So, I’ve been quietly thinking about this idea for a few weeks now. There seems to be a big group of people around our group that want to get some hands-on learning time to bring their work up to the next level. I’ve been speaking to a few of the designers/coders/Facebook surfers about creating a “panel” that will hold help sessions in between our normal meetings (two weeks after each “normal” meeting). I want to call this the “Work Group”, because we will actually do work during these meetings. Basically, you would come to the meeting with a problem you’re having. Web design problems only, please. We can’t help you with that weird rash you have… During the meeting, you can present your problem (coding, graphical, UX, CSS/HTML, etc.) using the projector or your laptop, whichever works best and the group can help you walk through your problem to hopefully find the solution

If you are interested in this group, please leave a comment below and let me know what you think would be the best use of a group like this. If you’re not interested, please let us know that, too.

Please RSVP using link at bottom.

Topic: Basic Web Design Principles

Speaker: Chris Elliott

Date: September 8, 2009

Location: Shift Workspace

One of the most difficult skills to develop in the web design world is that of “design”. That word can be used in so many ways and mean so many different things, it’s often difficult to grasp exactly what you need to learn/do to be good at it. Chris Elliott is a local, well known designer that will share some of his experiences that helped mold him into the designer he is today. His work speaks for itself.

We will announce more specifics about this meeting as the time approaches, but rest assured if you attend you will come away with something that will help you build better looking web sites.

We will also use Photoshop CS4 throughout the presentation and that will serve as our software review. I realize that a lot of you out there don’t work in Photoshop for various reasons, but the principles discussed will apply to most other graphics applications.

Due to overwhelming demand at the last meeting, please RSVP using the EventBrite link below.

UPDATE: Jeremy Flint will also speak on @font-face and TypeKit.

UPDATE: Due to the large amount of content for this meeting, we are going to start at 11:30. You can mingle on Twitter during the Chris’ presentation.

UPDATE: The video for this meeting is now posted: http://www.webdesignlunch.com/announcements/video-web-design-basics-and-font-tools/

I’m overwhelmed with the attendance from the first meeting and want to thank each one of you for showing your interest and support. Hopefully you took something away that will help you.

It’s time to talk about the next meeting. Please answer each of the poll questions below so we can a feel for the next meeting. Please vote ASAP as the polls close tomorrow (8/7/2009) at 5PM. Read the rest of this entry »

HTML5 and CSS3

Current web technologies are changing, whether we’re ready for it or not. As web designers, it’s our responsibility to stay up to date on industry changes. The first meeting of the Web Design Lunch group will focus on two of these new technologies, HTML5 and CSS3. We will discuss what’s new in HTML5 and CSS3, current browser support and the expected adoption rate. This will be an open discussion, so please bring your questions and insight.

One of the goals for this group is to facilitate sharing of knowledge amongst local web designers. Open communication is key to this and to spur this on, I would like to have different “segments” of the meeting each requiring group participation. Read the rest of this entry »

Based on the previous First Meeting Topic post results, the topic for the first meeting will be “The New Web – HTML5 and CSS3″.

In keeping with the long standing (about 2 weeks) tradition of the “wisdom of crowds” used for this group, I put up another (yes, another) poll to let you guys decide on the date for the fist meeting. This poll will close this Tuesday at COB, so we will have time to react to your request. Read the rest of this entry »