I thought I would make a quick post about both my site design and where design is going in general.
When I launched my portfolio site I had the basic color scheme and layout all completed and set in stone, but I didn’t have a background image figured out. Eventually I went with a somewhat Louis Vuitton inspired. tiling, sprite design. I realized something though while I was pondering my background choice… my site design and how it functions when developed should be independent of what my background image is. I never fully embraced using .png images with alpha transparency all through-out a site. I’ve used them here for elements, but never really used them through-out a layout for things like container backgrounds.
I decided that I would get past that with this site. I had some shadows and some translucent strokes I wanted to feature, and that only good way to get that effect is with .pngs. Now all I have to do is change one file and I can give my site a face-lift. I have to say it’s pretty convenient.
Also, if you hate fudging with IE6 Png fixes and are running a site that runs on wordpress, check out this plugin that I use that helps choose which png fix will work best with your site without a lot of legwork. Big intense backgrounds have really emerged with modern design and if you really want to integrate the rest of your site with them you need to get comfortable with using pngs and should make sure your site can be read in IE6.
Tags: development, site design, transparency
