tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-128665382011-04-22T02:14:50.123+01:00Weblog of graphic designer, Alan Wall. Includes diverse subjects such as web design, graphics, culture, art, film, music, theatre, Dublin, travel, technology, t-shirt design and photography.Waltzerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14184487798086880880noreply@blogger.comBlogger451100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12866538.post-1153952938029676122006-07-26T23:26:00.000+01:002006-07-26T23:28:58.046+01:00

Hey kids, I have finally updated waltzer.net, turned it into a blog. Its a bit plain at the moment but I'll styley it up over the next few weeks I hope.waltzer.net

Waltzerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14184487798086880880noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12866538.post-1145880673274390702006-04-24T13:08:00.000+01:002006-04-25T13:51:45.616+01:00

Check out the Crazy Mix Challenge on the following page (go to ENTRE and look at the last panel)http://www.publicisnet.fr/Does it remind you of anything I did a few years ago?!http://www.waltzerdesign.com/fun09.html

Waltzerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14184487798086880880noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12866538.post-1145359101980325292006-04-18T12:14:00.000+01:002006-04-18T12:18:21.996+01:00

One thing I'll say for Internet Explorer is that the scrollbar stays put, so if you are on a short page, then click to a long page, the design doesn't jump about the page, which is what happens in Firefox.Luckily enough there is a solution: lob this into your css file:html {overflow: -moz-scrollbars-vertical;}Sorted.

Waltzerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14184487798086880880noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12866538.post-1144166298169908382006-04-04T16:45:00.000+01:002006-04-04T16:58:18.186+01:00

Brian told me about this kind of thing recently: Instead of using paint to do grafitti, this guy actually cleans the wall in the shape of text and images. Technically it's not vandalism because you are cleaning the wall/path/road but has led to a lot of legal controversy in Leeds where this guy Moose works.Aritcle on NPRMoose's website

Waltzerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14184487798086880880noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12866538.post-1142429735365126102006-03-15T13:31:00.000Z2006-03-15T13:35:35.380Z

I have just been pricing some of my film camera and darkroom equipment on eBay, turns out it's practically worthless, a combination of being old and not being digital. Kinda sad. In fact I feel very deflated. I set up a darkroom in my storage room in the apartment, at some expense, a few years back when I studied Photography at Griffith College. It served me well at the time, but I haven't used

Waltzerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14184487798086880880noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12866538.post-1131644311517794482005-11-10T17:32:00.000Z2005-11-10T17:38:31.540Z

The Irish Independent donated its entire collection of images to the National Photographic Archive last year. Now the Archive are displaying highlights of the collection as "A century of news photography: Irish Independent Centenary (1905 – 2005)". The photographs are of immense historical interest, from the destruction of O'Connell Street during the Civil War to Veronica Gueirn and beyond. If

Waltzerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14184487798086880880noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12866538.post-1131382881365855492005-11-07T16:55:00.000Z2005-11-07T17:01:21.376Z

I have been doing a bit of work in the e-learning filed again, and the age old problems have cropped up again: How do you illustrate something NOT happening? How do you portray a SERVICE or other non-pysical concept? How do you make buildings look like they are not floating in mid air? To make something NOT happen, we used to just draw it happening, and put a "NO" sign through it, like the no

Waltzerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14184487798086880880noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12866538.post-1130926908474863732005-11-02T10:20:00.000Z2005-11-02T11:27:52.020Z

Ask someone the time nowadays and more often than not, they will reach into their pocket for their phone. We have gone back to the days of pocket watches!

Waltzerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14184487798086880880noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12866538.post-1130847673628013512005-11-01T12:06:00.000Z2005-11-01T12:21:13.643Z

As companies merge and buy out each other, we lose the old diverse logos that once were rife on our streets, in favour of bland, corporate multinational logos. On 24 October 2005 Ulster Bank dropped the National Westminister Bank cheveron logo it had used since 1970, and switched to using the Royal Bank of Scotland symbol, with the Royal Band of Scotland logo type replaced by the words "Ulster

Waltzerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14184487798086880880noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12866538.post-1130256313967062452005-10-25T18:00:00.000+01:002005-11-01T12:22:59.213Z

Yesterday I came across a cool design for a can of cider, the word Cider being written sideways so that the Ci appeared like a wink and smile. To show anyone this I would have to say to go to amore.se/ and follow this path: "Click Here" - "More" - "discipline" - "Brand Packaging" - "Cider"Quite an effort to both compose and follow. What if there was a plug-in for Firefox that recorded my last 10

Waltzerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14184487798086880880noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12866538.post-1130153463710124812005-10-24T12:08:00.000+01:002005-10-24T12:31:03.746+01:00

My friend and her flatmate spent two hours last night trying to assemble a flat packed chest of drawers. Despite the instructions and tools being available to them, they were unable to assemble it. Another friend got her cable TV connected and couldn't tune in the channels. And recently I tried to programme my video to record a television show and failed miserably.It seems that bad instructions

Waltzerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14184487798086880880noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12866538.post-1130099663961091612005-10-23T21:16:00.000+01:002005-10-23T21:34:23.983+01:00

I've been using Apple's Airport wireless router for nearly a year now, but today we added a Windows laptop and a PC to the network. It wasn't the easiest task in the world, but now we have three machines with full broadband access, no cables trailing around the house, no switches or hubs, and nobody hogging my laptop. It wasn't all that expensive either - the Airport Base Station was about €130,

Waltzerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14184487798086880880noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12866538.post-1129908678993829012005-10-21T16:28:00.000+01:002005-10-21T16:31:19.120+01:00

I was leafing through a book today and I got excited at some of the photos. I love photography and I'm not taking nearly enough photos. New resolution: take more photos. I might even blow the dust of my old SLR and shoot some black and white film and justify my home darkroom. When I do it I'll be sure to update this site with the results!

Waltzerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14184487798086880880noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12866538.post-1129674928573118642005-10-18T23:22:00.000+01:002005-10-18T23:39:41.786+01:00

Luke has written for my personal site about our recent adventures in Blackpool. Lots of cool photos and graphic messiness.It was strange as we went into that pub at about 5 in the evening and it was heaving with revellers already looking like they had consumed a skin full and dancing like crazy, the likes of which you wouldn't expect to see in Ireland until 9 or 10 at night. Crazy, crazy, crazy,

Waltzerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14184487798086880880noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12866538.post-1129577857279064582005-10-17T20:30:00.000+01:002005-10-17T20:39:04.036+01:00

I was just doing a bit of work for a client there and I started taking notes as I was going along. It totally stopped me from getting distracted and helped me do things faster because I was able to track exactly what I was doing. For example: 20.00 Lightened colour of graphic20.06 Found pictures20.10 Replaced pictures, saved image20.14 Opened poster in InDesign20.19 Replaced images, saved20.20

Waltzerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14184487798086880880noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12866538.post-1129558890505994602005-10-17T12:40:00.000+01:002005-10-17T15:22:50.003+01:00

I have been doing a lot of client work in my spare time recently, and I had an opportunity last night to do some work on Waltzer.net. I felt an overwhelming sense of relief and joy to work on something that is all my own. No clients are going to request changes, nobody is going to say that the graphic doesn't work. It was lovely to just pull out my sketch pad and say "hey, you know, this time I'm

Waltzerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14184487798086880880noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12866538.post-1129129299860471422005-10-12T15:59:00.000+01:002005-10-14T17:29:22.256+01:00

The website!PPARS website: a thing of beauty. I particularly like the blue links on a blue background. Ingenious!

Waltzerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14184487798086880880noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12866538.post-1129048733463325402005-10-11T17:24:00.000+01:002005-10-11T17:38:53.470+01:00

When I was working in one of my previous jobs I used to get told bad news using what I called at the time "The Sandwich Method." Basically it means you get told good news, then the bad, and then some good. For example: -Hey the bosses really liked the work you did on that site-Cool-Yeah it was brilliant. I'm afraid they want you to work the weekend though-Oh right-Oh and there might be a night

Waltzerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14184487798086880880noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12866538.post-1128955105600153322005-10-10T15:35:00.000+01:002005-10-10T15:38:25.606+01:00

For logos fans and Top of the Pops fans alike, this little collection of logos will bring back some memories. From the truly awful to the bizzarre, TOTP logos were always ahead of their time and technologically groundbreaking.

Waltzerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14184487798086880880noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12866538.post-1128938668496034772005-10-10T10:56:00.000+01:002005-10-10T11:04:28.503+01:00

A few times in the last week I have had to do some minor tasks and I was faced with the choice of copy something else or think about it and make my own. Today I needed a javascript to randomly select a photograph, and last week I needed an icon for something and didn't know what to make it look like. Copying something else is easy, sitting and thinking is difficult. But when you do it yourself

Waltzerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14184487798086880880noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12866538.post-1128815706157438422005-10-09T00:53:00.000+01:002005-10-09T00:55:06.166+01:00

I just uploaded some photos from my Prague holiday to Flickr. Hope you like them!

Waltzerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14184487798086880880noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12866538.post-1128592695787468062005-10-06T10:51:00.000+01:002005-10-06T10:58:15.796+01:00

I found this great value stock photography collection. It used to cost about €300 for a photo to put in a poster or on your website, but this site only charges $3 for the highest rez images. You can sell your photos on it too, I think you get 20c for every dollar they sell - but at 1-3 dollars per image you will have to sell quite a few to make any money. I'm going to look into it

Waltzerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14184487798086880880noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12866538.post-1128464954171163562005-10-04T23:23:00.000+01:002005-10-04T23:29:14.186+01:00

I have set up a waltzer flickr account to post my photos instead of using waltzer.net. This should be a temporary fix for the delay in updating my photos. Flickr is a great tool though, it allows people to comment and tag your images so it's easy to find and categorise stuff. I will be moving to a new model for waltzer.net soon, hopefully something that promotes my sidelines in small websites and

Waltzerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14184487798086880880noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12866538.post-1127229809926853142005-09-20T16:09:00.000+01:002005-09-20T16:23:29.943+01:00

I have just noticed a new form of advertising online that I don't like at all: Sites putting ads on words in forums as regular underline links. I know advertising pays for the web but this kind of advertising devalues the humble link. Normally links are very useful for scanning a page and for finding further information that the article writer thought would be useful. But now are we to filter out

Waltzerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14184487798086880880noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12866538.post-1127124725967643692005-09-19T11:04:00.000+01:002005-09-19T11:12:08.423+01:00

Bundled with Computer Arts magazine this month were a few podcasts from new media guru Franklin McMahon. These 10-minute downloadable audio shows are great for listening to on the way to work or whenever you have a spare minute. McMahon talks about furthering your creative career, managing clients, getting your work out there, and general musings about the career path of a creative, be it a

Waltzerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14184487798086880880noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12866538.post-1123605789703968592005-08-09T17:37:00.000+01:002005-08-09T17:43:09.710+01:00

If any of you are still using Internet Explorer, please please please take a look at this site: BrowseHappy.com. Internet Explorer is a buggy, unsafe browser and it's way behind the times in terms of ease of use, features and functions. Try a new browser like Firefox or Opera and belive me, you won't want to go back to crappy old IE again. Tabbed browsing, faster downloads, block unwanted popups,

Waltzerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14184487798086880880noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12866538.post-1123495822482961082005-08-08T11:06:00.000+01:002005-08-08T11:10:22.490+01:00

I have just finished reading The Rum Diary by Hunter S. Thompson. It’s a whirlwind of a ride, intense, hilarious and desperately tragic. It follows the life of an American journalist that goes down to Puerto Rico to work for a local English-speaking newspaper, drinks a lot of rum, falls for his friend’s girl, doesn’t do a lot of work, and ponders where his life is going at 32. I couldn't put the

Waltzerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14184487798086880880noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12866538.post-1123174055987522422005-08-04T17:44:00.000+01:002005-08-04T17:47:35.990+01:00

Everyone raves about how efficient we are now with all these new technologies, but in the office environment e-mail is slowing us down. Inseted of making a phone call or going over to someones office to get something done, we are sending mails and waiting hours or even days for a response. If you want to get work done faster, leave off the e-mail and pick up the phone.

Waltzerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14184487798086880880noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12866538.post-1123059388926337452005-08-03T09:52:00.000+01:002005-08-03T09:56:28.926+01:00

Check out Stopdesign for a great way to present a portfolio. Categories on the left, links to individual works across the top, the image to the right, and a decent bit of context in the centre makes for a very concise, clear and easily navigated portfolio site. Check mine for comparison Alan Wall Graphic Web Design Portfolio.

Waltzerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14184487798086880880noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12866538.post-1122990208185454322005-08-02T14:39:00.000+01:002005-08-03T09:44:37.473+01:00

Its not very often I get to play games these days but I came across this one while on Fark and it's called Planarity. If that link doesn't work, try Planarity.net. Easy to learn, you'll play it for hours! Arrange the balls so that none of their connectors overlap.I got onto level 13 last night but had to stop myself playing cos it was getting too late.

Waltzerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14184487798086880880noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12866538.post-1121866575180995932005-07-20T14:32:00.000+01:002005-07-20T14:36:15.186+01:00

Luke has written a great Oxegen special for waltzer.net. Photos by yours truly.

Waltzerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14184487798086880880noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12866538.post-1121793092942836332005-07-19T18:04:00.000+01:002005-07-19T18:11:44.153+01:00

I had a freaky dream last night: All the animals, birds and insects in the world were wiped out by some mysterious force, and only a few humans remained. I went into this derelict house with a girl to see if we could find any clues to what was going on. The house looked like it had been ransacked. A picture on the wall caught the girls eye. It was a picture of her, only her eyes were visible, the

Waltzerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14184487798086880880noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12866538.post-1121792670685918902005-07-19T17:55:00.000+01:002005-07-19T18:04:30.690+01:00

I'm not much of a TV viewer, but I have been watching Lost on RTE since they started showing it, and I am addicted. It's the story of about 40 plane crash survivors who end up on a tropical island. Every week another character is developed and their back story told. The island is really freaky with mysterious sights and sounds, such as a polar bear and whispering trees, and every week they leave

Waltzerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14184487798086880880noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12866538.post-1121261221078924862005-07-13T14:19:00.000+01:002005-07-13T14:27:01.083+01:00

Head over to PushBarman.com to see Brian's shiny updated site. Articles about Manhattan, his recent Barbeque, and would you believe it, an interview with yours truly! Not to mention lots of new photos and updated blogging.

Waltzerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14184487798086880880noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12866538.post-1121176157125406162005-07-12T14:43:00.000+01:002005-07-12T14:49:17.130+01:00

I taped the amazing Live 8 gig and was thinking of putting the songs onto the computer. I did this before once but its some ordeal - so this time I just launched LimeWire and searched for Live 8, and all the tunes come up!LimeWire is a P2P client, so basically you share some files out and you can access other people's shared files on their machine. The more people sharing, the easier it is to get

Waltzerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14184487798086880880noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12866538.post-1116779045211060652005-05-22T17:21:00.000+01:002005-05-22T17:24:05.216+01:00

Brian has put his invitation for the Barbeque online. Yours truly will be the DJ, assisted by architect Stephen Wall and comedian Luke Ryan. Bring your friends!

Waltzerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14184487798086880880noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12866538.post-1116596641749312472005-05-20T14:43:00.000+01:002005-05-20T14:58:42.200+01:00

What's popular and trendy in logo design at the moment? Stars, non-vector edges, wicker balls, flames, weaves, whips and puffies! That's right! Have a look at this article on Graphic Design USA to read about it and look at the fine collection of examples.

Waltzerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14184487798086880880noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12866538.post-1116521282268822822005-05-19T17:35:00.000+01:002005-05-19T23:00:35.576+01:00

Whever I make a logo for a client, I usually fire up Macromedia Flash. Flash is vector based, so anything you design in it can be scaled up to any size, while keeping a small file size. Some people prefer Illustrator, I'm more of a Flash man myself. (Although Flash is not without it's limitations, more about that another day!)I'd usually have sketched out a few ideas to get me started in the

Waltzerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14184487798086880880noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12866538.post-1116442302623505652005-05-18T19:05:00.000+01:002005-05-18T19:51:42.633+01:00

There is a TV Licence ad campaign running in Ireland these days. The point the ads try to make is that it's SERIOUSLY embarrassing to go to court or get caught not having one. In one ad on the radio a group of people are chatting about their most embarrassing moments, one of them says he was caught with no TV licence. The others say "Too much embarrassment for me" and "Oh I have to go back to

Waltzerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14184487798086880880noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12866538.post-1116269536919806122005-05-16T19:39:00.000+01:002005-05-16T20:35:05.376+01:00

Des has updated his site with two new delicious mashup downloads. They are not his usual upbeat style but still worth a listen.Des McGouran must be one of the most talented people I know, the graphics on his site are bang up to date with the cirlces and dripping paint, cassette images, silhouettes, diagonal stripes and pattern pixelation gradient. Not to mention his DJ abilities: he has supported

Waltzerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14184487798086880880noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12866538.post-1116257080936322392005-05-16T16:14:00.000+01:002005-05-20T17:41:28.223+01:00

I'm in the middle of getting a third provisional licence and it's one crazy process: Book a driving test Apply for and complete a theory test Apply for provisional driving licence Book driving lessons Pass driving test Apply for full licence In other words, you have to prove you have a test lined up or they won't give you the licence, but you can't learn to drive until you have the

Waltzerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14184487798086880880noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12866538.post-1116248357806938122005-05-16T13:52:00.000+01:002005-05-16T13:59:17.810+01:00

Anyone interested in standars-compliant web design who have found themsleves frustrated by the constraints of CSS should check out this site. It's a showcase of fantastic webdesign, all based on delicious CSS.For those of you who don't have a clue what I'm talking about, CSS stands for Cascading Style Sheets, and it's a way to style up a HTML page using a seperate style file, so your content file

Waltzerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14184487798086880880noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12866538.post-1115993924583954932005-05-13T15:11:00.000+01:002005-05-13T15:18:44.586+01:00

I recently came across my old article about not watching telly. Have a look at the linked article, the Kaufman Spectrum of TV addiction: I am on Phase 1 woo hoo for me. What phase are you?Quote: Breaking the television addiction requires making a choice. The famous Ellen Parr quote goes: "The cure for boredom is curiosity. There is no cure for curiosity." Watching TV fills the mind with the

Waltzerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14184487798086880880noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12866538.post-1115983209640962102005-05-13T12:18:00.000+01:002005-05-13T12:20:09.643+01:00

Check out this beautifully detailed cottage, 10 minutes drive from the nearest shop, only 10 miles walk to Kenmare. "To fully appreciate its charms, viewing is an absolute must!"

Waltzerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14184487798086880880noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12866538.post-1115976413835486112005-05-13T10:25:00.000+01:002005-05-13T11:30:24.370+01:00

I have been thinking about setting up a blog for a while so here goes.

Waltzerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14184487798086880880noreply@blogger.com0