CrazyWebFoo Design Blog

Create a Custom Twitter Background

Steve Waugh — Fri, 06 Aug 2010 05:54:27 +0000

Create a custom Twitter background to market your brand. Twitter is huge in terms of social networking and marketing your image to millions of people. See how these two examples stand apart from the crowd.

Example #1: http://twitter.com/stevewaugh76

Example #2: http://twitter.com/crazywebfoo

Epic 80′s Logo Design

Steve Waugh — Thu, 05 Aug 2010 17:55:40 +0000

I recently read a web article and was inspired to create this awesome Epic 80′s style logo. I grew up playing with the original Transformers so this logo was lots of fun to create! Read the entire article to see how to create one for yourself. Thanks to the guys at the Spoon Graphics Blog (http://www.blog.spoongraphics.co.uk/tutorials/recreate-the-epic-80s-metal-text-effect-in-photoshop)

WordPress 3.0: Menu Managment

Steve Waugh — Mon, 28 Jun 2010 19:59:54 +0000

WordPress 3.0 brings a cool new feature to the plate: Menu Management. Now, from within the WordPress Dashboard, administrators can create dynamic menus with images. This removes some of the burden from web designers and allows WordPress clients a certain level of autonomy while managing their blog.

Click on the image above to see an example. To add an image to a menu item just specify a class. Then, from your css file, you can include the background image. Voila!

CrazyWebFoo Design: WordPress Template

Steve Waugh — Thu, 10 Jun 2010 21:00:45 +0000

I’ve been tinkering with the idea of creating a completely original WordPress theme design for months now. So, after consulting quite a few resources on the matter, I’ve begun designing the new prototype. Here’s an image of the current Photoshop design.

Revision #1

Graphic Designs

Steve Waugh — Thu, 03 Jun 2010 03:29:13 +0000

Lately I’ve been asked to create logos for a few local bands and businesses. How exciting! I think it’s fun to explore my creative side, especially after stifling it having spent many years in corporate IT. Helping clients build their ideas and turn them into graphic and web design realities has been some of the most rewarding work I’ve done thus far in my career.

Some of these designs have been sent to productions while others continue to evolve through the design life cycle. Each logo or business card gives us an opportunity to showcase new design techniques and theories. Clients always have the final say in their designs, so in the end, if you don’t prefer a particular design that’s OK. Creative differences aside in the end we always strive to meet or exceed our clients’ expectations.

Leave your comments in the section below to give is your feedback! Let us know if you liked or disliked a particular design. We enjoy reading your thoughts.

ZenCart: eCommerce Solution (Part 2 of 5)

Steve Waugh — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 22:25:03 +0000

Once you’ve initially setup your Zen Cart installation you need to start thinking about the products you plan to sell on your website. You need to have a relationship with one or more vendors whose products you will feature and sell. You can even be your own vendor and sell unique products that you’ve designed yourself. Part 2 of this series focuses on setting up Zen Cart for product data import scripts.

I began the data import phase by searching for a Zen Cart import module. My search led me to Easy Populate, a non-commercial module to manage “CSV” data imports. This was a great discovery as the software saved me dozens of programming hours that would have been required to write and debug a custom made script. You will still need to write a script for each vendor in order to format the file exactly to the right specs. Again, this is still much simpler than connecting to multiple SQL tables with a custom script if you don’t already have something like this in your code toolbox.

So, for each vendor I create a custom PHP script to get the product and image data ready for import. The idea behind this is so that the website owners can later go in and perform these inventory updates on their own if they choose to to that route. Ultimately I plan to integrate the data import scripts seamlessly with the eCommerce site. In the end the owners or site administrators will simply need to browse to and upload the correct file and then click on the “Import” button.

Keep in mind that most vendors include product images separate from the actual product inventory. Vendors typically use the product or SKU as the name for each image. I had to request an image CD as well as FTP access in order to get all of the necessary information from each vendor. Then, I created vendor folder under the root images folder, and pointed to the correct image file location during the import.

Data imports do not require advanced knowledge or skills, however, I would not recommend this step to a casual user. You will need a firm understanding on database programming fundamentals. Also, you should be comfortable with the programming language constructs required to assemble a script file. This is a good area to spend money on professional help to ensure that the presentation of your eCommerce site products look good in your customers’ eyes.

I began the data import phase by searching for a Zen Cart import module. My search led me to Easy Populate, a non-commercial module to manage “CSV” data imports.

Thoughts on Collaboration

Steve Waugh — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 20:15:16 +0000

Today’s fast paced society delivers people the freedom and resources to consume massive amounts of information. The sheer number of people who are “plugged in” is mind boggling. Personally, I find the idea of a collective conscious most intriguing. But, just as important as online social networking is, it’s best to know, work, and network with “real” people in your industry.

I always jump at the chance to chat with other web designers or small business owners. For starters, it’s a great way to network and meet other like-minded individuals. Also, you are guaranteed to pick up new tips or techniques by watching those around you.

I also collaborate site designs, embedded YouTube style video, and community based software with companies all around the world. Web designers enjoy the luxury of working from anywhere. I chat via VoIP for next to nothing and email to correspond. It easy to spot the more reputable companies by performing a little research beforehand. Plus, with PayPal getting paid and paying others is a breeze!

That’s it my friends. If you’re a web designer feel free to contact me so we can meet for coffee. Cheers!

Add Rich Multimedia to Your Website

Steve Waugh — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 19:50:45 +0000

I’ve been approached by several clients recently who were in need of video capabilities on their respective websites. This is a great idea in terms of sales and marketing! Of course, not everyone is going to need video on their website, but if you do here are two options.

Option #1 would be to embed video manually (and moderately) on your existing site(s). Option #2 would be to install a full blown content management system (CMS) with the components necessary to own and operate your own YouTube style website. There are other factors involved too, such as your hosting provider’s server capabilities and settings, site management, marketing, and promotion.

The easiest way to accomplish your video needs is to simply embed them onto your existing website. This can be accomplished in many different ways (e.g. ) but essentially you will need to make sure your site can playback the video. Adobe Flash offers the ability to easily embed your existing movies into playable files once uploaded to your server. Most reputable web design companies will have that (or similar) software to help you with your conversion and code needs.

The previous solution is fine if you want to embed the occasional movie onto some static web pages. However, if you really want to gain a cult following, you’re going to want to go with option #2. This will allow you to do the most important thing you can for your site: produce regular content. Why? First, search engines love quality content! The more meaningful content you have online the higher up you will travel in the Google search rankings. Let that sink in. There’s more to it than that, but essentially, this tip is provided via Google’ Webmsater Tools Help page (http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/). Second, you will become to foster a sense of community as your site gains members or subscribers. This will allow you at a later point to leverage your site for profitable means, be it eCommerce, affiliate advertising, etc.

So there’s my $0.02 on adding rich multimedia to your website. Contact me or leave a comment below if you’d like to learn more adding flash animations, video, and photos to your site. We like to help!