Taking shape

The previous version of this website was made in a lighter color, I’ve always liked lighter colors in a website. However I felt it was too much and so when I began the re-design I tried for a more darker feel, but retain some light at the same time. I, through trial and error, came up with the colors for the background, and then proceeded to lighten it up a bit.

I drew the inspiration for the banner in the header from my previous version, as well as from version 2. I added some light glows as well to lighten the area up, and made the banner a lighter shade than the website background. This also serves to clearly show the end of the header and beginning of the content; likewise in the footer, to show a clear distinction between parts of the website.

I have to say this website was a lot of trial and error. Looking back at the original concept for the content is almost like looking at another website entirely. There was a lot I changed as I began coding the HTML and CSS, and I have to admit it made it look better.

Inspiration

This was big. I drew inspiration from a few different sources. Like my version 2 website I looked to Marius Roosendaal’s website for help. His night theme was the one that drew me to a darker colored website, as well as the lightening factors. I also loved how his one page website was laid out, and my home page really looks after it.

For the comments area I definitely took after Elliot Jay Stocks. I loved how his comments spanned the whole site’s width, and how his inputs at the bottom of the page were lengthy as well. His website also inspired me to use a 2px border underneath my links on hovering, and when active. Additionally, a lot of the padding I did (especially on the About page) came from Mr. Stock’s website.

I have to say beside the above mention the rest was pure trial and error over a month’s time of development. The original PSD I made looks almost nothing like the finished product.

Closing thoughts

With all that said, tell me what you think about my new site. If you’ve got any changes you think would make it look better, or have anything you would like to say about it you could leave a comment below or contact me.

• Join the CSUN Army ROTC program.
• Launch my new site, and blog frequently.
• Work on getting some new work to put in my portfolio
• Work out, will need to for ROTC.
• Work on a new website for the CSUN Army ROTC program.
• Do well in school, as if I don’t already.
• Create a website for my cabinetry business.
• Get some clientele of my own, versus getting clients from the companies I work for.

I want to begin blogging about my experiences in the CSUN Army ROTC program, for a few reasons. The main reason is for me to have a way to look back at how far I’ve come from the beginning. The second is to show others who are interested in the Army ROTC program what everyday life is like participating in it.

I will begin to focus more on my portfolio as time goes on. I won’t do this until summer 2010 when I would have, hopefully, worked on some websites that would bring my portfolio to life.

I would like to finally begin a re-design of my business’ website, the old website is just ridiculously horrible; the business’ goals have also changed, so I want the website to reflect the new goals.

2009 Recap

• Launched a new version of this site.
• Blogged very little.
• Did very little big projects to add to my portfolio.
• Started the process to join the CSUN Army ROTC program.
• Began to work out.
• Launched my own business.

So another year has come and gone, let’s review what happened in 2009.

Personally

Honestly this was a really weird year. In the beginning I remember work was really down in the dumps. I remember looking pretty much everywhere in LA, and finding nothing. The year felt odd, at the very least. I felt as though it went by rather quick at times, but extremely slow at other times throughout the year. June, and July, seemed to lift the crazy “no-work” atmosphere, at least for me.

I re-designed, re-launched, my site around that same time, releasing version 3 of melechmizrahi.com. After the re-design I really did not come back to my site as often as I had. This was due to work, and some personal issues which I won’t get into.

In the news

Just as it had been a crazy personal year, it was a huge year in the news. Every major banking, and automotive, company seemed to need a tax bailout, as if every citizen didn’t as well. AIG seemed to have a lot of fun with their bailout money, throwing a party for their executives, whom make enough money to throw themselves a party everyday I might add.

A few banks collapsed, and were quickly bought out. Chase finally moved west after buying out Washington Mutual, they finally seemed to get into the “Manifest Destiny” craze; although a hundred-fifty years late. Wachovia was bought by Wells Fargo.

Automotive companies let go some great brands to. The year was very hectic.

What’s in store for us?

Seeing how crazy, and fucked up to say the least, 2009 was what’s in store for us in 2010? Some people have the belief that we have only 2 odd years to live as we do now, before a major catastrophe changes Humanity, for worse or for better who knows. However realistically what are we heading into?

I would love to say that 2009 held the worst, and 2010 would bring us back to the glory days. Who knows… we’ll see in the foreseeable future, won’t we?

All in all, Happy New Year, or Happy-get-used-to-writing-a-new-year-on-all-documents ;).

I worked with them closely on this flier to make sure it conveyed the Mediterranean theme they so craved to get across to potential customers. The flier is meant to give the reader a taste of what Mom’s Best Cooking is, what they serve, and how they serve it.

This is a work in progress.

• a: Al Ingham
• b: Blockbuster
• c: Coda Co Za
• d: Design Bombs
• e: Ebay
• f: Fetco Toy Soldiers
• g: Gmail
• h: Hotmail
• i: Inspiredology
• j: Bart-Jan Verhoef
• k: KROQ
• l: Lorem Ipsum – All the facts – Lipsum Generator
• m: Melech Mizrahi
• n: N.Design Studio
• o: Official Burton Cummings
• p: Paypal
• q: KROQ
• r: CSUN Army ROTC
• s: SecureSignup.Net (Old Hosting company login area)
• t: Twitter (Yes, I actually go to Twitter’s website to update)
• u: USPS
• v: Verizon
• w: Wells Fargo
• x: XE – Currency Exchange
• y: Youtube
• z: Mark Forrester (Coda came up first, but I didn’t want to put him twice)

Google Chrome is an amazing browser, created by Google. It is quick, simple, and very elegant. It makes browsing the web a lot easier, and for the most part funner. So I decided to switch. I’ve been using Mozilla Firefox for about 3 years now, and I absolutely loved it. It is a great browser, so I don’t think I will completely abandon it.

Why switch?

This was the first question I asked myself when I first heard of Chrome. I downloaded it, and took a look at it for myself. It was quick, it was responsive, it was elegant, it worked very well. What struck me first was how it took my bookmarks from Firefox, and displayed them brilliantly, just as they had been in Firefox. Chrome also took my history, saved passwords, etc making the switch that much easier for me.

The elegance

I loved all the simple animations in Chrome. All the little things that Google did within Chrome to make it nicer, and feel better to the user were done very well, and with precision.

One thing I found really lovely was that when opening a link with the middle mouse button, instead of the new tab opening at the end of the tabs list, the link opens directly after the tab in which I clicked the link. I’ve always been annoyed by the fact that other browsers open a middle clicked link at the end of all the other opened tabs. When there are a few tabs open, this isn’t a problem, but who has just a few tabs open these days?

Closing

So, due to simple things within Chrome, I’ve switched my default browser. You should consider doing so as well.

I took their existing template, converted it to a Wordpress theme, and then I used Wordpress as a tool for them to use for their new newsletters. All they have to do it use Wordpress as an app to build each day’s newsletter. Then just take the code and send it off to their subscribers. It makes their lives easier, and landed me a good job with FanRocket.

I was given the PSD, and asked to code it up, then make the Coldfusion template for the CMS. I then took the given information, and added all the pages in the CMS.

Girl Scouts of LA (Los Angeles) came back to Meteorsite with a problem, the original design they had chosen was too small. They did not like it, they wanted a re-design. Mary Broomfield of Girl Scouts of LA came up with the re-design, and I was emailed the new design. I then coded it up into a template for Matt to use.

This new website had a twist, it would be a social networking website like Burton Cummings’ website. For this I had to create new designs for the social networking pages of the site.