I am acquainting myself with Blueprint CSS this week, using it to build out the Stepmother Stories site.

I’m still figuring it out, but so far I really like what I see. Coming to this as a print designer, the idea of having grids for web design is, um, huge. The grid is 950px/24 columns wide, as-is. Or you can adjust it — either manually or using a Ruby on Rails compiler.

Below is the grid on, grid off [mouseover to see] which you control via the CSS class “showgrid.” This example uses SlipFire’s WordPress/Blueprint theme.

The grid is fab, but the aspect of Blueprint I’m most keen on its emphasis on typography, as evidenced by a “typography.css” file, as well as a mysterious subfolder labeled “fancy-type.”

I knew this was going to be good when one of the selling points at blueprintcss.org read: Typography based on expert principles that predate the web.

For a print-turned-web designer who’s studied typography and set metal type, reading that sentence is a little like sinking into a nice hot bath. *aaahhhhhhhhhhhh!*

Update 10/30/09: I found a nifty bookmarklet that toggles the grid on and off for you. Nice!

In addition to my freelance work, I also work for The Creative Group, which is a staffing agency for creatives. I like it because even when the project at hand is something pretty familiar to me, it’s always with new people and in a new place, and after 18-odd years of being in this line of work, that keeps things interesting.

But occasionally TCG will send me on an assignment that’s just pure, unabashed fun. Last time it was to a balloon factory to familiarize myself with the product so I could do some renderings. This time, it was to Colle+McVoy, a Minneapolis marketing agency that just won a Webby award for their development of the Yearbook Yourself website.

I had seen these yearbook photos around on Facebook and such and did wonder where people were getting them. Now I know! And I’m working with some very nice folks at C+M to create new templates for the 2009 version of the site. These are the templates based on old yearbook pics into which people will insert their photos to create the retro looks. It’s super fun, especially when you take friends’ and family’s pics and retro-ize them. I often end up chuckling to myself throughout the day as I’m working on this.

I don’t have a date for the 2009 site launch, but you can sign up here to be notified when it happens.

Update: I’ve finished my work on this project, and they are wrapping things up at Colle+McVoy the latter part of this week. The site launches the week of the 20th! Check it out! There are some great new images, and some nice additions this year that make the end result even more convincing and fun.

I have been reworking my website for, oh I don’t know, about two years now. There was never time to do it properly, and that’s why it’s been a work in progress for so long.

But I put my nose to the grindstone recently and got the redesign of it well underway. I have all sorts of ideas — too many, really — but it’s starting to gel. Here’s a sneak preview:

Having fun with Japanese stencils [also in use here on current site], type-as-art and lots and lots of color! [Hrumph, you’ll have to trust me on that one, seeing as the screengrab is fairly monochromatic.]

The Hazelden 2008 Annual Report was on press last week, all went extremely well and I’m excited to see the final piece. It was printed by Ideal Printers in Saint Paul and they did a fantastic job.

I will post a .pdf here once it’s officially gone public.