Helen Johnson

Now that I am using a MacBook Pro for work I have had to change the way I do some things. The two main programs that I use everyday are Photoshop, for website design, and a text editor, for html/css development. While Photoshop works the same on both platforms (especially now that CS3 supports Intel Macs) the problem was finding a new text/html editor.

For the last few years I have been using EditPlus for all html and css coding. It’s a great little program and I got to know it well, but alas, it is not made for Macs. When searching for a new editor to use, I was pointed in the direction of TextMate.

While they are the same in result, they are both very different in practice. Being a Windows program, in EditPlus everything is much more visual. Menus and options are displayed in toolbars for easy access. TextMate, on the other hand, is more reliant on keyboard shortcuts and little nifty things called tab triggers. In TextMate there are no buttons to click to save your work or to open a document, you either need to use the program dropdown menu or learn the shortcuts.

I still miss EditPlus, but TextMate has been a good replacement so far and I am still learning how to get the most out of it.

I have always been a PC/Windows user, however last year I got a 17″ MacBook Pro to use for work. Previously I was using a pc desktop running Windows XP as my work machine but I wanted something more powerful. In particular I wanted a machine that could handle Photoshop better, and I wanted a notebook. At the time the MacBook Pro was the best machine (hardware wise) around.

The MacBook Pro is of course a very quick machine, it has 2 GB of ram and a 2.4 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo. So it does run Photoshop CS3 well, no more long freezes or waiting for files to open or save.

I would have preferred to get a 15″ MacBook Pro except that they only run a 1440 x 900 resolution, which I did not think was very good, so I went for the 17″ which has a crazy 1920 x 1200 resolution. And let me tell you, the resolution is worth it, especially when it comes to design. Being able to see a whole design when working in Photoshop is really great.

When it come to the operating system though, I couldn’t tell you which is the better. I still use Windows XP on an Asus F3Jm at home, and I do run XP on both Boot Camp and Parallels on the Mac. So far though there hasn’t been anything that has made me think that the Mac OSX is better. Sure it may be a fair bit “prettier”, but once you get past the pretty gimmicks and cute little useless programs that come pre-installed, it’s not really any better (or worse) than Windows for me.

That said I am happy with my Mac, it is a good machine, but I don’t know if I’ll stay with Mac when it comes time to upgrade to a new work machine in the future. Really what will make the decision for me is how good the hardware is. So for now I am happy to split my time between Windows and Mac, and really that’s not a bad thing for someone like me as it means I can always work comfortably in either environment.

I wanted to create a website that presented information in a clear and easy to find fashion but that still showed my design abilities and personality. I liked the idea of making the background image the focal graphical element while layering the website information and interface over the top so that it can remain simple and easy to read.

To create the hummingbird design I converted the hummingbird itself to a vector illustration using Illustrator CS3 and the live trace tool. I then moved it over to Photoshop CS3 where I changed the hue / saturation so that it was the teal / orange colours and then added some depth and highlights with the burn tool. I also added in the long tail feathers by making paths with the pen tool.

Next I created the pink flowers and their stems and leaves. These are just simple paths created with the pen tool. Behind them I have used a mixture or leaf / flower brushes, gradient highlights and “dust” created with the dissolve blending mode.

I made the header look glassy in order to link the foreground with the background; so that the foreground content and background graphical elements were not completely removed from each other. I didn’t want the content to just be on top of the background.

There is still more that I want to do to the design of the website, such as adding some graphical elements to the background of the footer, but overall I am happy with how it has turned out so far.

Hi and welcome to my website / blog. I am Helen Johnson.

I have been working in the online industry since 2004 as a web designer and developer. On this site you can find out more about me or take a look at my portfolio of work.

On this blog I will be discussing my work as well as any ideas, tools or resources that I come across in my daily travels.