjoyed my time in Chicago and if you ever get a chance to visit this great city, I highly recommend you go. Meanwhile I'll leave you with some photos I took.

About the author

Sponsored Links:

Lost in NYC, meetup?

abduzeedo — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 02:17:11 +0000

After 2 excellent weeks in North Carolina, I’ve arrived in New York. It's the 4th time I've been here and it’s still awesome. Lots of people, I’m always walking around, most of the time lost, but it’s really cool. This time I’m staying with my aunt Terry in her super cool apartment. Thanks for having me.

I had the chance to meet an old friend that I’ve been talking to him via AIM for almost 2 years. Also tomorrow I will go to a place called Barcade, in Brooklyn, where I will meet two other readers and it would be awesome a meet up with more people. So if you are from NY and you like design, join us. We will get there 6:30pm ;)

Below there's more information, that Francisco sent me, about how to get there.

For all of those in NYC. Sorry this is short notice but we're meeting up at Barcade Thursday July 10th around 6:30pm. Figure it was a fitting place to meet. Hope you can make it!

Here's how to get there.

Barcade - www.barcadebrooklyn.com/

388 Union Ave.

You take the L train to Brooklyn and get out at the Lorimer Stop.
Exit the train station at the Union & Metropolitan exit. (when you step off the train go to your right)
Go to the street and walk south on Union Ave and look for the address 388 Union Ave. You can't miss, it's on your left.

Here's a Google Maps link:

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=388+Union+Ave+Brooklyn+...

Some pictures

About the author

Sponsored Links:

The World in Panoramic

PauloGabriel — Fri, 25 Jan 2008 17:33:04 +0000

Are looking for vacation spots and just wish you could actually visit the place before you went buying your trip package? Well, there's the just the right place for you to do that: ViewAt.org

It's a cool project... it's integrated to Google Earth and Google Maps. It´s a free service and everyone can upload their panoramas to show any place that they wish to.

The rapid advance of Internet related technologies allows the use of more and more sophisticated tools. While this provides many advantages, it also means that surfers are put off by the sheer speed of these changes. This is why we are so excited at having set up viewAt.org, because we think we can avail this technology to all those who are interested in showing their panoramic works in a spectacular way and at the same time, reach a maximum number of netheads. From ViewAt.org

I really recommend everyone to pay a little visit to these guys. It's an awesome site. And if you know a cool website worth showing to the world, you may email us sending links. We will analize it and we may publish it here!

Author: Paulo Antunes | If you want to write an article and have it published here send it via email to abduzeedo[at]abduzeedo.com

viewat01.jpg

About the author

Hello, everyone! I'm Paulo Gabriel, designer from Porto Alegre, Brazil, born in 1984. I have worked as a webdesigner since 2006, but websites and blogs have been a hobby for me since 1999. Here in Abduzeedo, I try to bring only the hot stuff for you... and hope that all of you enjoy my posts! For more cool stuff, you may also follow me on Twitter.

Sponsored Links:

Back from TrimarchiDG

abduzeedo — Wed, 24 Oct 2007 22:59:33 +0000

The TrimarchiDg is over and I’m back to my routine. The trip to Argentina was really good, I have been to Buenos Aires two years ago and going back there was a pleasant opportunity. Mar del Plata, where the event took place, is very beautiful too, and with all of of designers hanging out on the streets, turned the atmosphere even more vibrant.

There were tons of things to see and listen to and I was really impressed with some works I saw there. However the speech that I was really excited about turned out to be the least cool of them all. The Buro Destruct’s keynote was, I have to say, frustrating. It looked like everything went wrong, from their entrance to the stage, having computer problems, and even the presentation itself. Nevertheless they are still some of the best and most innovative graphic designers out there.

Anyway, I’d like to thank everybody for posting comments and sending me emails. I’ve been trying to answer all of them. I’d like to thank Collis Ta'eed for inviting me to write some tutorials for the PSDtuts.com website, I’m really flattered with this invitation and I will be writing tutorials there too. Also some of my tutorials are being translated to french by Stéphanie Guillaume at photoshopmagazine.com, what makes even happier.

Below some pics from Argentina:

About the author

Sponsored Links:

One week in South Africa

abduzeedo — Tue, 18 Sep 2007 19:13:04 +0000

Yeah, I got this opportunity and here I am in South Africa, precisely in Cape Town where I will stay for more 4 days. After that I will go to Johannesburg and back to Brazil.

Cape Town is really beautiful, I have already visited some of the most famous turistic spots like Cape Point, Table Mountain, Waterfront and a lot of other places in downtown. Tomorrow I will go for a safari, but I will still keep wearing my Firefox t-shirt. However I have to say, Cape Point (Cape of Good Hope) and The Table Mountain have already payed my trip to South Africa, amazing views.

The Cape of Good Hope (Afrikaans: Kaap die Goeie Hoop, Dutch: Kaap de Goede Hoop, Portuguese: Cabo da Boa Esperança) is a rocky headland on the Atlantic coast of South Africa. .... it is at the Cape of Good Hope that the persistent southerly extension of the African coast relents for the first time anywhere south of the equator and so the rounding of the Cape of Good Hope in 1498 was a major psychological and geographic milestone in the attempts by the Portuguese to establish a sea route to the Far East.

The Cape of Good Hope is the legendary home of The Flying Dutchman. Crewed by tormented and damned ghostly sailors, it is doomed forever to beat its way through the adjacent waters without ever succeeding in rounding the headland.

I will try to update the blog daily as I found an open wifi here. Otherwise I won´t pay because I cannot afford to pay the hotel´s 10 dollars for 20 minutes of access.

Baie dankie (Thank you very much in Afrikaans)

Cape of Good Hope

Table Mountain

My parents and our Jumbo jet

About the author

Sponsored Links:

Everything that has a beginning has an end

abduzeedo — Mon, 14 May 2007 11:58:31 +0000

After a month visiting a lot of countries, very different cultures, so many beautiful places, our trip has its end.

The last week we visited Paris and London. and unfortunately that was our first week with a terrible weather.

In Paris we spent 4 nights. As we were running out of money we chose the cheapest neighborhood in town to stay, close to the train station. That was our mistake. Our hotel was really bad, the breakfast was so cheap, we didn’t have internet connection and we had to walk a lot to get to the famous spots. However we visited all famous places in Paris, besides that, we visited the Louvre museum for free because in Paris every first Sunday of the month some museums are free.

London was our last destination, we got an easyJet flight to the Luton airport. From there we took a easyBus and we are in London. That was my third time there and for me London is really cool, we stayed in a hotel almost in front of the Hyde Park. Again we walked a lot, drank some pints and really had fun there.

I have to say, traveling is really great it really broadens our minds. I wish I can keep traveling at least once a year. But now it’s time to get back to reality and pay all the bill that will come in my credit card.

About the author

Sponsored Links:

Great time in Prague

abduzeedo — Thu, 03 May 2007 17:03:27 +0000

Another week has gone and I must say, it was the best week of them all. After Venice we spent the night on the train and wisely we chose Couchette instead of seat, that means, we slept pretty much well. Arriving in Vienna we walked around the city, very beautiful and organized. We visited all the major touristic spots, took some pics and went back to the trains station, the next stop Prague.

Everybody always told us that Prague is one of the most beautiful cities in Europe, that you must visit it, and so on. So, we went to Prague. We arrived there almost at night. The train station, our first impression, wasn't exactly what we were expecting. it was really dirty, old and ugly. Everything was closed and we didn't have information centers to go. So, as we had met some brazilians on the train, we decided to follow them to their hostel. When we got there the place was full and the guy there said that in that area all places were full. We didn't believe in him, but he was right. We spent some hours trying to find a place and all hotels and hostes in the city were full. Well to summarize that night, we got drunk and slept on a sofa in the bar of the hostel. However we met some really cool people from australia, brazil, england...

After that night we found a beautiful pension, right in the middle of the old town. And we have to say, Prague is indeed a beautiful city.

Prague, the Charles Bridge

After 2 nights there, we spent another night on the train crossing Germany, going to Amsterdam.

Amsterdam is everything we expected, that means cool. We visited the red light district, the Van Gogh Museum, all that tourist thing. And off course the coffee shops, well that is another story.... After 2 nights there we had to leave.

Amsterdam, Dam Square

Now we're in Brussels, Belgium and we're going to Paris tomorrow morning. This will be our last week here in Europe.

Peeing Boy of Brussels

About the author

Sponsored Links:

Vacations

abduzeedo — Fri, 20 Apr 2007 10:05:39 +0000

It´s been more than a week without posting anything, that´s because I´m on vacations. I´ve already visited some cool places like Lisbon, Madrid and Barcelona. Now we´re going to Nice in France and after that Italy, Prague, Vien and lots of places...

Thanks for the comments about the tutorials and the new design. I´m really glad that a lot of people liked them, even though I know that some said that the tutorials are hard to follow and I missed important steps.

Now about the trip:

Lisbon is pretty cool, very similar to Brazil and my city, we visited the turistics sites, ate an amazing codfish prepared by a portuguese laid friend of my friend that is living in Portugal. We spent 2 days there then we headed to Madrid, Spain, by train.

Madrid: After a night on a train we got in Madrid. It sounds like repetitive but the city is really cool, lots of hostals, and pubs, and things to see.

Barcelona: Very crowded, it´s not my style but a cool place, we walked like animals lol. We went to all of the most turitic places walking, including the Barcelona soccer stadium to the Park Guell and la Sagrada Familia.

All photos are in my flickr.