Design | h4x3d.com

Dragee WordPress theme

By: jez

02-07-2007

0 comments

This piece of art was explicitly designed/created for the WordPress community.
Click the image to view a full screenshot of the site. More information about this theme, a feature overview and screenshots of different areas can be found on the theme page itself.

Website: Please read on at http://www.h4x3d.com/themes/dragee/ there you will find all theme related information about this wordpress theme. Also download links, demo links and more screenshots.

Please note: I am the original author of the above mentioned file, but not responsible for the individual page content on the follow-up pages. If you have questions about possible infringed material, please contact the individual site owner!
Work samples, stats and a link to the website can be found above.
Curious about other design samples? See my full portfolio

Color connotations (interesting for design)

By: jez

30-04-2007

Design

1 comment

Connotations of black :
black color
Evil, self-confidence, power, strength, death, sophisticated, designer, formal, conservative, serious, mysterious, sexy, mourning, rebellion, elegant, night, illegal, wicked, intensity, mature, advanced, fashionable, stylish, chic, and trendy.

Connotations of blue :
blue color
Patriotism, stability, power, trustworthiness, conservative, water, coolness, fun, cold, defeat, trouble, calm, strong, steadfast, light, friendly, confident, safe, corporate, intelligence, unity, sad, depression, old-fashioned, mourning, richness, superiority, truthful, loyal, faithful, noble, scholarly, unexpected, harmony, unity, clean, and technology.

Connotations of brown :
brown color
Warmth, comfort, steady, conservative, earthy, natural, nature, down-to-earth, wholesomeness, simplicity, friendliness, dependability, health, honesty, old, and aged.

Connotations of green:
green color
Nature, environment, money, wealth, family, harmony, health, peace, posterity, soothing, relaxing, springtime, youth, humor, fun, happiness, life, growth, jealousy, envy, novice, restful, calming, balance, stability, summer, organic, recycled, plants, trees, fertility, fresh, good luck, and vigor.

Connotations of grey :
grey color
Stylish, chic, elegant, classy, fresh, innovative, modern, futuristic, technology, spacious, fashionable, soft, airy, high-tech, sleek, neutral, conservative, smart, designer, trendy, light, open, state-of-the-art, impartial, calm, comfortable, peaceful, and relaxed.

Connotations of orange :
orange color
Fall, Thanksgiving, Halloween, nature, earth, warmth, energy, flamboyant, energetic, sun, stimulating, health, sociable, friendly, citrus, balance, enthusiasm, vibrant, fertility, fire, luxury, heat, and activity.

Connotations of a rainbow:
rainbow colors
Diversity, multiculturalism, fantastic, light, happy, friendly, cheerful, fantasy, God, promise, gold, magical, peaceful, pride, energy, power, comfort, fun, joy, enthusiasm, creativity, and perky.

Connotations of red:
red color
Patriotism, conservatism, Christmas, stability, power, trustworthy, warmth, fire, fun, blood, success, sacred, hearth, emotion, courage, love, good fortune, heat, hot, evil, hell, anger, stop, respect, vitality, strength, aggression, intense, high energy, danger, communism, passion, and of course Valentines Day.

Connotations of white :
white color
Cleanliness, purity, life, stability, trustworthy, peace, happiness, cold, marriage, goodness.

Source: google + images (colors) by h4x3d.com

Theme ethics part 2

By: jez

12-04-2007

Design, Wordpress

1 comment

As I wrote some weeks ago in my article about theme ethics I am really annoyed by all those sponsored themes.

spam spam spam - sponsored themes!

Now after Mark of weblogtoolscollection dug a bit deeper and wrote an article about sponsored themes on the frequently visited and read wordpress site loads of comments came up.
Most people were posting their comments against sponsored themes, but also some voiced their arguments ‘for’ sponsored themes. Those were mainly the higher quality of wordpress themes. I am not going to pick on that, because they are right, but usually those designs were not made by the people selling the sponsored links on those templates, but by designers who released the themes for free prior to the port. I rest my case on this issue.

Anyway, one of the big boys, matt (the wordpress matt), wrote a full article and his take on the issue of sponsored themes. Finally, someone is taking steps to reduce the quantity of sponsored themes!

Furthermore, he started a vote on the wordpress.org idea site, where he asks users to participate and leave their votes as well! He wants people who are ‘against’ removing the sponsored themes to leave one star and their arguments, and others who want the sponsored themes to be banned to leave five stars.

So get logging in and leave your comment and vote, in favor for the wordpress community and less spam and evilness. Remember sponsored links can damage your pagerank, your reputation and make you look like a clown!.

Thanks a lot!

Theme ethics

By: jez

20-03-2007

Design, Wordpress

10 comments

A contemporary view and comment on WordPress themes

rebel! dont allow theme-spam to win!

There is currently a new trend going on the internet among people that want to make money.
People (I am not going to defame them publicly here) are selling links on the WordPress themes’ footers for money and are so impudent to release their themes under special Terms of Use (such as the usually very fair Creative Commons license). Under those licenses it is (at least it is claimed) forbidden to remove the sponsored link.

But is it really?
Wordpress users such as Garry Conn and Lisa Sabin-Wilson strongly argument against using sponsored themes, or leaving the themes intact as the author (not even necessarily the designer!) demands it.

Why are sponsored links on themes so interesting for certain people?
Obviously because of the money. It is clearly not a matter of interest, because why would someone put to a Credit Card site or Thai vacations and cheap hotels in his footer or sidebar. Out of interest? Defiantly not!
Money, as always, plays an important role. Scammer companies, or those companies who have not really taken the time to read Google’s TOS (and would thus know that what they do is contrary to what they want to achieve) believe that many links on different people’s sites make them money. Indirectly of course, because they assume that more links from more sites leads to a higher pagerank, and thus to a better position on searches for specific terms (such as credit cards, thai vacation etc).

Garry describes it like that:

They don’t know that the theme they just downloaded has a link into a bad neighborhood and they don’t know that Google is penalizing their site for having the link on their site…

What options does ordinary joe new-user have?
Lisa offers these:

Remove the sponsored link from the footer
Contact the sponsored link owner
Quote him/her a price for a text ad link on your domain
Tell him/her you’ll replace it if he’s willing to pay your ad rate
If he says no, use said theme minus the sponsored link

My view on this:
If the design is really good, and by good I mean like really lovely and time-intense, more than just a day of development, then one should contact the theme sponsor and ask him for a solution or leave their link and change the size to something like arial 8px or use the ~~tag around the link plus add a rel=”nofollow”.~~

If the theme looks like it has been stolen or adopted from another page or has something in the footer such as “design by: (name) , hosting by: (name), random shit: (name)”, remove everything but the designer’s link, because after all it is his work. Everyone who has done some wordpress theming knows that porting a design (a finished design) over to wordpress templates is not that much work. After the some tries you get it done real quick. My point is that removing the footer is not the best way, but adopting the footer is. You can also add the designer’s website to your sidebar, if it looks better, I think that shouldn’t be the problem as long as you keep some sort of information that you were not the one who came up with the design (because that is just rude).

I truly share Lisa’s view on that, saying:

Is removing the links (sponsored, ads) illegal?
[...]
If released under GPL? then no.

Under a different licensing – - like a CC Share-a-like, for instance – - attribution to the original creator of the work is required. I have NO problems providing a link to the creator of the work (read: the actual person who put in the blood, sweat, and tears to create the graphics, style and code of the template.)

The link to the Credit Card Finance site? Unless the Credit Card Finance Site is the “Original Author” (meaning the individual or entity who created the Work.) – then I am not obligated to keep the link there.

Actually, why am I writing this?
Some weeks ago I got approached by some guy, who (as it later on turned out) was pro-actively selling ad links/sponsored links on wordpress themes, porting old or free css themes over and marketing them.

It was Hans (~~zeebob.com~~) who recently approached me and asked me to upload his (scammed themes) to the wp theme viewer, offering $10 for each theme. But honestly, selling my soul for a mere $10 sounded so crappy to me that I turned him down and giving him some tips concerning the lame layout of his page (with like all ads on there). Also, all this sponsoring is really giving me the creeps, one link to the original author seems fair, maybe also link the person who the work or some elements are based on (icons by famfamfam e.g.), but 4-5 links is just the taking the piss.

I hope that people become aware of the sponsored links in the footers and that designers can once again share their themes without getting approached weekly by marketeers as described above. This comment is discontinued, if I find some time I will write a follow-up or answer any comments.

Flickr: Trance Energy 2007 pictures (by d)

By: jez

20-03-2007

id&t events, pictures

0 comments

also see www.h4x3d.com/trance-energy-2007/ for more information

Flickr: Fontys Venlo (skywalk)

By: jez

20-03-2007

pictures

0 comments

fontys university "fontys venlo" skywalk "light and shadow"

Taken with my (crap) cellphone camera.

Flickr: hacked xbox (by yoda)

By: jez

20-03-2007

pictures

0 comments

My friend (yoda) was able to totally crap hack a xbox he got donated and is now able to run all kinds of programs from his hacked xbox.
He showed it to me last holidays, and even though I am not a console freak, I was fascinated!
You run linux on the xbox and emulate all kinds of stuff.
You can even surf the internet, view apple trailers online,
play snes and nes emulators, play xbox games, nintento64, everything.
Listen music and play videos – all in all quite cool.
I have no idea why the xbox does not come boxed like that by default, it is so much better.
–
Taken with my (crap) cellphone camera.