Refreshed ∞

Posted by Chris at 4:54 PM on June 24th, 2010

If you’re reading this via RSS reader, you may want to click through instead. I’ve been really trying to focus on simplicity lately in my designs, and this version of Chris-Wallace.com is no exception. I’ve stripped out all the unneeded elements, all the distractions, and what’s left is a simple, usable website. Now, of course, it’s not perfect. I actually just transformed the previous theme from the site into the one you see here by changing the 12-column grid to a different width (from 960 to 720) and updated some typography and a simple new mark (inspired by friend Trent Walton‘s new mark and designed using my new Wacom Intuos4 pen tablet).

Simplicity in Design

One of my favorite quotes regarding simplicity in design comes from someone a heck of a lot smarter than I:

Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler.

Albert Einstein

I love that quote. When I first started designing at the ripe age of 15, I wanted to overload every page with graphical elements that “look cool.” Looking back, I did make some “cool” things, but I can’t say they were very purposeful or easy to use. Over the past few years, I’ve learned a great deal about purposeful interaction design and building websites with the user’s goals in mind, instead of my own, which are never the same. Getting back to that quote from Albert Einstein, I’ve begun to incorporate that philosophy into my work and have been extremely pleased with the results.

A Challenge to Simplify

In my quest to simplify my designs, a new desire to simplify my life has also sprung forth. A focus on God and my family is something I’ve always needed, but have told myself that it will all fall into place “in time” or “when things settle down.” One of my main goals in the coming months is to make sure I’m spending the time with my family that I want to spend with them. Less internet, less distraction, less wasting time on unimportant things. More time in prayer, more time with family, more time meeting my family’s needs (and not just financially, which has always been my focus).

What can you do to simplify?

8bit Network ∞

Posted by Chris at 11:21 PM on December 16th, 2009

I just wanted to share the new logo for one of the projects I am currently working on. Odds are if you’re in the WordPress world, you know John Saddington. He operates under @human3rror on twitter and has released a number of WordPress themes on his website. He is a great guy and I am very excited to be working with him on a very fun project. I just recently completed the logo for this super-secret project and asked John if I could share this with you all to get some feedback on it. Basically, the concept behind the logo is the idea of being recharged or refueled. I’d love to know what you think about it!

Dealing with a Design Ripoff: 5 Simple Steps ∞

Posted by Chris at 10:53 PM on October 14th, 2009

One of the cardinal sins in the design community is stealing someone’s work and calling it your own. About a month ago, a good friend notified me that his site and portfolio were completely ripped off by a guy he found on ThemeForest. The guy basically took his entire portfolio, slapped a new logo on it, and uploaded it to his domain. My friend was distraught about the whole situation and had no idea what to do. As a Christian, he wanted to help the person, and wasn’t sure what the best approach would be. Obviously, he wanted to get the stolen portfolio taken down. At the same time, he didn’t want to come off as merciless or cruel by completely embarrassing and discrediting him by blasting him throughout the halls of twitter and Facebook (which seems to be a common practice lately). This got me thinking: What’s the right way to deal with a design ripoff?

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10 Awesome Themes from the ThemeForest Redesign ∞

Posted by Chris at 10:15 AM on September 28th, 2009

You may not have noticed, but the rest of the world has. Collis Ta’eed and Envato have just completely revamped the Envato Marketplace, including ThemeForest.net. With the latest redesign, I wanted to share some awesome themes that I think really deserve a look when purchasing a new theme for your blog or a client project. These are hot, yo!

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10 Greatest WordPress Themes Ever ∞

Posted by Chris at 12:05 AM on June 29th, 2009

I love WordPress. That’s why I put together my list of the 10 greatest WordPress themes ever. I tried to avoid having too many “frameworks” and obviously excluded my own themes, Gallery, DesignFolio+, and Absynthe, which could possibly have made the list (in my dreams). Please enjoy and as always, add your own suggestions and omissions in the comments.

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A Designer’s Workspace ∞

Posted by Chris at 8:40 PM on April 7th, 2009

A workspace for a designer is a very important thing. It’s where all the magic happens. From drawing inspiration from beautiful works of digital art to pushing colorful pixels in Photoshop, this is where a designer makes their visions come to life. In my opinion, a designer’s success all starts with the perfect monitor.

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5 Keys to Being a Sexy Designer like Rogie King ∞

Posted by Chris at 10:20 AM on April 1st, 2009

If you hadn’t yet noticed, I’ve added a feedback tab to my site in an effort to gain ideas and suggestions for upcoming blog posts. If you have any ideas, feel free to pop open the suggestion tab and post a few ideas or questions you’d like to see answered. One of the questions I’ve received thus far is, “how the h do I get to be as sexy as Rogie King?” Since I am dedicated to my readers, I thought it would be good to answer this question in detail, however, I felt it was a bit off-topic for this blog. To make it interesting I changed the topic to “5 Keys to Being a Sexy Designer like Rogie King.” I hope these tips help you in your personal pursuit of design sexiness.

5. Incorporate leaves in all your designs

This may seem obvious, but any designer who knows anything understands the value of leaves in design. Rogie obviously knows what he is doing and should be commended for using leaves absolutely everywhere.

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Elsewhere on the Web: 16 Genuine, Authentic Designers on Twitter ∞

Posted by Chris at 6:55 AM on March 23rd, 2009

If it seems like I haven’t posted much recently on Designer&Developer, well, yes, that’s true. But to be fair, I have been extremely busy with some monstrous projects. Even with all those crazy projects going on, I still had some time to pull together a post for my buddy Jacob Gube of Six Revisions called “16 Genuine, Authentic Designers on Twitter.”

Now, I know what you’re all thinking, “Oh no, not another list of designers on Twitter, we’ve seen like 40 of those in the past three weeks.” Well, this one is quite different, listing 16 designers who’s updates and work I find quite interesting and worth a follow, if I do say so myself. Some of them you know, some you don’t. There were even a few designers a bit chafed they weren’t on the list, and for that, I do apologize. I wanted to keep this list brief, instead of finding 200+ designers which would be overwhelming to most people. If you haven’t already stopped by to take a gander, please do!

You can look forward to more posts of mine on Six Revisions as well. If you have any ideas or questions, don’t hesitate to hit me up.

Top 10 Designer Blogs on the Web in 2008 ∞

Posted by Chris at 6:33 AM on December 23rd, 2008

If you love to check out fancy blogs, then you will love this list of 10 top blog designs from designers! These are the cream of the crop, the creme de la creme, so take notes and enjoy.

10. Jason Santa Maria – jasonsantamaria.com

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Official Website Launch: MashedJobs ∞

Posted by Chris at 12:25 PM on December 17th, 2008

UPDATE: An RSS feed has been added to MashedJobs.com. You can subscribe to this feed here.

I’m excited to announce the launch of MashedJobs, a design and development job board aggregator. Now you can view  jobs posted recently to most of your favorite job boards, like Authentic Jobs, 37Signals, Smashing Magazine, Krop, Fresh Web Jobs, and many more. Make sure to bookmark it on delicious or take a peek.
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