Evolution: A Weblog by Third North Creative

Recently a handful of new web design galleries showcasing Cascading Style Sheet (CSS) based websites have been popping up everywhere. These constantly updated galleries are a great snap-shot of current trends in the CSS design community and provide overwhelming inspiration. So set aside a few hours (or days) and dig in!

CSS Beauty | Design Shack | CSS Zen Garden | CSS Bloom | Design Melt Down | CSS Galleries | Best Web Gallery | Stylegala | CSS Drive | CSS Vault | Unmatched Style | The Daily Slurp | CSS Mania | CSS Remix | Screenspire | CSSElite | WithStyle | CSS Thesis | InspirationKing | Light On Dark | tom.ma | screenblog

There is no doubt that the digital revolution has enhanced every nook and cranny of the design world- and produced a whole new genre of design centered around the web. Projects that once required an army of creatives and artists are now produced by small creative teams (or single individuals). Information and resources lay at the fingertips of anyone with a Google search bar and a RSS reader. Amazing work is being produced at break-neck speed. It is a great time to be a designer.

The largest downfall to these amazing machines and tools is their tempting ability to increase efficiency by sacrificing conceptual time and truly original creative interaction with a project. It is all to easy to skimp on sketches and head straight to the Mac, letting the software drive a design- instead of letting the design drive the software.

Sketching is a physical interaction with visual and conceptual ideas. Paper provides a freeform playground that removes all of the restrictions that a computer puts in place. We are forced to think about design in terms of flowing ideas instead of filters and trends. Instead of managing menus and pallets, our pencil can wander and explore.

Never be too quick to forfeit the physical side of the creative process for speed and efficiency. The sketch is where truly great design begins.

We are proud to announce the launch of the Puck Systems V2 demo site. Stop by the site and check out the new “Add a Page” and “Edit Page” functionality. The demo site is a sneak-peak of what Puck Systems clients can expect in the upcoming V2 release.

V2 represents a total overhaul in functionality and design and truly brings professional internet communication tools to the youth sports realm. Since the inception of Puck Systems we have had the great fortune of working with incredible clients. Clients who are as passionate about their youth sports organizations as we are about web development. It’s these passionate clients that have provided an incredible amount of inspiration during the current development cycle… and ultimately influenced a number of great enhancements and features that will be present in the final release of V2.

Please experiment with the demo, add, edit or delete anything you want. Brief instructions can be found on the “Instructions” page. After you play with the demo, stop back and leave a comment- these comments will serve as valuable input as we put the finishing touches on V2.

UPDATE 2/14/07: We have launched a new Puck Systems Demo Site at: http://demo.pucksystems2.com/

Over the past six months it has become increasingly clear that the photo gallery feature in Puck Systems would need to be rebuilt from the ground up in Version 2.

Functionality on the admin side includes drag-and-drop ordering of galleries as well as drag-and-drop organizing of photos within each gallery. Website admins, managers and coaches also have the ability to edit and delete individual galleries and photos.

We have completed a beta version of the photo gallery (which can be seen here) that will be included with Version 2 of Puck Systems.

Drop us a line with your comments if you feel so inclined.

We recently completed a new site for the University of Minnesota Goal Line Club (the football program’s official booster club) and have been receiving a plethora of positive comments regarding the look and feel of the new site. We were fortunate enough to have complete creative freedom while addressing the previous outdated and irrelevant visual representation of the club.

Concept: The University of Minnesota Football Program has an incredible history that stretches well over 120 years. The first game took place on September 29, 1882 and Gopher Football fans have been the heart and soul of the college football experience in Minnesota ever since. The concept for the visual language of the site was to capture this rich collegiate football history. We wanted club members and site visitors to have a taste of the vintage football spirit that is at the core of Minnesota football. This is not the NFL, with its huge ego’s and huge contracts- no, this is college football where Saturday’s games are played for honor and steeped in tradition.

Execution: Research, research and more research. I spent a vast majority of my initial conceptual work digging up old football programs, vintage Gopher football artwork and other historical inspiration. Page layout sketches were transformed into basic HTML and CSS pages so that Mike could start building database driven functionality into the page structure and, as a team, we could start polishing the UI. Next, the finished graphics began to fall into place. Various textures, filters and brushes were used in Photoshop to “beat-the-snot” out of the original graphics and layout elements. Last, but not least, the overall color saturations of the graphics were lessened to give the site a truly weathered feel. The result: a powerful cutting-edge website that celebrates the history and retains the soul of the Goal Line Club.