Archive for August, 2009

Last night I spoke briefly about publishing a mini series of blog posts focusing on Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) throughout the month of September. In that post, I mentioned that I would initially be looking to publish four or five posts during the next month.

My idea for the mini series was simple, at the start of the series I would offer a general introduction into the world of CSS. How to go about setting everything, some very basic styling, correct use of selectors and as the mini series progressed we would find ourselves delving deeper into everything that CSS offers. Then by the time the final post rolls, we’ll get stuck into the juicy stuff, the breathtaking and incredible techniques that CSS3 offers. Techniques such as techniques such as RGBa and -webkit-transitions and good old border-radius.

Since writing my previous post I’ve decided that I’m going to be taking this idea one step further. A few months ago I was able to secure the domain http://simplecss.co.uk and my ideas was, as you might be able to guess, to offer a central resource for all your CSS needs.

You might be wondering ‘do we really need another site dedicated to this’ but the truth is this site isn’t for anyone other than myself. So why build it? How many times have you seen a great CSS technique that you have ended up bookmarking on your computer or on a network like Delicious only to not be able to find said link at a later date? I know this has happened to me several times and this is the driving force behind creating the simplecss site. If people find it useful and subscribe or contribute then that’s great. If more people get involved then I might be persuaded not to be so self centered with this project.

I’ll be looking to get this site live around early November, so for now you will all have to make do with a series of cracking CSS articles. If you have anything in particular that you would like me to cover in this up and coming series then please feel free to leave a message in the comment form and I’ll make sure that I cover it in one of the posts.

Another Blog Design

Welcome to the new look jackosborne.co.uk. As you can see the appearance of the site has shifted considerably from it’s usual all white design to something that has a little more colour.

During my last post I highlighted that I was changing the way that this site works, instead of it being multi functional I decided to change it solely to that of a blog where I would be able to focus on my writing. As you can see, I’ve decided to get rid of my portfolio and about pages, these will feature in my other website which I will have more news on soon. Under the hood everything is still powered by wordpress as I believe that it is the best platform on which to run a blog. I’m still going down the HTML 5 route and I’ve also added dashes of wai-aria and microformats

The last time I redesigned the blog, in May, I decided to write a blog post detailing my journey with HTML 5 highlighting how certain sections of the site were created and areas I had trouble with. To date, that post has recieved the most views in this sites history, so as a result I think I will do more of the same again.

With this new site now up and running I am announcing that throughout the month of September I will be writing a series of articles decided to CSS, hopefully these will drum up some interest within the community and get some more traffic over here. I think I’ll aim for around four or five to begin with but ultimately I’ll need to see how I get on, hopefully I will have set myself an achievable target.

The reason I’ve decided to focus on CSS for my first mini series is because that is where my passion for web design lies. Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) are the reason I’m even in a job. It may sound daft, but when I attending my first day of college and created the Hello World! page I knew this was the career for me. Initially when I set out my ideas for this website, I had a section decided entirely to CSS tip bits, everytime I learned a new piece of code I added it to my online library.

For the mini series I might start the first article off with an introduction to the basic elements and then as I progress I’ll ramp things up and focus on the newer techniques available within CSS3 such as border radius and -webkit-tranisitions.

As usual feel free to leave your comments below, I’d love to hear your thoughts on the new look but please note that this site is still very much finding it’s feet since the relaunch. If you find any problem areas don’t be shy, point them out.