Today, I bought a table for my computer. A small one, and I need another one. There is no IKEA in where I live so it would be hard for me to find a perfect table for me. Few minutes ago, I browsed through IKEA Catalogue and it gave me inspirations for my future room or house.

Framing the door

The idea of framing the door with pictures is new. I might use it for my room. Alternatively, you can try the wall decoration similar to the unofficial video for the song Hey, Soul Sister (view it here).

Book shelves and open space

I’m a fan of space. Free up my mind to foster ideas.

Proper “Thinking” Chair

Or a simple chair for me to relax and read my books or magazine during weekends.

Skip the normal shelves

At least the colour. Get contrast colour for your book shelves for it to react as a statement. That is why painting your wall with a perfect colour is important. Both have their own profile.

Wooden floor, tall mirror

I found there is a perfect match between these two.

At least two of these

As I have a lot. One for me, one for my woman.

Naked windows

Take another step further. Introduce a new wavelength of light that brighten your living room.

Work from home

My workstation.

Other

I have not include the kitchen, bedroom etc. But I hope these would somehow inspire you to create something out of it. You don’t have to spend a lot of money.

Personally, I believe that regardless the price, if the style match perfectly it would be priceless. Don’t rush, just relax and plan. Let me know if you have any questions. Ciao ciao!

• Food hunting
• Tour around Kuala Terengganu
• Off to Kapas Island (Pulau Kapas) by boat
• Jet skiing
• Snokerling
• Finding nemo
• Shopping
• and more…

I’ll share some pictures later in my facebook. But for now, all I can say is you have to go there yourself. Pictures may tell thousand stories, but the feeling and experience are something you can’t capture within pictures.

14< hours

I have been working with Julien Sharp more than a year now. So far, we’ve worked together despite the time difference.

• UK (GMT +0/1) – Miami/NY (EDT -5/-4)
• UK (GMT +1) – Denver (MDT -6)
• NY (EDT -4) – Malaysia (GMT +8)
• Denver (MDT -6) – Malaysia (GMT +8)

Few minutes ago, I had my sahur, early breakfast before the Fajr time (5.40am). The 14 hours difference given an opportunity for me to complete some of my work before and after the office hour in Denver, while our clients getting back us the next few hours (while I was sleeping).

It’s an ideal cycle. The only challenge is to setup a conference call and so far, there is no problem.

Happy Birthday WordPress!

Thanks a million!

Photo credit: Daynah.net

But it will get oily — sooner or later, somewhere.

He got a strategy which is the combination of brilliant marketing and tailored portfolio.

And as you might have listened from the interview, the expectation of him is high. If Alec were to read this, I personally wish congratulate him. Nice move!

Today, what I am going to learn is about kerning. Check out the video for more. And the reasons it is therapeutic, I took her process of being at the state in which she did not know what she is doing. Or should I call it obsession. A good obsession. I feel it. Thanks Dyana Weissman!

FontCast #7 — Dyana Weissman of The Font Bureau from FontShop on Vimeo.

What this is good:

• It helps to reduce the carbon emission or carbon offset. Brilliant!
• It raise the awareness that we can never be assured of what the mother nature will gives us tomorrow.
• Some of us may now realized that how dependant are we on certain stuff. In fact, nothing ever certain.

What this is bad:

• Obviously for those people who are stranded and got affected by this. I’ve been through it and what worse thing could happen, right?
• Flight companies etc – it’s all about money right?

Anyway, thanks to Information is Beautiful for the lovely graphic.

Designer These Days

… have a good design sense and understand the fundamentals / design principals.
… know all the major design software including the entire Adobe Creative Suite.
… have some basic video editing skills.
… know HTML, CSS, and JavaScript.
… know enough about server-side languages (PHP, ASP, Ruby, Python, etc) to understand how they work, what they do, and the possibilities of their use.
… know about servers, hosting, domain registrants, DNS, etc. Setting it up, and fixing it when it breaks.
… know OS X really well (and enough Windows to get by) or know Windows really well (and enough OS X to get by) and know a huge variety of utility software that goes with.
… are good photographers.
… can color correct photos and work in RAW.
… can cut clipping paths or otherwise extract objects from photos.
… have a killer online portfolio.
… are a personable, nice people that are good with clients.
… can help clients with anything even vaguely computer-related.
… are quick to adapt to new software and new technologies.
… can train fellow employees.
… can train clients on the use of their websites.
… are good communicators.
… are team players.
… have good taste in art, music and movies.
… are up to date on social media.
… are good at logic and deduction.
… are good at user experience and user testing.
… are SEO experts.
… know about and how to handle web accessibility (and the laws surrounding it)
… understand copyright laws.
… do progressive enhancement and graceful degradation techniques.
… can debug cross-browser problems and older browser bugs.
… can bring your own client base.
… are healthy, well groomed, and wear fancy t-shirts.
… can be on-call at all times for emergencies.
… have college degrees in design-related fields.
… own very nice and expensive computers full of expensive software.
… can design for mobile devices.
… are good typographers.

And I am determine to cross one every month, at least.

Day 1: I put up the poster on my windows. It was sunny and I thought it is a perfect day to put it up.

Day 2: It was raining but I could hear from inside people start to mention the word “design”.

Day 3: Two interesting things happened:

• A breakfast bar,Cafe 37 in front of my house pasted their menu on their window.
• Someone call me for an urgent work. Design!

Day 4: It is raining again and I heard few the word “web design, graphic design” being mentioned. Happy? I am. But this time Cafe 37 took off their menu of their window. Fail? Not yet.

Day 5: Again, two interesting things happened:

• Someone call me for a meeting next Friday. Design!
• Again, Cafe 37 pasted their menu on their window.

After 20 days, I will take my poster off my windows and I will fly back to my home – Malaysia.

Why name tag?

I have read a book by Audy Bounds, The Jelly Effect and in this books he said that there are three things that you need to bring to a networking event – business card, pen and a name tag.

I don’t want to talk about networking here instead I would like to share with you the name tag template that I have created and used during the Ignite Cardiff on the 8th March 2009.

Download the PSD file – 600KB

How to use it?

• Download the PSD file above.
• Modify as you wish – Change the font*, colour, etc.
• Print and cut trim it accordingly.
• Wear it proudly!

*I use VAG Round for the @mohdrafie and Graphic & Web Designer.

How does it actually look like?

It is pretty simple but I am sure you are going to love it. Yup, on the right is me.

Can I use other twitter birds?

Of course, help yourself. Below are few links to other website that design twitter birds and you can use download and use it.

• 8 Free cute and simple twitter bird vector graphics by SpoonGraphics
• Function free icon set by function
• It’s twitter time by Productive Dreams
• Twitter bird logo by Vector Art

If you don’t like any of them, you can create your own twitter bird by following the tutorial from VectorTuts.

Before you go, it would be great if you could:

• provide a link back towards this page.
• share your picture if you use it.
• and tweet about it!

Thank you very much and happy tweeting!

Follow me on twitter