The internet holds a lot of potential for non-profits to get their message out, build an audience and raise money. Using the web to tell stories about helping people in need can be very effective for a non-profit organisation looking for new avenues to generate income and build support in other ways such as a […]

A poster campaign has recently caught my attention and I’m impressed by the impact of the message it contains. The elements that work well here can be as relevant to business.

What should all businesses do at least once, and do properly, and (like the title of this blog post suggests) designers need to do repeatedly? The answer is: Understanding the target market they’re catering to. Sure, that makes sense—but why are graphic designers any different? Why do this repeatedly? When you’re in business, you’re in the […]

Hello! I have updated this very popular post to include a free downloadable PDF of this checklist.  Preparation is key to successful management of any project, and design projects are no different. The more preparation that both client and designer do right at the start, the more smoothly the work will go. I find checklists […]

An illustration created for a Christmas message for clients of Tracey Grady Design, and for use on social media.

Today's processors contain billions of heat-generating transistors in an ever shrinking space. The power budget might go from:

• 1000 watts on a specialized server
• 100 watts on desktops
• 30 watts on laptops
• 5 watts on tablets
• 1 or 2 watts on a phone
• 100 milliwatts on an embedded system

That's

There is much I take for granted in my life, and the normal functioning of American government is one of those things. In my 46 years, I've lived under nine different presidents. The first I remember is Carter. I've voted in every presidential election since 1992, but I do not

Of the many, many, many bad things about passwords, you know what the worst is? Password rules.

If we don't solve the password problem for users in my lifetime I am gonna haunt you from beyond the grave as a ghost pic.twitter.com/Tf9EnwgoZv

— Jeff Atwood

When I wrote about The Golden Age of x86 Gaming, I implied that, in the future, it might be an interesting, albeit expensive, idea to upgrade your video card via an external Thunderbolt 3 enclosure.

I'm here to report that the future is now.

Yes, that's right, I paid $500

I sometimes get asked by regular people in the actual real world what it is that I do for a living, and here's my 15 second answer:

We built a sort of Wikipedia website for computer programmers to post questions and answers. It's called Stack Overflow.

As of last month,

When we started Discourse in 2013, our server requirements were high:

• 1GB RAM
• modern, fast dual core CPU
• speedy solid state drive with 20+ GB

I'm not talking about a cheapo shared cpanel server, either, I mean a dedicated virtual private server with those specifications.

We were OK with that,

Hard to believe that I've had the same PC case since 2011, and my last serious upgrade was in 2015. I guess that's yet another sign that the PC is over, because PC upgrades have gotten really boring. It took 5 years for me to muster up the initiative to

This post outlines the steps I took to create a block-based theme version of Twenty Twenty. Thanks to Kjell Reigstad for helping develop the theme and write this post. There’s been a lot of conversation around how theme development changes as Full Site Editing using Gutenberg becomes a reality. Block templates are an experimental feature … Continue reading "Creating a Block-based Theme Using Block Templates"

Block patterns are unique, predefined combinations of blocks you can use and tweak to create stunningly designed sections of your website.

We recently completed a full rebrand and website design project for Enterprise High School, a charter school located in Clearwater,...continue reading

In Spring 2016 after a meeting in Fort Myers, Florida, we were selected by the Judges’ group representing all County...continue reading

A startup specializing in food product development and commercialization services, “Food Launcher” is a team of food scientists with over...continue reading

Located in Downtown Fort Myers, just steps from the Caloosahatchee River and a short drive away from the Gulf coast...continue reading

We’re delighted to launch the first ever website for this local irrigation company that has been around since 1989! Automated...continue reading

PLAN is a referral network program of 250 volunteer physicians, community clinics, hospitals and other affiliated health care providers who...continue reading

We recently completed a website design and development project for Family Health Centers of Southwest Florida. This National Health Service...continue reading

We recently launched a redesigned website for Jeff Wilson Pool Service in Naples, Florida to continue to expand on their...continue reading

We’re working on redesigning the Pagebreak Podcast website and decided to get some caricatures of us made by Ricardo Gimenes.Check ’em out! We’re SO CUTE!

Earlier this week I met up for coffee with a client of mine. The two of us originally met when his employeer was my client and after leaving that job he hired me to customize his personal blog and we formed our own client/designer relationship. I was excited when he emailed me last week with the […]

Refresh Seattle – February 2014 First off, what is Refresh? According to their website… Refresh Seattle is a community of designers and developers working to refresh the creative, technical, and professional culture of New Media endeavors in the Seattle/Puget Sound area. Promoting design, technology, usability, and standards, Refresh Seattle is a part of Refresh and […]

This Friday I attended the first day of She’s Geeky here in Seattle. It was my first experience of the Unconference Format and I had no idea what to expect, but ended up having a GREAT TIME. Discussions that I joined in on throughout the day included subjects such as Impostor Syndrome, Diversity Groups, Side- […]

It says it right there in my Twitter bio, I am a Sex Geek. It’s a term that was coined and made popular by renowned sex educator Reid Mihalko and I’ve been one since before there even WAS a term for it. A Sex Geek is much like a geek of any other flavor. Geekiness […]

I have been running CMD+Shift Design since 2008. In those 7 years I learned a lot, I made a lot of mistakes, found some amazing clients, did some really fun projects and made some good money. I’ve had ups and downs and these past 2 years have been tough… really tough. Part of it has […]

This week was my second one-on-one mentorship meeting with Marie Poulin as I go into my second month of Digital Strategy School. This month is all about Positioning, a subject my business is struggling with. The copy on my site as of today is not cutting it, it is vague and does not truly convey […]

https://www.anychart.com/blog/2020/05/06/javascript-choropleth-map-tutorial/

https://css-tricks.com/making-dark-theme-switcher-with-postcss/

https://www.noupe.com/design/how-to-design-an-iconic-logo.html

https://thenextweb.com/growth-quarters/2020/05/08/should-designers-learn-how-to-code-syndication/

https://thenextweb.com/microsoft/2020/05/08/microsoft-bundled-its-beautiful-bing-wallpapers-into-a-free-android-app/

https://www.smashingmagazine.com/2020/05/vue-survey-app-firebase-authentication-database/

https://mitchum.blog/building-a-crossword-puzzle-generator-with-javascript/

https://design4users.com/neuomorphism-mobile-design/

https://blog.useberry.com/design-sprints-complete-guide/

https://hren.io/blog/stealing-best-landing-pages/

https://kottke.org/20/05/pandemic-creativity-edible-versions-of-famous-artworks

https://line25.com/wordpress-plug-ins/content-scheduling-tools-for-wordpress

https://blog.pixelic.io/pixelic-for-figma/

https://aralroca.com/blog/opencv-in-the-web

We all know about the new coronavirus that has been affecting hundreds of thousands of people worldwide. And while scientists, researchers, and doctors are all working tirelessly to find a cure for this terrible disease, one thing is for sure: staying home is saving lives. The greatest tool that we have right now to help […]

Read More at Check Out These Famous Logos Practicing Social Distancing – McDonald’s, Mercedes, and More

You know what sucks? Having to navigate through dozens of tools, all on separate dashboards, just to get one job done. Nowadays, there’s a tool for everything, and while that’s amazing, it’s very overwhelming sometimes. Oftentimes, some tools are forgotten about completely. How on earth do we tackle this situation? I mean, as time goes […]

Read More at Teamstack: Everything You Need, All in One Place

There’s nothing better than finding a new design tool that will make your life a million times easier. After all, we all want to get our work done as quickly and efficiently as possible, and if there’s a tool for that, then I want it. And I did find some tools that I absolutely love […]

Read More at 5 Incredible Free Tools For Designers That You Need To Try

If you weren’t working on a remote team before, well, chances are that you probably are now! I know that I love working from home, but when you first start working remotely, it can start as a bit of a challenge. Of course, it has its pros and cons, but it’s just a learning curve. […]

Read More at 10 Tools That Will Help Your Remote Design Team Stay On The Same Page

When you’re a freelancer and you start to work directly with your clients, there’s something crucial you need to know. Your design is not the one and only, most important aspect of the transaction. While presenting your client with an amazing design is the final goal, there are a lot of other things at stake […]

Read More at 7 Biggest Mistakes Freelance Designers Make That Will Ruin Their Career

The news is true, we completely redesigned the best blog in the world, Web Design Ledger! Okay, maybe we’re a little bit biased, but there’s no denying that the new web design layout is amazing. We are so excited to show you guys the finished product. Let me just hit you with the most satisfying […]

Read More at We Redesigned Web Design Ledger – Here’s It Is!

As a designer, we’re overloaded with choices every day, but there are some apps that are absolutely worth your time and investment. Finding the best ones and most useful ones can be a difficult task, so we’re going to make things easy for you and give you our top 10 apps and websites we couldn’t […]

Read More at 10 Websites and Apps All Designers Should Be Using