With the new year’s upon us and resolutions being made, I have one big goal of launching my pet project website that I’ve been kicking around in my head for a few months. The first order of business to get the site going is to define my process for designing and developing it. I’ve gone over my design process for making this WordPress theme, but now I want define my process for building a site from scratch.

I’ve spend the last few weeks reading through several posts/e-books that attempt to define a proper website design process or expound on a certain step in the process. I believe that I’ve come up with a good process that can work well for individuals or for small groups building websites. I’ve also included a list of resources used to help me define my process in case you’d like to delve into the subject a bit more.

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While visiting a boutique with my wife I saw this tea from Forte and knew immediately that I had to do a post showcasing their amazing packaging design. Beautiful work in not only the package design, but the photography of their tea is stellar as well. Enjoy.

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When any device, product or gizmo gets released to the world, it is the lovechild of the designer’s initial idea and hours of refinement. The refinement may come from the device’s physical makeup, the materials used for the manufacturing or the colors used for the aesthetics. It may also come from the addition or subtraction of features. But a majority of any refinement comes from removing all of the flaws, bugs and malperformances of the device.

Removing all errors from a device is an obvious goal. Some product makers don’t always seem to take it to heart as well as others do. But I can image that even for those more failure-prone devices there was some manager during the brainstorming session discussing how this product should work, with an assumption that frequent failures for the device isn’t an option.

But have you ever noticed a device that was designed for failure. Meaning that instead of fixing the problems that occur in the device, the maker designed the device to make recovering from failure easier.

It almost seems oxymoronic to do such a thing, but I recently came a device that does just that which prompted a few thoughts.

First, I’d like to give brief definition of what designing for failure is to me. Followed by my post-inspiring story of what device I came across that was designed for failure. Then I will dissect what criteria this device follows that could make it possible for devices to also be designed for failure. Finally, I will pose a few other thoughts that came to me about this whole idea.

And here … we … go

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While working on my current blog theme I got so caught up with doing all the larger design aspects that I forgot about adding a favicon to my new theme. So often this little site element gets forgotten when it shouldn’t. It’s presence is important to help brand a site and make it recognizable when viewing lists of sites in bookmarks. So in honor of our little friend that is oft neglected, here’s a good resource for all things favicons. Finish Reading »

Here's a collection of websites that exemplify dirty, torn, distressed and grungy. This is a follow up to last week's 39 Grunge Resources Post. Finish Reading »

A collection of tutorials and resources useful when trying to accomplish the grunge, worn and dirty style of design. Finish Reading »

While watching the latest James Bond flick, the Quantum Of Solace, I couldn't help but notice the beautiful typography used throughout the film. Whenever visiting a new location in the film there would be a short intro shot showing you where the events are taking place. Enjoy. Finish Reading »

It’s been a year since I started to get more into the design aspect of computers but I’d like to share some things that frustrate me as I make this push. Finish Reading »

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While looking through the logo idea books at my local bookstore, I noticed that many of the examples come from the coffee industry. I thought it might be nice to see some of them grouped together, so get your caffeine on.

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These are just a few SEO tips I've learned while trying to become a better designer.

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