Kevin Zak

It seems as though I have been neglecting this place a little too much. Two weeks without a blog entry is unacceptable, especially when you consider that I set a goal of two posts per week. That said, I have been busy with work and school, so I haven’t just been playing my FPS game of choice (America’s Army). I will attempt to make up for my absence by detailing the events that caused it.

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No, I’m not switching keyboard formats. Recently I’ve been doing a lot of research concerning typography and its uses when applied to the web. It is an interesting look at how type should be displayed and formatted in terms of web design. Unlike most web-oriented learning adventures I partake in (I am notorious for learning the basics of a coding language and then getting bored with), I am actually intrigued by typography and find myself wishing to learn more of the concepts behind it.
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Recently I have been working on a very minimalistic design for a family friend that requested I make a website for her husband’s business. I started work on one last week and even half-finished I believe it is probably my best work. They recently backed out of the job, saying they’d need a little more time before they would have the information that I would require ready and usable. So I decided to use my design for this site, instead. It is very simple, but I’m fond of what I have done so far, something that has never happened to me before now; I always hate my own work. I think the key was that I designed it initially for someone else. Anything I’ve designed for this blog thus far has been with the blog in mind and I’ve always disliked the final result, and thus decided not to use it.

The theme concentrates on simplicity and typography more than being graphically “enhanced” and fancy. I think that it will be classy and dignified, yet still maintain the atmosphere of this site: a blog that no one reads by a guy who has no desire to be read. I am pretty excited about it so far, but I’m having a bit of designer’s block (if that exists, that is; I initially wrote that as “writer’s block” but thought that this made more sense). The header isn’t coming around as quickly as I would like, but I have a few good ideas for the lower region of the design including the footer.

I will try to keep you updated. As of right now, it is merely a Photoshop design. I want to make sure that I like it before I put effort into coding it. I’m not sure how long it will take to finish, but I will be disappointed if it is not done by the middle of next month at the latest.

The theme I’m currently using, Simpla, is great and I adore it. However, it is not my own creation and thus I feel like a personal blog should have a personal design.

Recently a good friend of mine, Kyle Meyer, created a new website with a unique premise. Kyle is a user interface designer at Clockwork Active Media Systems in Minneapolis, Minnesota. He is also the author of Astheria, a blog focusing on design, but specifically the usability and typography of design, which (in my opinion) happens to be his forte. This new site would focus on reviewing sites across the web that exceed in just that forte, typography and usability. He spoke of his ideas to create such a site to me previously, but it just recently became a reality.
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