Check it out here:
http://www.theleagueofmoveabletype.com/fonts/17-fanwood

Visit the website: http://www.mbndesign.com

As seen on http://midnitesunlite.tumblr.com

The world of fonts is changing!Fonts have always been a problem on the web. For years one could only use fonts that are commonly found on  both PCs and Macs (Arial, Georgia, Times New Roman, Verdana were the only real solid options). There has been a number of attempts to solve this problem, none of which are really great options. You create create images for your text, which is a real headache to maintain and isn’t read by search engines or you could use a flash tool called sIFR which has all the downsides of flash.

But… fonts on the web have come a long way in a short period of time! There are actually a couple great options now, the best of which is the Google Font Directory. All of the fonts are open-source, aka free to use. Not only can you download the fonts for free and use them in ALL of your design projects, Google also provides your website development team a VERY easy-to-use way of setting these up on your website. The website remains perfectly accessible, and you can even copy and paste the text just like any other font! Amazing!

(By the way, if you ever need to convert a font from one format to another, try FontConverter.org)

The new DogSpa Resort in Desert Hot Springs, California is about to have it’s grand opening. Check out the newly completed website, designed and developed by Flip Studios!

Testimonial:
“It’s the Internet that’s leading your best prospects to your business these days, not the phone book.  That’s why you simply cannot afford a do-it-yourself website.  Flip Studios will get you noticed, just like they did for DogSpa Resort!”

Paula Terifaj, DVM and Founder
DogSpa Resort

Project Details:
This website was designed and developed to match the feel of the resort (think: luxury, wellness, and all-sized-dog-friendly) . It features a slideshow of awesome photography of the resort by Lisa Scarsi. Next up: Creating the blog!

Website:
Click here to visit DogSpaResort.com

(By the way, if you stay at DogSpa Resort, having a dog with you is mandatory. If you don’t bring one with you, one will be provided for you. We’re serious. Isn’t that amazing???! )

We apologize for Mikkele’s poor color and composition. We expected more from her hand-held camera phone shooting skills on a dark, rainy day…

According to PC Magazine, these are the top 10 most commonly used passwords:

1. password
2. 123456
3. qwerty
4. abc123
5. letmein
6. monkey
7. myspace1
8. password1
9. blink182
10. (your first name)

(If any of the following is your password, keep reading to figure out how to create a better password)

How to create your new password in 5 easy steps:

Step 1: Pick a line from your favorite song (or movie, book, tv show, etc). The first 6-8 words is perfect.

Step 2: Take the first letter of each word of the line you just selected and write them down in lowercase.

Step 3: Find the year the song was made and add it to the end of the letters you just wrote down.

Step 4: Capitalize at least 1 letter. Add at least 1 piece of punctuation. An exclamation point is an easy target. You now have your base password.

Step 5: Now you take your base password and add a letter at the beginning to it for each website login you need (use an “f” for Facebook, a “g” for gmail, etc).

Example:

Pick a song: “Stairway to Heaven” by Led Zeppelin

Pick a favorite line: – I am going to pick the line “and she’s buying a stairway to heaven”.

Get the first letters: asbasth

Get the year the song was made: 1971

Put them together: asbasth1971

Add a capital letter(s), and punctuation: asbaSTH1971!

Final Example passwords (with single letter on front): Facebook fasbaSTH1971! / Gmail gasbaSTH1971! / Flickr fasbaSTH1971!

Tips:

1. This is easy to type! If it looks hard to read above, that’s because it is hard to read. Fortunately you won’t have to read it too often.
2. Make sure to use at least 1 number, 1 lowercase letter, 1 uppercase letter, 1 punctuation. This keeps things very secure.
3. To change it up, place your punctuation in the middle of the password.

Good luck!

The 4 Goals For Every Website Project

1. Produce a quality finished product that meets the project goals
2. Get the project done in an cost-effective way (spend where necessary)
3. Complete the project in a reasonable timeline
4. Maintain a good quality of life for all parties involved

In short, the 4 goals are: do it right, spend wisely, get it done quickly, and avoid reverting back to the fetal position every time you think of how the project is progressing.

Sound simple enough? Guess what, it’s not as easy to do to do in practice.

The 2 Questions Our Design Partners Instinctively Ask

Now that we know each of the 4 goals we are trying to achieve, we’ll see that the questions we instinctively ask are inadequate to meeting our goals. Time and again we see our design partners asking only 2 questions when it comes to developing a website solution.

1. How much does it cost?
2. How long will it take?

These are great questions, but the answers aren’t going to tell us if we are on the right track to achieving all of our goals. In fact, the most common complaint we hear from our design partners is about their previous website developers and the pain and suffering they had to endure to get the project completed. Why then do we focus so much on the cost and the timeline and completely over look the quality of life aspect?

We’re going to submit that it’s an issue of not anticipating the difficulties that may lie ahead and not knowing what questions to ask to address those.

The List of Questions You SHOULD Ask Your Website Development Team

So here it is! This list of questions will help you flesh out your next website project or feature.

1. How much will the initial development cost be?
2. Are there any licensing costs? Are they one-time fees or recurring fees?
3. How long will it take to get the project done?
4. Are there any maintenance needs that you can foresee?
5. Have you handled this type of solution in the past? Is it likely that this solution could “break down” on us? Have you ever had this solution fail on you?
6. Is there another solution that will still yield a quality finished product, but will save us money, time, or peace of mind?

Further tips:

• Your developer may not even realize they need to be thinking about all of these questions up front. Be patient with them as they explore the answers. Every developer has dealt with “nightmare” situations and it often boils down to one of the issues above not being addressed properly. Common developer headaches include: unforeseen maintenance, unreliable solutions breaking while on vacation, etc.
• A good site map helps everyone get on the same page.
• A happy developer generally correlates to a happy client. An unhappy developer generally correlates with an unhappy client. If your developer pushes back on an idea in the planning stages, find out why.

What is jQuery?
To put it simply, jQuery is a library of programming code that allows programmers to create feature-rich websites without needing to create every feature from scratch. The jQuery library and plugins give programmers quick access to a slew of functionality including: animations, fading in/fading out content, accordions, dynamically loading in content from external URLs, and more! In other words, jQuery delivers on a lot of promises that have been undelivered in the past: easy implementation of advanced features. (See below for some cool demos of the technology)

Basic Functionality Demos
Accordions - http://jqueryui.com/demos/accordion/
Tabs - http://jqueryui.com/demos/tabs/
Color Animation (click the “toggle effect” button) – http://jqueryui.com/demos/animate/
Effects (select the option from the drop down, click “Run Effect”) – http://jqueryui.com/demos/effect/

Plugin Demos
AnythingSlider – http://css-tricks.com/examples/AnythingSlider/
Display Switch (click the icons in the upper left) – http://www.sohtanaka.com/web-design/examples/display-switch/
Thumbnail Gallery – http://www.queness.com/resources/html/thumbnail/index.html
Slide Panel – http://www.webdesignerwall.com/demo/jquery/simple-slide-panel.html
Animated Hover – http://www.webdesignerwall.com/demo/jquery/animated-hover2.html
(These are just a few examples that touch on just a few possibilities.)

How popular is jQuery?
Since the jQuery library is open-source and free to all, it is definitely priced right! A number of large websites use jQuery including: Twitter, Wikipedia, Amazon, Microsoft, Netflix, and WhiteHouse.gov. It has even received official support from Microsoft and has been paired with it’s enterprise development software. That means that jQuery is outpacing all other competing libraries and it is here to stay.

Google Trends: jQuery

Questions?
If you have any questions or comments, give us a call! We’d love to walk you through some more demos and show you all that jQuery can do for you! 949-748-6940