APPS: The Adventures of making a showcase app for Windows 8 UI

Yesterday, I woke up knowing I would do something I have never done before, but not quite knowing what it might be. I started off the day, took the kids to school, and came home and cleaned up a little with Willow (More like, I cleaned, and she played the defensive linebacker role), so after she fell asleep, I climbed onto the computer and made up a quick and dirty mobile app for my church: Frontline Community It's still not done, but I at least got the basics in there, and can do a little of styling in Visual Studio now. 

Then I decided to take it a step further, and see what I can do to make a Windows 8 app. I put the basics into Joshfire Factory, and deployed it as a Visual Studio project. Opened it and instantly found that it didn't work. That's fine, I thought, I love a good challenge, so I was off looking to see if I can figure out why it didn't work. I found that much of the issues with the project were because it was using the old version of WinJS. I corrected every line that pointed to the old WinJS, and updated them to point to the location of the new version. I rebuilt and then clicked Run. 

Almost... There were a couple of issues still, like when viewing a section or page, and going back, you get the same content loaded behind the items on each section. Well that sux! 

So I dug a little deeper, and found out that it was not checking to see if the content was already loaded when it went back to the home screen, since I'm still a novice at this, I felt a simple CLEAR statement on load will do (I'm not too sure how to do a conditional statement just yet). That did the trick :)

Now all I have to do for it is fix the picture container when it loads the pictures from their sources, and also fix the YouTube stream from trying to use an ActiveX component... (Not even available, cant see why it defaults to it) and I'll be all set. At least I got somewhere in my ventures though, even though it is not 100% working, it is better than anything I've done with the OS thus far. (Minus a couple found registry tweaks :0)

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IDEA - Artprize Poster

The people over at Artprize.org released their pick for the 2012 Artprize poster, and many will agree with me when I say that it did not go over very well. The poll was over 75% against it. Coming from their perspective though, they only had a select few submissions for this years contest, so I'm sure the picking was slim.

As an artist in this town, I felt that I had to do my part to show what else Grand Rapids has to offer when it comes to art and poster design. So I have decided to design another poster, instead of being one of those artists that just complains about something and does nothing to better it. This poster really does have a 3D effect to it, and won't produce migraines.

Leave a comment if you like where this is going ☺

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Revamping the resume

So I decided that I need to make a resume that shows who I am and not just what I can do. I think with this first draft I can say that I'm on to something far better than what I had. Now to just cost out printing this thing. Don't think I would need anymore than 20 copies, but the ecconomy does kinda suck, so I'd better make it 50.
This is just step one in reinventing my resume too, all I have done here is shifted forms. The true innovation starts when I start to run out of ideas, that is where the magic happens. As far as this round goes, I might print off a couple and present them around town, but with this form factor, I will also be able to mail my resume as is, afterall, it acts as its own envelope.
Well, its time for a smoke break and then I'm heading out with the fan for some fun. Later peeps!

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IDEA - 3D Printed Business Cards

So I have been working on getting a new business card design put together, and I took a different road this time. Instead of starting with the usual PS, or Paint.NET, I started with Cinema 4D, and made my design into a model. This 3D Model can now be made in a 3D Printer. Now the benefit to this is that it has texture, it is sturdy, and it is very appealing to the eyes.

The purpose of this form factor is for advertising my mobile app skillz, I wanted to pick something that would scream that on sight. After pricing it all out using a two step method, it will come to about $4.00 a card or just over. This just means that I get to start off with a cardboard knockoff ;)

I am working on a few more ideas like this one, so I will keep you posted.

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