Middle Ear Media

New and Improved Portfolio

—

by

Obadiah
in

I just thought I’d let you know about a few changes I’ve made to this site (middleearmedia.com) lately. Nothing too drastic really, but I’d like to document the evolution here. Just some minor stylistic changes and progressive enhancements here and there. Most importantly, I redesigned my portfolio. I’ll get into more about that in a minute, but first let me tell you about…

New and Improved header and sidebar graphics

Changes to header and sidebar graphics

Subtle changes were made to the header and sidebar graphics. In the header, I changed the font for my tag line and also made it all caps.

Also, I added a new version of my logo in the empty white space underneath the tag line. I’m not totally happy with this because it seems too busy, but this is the way it will look for now anyway.

I’m very satisfied with the new background graphic for the sidebar headings which are now all caps. This is basically an extension of the brushed metal texture with a bit of depth added.

New and Improved Titles with text shadow

Text shadow added to titles

And finally, a text shadow was added to both the main headings and sidebar headings. This shadow really brings copy out from the background on the sidebar in particular.

Most modern browsers can now render the CSS 3 tag text-shadow. This change is a progressive enhancement, and as such, will render only if your browser is capable. If not, it looks exactly the same as it used to look.

New and Improved Portfolio

Portfolio Updated

I’ve implemented a tabbed navigation system. This makes it easier to find what you’re looking for. The default tab when the page loads is Web Design, where you can see large images under each title.

Either the name or the image can be clicked to expand a section underneath with a smaller image or logo, a URL if applicable, and information about the project including Client, Date, Tasks, etc.

New and Improved Portfolio

Additional tabs include Graphic Design, Audio, and Other. Again, content here is displayed as a name and image that are click-able to expand more details. Although there is some content in these tabs, I am still in the process of adding more.

Please leave a comment below and let me know if you like the new look and what you like about it, or what you don’t like and any suggestions.

Thanks.

Comments

2 responses to “New and Improved Portfolio”

  1. Meadow Erickson Avatar
    Meadow Erickson

    Hey- I like the look-and your portfolio and is fantastic. You really do great artistic work!!

    I do have one suggestion for something that jumped out at me. The words that are hyphenated next to your picture. Do you have a way to space that paragraph so no words are broken up?

    Reply
  2. obadiah Avatar
    obadiah

    Thank you! I’m glad you like it. Also, thanks for the suggestion. I have my site set up to automatically hyphenate words when needed, but it doesn’t always look right.

    There’s probably a couple ways I could fix that. I could turn off the hyphenation on that paragraph, but that could leave some very short lines in the middle of the paragraph that would look weird.

    I could justify the paragraph to both the left and right sides (like a newspaper column), but the variable letter spacing that creates can also look a bit strange.

    Instead, I’ve decided to rewrite it. Just a small change in wording was all it took. Thanks again for the suggestion.

    Reply

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *