Archive for the ‘Web Design’ Category

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Syntax Highlighter is a great tool for highlighting & formatting code.

Friday, March 5th, 2010

Syntax Highligher is a Javascript code that formats and highlights code in an easy to read format. It is free and easy to install http://alexgorbatchev.com/wiki/SyntaxHighlighter.

I’m in the process of gearing up for a web design course that I’m offering to fellow graphic designers from here in Jacksonville, Florida to out in Los Angeles, Califorinia. They are looking to learn the basics of web design and I am looking to help them out. By using the syntax highlighter I’ll be able to share snippets of code with others. Stay tuned, more to come in the upcoming days.

Test of Syntax Highlighter

/**
* SyntaxHighlighter
*/
function foo()
{
if (counter & lt;= 10)
   return;
  // it works!
}

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Tips for Creating a Personal Brand.

Thursday, January 28th, 2010

JAMA Building your brand event.

JAMA, the American Marketing Association of Jacksonville had a great event in Jacksonville today about creating and managing your personal brand. JAMA puts on monthly events that are geared toward networking and developing skill sets in the marketing industry. You don’t have to be a member to go to an event but it is encouraged.

Marylin Feldstein, of Career Choices Unlimited, put on the presentation which was a refresher course on branding and focusing on one’s self image. I personally can relate to the topic, in fact it’s exactly what I am currently working on in 2010. In the past several years I focused so much on my clients and their projects and put my own personal brand on the back-burner. That’s one reason my site is still “under construction“. I have developed award winning projects but my own site does not reflect that… doh! But it’s never too late to start re-defining or re-branding yourself.

Your brand = your image + how people perceive you +  your essence

If you want Marylin’s branding tips you’ll have to track her down. Below are my thoughts.

My top 10 tips for defining your personal brand.

  1. Determine what makes you special. If you possess unique skills or charachteristics use them to your advantage.
  2. Be yourself. If you’re a little edgy that’s ok there is a market for just about all kinds of personalities.
  3. Network. Social media is great but noting is like meeting someone in person. If you build a rapport it will go noticed.
  4. Research. See what others have done that have worked… see what others have done that have failed.
  5. Develop goals towards re-branding yourself, set objectives and try to schedule a time-line. There is no rush but you’ve got to keep on it.
  6. Get feedback from multiple sources. Typically friends aren’t always the best to ask as they aren’t always objective.
  7. Get professional help. If you aren’t a marketing pro, perhaps you should consult with one before creating an identity, logo or branded messaging.
  8. Don’t be overly critical. Although your brand is extremely important, you don’t need to achieve perfection as it doesn’t really exist.
  9. Know your audience and who you’re trying to sell yourself to, you can’t please all parties. If you have fans, you’ll have haters.
  10. Continue to grow & re-evaluate where you are and push towards refining yourself to where you want to go. Defining your own brand can take quite some time and isn’t usually hit right the very first time. Ah hem…

While you’re here if you’re not a Fan of Key Theory on Facebook. Take a quick sec and check it out. http://facebook.com/keytheory

Natalie Halpern & Tom Brennemen

Natalie Halpern & Tom Brenneman

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How to Create and Manage Your Personal Brand

Thursday, January 21st, 2010

Branding yourself

JAMA Event:

How to Create and Manage Your Personal Brand

  • Jacksonville, Florida
  • Thursday, January 28
  • 7:30am – 9:00am
  • Fairfield Inn & Suites, Jacksonville Butler Blvd
  • Breakfast via Panera Bread
  • Click here to register (http://jamajan2010.eventbrite.com)

Eat, Learn and Network

Marilyn Feldstein, certified professional coach, CEO of Career Choices, Unlimited will be sharing tips on how to create and manage your personal brand.

Even if you are aware of branding sometimes it’s good to get a recharge and networking with others interested in doing the same can help your efforts.

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Jacksonville Web Video & Motion Graphics in the house.

Friday, January 8th, 2010

First Federal Moolah Checking

First Federal Moolah Checking

One of the cool things about working for an agency like On Ideas is getting to work on a variety of great projects for different clients. In the fall of 2008 On Idea’s developed an animated spot for First Federal bank. I got to work on designing and producing the project with a great team of people. We designed storyboards and executed in After Effects. We focused on creating the commercial using simple animations and visuals. The campaign had good success and On Ideas has produced several more animated spots since then.

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Jacksonville Florida Design Agencies

Friday, January 8th, 2010

Downtown Jacksonville

I’ve been in Jacksonville for since 1996, about half my life. I’ve been in the design / web world for about a decade but do not know much about all the different design agencies located in Jacksonville. I’m going to do a little homework and get to know some of the local agencies a little more and share with you what I find.

Of the top of my head before doing research these are some the agencies I can think of:

Jacksonville Advertising Agencies

  • On Ideas
  • The Dalton Agency
  • The Robin Shepard Group
  • The Montello Agency
  • Burdette Ketchum
  • Brunet Garcia
  • Saint John & Partners
  • Mary Fisher Design
  • Green House Studios
  • The Surf Project

I know a lot of different people in the industry from school at UNF and through various social function including AIGA, JAMA and other design events. It’s a small Jacksonville, but I think this will be a fun ride and educational.

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Setting goals and staying on target in 2010.

Saturday, January 2nd, 2010

Inspiration
Well Happy New Year 2010!

The year is here and it’s that time of year when people start over, get inspired and set resolutions for the new year. I tend to set my goals high and usually achieve most but not all of my goals. Some people don’t make any of theirs so I feel pretty good with my track record.

There are many different resources online that can assist planning and setting your goals. Below are a few sites I found that seem worth looking into.

Five great resources for setting goals and keeping them.

Kenny Harper’s Goals/Resolutions for 2010

Well I’m sure I’ll set more goals through out the year but I’ve set some resolutions to work towards in this new year.

  1. Continue working with my family on growing our business.
  2. Post at least one post a week on my blog. Thanks to Project52
  3. Finish re-branding KeyTheory and growing my on-line presence.
  4. Focus on quality over quantity, take on fewer projects but make ‘em count.
  5. Work on growing in back-end programming, I started as a musician, then designer, then coder, go programmer.

That’s it! So far I’m doing great, it’s only day 2 but I’ve worked on all five of my goals. Good luck with yours and Happy New Year!

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2009 year in review for Key Theory.

Sunday, December 13th, 2009

2009 has proven to be quite a good year all in all. There’s been a lot of learning and growth and a lot of opportunities and changes.

Highlights of 2009:

  • Content Management Systems for all:
    They’ve come such a long way in the last couple years. Now there isn’t many sites that I build that don’t use either Drupal or WordPress.
  • Social Media Integration:
    Twitter, Digg, Facebook, YouTube have exploded and change a way a lot of people interact and market themselves. Although Web 2.0 has been around for awhile this year it went crazy.
  • JQuery vs Flash:
    Javascript shorthand has made some really cool ways to have SEO friendly copy that can be interactive, animate and help improve a users experience.

What’s new for 2010:

  • Key Theory Redesign will launch 2010… about time.
  • New project for design community and knowledge portal.
  • YouTube channel growth.
  • Speaking events at The Art Institute of North Florida and FSJC.

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Dealing with the challenges of designing a website for yourself.

Monday, November 30th, 2009

Well the new design of the Key Theory website  is well underway. I’ve got to laugh at myself a bit for having a hack-job up on my site for a couple months now. Designing for yourself can be challenging. Why is that? You know what you like and you don’t have anyone to answer to besides yourself. Well it’s different for different people. There are actually a few designers that I know that enjoy designing for themselves. But most designers and even design shops fall into traps that we warn our own clients about.

Here are several pitfalls and ways to get around them.

  1. Not doing your homework or having a strategy.
    This is a sure fire way to fail, if you don’t know what goals you’re trying to achieve then you are most likely not going to reach them. You need to figure out the goals for your site and develop your site around those goals.
  2. Taking the cheap route
    Some people try to save money or time buy going with a plug and play template or having their friend’s son build them a web site. IF you really want to get a return on investment, make an investment. Would you want someone to put on a roof on your house for $100? Probably not that’d be scary, same is for web just because you can’t see the difference a professional can and so can your results. No need to spend top dollar but find someone with reasonable rates and be willing to make an investment into your company if you expect others to.
  3. There is no absolute perfect.
    Too many people fall for this one; trying to get everything completely perfect before moving to the next stage. Don’t get me wrong you should have the major wrinkles ironed out but no need to be perfect your site can changed. It is not set in stone. You can launch the site and continue to refine and add to it as time goes on.

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Designers in Toyland @ Artwalk in Downtown Jacksonville

Sunday, November 29th, 2009

designers-in-toyland

AIGA is hosting its first custom toy show, Designers in Toyland, at the December Art Walk, December 2 from 5-9 pm at the 229 N. Hogan Street Studio.

This should be a great event to witness and catch some of the greatest Jacksonville artists put down their mice and pic up some toys. Yes adults working with toys… but they are not adult toys… that’d be a totally different show.

This is a benefit that will be exhibiting toys designed by over 80 different artists. A portion of the proceeds from the event will be donated to The Big Fun Box.

For those who don’t know what AIGA is, it is a professional association for design. http://www.aiga.org/

Jacksonville’s Chapter http://www.aigajacksonville.org/

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Kenny Harper intros plans for Key Theory in YouTube video.

Sunday, November 1st, 2009

I did a couple rough videos for YouTube. I’m working on some producing some better quality tutorials for Social Media and SEO in the next couple weeks.

This video test outlines my plan and some of my web site portfolio work.

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