FRESH01

The long awaited WordPress 2.5 has been available for a month or so now. I took the risk and updated this blog as soon as they released it. Overall I am very impressed, I think the new design looks, feels and works great. I have however encountered two small issues that can be a problem for both designers and bloggers. I am sure these issues will be resolved in future versions (I’m currently running on WordPress 2.5.1), but until then I’ll point out what the problems are, as well as give you quick work-arounds for them. Continue reading…

Designing websites on a grid is a great way to structure information. I have been aware of grids for a while, but only recently started to use them in my designs.

Grids basically consist of two parts, namely columns and gutters (the space between the columns). These can be any size and will often differ based on the overall width of the design and content you need to include in the design. Grids can be created to accomodate certain ad-sizes.

I have designed a web design template with a grid for Photoshop. The columns for the grid are 70px wide with gutters of 10px. This template works great for most designs and can be used for various total widths.

Download grid-based web design template .psd here

Advertisements are a big part of the internet today. You see them on most websites, and lately they have become very popular on blogs as people start to monetize them. They are great for marketing your blog/website/product/service and can provide a steady passive income stream if done right.

Internet ads come in various sizes. The Internet Advertising Burea provides a guideline of standard ad sizes. These guidelines are very handy when designing websites with adspace. Adhering to these standards ensures that you provide ad space for the widest audience possible (if you audience design ads to these standards!). These standards are meant to simplify things, just imagine the chaos if anyone could design an ad in any size…

My only problem with the IAB guidelines are that they do not offer a visual example of the ad. So I created a Photohops .PSD file with all the sizes. This way, when I design a site that needs to accomodate ads, I simply open the psd and drag them onto my photoshop design. This way I alway have a good idea of where I can put the ads. You can download the jpeg on the left, or the psd below.

Download photoshop .PSD.

So there you go. I hope this resource is helpful to you, I certainly find it so. I am in the progress of creating a similar guideline for Google AdSense sizes, so be on the lookout for that.

WordPress 2.3.2 was released recently and after upgrading FRESH01 I decided to write a post on how to upgrade WordPress.

I feel it is important to always keep your WordPress blog up to date with the most recent version of the software. Not only do the updates include crucial security and other bug fixes, it also ensures that your blog will be compatible with all the newest plugins and themes. Continue reading…

I’m in the process of building a WordPress website for a client. It is not a blog though, it is a content manageable website. WordPress is really flexible and I have been suprised at how easy it is to use it as a CMS. And the great thing is that if there is anything WordPress cannot do, then there is almost certainly a plugin out there that solves the problem.

Today, while working on said website, I came across two obsticles. Firstly I wanted to display a post from a certain category on a page with a custom WordPress template file (and the standard WordPress loop did not work for this task). Secondly, the WordPress searchform only searches posts, and I needed it to search pages too. Continue reading…

Things have been pretty quiet around here due to the recent holidays and getting back into work mode thereafter. So, to get things moving again, I thought I would share a few of my favorite Firefox add-ons.

Firstly, for those who don’t know what Firefox is, it is a free web browser. It is a great (and in my opinion way better, but let’s not go there…) alternative to Internet Explorer, Safari, Opera, etc. The great thing about Firefox is that it allows you to install third party add-ons that enhance the features of Firefox. There are thousands to choose from on their website. Continue reading…

It has been more than a month since I’ve launched my blog and I only have one post. I should be ashamed.  Well, perhaps not…

I can honestly say that my first month as a freelance web designer has been quite busy. First of all I have completed my diploma in Web Design and Development after two years and I am more than excited to be finished studying! Graduation is on the 5th of December, so after that I will be fully qualified (and hopefully never have to sit in a class room again!).

In between all of this I sold my first copy of my Slick WordPress theme, completed the front-end of a small e-commerce site and I have two other WordPress projects I am working on. I have also updated this site a bit, adding the Services and Payments pages.

There are a couple of free WordPress themes  in the pipeline which I plan on releasing by the end of next week, so keep checking back for those.

Well, that’s it for now, just wanted to give an update of how things are going.  Be sure to come around often, as I am going to do my best to post atleast three articles each week…

Welcome to my blog. This is my first official post and I must say I am quite excited. This won’t be a long one, a quick introduction of who I am and what I do aswell as what I wish to achieve with this website.

My name is Cobus Bester, a web design and development student living and studying in South Africa. I have been studying for three years, the first of which I completed a Desktop Publishing certificate. From there I went on to web design/development and I am now in my second and final year.

I decided to start this blog/portfolio site to market myself as a freelance web designer specialising in Design, (X)HTML, CSS and WordPress themes. The site is not 100% complete yet, but it is fully functional. The Portfolio and Contact pages still need some work and a Services page must also be added. I hope to have these updates finished early next week.

That’s it for now. Thank you and I hope you enjoy your visit!