Just opened my Christmas present to myself...

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Kirstie

Kirstie

PFG, Picture Framing God
Joined
Jan 16, 2007
Posts
8,395
Loc
Berkeley, CA
CS5 Design Suite...Wahoo! Converting the web site to use Dreamweaver (from GoLive) and learning how to use these programs is one of next year's big projects along with modernization of the web site one step at a time. I hope to learn alongside Mike, my web designer. Right now with the holiday rush I am too tired to think straight, but I'm excited to finally own CS5.
 
Kirstie, I just got that too! I'm so excited! Have fun! I'll give you a call when I'm going, HUH?!
 
Welcome to the Grumble, Mark! Glad to have you on board. You're way ahead of the game doing the web site first. I'm sooooo jealous.
 
Thanks Amy, glad to be here. I've been a lurker for a while, mostly looking for some used equipment, and to learn more of the business from those more knowledgeable than myself. Seem like a group of good people that don't mind sharing.

Kirstie, you have one of the most informative sites I've seen. That's a major undertaking to revamp it. I wish you much success.
 
UPS just delivered my Christmas present to myself. A new notebook.

34-115-864-TS


http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834115864

It's primary use will be for streaming/browsing on my Samsung 55" LED TV and for browsing (disconnected from the TV) while watching TV. I got one with a dedicated graphics cards for better HDMI performance.

Right now is the cruddy part. I know that notebooks no longer come with disks. [Rant] :fire::soapbox:[/RANT] but it still p1$$es me off. I'm burning the system recovery DVDs as we speak. 4 DVDs and look like an hour or two of burning for that. And a day or two for battery conditioning so maybe I will be able to start using it on Christmas.
 
AnneL said:
Welcome Mark. Nice websites and great photography. I see we have something in common. We are both married to Master Photographers who have their CPP.
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Hi Anne,

Thanks! Wow, you're from Wisconsin. Too many really good photographers in your state, I don't think I'll ever re-locate. LOL
 
Kristie — You're going to love CS5! Like you, I recently updated from GoLive to Dreamweaver to design my current website. You might want to check out www.lynda.com — They have several online Dreamweaver tutorials that are great for learning at your own pace.

Mark — Just checked out your new framing website. Not too shabby! My only suggestion is that you remove the plagiarized text and images. I think it's fantastic that you were inspired by another framer's website. At the same time, it's highly disturbing that you would steal images and copy text word-for-word from another website. I'm sure that you want to get off on the right foot with your new framing business — Do the right thing and be more original.
 
Matt, you're right. I've been getting ideas from some of the best framing sites I could find and throwing them in to get the feel of what I wanted my design to be. I'm in the process of creating my own art and text so that when I open it will be in place.
 
Hi, Mark, and welcome to the Grumble family. Very nice work, and good-looking sites. (How do you get the pets to look so calm and poised?)
I love the statement on the framing part of the site that reads:

If you were planning to build a new home for your family, would you ask the person working in the lumber department of your local home improvement store to draw up the plans? Or, if you were sick, would you ask the checkout person at your drug store to diagnose and treat your illness? Probably not.

The same reasoning applies to your decision to use a custom framer’s services. A professional picture framer is a person who has been formally educated to know how to preserve, protect and beautify works of art, regardless of their known value.

It's a great, subtle statement about why people might want to reconsider the idea of using a BB store for their framing.

One suggestion I might make for the framing site is to increase the saturation of the color used in the logo, headings, and text so that they provide greater contrast against the background for easier readability.

Very nice work indeed.
:thumbsup: Rick
 
Cool Christmas present Kirstie...

I'm still using Adobe CS4, (mainly Photoshop and InDesign for marketing stuff)... are there any big improvements or features in CS5 over CS4 worth noting, for possible upgrade?

Markoc - Nice website structure & layout, very cool URL & good logo/brand too, but I do agree with Matt, you need to change some of your images and wording, so it can be recognised and stand on it's own, and others in our small industry don't take it the wrong way. You're definitely heading in the right direction, and I trust you will do the right thing as soon as possible.

Jared
 
Rick Granick said:
Hi, Mark, and welcome to the Grumble family. Very nice work, and good-looking sites. (How do you get the pets to look so calm and poised?)
I love the statement on the framing part of the site that reads:

If you were planning to build a new home for your family, would you ask the person working in the lumber department of your local home improvement store to draw up the plans? Or, if you were sick, would you ask the checkout person at your drug store to diagnose and treat your illness? Probably not.

The same reasoning applies to your decision to use a custom framer’s services. A professional picture framer is a person who has been formally educated to know how to preserve, protect and beautify works of art, regardless of their known value.

It's a great, subtle statement about why people might want to reconsider the idea of using a BB store for their framing.

One suggestion I might make for the framing site is to increase the saturation of the color used in the logo, headings, and text so that they provide greater contrast against the background for easier readability.

Very nice work indeed.
:thumbsup: Rick
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Hi Rick

Thanks for the welcome and compliments.

Thinking about your suggestion on the logo, etc., I might consider making the background a bit darker to offset the logo. I like the colors so I'll have to work around them.
 
Jared Davis CPF GCF said:
Markoc - Nice website structure & layout, very cool URL & good logo/brand too, but I do agree with Matt, you need to change some of your images and wording, so it can be recognised and stand on it's own, and others in our small industry don't take it the wrong way. You're definitely heading in the right direction, and I trust you will do the right thing as soon as possible.

Jared
Click to expand...

Thanks Jared. Yup, I'll be updating it really soon. I threw it together one weekend to get a feel of it, then got caught up in high school senior portrait deadlines and holidays portrait sessions. I do the websites during off times and there haven't been much of that of late. Now I'm into the build out stage of the framing store so I'll be back on the site changes in between. Everyone has been really helpful so far and I do hope I didn't offend anyone by mistake.
 
Jared Davis CPF GCF said:
Cool Christmas present Kirstie...

I'm still using Adobe CS4, (mainly Photoshop and InDesign for marketing stuff)... are there any big improvements or features in CS5 over CS4 worth noting, for possible upgrade?


Jared
Click to expand...

We have been using CS2, so I would imagine the changes will be huge. No time to even unwrap the box yet, but Mike and I did discuss priorities yesterday. Step one, move the site from GoLive to Dreamweaver. Once we have Dreamweaver under our belts, then we will take the bigger step of converting the site (some, all??) from html to CSS. This is a huge learning curve for us. PSD improvements will be the fun part.
 
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