Posts Tagged “Design”

Metroid Type Explorations

To celebrate the release of the new Beasts of England typeface, Acorn, I made some quick typographic exploration designs based on the key areas from Super Metroid! I’m pretty hyped on how the set turned out.... read more

Hyperlight

I’m excited to be releasing a few new tracks over the coming weeks/months. Hyperlight is going to be the peppy/optimistic album starter. Channeling 8-bit NES Rad Racer vibes, I wanted to go for a carefree-cruise-around-town feel.... read more

Voyager

Back in August I decided I wanted to make an instrumental synthwave album. As trying as the Summer was for many of us, I did my best to take advantage of all time w/ my 8... read more

Monarch

I randomly started making music back in December. At the time, the only place I posted anything was Instagram stories. As short beeps evolved to songs, I built audio.trentwalton.com. Fast forward to April. When I had... read more

New Fonts on the Ol’ Blog

I’m proud of myself because this is merely a post about new fonts rather than a post about a blog redesign. The perfectly-dialed-in textures and vibe from Phil Coffman’s recent redesign nearly pushed me over the... read more

Mr. Robot Title Cards

I’ve blogged about this before but wanted to post again now that the 4-season series has wrapped. A consistent detail throughout Mr. Robot was that the title cards seemed to capture the essence of the episode... read more

The Strokes – At the Door

I adore the high-contrast type, aged color pallette, and sci-fi concept painting here in the artwork for The Strokes’ new song, “At the Door.” Art direction and design by Tina Ibañez & painting by John Harris... read more

Graphis Annual

From time to time I get on kicks where I buy old design, type, etc. books on eBay. A recent haul included this collection of Graphis Annuals from the 1950s & 1960s. 😍 read more

Hello, Colfax

On a whim, I decided to switch from my typical serif blog type to Colfax, a lovely typeface designed by Process Type Foundry. I’d been using it for site navigational elements and was thrilled to see... read more

BEST Store Architecture

Able Parris recently tweeted about the BEST store logo & architecture, linking to this post at siteenvirodesign.com. These buildings seem like the pinnacle of large showroom type store design. I especially like the one with the... read more

The Notification Machine

Hello, Black Mirror-ish version of yourself. Welcome to your new job! Many are nervous during their first day at work, but don’t worry. It’s easy, and with minimal effort you will excel at your new career. You’ve... read more

CSS Columns

I frequently use CSS multi-column layout (i.e. column-count: 3) for basic list items limited to words or phrases (like my search page tags list), but I’ve always struggled to make the property work with more complex... read more

Glitchskier

I recently discovered a new action game called Glitchskier by Shelly Alon. In case you aren’t aware, flying a triforce(ish) starship through what reminds me of the Stranger Things intro (music and all) blowing up Tron-like... read more

Viewport Padding

I was inspecting Ethan’s site the other day (as totally normal and well-adjusted people do) and realized he was using one of my favorite tricks where viewport units were combined with em units via calc() for... read more

Alamo Drafthouse Pre-roll

I love Alamo Drafthouse—It’s a big part of what makes Austin home for me, and part of my monthly (sometimes weekly) routine. The recently-updated announcement videos they run during pre-roll are fantastic. They’re extremely well done... read more

Day of the Tentacle

Over the weekend I rediscovered Day of the Tentacle, triggering the biggest nostalgia jolt I’ve experienced in quite some time. I vividly remember playing the game on one of my first PCs in 1993. The illustration... read more

Hello, Jekyll

I’ve logged quite a lot of hours battling databases, plugins, and a GUI editor to write (and occasionally design) blog posts. Wordpress has served me well, but to simplify the process I’ve ported my blog to... read more

Presentable Episode 7

I’ve been thoroughly enjoying Jeff Veen’s new podcast, Presentable. In the latest episode (#7) with Stanley Wood the two discuss how style guides, process, and org structure fit together. One bit in particular that stood out... read more

Sharp Sans

I’m adding Sharp Sans to my list of fonts I hope to find an opportunity to work with soon. A description from Village Type & Design: Sharp Sans injects some much needed humanism into the Futura... read more

Stranger Things

Let’s just take a minute to bask in how cool everything associated with Stranger Things is. The synth tones of the opening credits and the appropriately evocative use of ITC Benguiat and ITC Avant Garde Gothic... read more

Atomic Classification

I think of modular design as a practice or a philosophy—with Atomic Design being just one way to do it. I’ve found that I’m able to benefit from Atomic Design concepts without always adopting its classification metaphor. A... read more

ShareYourShop.Etsy.com

Paravel was thrilled to collaborate with Etsy and to create shareyourshop.etsy.com—a fun little photo-generating web app that Etsy shop owners can use in their holiday promotions. Etsy provided overall guidance as well as some stellar graphics... read more

8-Bit Microsoft.com

Happy 8-Bit Day! To celebrate, the team at Microsoft has built a clever little easter egg into the homepage—visit microsoft.com and enter in the Konami Code to reveal some 8-bit glory. It’s great to see Microsoft... read more

Stephen Hay On Prototypes

The cyclical “should designers code” debate wears me out, but Stephen Hay’s post is a great read in and of itself. I like that he gravitates towards the value of prototyping: As designers for the web,[…]... read more

Mr. Robot

I’ve been enjoying Mr. Robot this Summer—It starts with one of the best pilots I’ve ever seen. One small detail that’s stood out for me are the title shots. The music, framing, and oversized logo are... read more

OH no Type Company

I’m excited to see that James Edmondson has started OH no Type Company (via Nick Sherman). The full announcement can be read here. My favorite bit: Also, why are type foundries typically marketed in such a... read more

Fast Track to Sass

Steve Drucker from Fig Leaf Software recently published Fast Track to Sass. The book uses my CSS Zen Garden Apothecary Theme as the example site—transitioning it from CSS to Sass. Thanks, Steve! read more

New TW Mark

I recently set out to refresh my site (more on that later). Along with new type choices and layout tweaks, I wanted to update the TW mark that Reagan designed for me back in 2010. We... read more

Fontstand

Fontstand is a new service + Mac OS X app that introduces a new way to license desktop fonts. Even though 99% of my work is web-based, Fontstand immediately appeals to me. Too many times have... read more

WRKSHOP

I’ll be leading a workshop (for WRKSHOP) on responsive layouts & prototypes in Austin this April 4th. I didn’t feel confident as a web designer until I got comfortable with CSS layouts, so that’s exactly what... read more

Brent Jackson’s Colorable & Shade

Brent Jackson (http://jxnblk.com) has been building some really great tools recently. Colorable helps you test color combinations/palettes with WCAG accessibility guidelines in a visual way. He’s also built a text version with a crazy-simple UI. And... read more

MSHP 1994 in 2014

 Naomi Atkinson and James White (aka SignalNoise) created an absolutely glorious 2014 riff on Microsoft’s 1994 homepage for Net Magazine. Read the post about the restoration of the 1994 homepage here. read more

The Boring Designer

I highly recommend reading Cap Watkins’s post, The Boring Designer. Here are a couple of my favorite bits: The boring designer realizes that the glory isn’t in putting their personal stamp on everything they touch. In... read more

MSHP 1994

This spring Microsoft’s Chris Balt asked Paravel to recreate the first version of the Microsoft homepage, originally built in 1994. We initially thought about ‘modernizing’ the page with media queries and other current HTML & CSS,... read more

CSS Zen Garden #221

There’s a lot to love about Andrew Lohman’s CSS Zen Garden #221 theme, Mid-Century Modern. In addition to the type, color palette, and imagery, I am particularly fond of the layout itself. Each section flows nicely... read more

Optimizing Images

Friends don’t let friends load 300kb PNG images on their websites no matter how cool the transparent photo of a happy customer waving over a gradient background looks. That said, when raster graphics are required, one... read more

Device-Agnostic

The more I build for the web, the more the term ‘device-agnostic’ endears itself to me. I used to think it merely dealt with basing responsive breakpoints on content rather than particular devices, but there’s more... read more

Frank Chimero on His New Site

In describing some creative epiphanies he had while building his new site, Frank hit on two that resonated with me: Accepting that it’s okay if the site looks “traditional,” and that I didn’t need to opt into... read more

A Cartoonist’s Advice

I came across this wonderful comic by Gavin Aung that takes words directly from a graduation speech given by Calvin and Hobbes creator Bill Watterson in 1990. Be sure to read the entire comic at [zenpencils.com](http://zenpencils.com/comic/128-bill-watterson-a-cartoonists-advice)... read more

Human Interest

Progressive enhancement has proven to be such a great strategy for the technical side of the web that I think we should take a similar approach for its personal side as well. Just as we assume... read more

I Won It Once

After watching Bones Brigade this weekend I decided to learn more about Rodney Mullen. I particularly enjoyed this excerpt from his TED talk about competing and winning early on in his freestyle skating career: I think... read more

Where to Start

When making the transition to building responsive websites, the hardest part can be getting started. I get my fair share of questions about how to choose a direction and chart out the first few steps from... read more

Country Fair Covers

A couple of years ago I came across this lovely mishmash of a website called fulltable. I’ll go there when I’ve got spare time and dig around the index of links until I find something interesting.... read more

Site Updates

I finally updated the site with a handful of changes I’ve been fiddling with over the past few months. It’s one of those complete overhauls that really don’t look much different at a glance, but it... read more

Fluid Type

Embracing the fluid & flexible aspect of responsive web design was an easy decision, but I’ve been less sure-footed when it comes to balancing that with setting type on the web. From a purely typographic perspective,... read more

Reagan Ray’s Shop

Grab your wallets! Reagan just opened up the shop section of his website. He’s been designing & screen printing posters this spring, and two are available for purchase now. I’ve got both, but have to admit... read more

Automotive Inspiration

This weekend I got carried away browsing The Old Car Manual Project yet again. Here are some of my favorite finds. Oh, and I got that Chrysler advert from fulltable.com. It’s worth a few minutes of... read more

Offscreen Magazine

Issue #1 of Offscreen Magazine just landed here at the office. Kai Brach has done a fantastic job assembling all the interviews, essays, and profiles. I wish all magazines looked like this. Subscriptions (and one-off purchases)... read more

A Responsive Ad Model

Mark Boulton on the challenges we face when incorporating traditional ad spaces into responsive layouts: The template > slot > ad mental model is engrained both in advertisers, planners and web sites. Providing space for ads needs... read more

Nest

“I want ____ to be as simple as my iPod/iPhone.” I’ve said this about lots of things: my car’s dashboard, my washer & dryer, and yes, my thermostat. Meet Nest, a learning thermostat launched by a... read more

The New Adventures Paper

I met Simon Collison back in October at Brooklyn Beta. Shortly after, I got an email from him asking if I’d be interested in contributing to the newspaper he was having printed for attendees of the... read more

Controlling Web Typography

Lettering.js was built to solve a problem. As web typography improves, web designers want the same level of control print designers have. Just as we’ve moved beyond Helvetica and Times New Roman, we’ve begun to think... read more

The Old Car Manual Project

I love old cars- especially all the badges, manuals, and logos that came along with them. I’ve even taken to recreating an old Ford logo & Shelby Mustang badge a few weeks back. Recently, while clicking... read more

ReaganRay.com

I’ve always been impressed by how generous Reagan is with his time and talent. Over the past few months, he’s helped Dave and me beef up our own identities and personal projects, leaving his own site on... read more

Inception Movie Poster

After really enjoying Inception over the weekend, I thought I’d make a graphic featuring 3 of the totems that the main characters carry around to keep track of whether or not they’re dreaming. My initial Dribbble... read more

Unmatched Style

I’ve been meaning to post a quick thank you to Gene Crawford and the rest of the fellas at unmatchedstyle.com for a while. They recently had me on one of their designer chat sessions to talk... read more

Quoting Lebowski Vol. 2

If building a multi-million dollar social media site was easy, I’d be typing this from the deck of my anti-matter powered yacht… in orbit. Just about everyone I know in the web design & development game... read more

CSS3 In Transition

Uncharted Territory With the addition of the CSS3 transition property comes a lot of uncharted territory. Never before has it been so easy to bring animation into a usable, standards-based browsing environment. Determining how often and... read more

Quoting Lebowski

A pet peeve of mine is seeing blog comments or tweets neigh-saying innovative strides in web development. I see the issue of cross-browser compatibility to be completely separate from forward thinking experimentation. This is about progress,... read more

Position Absolute

Put on your critical thinking caps… In web design there are very few absolutes. There are multiple ways to markup pages, limitless directions a design can take and no single right or wrong way to run... read more

Multi-Touch

Multi-touch will change everything For years, web designers have been working within a firmly established jig. Books have been published, studies have been conducted and businesses have been built on a handful of fundamental interface design... read more

Divided Attention

Browsing Habits Part of user-experience design is considering how elements on a web page compete for attention. We spend so much time prioritizing the prominence of items within a page while making little consideration for what... read more

Zombie Designers

Urgent Notice The D.P.D.Z. is issuing this public notice to all designers in regards to a recent outbreak of designer zombieism. While exact causes have yet to be determined, all are advised to exercise caution when... read more

CSS Three & Me

The greatest feeling for me as a kid was looking into a mixed box of Legos After prying open the stuck-on lid to see where imagination could go: A green army base with a red laser... read more

A Fresh Coat of Paint

Update: Surprise—This post is now outdated & is about a previous version of this site. To learn more about what I’ve got cooking now, click here. It may not look like it, but this version is... read more