Beautiful JavaScript Buttons

I’ve been following this blog lately, WebAppers. It’s a great resource for free and open source icons, code, Photoshop brushes, etc.

Anyway, I’ve noticed a pretty cool trend with menu rollovers, particularly ones using some popular JavaScript libraries (personally I’m still impressed by CSS dropdowns using “a:hover”).

I don’t mean to sound too technical (or not technical enough), but these buttons are beautiful. They include transitions and animation which can be appreciated by anyone. But from a usability/coding perspective, they seem better integrated into the page than an equivalent Flash component.

Check out the samples below, and who knows, maybe I’ll put one together for my site.

MenuMatic by Green Gecko Design,
jQuery menu animation by, I’m guessing, Jonathan Snook
jQuery menu plugin by Joel Birch

Kathleen & Jack's Wedding Propaganda

Just kidding :)

Kathleen is my sister and Jack is my new brother in law and well before their wedding (thankfully), they had asked if I could help them with their wedding invites and related materials.

So the following are

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Graphic Design at the ICA/Boston

Over this past summer I started working as a volunteer Graphic Designer for the Education department of the ICA here in Boston, specifically for the Teen New Media programs.

The whole program is pretty badass, basically highschool kids from around the area can come in and take classes and workshops taught by artists and professionals. The classes range from writing workshops to 3D mashups using Google Sketch Up, to building small electronic devices for unpredictable sound creation.

All in all, good stuff, plus the classes are free to Boston public school students.

Anyway, the following posts are related to some of the work I have been doing with the ICA

ICA Graphic Design: Applications
ICA Graphic Design: Fliers
ICA Graphic Design: Signage

ICA Graphic Design: Applications

Here is the application form I developed for the Teen Arts Council at the ICA.

I am currently working on the application for the Teen New Media programs (different from the Teen Arts Council) and will post it when it is done.

ICA Graphic Design: Fliers

Here are some of the fliers I made for workshops and classes at the ICA

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ICA Graphic Design: Signage

Here are some of the signs I made for various ICA Teen events.

Teen Arts Council Meeting

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Oh The News of Design

So I used to be the Associate Editor of Design News, an engineering magazine and website before parent company RBI was packaged for sale by their parent company, Reed Elsevier, who I guess would have been my grandparent company.

Anywho, I have some content here from my run there which I’m going to drop in a few posts for yall to check out.

Unfortunately, based on the beautiful chronological nature of blogging, I am actually making this post after the original posts in order to have a visually linear flow, which means there is a possibility I have really confused someone who may have come across post three without the typically preceding, 1 or 2; I’m such an animal.

Design News, Part I: Microsites

Design News, Part II: Podcasts

Design News, Part III: Video

Design News, Part IV: Writing

Design News, Part I: Microsite Production

So, while working with Design News, I was pretty instrumental in the production of these two editorial microsites, revolving around niche areas of engineering.

Mechatronics Zone & Sensor Solutions

I acted as the liaison between Editorial, Marketing and the developers building the sites and was also responsible for content creation and management of the sensors site.

Design News, Part II: Podcasts

This was probably my favorite aspect of working for the magazine, especially because I’m an audio Geek but also because I like to talk with people.

Check it:

Nano Antennae Collect Solar Energy
Sean Snyder, Associate Editor
2/15/2008
A new method for collecting solar energy uses nano-sized antennae printed on thin sheets. Researcher Steve Novak discusses the process for this method and the timeline for implementation. 8:56
(Direct link to MP3)

Material Connexion Consults on Green Material Designs
Sean Snyder, Associate Editor
2/7/2008
Material Connexion is a materials library and consultancy with

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Design News, Part III: Video

Here are some embedded samples of my videos for Design News.

Design Squad’s Gravity Bike Challenge

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