I Bought a Mac » Deisgn

February 2010 Wallpaper

Brent — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 02:53:38 +0000

I’m trying to make a calendar wallpaper for each month this year. Here’s “Feb 2010. What do you think?

Special Characters (Glyphs) in OSX and HTML

Brent — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 21:09:28 +0000

One of the things I refer to all the time is the special character shortcuts available in OS X and their HTML equivalents. I love that there’s a keyboard shortcut for just about any one I want to use. The problem is remembering them from time to time (especially the HTML codes). So, I decided to whip out a table with all that I could find online and put it up here at iBAM so I could have quick reference to it and so could you. If there’s something that I missed, feel free to add it in via the comments. We all would love to share in your juicy knowledge. I hope this list proves helpful. Happy characterizing!

I also use this site a lot: CopyPasteCharacter

Glyph	Shortcut	HTML	Description
‘	option – ]	‘	left single quote
’	option – shift – ]	’	right single quote
‚		‚	single low-9 quote
“	option – [	“	left double quote
”	option - shift - [	”	right double quote
„	option - shift - w	„	double low-9 quote
†	option - t	†	dagger
‡	option - shift - 7	‡	double dagger
…	option - ;		horizontal ellipsis
‰	option - shift - r	‰	per mill sign
‹	option - shift - 3	‹	single left-pointing angle quote
›	option - shift - 4	›	single right-pointing angle quote
?		♠	black spade suit
?		♣	black club suit
?		♥	black heart suit
?		♦	black diamond suit
?		‾	overline, = spacing overscore
?		←	leftward arrow
?		↑	upward arrow
?		→	rightward arrow
?		↓	downward arrow
™	option - 2	™	trademark sign
"		"	double quotation mark
&		&	ampersand
<		<	less-than sign
>		>	greater-than sign
[			left square bracket
]			right square bracket
–	option – hyphen	–	en dash
—	option – shift -hyphen	—	em dash
			nonbreaking space
¡	option – 1	¡	inverted exclamation
¢	option – 4	¢	cent sign
£	option – 3	£	pound sterling
¤		¤	general currency sign
¥	option – y	¥	yen sign
¦		¦ or &brkbar;	broken vertical bar
§	option – 6	§	section sign
¨	option – shift – u	¨ or ¨	umlaut
©	option – g	©	copyright
ª	option – 9	ª	feminine ordinal
«	option –	«	left angle quote
¬	option – l	¬	not sign
			soft hyphen
®	option – r	®	registered trademark
¯		¯ or &hibar;	macron accent
°	option – shift – 8	°	degree sign
±	option – shift – =	±	plus or minus
²		²	superscript two
³		³	superscript three
´	option – shift – e	´	acute accent
µ	option – m	µ	micro sign
¶	option – 7	¶	paragraph sign
·	option – shift – 9	·	middle dot
¸	option – shift – z	¸	cedilla
¹		¹	superscript one
º	option – 0	º	masculine ordinal
»	option – shift –	»	right angle quote
¼		¼	one-fourth
½		½	one-half
¾		¾	three-fourths
¿	option – shift – ?	¿	inverted question mark
À	option – ` A	À	uppercase A, grave accent
Á	option – e A	Á	uppercase A, acute accent
Â	option – i A	Â	uppercase A, circumflex accent
Ã	option – n A	Ã	uppercase A, tilde
Ä	option – u A	Ä	uppercase A, umlaut
Å	option – shift – a	Å	uppercase A, ring
Æ	option – shift – ‘	Æ	uppercase AE
Ç	option – shift – c	Ç	uppercase C, cedilla
È	option – ` E	È	uppercase E, grave accent
É	option – e E	É	uppercase E, acute accent
Ê	option – i E	Ê	uppercase E, circumflex accent
Ë	option – u E	Ë	uppercase E, umlaut
Ì	option – ` I	Ì	uppercase I, grave accent
Í	option – e I	Í	uppercase I, acute accent
Î	option – i I	Î	uppercase I, circumflex accent
Ï	option – u I	Ï	uppercase I, umlaut
Ð		Ð	uppercase Eth, Icelandic
Ñ	option – n N	Ñ	uppercase N, tilde
Ò	option – ` O	Ò	uppercase O, grave accent
Ó	option – e O	Ó	uppercase O, acute accent
Ô	option – i O	Ô	uppercase O, circumflex accent
Õ	option – n O	Õ	uppercase O, tilde
Ö	option – u O	Ö	uppercase O, umlaut
×		×	multiplication sign
Ø	option – shift – o	Ø	uppercase O, slash
Ù	option – ` U	Ù	uppercase U, grave accent
Ú	option – e U	Ú	uppercase U, acute accent
Û	option – i U	Û	uppercase U, circumflex accent
Ü	option – u U	Ü	uppercase U, umlaut
Ý		Ý	uppercase Y, acute accent
Þ		Þ	uppercase THORN, Icelandic
ß	option – s	ß	lowercase sharps, German
à	option – ` a	à	lowercase a, grave accent
á	option – e a	á	lowercase a, acute accent
â	option – i a	â	lowercase a, circumflex accent
ã	option – n a	ã	lowercase a, tilde
ä	option – u a	ä	lowercase a, umlaut
å	option – a	å	lowercase a, ring
æ	option – ‘	æ	lowercase ae
ç	option – c	ç	lowercase c, cedilla
è	option – ` e	è	lowercase e, grave accent
é	option – e e	é	lowercase e, acute accent
ê	option – i e	ê	lowercase e, circumflex accent
ë	option – u e	ë	lowercase e, umlaut
ì	option – ` i	ì	lowercase i, grave accent
í	option – e i	í	lowercase i, acute accent
î	option – i i	î	lowercase i, circumflex accent
ï	option – u i	ï	lowercase i, umlaut
ð		ð	lowercase eth, Icelandic
ñ	option – n n	ñ	lowercase n, tilde
ò	option – ` o	ò	lowercase o, grave accent
ó	option – e o	ó	lowercase o, acute accent
ô	option – i o	ô	lowercase o, circumflex accent
õ	option – n o	õ	lowercase o, tilde
ö	option – u o	ö	lowercase o, umlaut
÷		÷	division sign
ø	option – o	ø	lowercase o, slash
ù	option – ` u	ù	lowercase u, grave accent
ú	option – e u	ú	lowercase u, acute accent
û	option – i u	û	lowercase u, circumflex accent
ü	option – u u	ü	lowercase u, umlaut
ý		ý	lowercase y, acute accent
þ		þ	lowercase thorn, Icelandic
ÿ	option – u y	ÿ	lowercase y, umlaut

Designing the New iJustine Logo

Brent — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 18:04:17 +0000

After many, many revisions and way too many months of delay. It is my pleasure to unveil a brand new logo for my friend Justine. This was a very difficult task, not just because it was for Justine, but more for the fact that I have such a major peeve with the “i” in front. A lower case “i” besides a capital “J” leaves such a crappy opening in the word that I fought through literally hundreds of typefaces to find one that could have an option for me to start with. I finally found Buffet Script and found a slight glimmer of hope.

This typeface had a lot of character and some really nice alternates so I decided to commit to it and start using it as a base for her logo. After playing for a bit I was left with an unsettling feeling when I saw the ‘i’ slamming into the ‘J’ and fighting with the ‘t’. I was also not to pleased with the default ‘e’ and there was definitely some work that the letters needed to make them play nice together.

I started looking at some of the alternates and found some good options. Especially with the ‘n’ and it’s nifty little underlining loop. After finding a more normal ‘e’, tweaking the dot on the second ‘i’ and the ‘t’, I was feeling pretty good, but that dang ‘iJ’ combo was just killing me! A lowercase ‘i’ next to an uppercase ‘J’ is just weird looking to me for some reason. I had to bang this one into some form of submission and ended up chopping off the ‘i’ and fudging it around a bit. Not the perfect solution, but it kinda worked.

After completing the “iJustine” design, we bounced the thing around for a few days. I decided on thickening some of the thinner strokes, adjusting the loop on the ‘n’ and playing with some of the tracking. Suddenly, we had a brainstorm… Kill the ‘i’ all together and just use the loop on the ‘J’ so it reads “Justine” but still has the ‘i’ in front so as to not offend… whoever. (I mean, who really needs the ‘i’ anyway?)

So there you go! We actually ended up with two different designs (for now). One that clearly says “iJustine” and one that is a little less ‘i’. We’re using the ‘iJustine’ design for the new (brand yourself) Viddler shirts (pictured) and the above design for just about everything else. Can I say this is actually the final, final, final design? Heck no! I’m way too much of a design freak to leave it be for too long, but hopefully this one will last for a little while before we both start picking at it again.

All in all, I really am very happy with the final outcome and I hope she feels the same. We’ll see what happens.

So… You know what I think. What do you think?

Designer Duel: Day 5 (and we’re done)

Brent — Sat, 20 Oct 2007 00:08:47 +0000

Designer Duel: Day 4

Brent — Fri, 19 Oct 2007 00:56:02 +0000

Designer Duel: Day 3

Brent — Wed, 17 Oct 2007 18:48:16 +0000

Designer Duel: Day 2

Brent — Tue, 16 Oct 2007 05:51:03 +0000

Designer Duel: Day 1

Brent — Mon, 15 Oct 2007 21:07:41 +0000

Old Glory: Adam Betts Style

Brent — Sun, 14 Oct 2007 22:31:11 +0000

First, let me begin by saying that I have been an Adam Betts fan for quite a while now. His artwork is simply stunning and endlessly inspiring for me. I visit his site often to see what new eye candy he has published. Back in May (or June maybe), I installed his flag pack (really only one of them) for the Old Glory screensaver and have had it running the apple logo flag as my screensaver ever since. The other day while sitting in a coffee shop, I was chatting with another Mac user when my screensaver came on to my laptop screen. I was greeted by a “Wow! Where’d you get that?” I promptly informed him and he started downloading. The incident immediately reminded me that I hadn’t shared the information via iBAM either and I should do so in case there were others that might have interest as well. So here it is, the link to Adam Betts’ Old Glory flag images post and his brief tutorial on how to install them. Enjoy!

The Designer Duel

Brent — Thu, 11 Oct 2007 16:39:59 +0000

I have been challenged to the first in a series of “Designer Duels” by Matt McInerney over @ pixelspread.com. I’m not too sure how it got the name since it’s more of a collaboration than a duel, but it does roll off the tongue pretty easy. Anyway, how it works is Matt will kick it off next week by sending me a PSD and I will make my additions/edits to it and send it back. We will do this every day for a week and see what comes out by the end of the week. hopefully it will be a nice piece of art. I’m pretty excited about the duel and I think it will be a lot of fun. We will both be posting our updates back and forth via our blogs so be sure to subscribe to the feed to be sure you are getting the latest updates.