Jordi Romkema

Now I was already familiar with Seeqpod and Songza where you can find music with just a few clicks, but today I stumbled upon Songerize. It's basically a search engine for music, just like Seeqpod and Songza, however it has virtually no options and plays the song you are looking for automatically if it's found. Easy to use if you're looking for a song in a hurry with just one click and that's the main reason why I like it.

I thought it just said volume 1 for fun but it turns out there are more follow-ups to You Suck at Photshop. Absolutely brilliant comment: You've only been using $75 worth of Photoshop.

Oh and the ring of infinite sorrows from tutorial #4 is actually on eBay!

Web Designer Wall has an interesting article that explains how to create a gradient effect over plain text headings in CSS. The effect is really easy to recreate and works in most browsers including Internet Explorer 6. Absolutely brilliant, why haven't I thought of this?

I don't really like the style of the standard Xbox Live Gamercard. It's cool and all but I'd like to personalize it so it fits the design of my site, the standard Gamercard however does not. I searched for solutions to create my own Gamercard. I found some such as MyGamerCard where you can customize your own Gamercard but only limited to certain preconfigured styles. I figured there would be some sort of public API by Microsoft where I could just pull the data from and display it in a neat way, only to find out you have to be an official Xbox Community Developer to get access to this API. Bummer!

Then I came across Xbox Live Nation where the main developer, who has access to the official Xbox Gamercard API, created his own API which is public. With this Xbox Live Nation Gamercard API I created my own Xbox Live Gamercard and some of you have emailed me wondering how I did this. Therefore I wrote a little tutorial explaining it step-by-step so you can recreate it yourself with your own design. Read the rest... »

Seriously, this guy has some issues... but this Photoshop 'tutorial' is hilarious...

Out of all the Democratic candidates Barack Obama has the best site hands down. I'm not really into US politics but since he's in the news so much lately, here in The Netherlands, I decided to check out his website. It was certainly more than I expected, the colors are brilliant, easy for the eye, cold yet it makes me feel warm and at home. The website itself is clear and easy to use. If I was able to vote I would vote for him just based on the strength of his site.

Update: Apparently I'm not the only one...

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I’m truly impressed by the work of Designer and Art Director Jesse Kaczmarek from New York City. It’s absolutely stunning, so diverse but still consistent. Here are some of the gems in his remarkable and excellent portfolio...

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Finally I had the chance to finish my new website this week. A new layout and design for you and a brand new content management/blogging system for me. Figured it would be much easier to update since I can update from all over the world with Wordpress. And it was desperately needed too since my last update on my old site was from March 2007 saying that I hadn’t had the chance to update and that new updates will be coming soon… yeah right. So now that 2008 has come I couldn’t resist getting a fresh start and re-launching my site.

There are a few new features but probably the main difference is the language. I used to write in Dutch only, which makes sense since I’m from The Netherlands. However the industry that I’m working in covers the whole Internet and therefore is pretty much, yeah you guessed it, international. This led to my decision to write primarily in English from now on. It also broadens my reach which is important to me because I still have a dream to work in another country, specifically in the United States, for a while. Not now, but sooner or later…

The new site gives me a chance to write more about my work, not only what I do but also where I draw my inspiration from. Besides work I also added more personal touches to the site: you can see my latest photo’s on Flickr, my upcoming trips on Dopplr, what game I played recently on my XBOX 360 on XBOX Live and what music I listened to on Last.fm. If you’re not sick of me yet you can also follow me on Hyves, LinkedIn or Facebook.

Not that i do this everyday, but I was googling myself the other day and found a presentation (PDF) about design basics from the Arizona State University. One of my designs for CSS Zen Garden was one of the examples of designing with color (page 20). I would love to hear what the rest of the presentation was about because the sheets that are online look really interesting.

The new site is still under construction. Well no that's not true, it is pretty much finished but it just needs content. Will be adding content in the next few days. Come back soon!