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I have been working on some new projects using wp-ecommerce by Instinct.  I am very impressed with the flexibility of the plugin. There are some snags here and there, but the forums and community are very helpful.  Check out the most recent project (still underway)… Hobby Farm Depot

When testing an email campaign design, there are a few things you want to keep in mind.

First, set up multiple accounts with email providers, and spread them out among email clients on PC and Mac. I do have to say that I am an Apple guy myself, but the majority of users still use a PC. It is imparative to test both Mac and PC. Great email clients to test in are Apple’s Mail app, Thunderbird, and Microsoft’s Outlook/Outlook Express. The following email providers’ online clients are a must: Gmail, Yahoo, Hotmail, and if you host a domain with a provider try their email client. I personally have found success in designing for Google’s Gmail, and then testing the other clients later.

Like I said earlier, I am an Apple guy! However, testing in Mail will proove to be tough because it supports all kind of CSS strategies, divide based layouts, and background calls in div style tags. For the user, all of this is amazing to have and makes viewing a great experience. But, keep in mind that online clients like Gmail will strip out any external calls to CSS or any CSS embedded in the head, and kiss div tag reliability goodbye. When designing email layouts, it’s time to go ‘Old School’ and use tables for everything. Yes, a pain in the butt, but reliable and consistent. With tables, you can successfully call backgrounds in Gmail and trust that the layout will stick to placement and dimensions.

If you are having issues with font styles when testing, try calling the styles using a div tag. (I know I said divs are unreliable, but in the specific case of font styling, I have not experienced any issues.)

Don’t forget to test on mobile devices!!! If you don’t want to compromise your design to work around mobile limitations, then make sure you have a ‘view in browser’ link at the top of your layout. More and more people are using mobile devices to check email especially following, my personal favorite, the iPhone. With ‘new school’ devices, email still seems to be stuck in the ‘old school’ ways. So, brush up on your tables!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone (while driving somewhere in the middle of the Rockie Mountains)

Here is what my money doll came out looking like.

The first week of October, I attended PhotoshopWorld 2009. iStockPhoto had the great idea of getting a bunch of artists to get creative on some Munny dolls. They started out as plain white alien looking dolls, and after some paint and accessories they came out reflecting the personality of each artist.

The Munny doll was the ticket to the iStockPhoto after party. We were all shipped off in buses to a mansion where the reality show “Supergroup” was recorded. It was a Vegas party for sure! With an open bar, butlers carrying appetizers, and Cirque du Soleil contortionists and fire jugglers. Check out the iStockPhoto Flickr event page for the party here and see more cool photos.

This is a really great idea for your garage.  Usually you see the tennis ball hanging from a string and it just gets in the way when you are walking around an empty garage. Plus, it just looks tacky.  With this set-up, the parking ball is moved out of the way for your convenience.

Video shot with my iPhone 3GS

Just cut the string to an appropriate length.  Mount one end to the top of your garage door.  Use an eyelet to hang the ball from the needed spot in your garage.  Pretty simple… You can totally do it yourself…

I went camping with my wife and some friends… It was my job to make desert.  So, I wanted to make chocolate chip cookies.  Despite the criticism and disbelief from my peers, I did successfully bake cookies while camping.  Here’s how I did it:

1. 1. Get the supplies:
   1. 1. Cardboard box
   2. 2. Tape
   3. 3. Tinfoil
   4. 4. Coat hanger
   5. 5. Old crappy cast iron pan
   6. 6. Coal
   7. 7. Cookie dough
2. 2. Fold and tape the bottom of the cardboard box closed.
3. 3. Cut two opposite flaps off of the top of the box (so the two remaining flaps act as double doors).
4. 4. Line the inside of your box, and flaps, with tinfoil (I used two layers of foil).
5. 5. Straighten out your coat hangers and poke them through a little bit above the middle of the box creating an oven rack.
6. 6. Take the two flaps that you cut off in step 3 and wrap them in foil… Now you have cookie sheets.
7. 7. Heat up the coal so its white ish and glowing.
8. 8. In this process, each individual coal is roughly equivalent to 50 degrees.  So, 350 degrees you need about 7 coals.
9. 9. Use an old cast iron pan and fill it with the appropriate amount of briquettes.
10. 10. Let the coal heat up the oven for 5 to 10 min or so.
11. 11. Pop the cookies in your cardboard box oven using your make shift cookie sheets.
12. 12. Check on your cookies often (I have found that they cook a little faster than normal).
13. 13. Bam! You have it! Chocolate chip cookies made in a cardboard box oven.

In July of 2008 I designed my very first catalog.  Three weeks, Adobe CS3, two 30 in. monitors & MacPro, loud music, energy drinks, and a lot of over time apparently is a great formula for success.  My catalog design is an ACCM Award Finalist at the Multi-Channel Merchant Conference.  I’ll find out tomorrow if the design winds up winning anything. If not, I am still ecstatic about being a finalist.  I was worried about the quality of pushing out 80 pages in 3 weeks.  But hey! It’s a good start to my catalog designing career.  I could not be happier and the content was fun to work with!

Check out my work and view the spreads:
Download Steve Spangler Science 08/09 Catalog
(25.2 MB)

This morning Team “M” took part in the MS Walk in Denver, Colorado.  As a team, we raised over a thousand dollars and set a good goal to beat for next year.  Check out the video…

My beautiful wife was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis (MS) just a few months ago. We have taken this head on and we are not going to let it get the best of us! It was awesome to have Team “M” support us in the walk, not just because we needed support in the walk but, because their support today was an example of the support we will have in the struggles to come.

Statistics say that 1 in 540 Coloradans have MS, and  2 in 3 are women.  It’s a serious deal.  Denver has one of the highest concentrations of MS diagnosis in the world.  Crazy!  I am so thankful that we found an awesome doctor for Meghan and received a diagnosis early in this battle because, I hear, most find out later in life.  The MS Walk is a powerful movement and I am proud to be a part of the fight!  We are all still new to this but I want to be involved as much as possible so that I can be the best support to my wife that I can be.  I have a lot to learn and the Walk for Multiple Sclerosis was a great stepping stone in the journey to come.  One of the volunteers Meghan and I talked to today said, “MS is not who you are.  You are not MS, you are yourself with MS.”

I learned something interesting today. (I’m sure the details are in some fine text somewhere, but no where I looked) In the first 48 hours, after signing up for a new account, YouTube will not allow your videos to be available for mobile devices. Interesting, and could have been useful to know ahead of time! It appears that multiple functions are placed on hold for the first 48 hours, including the ability to upload a profile pic. Needless to say, my acoustic show video is available on iPhones now!

Back in August of 2007, Factors of Seven palyed their last show.  Last night, almost 2 years later, Marc Lohse (lead guitarist) and I met up for a laid back acoustic gig.  We played some worship music (fitting for “Good Friday”), old F7 songs and some new material.  The video below is of the song, Unconditionally, which has never been performed acoustically until last night. Check it out…

It felt really good to be back on stage, or in this case a coffee shop floor.  I’m excited for what is instore.  Will Factors of Seven come back from the dead? Or, will a new band emerge out of the ashes?

It’s about time I got myself a blog!  I read blogs on a daily basis, keeping up on all the graphic design tutorials and SEO tips.  So, I feel like it is time for me to start pitching in a few cents of my own.  I’m excited to get this going and I hope I don’t bore the crap out of you.  This blog is going to be about graphic/web design, music, nonsense, and a touch of personal stuff!  The code and design of this blog will probably change on a daily basis since I came down with the “Design ADD Syndrome”.  I’m sure you can relate.  This concludes post 1… Here We Go!