AJDF Web Designer Home Page

AJDF's blog – notes, tutorials and musings on web design and related areas…

Signs you have ‘Facebook-itis’

Written by ajdf on May 14th, 2012 8:24 pm Comment
Posted in Uncategorized

1. You no longer enjoy moments as they are happening, but instead enjoy the fact that you will be able to gloat about how great this moment was via a Facebook status. You gain more satisfaction and pleasure from the ‘Likes’ and comments received on this post than the moment itself. 2. You are no [...]

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InDesign: Make Master Page layout changes affect all existing text-fields

Written by ajdf on January 2nd, 2012 1:12 am 3 Comments
Posted in Uncategorized

You must master master pages

I am currently doing a 350 page book typesetting and layout project. Although I have done this before, I tend to not use In Design for long periods of time between each project and then forget some very important features. These features become extremely important for dealing with long documents. I am going to write [...]

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What I thought of computers: then… and now

Written by ajdf on November 26th, 2011 3:08 pm Comment
Posted in Personal Observations

What I think about computers... illustration

This morning I was listening to music on SoundCloud ( I love that site )… and reading some news. It suddenly struck me just how much computers have become a part of my life and inspired me to make this little diagram about how much my thoughts on computers have changed since those early days. [...]

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This is my web design process

Written by ajdf on November 21st, 2011 2:27 pm Comment
Posted in General Design, Personal Observations

Illustration showing a slightly tongue-in-cheek version of a client meeting

After years of practice I have honed my process to one which seems to work well. This is because it ensures clear communications with the client and reduces the risk of going down the wrong roads by involving them in the process. This process does vary from project to project but this is certainly a [...]

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UX Design vs UI Design – What is it all about?

Written by ajdf on November 5th, 2011 2:10 pm 1 Comment
Posted in General Design, Web Design

UX

You see the terms ‘UX Design / UI Design’ dropped around the web design universe like they are some kind of mysteriously interdependent dual-pronged torpedo in the armour of every web project team. UX Design means ‘User eXperience Design’ and UI Design means ‘User Interface Design’. That’s the easy bit. You could be forgiven for [...]

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Clipper Tea packaging: Inspiring Stuff…

Written by ajdf on October 11th, 2011 8:37 pm 5 Comments
Posted in General Design, Personal Observations

Clipper Chai Tea packaging (personal photo)...

Sometimes a magic thing happens… there is a healthy fusion between design, product, art and consumerism. Clipper’s products tick those boxes for me. I am absolutely inspired by their packaging design and the way it makes me feel pleased to buy their products. I have admired Clipper packaging since I first noticed them in the [...]

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10 Super Useful Photoshop Shortcuts

Written by ajdf on August 29th, 2011 7:54 pm 3 Comments
Posted in Techniques

Image showing that Alt on PC = Option on Mac and CTRL on PC = Command on Mac

Here are some of the most useful Photoshop shortcuts I have found myself using time and time again. This post will serve as a reminder to myself and hopefully might help someone else in the future too… Most shortcuts are backwards or forwards compatible, however: I am currently using Adobe Photoshop CS4 on a PC. [...]

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